A DUTCH KING'S SPEECH.
AMID the tame uniformity of the speeches with which constitutional Sovereigns open the annual sessions of their Legislature, it is an agreeable variety to meet with one which has a character of its own. In general, the composition of these harangues is the work of the Minister, and his interest is to make it as incapable of exciting any emotion as possible. Louts PHILIPPE may prescribe the substance of his own speech, but he allows it to be diluted into Ministerial phrases. Perhaps they are his own : Nature meant him to be something more than that cipher a constitutional King— he might have been a Minister. But the King of Holland appears to furnish the words as well as the matter of his own speeches : they are right royal in their wit, logic, and wilfulness. " Our colonial possessions," says his Majesty, " enjoy a satisfactory state of tranquillity." He proceeds to illustrate what he means by these fine words—" Agriculture and manufactures continue to make pro- gress in our East India possessions, though the shock which credit has received has diminished their resources : the internal situation of our West India colonies, the prosperity of which is paralyzed by divers causes, is the subject of serious deliberation " : and " the continuance in the decline of colonial prices has again caused a very considerable deficit in the revenue." Very " satisfactory" indeed! How would such a piece of grave irony be received by " depressed interests" in this country ? Again—" The good-will and zeal of the officers and soldiers have allowed the time of the exercise of the militia to be again shortened." Vulgar logicians would have been apt to account for the shortening of the period of drill to any thing but a good-will to the business. But the most amusing part of the whole speech is perhaps the pretty burst of royal self-will in which his Illnjeqy taunts the " high and mighty lords" with their parsimony—" 'bite navy of the kingdom is in as satisfactory a condition as the sums granted in the budget permit!"
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