The Press.
London, England, 1858-02-06 00:00:00

THE WEEK.

THE Session has been opened with a languor on the part of
Ministers that does not promise well for the work they have under-
taken to perform. Tho tone taken by Lord Garatvir.ts in the Lords,
Lord PALMERSTON in the Commons, and Lord GRANVILLE'S attempt to
adjourn the House of Lords a few minutes after it had assembled, was
eminently unsatisfactory. One might even suppose that it had
already been resolved that one of the two great measures announced
shall be put off to another year. Yet, after the solemn pledges that
have been made, and the sort of credit that has been drawn upon,
in their supposed ability to carry the two Bills of Reform for England
and India, we do not see how it is possible for Ministers to
retreat from the responsibilities which they have incurred,
unless they mean to disappoint completely the expectations
which they have awakened.
We have, indeed, reason to believe that Ministers are not even yet
decided upon the extent of the measure they are pledged to propose for
the future government of India. Lord PALMERSTON, upon this ques•
tion, has exhibited the usual amount of arrogance and pusillanimity,
indiscretion and cunning, which make up his policy upon all great
questions affecting the honour or interests of the country. It would
appear that when first the abolition of the East India Company was
mooted among Ministers, nothing short of total abolition was accepted
by the majority of the Cabinet. The proposal, we are bound to state,
was firmly opposed from the first by a small but resolute minority,
who, with more sagacity and less vacillation than their chief, objected
to accept a crude and hasty measure. Lord PALMERSTON, never-
theless, sent for the Directors, and with jocular bluster condescended
to inform them that he should shortly abolish the great Company
whose affairs they administered. Thus ended the first act of this
highly instructive drama. The preliminaries of the Bill having been
at length settled, and after a vain effort to obtain the invaluable assist-
ance of Sir JAMES Mxtviu., the Secretary to the Court or Directors, the
drawing up the Bill was intrusted, we believe, to Sir C. TREVELYAN. The
Court of Directors then applied to Lord PALMERSTON for some informa-
tion concerning the measure about to be proposed for the abolition of
the Company they represented. The impertinence of Lord PALMERSTON'S
reply then is only surpassed by his cringing tone now. He refused
to give any information concerning the Bill he proposed to introduce
for the abolition of the Company. "The arrangements of the measure
" which her Majesty's Government mean to propose will be best
" explained when that measure shall be submitted to the consideration
"of Parliament." In less than three weeks afterwards, and before that
Parliament so pompously appealed to had even assembled, Lord PAL-
imams, perceiving the current of popular opinion to set in against
him as the legislator for India, and receiving alarming reports from
the zealous Mr. Hansa, calls a Cabinet' Council in distress, proposes
a compromise with the Company, and Mr. VERNON Sutra the next day
visits the Board of Directors, and with singular condescension not only
exhibits to them the proposed Bill, but ventures to suggest that any
obnoxious clause would be struck out upon recommendation. The
reply of the Board of Directors, we have reason to believe, was a reply
at once as creditable to them as damaging to the Government.
After this the public will be better able to estimate Lord PALMERSTON'S
remarkable reticence upon a question of such surpassing political im-
portance.

The departure of the Princess FREDERICK WILLIAM of PRUSSIA for
her new home was accompanied last Tuesday by such a public de-
monstration as will long live in her memory. The entire route
from Buckingham Palace to the Bricklayer's Arms station was
densely lined on either side by the inhabitants of London, who
gathered together on this occasion to bid a hearty farewell to the
eldest daughter of their Sovereign. Never was popular greeting more
warmly expressed, nor good wishes more sincerely given. The cheers
of the people thundered along the hne without a break, and many a
blessing was invoked upon the head of the youthful Princess, whose
known goodness of heart, whose amiableness and affec-
tion, and whose domestic virtues have so endeared her
to her family and friends. Both the Prince and Princess appeared
sensibly affected at the unmistakeable heartiness of their reception by
so usually undemonstrative and phlegmatic a people. But if that
reception was warm in London, at Gravesend it was enthusiastic in
the extreme. In her new home the Princess will be received with
affectionate warmth. Her extreme youth will enable her to mould
herself the more easily to the usages of a foreign Court. Let us hope
that her life may be happy, and free for many years from the cares of that
sovereigntywhich, in all human probability, she will eventually be called
upon to sustain ; but if circumstances tend to place her before long in
so prominent a position, while she maintains her station with dignity
we feel confident that she will never forget the land of her birth.

The new Bill to bo proposed by Ministers on Monday next is na-
turally an object of some curiosity. The question of conspiracy is en-
veloped in some degree of doubt, owing to the difficulty of establish-
ing any overt act. The latest statute bearing on the subject is, we
think, that relating to duellists. According to the law on that subject,
persons conspiring to fight a duel in England and fighting it abroad,
could be brought back again and punished in this country.
But then the question is what could be done to them before
they in any way proceeded to action. Could they be brought