put into her Majesty's hands concluded thus:—"The prospect of continued peace, and the general state of domestic prosperity and tranquillity, afford a favourable opportunity for the consideration of the important matters to which I have directed your attention; and I commit them to your deliberation, with the earnest prayer that you may be enabled, under the superintending care and protection of Divine Providence, to strengthen the feelings of mutual confidence and good will between different classes of my subjects, and to improve the condition of my people."
The prayer was not from the Queen, but her ministers. They prayed for the superintending care and protection of Divine Providence—they who, when Divine Providence had sent abundance upon the earth for the sustenance of the whole brotherhood of mankind, had the daring impiety to enact that the superabundance of one part of the globe should not go to supply the deficiencies of the other!
In the House of Lords, the Lord Chancellor having read over her majesty's speech, the Marquis of Camden moved the address in reply, which was, as usual, an echo of the speech, and Lord Glenlyon, who was dressed in the costume of a Highland chieftain, seconded it. In the discussion which ensued, and which was shared in by the Marquis of Normanby, the Duke of Richmond, Lord Wharncliffe, Lord Brougham, the Earl of Hardwicke, the Marquis of Lansdowne, the Earl of Malmesbury, the Earl of Aberdeen, Leird Campbell, and the Lord Chancellor, the various topics of the speech were canvassed at some length, but the address was subsequently agreed to nem. con., and a committee was appointed to draw it up. The Duke of Richmond objected to the expressions in the address which signified that the condition of the country was improved. "The farmers," he said, "were in a bad way. Was there any man in this house who would say that there was not considerable distress among the tenantry of the country? Was there an individual in this house who
