The Sun.
London, England, 1837-07-18 00:00:00

SUMMER ASSIZES.

HOME CIRCUIT.—CHRLMSFORD, JULY 17.
Lord Chief Justice DENMAN and Mr. Justice LITTLE..
DALE arrived here to-day at nearly three o'clock, and then
proceeded to open her Majesty's commission for the county
of Essex.

The Assize business begins to-morrow morning at ten
o'clock, when Lord DENMAN will preside on the Crown,
and Sir J. LITTLEDALE on the Civil, side. The number
of criminals does not appear to be so numerous, nor the
crimes committed of that serious nature as in former As-
sizes, excepting that there arc five cases of arson, the pri-
soners being indicted for then being mostly women. The
others, excepting in one or two cases, being indicted on
charges of a trivial nature.

IDL AND CIRCUIT.— OAK-HAM, JULY 14.
The commission for the county of Rutland was opened
this day before Mr. Justice PARK, and presented what is by
no means an unusual occurrence in this small county, the
spectacle of a maiden Assize, the gaol not having within its
precincts a single prisoner for trial.
In the case of Pridmore v. Pridmore, which was the only
cause entered, Mr. WADDINGTON, who opened the plead-
ings, 'stated that this was an action brought to recover
compensation in damages for the loss sustained by the
plaintiff of his daughter's services by reason of her seduction
by the defendant.
Mr. CLARKE, for the defendant, had great pleasure in
informing the Jury that the present complaint was to be
submitted to a private inquiry ; but at the same time his
client was anxious that he (Mr. Clarke) should take the
present opportunity of stating that not the slightest imputa-
tion could be cast upon the character of the lady, save the
unfortunate occurrence which led to the present action.
Mr. HUMPHREY, on the part of the plaintiff, had beard
with great sattsfactiOn what had fallen from his Learsed
Friend, Mr. Clarke. He congratulated the Jury sincerely,
and also the unfortunate father of the lady, that they were
spared the public exposure. They would be glad to hear
it had been agreed a verdict should be taken for the amount
of damaged laid in the declaration, 1,0001., subject to an
award.

The commission for the caunty of Lincoln svill be opeurd
to-morrow.

NORFOLK ClRCUlT.—Bucrawnam, Ju.Lr 14.
CROWN Com.—Sarah Curtis, aged 30, was capitally
indicted for administering certain large doses of tartarised
antimony to Joseph Curtis, aged ten (the youngest son of
her husband, Peter Curtis, by a former wife), with intent
to poison the said Joseph Cut tis.
Mr. Btacti stated the facts for the prosecution.
The Jury acquitted the prisoner.

We understand that Colonel Peyronnet Thompson
gave up all views of becoming a candidate for Marylctirone
after the decision of the meeting cf the three I,luroebial. Com-
mittees, on Tuesday evening last.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

Parliament was yesterday prorogued by her Majesty
in person. The scene was unusually interesting. A
young Queen sees her generous intentions towards her
people rewarded by an enthusiastic loyalty which cannot
fail to sink deep into her heart. The thought of what
our condition might have been had the throne filled by
our young Queen been polluted by the detested indivi-
dual from whom we have been rid by her succession, was
uppermost in every one's mind. The Speech from the
Throne in sentiment corresponds with the declaration at
Kensington, and is distinguished by the beauty of its
language :—" It will be my care to strengthen our in-
stitutions, civil and ecclesiastical, by discreet improve-
ment, wherever improvement is required, and to do
all in my power to compose and allay animosity and
discord." It must now be our business to enable her Ma-
jesty to fulfil her generous intentions towards her
people. The country has an important duty to dis-
charge ; and that duty it will, we trust, properly dis-
charge. We do not address ourselves to the corrupt
spots which have been left as blemishes in our great
constitutional charter. But wherever there are are in-
dependent constituencies they must respond to the
generous intentions of her Majesty, by returning to
the new Parliament men wlip feel as they ought the
blessing of living under free institutions, and who will
legislate for the true interests of the people. Let the
constituencies bear in mind that now is the time for the
Reform Bill to hear its true fruits. We have now a
Queen thoroughly in the interests of the people. Her
MiniSters possess her confidence, and the powers of the
Executive are at their disposal. If we have good
men and true returned to Parliament, Ministers will be
enabled to fulfil her Majesty's intentions, and carry
improvement into our institutions. The opposition so
pertinaciously given in the Upper House to all benefi-
cial measures lras left a heavy arrear of reform ; but let
us hope for better times. Ireland must be placed with
respect to municipal rights on the footing of England
and Scotland. The distracting animosities which
spring out of the anomalous condition of Ireland with
regard to religion must• be terminated by an adjust-
ment of tne :Acne question satisfactorily to all par-
ti( s. The friends to civil and religious liberty
must bear in mind that the question of Church-
rates cannot be satisfactorily settled if Ministers do
not obtain a respectable majority in the new Parlia-
ment. In short, let no man who expects to see Re-
form introduced into our institutions, and peace and
prosperity shower their blessings on the land, give his
support to a Tory candidate. If the Tories obtain
the least encouragement, we may look fot times
of agitation and trouble. All who love their coun-
try and its institutions, who take a pride in see-
ing this empire free and prosperous, are bound
to keep the Tories from power. They seek to
trample on the people ; their hearts are set on
resorting the old and vicious state of things from
which we have been extricated by the Reform Bill.
Look at the remarks The Quarterly Review
published yesterday. 'rids Tory or*An !nay be taken
as the current expositor of the wishes of the Tories.
It speaks with regret of what has been effected by the
Reform Bill. It seems we had too :nuch freedom be-
fore, and "it has only shifted a still more undue pre-
ponderance" to the side of freedom. It hopes to see
'' the House of Lords resuming its constitutional ac-
tivite," which, being intrepreted, means that the Lords
ought to govern the Commons as they did when the
Commons were their nominees. Once more, let the
constituencies of England do their duty. Their young
Qaeen appeals to them ; let the rally round her._
Alorning Chrouicle.
The Qtreen's prorogation speeel.!, ti:livered y,2sterday,
is upon tie whole an inclre2:sive, ally,it an inane, do-
crment. In words, of course, with whi:di her Ma-
j,,sty's Ministers are familiar, the speech professes an
anxiety " to maintain the Pmtestant religion as esta-
blished by law." It affirms, as being indeed the sole
subject for congratulation, that some measures have
been brought by Parliament to " maturity, and de-
scribes the most interesting of these to be amend-
merits of the criminal code, and the reduction of the
number of capital punishments. It promises, accor-
dine to the recognised Whig fashion, " to strengthen
onr institutions, civil and ecclesiastical, b,y discreet
in:proveincnt wherever improvement is required." There
is not another word in the speech, beyond the stay-
tape and buckram resorted to on all such occasions—
there is no Radicalism in it, at least none discoverable
by common eyes—although we do not mean to dispute
that much constructive Radicalism may have been ine-
ditated by its authors, and may yet be claimed by the
movement party as one of the secret articles, or latent
pledges of the speech. When her Majesty is made to ex-
press her anxiety to " maintain the Protestant religion
as established by law," we must either form the ir-
ieverend conjecture that a palpable delusion is put
into the mouth of the Sovereign, or we must entertain
the hope, that when that Church Bill shall be again
brought in, which was admitted by her Majesty's
Prime Minister to be in itself " a heavy blow and
ereat discouragement to Protestantism in Ireland,"
'-Queen Victoria will refuse to it the sanction of her
Royal assent. Out of this difficulty there is no escap-
ing. Either the Sovereign was advised to speak an
uutruth, when she bound herself by her speech, which
was but the repetition of her oath, to maintain the
Protestant religion as by law established, or she must
withhold her constitutional sanction from that system
of policy which has been already condemned by the
head of the Government that introduced it, as inflict-
ing a heavy blow upon that very Protestant religion.
But what are we to think when we see the paraphrase
put upon the above text (of maintaining the Church
Establishment) by the Journals in the pay of Minis-
ters ? Why, one of the Evening Newspapers of yester-
day, in the next column to that which contained the
Queen's speech, declared as follows—viz. " It is the
merest delusion to suppose that by pruning or clipping,
the Establishment may be rendered tolerable. Its exis-
tence is an insult to common sense, and contradicts the
most obvious principles. The question is notone of more
or less, of ten Bishops or two Bishops, but it is, shall
a Protestant Establishment be maintained at the public
cost, in a Catholic country, for the use of the few Pro-
testant gentry in it, while the Catholics, comprising
nine-tenths of the population, and all but the entire
peasantry, are left to provide themselves, as they best
may, with religious instruction, or go without it ?"
Now, the above extract (we say nothing about the
stupid falsehood of the " one or two millions a-year"
—the " few Protestant gentry," the Roman Catholics,
6,400,000 persons being nine-tenths of 8,000,000,
Sze.)—the above extract, coring confessedly from the
same equarter whence the speech declaratory of at-
tachment to the Church Establishment proceeded,
affords a fair specimen of the sort of reliance which
is to be placed upon the assurances of the Queen's
Ministers. 'Well may Mr. Daniel O'Connell claim
a perfect union of sentiment and principle with men
thus convicted of the basest treachery on the showing
of their own creatures. Well may he, who, in Lord
Durham's wish to rally all the world round the in-
stitutions of Crown, Lords, Commons, and Church,
pretends a thorough identity with his own (the said
Daniel's) °Phltans—well may such a man, as we are
sure he will, blazon forth his admiration of a Royal
speech which combines an ostensible
" maintenance
of the established religion" with an underhand
resolu-
tion to destroy it. There in
ere is this
common between
of
the speech delivered to the Houses Parliament yes-
terday and the letter written a few days before—that
as the first contained no precise meaning, and the
second a dozen meanings contradictory of each other,
so any hearer or reader may_ find in each a philoso
pher's stone—convertible itself, or converting all other
things, into whatever metal is most valuable to the
purposes of the finder. We do not discover in the
Royal Speech any parallel passage to one in the last
discourse delivered from the same throne by the kind
and well-meaning King William, which boasted on be-
half of time mountebank Lord Mulgravc, that he had
promoted the tranquillity of Ireland." There is
little doubt that some such marvellous announcement
would have had a -conspicuous place assigned to it
in the spoken manifesto of Yesterday, but for
those ill-timed and marp!ot exhibitions of the real
state of Ireland which were laid before the House
of Lords in the form of official documents. The
last day or two has produced, besides the speech,
no further appeal to public credulity on the side of
Ministers, than a faint echo of the libellous nonsense

of O'Connell, that he who votes for Radicalism at the
ensuing election votes for Queen Victoria. Queen
Victoria in her own person represents the Conser-
vatism of the country. Her safety is identified with
that of the Peerage, which O'Connell and the Move-
ment have published their determination to pull
down. Queen Victoria is identified with that church
which it is the immediate object of all their schemes
to overturn. The principle of stability is essential to
all monarchical constitutions, and against that principle
they have declared open war. Whence is it then,
that these foolish and immodest disturbers of the
peace of society dare to talk of an opposition to
Ministers as if it were an offence to the Queen ? It
is because the use to which her Majesty's servants
have heretofore applied a majority in Parliament,
which has not enabled them to carry on the public
business, has, instead of the service of their Sove-
reign, been the bare retention of their official places,
while the interest of their Popish partisans in the
existence of ever so small a majority (and fir their
views the smaller the better) has been the transfer
of the whole patronage of Government in Ireland
from the Aristocracy of the kingdom into their own
sordid hands. But falsehood grows rank in a soil
that suits it. The Whigs prove dexterous in their
abuse of Royal names to evil and dishonest objects.
They begin by twisting the name of Queen Victoria
into a chaplet wherewith to decorate their own ungrace-
ful brows. They next press that of the King of
Hanover into their service, as an engine of calumny
against their political rivals in this country. The
King of Hanover, better known as the Duke of
Cumberland., has, it would appear, commenced his
reign by an act which on the face of it is certainly very
startling. Until, however, we know more of the in-
tentions of the King and of the disposition of his sub-
jects, we think it premature to enter into any discus.-
sion upon the matter. When these shall have been
made manifest, the Whig-Radical scribes will find no
backwardness on our part to perform our duty without
fear or favour ; but we will not pronounce upon an
incomplete case, and we are as sure that every man of
common sense will approve of this course as we are
certain that every man of common honesty will scorn
the contemptible hirelings of a still more contemptible
faction, who, net content with accusing the King of
Hanover of entertaining the worst projects—which
they cannot know to be true—have the baseness to
attribute to the political opponents of their masters
the prompting and the counselling of those projects—
which they must know to be false.—Times.
Yesterday was a proud day for England. It was
' one to which the future historian of this great country
will assign a prominent place in his pages. The
youthful Queen of these realms proceeded to pro-
rogue Parliament amidst the heartfelt acclamations of
myriads of her subjects. On no previous occasion,
within the memory of man, did a British Sovereign
meet with so cordial a reception ; and never perhaps
did so large a concourse of persons assemble to testify
their homage to the possessor of the throne. There
arc circumstances connected with the proceedings of
yeterday of a most auspicious nature for the destinies
of this *empire. The Speech which her Majesty de-
livered when she ascended the throne is one of much
greater importance than is usual on such occasions ;
but what we regard as of still greater moment was the
way in which that Speech was delivered. It were im-
possible to conceive anything more correct, or in better
taste, than her Mejestv's elocution, in the delivery of
the entire Speech ; but there were particular passages
in it, and these the most important, which she pro-
nounced with an emphasis, as well as a propriety,
which showed that she spoke froal the fullness of her
heart. Whz!n she came to that part of it which re-
lates to the supreme satisfaction with which she hails
the late amelicrations in our Criminal Cede. she spoke
with an emphasis which it were impossible for any one
to use leho did not really and most cordially entertain
the sentine:nt which the words conveyed. Her 'Ma-
jesty stated that she regards this mitigation of the
severity of the criminal law as an auspicious com-
mencement of her reign. Most cordially do we re-
spond to the Christian, the enlightened, and humane
sentiment. It will, too, be heartily responded to
throughout the width and breadth of the land. We re-
gard this special reference by our gracious Queen to
the gratification with which she contemplates the re-
duction of the number of capital punishments as, in-
deed, a circumstance of most happy augury for the
mild and benignant character of her reign. But this
was not time only passage in her Majesty's Speech
which she delivered with peculiar emphasis. Those
parts of it which refer to her intention of improving
the institutions of the country, and to her conviction
that the affections of 'her people form the true sup-
port of the dignity of the Crown, were delivered with
an energy which could leave no doubt that she only
expressed the most cherished feelings of her mind.
Here, then, we hare the most conclusive proof that
Queen Victoria is sincerely and strongly attached
to liberal, humane, and enlightened principles. And
shall not the Reformers rally round her throne as one
man, and enable her to carry out the great principles
with which she has thus so nobly identified herself?
Let but the people be true to their young Queen and
themselves, and the death-warrant of an overbearing
and tyrannical faction is sealed for ever. She has set
the people of these kingdoms a most glorious example:
be it theirs to follow it with corresponding vigour and
decision. And there is not a moment to be lost in
making this popular demonstration in support of the
principles of her Majesty and the Government. A con-
junction of circumstances makes the present a most fa-
vourable moment for such a demonstration. We are
on the threshold of a general election, and the question
to be decided by the result of that election is one of
infinite moment. It is nothing else than this—Shall
the principles espoused by the Queen, her Ministers,
and the people, or those with which the Tory faction
identify themselves, henceforth regulate the adminis-
tration of public affairs ? Need we say then that
there never existed a more momentous conjuncture
than the present in the destinies of this country ? Let
the Reformers by one great and glorious effort only
crush the faction now, audit will never dare to raise
its head again. Let our watchword be—" The Queen,
the Ministry, and the people I" and the great prin-
ciples of civil and religious liberty will be crowned with
a triumph, the splendour of which will have but few
parallels in time history of the human race.—Morning
ililvectiser.

Parliament was prorogued yesterday by the Queen
in person, and shortly after its dissolution was an-
nounced in an Extraordinary Gazette. The speech
delivered by her Majesty, on putting an end to a Ses-
sion more remarkable for words than for deeds, will be
found in its proper place. It is short, and, as we un-
derstand it, not inappropriate. We say as we under-
stand it, because it is possible not only that some who
read, but that some who had a hand in preparing the
document may attach a different meaning to certain
passages and expressions from that which they convey
to our minds. We cannot except this speech from the
imputation of indistinctness and generalisation which
attaches more or less to all addresses from the throne ;
but it is to be observed that a Session in which little
or nothing had been done, left little or nothing to be
said about it. The chief interest attaching to the speech
of yesterday is the prospect which it holds forth, and
the promise it announces as to the spirit of the new
reign. Though, constitutionally speaking, the speech
of the Queen is the speech of the Minister ; and though,
in ordinary cases, it is so in fact as well as in theory,
we may be excused for attributing something more of a
personal character to the first address of a Sovereign to
her Parliament than it would be allowable to do in the
colrvtion routine Government proceedings. Under the
influence of imptession we observe, with great sa-
tisfaction, that the very first pledge announced in the
speech of her Majesty is an assurance of her Majesty's
"determination to maintain the Protestant religion as
by law established." The reiteration of this pledge--
the first in order, as it is the first in importance under
the circumstances of the present moment, when the
Church is not only threatened in secret, but assailed in
public, by every species of calumny, and hostile at-
tack, will he received with acclamation by the country.
However Ministers may be suspected of hollowness
and artifice in the announcement of this purpose, and
whatever equivocations and mental reservations they
may be supposed to lay up for the future
pretation and evasion of this passage, consistently
with the design 3 which they are known to harbour

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY, J [MY 18, 1837.

against the Establishment, it is impossible but to
suppose that the pure and unsophisticated mind of
our most gracious Queen uttered the words in their
true and obvious sense, and will remember them,
and act upon them according to their fair and literal
interpretation. It is upon this promise made before,
and now more solemnly and publicly repeated, that
the hopes of the country—we will not use a party name
to designate so universal a feeling—look forward to the
salvation of those institutions which have made her
what she is. The first paragraph of the Speech, con-
taining the assurance to which we have alluded, con-
cludes consistently with the following pledges :—" To
secure to all the free exercise of the rights of conscience,
to protect the liberties, and to promote the welfare of
all classes of the community." We pass over the pa-
ragraphs in which her Majesty expresses her happiness
at finding the country on her accession in amity with
all Foreign Powers, and thanks the Commons for their
liberal supplies. But the allusion to their interrupted
labours, and the hope that " they will have the bene-
ficial effect of advancing the progress of legislation
in a new Parliament," suggests an apprehension
that the next Parliament have not much to gain
from the late one, except in the way of caution
and warning. Let them do, not as their predeces-
sors have done, but as they ought to have done, and
the example thus applied, may be beneficially kept
in view. The next passage in the speech is one that
well became the lips that uttered it :—" I perceive
with satisfaction," proceeded her Majesty, " that you
have brought to maturity some useful measures,
amongst which I regard with peculiar interest the
amendment of the criminal code, and the reduction of
the number of capital punishments. I hail the miti-
gation of the severity of the law as an auspicious
commencement of my reign." An auspicious com-
mencement, indeed, and worthy to be hailed as such
by the Queen of an enlightened people. Hencefor-
ward we may look with confidence to the effectual obli-
teration of that stigma which had long marked us out
as a community disgraced by the most sanguinary laws
in Europe. It is impossible to read the concluding
part of the Speech without giving her Majesty credit
for the gracious sentiments it expresses. No doubt
the whole production will derive its chief value from
the belief, irresistibly impressed by the manner and
character of the Queen, that they came from her heart,
and will be remembered and applied in her actions.—
Morning Herald.
Every transaction in which the Queen is called
upon to take a personal share excites naturally at the
present moment a very lively interest among her peo-
ple. Her Majesty's Speech to Parliament on its pro-
rogation yesterday, preparatory to an appeal to the
opinion of the nation upon the course of policy re-
cently pursued by the British Government, and the
wisdom or justice of adhering to that course, is a do-
cument, therefore, which is sure to become the subject
of earnest and animated discussion. That the Minis-
ters of the Crown are alone responsible for the sins of
time Speech, if it has committed any, whether of com-
mission or of omission, is a Constitutional truism which
nobody will be inclined to call in question, hut its merit,
if merit shall be adjudged either to what it says or
to what it leaves unsaid, there will, no doubt, be
a general disposition to trace to a more elevated source.
We do not by any meane contend that this is constitu-
tional, or even that it is fair. The Constitution of Eng-
land recogn SCS a more equitable rule of judgment than the
people, warmly as they are attached to the Constitution,
can be expected in the circumstances of the present mo-
ment very strictly to regard. We will endeavour, however,
to adhere as closely as possible to the Constitutional
maxim that the words of the Queen upon such an oc-
casien are the words of her Ministers, and that the
censure or the praise to whichever of these the Royal
Speech may he fairly entitled, should equally he
awarded to the latter. The task we impose u?on our-
selves is an arduous one, and we are net sure that we
shall be able to accomplish it so completely as we de-
sire. The temptation to depart in this particular in-
stance in some degree from the rule of strict justice is
such indeed as might almost excuse the deviation ; for
in truth, we find in the maiden speech delivered yes-
terday from the Throne much to commend, and little,
if anything, to censure. The Speech is, in all its
parts, a decidedly Conservative Speech; so much so, in-
deed, that we cannot but marvel by what process the
present Ministers of the Crown could possibly have
concocted it. After the few words of form and com-
pliment with which it commences, her Majesty pro-
ceeds —" I am very desirous of renewing the assurance
of my determination to maintain the Protestant reli-
gion as established by law, to secure to ail the free
exercise of the rights of conscience, to protect the
liberties, and to promote the welfare of all classes
of the community." We do not viniture to infer from
these words that the Ministers who must be supposed
to have put them together will never in any eircurn-
' stances, reproduce their Church-rate measure or their
appropriation clause, hut we are fairly entitled to con-
clude from them that if they entertain any such inten-
tion it is one which they are, above all things, de-
sirous at the present moment to conceal. The prin-
ciple of a Church Establishment, the expediency of
maintaining whatever endowments and revenues are
necessary or useful to its support, and the perfect
harmony of this principle and policy with the free ex-
ercise of the rights of conscience by all the subjects
of her Majesty could scarcely have been more clearly
explained, or more forcibly asserted, than in the pas-
sage we have just quoted. The second important
passage in the Speech relates to the foreign affairs of
the country. It is conceived in so excellent a spirit,
and couched in terms so entirely unobjectionable, that
we cannot resist the temptation of transcribing it here :
—" I rejoice that in ascending the Throne I find the
country in amity with all Foreign Powers ; and,
while I faithfully perform the engagements of the
Crown, and carefully watch over the interests of my
subjects, it shall be constant object of my solicitude to
maintain the blessings of peace." Surely, we ex-
claimed on hearing it, the Foreign Secretary could not
hare been present, either in person or in the minds
and memory of his colleagues, at the Council at
which this portion of the Speech was adopted. There
is not a word of encouragement to the cause in which
British troops, under the especial auspices of Lord
Palmerston, arc at this moment engaged, fomenting
and perpetuating civil war in a friendly State. Here
is just such a declaration of the intention faithfully to
perform the engagements of the British Crown as the
Duke of Wellington might and would have recom-
mended had he been in office, and just such an intim-
mation also that, in conjunction with this maintenance
of national faith, the interests of British subjects and
the blessings of peace are diligently to be pursued.
After the usual thanks to the House of Commons
for the supplies of the year, and the usual promise
of economy in the several branches of the Adminis-
tration, two paragraphs follow, which, had any
other men than the present Ministers of the Crown
been their authors, would certainly have been un-
derstood as conveying a severe rebuke or a cutting sar-
casm on the legislative labours of the Government :
" In taking leave of this Parliament I return you my
thanks for the zeal and assiduity with which you have
applied yourselves to the public buamess of the country.
Although your labours have been unexpectedly inter-
rupted by the melancholy event which has taken place,
I trust that they will have the beneficial effect of ad-
vancing the progress of legislation in a new Parlia-
ment. I perceive with satisfaction that you have
brought to maturity some useful measures, amongst
which I regard with peculiar interest the amendment of
the criminal code, and the reduction of the number of
capital punishments. I hail this mitigation of the
severity of-the law as an auspicious commencement
of my reign." Zeal and assiduity are ironical terms,
and must so have been intended, no doubt, in their
application to the legislative labours of a Session, un-
expectedlysef oxurip.telri,ensfgos
forth le:
sr
tSgaonr
aleceri,oe
interrupted in the middle of July, and ef-
tn ohiel er satisfaction.lvs
jteasrty subject on which to
Majesty,
that
iee sms
iany
mbe o
eu
could never have consented to praise the zeal and assi-
duity of the Attorney-General in reference to the Bill
for the abolition of imprisonment for debt • or to express
her trust that his labours in the past Session will have
the beneficial effect of advancing the progress of legisla-
tion in a new Parliament, seeing that he has been em-
ployed upon this measure for several years, without mak-
ing any perceptible advance whatever towards its comple-
tion. How again, unless in mockery, could her Majesty