NEWS OF THE WEEK.

THE two Houses of Parliament have made each a considerable step in the progress of Representative reform. At first we might be inclined to think that we owe this instalment to the great power which exercises such imperial influence in state affairs,— Haphazard ; but if we think so, we do an injustice to those men, some of whom we have often chastised for flagging in their work, who have nevertheless, through a long series of years, persevered in urging either the general principles or the specific measures. It is not that these two measures have taken up the greatest time this week, or filled the most conspicuous place in the Par- liamentary debates. On the contrary, the amusing and absurd speech delivered by Mr. Disraeli, as Chancellor of the Exchequer in Buckinghamshire, has been elevated to the position of a State paper, and has formed the subject of animadversion on three successive nights. The censure which Lord John passed on Friday when he asked explanations, has been repeated, with more vivacity though perhaps with less business-like strictness, by Lord Palmerston on Monday ; and has been made a great affair of state by Lord Clarendon on Tuesday. The precise points for animadversion have in most eases been the same. To disparage the late occupants of the Treasury bench, and to exalt the present occupants, Mr. Disraeli represented Lord Palmerston and his colleagues as having left the country on the verge of a war with France,—it was " a question of hours." He made an immense achievement out of so much as Lord Malmesbury has done in rescuing the British engineers ; glorified the preservation of peace in Italy, as if the work were finished ; puffed his own finance to a .egree of burlesque ; and, making a desperate on- slaught on the " Cabal," hazarded a hint that in the Cabal of ex-Ministers leagued to drive him from office there is some " foreign" conspirator of distinction. All these points he and his chief were called upon to explain. Both of them attempted to make out that Mr. Disraeli's view was in the main historically correct, but in his new paraphrase Mr. Disraeli so largely cor- rected his post-prandial effusion as virtually to admit that he could not stand to his own text. Lord Derby tried to pass it off as an essay fit only to amuse an hour in a railway-carriage- the very reverse of a State paper, while he admitted that its language was inflated, its terms not to be sustained, its per- sonalities better left alone ; its allusion to the " foreigner " only to be answered by silence. Perhaps Lord Clarendon somewhat imitated Mr. Disraeli's indiscretion in raking up old stories about the French Alliance, old compliments to the fidelity and judgment of the Emperor Napoleon,—which his state of health prevents him from substantiating at the present day,—and old anecdotes about the bearing of M. de Persigny,—which half-re- serves have prevented any man in either House from stating either completely or correctly. It would perhaps have been best not to revive the subject after the first notice taken of it by Lord John ; a man less interested than the other speakers, far more guarded and Parliamentary in his mode of handling it.

The two Reform measures to which we have referred are, the settlement of the Jew question, and the abolition of the property qualification for Members of Parliament. The Earl of Lucan (WITH MONTHLY SUPPLEMENT.] has found a convenient mode by which the Peers reverse their late decision against the measure, although their dignity is con- sulted by appearing to insist upon the amendments. They send down the Oaths Bill, castigated as Voltaire's works might be by the Holy Office at Rome by omitting the most essential parts, but the omitted passages are substantially embodied in a separate bill by Lord Lucan, empowering each House of Parliament to let gentlemen of the Jewish persuasion take the appointed oath without those words " on the true faith of a Christian," which are now statutably directed by the Oaths Bill. We insist that all Members shall take the oath, say the Lords in their corrected edition of the Oaths Bill ; but, say they in Lord Lucan's Bill, you may make an exception in favour of Jews I And this is called consulting the " dignity " of the Upper House ! De gus- tibus ! if the Upper House likes to be dignified in that fashion, who shall gainsay the indulgence ?

Mr. Locke King's Bill to abolish property qualification for Members of Parliament, has passed through its most critical stages in the House of Commons, under the special protection of Mr. Walpole's Conservative Government, notwithstanding the opposition of the Tory party, to which they do not belong. The next thing will be for Mr. Walpole and his colleagues to come before the country, at the next general election, with the cry, of " The Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill." It is an amusing situation, and it suggests the question, what the Liberal party will do to take up ground in advagee.of these ardent neo- phytes so as to maintain the distinction. •

Not less important is the carrying of Mr. Vivian's resolution for consolidating under one responsible Minister of the Crown the military administration now divided between the Horse Guards and the War department. The debate was well illustrated in the division, which was so close that the motion was only carried by a net majority of 2; on one side were the Conservatives and the representatives of the departments ; on the other the Liberals and those Members who desire to represent the country and pro- gressive improvement—Lord John Russell among them. Minis- ters have announced that they do_ not intend to take any notice of the resolution—which is courteous to the House !

Supply has afforded its opportunities for diversifying discus- sions ; amongst them was one on the defensive works in the Channel Islands, which successive Ministries pronounce to be essentially necessary, while independent authorities declare them to be playthings useful only as pretexts for an interminable ex- penditure. If the works are necessary as a watch upon the great naval station at Cherbourg, which we are not yet prepared to deny, then, instead of keeping open the account interminably the works ought to be finished forthwith ; and the country ought to know something more about the state of our relations with an important and faithful ally whom we cannot sufler to approach us unless we can feel the revolver in our pocket.

One of the votes which challenged attention was the salary of the Secretary for Ireland, challenged by more than one speaker on the ground that Mr. Horsman had resigned the post because he found not enough to do. There are, said Mr. Whiteside, with the air of a man who settles a question by, dictum,—two ways of performing the work, one not to do it at all,_the other to go through the labour ; and Lord Naas insisted that the la- bour is great, not only for a Naas, but for a Peel, a Stanley, or a Somerville. Evidently on Mr. Whiteside's own. showing, there is a degree of work which is optional ; and there is also a sort of work which may be executed by a Secretary to the Treasury, an Irish Secretary, or by any man who knows how to manage Mem- bers,—but that is not work for a statesman. However, the vote passed, because no party in the Commons has yet made up its mind to reduce the number of salaried posts ; and 'none is yet prepared to open the larger question of the Lord-Lioutenaney. An accidental absence of Mr. Horsman on Monday night when this vote was brought on, furnished a temptation and an oppor- tunity to certain Irish Members to attack him for his conduot while holding the Irish Secretaryship. Mr. Horsman, it will be re- membered, had told his Stroud constituents that he had given up that office, among other reasons, because- he found nothing to do in it. Some Irish Members declared, in a very Irish way, that it was impossible Mr. Hocsman could have had nothing to do at his office, because he mess never to be found there. On Thursday night, Mr. Horsanan replied, amusingly and effectively, to these attacks. It appears that be had been obliged to lay down certain rules of intercourse with Irish Members which abundantly explain the present attacks upon him. He now found it necessary, he said, to confine his attentions to some of them to the epistolary form. Mr. Mlfahon, in replying to Mr. Horsman, on the Thursday evening, talked of " the person who aspires to be the leader of the Liberal party," of the " proximate premier," in a way that forcibly suggests the supposition that he is the mouthpiece of the revenge of higher persons for Mr. Hors- man's late political conduct.

A scandal almost rivalling the Slough exhibition has occupied the attention of the Commons in its august capacity of judge. In the Carlisle Patriot, Mr. Clive, chairman of a railway com- mittee, was accused of a " leaning " against one aide, and also of having had some dealing in shares ; and Mr. Washington Wilks is thereupon called to the bar, and consigned to the custody of the Sergeant-at-Arms. This is a mode of torturing a man in his most vital organ, the purse ; and, better than the rack, it can be continued until the patient cries peccavi. Poor Mr. Wilks did so, and is discharged " after payment of the fees," with Mx. Roebuck's benediction upon him as " a cowardly calum- niator." Now the facts are that the country editor is only the scapegoat, for others ; while one of the counsel before the Select Committee, Mr. E. B. Denison avers, that he, and others, per- ceived " leanings," though, of course, they did not suspect cor- rupt motives. The ultimate result of the whole proceeding is, that Mr. Wilks is mulcted because somebody else in his name imputed motives to a Member of Parliament ; an offence of which Members themselves are never guilty I.

The hiatus in the Ministry consequent on the retirement of Lord Ellenborough has been filled up in a manner that somewhat falsifies recent rumours, and rather completes the original design of the Government. Lord Stanley has been made President of the India Board, where he will no doubt do his best to realize that vision of an absolute Secretary of State for India about which he has said so much ; though he has not yet had any op- portunity of showing the statesman grasp and administrative power demanded by India.

The place vacated by Lord Stanley, as Secretary of State for the Colonies, is supplied by Sir Edward Lytton, who was origi- nally to have been comprised in the Government. At the time it was said that he was prevented by the precarious tenure of his seat ; but we suppose the successes of Ministers will now supply him with the " halo " which is requisite to retrieve the affections of his constituents. Should that be so, and should he be allowed to retain the Colonies, we must look for some romance of the West Indies, or some philosophical fiction upon Australia or Canada, correcting by its detailed information and its pro- found disquisition the somewhat flashy views of statesmanship which Vivian Grey dashes ofd In order to complete its staff of statesmen the Cabinet only wants the addition of Mr. Bent- ley.

The Appeal Court to which the case of Trinity College, Dub- lin was referred has decided that the proceedings of the College have been regular, of its accusers irregular ; so the censure on Dr. Shaw is confirmed, though his companion, Mr. Carmichael, is let off. The decision appears to have been technical, as if the Visitors were not prepared to sanction a junior Fellow in so great a breach of discipline as the questioning of his superiors, or to condemn an appropriation of the funds which is in conformity with the usage of sixty years. If so the original question, un- settled on its merits, remains where it was before —the chief offices of the College enriched by the enjoyment of privileges, and the funds appropriated to purposes not consistent with the original plan of the foundation. Of course the subject will not be suffered to drop at this stage.

It appears to be intimated on something like authority that the difficulty at Montenegro is approaching a settlement ; but we know as little respecting the grounds of the accommodation as we do of the course taken by the intermediating Governments. We only know that there have been movements of armed ships, and we have the semi-official reports by the semi-recognized French agent, Delarue, on the fight at Grahovo. The Turks, he says, were not attacked and massacred during an armistice, for the armistice had not been technically concluded. Incidentally, his report corrects another mistake ; Delarue was no victim to a chivalrous protest on his own part against a breach of honour. Furthermore, at the close of his report, he announces that Prince Danilo submits himself to the will and pleasure of the Emperor Napoleon. Events seem likely to afford the opportunity desired by our respected correspondent Mr. Freeman for compelling the Monte- negrins to sit down in ." good faith beside the Turks, as a constituent part of the Turkish empire, with a view of pulling down the Turk himself, and substituting a federation of Christian states,—as a consummation to crown the " goad faith ! "

It is a subject worthy of consideration by the Paris Confer. ence, which has been sitting during the week ; but we know as little of its proceedings as if it sat in our own Foreign Office, If the representatives of our constituencies were to sit upon a turnpike bill with closed doors, there would be a sensation ; in_ deed the City has been protesting against even a preliminary inquiry by a Select Committee in secret ; but the representatives of the nation in the international Parliament are suffered to sit with closed doors, and so to commit our policy and discuss away our future.

The accounts from India are as they have been lately, chequered, but upon the whole the balance is greatly in favour of the British. In one unfortunate rencontre Brigadier Adrian Hope has been slain. Disease has cut off the career of Sir Wil- liam Peel, one of the noblest warriors whom we have laid in the great cemetery of India. Here and there the rebels have at- tained a few successes ; but the combinations arranged by Camp- bell and his brother officers for attacking the enemy at the two great centres of Bareilly in Rohilcund and Calpee in Bundlecund have made great progress. The grand drawback is the fact that these extensive and active manceuvres are going on under a sun such as we never endure in England. And upon the success of our troops in other parts depends in some degree the complete pacification of Oude ; which is also going on well at present—many of the talookdars having made their submission either personally or by proxy.

From the West the news is anything but agreeable politically. The Americans announce that the Utah campaigns are over— Brigham Young having abdicated, and the body of the Mormons having submitted to the law of the Republic. The report rests at present upon the doubtful authority of the tele- graph, but the mode of stating it gives it an air of probability.

Meanwhile the foreign relations of the Government are be- coming rather complicated, and in a manner that interests us, Mr. Dallas has been instructed to make representations to our Government on the subject of certain illegal seizures and visits effected by our naval officers in the Gulf of Mexico, on the coast of Cuba, and on the West Coast of Africa. By the commence- ment of Mr. Cass's letter, these complaints appear to be in con- tinuation of a series. Some questions of compensation have evi- dently been submitted, and Mr. Dallas is instructed to request that orders be sent out for reining the over-activity of our offi- cers. The Republic stands by the ground which it took up in the right of visit question and will not tolerate any seizure or search of ships which establish their American nationality. Lord Brougham has been this week arousing public indignation against that plan of free emigration from Africa which had been carried out under French auspices : it is, he says, the slave-trade revived; and there is reason to believe that the slave-traders have already begun to discount the effect which the project will have in break.. ing through the system of slave-trade suppression by forcible means. But Lord Brougham has not suggested any plan of ac- tion; and the official protests from Washington illustrate the difficulty of persevering with the forcible suppression even on its present footing.

The states of Nicaragua and Costa Rica have agreed to a con- vention authorizing the construction of an interoceanic canal by a French company ; at the same time making a declaration against the Government at Washington for patronizing the fili- bustering invasions of Walker, and appealing for protection to the powers of Europe against the attacks of pirates and bucca- neers, more especially to France, England, and Sardinia. In the convention a peculiar privilege is given to France, whose Go- vernment is authorized to keep two ships of war in the waters of the canal or the lake of Nicaragua, as protector of the works. How will President Buchanan's Government regard this new pro- tectorate ?