ABSTRACT
Parliament met on the 19th August, and the Commons elected their Speaker. On the 24th the Lord Chancellor read the Queen’s Speech, which was quite as explicit on the subject of free trade as any one could expect. After stating Her Majesty’s anxiety that the revision of duties affecting the production of foreign countries should be taken into consideration, the assembled Parliament was told: “It will be for you to consider whether some of these duties are not so trifling in amount as to be unproductive to the revenue, while they are vexatious to commerce. You may further examine whether the principle of protection, upon which others of those duties are founded, be not carried to an extent injurious alike to the income of the state and the interests of the people. Her Majesty is desirous that you should consider the laws which regulate the trade in corn. It will be for you to determine whether these laws do not aggravate the natural fluctuations of supply, whether they do not embarrass trade, derange the currency, and by their operation diminish the comfort and increase the privations of the great body of the community. Her Majesty feeling the deepest sympathy with those of her subjects who are now suffering from distress and want of employment, it is her earnest prayer that all your deliberations may be guided by wisdom, and may conduce to the happiness of her beloved people.”
