NEWS OF THE WEEK.
GREAT joy in London now! The wearisome session of Parliament is ended. Tuesday witnessed the release of the few Members who bad not previously effected their escape to the country or the Con- tinent. Bills which only passed the Commons on Saturday re- ceived the Royal assent on Tuesday ; having in the interval been enacted by the Lords, reduced, like the Commons, to a "Govern- ment Board."
The prorogation-speech was delivered by the Queen in person.. At the close of an unsatisfactory session, the materials for this document were, of course, meagre ; and good taste would have dic- tated a brief and modest address from the Throne. But Ministers thought fit to spin paragraph upon paragraph out of Lord PALMER- froN's performances. Tho Foreign Secretary contributed the sub- stance of half the speech. The effect is absolutely ludicrous. It might be supposed that the Government and Legislature of Eng- land had little to do at home—that domestic affairs were too in- significant to occupy their attention ; while the concerns of Holland cud Belgium, France and Mexico, Turkey and Persia, were of paramount-interest and importance to her Majesty's subjects. The Metropolitan Police and Country Constabulary Acts, the rettuoiun of Postage, the funding of Exchequer Bills, and the 'annual Supplies, were the only Parliamentary measures to which the Queen was instructed to refer. The enforcement of "the law against those who no longer concealed their design of resisting by force the lawful authorities," was painful to her Majesty, but she rejoiced that the first attempts at insubordination had been checked.
The outline of the contents of the Royal Speech shows that it was quite as remarkable for its omissions—its cautious avoidance -of the chief topics on which Parliament had been engaged— as for the pompous announcement of Lord PALMERSTON'S doings with Foreign Powers.
