PARLIAMENTARY NOTES.

Press, Volume XXXI, Issue 4290, 30 April 1879, Page 1 (Supplement)

PARLIAMENTARY NOTES.

The session is proceeding quietly, free from the burning questions which for the last year or two have retarded public busi- j ness. There is little to report of Imperial interest. The Chancellor of the Exchequer has obtained a vote of credit of a million and a half for the necessary expenses of the Zulu war. The other topics which have had the largest place in general interest have been associated with some motion of a kind brougnt annually under discussion. Thus Mr Trevelyan has again brought forward his proposal for an extension of the county franchise. The only new point in his speech was an exposure of the system of making faggot votes—of late so vigorously manufactured in the interests of Conservative Midlothian, but an expedient that has been tried in days of lets political virtue by all parties alike. The motion was lost by a majority of 65, in favour of an amendment declaring it inexpedient to reopen the question of Parliamentary reform. Mr Courtney, also, ha* lost his motion for giving tiie suffrage to women who ore householders. Sir Wilfred Lawaon may, on the other hand, be said to bave scored a success. Instead of the Permissive Bill proper, he brought in a resolution affirming the expediency of" local option " —that is, of giving tame power of restraint in the giantmg oi.

public-house licenses to tbe ratepayers most interested in or affected by their existence. In this view he was supported by Mr Forster and others, who, while not approving the Permissive Bill, yet would favour the principle of local action. He was defeated by 252 to 164, but thus obtained a greatly increased number of votes.

Among the minor occurrences of the fortnight may be mentioned a fire by whioh Lord Granville's town residence lost its upper story, and another by which the Polytechnic, that familiar place of instructive amusement, sustained considerable damage. In literature, we have to regret the death of the veteran William Howitt, at his residence in Borne; by a strange coincidence a brother died on the same day at Nottingham. The death of Professor Clifford at Madeira removes one of the ablest of our young mathematicians, and one of the boldest of controversialists. Journalism loses one of its brighter lights in the death of Mr Macdonnell. Dr. Page, the author, whose "Vestiges of Creation" once stirred a warm controversy, is also dead. The news of the decease of Elihu Burritt awakens other associations; in this country he was almost as well-known as in America.