The Press.
London, England, 1857-02-07 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

Gentlemen of the House of Commons,
Her Majesty has directed the estimates for the ensuing
year to be laid before you. . .

They have been prepared with every attention to
economy, and with a due regard to the efficient perfor•
mance of the public service at home and abroad.
My Lank, and Gentlemen,

Her Majesty commands us to inform you that bills will
be submitted to your consideration fur the consolidation
and the amendment of important portions of the law ; and
her Majesty doubts not that you will give your earnest at-
tention to matters so deeply affecting tho interests of all
classes of her subjects.

Her Majesty commands us to recommend to your con•
sideration the expediency of renewing for a further period
the privileges of the Bank of England, the conditions
imposed on the issue of bank-notes in the United Kingdom,
and the state of the law relating to Joint-stock Banks.
Her Majesty commands us to express the gratification
which it affords her to witness the general well-being and
contentment of her people, and to find that, notwithstanding
the sacrifices unavoidably attendant upon such a war as
that which has lately terminated, the resources of the
country remain unimpaired, and its productive industry
continues unchecked in its course of progressive develop-
ment.

Her Majesty commits with confidence the great interests
of the country to your wisdom and care, and she fervently
prays that the blessing of Almighty God may attend your
deliberations, and prosper your councils for the advance-
ment of the welfare and happiness of her loyal and faith-
ful people.

The Earl of CORE, in rising to move the Address,
briefly referred to the final adjustment of the
Eastern question. The objects of the war
had been attained, the independence of Turkey
secured, and the whole question settled in a manner
"calculated to raise the position of England." This
satisfactory result was mainly due "to the firm, un-
swerving, and fixed line of policy maintained by her
Majesty's Government." His lordship mentioned in
terms of congratulation the failure of the Neuf-
chatel insurrection, the evidences at length given by
the King of Naples of some concessions towards his
unfortunate prisoners, the settlement of the Central
American question, and the conclusion of a treaty
with Siam. With respect to our relations with
Persia and China, the Earl of Cork referred the
unfortunate ruptures with those powers to a
series of long-continued acts of subterfuge and
evasion upon questions of redress, and with
respect to Persia, to the violation of the treaty
by the seizure of Herat. He trusted that
the i esult of the capture of Bushire would be a
renewal of amicable relations with Persia. With
China, although we might regret finding ourselves
in open hostilities with that power, they had resulted
from acts of insolence and obstinacy ; and it
was, he thought, obvious that it would have been
establishing too dangerous a principle to permit any
" infringement of a treaty " by a people disposed like
the Chinese to ascribe moderation to fear. The
noble lord then cursorily alluded to the prosperous
state of the British empire, and concluded by moving
an Address in answer to the Speech from the Throne,
of which it was nearly a counterpart.
The Earl of AMIE seconded the Address, and re-
capitulated the various points touched upon in her
Majesty's gracious Speech.
The Earl of DERBY then rose.•

The Earl of CLARENDON was sorry that Lord
Derby had not adhered to the usual practice, and
refrained from any allusion to foreign topics until he
was in possession of the full information which
would shortly be laid before the house. Had ho
waited for those documents it would have saved him
from the erroneous impression he appeared to enter•
tain with regard to the Bolgrad and Neufchatel
questions. With respect to the latter, neither the
English nor French Government was concerned in
any way with the resistance with which the Swiss
Government had met the demands of Prussia. He
did not wish to enter into details on the question, as
negotiations were still going on :

But for our part, we abstained from giving the Confedera•
tion any assurance whatever. We merely suggested to the
Swiss Goverment whether their interests might not be
better promoted by a liberation of those prisoners, and we
united our efforts with those of other powers to bring about
a settlement of the question. Yet we made no " pledge "
we gave no " assurance " whatever—nor did we encourage
the Swiss Government to resist the claims of the King of
Prussia.

With reference to Italy, it was indeed true that
her Majesty's Ministers had taken advantage
of the Paris Conferences to consider the ques-
tion of the state of that country, but the
course which they had adopted in conjunction with
the Emperor of the French had met with the cordial