NEWS OF TFIE WEEK.
PARLIAMENT has been summoned for January 6th, and it is well understood that the Session will be essentially an Irish one. The Liberals hope and believe that the Government will produce a strong Land Bill on the basis of the "three F.'s," and one or more Bills decidedly strengthening the law against in- timidation, while at the same time they warn the Land Leaguers that unless the outrages cease instantly, they must resort to an unhesitating application of force. The Tories hope that the Land Bill will contain clauses which will irritate the Whigs into defection ; that the Lords will gather courage to throw it out ; and that the Queen- will then insist upon an appeal to the country, through a dissolution. Our own impression remains firm that the Land Leaguers will oppose one set of Bills and criticise the other ; that the Commons will be warned by the constituencies that their mandate just now is to support Mr. Gladstone ; and that the Lords, seeing no hope in dissolution, will, pass the Bills. No Session, however, ever follows precisely the course it was expected to follow, and a leader like Mr. Gladstone has often resources of which his followers do not dream. The one thing certain is, that if he appeals to the country, the country will respond.
