Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/24

 16] ENGLISH HISTOBY. [m

been abundant, and that the trade and revenue of the country have recovered with a rapidity and completeness that have surpassed all expectation.

"Gentlemen op the House op Commons,

" The estimates for the service of the ensuing year will be laid before you. They have been framed with the utmost economy that the circumstances of the present time permit.

"My Lords and Gentlemen,

" A bill for more fully organising the government of the metropolis will be commended to your careful consideration.

" A measure for the establishment of a board for the adminis- tration of primary, secondary and technical education in England and Wales will be again laid before you.

4 'You have already partially considered provisions for sim- plifying the process of private legislation for Scotland. They will be again brought before you.

"A measure will be submitted to you for enabling local authorities to assist the occupiers of small dwellings in the purchase of their houses.

" Bills will also be introduced for encouraging agriculture and technical instruction in Ireland, and for the relief of the tithe-rent-charffe payer in that country ; for providing a more complete distribution of water supply in cases of emergency in the metropolis; for the regulation of limited companies; for the prevention of the adulteration of articles of food; for controlling the contracts of money-lenders; for amending the Factory Acts in certain respects ; and for amending the law in respect to agricultural holdings.

" I pray that Almighty God may have you in His keeping, and guide your deliberations for the good of my people.' '

In the House of Lords the Address was moved by the Duke of Bedford, who in a remarkable speech which attracted much notice boldly declared that it was unreasonable to expect that Russia would refrain from taking advantage of her railway enterprise in Russia, and urged that we should recognise the fact that she must exercise a dominant influence over Northern Asia. The address having been seconded by the Earl of Cawdor, Lord Kimberley commenced by a general review of our foreign relations, touching lightly on the Fashoda incident, although he confessed himself perplexed with regard to our position in the Soudan. The Prime Minister, in one of his recess speeches, had said that the Kitchener expedition had resulted in the complete subjugation of all the territories, and that these had been brought under the dominion of the Khedive. The recently published agreement between England and E^ypt, moreover, had practically made the Soudan part of the British Empire, and, although he had no wish to censure the Govern-