The Sun.
London, England, 1846-08-28 00:00:00

triening 51111 C

LONDON, FRIDAY, AUGUST 28, 1846.

August the twenty-eighth, 1846, will be an ever-
memorable day in the history of this country. It will
survive in the grateful remembrance of our posterity
as the epoch of the consu,nmation of the most glorious
session in the records of British legislation. War-
like triumphs may have illustrated preceding eras :
on former occasions we may have had to congratulate
ourselves upon the extension of our colonial posses-
sions : social abuses may, at other periods, have been
eradicated : the constitutional rights of every inhabi-
tant of the United Kingdom may in anterior times
have been confirmed and even extended : we may upon
foregoing prorogations of Parliament have rejisiced
over the subjection of intestine difficulties, over the
prosperity of internal and external dominion, over
vanquished enemies, over accessions of national alli-
ance ; but never have the people of these islands
had such cause for exultation and gratitude as upon
the prorogation of the Parliament of this eventful
year. The Royal Speech, delivered by the LORD
CHANCELLOR of England in the name of her most
gracious MAJESTY, is of a more remarkable charac-
ter possibly than any pronounced from the
throne of these realms. To that address,
which will be found in another column
of The Sun, we refer our readers, and we
do so with sentiments of the most unaffected glad-
ness, and with a conviction that that document is the
synopsis of incalculable prosperity, not merely to the
population of this empire, but to whole generations of
the human race. The penning of those sentences, at
the dictation of her Ministers, .
,Inust have
aroused emotions of joy in the heart of

our beloved SOVEREIGN ; they must have con-
veyed to her an unspeakable solace in the mo-
ments of tribulation ; they must have imparted an
additional zest to her domestic happiness.
The substance of the Royal Speech is scarcely
more than a retrospect of the position of the na-
tional authority, the proceedings of the Imperial Par-
liament, and especially of the gigantic social
and commercial reformations which have rendered
the half-year last past so wholly unprecedented. Un-
doubtedly the events which have transpired during
that interval within the walls of St. Stephen's, pre-
sented to her MAJESTY a noble opportunity for en-
larging upon the blessings which must accrue
from their occurrence. Regal eloquence, upon
such a theme, might readily have been tolerated.
Nevertheless, the simple narration of the facts
will possibly convey more to her faithful lieges than
all the blandishments of rhetoric, or all the anima-
tion of oratory.

The gist of the Royal Speech may be briefly ca-
talogued. References to the extraordinary labours
of our Legislators, whether representative or here-
ditary, during this protracted session ; allu-
sions to the successful issue of our negotiations
with the United States, and to the triumph of our
soldiers on the banks of the Sutlej ; after this a
cursory reference to the increase in the naval and
military supplies, with which increase the Parliament
has so cordially endeavoured to compete with the
exigencies of both services; an expression of sorrow
at the re-appearance of the potato murrain, coupled
with an aspiration that the measures taken by the
Government may tend to diminish the miseries which
would otherwise follow from the deficiency in Ireland;
—these, together with the customary congratulations
and recommendations of a Speech from the Throne,
impart to the present a peculiar and unequalled im-
portance.

The proceedings of the past session are more in
accordance with the principles of our free Constitu-
tion than any that have hitherto taken place within
the precincts of Westminster. Those proceedings
have confirmed and mellowed the boons accorded to
us by the glorious Reform Bill ; they have rendered
our House of Commons more truly the house
of the representatives of the people than the
extinction of rotten boroughs, or the limited
extension of the franchise. From tle occur-
rences of this illustrious session the representatives
of monopoly have been metamorphosed into the re-
presentatives of the truest and noblest patriotism.
Those proceedings and the principles involved in
them have rendered place-hunting no longer the vice
of statesmen, they have abolished party, they have
purged all tendencies to peculation and selfishness
from the Legislature, they have kindled a reverence
for the rights of the contemned in the bosoms of
our most eminent comatiymen. The history of this
session is the history of the elevation of the
multitude : it is the true inauguration of the more
generous of the principles upon which our Constitu-
tion is based—the first equable adjustment of the
three primary powers,