was not competent to lead a great party, and
but for the paucity of talent in the conservative ranks, his leadership
would have immediately terminated. In the country generally, but
especially in the large cities and manufacturing districts, the speech
excited a stronger political hostility to Mr. Disraeli than had before
prevailed.

IRELAND.

A very considerable portion of the session was occupied by the affairs
of Ireland. Under the section devoted to the concerns of that country
such notice was taken of the proceedings in parliament bearing reference
to her, as makes it unnecessary to enter at length into their record in
this place. Early in the session the government requested the house
to renew the act for the suspension of Habeas Corpus: it was granted.
Measures bearing upon the poor-laws, and the commercial state of the
country, were subsequently discussed, the government always succeeding
in obtaining the support of the house. A bill for facilitating the
transfer of encumbered estates was introduced on the 26th of April;
its object was, chiefly, to amend a similar act of 1848, which had
been found to a great extent impracticable, the usual fate of most whig
measures. The new bill was carried; but while it did much good, it was
sometimes an instrument of injustice, very imperfectly answered its
own objects, and was not conceived or framed in a comprehensive or
statesman-like spirit. The great changes which its abettors predicted it
would create in the social condition of Ireland were not realized. The
estates brought into the court were often purchased by their former
owners, or occupiers, or by other Irish landowners, who borrowed money
for the purchase at a heavy interest, on the credit of the estates
themselves, which soon became as much encumbered as they had been
before. English companies and assurance offices were also purchasers:
their management was generally bad, expending large sums without
obtaining an adequate return. Ignorance of the habits of the people
caused much loss to such occupiers, and a species of quackery in
cultivation sprung up which was injurious to the interests of the owners
and of the country.

VOTE OF THANKS TO THE ARMY IN INDIA.

Votes of thanks to the troops engaged in the war of the Punjaub were
proposed and carried on the 24th of April. These were advocated with
eloquence, and conceded with enthusiasm. Sir Robert Peel passed an
eloquent eulogy on Lord Gough, whic