are bribed into treaties against the slave-trade by
rum and glass buttons. The name of the sovereign
was King Akitoye the First. It was also in this same
month that the press of France was effectually gagged
and suppressed by the edict of an absolute dictator;
and what, just twenty years before, had lost a throne
to the rightful and long-descended king who attempted
it, was now effected without an effort at resistance
by a mere unprincipled adventurer, whose only claim
of title to the power he had seized was his avowed
contempt and disregard for enlightenment, literature,
education, respectability, and the safe retention and
enjoyment whether of private or public rights. Such
at the time being the ruling influence in this great
country, peradventure Mr. Dryasdust will make his
friends smile by adding that he finds this also
to have been the precise time selected by that
very government of France to prefer its claim,
as sovereign protector of Christianity in the East,
to the exclusive possession of the Holy Sepulchre.
His audience will doubtless get grave again, however,
as the worthy man informs them of another sign and
portent of the same memorable month, in the fact
of a monk-assassin suddenly starting up, as though
to confront with the ghastly form of a Clement or
Ravaillac a modern resuscitation of crimes in rulers
as lamentable as those which in more barbarous days
received barbarous expiation. He will read of an
attempt, well-nigh successful, to stab to the heart a
young queen and mother, surrounded by her nobles
and officers of state; the assassin coolly avowing
before his judges that he had lifted his knife to wash
out the opprobrium of humanity, by avenging the
stupid ignorance of those who thought it fidelity to
endure the faithlessness and perjury of kings and
queens. He will discover also that this was the
month, when, with another kind of retribution, the
jade Fortune at last fairly deserted the man who for
many years, and in defiance of the joint efforts of
two of the greatest countries in the world, had
exerted an absolute and most cruel despotism over
some of the noblest provinces of Spanish South
America. As surely as the Whigs were retreating
from the scene, and leaving free trade to the mercies
of Lord Stanley, so surely will Mr. Dryasdust find that
the dictator of Buenos Ayres was also disappearing
from power, and leaving at least a more hopeful legacy
to the prospects of free trade than those of the
departing Whig premier, by ridding commerce and
civilisation of the incubus which in his own person
for so many years had shut up the magnificent
resources of one of the grandest "silent highways" of
the world.

Such being the portents of change and revolution
amid which our Whig ministers depart, it will be
hardly less manifest to the reader who glances
through our pages, that it is amid omens prosperous
and adverse which require not less wary watching,
that the new ministers are entering the coveted
mansions of Downing street. The importations of
foreign corn have diminished; prices have
advanced; the cattle fairs are prosperous; the
greatest croakers make special exception of barley
and oats; and finally there has been a meeting in
Manchester, not only to show Lord Derby that vitality
has in no respect departed from what was once the
Anti-Corn-Law League, but to warn him in a friendly
way that, before embarking on any enterprise of
restoring that monopoly to which all the signs of the
times are so notably adverse, he would do well to
consider its probable effects on the position and
interests of his order.

NARRATIVE OF PARLIAMENT AND
POLITICS.

The Session of Parliament was opened by the Queen
in person, on Tuesday, the 3rd inst. Unusual interest
was attached to the ceremony from the circumstance
that her Majesty had announced her intention of
inaugurating the Victoria Tower, by making it the royal
entrance to the houses of Parliament. The crowds in
the streets were uncommonly large, and the attendance
in the interior of the House of Lords was also greater
than ordinary. After the customary formalities, her
Majesty read the following speech:—

"My Lords and Gentlemen:
"The period has arrived when, according to usage, I
can again avail myself of your advice and assistance in
the preparation and adoption of measures which the
welfare of the country may require. I continue to maintain
the most friendly relations with foreign powers.
The complicated affairs of the duchies of Holstein and
Schleswig have continued to engage my attention. I
have every reason to expect that the treaty between
Germany and Denmark, which was concluded at Berlin
in the year before last, will, in a short time, be fully and
completely executed. I regret that the war which
unfortunately broke out on the eastern frontier of the
Cape of Good Hope, more than a year ago, still
continues. Papers will be laid before you containing full
information as to the progress of the war, and the
measures which have been taken for bringing it to a
termination. While I have observed with sincere
satisfaction the tranquillity which has prevailed throughout
the greater portion of Ireland, it is with much regret
that I have to inform you that certain parts of the
counties of Armagh, Monaghan, and Louth, have been
marked by the commission of outrages of the most
serious description. The powers of the existing law
have been promptly exerted for the detection of the
offenders, and for the repression of a system of crime
and violence fatal to the best interests of the country.
My attention will continue to he directed to this
important object.

"GENTLEMEN OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS:
"I have ordered estimates of the expenses of the
current year to be laid before you. I rely with
confidence on your loyalty and zeal to make adequate
provision for the public service. Where any increase has
been made in the estimates of the present over the past
year, such explanations will be given as will, I trust,
satisfy you that such increase is consistent with a steady
adherence to a pacific policy, and with the dictates of a
wise economy.

"MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN:
"The improvement in the administration of justice in
its various departments has continued to receive my
anxious attention, and in furtherance of that object I
have directed bills to be prepared, founded upon the
reports made to me by the respective commissioners
appointed to inquire into the practice and proceedings
of the superior courts of law and equity. As nothing
tends more to the peace, prosperity, and contentment of
a country than the speedy and impartial administration
of justice, I earnestly recommend these measures to
your deliberate attention. The act of 1848, for
suspending the operation of a previous act conferring
representative institutions on New Zealand, will expire early
in the next year. I am happy to believe that there is
no necessity for its renewal, and that no obstacle any
longer exists to the enjoyment of representative
institutions by New Zealand. The form of these institutions
will, however, require your consideration, and the
additional information which has been obtained since
the passing of the acts in question will, I trust, enable
you to arrive at a decision beneficial to that important
colony. It gives me great satisfaction to be able to state
to you that the large reductions of taxes which have
taken place of late years have not been attended with a
proportionate diminution of the national income. The
revenue of the past year has been fully adequate to the
demands of the public service, while the reduction of
taxation has tended greatly to the relief and comfort of
my subjects. I acknowledge with thankfulness to