so that the elections might terminate
before harvest; various bills were therefore postponed or abandoned.

Lord Lyndhurst had been accustomed to take a retrospective view of each
session, in a speech which recapitulated the doings and misdoings of
government, according to his lordship's view of them. Lord Brougham,
ambitious to do everything, even when he knew others could do it
better, resolved to perform the task usually sustained by his brother
ex-chancellor. The performance was inferior to that usually accomplished
by the noble Baron Lyndhurst, although in declamatory force Lord
Brougham's oration was perfect. All the bills passed in the session he
described as bad ones. Many of those lost or abandoned, if introduced by
government, he represented as useless, and their introduction as a waste
of time. Every epithet of contempt furnished by the English language,
and by any other which his lordship knew, however imperfectly, was
heaped upon the defunct bills. They were consigned to the shades
below, to that "lean world" where--

"Ibant obseuri sola sub nocte per nmbram
Perque domos Ditis vacuas et mania regna."

What his lordship said of the defunct measures will be true of himself,
when his great energies are still, and his eloquent tongue silent for
ever--"A thousand faults and a thousand freaks died with them." His
lordship appended a condemnatory motion to his speech, which, like most
of his motions, came to nothing. The house was greatly amused, and even
instructed, by the noble lord's oration, but not at all edified. The
Marquis of Lansdowne replied with that calm and graceful dignity by
which that venerable peer was so much distinguished; and his reply
carried with it the weight of his consistent political character, for
the house unanimously adopted his course.

PROROGATION AND DISSOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT.

On the 23rd of July, parliament was prorogued by her majesty. As the
parliament which had been called together in 1841 had been one of the
longest during the century, the prorogation, which was made by her
majesty in person, excited very great public interest, and the queen's
speech was looked for with unusual public attention. The streets leading
to the House of Lords presented the same animated appearance as is usual
on similar occasions. Her majesty, accompanied by Prince Albert,
and attended by the usual great officers of state, entered the royal
carriage, and proceeded from Buckingha