1 AUGUST 1868, Page 1

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

ARLI M E NT was prorogued by Royal Commission yesterday

afternoon. The Queen's Speech is better written than usual, and shorter. It congratulates Parliament, of course, on the Abys- sinian Expedition, indulges in something akin to congratulation that the Irish Habeas Corpus Suspension Act is just now a dead letter, expresses great satisfaction on the completion of the great work of the amendment of the representative system, touches on the administrative reform in the War Office, promises as early a dissolution as is feasible consistently with the people's reaping the fall advantages of the Reform Act, and ends thus :—" I look with entire confidence to their proving themselves worthy of the high privilege with which they have thus been invested ; and I trust that, under the blessing of Divine Providence, the expression of their opinion on those great questions of public policy which have occupied the attention of Parliament, and remain undecided may tend to maintain unimpaired that civil and religious freedom which has been secured to all my subjects by the institutions and settle- ment of my realm." The reference to the "settlement of my realm" is significant, and looks very like a hint from Her Majesty that she takes her stand on the Act of Settlement and the Coro- nation Oath. Or does Mr. Disraeli really mean the settlement of his realm ?