The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-02-05 00:00:00

COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.

MELBOURNE : GOLD.--The price of gold remained at
£3 15s. 3d., with a quiet market. The escorts for the week
had brought in 43,712 ounces, making for the year 1,767,000
ounces. Exchange on London : Drafts were selling at 1 per
cent. premium. Freight on gold delivered in London,
per ounce • insurance, two guineas Per cent.
WooL, Ic.—The news, per Sussex, that the prices at the
London wool sales had gone a shade easier, caused less
spirit at the last public sale, and prices realised were not
quite so firm. Some large parcels were knocked down for the
owners, and out of the whole offered, say about 300 bales, only
a small quantity changed hands at previous rates. Prices of
tallow Still remain at about late quotations. Mutton tallow,
a fine sample, sold at £45, and inferior at £4O per ton. In
hides there were no sales to report.
BREADSTUPPS.—Fine flour, £5O per ton ; seconds, £4O
ditto ; Haxall flour, £5O ditto ; Chilian, £5O ditto. Wheat
bought at 17s. to 18s. per bushel. The reports from the
western districts of the appearance of the crops continue to
be of the most promising nature, and additional mill-power is
being erected to meet the requirements of the coming harvest.
Ten tons of wheat from the Chatham Islands, grown by
native labour, and exported in bags of native manufacture, has
been received in the Melbourne markets.

LABOUR M.A.RicEr.—The Argus states,—" We have to re-
port another very favourable week in the labour market.
Suitable men for the country are getting scarce. Orders for
female servants are freely coming in from the gold-fields,
which, we are glad to state, are freely accepted by the most
respectable class of servants. Wages are advancing ; but still
low in comparison to our former rates ; still they are ad-
vancing, and labour getting scarcer, which must soon raise
the prices."
GEBLONO.—GOLD.—There is no alteration, nor apoearance
of any, in the buying price of gold. It still remains at 765. 9d.
There has been about the usual quantity offered in town. The
news from Magpie Gully is still very encouraging. Sinking is
light compared with Ballarat, and success more general.
Fiery Creek is reported as having fallen off a little. At Steig-
litz, the few who have struck the quartz vein are doing re-
markably well, the stuff got out showing very rich ; but, it is
supposed, that from the vein being narrow, and sloping so
much, it will be rather laborious work, so much overlying
stuff having to be cleared away. However, those at work
there seem generally hopeful and in good spirits. Since the
last report, there has arrived by escort 26,318 ounces.
WooL.—The first weekly produce sale held had taken place,
when the following prices were realised :—Handwashed slipe,
124 d. per lb.; fleece wool, in grease, Rid. ditto; sheepskins,
mixed, aa. each.

OPENING OF PARLIAMENT.

ON Thursday, the Queen went in state to open Parliament.
Notwithstanding the coldness of the weather, the inhabitants
of London flocked in multitudes twritness the accustomed
spectacle, and greeted Her Majesty with loud cheers along the
whole of her route, till, amid a flourish of trumpets and the
thunders of a royal salute from the Park guns, she disappeared
beneath the grand archway of Victoria Tower, marshalled on
her path to the House of Lords by the great officers of state
and a long procession of heralds, pages, pursuivants, and other
accessories of such solemnities. It was twenty minutes after
two o'clock before the Queen entered the Chamber of Peers,
and for more than two hours previously that noble apartment
had been gradually receiving within its gorgeously-decorated
walls an assemblage, if not quite suitable to the occasion, at
least well calculated to give the highest pictorial effect to the
pomp of the opening ceremonial. For two long hours they
came trooping in, from the girl in the freshness of her
teens to the mature dowager, all in full evening dress, and
displaying a variety of toilette which made the House
bloom like a vast flower-bed. At one time the space
reserved for the spiritual lords appeared to be in serious
danger of encroachment ; the diplomatic seats also narrowly
escaped invasion, and wistful eyes were even cast upon the
woolsack itself. The strangers' gallery was filled with ladies ;
so was that which runs round the house immediately beneath
the stained glass windows, and the benches on each side, with
the exception of the front rows and those usually occupied by
the Bishops. The Chamber of Peers did seem for a time en-
tirely given up to petticoat government; but soon after one
o'clock noble lords, in their robes, and the representatives of
foreign powers, in their official costumes, began to make their
appearance. The Earl of Clarendon was the first member of
the Cabinet who appeared. Lord Campbell and Lord St.
Leonard's were also among the early arrivals. Serjeant Man-
ning, as senior serjeant, claimed his seat with the judges ; and
among the latter were the newly-created Justices Willes and
Bramwell. Immediately under the seats reserved for the
diplomatic corps the right rev. prelates assembled to the num-
ber of five or six, with the Archbishop of Canterbury at their
head. Among them were the Bishops of Oxford and Exeter.
His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge and Lord Pan-
mure entered the house about the same time, and shortly after
them the Duke of Newcastle, with a well-developed Crimean
beard, as an evidence of his recent tour in the East. By this
time the House had assumed a very animated appearance, the
Lords spiritual and temporal chatting together in groups, the
ladies all settled in their places, and the doorways on either
side of the throne thronged with Gentlemen-at-Arms in their
glittering uniforms. The diplomatic corps had already
mustered in considerable strength and in every variety
of official costume, when his Excellency the American
Minister " sloped in," in plain evening dress. There was
a pause of expectation in the House, and it was soon
manifest that the Queen had arrived, but neither the
sound of the Royal salute nor of the trumpet flourish pene-
trated to the interior of the House, the doors of which were
carefully closed. Suddenly, at twenty minutes past two
o'clock, they were thrown open, and the procession of heralds,
pursuivants, lords-in-waiting, and great officers of State,
swept in. The Queen, leaning on the arm of his Royal
Highness the Prince Consort, ascended the throne, the as-
semblage standing up to receive her. Having desired that
they might be seated, Her Majesty forthwith despatched the
Usher of the Black Rod to summon the Commons to the bar.
Here an interval of several minutes elapsed, during which
solemn'silence was observed, and spectators who beheld the
scene for the first time had ample time to observe all its well-
known details. Except in the personages, there was no
departure from the prescriptive observance of centuries in the
formalities of the ceremonial. Lord Granville, on the left of
the throne, bore the Sword of State; Lord Harrowby, on the
right, the Cap of Maintenance ; and beyond him were the
Lord Chancellor and the Marquis of Lansdowne, bearing the
Crown upon a velvet cushion. Beside them, on the steps of
the throne, stood the Duchess of Sutherland and the Duchess
of Wellington; and on the other side, near the chair of the
Prince Consort, the Marquis of Abercorn and Sir Augustus
Clifford, who, in the absence of Lord Willoughby D'Eresby,
officiated as Lord Chamberlain. And now the trampling
sound of many footsteps was heard at the entrance to the bar,
and the Commons came surging up to that constitutional
barrier with the vehemence and force of their popular origin
symbolised in the movement. Pressing forward in a dense
column, with Mr. Speaker and Black Rod at their head, they
quickly filled every corner of the vacant space. When they
had settled sufficiently to have silence restored, the Lord
Chancellor approached the throne, and, kneeling, presented to
Her Majesty the copy of her speech, which she proceeded to
read with her usual distinctness and sweetness of intonation.
HER MAJESTY'S SPEECH.
MY Loans AND GENTLEMEN,

Since the close of the last session of Parliament, the arms of
the Allies have achieved a signal and important success.
Sebastopol, the great stronghold of Russia in the Black Sea,
has yielded to the persevering constancy and to the daring
bravery of the Allied forces.
The naval and military preparations for the ensuing year
have necessarily occupied my serious attention ; but, while
determined to omit no effort which could give vigour to the
operations of the war, I have deemed it my duty not to
decline any overtures which might reasonably afford a pros-
pect of a safe and honourable peace. Accordingly, when the
Emperor of Austria lately offered to myself and to my august
Ally, the Emperor of the French, to employ his good offices
with the Emperor of Russia, with a view to endeavour to
bring about an amicable adjustment of the matters at issue
between the contending Powers, I consented, in concert with
my Allies, to accept the offer thus made, and I have the
satisfaction to inform you that certain conditions have been
agreed upon, which I hope may prove the foundation of a
general treaty of peace.
Negotiations for such a treaty will shortly be opened at Paris.

In conducting those negotiations, I shall be careful not to
lose sight of the objects for which the war was undertaken :
and I shall deem it right in no degree to relax my naval and
military preparations until a satisfactory treaty of peace shall
have been concluded.

Although the war in which I am engaged was brought on
by events in the south of Europe, my attention has not been
withdrawn from the state of things in the north, and, in con-
junction with the Emperor of the French, I have concluded
with the King of Sweden and Norway a treaty containing de-
fensive engagements applicable to his dominions, and tending
to the preservation of the balance of power in that part of
Europe.
I have also concluded a treaty of friendship, commerce, and
navigation, with the Republic of Chili. I have given direc-
tions that these treaties shall be laid before you.