CLOSE OF THE SESSION.
On the 30th of August, Mr. Disraeli reviewed the labours of the session after the manner so effectively observed by Lord Lyndhurst in the other house. The oration was ingenious, and eloquently amusing; it entertained honourable members very much, but it neither instructed nor edified the commons or the country. Some curiosity was entertained as to how he would notice the measure for removing Jewish disabilities; he declared that he “personally approved of that measure, but condemned the policy of government in bringing it forward without the hope of carrying it, for by that means the cause lost ground.” This was mere pretence on the part of the honourable and rhetorical leader of the opposition; he knew well that, assured of the support of the commons, the government acted justly to the country and to those aggrieved by bringing the measure through the lower house, and throwing the responsibility of rejecting it upon the lords. Besides, the election of Baron Rothschild for the city of London constrained the government to adopt some course, and that which they chose was the most dignified and constitutional. Mr. Hume made some able strictures on the speech of “the reviewer of the session,” and Lord John Russell replied to it at length with skill and dignity. Nevertheless, the brilliant periods of “the oriental orator” had their effect on both sides of the house; and Mr. Disraeli was on the whole a more popular man, so far as admiration of his genius was concerned.
On the 5th of September the house closed its labours. It had been one of the longest sessions on record; but from various causes, such as the indifferent management of the government, the failure of the chancellor of the exchequer, the obstructions offered by the opposition, and the disturbed state of public affairs, very little was accomplished. Her majesty prorogued parliament in person in the new chamber of peers, which was made ready for the occasion. The Dukes of Nemours and Joinville (sons of the fallen French monarch) were present. The usual formalities on these occasions took place, rendered remarkable only by the congratulations expressed in the address to her majesty, delivered by the speaker of the House of Commons, on the loyalty of her majesty’s people, notwithstanding the efforts of some “misguided men.” Her majesty’s speech briefly, and in the usual common-place terms, referred to the various legislative measures of the session, and she alluded, in terms of strong approbation, to the conduct of the lord-lieutenant of Ireland (the Earl of Clarendon), and to the loyalty of her people, in promptly suppressing the efforts of evil-disposed persons to disturb the public peace, for purposes of malice and pillage. The parliament stood prorogued to the 2nd of November.
The wearied members, after ten months’ almost unremitting and patient exertions, went to the moors, the seaside, and upon excursions of pleasure at home and abroad, to prepare themselves for renewed labour. Many went to Paris, to study the progress of the revolution there, and the practical working of those recent changes which had shaken the world. Probably that capital was never before, at one time, visited by so many English senators.
Although tranquillity was not perfectly established in either England or Ireland, and there was rioting in the former and assassination in the latter, yet the executive was left strong to cope with any old or new form of turbulence and crime, and the confidence of parliament and people was firm, that the executive would be found equal to any emergencies that might arise.