Crrcomstaxces have compelled us #0 to postpone our review of the papers brought by the Pekin, that it is perhaps better this ty give sume indication of the contents of the leading papers, than to up one or two leading topics among The opening of Parliament was ut of the week, and the chief the speakers on the Address, it was of the Queen's Speech, was the melancholy death of the Duke of Clarence. Next esme the Irish question, for it is uoticexble that while Unionist speakers warn the @lectorate that if Mr. Gladstone is returned to power, all legislation will have to give way to Ireland, the government themselves tind it necessary to put Irish Education and Irish Local Govern-t xt the head of the business to be done this session. And on this it may be remarked in passing that Mr. Sexton's amendment to the Address, declaring the inability of the imperial parliament to legislate properly for Ireland, was only lust bya majority of 21 votes, 'The House of Commons, as the Economist pointed cut in an article which practically recommended 8 speedy dissolution, knowing that this is its last session, has' become careless, As the World say It is not the wickedness of a Parliament in its last session which makes it a difficult strument to manage, but its want of disd line, A large proportion of its members not intend to stand again; and in the present Parliament there is an unusual number of these retiring gentlemen on the Conservative side of the House. The whip has no terror for them; and they are disposed to show something of the licentiousness of the manumitted slave. Unionist members who intend to offer themselves for re-election are naturally thinking more of their individual chances than of the measures of the Government; and may plausibly contend that they will serve their party more effectually by getting re-elected to the new Parliament than by swelling the division. They will be apt to be drawn down to their constituencies when they ought to be within hearing, St. Stephen's. Laxity of discipline in the Unionist ranks will encourage factious obstruction among the Opposition; and with Sir William Harcourt and Mx, Labouchere Practically leading the two sections of the me Rule party, the Speaker and the Chairman of Committees will need to take the duties of their office very seriously to prevent the machinery of public business being thrown altogether out of gear.
1 of the provision of pensions who hus reached the age of 65 is coming within the sphere of practical politics, Mr, Chamberlain proposes "that 4 man who pays £5 to the State at the age of 25, and £1 avnnally for forty yeara thereafter, shall receive at the age of 6D, and as the result of " bonus nearly half large again added to his savings, & pension of five shillings a week for the remainder ife." Of course, the family of a mau who died before 65 would have to get back the money he had put into the fund, But iv is pointed out that the majority of agricultural labourers, for instance, could never save the £65 required out of their wages. Mr. Charles Booth, who has made a study of the Labour Question—no connection with General Bouth of the Salvation Army,—proposes to pay every man at the age of 65 a pension of Bs. a week, which will cost country £26,000,000 " year. The mere hose schemes shows how the socialist spirit is spreading, Lord Rosebery, though a politician, man who considers his words, and his deli verance on the last London County Council, Vortnignity, Reciew. will porlape help to noted by Sir John Lubbock in the
reassure those who have been surprised s have retained their late election, Sir John Thave great confidence in the judgment of muy fellow citizens, and will, in' conclusion, quote the words addressed' to the present Council by Lord Rosebery, in May, 189. recoi honest work, You have had he said to us; "has been a
to learn your business and to do it. The quality of that work must be decided by its results, but of the quantity I can testify myself. 1 have watched you doing it during the short days of winter and the long summer afternoons, sometimes sick, befiled and de pressed, weary of the eternal contrast between the evils to be overcome and the means of overcoming them. What has sustained you in this work has been neither feo nor fame nor praise: it has been the pure impulse of clear duty and a high hope and ideal, I trust that we shall always cherish that spirit among us, for without it our work would degenerate into a repulsive round of depressing detail; without it we might dwindle into mean corruption or petty intrigues; and without it the Council might never realise that high destiny which, as the greatest of municipalities, worked by the greatest of races, in the greatest of cities, if Wisely guided and well served, it cannot fail to attain, A good deal of pity is wasted in the papers on that clever criminal, Mrs, Osborne, even Labouchere taking her side in Truth. The Duily Chronicle writes very sensibly on the subject Every criminal is to be pitied from one point of view or another. Mrs. Osboi added to her offence by giving false witness and throwing out cruel insinuations—insinuations uttered by the mouths of most eminent and cautions counsel whom this woman succeeded in deceiving, as she sought to deceive judge and jury. And it must not be forgotten that her plot was succeeding to the summit of ber expectations, when it was upset by a circumstance on which she had not counted—by the independent act of a tradesman who happened to read the evidence as given in the newspapers, and who had the pluck to write to the judge, which, in face of frequent protests from the bench, duy man might well we hesitated too. What, we ask, would be the consequences to. any: tradesman's daughter, to any labourer's daughter,' to any woman who had not wealth and influential
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.