TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE QUEEN'S PROROGATION SPEECH.
.A.cconnrem to the rule of modern practice, as our readers are aware, the fact that the Queen prorogues Parliament in person indicates that her Majesty's Ministers have been able to prepare a Speech suitable for the Royal utterance. It is therefore no secret that the substance of the Royal Speech has been prepared for acceptance at the usual meeting of the Council, nor that it is in great part a re- flex of the Speech delivered by her Majesty, or by Commissioners on her behalf, at the opening of the session.
Probably we shall not be found to be very far wrong if we an- ticipate her Majesty's gratification that the state of commerce and manufactures has continued to be such as to afford ethployment for all who staid away from the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations ; and that the activity, of manufactures has proved more than sufficient to supply the demands of trade during that pro- longed national holyday.
We may presume that her Majesty will graciously express her satisfaction at the unique success of that great undertaking, at the almost exclusive attention devoted to it by the middle and work- ing classes, and at the excellent order observed by the immense multitudes who have visited the building with her Majesty ; facts which attest the affection of all classes for her Majesty's person, the unceasing loyalty of her people, and their perfect contentment with the institutions under which they live. Her Majesty will no longer have to lament the difficulties expe- rienced at the opening of the session by that important body among her people who are the owners and occupiers of land ; but will have to felicitate her Parliament, and especially the gentlemen of the House of Commons, on those comprehensive and well-considered mea- sures which have effectually removed all such difficulties, have placed the interests of agriculture on the firm basis of a prosperous career, and have regained for her Majesty's Government the affec- tion, confidence, and zealous support of her Majesty's agricultural classes.
The just meed of approbation will be awarded to the members of both Houses for the care and assiduity which they have bestowed, down to the latest period of the session, on the affairs of her Ma- jesty's Colonies : a well-directed diligence, which has enabled them to confer upon the Cape of Good Hope the boon of a final settle- ment of its constitution and the termination of its border wars ; upon the Australias, a further development of constitutional free- dom suited to their growing importance and intelligence, with an arrangement of the convict question satisfactory to all the various settlements ; upon New Zealand, the means of developine•b her energies with the utmost freedom, and that security against the variation of council which has so much disturbed the advance of older settlements.
The cordial relations established by her Majesty's Government with the Government at Rio de Janeiro having been enforced upon Brazil in the most energetic and uncompromising manner, the atrocious traffic in slaves has been finally extinguished. The natives of Africa are consequently engaged in a legitimate com- merce, which is rapidly assuming considerable importance ; though her Majesty will have full confidence that the trade and manufac- tures of this country have nothing to apprehend from undue com- petition in that quarter of the globe.
This cordial but firm cooperation with Brazil has riveted our allianee, and has placed the sugar-trade between this country and that fertile region on a footing entirely satisfactory to her Majes- ty's subjects in the West Indies • her Majesty having full reliance that the dormant energies of those favoured settlements will now be called forth by the wholesome stimulus of competition.
Her Majesty continues to maintain relations of peace and amity with Foreign Powers ; her Government having been enabled to sus- tain and extend British influence through all the changes which have disturbed various parts of the Continent, and to exert that in- fluence for developing the liberty of the people who have so nobly struggled for it, on principles which it is the interest as well as duty of Great Britain to maintain.
The measure to uphold the religious independence of the country against the invasion of a Foreign Power has been duly considered by both Houses of Parliament : passed unanimously, and without any alteration from the original form, it has shown the manner in which such aggressions will be resisted by the people of this country in union with the Throne ; her Majesty's Dissenters having been not less ardent in support of the prerogative than her Majesty's members of the Established Church. The immediate effect of that measure has been to quiet all apprehensions and allay animosities of every kind ; and some progress has been made by her Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, in conjunction with the Roman people, in such arrangements as will displace the foreign director of the late aggression from the position to renew such transactions in future.
The gentlemen of the Rouse of Commons will be thanked for the advice and assistance which they afforded to her Majesty's Minis- ters in considering the Budgets of the session. By the help of that advice and assistance, the finances of the country have been placed upon a sound basis, which will furnish the foundation for a large remission of taxes in the ensuing year, under plans already in preparation by her Majesty's Ministers.
The administration of justice has been thoroughly reformed in all the -departments of Equity and Law : a „result due in great Part to the zealous cooperation which her Majesty has received from her successive servants at the head of the Court of Chancery. If this devoted attention to the permanent improviquen if t e ee..e• law has occasioned some temporary arrears in the ordi7,vor of the Court of Chancery, her Majesty will confiden '`• those who suffer injury by the delay of justice will endure it cheer- fully, for the advantage of having at the head of the law so dis- tinguished a person as the present possessor of that exalted post. No less advance has been made in the general progress of im- provement, to which her Majesty alluded at the opening of the session. Not only has the Poor-law been remodelled, especially in the portion relating to the law of settlement, and the healthy con- dition of the Metropolis been secured against the future inroads of pestilence as well as the more enduring causes of disease, by a comprehensive system of sanitary measures in active and efficient operation, but all classes of her :Majesty's subjects have been es- sentially benefited in their material and moral condition. In continuation of these great measures, her Majesty's Ministers are engaged in preparing a scheme of Reform to be laid before Parliament early in the next session ; the proposal of which will be of great advantage to her Majesty's Ministers in the first place, and should it be carried out, will for ever remove the re- proach that the people of this country, and especially her Ma- jesty's labouring classes, are not fully represented--will eft dually secure the election of the persons best fitted to represent all classes of her Majesty's subjects, and will guarantee the future adoption of such measures as shall, under Divine Providence, uphold in un- diminished splendour the throne which her Majesty has inherited from her Protestant ancestors, maintain the greatness of the em- pire, extend the blessings of civil and religious liberty, and pro- mote the public and private prosperity of every individual in these kingdoms.
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Our readers may, perhaps, anticipate the objection that would be made in Council to this draft of the Speech to be delivered next week by her -31;01,51y—that it was not strictly veracious. But precedents overrule that objeetion : to mention no others, there are the official statements respecting the " missing despateh," and a numerous class of similar statements; besides the whole tenor of the Speech at the opening of the session. Indeed, much licence is always allowed for official statements—or at least takeh.
Performance ought to be larger than promise ; an honourable feeling which has dictated the draft cited above.
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