Lancashire, by which he means Mr. Cobden and Mr. Bright, will probably be received by those gentlenien
with nothing graver than a good-natured smile. The hair-brained agitator having enlisted Lord Downshire
in his "wool-gathering" league against the cotton " fiends," this worthy pair have perambulated the country
districts with the most surprising statements,—such as that the cotton trade necessitates the murder of three
hundred negroes in America every year; that tens of thousands of people in Manchester subsist on a penny
a-head per day; that the manufacturmg population is obliged to pawn its night-clothes to redeem its day-
clothes, and to pawn its day-clothes to redeem its night-clothes; and that the misty clouds of free-trade
theories are shrinking away and disappearing before the advancing blaze of protectionist day! It will
nevertheless require statements more surprising even than these to enforce belief that the power-looms of
Manchester can be smashed by a few old women's spinnmg-wheels; and, meanwhile, not only have the House of
Commons refused, by a majority of two to one, to repeal the malt-tax, but the town of Chester has declined,
by nearly the same majority, to send a protectionist to the House of Commons; and the other busy and
thriving places vacated by the late legal appointments have not even allowed an opposition to show itself to
the re-election of their free-trade representatives.

A few words upon leading matters of social legislation will suffice to complete our summary of the past
month's doings. The Commons have passed the bill legalising marriage with deceased wives' sisters, but it
has been dropped in the Lords. The Lords have passed the Sunday Trading bill condemned in our last
Narrative, and the Commons seem disposed to accept it. Mr. Ewart has failed in his annual effort to
abolish capital punishment; but, in the man's conviction and transportation who struck the Queen, the
administration of criminal law has exhibited the unproved example of rejecting a plea of insanity on
proof of the accused's power of discrimination between right and wrong in the special matter under
investigation. At the same time it is impossible to dismiss this case without a passing remark on the
ill-considered and mischievous passage Mr. Baron Alderson's address to the prisoner, informing
him that he would not be whipped because of his station in life, and the "respect" the court had
for his family and for him, if he had none for himself. The Lords have passed the Factory bill
without alteration; and not only have both Lords and Commons refused to sanction any change of
the Hyde Park site for next year's grand exposition, but the Attorney-General has refused his sanction
to a petition for trying its legality before the Chancellor. There is no change, as yet, in those postal
arrangements by which an active minority of Sabbatarians have inflicted pains and penalties on the great
mass of their less active fellow-citizens; but a committee has been named to report as to the means of
reducing Sunday labour without altogether stopping the transmission of letters, and meanwhile the
Sabbatarians are relaxing nothing of their energy in following up the advantages they have gained. This
makes it matter of graver concern than it otherwise might have been if the Sunday Trading bill shall succeed
in getting through the Commons. Such things are easier done than undone, and the screw once inserted
is with difficulty withdrawn. The present measure may be less objectionable in form than many of its
predecessors; but a thing bad in substance is not bettered by the show of being less bad than it really is, and
even this pretence will be dropped when it has served its turn. The mere penalties affixed to the offences of
trading, operating unequally between the rich and poor offender, will have the effect of the most monstrous
injustice; and the bill sanctions, quite as much as its worst precursor, the gross and intolerable hypocrisy
of interfering with one kind of Sunday labour, and leaving another khid, far more extensive and involvmg
more hardship to the poor, entirely unchecked and uncared for.

NARRATIVE OF PARLIAMENT AND
POLITICS.

On Thursday the 27th of June in the HOUSE OF LORDS
the Marquis of LANSDOWNE brought up the Report of
the Committee on the subject of providing Accommodation
for Foreign Ministers; which was to the effect
that the lower portions of the Peers' galleries should be
set apart for that purpose. The Duke OF WELLINGTON
expressed his satisfaction with the Report, which was
received.

On Monday the 1st of July, the house went into
committee on the Parliamentary Voters (Ireland) Bill.
The Earl of DYSART moved that £15 should be substituted
for £8 as the minimum qualification for tenants;
contending that an £8 qualification would give an undue
preponderance to the town populations. The Marquis
of LANSDOWNE opposed the motion, enlarging upon the
necessity of placing the representation of Ireland on a
real and substantial basis.—Lord STANLEY affirmed that
an £8 qualification would throw into the scale the weight
of numbers against property, and place one-fifth of the
representation of the United Kingdom in the hands of
demagogues and agitators.—Lord BROUGHAM
maintained that the people of Ireland who would be admitted
to the franchise by an £8 qualfication are not on the
same footing with the similar class in England and
Scotland in the qualities necessary for its due exercise.
After some further discussion, the £15 qualification was
carried against the government by 72 to 50.

The Earl of HARROWBY, on Tuesday the 2nd,
moved for the appointment of a select committee to
inquire into the Expenditure of the Public Money
for purposes of Education. Reviewing the controversy
between the National Society and the Committee of
Council on Education, he argued that by the present
system of supevision the education of the people was
checked, and the privileges of the church invaded.—The
Marquis of LANSDOWNE affirmed, from official
knowledge, that the system of inspection worked well, and
that its advantages were more and more generally
acknowledged. He objected besides to the appointment
of a select committee at so late a period of the session
that it could have no practical result. After a discussion
in which the motion was supported by the Bishops of
Salisbury and Oxford, and by Lord Stanley, and opposed
by Lord Kinnaird and the Earl of Carlisle, it was
negatived by 31 to 26.

The Death of Sir Robert Peel occupied the house at
its meeting on Thursday the 4th. An eloquent tribute
to his memory was paid by the Marquis of LANSDOWNE,
whose sentiments were warmly echoed by Lord Stanley,
Lord Brougham, the Duke of Wellington, and the Duke
of Cleveland.—The Duke of WELLINGTON (who was
affected to tears) mentioned the love of truth as the
strongest feature in the character of his friend. "In
the whole course of my communication with him," said
the Duke, "I never knew an instance in which he did
not show the greatest attachment to truth, and I never
saw in the whole course of my life the smallest reason
for doubting that he stated anything which he did not
firmly believe to be the fact."— Lord CAMPBELL presented
a petition against the Selection of Hyde Park as the site
of the intended Exhibition from an architect who had
built a number of houses in the neighbourhood and
affirmed that they would be rendered unsaleable.—Lord
BROUGHAM objected to the proposed site on the ground
of the destruction of property, and the confusion and
inconvenience that would be caused to the public.
There are (he said) 70,000 or 80,000 persons in London
who have no visible means of subsistence; add to these
the thousands from every great town in the empire, with