NEWS OF THE WEEK.
PARLIAM ENT was prorogued on Saturday, the 10th inst., Lord Granville reading a "Queen's Speech," which is for the most part a bald recapitulation of the legislative measures of the Session, and remarkable only because it appears to be the work of a single hand. The usual Royal style and the tacit assumption that it is the Sovereign who acts are both abandoned, and the Queen com- pliments the Houses on their legislative work, and observes that her "Government has taken steps intended to prepare the way for dealing more effectually with the slave trade on the East Coast of Africa." It has not been usual hitherto for the Sovereign to recommend Members to be thrifty, as "periods of rapid change in the prices of commodities call for the exercise of moderation and forethought," or to acknowledge that "the wants of the country outstrip legislation," nor do we ever remember an admission that the Parliament of a Colony had " concurrent" power with that of the United Kingdom. It is all quite true, and the whole of the Speech is unexceptionable ; but there is a change of tone in it difficult to define, but quite perceptible. It is a short President's Message, rather than a Royal Speech.
