Int Court.
TEE QUEEN held a Privy Council at Buckingham Palace on Monday, when the speech she was to deliver the next day in Parliament was sub- mitted and approved. On Tuesday, her Majesty, accompanied by the Prince Consort, went in state to the Palace of Westminster, and opened the Session. The weather was fine and the spectators more than usually abundant. On Wednesday morning, the Queen distributed the Victoria Cross to ten officers, one Staff and one Assistant-Surgeon, and three pri- vates. The ceremony took place in the quadrangle of Buckingham Palace, 'and the Queen herself placed the crosses on the breasts of her gallant soldiers. In the evening she gave a state ball. Nearly two thousand persons were invited.
Besides her usual exercise out of doors, the Queen, accompanied once by the Prince Consort and once by the Princess Alice has visited the Italian Opera, Covent Garden,' and the Botanical Gardens in Regent's Park. She has called on the Duchess of Kent every day. On Thursday, the Duchess quitted town for Frogmore. The guests at Buckingham Palace have included the Earl and Countess of Elgin, the Countess of Mount-Edgcumbe, Lord and Lady Katherine- Valletort, Lord George Lennox, Colonel and Lady Catherine Vernon Harcourt, and Major Elphinstone, R.E.
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