NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THEKing' accompanied by the Queen, opened Parliament in state on Thursday. The ceremonial observed was striking and magnificent, and during the procession from Buckingham Palace to Westminster their Majesties were greeted with the utmost heartiness. Those who took part in the scene in the Peers' House agree that the King bore himself with great dignity, and that the Queen, in spite of the fact that she is now a woman of fifty-six, looked the handsomest, almost the youngest, woman in the Chamber. The King's Speech, though long, was not specially important in matter. In dealing with the war, the Speech declares that the early submission of the Boers " is much to be desired in their own interests, as until it takes place it will be impossible for me to establish in those Colonies institutions which will secure equal rights to all the white inhabitants and protection and justice to the native population." These words are, of course, an assurance, though none was really needed, that we shall ultimately pursue our well-tried and traditional Colonial policy in South Africa. Though Ministers have never held any other language, the advocates of the Boer cause have always pretended that some new scheme of per- manent government was intended, and therefore it is well that the King's Speech should give a direct negative to ideas so mischievous.
