GENERAL SUMMARY.

Wellington Independent, Volume IV, Issue 288, 15 July 1848, Page 4

GENERAL SUMMARY.

(From the Home News, Feb. 24 1848. j When clouds are seen, wise men put on their cloaks! When great leaves fall, the winter is at hand ; When the suu sets who doth not look for night ?■ All may be well; but if God sort it so 'Tis more than we deserve, or I expect. Shakspeare. The foreign news of the fortnight has been full of events of the deepest interest. There have been earthquakes in Malta and Sicily, but in the latter island the moral convulsion has withdrawn all attention from the physical visitation. The revolution began before our last despatches were sealed up, is not yet over, nor will it be notwithstanding all the concessions of the king, until he consents to a " repeal of the union" between Sicily and Naples, and grants a separate and distinct constitution to the Islanders. The continental state of Naples has been easier appeased. Following the example of the Palermitans, the Neapolitani broke out and demanded reforms which the reluctant king granted, and his example has been followed in Sardinia and Tuscany. At Milan the Austrians and Italians are " standing in the slips," ready to engage; at Rome great events are passing. All Italy is in a ferment. But we cannot dwell on these events, interesting as they are, for while we write, confusion, worse confounded rules in Paris. We can merely point attention to the reports from the Chambers on the address, the prohibition of the Reform Banquet and the emeute which followed.

Starvation and discord continue in Ireland; but Aye have not a Avord for the sister kingdom, England herself having a new and horrible vision before her in the shape of an increased income tax. Even the panic and the invasion yield in interest to the plan of Lord John Russell for making up the deficiency in the Treasury, and providing against increased expenditure. The whole country is discontented, and ministers have sought safety in a secret committee, who are in fact to balance the estimates with the Ways and Means.

On the authority of the party itself, we learn that Lord George Bentinck has renounced the leadership of the party called Protectionists: from other authority it is clear that the Marquis of Granby, who was nominated the noble lord's successor, Avill not accept the office. The Daily News asserts, as a confirmed truth, that Robert Peel himself has formally and finally renounced the leadership even of his OAvn section of the Conservatives. Here then is the body of the Opposition without a head. The entire force of resistance in a state of dissolution and Avithout any distinct command. Sir Robert Peel lays down the constitutional principle that the leader of the Opposition should be prepared, in case of the defeat or dissolution of a ministry, to accept office and to construct a cabinet. Now he had determined, he says, " never to place him-

"self in such a position as that he could be reasonably called upon to take office again." He suggested the Earl of Lincoln as a leader; and it is very probable that his lordship will, for the time at least, be followed. The death of the Most Rev. Dr. Howloy has caused a promotion in the Church. " Pope John," who appears destined to merit the title, has appointed Dr. Sumner, Bishop of Chester, to be Archbishop of Canterbury. How strange it seems that that minister, whom of all others the Church dreaded and disliked, should have lived to nominate the two archbishops and three bishops in the course of a lew months, one-sixth of the entire prelacy of England !

There have been thirteen debate nights since the last mail, and although we have done our best to condense the Parliamentary report, it occupies a larger space than we could desire. Here we shall merely sketch the outline: —

On the Monday of the mail Lord Stanley, in the House of Lords, on presenting a petition from Jamaica, advocated the interests of the West Indies, describing the sufferings of the planters, which Earl Grey said arose partly from the same general cause that had brought on mercantile difficulties in this country but chiefly from the imperfection of the measure of 1833.

In the House of Commons, on the 7th, the Jewish Emancipation question came to be discussed upon a motion by Mr. Stafford, " that the second reading be postponed for six months." Lord Burleigh and Lord Mahon, Mr Walpole, and Mr. Newdigate vigorously supported the amendment hi the " name of Christianity." Mr. Wood and Mr. M. Milnes demanded in the Spirit of Christianity, that the Jews should be dealt with as we would have them deal with us. Sir W. Molesworth showed that, at the present moment, a Jew might be lawfully elected ; being so elected he Avas bound to serve, and that he could only do in the House of Commons. If he did not attend he might be committed to the custody of the sergeant-at-arms, and if desiring to avoid that punishment, he did attend, and refused, on religious grounds, to take the oaths, the House had no power to relieve him from the obligation, and no power to relieve him from the obligation, and no power to declare his election void ; and even if it had that power, his expulsion would not prevent his re-election. From this dilemma how escape ? Mr. Sheil asked what was this Hebrewphobia ? Had not the friends of the Church of England more to fear from the Free Kirk, the spurious Catholics, and from mutiny within herself than from the quiet and unproselytising Jew ? (Cheers.) In Catholic Belgium and France all political distinctions between Jew and Christian had been swept away. Would Protestant England linger on this march of liberality ? London had elected a Jew for its representative, and it was proposed to throw the Jew back upon London. For what ? That London might throw back the Jew upon the House ?

It was on the 14th that Mr. Osborne attacked Mr. Barry for the delay and expence of the NeAv Houses of Parliament, and was most fully answered, He asserted that the original contract Avas for £707,000 and that £808,000 had already been paid ; but it was shown that of that sum £378,000 had gone for embanking the river, &c, which Avas not included in the architect's demand, so that really only £430,000 had been expended on the estimate. Everybody bore testimony to Mr. Barry's merit and his character, and especially Sir Robert Peel, and happily, those who saw that such a, design as Mr. Barry's should not be stinted by pressure for time, or withholding of money, were in the ascendant.

On the 14th, also Lord John Russell intimated to Mr. Horseman that the next Archbishop of Canterbury would enjoy £15,000 a year, subject however, to certain charges obscurely hinted at by his lordship as possible and impending. The Yarmouth election committee reported on the 14th, that the election of Mr. Coope and Lord A. Paget, Avas void on account of bribery, and that the freemen ought to be disfranchised. The writ was suspended till the report of the committee be considered. Mr. Grantley Berkeley was declared duly elected for West Gloucestershire.

When the Bishop of Exeter, on the 15th, presented a petition for the repeal of the punishment of praemunire, the law lords, Campbell and Denman, agreed that the Avord of the thing should be expunged

from the Statute Book. Lord Cottei h said it might, but ho would retain it form, to remind parties of a duty fulfilled, not as a threat and a punishmp ? The bishops, however, especially the IV hop of Chichester, spoke very stronT" against the absolute nomination remain in tho crown, and hinted at a schism^ 8 the Church if that privilege were insisted

Sir W. Somerville occupied the Com mons on the loth with an outline of somewhat complex Bill for amending tl a law which regulates in Ireland the rein tion between landlord and tenant. It r j not seem to satisfy anybody in the Hous It will be a miracle if it satisfy both ant and landlord on the other side of J*" Channel. tile

On the 16th, from noon till evening the Commons discussed Mr. Anstey's bill for further relief to English Catholi Cs which was committed, after a division' which gave 186 for, and 154 against the motion.

The bill for establishing or restoring diplomatic relations with Rome originated in the House of Lords, and was discussed on the principle and the details (in COm , mittee) last week, and recommitted p r ' 0 forma, for the insertion of the adopted amendments on Monday last. Its purport is merely to remove a restriction on the privileges of the crown by declaring on the authority of parliament that notwithstanding the existence and dicta of any statutes whatever the crown shall not be restricted or prevented from sending an ambassador to the papal court, and receiving in return an envoy from Rome. At the suggestion of Lord Stanley, the statutes rendered nugatory by this bill are not named in the preamble. On the proposition of'the Duke of Wellington, the generalisation " establish diplomatic relations" is substituted for the words " ambassadors, envoys ministers," or any express definition of the rank or grade of ambassadorial dignity. On the motion of the Earl of Eglin"ton', it was enacted, by a majority of three votes, that the ambassador from the Pope should not be an ecclesiastic, or a member of any religious order, especially a Jesuit. Such are the safeguards adopted in the bill. There was some rare confusion, and fine demonstrations of the monkophobia. The Earl of Aberdeen attributed to the Nuncio the powers of a legate, and elevated to the rank of Cardinal the prelate who performs the functions of the Nuncio : wonderful tales were told of papal intervention in free countries, by those artful personages, who, it seems, monopolize wisdom and wickedness to the damage and confusion of the simpleminded statesmen of this and other countries. It would seem that Pope has even now the power to keep all the learning and talent of the world to himself and his agents, and to lock up all the rest of the world hi a pitiable ignorance aud apprehension of the influence of these subtile masters. | The debate on the banking bill of 1844, which was opened by Mr Harries, the exChancellor of the Exchequer,, took anew interest from the fact of his reappearance on the parliamentary boards. It will be seen that the act itself was generally condemned, and its suspension by ministers in the late crisis as generally approved. (To be Continued )