LONDON LETTER.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1904, 1 April 1880, Page 3

LONDON LETTER.

fPBOM THE FBBSS COBBBBPONDBNT.] LONDON, February 13. The seventh and last session of the present Parliament has been opened under auspices by no means favorable to its success from a business point of view. The Queen left Osborne in a fog which was so dense that the Boyal yacht, instead of going into Portsmouth harbor as had been arranged, had to cross the Solent into Stokes Bay, and her train had to be sent a long way round to Gosport to meet her, so that the crowd which assembled all the way from the Victoria terminus to Buckingham Palace had to wait for upwards of an hour and a half before they could catch a glimpse of her Majesty, who was looking romarkably well, in spite of such a very unpleasant journey to town. The next day, however, the Queen had her own weather, and the one bright sunny morning that we have had this month drew a swarm of people to St. James's Park to see the Royal procession to Westminster. Although this is the third time that the Queen has personally attended the opening of the present Parliament, yet the sight is not so frequent as to pill upon the taste of the show loving Londoner?, of whom there are always many thousands ready to take advantage of the smallest excuse for a holiday outing. Within the House of Lords, however, the scene was not so brilliant as on many former occasions, and although there was a good attendance of peers wrapped in their mediceval cloaks, the benches allotted to peeresses were but scantily occupied. Female nobility was evidently suffering from a week and more of fog. Amongst thoso whose absence was more particularly noticed from the opening ceremonial was the Prime Minister himself. He has for some weekß past been in very indifferent health, and he is far too courteous not to have attended Her Majesty if he could have got to Westminster that afternoon. However, he attended the evening pitting of their Lordshipß, and spoke at considerable length, though not with so much vivacity as he has even recently displayed. The ministry also suffered from the absence of the Marquis of Salisbury, who hns been confined to his room at Hatfield for moro than a fortnight past,

though there ia some hope that he will be able to attend again at the Foreign Office next week. In his absence, it devolved upon the warlike Oranbraok to make the only speech that was necessary to support the Premier. Then the Queon's speech, aB it is termed, or rather the ministerial programme for the session, has disappointed everyone, for it is rather a melancholy review of the past than any promise for the future. The bulk of it is a series of paragraphs respecting the state of foreign affairs. Much, we are told, still remains to be done to repair the disorder with which the late war has affected many parts of the Turkish empire. A great deal moro, it might be added, will have to be done before the" Sultan and his ministers can be brought round to conform to any of the requirements of the Western Powers, for almost every succeeding day furnishes some new proof that they are as headstrong and as intolerant as they ever were before either of the wars which Russia waged upon them. As to our occupation of Afghanistan it did not need a Cabinet to tell us that the condition of that country renders the'recal of our troops impossible for the present, since there is only too much reason to fear that the Bevere measures to which Sir Frederick Eoberts has felt himself obliged to resort were necessary. They will furnish a topic for debates in both Houses, and in these it is to be feared that Ministers will be blamed for what they could no more foraee or prevent than they could restrain Sir Bartlo Frere from making war in South Africa, where we are told in this speech, it is thought the time is approaching when an important advance may be made towards the establishment of a Union or Confederation. As to home affairs we are reminded of two facts which are only too well impressed on all of us, viz., that there is not only agricultural depression in England, but that in Ireland there is almost the prospect of a famine in the more remote districts. Those who expected any promise of legislation have been dreadfully disappointed, it is hoped that Parliament will be able to resume the consideration of the Criminal Code, a work in which some dozen of the legal members may take some interest for an evening or two towards the close of the session, and one or two Bills on the subject of the land and lunacy laws will be brought forward. But that is all. It cannot be that all the Ministers have empty portfolios, and it is well known that the Home Secretary at all events has prepared one measure, which if it should fulfil the expectatisns formed of it will add greatly to his renown I as a social reformer. Thiß is a measure for the purchase of all the metropolitan water companies, and their absorption into a publio trust, which, if sth° price paid be not too dear, would undoubtedly be a great boon to the householders in London, who have too long been the victims of impurity and extortionate charges. But perhaps the Cabinet have deemed it the most prudent course to be chary of making promises which they might be prevented from fulfilling, and if this was their idea the evonta of the past week in the House of Commons have already amply justified them, for there seems too much reason to fear that from first to lost the work of that House will be marred, if not completely spoiled, by the inharmonious obstruction of that little band of Irish members who are known as Home Rulers. You will probably have already heard from New Yorkthe disgust which ono of these " honorable" members, Mr Parnell, has excited in that country by his virulent attacks on evorybody who opposes his wild communistic scheme for the spoliation of Irish landlords, and his friends at home have not been idle during his absence. As soon as over the present sossion was summoned they declared at the meetings they convened in Ireland that they would put a stoD to oil business in tho Hougs of Commons' until tho Government relieved the distress in the Bister country. Tho Government did come forward, and in a Treasury warrant which is noteworthy for its common sense, they ordered a large grant of money from the Irish Church Temporalities Fund to'be made in aid of works, but not in aid of relief of tho poor, a duty which they have unflinchingly held attaches to the people andnot tothe State. However, Mr Shaw, who ia the nominal chiof of the Home Rulers, was not satisfied, and so he adopted tho extraordinary course of moving an amendment Address which it is usual to send to tho Crown in reply to the speech from the Throne. Four nights were consumed in one of the dreariest discussions ever heard in the modern House of Commons, and then came the foregone conclusion —the rejection of tho amendment by 216 to 66. Then Mr O'Donnoll moved another amendment, and having consumed all tho time that remained to him after the other business on Wednesday afternoon, began again last evening, when the House was desorted by all but a few Ministers and his own admirers. But tho Irish members soon got tired of fceiring one another, so it soon happened that the debal e fell through,with a result that was more ignominious than the other, and those members who were prepared to attend to real public business had time to diecuse amongst other matters the Chartered Colonial Banks Bill, a mea3uro which is well worths of serious consideration, and has been re ferred to a Select Committee for that purpose Under these circumstances the Governmenl perhaps thought it prudent not to place befon Parliament a programme of measures whicl ; they would have no chance of carrying, foi i the introduction of a number of good bill i and then a failure to advance them througl - many stages would only have afforded thi ' Opposition material for further invective > against the present administration of affair? ; There is, however, another view of the matter 5 though ono which I confess I regard as ex . tremely improbiblo at thiß date, viz , that wi - shall have a dissolution in the course of thi ; summer. In spite of tho assurance given b; t Sir Michael Hicks Beach (which I mentioncc in my last letter), that the Government in tended the present session to bo a thorous;! working one, there has sprung up this week t • rumour that should the Opposition, and es i peciully tho Homo Bule section, persist ii - thwarting them and obstructiEg Governmen t business at every step, intentions, promise? ■ programmes, measures, and everything els i would be flung aside, and the people would b ) plainly a«ked whether they would support th ! present Government or whether they pre - ferred to bo governed by a Cabinet which 3 though composed of men for the most par - Liberal, would yet prove to bo puppets movei r by a combination of English Radicals am 3 Irish Repealers. Tho matter thus resolve l itself into this consideration ; will lon Beaconsfield and Sir Stafford Northcote, »

the leaders in the two Houses, secure a renewal of that support which was so generously accorded to them at the last election ? I think the most reoent experience they have had of the feeling of the people of_ this country justifies them in entertaining the most sanguine anticipations of a general election. I told you a fortnight ago that owing to the death of one of the Conservative members for Liverpool a great contest was imminent in that town. The result has been the placing of another Conservative in his stead, and this week Mr. Whitley, the new member, is sitting on the Government side of the House of Commons, having been plaoed there by more thantweuty-oix thousand votes, the highest number ever yet recorded for a momber of the English Parliament. The circumstances which led to this happy result are so instructive as to merit a brief review. Both parties felt sure of winning the seat, but while the Conservatives were diffident of making too great a boast of their strength, the more hazardous Radicals did not hesitate to assert that their success was a foregone conclusion. While, too, Mr Whitley refused to make any pledges ns to what he would do if returned to the House of Commons, Lord Ramsay, who had far the best of the game as far as personal qualities wore concerned, succumbed to every pressure that was put upon him. The Home Rulers —it will be recollected by every one that the Irish element iB very strong in Liverpool—iuduced him to believe that they could ensure his return if he promised to vote for their demand for an Irish Parliament, and he did so. It was ostentatiously announced that Lord Derby wished the liberal candidate every success, and he had the advantage of the able advocacy of Sir William Harcourt on the eve of the poll. But the plain manly course taken by Mr. Whitley prevailed against all the manoeuvres of the enemy, and within five_ hours of the close of the poll we knew that Mr Whitley had obtained a majority of 2221 over his noble opponont. I think there are circumstances which tend to shsw that we are on the eve of witnessing what the French|call a rapprochement between the Vatican and the English Ritualists. Each party has much to make it desirable that gome means of concord should be found whereby those who now can scarcely be said to belong to tho Ohuroh of England should be admitted almost wholesale to the Roman Communion. The only Englishman who represents Papal authority in London is Cardinal Manning, and he is not altogether acceptable to the Pope's advisers at Rome. The only one who ever stood a chance of succeeding to the Archbishopric of Westminster was Monsignor Capel, but he has removed from London under circumstances which being shrouded in obscurity may bo regarded as not of the most praiseworthy nature. On the other hand, the English Ritualists have by the rashness and unheeding obstinacy of their leaders advanced to tho edge of the precipice, and either they must retreat before the pressure of the laws of public opinion, or they must go over to Rome, whither it has long been obvious their steps were bent. It is reported this week from Rome that the Vatican acting in unison with the Propaganda Fidei has sent to the Roman Catholic Bishops in England certain instructions containing its final concessions for the admission of Ritualists inco the Catholic Ohuroh. The Pope is saidto have granted every possible facility for their reception, and the negotiations on the subject are reported to have made considerable progrees. One correspondent of a London newspaper mentioned the name of the Rev. Arthur Wagner as the head of this new movement, and the rapidity with which several of his Ritualist friends have given a denial to the report has only induoed most outsiders to believe in it more firmly.