The Press.
London, England, 1857-08-29 00:00:00

Volittral.

HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN held a Court of Privy
Council at three p.m. on Thursday, at Buckingham
Pillar*. Her Majesty gave audiences to the Earl of
Clarendon, Lord Bloomfield, General Lord }Lowden,
the Honduras Minister, Sir Charles Wood, and Esrl
Granville. The Privy Council was attended by the
Prince Consort, Earl Granville, K.G., the Lord
Chancellor, Viscount Palmerston, K.G., the Earl of
Harrowby, Sir George Grey, G.C.8., the Earl of
Clarendon, K.G., the Right Hon. H. Labouchere,
Lord Panmure, K.T., the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer, Sir Charles Wood, G C. 8., the Right Hon.
R. Vernon Smith, the Right Hon. M. T. Baines; the
Duke of Wellington, Master of the Horse; and Lord
Ernest Bruce, Vice• Chamberlain. At the council
the prorogation of Parliament was ordered, and the
Royal Speech for closing the session was approved.
'the Queen gave audiences, after the council, to
Sir George Grey, Viscount Palmerston, and Lord
Panmure.

CABINET COUNCILS were held upon Saturday
Monday, and Wednesday last, and a leugthentd
Council was held again yesterday afternoon.

LORD ROBERT GROSVENOR, M.P., has accepted thi
Chiltern Hundreds. The noble lord is about to be
raised to the peerage. The vacancy in the repre-
sentation of Middlesex, it is announced by the Liberal
part, will be contested by Mr. George Byng, eldest
son of Lord Enfield.

THE BERLIN CONFERENCE, for which arrangements
were some time since made at Lambeth Palace, at a
meeting presided over by the Archbishop of Canter-
bury, will commence on Wednesday, September 9.
The conference will last nine days, during which the
religious and ecclesiastical condition of Europe will
be discussed.

THE BISHOP OF LONDON will in all probability
inaugurate the specisl services which are to com-
mence at the east end of London in November next,
wider the auspices of the Duke of Marlborough, the
Earl of Carnarvon, the Earl of Shaftesbury, Mr.
Cowper, M.P., Mr. Hanbury, M.P., and other gentle-
men, several distinguished ecclesiastics, including
the Bishops of Ripon, Carlisle, and Norwich, the
Rev. Canon Champneys, Prebendary Burgess, drc.
the Exeter-hall services will be resumed in October.

THE SIAMESE PRINCES are expected to arrive
very shortly in London. Her Majesty's ship Caradoo
has been waiting at Alexandria for the last three
weeks to receive on board two princes from the
famous kingdom of Siam, who are about to visit this
country, with a splendid embassy, for the purpose of
entering into important commercial treaties with the
British Government. They embarked on board her
Majesty's ship Encounter, at Bankok, in the Gulf of
Siam, bound for the Red Sea. The Siamese princes
being of royal rank, her Majesty's ship Desperate has
been sent also to Alexandria, to salute them as soon
as they arrive them A princely embassy from a
zich, populous, and exclusive Oriental natiola virll he
a great novelty in London.

THE WEEK.

PARLIAMENT was prorogued yesterday, and the Queen's Speech was
delivered by Royal Commission, It may perhaps be regretted,
in the presence of the portentous events in India, that her Majesty's
Ministers did not advise the Queen to deliver the Speech from the
Throne. Yet in scanning the official document prepared by her
Mikiesty's advisers it may be said that so weak and inefficient a com•
position could scarcely have gained in strength even if delivered virts
voce by the August Personage on the Throne. Never was a Royal Speech
(it is now the received doctrine that it is the speech of the Cabinet for the
time being) so decidedly unequal to the occasion. The first paragraph
thanks the two Houses in conventional terms ; the second expresses
cheerful views of the state of Europe; the third is a diplomatic refer-
ence to the Principalities, and to the due execution of the Treaty
of Paris, which may mean anything or nothing; and it is not
until the fourth paragraph is reached that the " extensive mutinies "
are mentioned.
Her Majesty is made by the Ministers to declare "her
extreme concern" at those events, followed by " serious dis-
turbances," and then, rising into a style more suited to the occasion,
the Queen is made to say that " the barbarities inflicted upon many
" of her Majesty's subjects in India, and the sufferings which they
" have endured, have filled her Majesty's heart with the deepest
" grief." The conduct of the civil and military officers is then
complimented in conventional terms. It would have been more
cheering to the sufferers in India if the royal sympathy had been
expressed upon the Throne, but there is evidently a designed under-
toning of the whole document. as if the Ministers wished to " hush
up " the rebellion. In the next p trae,raph, the Queen is made to
refer to these •• grave disorders," and the royal confidence is expressed
that with the " powerful means at her disposal " she will be
enabled to quell the mutiny. It would leave been judicious
to have added a few words to the effect indicating that, if necessary,
her Majesty would before Christmas again summon her faithful Lords
and Commons, and expressing confidence that she might rely on their
loyal assistance. A grateful acknowledgment of the liberal provision
made for the Princess Royal follows, and her Majesty then expresses
her satisfaction at the labours of the session ; and here the most
ludicrous effort is made to exaggerate the work of Ministers. Typo-
graphical artifices are employed in order to give an appearance of
business accomplished. That Act, which we all remember from our
childhood, for " Consolidating and Amending the Law relating to Bank
ruptcy and Insolvency in Ireland " receives the honour of a special
paragraph standing by itself, as if it were a great measure of legislative
ability, instead of a mere amendment upon many an old law. The
same respect is paid to other secondary subjects, and twenty-two lines
are absorbed in expressing the meaning of one. In short, the entire
Speech is feeble and diffuse, and utterly unequal to the emergencies
of the time, as if the Ministers were not even yet penetrated with the
immense responsibility devolving on them.
But a want of firmness, dignityjand tone is not the only fault of the
Royal Speech. It entirely omits all reference to the state of our
affairs in China and in Persia. This omission is most remarkable in
both cases. It was only the ()tiler night that the Noble Lord at the
head of the Government expressed the strongest doubts of the good
faith of Persia, and pointed out the absolute necessity of our retaining
at Bushire a powerful force as a cheek against the evident unwillingness
of the Shah to evacuate Herat. To say the least of it, our relations
with Persia are critical ; and after the grave expressions of doubt
which fell from the Prime Minister last week, the country in the
presznee of the existing rebellion in India would have been glad
for some reassurance upon the point. The silence of the Government
at such an opportunity is extremely ominous. But to tura to
Canton. Are our relations with the Government of China in
so settled and satisfactory a state as not even to need
an allusion. Have all those "acts of violence," "insults to the British
" flag," and "infraction of treaty rights," so prominently announced in
the Royal Speech of .Tanuary, been atoned for; or has that " pertina-
cious refusal of redress" been followed by the full satisfaction demanded ?
Since the announcement in January that " measures of force " had been
taken to " insure satisfaction," our merchants, driven out of Canton,
have for nine months been cooped up at Hong Kong, our factories at
Canton have been razed to the ground, we have had some horrible
massacres of individuals, some gallant boat actions and great slaugh
ter, and we have despatched a special plenipotentiary to bring affairs
to an issue. All these events are ignored in the Royal Speech. Surely
the promptitude of her Majesty's Ministers, who, dealing with an
event that occurred in November, had, by the August following, with
the wisdom and energy for which they are pre-eminent, despatched a
plenipotentiary and six gunboats to avenge the national honour, de-
served a passing tribute. By this omission the country will under-
stand the real value Lord PALMERSTON places upon that Canton quarrel,
which we were told so dearly involved the national honour. No satis-
faction has been obtained, no redress has been given, and the subject
is put aside in the Royal Speech to make room for a common Parlia-
mentary list of amendments and measures.

The news from India brought by the last mail is " horrible and
" heartrending" There is no other name for it. Delhi not taken ;
General BARNARD dead ; the cholera in the camp our soldiers dying;
Sir HENRY LAWRENCE killed by the rebels ; and Sir Hroa WHEELER,