MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.
A.D. 1844
Parliament was opened by the queen in person on the 1st of February. Her majesty’s speech first alluded to her friendly relations with foreign powers; to the treaty concluded with China; to the annexation of Scinde to the British empire in India; to the estimates; and to the improved condition of several important branches of the trade and manufactures of the country. The speech then recommended attention to the revision of the charter of the Bank of England; to the state of the law and practice with regard to the occupation of land in Ireland; and to the law of registration in that country.
The debates on the address in both houses were not in any way remarkable, except for a bold speech by Mr. Sharman Crawford, demanding redress of the grievances of which the people of both England and Ireland complained. A contest also occurred between Lord John Russell and Sir Robert Peel in reference to the duties on the importation of foreign corn, the opposition leader maintaining that a fixed duty was desirable, and the ministerial leader advocating the system of variable duties, called a sliding-scale.