ect of steadily returning prosperity, as not the most sanguine
person living could have imagined possible two years ago. For the
first time after a miserable interval, we behold our revenue exceeding
our expenditure; while every one feels satisfied of the fact, that our
finances are now placed upon a sound and solid basis, and daily
improving. Provisions are of unexampled cheapness, and the means of
obtaining them are--thank Almighty God!--gradually increasing among
the poorer classes. Trade and commerce are now, and have for the last
six months been steadily improving; and we perceive that a new era of
prosperity is beginning to dawn upon us. We have a strong and united
Government, evidently as firmly fixed in the confidence of the Queen
as in that of the country, and supported by a powerful majority in the
House of Commons--an annihilating one in the House of Lords. The reign
of order and tranquillity has been restored in Wales, and let us also
add, in Ireland, after an unexampled display of mingled determination
and forbearance on the part of the Government. Chartism is defunct,
notwithstanding the efforts made by its dishonoured and discomfited
leaders to revive it. When, in short, has Great Britain enjoyed a
state of more complete internal calm and repose than that which at
present exists, notwithstanding the systematic attempts made to
diffuse alarm and agitation? Do the public funds exhibit the slightest
symptoms of uneasiness or excitement? On the contrary, ever since the
accession of the present Government, there has been scarce any
variation in them, even when the disturbances in the manufacturing
districts in the north of England, and in Wales, and in Ireland, were
respectively at their height. Her Majesty moves calmly to and
fro--even quitting England--her Ministers enjoy their usual intervals
of relaxation and absence from town--all the movements of Government
go on like clockwork--no symptoms visible any where of feverish
uneasiness. But what say you, enquires a timid friend, or a bitter
opponent, to the Repeal agitation in Ireland, and the Anti-corn-law
agitation in England? Why, we say this--that we sincerely regret the
mischief which the one has done, and is doing, in Ireland, and the
other in England, among their ignorant and unthinking dupes; but with
no degree of alarm for the stability of the Government, or the
maintenance of public tranquillity and order. Ministers are perfectly
competent to deal wi