nuity to their support.

ASSEMBLING OF A NEW PARLIAMENT.

In consequence of the public distress in Great Britain, the famine in
Ireland, and the disturbed state of that country, it became necessary
for parliament to assemble sooner than had been customary. Accordingly,
on the 18th of November, the first session of the new parliament began;
Mr. Shaw Lefevre was re-elected speaker. On the 23rd, the Marquis of
Lansdowne was commissioned to read her majesty's speech. That document
referred with hope to the state of commercial matters in Great Britain,
and with gratitude to Providence for a bountiful harvest. Her majesty
expressed her sympathy for Irish suffering, and her abhorrence of Irish
crime. She expressed her pleasure at the alacrity showed by all classes
to relieve the destitute in Ireland; and recommended her parliament to
take measures for repressing outrage, and preserving the public peace in
that country. She expressed her regret that civil war had broken out
in Switzerland, and her readiness to use her influence to heal those
distractions. The speech announced a treaty with the republic of the
equator for the suppression of the slave-trade, and avowed confidence in
maintaining the general peace of Europe. The navigation laws, the health
of the metropolis, and the revenue, were also subjects to which she
called the attention of her parliament.

In the debate upon the address, in the lords, Lord Stanley was
unreasonable and virulent; Lord Brougham, always in opposition to
somebody, refuted the conservative leader. He "praised the government
for calling parliament together so soon; justified the interference with
the bank charter, recorded on another page; declared that Ireland
stood in a shameful and hateful pre-eminence of crime, and trusted that
effectual measures would be taken to disarm the people, and protect life
and property."

The debate on the address, in the commons, was chiefly remarkable
for the boldness and extent of Mr. John O'Connell's demands upon the
Treasury for the relief of Ireland. Sir Benjamin Hall made some very
foolish replies to Mr. O'Connell, and added to the bitterness of the
debate. Mr. Maurice O'Connell made the startling declaration that not
more than one-fifth of the sum voted for Ireland had ever reached that
country.

A Roman Catholic archdeacon, named Laffan, at a public meeting in
Cashel, had made a very inflammatory speech, which had excited the
indignation of the pu