rightfully appertains to the Executive Department, I decline to lay these resolutions before your honourable bodies. I care not what may be the theory of State intercommunication, I will not submit to be made the medium of transmitting, from any quarter, an insult to any one State. The Constitution imposes no such duty on the Executive. The usage of the better days of the Republic commands my respect, but it cannot reconcile me to acts of courtesy to those who would gloat in seeing the torch applied to our dwellings and the knife to our throats.

SPEECH of the King-Regent of Portugal, on the Opening of the Cortes.-Lisbon, January 2, 1855.

(Translation.)

WORTHY PEERS OF THE REALM, AND GENTLEMEN DEPUTIES OF THE PORTUGUESE NATION,

Ir is with the greatest satisfaction that, accompanied by the King Dom Pedro, my august son, I meet the National Representatives to open the Legislative Session of 1855.

We continue to maintain friendly relations with all the Powers in alliance with the Crown of Portugal.

The negotiations with the Holy See, respecting the church patronage in India, proceed with activity. It is expected that the result of them may be submitted to you during this session.

The Cortes having sanctioned the Conventions entered into by Portugal with France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, the necessary ratifications have been exchanged. It has not, however, been possible to ratify yet the Treaties of Commerce with the Argentine Republic and with those of Peru and Paraguay.

During the last recess His Majesty the King Dom Pedro V, and His Royal Highness the Duke of Oporto finished their voyage, having left the kingdom in the latter part of May, and returned in the middle of September last.

In all the countries visited by them, my august sons received proofs of good will and esteem from the Sovereigns, relatives and allies, the Princes, persons of distinction, and from the inhabitants of the several places through which they passed; and this can not fail to be gratifying to the feelings of the Representatives of the nation, and of the Portuguese people, as it has been to my own.

Peace and public tranquillity have been maintained throughout the continental part of the kingdom, and in all our provinces beyond sea.

We have been threatened with an invasion of our territory by the cholera-morbus, which has devastated Europe, and made great havoc in some provinces of the neighbouring kingdom, adjoining ours. In some few places in Alemtejo and Algarve this scourge penetrated, but its further progress was at once stopped, thanks to Divine Providence, by the measures opportunely adopted. The military and administrative authorities, as well as those of the Department of the Public Health, and all the inhabitants displayed a laudable zeal at this important conjuncture. Some detachments of the army were engaged in this service, which they performed with the greatest exactitude and discipline.

In the prosecution of its attempts to improve the condition of our country, the Government has given serious attention to the means of inland communication. The resources destined for this important purpose have been efficiently applied. The works of the Eastern Railway continue without interruption; and in different parts of the kingdom many leagues of roads have been made.

My Government will submit to you the necessary measures, in order that the great development which the public works have already received, may be continued on a similar scale throughout the ensuing financial year.

Owing to the partial failure of the crops of maize in the northern provinces, the inhabitants of a great part of the kingdom have been distressed by a great rise in the prices of articles of food, which was also beginning to be felt in the southern districts.

For the benefit of the labouring classes, the Government contracted a loan with the Commercial Bank of Oporto, to be exclusively appropriated to the purchase of cereals, in order to form a depôt thereof and prevent in that city the effects of monopoly.

That respectable establishment promptly acceded to the proposal, showing thereby the sentiments by which it was animated.

Owing to the extensive exportation of cereals, and considering the insufficiency of the legal term granted for importation, which expired at the end of December, it was thought necessary to open, without loss of time, and for an extended period, the ports of the continental part of the kingdom, for the purpose of allowing im portation from abroad, and particularly from the neighbouring kingdom, to compensate for the deficiency of produce, and for the exportation.

The Ministers will lay this measure before you, and I trust that it will merit your approval, considering its object, and the urgency of the circumstances which demanded it.

The state of the "materiel" " of the Royal Navy claims the serious attention of the Government.

In order to raise it to the necessary degree of strength, for performing with advantage the important service which the safeguard and defence of our colonies and the protection of their commerce demand, it is requisite that extraordinary means should successively be appropriated to the construction of new vessels of

war.

My Government will submit to you the necessary proposals for this purpose.

The Government has provided for the most urgent requirements of the transmarine provinces, and has sent the necessary reinforcements to Angola, Mozambique, and Macau.

All the measures which have been adopted will be submitted to you by the respective Ministers.

Deputies of the Portuguese Nation,

With the least possible delay, the estimates of the receipts and expenditure of the State for the financial year of 1855-56, will be laid before you.

Notwithstanding the unfortunate influence which the scarcity of the crops of cereals and the disease of the vines has exercised upon several of the sources of revenue, the state of the public Treasury does not, however, cause any alarm to my Government. With the present resources, and without demanding any further sacrifices from the country, the Treasury will be enabled to meet all the ordinary expenditure of the State during the next financial year.

The Minister of Finance will lay before you the necessary Bills to this effect, which you will examine and perfect as you may judge

necessary.

Worthy Peers of the Realm and Deputies of the Portuguese Nation,

In the month of September next the Cortes will be re-assembled, in order that in the presence of the Representatives of the nation, the King, Dom Pedro V, may take the oath prescribed by Article LXXVI of the Constitutional Charter of the Monarchy, previous to his proclamation. I trust to your enlightened and welltried patriotism, that during this ordinary session you will employ yourselves in the discussion of such subjects as are most beneficial to the public prosperity.

I trust, and so does the country, that your efforts, united to those of my Government, will effect the desired result of promoting the happiness so highly deserved by the Portuguese nation.

The session is opened.

SPEECH of the King of Portugal, on the Closing of the Cortes.-Lisbon, July 19, 1856.

(Translation.)

WORTHY PEERS OF THE REALM, AND GENTLEMEN

DEPUTIES OF THE PORTUGUESE NATION,

On the occasion of closing the present session, which is the last of the actual Parliament, I again express to you my satisfaction at meeting the representatives of the nation, and signify to you my approval of the zeal which you have displayed in the discharge of your important legislative duties.

The causes which produced the Ministerial change which took place at the beginning of the month of June, are known to you.

Being convinced that the improvement in the means of internal communication through the agency of good roads and of railways has become now an imperative necessity, as it has ever been of the highest importance, you have not hesitated to vote the sums demanded for this purpose by my Government.

I thank you for it; and I trust that my wishes and your own will be fulfilled, in carrying on all the public works without interruption and on the widest scale possible, in order that the country may the more promptly enjoy the unlimited benefits which must arise therefrom.

The crops this year do not promise to be more abundant than those of last year. However, by means of the measures which you have also approved, for diminishing this evil, and above all through the favour of Providence, I trust that we shall be enabled to pass through a similar crisis without feeling too heavily its terrible consequences.

I deeply lament that the scourge of the cholera-morbus should again have invaded the capital, and other parts of the kingdom. It is, however, decreasing in intensity, and has happily never reached an alarming height; care has been and still is taken to diminish its ravages by means of prompt succour to those who may require it.

It is with pleasure that I announce to you that the public tranquillity has been maintained in all parts of the monarchy. Worthy Peers of the Realm, and Gentlemen Deputies of the Portuguese Nation:

I feel confident that, even while reposing from your Parliamentary labours you will continue to afford valuable service by strengthening the people in the spirit of conciliation and tolerance, and in respect and obedience to the laws.

The session is closed.

SPEECH of the King of Prussia, on the Closing of the Chambers.-Berlin, May 3, 1856.

(Translation.)

ILLUSTRIOUS, NOBLE, AND DEAR GENTLEMEN

OF BOTH HOUSES OF THE DIET.

FIVE months ago, when I welcomed you in this place, the affairs of Europe were in a state of most serious perplexity. The further course of events was enveloped in the darkness of futurity, and dangers and sacrifices till then warded off by God's grace, seemed to be approaching even the Fatherland. Since then, by the wise moderation of the belligerents, with the co-operation and assent of my Government, the long-wished-for work of peace has been concluded.

The dearness of the chief necessaries of life, which caused me anxious care at the beginning of the winter, has indeed been severely felt in every part of my monarchy. In the mean time, however, to my consolation, many opportunities for compensating labour have presented themselves.

My Government has been occupied, and has afforded assistance wherever need was to be apprehended, and has been powerfully seconded therein by the self-sacrificing disposition of my people, which is to be thankfully acknowledged. Since then, the hopes of peace, now realized, have caused the high prices to diminish materially, and it is to be hoped that a satisfactory harvest, with which, may God bless us, will put an end to the dearness of the most indispensable necessaries of life.

Your labours, Gentlemen, during the session which we close this day, have proved fruitful and successful in many important branches of the Legislation.

With your assistance our Constitution has been improved in essential points.

The parochial legislation for all provinces of the monarchy has also been brought to a conclusion.

The law respecting the local country authorities in the eastern provinces of the kingdom will, I trust, tend to regulate conformably with the requirements of the times, and to extend still further the formation of the rural police, with a careful maintenance of regulations guaranteed of old.

The law concerning the valuation of estates in Westphalia at the calculation of entailed property, indicates, I trust, a mode by which a destructive dispersion of the class of landed proprietors may be avoided, in unison with the primeval customs still in peculiar force among those people.

In the laws concerning certain changes in the new penal and disciplinary code, as well as in the proceedings of the highest court of justice in the realm, due attention has been paid to the experience gained by a practice of many years.