enabled to preserve for my people the blessings of peace. Impressed at all times with the necessity of respecting the faith of national engagements, I am persuaded that my determination to maintain, in conjunction with my Allies, those general treaties by which the political system of Europe has been established, will offer the best security for the repose of the world. I have not yet accredited my Ambassador to the Court of Lisbon; but the Portuguese government having determined to perform a great act of justice and humanity, by the grant of a general amnesty, I think that the time may shortly arrive when the interests of my subjects will demand a renewal of those relations which had so long existed between the two countries. I am impelled, by the deep solicitude which I feel for the welfare of my people, to recommend to your immediate consideration the provisions which it may be advisable to make for the exercise of the royal authority, in case that it should please Almighty God to terminate my life before my successor shall have arrived at years of maturity. I shall be prepared to concur with you in the adoption of those measures which may appear best calculated to maintain unimpaired the stability and dignity of the Crown, and thereby to strengthen the securities by which the civil and religious liberties of my people are guarded. Gentlemen of the House of Commons, I have ordered the estimates for those services of the present year, for which the last Parliament did not fully provide, to be forthwith laid before you. The estimates for the ensuing year will be prepared with that strict regard to economy which I am determined to enforce in every branch of the public expenditure. By the demise of my lamented brother, the late king, the civil list revenue has expired. I place without reserve at your disposal my interest in the hereditary revenues, and in those funds which may be derived from any droits of the Crown or Admiralty, from the West India duties, or from any casual revenues, either in my foreign possessions or in the United Kingdom. In surrendering to you my interest in revenues which have in the former settlements of the civil list been reserved to the Crown, I rejoice in the opportunity of evincing my entire reliance on your dutiful attachment, and my confidence that you will cheerfully provide all that may be necessary for the support of the Civil Government, and the honor and dignity of my Crown. My Lords, and Gentlemen, I deeply lament that in some districts of the country the property of my subjects has been endangered by combinations for the destruction of machinery; and that serious losses have been sustained through the acts of wicked incendiaries. I cannot view without grief and indignation the efforts which are industriously made to excite among my people a spirit of discontent and disaffection, and to disturb the concord which happily prevails between those parts of my dominions, the union of which is essential to their common strength and common happiness. I am determined to exert to the utmost of my power all the means which the law and the constitution have placed at my disposal, for the punishment of sedition, and for the prompt suppression of outrage and disorder. Amidst all the difficulties of the present conjuncture, I reflect with the highest satisfaction on the loyalty and affectionate attachment of the great body of my people. I am confident that they justly appreciate the full advantage of that happy form of government, under which, through the favor of divine Providence, this country has enjoyed for a long succession of years a greater share of internal peace of commercial prosperity, of true liberty, of all that constitutes social happiness, than has fallen to the lot of any other country of the world. It is the great object of my life to preserve these blessings to my people, and to transmit them unimpaired to. posterity; and I am animated in the discharge of the sacred duty which is committed to me, by the firmest reliance on the wisdom of Parliament, and on the cordial support of my faithful and loyal subjects. The King's Speech and Prorogation of Parliament. Thursday, Oct. 20, 1831. The usual preparations for the prorogation of Parliament having been previously made, the king arrived at about half past two. Immediately afterwards the House of Commons were summoned to the bar, when the king delivered the following speech: My Lords and Gentlemen, I am at length enabled to put an end to a session of unexampled duration and labor, in which matters of the deepest interest have been brought under your consideration. I have felt sincere satisfaction in confirming, by my royal assent, bills for the amendment of the game laws, and for the reduction of taxes which pressed heavily on the industry of my people; and I have observed, with no less pleasure, the commencement of important improvements in the law of bankruptcy, from which the most beneficial effects may be expected. I continue to receive the most gratifying proofs of the friendly disposition of Foreign Powers. The conference assembled in London has at length terminated its difficult and laborious discussions by an arrangement unanimously agreeed upon by the Plenipotentiaries of the Five Powers, for the separation of the States of Holland and Belgium, on terms by which the interests of both, together with the future security of other countries, have been carefully provided for. A treaty founded on this arrangement has been presented to the Dutch and Belgian Plenipotentiaries; and I trust that its acceptance by their respective courts, which I anxiously expect, will avert the dangers by which the peace of Europe was threatened whilst this question remained unsettled. Gentlemen of the House of Commons, I thank you for the provision made for the future dignity and comfort of my Royal Consort, in the event of her surviving me, and for the supplies which you have granted for the service of the present year. You may be assured of my anxious care to have them administered with the strictest attention to a well-considered economy. The state of Europe has produced the necessity of an increased expenditure in the various establishments of the public service, which it will be my earnest desire to reduce wherever it can be done with safety to the interests of the country. In the meantime I have the satisfaction of reflecting that these demands have been provided for without any material addition to the public burthens. My Lords and Gentlemen, In the interval of repose which may now be afforded you, I am sure it is unnecessary for me to recommend to you the most careful attention to the preservation of tranquillity in your respective counties. The anxiety which has been so generally manifested by my people for the accomplishment of a Constitutional Reform in the Commons House of Parliament, will, I trust, be regulated by a due sense of the necessity of order and moderation in their proceedings. To the consideration of this important question, the attention of Parliament must necessarily again be called at the opening of the ensuing session; and you may be assured of my unaltered desire to promote its settlement, by such improvements in the representation as may be found necessary for securing to my people the full enjoyment of their respective rights, which, in combination with those of the other orders of the State, are essential to the support of our free Constitution. The Lord Chancellor then said:-It is his Majesty's royal will and pleasure that this Parliament be prorogued to Tuesday, the 22d day of next November, to be then here holden; and this Parliament is prorogued accord ingly. The attendance of the House of Commons was numerous. PARLIAMENT OF LOWER CANADA.-GOVERNOR'S SPEECH. Quebec, Thursday, January 27. This day the Legislative Council and the House of Assembly attended his Excellency in the Castle of St Louis, when the Speaker of the Legislative Council, read in the following words, his Excellency's speech: Gentlemen of the Legislative Council, placed at your disposal in the and Gentlemen of the House of Assembly: The convening of a new provincial Parliament which has been rendered necessary by the death of his late Majesty, and my own recent appointment to this Government, are circumstances which, would have made it desirable to call you together at an earlier period; but I have been induced to defer doing so until the corresponding season of last year's meeting, under the impression that I was thereby more effectually consulting your personal conven ience. The loss which his Majesty, and the Royal Family, and the whole of his Majesty's subjects have sustained by the demise of his late Majesty, will, I doubt not, have been the cause of grief to his Majesty's faithful Canadian subjects. My inexperience in regard to the local concerns of this province does not, as yet, permit of my directing your attention to any particular object connected with its internal improvement; but I can assure you, that I am now, and have been ever since my arrival amongst you, diligently employed in acquiring such information on those points, as may, I trust, enable me hereafter to offer some useful suggestions for your consideration. There is, however, one subject to which I wish briefly to advert; I mean the Currency; and I do so merely for the purpose of informing you that I am in possession of some further information on that subject, which shall be event of your taking up the consideration of it again. should have been enabled to lay I had entertained a hope that I before you some communication from his Majesty's Government, which has occupied much of the upon the question of Finance, attention of the Legislature of this province; but not having it yet in my power to do so, I think I have reason to know that the it necessary to apprise you, that unavoidable pressure of public business incidental to the death of his late Majesty, and the change of Administration which has re cently taken place in England, have interrupted the progress of Majesty's Government on that measures contemplated by his subject. These measures I have every reason to believe will soon be brought to maturity. In the meanwhile it may be satisfactory to you to learn, that his Majesty's Government is deeply impressed with the necessity of an immediate and satisfactory adjustment of the question to which I have alluded, and I am sanguine enough to hope that the instructions which I am led to expect, will be calculated to prevent the chance of future collision on this subject. Under these circumstances, you will, I trust, see the necessity of making some provisional arrangement for meeting the expenditure of the Government, upon the assurance that his Majesty entertains an earnest desire to see the financial concerns of the province placed, without loss of time, upon a footing which may be at once compatible with the exigencies of the public service, garding myself personally; but and with the wishes and feelings appearing before you, as I now of his Majesty's faithful subjects do, for the first time, I think it in Lower Canada. His Majesty necessary to detain you a few has no desire to call upon them moments longer, while I express for any supplies beyond such as the deep sense I entertain of the may upon full consideration be importance of the arduous duties found essential, his Majesty hav- which the King has been graing no object more at heart than ciously pleased to confide to me; the comfort, the prosperity and and although personally a stranthe happiness of a people, who ger to this part of his Majesty's are endeared to him by many dominions, I am, nevertheless, ties, and whose growing impor- fully aware of the nature and extance in all the relations of the tent of the difficulties by which British Empire, his Majesty fully those duties are surrounded; how appreciates. to surmount the difficulties to which I now allude, shall be the object of my constant study, and conscious of my own deficiencies, I shall endeavor to supply my want of ability for the task, by a strict and steady adherence to those principles of justice and impartiality which I am quite sure will never mislead me. Gentlemen of the House of Assembly, The accounts of the past year are in a forward state of preparation, and I have every reason to believe, that they will be ready to be laid before you, previous to the expiration of the period fixed by Legislative regulation for the production of the public accounts. An estimate of the expenses for the ensuing year is also in preparation, and will shortly be ready to be submitted to you. Gentlemen of the Legislative Council, Gentlemen of the House of Assembly, The accession of his Majesty, King William the Fourth, and his consort Queen Adelaide, an event which has filled with joy the heart of every British subject, affords an opportunity of expressing those sentiments of loyalty and attachment to the reigning Royal Family, by which his Majesty's faithful and loyal Canadian subjects have ever been distinguished. Were I to consult my own inclination on the present occasion, I should avoid saying anything re not destined to be crowned with It may be, that my efforts are success; I will, at least, endeavor to deserve it.. In conclusion: It is worthy of observation that your present meeting is marked by peculiar circumstances. You are now, for the first time, called together under the authority of his present Majesty King William the Fourth, and the popular branch of the Legislature which has been considerably extended by a late Legislative enactment, assembles now, also for the first time, with its augmented members. These circumstances, Gentlemen, constitute the commencement of a new era in your Parliamentary history: an era, which I do most earnestly hope may be distinguished by |