Her majesty then read the following most gracious speech:--
"_My Lords and Gentlemen_,--I have much satisfaction in being able to
release you from the duties of a laborious and anxious session. I cannot
take leave of you without expressing my grateful sense of the assiduity
and zeal with which you have applied yourselves to the consideration of
the public interests. Your attention has been principally directed
to the measures of immediate relief which a great and unprecedented
calamity rendered necessary.
"I have given my cheerful assent to those laws which, by allowing the
free admission of grain, and by affording facilities for the use of
sugar in breweries and distilleries, tend to increase the quantity of
human food, and to promote commercial intercourse.
"I rejoice to rind that you have in no instance proposed new
restrictions, or interfered with the liberty of foreign or internal
trade; as a mode of relieving distress. I feel assured that such
measures are generally ineffectual, and, in some cases, aggravate the
evils for the alleviation of which they are adopted.
"I cordially approve of the acts of large and liberal bounty by which
you have assuaged the sufferings of my Irish subjects. I have also
readily given my sanction to a law to make better provision for the
permanent relief of the destitute in Ireland. I have likewise given
my assent to various bills calculated to promote the agriculture and
develop the industry of that portion of the United Kingdom.
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