MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.
A.D. 1819
The new parliament met on the 14th of January when Mr. Manners Sutton was reelected speaker, and Chief Baron Richards took his seat on the woolsack pro tempore, in consequence of the lord chancellor’s indisposition. Both houses were occupied till the 21st in swearing in their respective members, on which day the session was opened by commission. The chief topics of the royal speech were the king’s health: the demise of the queen; the evacuation of France by the allied troops; the favourable state of the revenue; the improved aspect of trade, manufactures, and commerce; the favourable result of the war in India; and the extension of the commercial treaty now existing between this nation and the United States of America to a further term of eight years. In both houses the addresses were carried without a division, though ministers were severely censured by Lord Lansdowne in the lords, and Mr. Macdonald in the commons, for the want of truth in their statements concerning the state of the nation, and for their many political blunders.