Parliament was prorogued on Wednesday, to Thursday, the 27th October,
in a Queen's Speech (read by the Lord Chancellor) of better English and better sense than usual. The Queen "con- tinues to receive from all foreign Powers expressions of good-will and friendship," but has "witnessed with grief and pain, on domestic as well as public grounds, the outbreak of war between two powerful nations, both of them allied with this country." Her best exertions will be directed to maintain neutrality, and to prevent the extension of the area of the present conflict. She mentions the Treaty to defend the neutrality of Belgium con- cluded with Prussia, and all but concluded with France, and states that she has invited the adhesion of the other parties to the Treaty of 1839. The House of Commons is encouraged to hope that the elasticity of the revenue will enable the Government to meet the additional charges for a time of war without fresh taxa- tion. The Queen speaks of the "temporary "Act for repressing crime in Ireland as having hitherto answered its purpose, and indulges in very hopeful language about the Land Tenure Act, from which she anticipates the growth of "general confidence in the provi- sions and administration of the law, and in the just and benevolent intentions of the Legislature." In the Education Act she "per- ceives a new guarantee for the moral and social well-being of the nation, and for its prosperity and power." And she ventures to hope that when Parliament is again summoned to its duties, she may be enabled to rejoice with it "in there-establishment & peace on the Continent of Europe." A very proper sort of epitaph on the Session, though it does suppress all reference to the danger of colonial dismemberment, and the tardy and reluctant concession which staved off the danger.
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