PROROGATION AND DISSOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT.
On the 23rd of July, parliament was prorogued by her majesty. As the parliament which had been called together in 1841 had been one of the longest during the century, the prorogation, which was made by her majesty in person, excited very great public interest, and the queen’s speech was looked for with unusual public attention. The streets leading to the House of Lords presented the same animated appearance as is usual on similar occasions. Her majesty, accompanied by Prince Albert, and attended by the usual great officers of state, entered the royal carriage, and proceeded from Buckingham Palace to the House of Lords shortly before two o’clock. As the royal procession passed through St. James’s Park, and along the line of road, her majesty and her illustrious consort were loudly cheered by the spectators who had assembled to witness this splendid pageant. On the arrival of the royal cortège at the House of Lords, it was announced by a discharge of cannon.
Her majesty having robed, she immediately proceeded to the house, and took her seat on the throne. Prince Albert occupied a state chair on the right of the sovereign. The entrance of her majesty to the house was announced by a nourish of trumpets. The peers and peeresses all rose as the queen entered. The new house was crowded, and presented a brilliant spectacle. All, or nearly all, the foreign ambassadors and ministers were present. The dresses of the ladies were very elegant.
Her majesty having taken her seat, the Lord Chancellor directed Sir Augustus Clifford, Usher of the Black Rod, to summon the House of Commons to hear the royal speech on the prorogation of parliament. In a short time the speaker, accompanied by a number of members, appeared at the bar, when the right honourable gentleman, as is usual, addressed her majesty in a short speech, recounting the business of the session, and concluded by praying the royal assent to several bills which had passed both houses. Her majesty then read the following most gracious speech:—
“My Lords and Gentlemen,—I have much satisfaction in being able to release you from the duties of a laborious and anxious session. I cannot take leave of you without expressing my grateful sense of the assiduity and zeal with which you have applied yourselves to the consideration of the public interests. Your attention has been principally directed to the measures of immediate relief which a great and unprecedented calamity rendered necessary.
“I have given my cheerful assent to those laws which, by allowing the free admission of grain, and by affording facilities for the use of sugar in breweries and distilleries, tend to increase the quantity of human food, and to promote commercial intercourse.
“I rejoice to rind that you have in no instance proposed new restrictions, or interfered with the liberty of foreign or internal trade; as a mode of relieving distress. I feel assured that such measures are generally ineffectual, and, in some cases, aggravate the evils for the alleviation of which they are adopted.
“I cordially approve of the acts of large and liberal bounty by which you have assuaged the sufferings of my Irish subjects. I have also readily given my sanction to a law to make better provision for the permanent relief of the destitute in Ireland. I have likewise given my assent to various bills calculated to promote the agriculture and develop the industry of that portion of the United Kingdom. My attention shall be directed to such further measures as may be conducive to those salutary purposes.
“My relations with foreign powers continue to inspire me with confidence in the maintenance of peace. It has afforded me great satisfaction to find that the measures which, in concert with the King of the French, the Queen of Spain, and the Queen of Portugal, I have taken for the pacification of Portugal, have been attended with success; and that the civil war which for many months had afflicted that country has, at last, been brought to a bloodless termination. I indulge the hope that future differences between political parties in that country may be settled without an appeal to arms.
“Gentlemen of the House of Commons,—I thank you for your willingness in granting me the necessary supplies; they shall be applied with due care and economy to the public service.
“I am happy to inform you that, notwithstanding the high price of food, the revenue has, up to the present time, been more productive than I had reason to anticipate. The increased use of articles of general consumption has chiefly contributed to this result. The revenue derived from sugar, especially, has been greatly augmented by the removal of the prohibitory duties on foreign sugar.
“The various grants which you have made for education in the United Kingdom will, I trust, be conducive to the religious and moral improvement of my people.
“My Lords and Gentlemen,—I think it proper to inform you that it is my intention immediately to dissolve the present parliament.
“I rely with confidence on the loyalty to the throne, and attachment to the free institutions of this country, which animate the great body of my people. I join with them in supplications to Almighty God that the dearth by which we have been afflicted may, by the Divine blessing, be converted into cheapness and plenty.”
An event occurred at this juncture not unimportant to the government, and in which the Roman Catholics of Ireland felt concern. The O’Connor Don, one of the members for Roscommon, and a lord of the Treasury, died. He was a patriotic Irishman, of superior education and intelligence, and much respected, not only by the county he represented, but in Ireland generally. In the province of Connaught he was regarded with the reverence paid to a Celtic chief.
Parliament having been dissolved, writs were at once issued for the election of members for a new one. The especial feature of this election was the want of a definite policy on the part of the great body of the candidates. The Whigs seemed to have no clear notion of what they ought to propose to themselves or to the country. Lord John Russell, as has always been his custom, referred to his past life as the standard by which the electors should judge his future policy. A suspicion existed in the electoral body in Great Britain that it was the intention of government to endow the Roman Catholic clergy, and this injured the cause of such Whig candidates as were not very explicit on this matter. The previous parliament had added to the influence of the church by increasing the number of bishops, and by their education plan; this prejudiced many of the Dissenters against Whigism in general, and the government leaders of that school as its most prominent advocates. There was a general expectation that, whatever the complexion of the new parliament, Sir Robert Peel would of necessity be in power before its dissolution. The energy of the country party was, however, mainly directed against the Peelites, and their strength was sufficient to bar, for a time at all events, the approaches to power against Sir Robert.
The elections proceeded throughout Great Britain with fairness, except that the landlords in some places exercised an influence which was unconstitutional and unjust. Tenants were evicted because they voted according to their conscience; and the tradespeople in country towns were menaced with loss of custom by the neighbouring landowners. In Ireland the landed interest also exercised an undue influence, and many cases of extreme hardship occurred. The Boman Catholic clergy used the power of their office for electioneering purposes, in a way injurious to their own moral influence, subversive of the rights of the people, and dangerous to law and order.
The elections terminated by the return of a majority, ostensibly in favour of government, but there was little earnestness of principle or purpose to give consistency or continuity to their support.