OUR PROROGATION SPEECH. (From Punch.) " My Lords and Gentlemen—

New Zealander, Volume 4, Issue 278, 27 January 1849, Page 8

OUR PROROGATION SPEECH. (From Punch.) " My Lords and Gentlemen—

•' You assembled on Thursday, the 19th of November ; you are about to separate this present Saturday, the 19th August. You perceive this gives nine ironths of work—that is, talk. In eight of these nine months you have passed twenty-six Acts, of which all but nine were act of course. To bring about these nine Acts you have talked 4810 pages of Hansaid. About twice that quantity of talk has escaped imprinted. Ihe country appreciates your services. She acknowledges your readiness to devote your last breath to her advantage. All she askf is the halfpennyworth of work to this intolerable quantity of words. 11 Gentlemen of the House of Commons— " You met early : You are separating late. You were called together mainly for three objects. Measures were to be recommended to your consideration for advancing the social condition of Ireland ; for modifying the Navigation Laws ; and improving the Public Health. Towards the first of theie objects you have contributed an Arms Bill, a Crown and Government Security Bill, and a Bill for tuspending Habeas Corpus ; towards the second you have contributed no thing ; towards the third, not exactly nothing but next to it- You have, besides this, passed a Sugar Bill, which has the great merit of dissatisfying everybody ; you have thrown away a. million aud a half in the shape of a loan to Irish landlords, and a half million in that of an advance to West India planters You have also emascu'aied the Public Heal h Bill, and passed a measure on the subject which cannot do much harm, aud may do a litt'e good. •' When I turn from what you have done, to what you have left undone, I am struck by a great contrast. You may congratulate yourselves on having abundance of work cut out for the i ext year. 14 I have given dij eel ions that estimates of all that is 1o be done 4 next session' should be made out and laid before minist rs. I expect that it will astonish them. " I remark with pain that you have got into a habit of laughing at very serious things ; such as Chartism and Irish rebellion, lam desirous lhat you should leave this to me. I will find out the absurdities of both ; you have to deal with the serious side of these facts. Fearsjus O'Connor may be a very absnrd person aud Smith OBrien very contemptible; but Chartism is, nevertheless, rife among English working men, and dissatisfaction among the peasantry of Ireland. 1 look with confidence to see you grave ou both these subjects for the future. " 1 am preparing measures for limiting the speeches of honorable members j I trust that the time is not far distant when honorable members who have nothing to say will not think it necessary to take up so much time in saying it. 11 Gentlemen, your session has extended over a time marked by marvellons events, and full of great suffering on the part of the woiking daises of the empire.— You do not seem to have appreciated the one, and you have done nothing to alleviate the other. It is a gratifying proof of the stability of our institutions that they have resisted all convulsions without any help from her Majesty's minitters, who have tested the consiituiion, as railway bridges are tested, by putting on it a much heavier weight of incapacity than it is ever likely to be required to bear on ordinary occasions < " My Lords and Gentlemen — <; Allow me to bid you all good bye, on the conclusion o7 a session nnsxampled for the greatness of its peiformance — the Spanish Giant of session, as far as woids go; and their Tom Thumb, as far as work."