The Sun.
London, England, 1847-01-19 00:00:00

I
4 bittliANS

LONDON, TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 1847.

The annual ceremony of opening Parliament, and
the delivery of the Speech from the Throne, are
under the most ordinary circumstances matters which
peculiarly arouse the attention of every intelligent
mind in the empire. Even in the vague generalities
enunciated by the SOVEREI6N on the inauguration of
the sessional labours of the Legislature there are
always materials sufficiently suggestive for serious
reflection and definite anticipation. That the address
uttered by her MAJESTY should constitute the very
faintest indication of the intended policy of the Go-
vernment is what can alone be rationally expected.
The suppression of everything like dictation to
the hereditary and representative legislators,
the avoidance of anything like a partiality
for certain political creeds, the 'scrupulous and punc-
tilioui-xestriction tntliose questions'which are Upper-
most in the popular mind, are invariably the prin-
.. ,
cipal characteristics of the Speech from the Throne,
and they are the only characteristics consonant with
the fundamental principles of the Constitution.
While, however, it is impossible to deny that the
Speech from the Throne is marked by the most tan-
talizing indistinctness, as far as the actual schemes of
the Administration are concerned, it is equally
impossible to assert that it deals only
in unsatisfactory common-places. A reference
to the address delivered this day, in the House of
Lords, by our Gracious SOVEREIGN, and pub•
lished in another column, will be an ample refu-
tation of that very prevalent and very erroneous
insinuation. It will be seen by that royal harangue,
that without in any manner committing the Crown
to this opinion or to that, to this measure or to that,
to this particular policy or to that particular policy,
the voice of the MONARCH may speak to the people
that language of encouragement, and consolation,
and promise, which such an emergency as the pre-
sent renders more than advisable. It will be seen by
the expressions which have just proceeded from the
lips of her MAJESTY, that the Sovereign may, with-
out exceeding the authority confided to her illus-
trious keeping, utter those words of sympathy, of
assurance, and of earnest recommendation, which
are so welcome to a suffering and expectant
population.
Considering the destitution experienced in the
sister island, and the sterility of a soil which, with
prope,r zpanagernerit, would'fifove generous and pro.
He, it wash hutireasonable that her IV4JESTY should
advise the thorough ,investigation Of the 'exigencies

of Ireland, and the revision or re-organization of her
agricultural system. It was but just that the patience
of the unfortunate peasantry undet their extraordi-
nary privations should elicit the approbation of the
SOVEREIGN, and that, while scanning the position of
so many millions of her MAJESTY'S subjects, her
MAJESTY should demand from the Legislature a pro-
portionate assiduity and a proportionate calmness in
striving to diminish the lamentable effects of those
privations, and to render their recurrence impossible.
In regard to the recent occurrences upon Conti-
nental Europe, whereby the most solemn treaties
have been violated, the most sacred rights invaded,
and the peace of the whole world endangered, it was
alone to be expected that at least one paragraph in
the Speech from the Throne would be devoted to
their consideration. It was but right that the mar-
riage of an Orleans Prince with a Spanish Princess,
and the incorporation of the Cracovian re-
public with the Imperial territories of Austria,
should command the observation of her MAJESTY as the
chief of this great and predominant nation. The
treaties of Utrecht and Vienna could not be violated
with such flagrant contumely without drawing
from one of the Governments most interested in their
preservation the most emphatic and decisive protest.
Still, the infusion of anything approximating to
acerbity in the address formally delivered by her
MAJESTY to the Legislative Houses of Great
Britain would, to say the least of it,
have been most injudicious. Under every
circumstance of a similar character, it becomes the
sacred duty of the SOVEREIGN to speak in those tones
of moderation which are most suitable for the main-
tenance of the royal dignity, and best calculated to
insure some rational and pacific settlement of affairs.
In this particular, the Speech from the Throne will
_ _

assuredly be found to have justified the anticipations
of all sticklers for the sanctity of treaties and of all
lovers of peace.

When the odious restrictions still remaining
upon the importation of food are remembered,
and when, moreover, the imminence of the existing
dearth is taken into account, it cannot be any matter
for astonishment that the guardians of the national
welfare should endeavour to sweep away such very
removable difficulties. Upon this point her MAJESTY
does not enter into details, it is true, but her MA-
JESTY'S address gives, we doubt not, more than
an intimation of the salutary intentions of
her MAJESTY'S Ministers. That the unnecessary
and extravagant consumption of barley in the pro-
cesses of brewing and distillation should be prevented
by the substitution of molasses and sugar; that the
navigation laws, which at present exclude from our
markets many cargoes of moderately-priced and nu-
tritious provisions, should be temporarily modified to
meet the wants of the existing scarcity ; and, above
all, that the British ports should be immediately
opened for the reception of grain from all quarters of
the globe—are the most ostensible means for the
amelioration of popular distress and the prevention of
national famine. That there are perils of this de-
scription impending over Ireland, the Government
itself has virtually asserted by transmitting food and
money to her inhabitants, by proposing enormous
loans to her landowners, by changing a large number
of war-steamers into commissariat vessels for the
victualling of the whole island. There must be
some compensation for these generous endeavours on
the part of the Administration—the people must
be remunerated for these disbursements of the Ex-
chequer; and that there will be some such com-
pensation as we have expressed, is certain from the
declarations of her MAJESTY.
As the official manifesto of the Russell Cabinet,
if not as a programme to the session, the Speech
from the Throne must be regarded as most satis-
factory ; for, besides the questions relating
to Ireland, to Cracow, to the Peninsula,
and to the full and perfect emancipation
of commerce, it is unquestionable that Lord Joan
and his colleagues are now pledged beyond all re-