a Message was delivered by the Yeoman | bers, that Privy Councillors and those Usher of the Black Rod: “MR. SPEAKER, “The Lords, authorised by virtue of Her Majesty's Commission, desire the immediate attendance of this honourable House in the House of Peers." Accordingly, Mr. SPEAKER-ELECT, with the House, went up to the House of Peers, when he was presented to the said Lords Commissioners for the Royal Approbation. Then THE LORD CHANCELLOR, one of the said Lords Commissioners, signified Her Majesty's Approbation of Mr. Speaker-Elect. The House being returned : MR. SPEAKER (standing in his usual place): I have to acquaint the House that, in the House of Peers, Her Majesty, through Her Royal Commissioners, has been pleased to approve of the choice that you have made of me as your Speaker, and that I have, in your name and on your behalf, laid claim by humble Petition to Her Majesty to all your ancient Rights and Privileges-freedom of speech in debate, freedom from arrest of your persons and servants, and freedom of access at all times when opportunity offers to Her Majesty, and that the most favourable construction may be placed on all your proceedings. All these privileges, Her Majesty, through Her Commissioners, has approved and confirmed in as ample a manner as any of Her Royal Predecessors. It is my duty once more to thank the House for the honour done to me in placing me here, and I have now to ask hon. Members to follow me in taking the Oath at the Table. It may be for the convenience of the House if I state what has already been stated in printed papers circulated among Mem who have been in the Ministry should in the first place take the Oath at the Table. It has been thought convenient to follow a precedent in this, which seemed to meet with the approval of the House, that not more than five Members at a time should present themselves at the Table to take the Oath, and if hon. Members will kindly not present themselves when they see five Members at the Table, I think it will conduce to the regularity of our proceeding and the despatch of the duty of taking the Oath. Mr. SPEAKER then took and subscribed the Oath first alone; and after him several other Members took and subscribed the Oath; and several other Members made and subscribed the Affirmation required by Law. House adjourned at a quarter after Four o'clock. HOUSE OF COMMONS, Saturday, 6th August, 1892. The House met at Twelve of the clock. Several other Members took and subscribed the Oath; and one other the Member made and subscribed ADJOURNMENT. Resolved, That this House, at its rising this day, do adjourn till Monday next, at One of the clock. House adjourned at half after Two o'clock till Monday next, at One of the clock. An Asterisk (*) at the commencement of a Speech indicates revision by the Member. HOUSE OF LORDS, Monday, 8th August, 1892. The House met at Two of the clock. PRAYERS. Then Five of the LORDS COMMISSIONERS-namely, The LORD CHANCELLOR (Lord Halsbury); The Duke of PORTLAND (Master of the Horse); The Earl of COVENTRY (Master of the Buckhounds); The UNDER SECRETARY of STATE for WAR (Earl Brownlow); The SECRETARY OF STATE for the COLONIES (Lord Knutsford) being in their Robes, and seated on a Form placed between the Throne and the Woolsack, commanded the Yeoman Usher of the Black Rod to let the COMMONS know "The Lords Commissioners desire their immediate Attendance in this House, to hear the Commission read." Who being at the Bar, with their Speaker:-The Commission was read by the Clerk:-Then THE QUEEN'S SPEECH. THE LORD CHANCELLOR delivered HER MAJESTY'S SPEECH to both Houses of Parliament, as follows: My Lords, and Gentlemen, "We have to inform you by the command of Her Majesty that the present Parliament has been assembled in obedience to the terms of Her Majesty's Proclamation of the 28th June 1892, by which the late Parliament was dissolved. "Previous to that Dissolution the business of the Session was completed; and it is therefore not necessary that Parliament should now continue in session at an unusual period of the year for the transaction of financial or legislative business. "It is Her Majesty's hope that when you meet again at the customary season you will again direct your attention to measures of social and domestic improvement, and that you will continue to advance in the path of useful and beneficent legislation, which VOL. VII. [FOURTH SERIES.] has been so judiciously followed in previous Sessions. Then the Commons withdrew. REPRESENTATIVE PEERS FOR SCOT LAND. THE LORD CHANCELLOR acquainted the House that the Clerk of the Parliaments had received (by post) from the Lord Clerk Register of Scotland, Minutes of the meeting held on the 14th of July last of the Peers of Scotland for the election of their representatives to sit and vote in the ensuing Parliament of the United Kingdom; and also, Return by the Lord Clerk Register of Scotland concerning Titles of Peerages called at the said meeting, in right of which respectively no vote had been received and counted for fifty years last past as at the date of the said meeting: Ordered that the said Minutes of Election, &c. be printed. [No. 1.] Several Lords-Took the Oath. SAT FIRST. The Duke of Somerset, after the death of his brother. SELECT VESTRIES. Bill, pro formâ, read 1a. THE QUEEN'S SPEECH. MAJESTY'S MOST GRACIOUS SPEECH. *THE EARL OF DENBIGH (who wore the uniform of an officer of the Royal Artillery): My Lords, in rising to move that an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty to thank her for her Gracious Speech from the Throne, I hope I may remind your Lordships that the duty of moving and seconding this Address is, I believe, almost invariably entrusted to two of the more junior Members of your Lordships' House who cannot claim to have any, or at all events but little, experience in the matter of addressing this august assembly; and consequently, my Lords, your indulgence is always D asked for, and is always as readily am afraid, my Lords, that the success much afraid that those zealous friends we can fairly also congratulate ourselves upon that great and wise policy, to which this Government devoted itself, having been continued of doing its utmost to popularise and to strengthen our Army, and to improve the condition of our soldiers; and also to add efficiently to the strength of our Navy. My Lords, I have seen a criticism on that policy of the Government which I must say I think a most unworthy one. I have seen it stated both on political platforms and in the columns of important journals that although the Government presided over by the noble Marquess can certainly say that they have not spent a penny in actual warfare since they came into office, yet they cannot deny that they have spent very large sums of money upon preparations for war in the time of peace. I said, my Lords, that I think that is an unworthy criticism I will go further, and I say I think it is a most short-sighted and mischievous criticism. My Lords, which nation is it that would be most exposed to attack in modern days the nation that is prepared for war, or the nation that is not? And which section of the population is it which would first feel the dire effects of such a calamity as the defeat of our Navy on the high seas? My Lords, you know very well it would not be the rich in this country, it would not be the capitalists, or the landowners, or the employers of labour, nor would it be those who have got money in the Bank; but it would be the working classes of this country, who would most assuredly be the first to feel that rise in the price of provisions and that dearth of employment which could be the only result of such a calamity as I have mentioned. My Lords, in these days of great democratic power, when the wrath of the masses is perhaps more easily aroused than it is allayed, I would not envy the feelings of any Minister at whose door it could fairly be laid that he had contributed to the defeat of the Navy by starving that Navy and by practising a false economy in order to win some cheap popularity by the introduction of what are called "popular Budgets." My Lords, perhaps your Lordships will consider that this is neither the proper time nor the proper place to make any remarks about the political situation in another place; but yet I would submit to your Lordships that the prospect of future legislation which is mentioned in the third paragraph of Her Majesty's Speech is so intimately bound up with the present political situation that it is almost impossible to deal with the one and to ignore the other. I noticed the other day, my Lords, that a prominent Member of the Irish Party, speaking in Ireland, said "We have the whole strength and power of Great Britain pledged to our cause." And then he said "After six years' reflection the electorate of Great Britain has deliberately elected a majority to Parliament pledged to the demands of the Irish nation." My Lords, all I can say to that is that unless the hon. Gentleman places on geographical expressions a somewhat different interpretation from that in common use in our elementary schools, I think it is a somewhat novel way for Great Britain to show her determination to grant Home Rule by returning a majority of about fifteen against it. My Lords, there is certainly a majority of the United Kingdom returned. against the policy of the present Government, and that majority is called a majority strongly in favour of Home Rule; but I think, my Lords, it is a matter of common observation how that majority has been obtained. I would submit to your Lordships that it has been obtained mainly through appealing to individual and particular classes of the electorate, and by giving those classes to understand that the particular legislation which they most desire, and which they believe will do them the most good, will forthwith be adopted and placed in the forefront of national politics. Well, my Lords, for this reason the future policy which is mentioned in Her Majesty's Speech will be watched with a considerable amount of interest, and we shall be able to judge for ourselves as to whether performance in office bears any semblance to criticism in criticism in Opposition. I venture to say, my Lords, that there will be some considerable disappointments expressed in the various sections of the electorate. I should say that most certainly there will be very considerable disappointment in the minds re of those agricultural voters who have | but from what we have seen in years contributed so largely to the return gone by from the action of the Nationof that gallant forty, unless they see alist Party in Ireland we do fear very a very speedy approach of that great intolerance against those who millennium of excellent cottages and wish to be honest and to pay their way, high wages, coupled with unlimited and who are likely to oppose what is quantities of the best land held at known as the Nationalist policy. My the minimum of rent, which is to be Lords, I am certain that everybody in established by the installation of your Lordships' House, and I believe practically omnipotent parish councils. nearly everybody in the country, is now My Lords, I am not here to-day to willing to admit that the Catholics of attempt to speak against the question Ireland in days gone by were subject of what is called Home Rule for Ire- to a most unjust and most cruel perland; but still I would, with your secution; and, my Lords, we must Lordships' permission, before I sit remember that the memory of that down, like just to refer to one aspect persecution remains in the minds of the of that question. Attempts have been Irish people, and I think it is only made, as your Lordships well know, just to make a certain amount of allowup and down the country to try ance in that regard. But still, at the and prove to the people that the same time, we must remember that we noble Marquess levelled insults at, and live in the nineteenth century, and not maligned wilfully, the Roman Catholic in the eighteenth or the seventeenth. body of the United Kingdom. I am We have got to look at things as they certain that your Lordships would are, and are likely to be in the immeconsider it gross presumption on my diate future; we have not so much to part to attempt, in the presence of take into consideration what they were the noble Marquess, any sort of ex- or were not some 150 years ago; and planation of his words; but still II do most distinctly feel that, even should like to say that I can only regard the interpretation which has been placed upon those words as very little short of a most gross calumny. I think, my Lords, that if a certain section of the Irish clergy, by certain acts and by a certain abuse of their position, have brought down upon themselves some rather sharp criticism from this side of the House they have only got themselves to blame. Then, my Lords, we have been told that one of the principal arguments against Home Rule is the fear of religious persecution. I was glad to see that the noble Duke, who sits above the Gangway opposite, (the Duke of Argyll), of his vigorous and eloquent addresses some two or three months ago, stated that in his opinion the talk of religious persecution was all humbug. My Lords, I venture to agree with him. I think that religious persecution in the sense in which that term was known many years ago is now-a-days impossible. It is not religious persecution that we fear; it is intolerance, not necessarily religious, but certainly political. We do not fear intolerance against a man necessarily because he is a Catholic or a Protestant, in one I after making all allowances that can possibly be made, it is impossible to deny that the polling-booth and the vanguard of an election mob are not the places where the clergy of any denomination can add to their self-respect, or to that esteem and power for good which by the nature of their calling should be theirs. In conclusion, my Lords, I would with all respect venture to bring before you an opinion which I can only claim as my own humble one. certainly do feel that there is a very large section of Her Majesty's subjects in Ireland who still have a great right to claim additional advantages and additional freedom in the matter of higher education, and in the matter of removing vexatious and irritating restrictions in the conduct of the management of the elementary schools. But, my Lords, I do not by any means despair of these matters being dealt with and of these boons being conceded through the generosity and the broadminded liberality of the Parliament at Westminster; and, looking to the fact. how Ireland has been torn and sundered by political and religious jealousies in days gone by, and how at the present moment there are all the |