"The deficiency of the harvest in France and Germany, and other parts of
Europe, has added to the difficulty of obtaining adequate supplies of
provisions.
"It will be your duty to consider, what further measures are required to
alleviate the existing distress. I recommend to you to take into your
serious consideration, whether, by increasing, for a limited period, the
facilities for importing from foreign countries, and by the admission of
sugar more freely into breweries and distilleries, the supply of food
may be beneficially augmented.
"I have also to direct your earnest attention to the permanent
consideration of Ireland. You will perceive, by the absence of political
excitement, an opportunity for taking a dispassionate survey of the
social evils which afflict that part of the United Kingdom. Various
measures will be laid before you, which, if adopted by Parliament, may
tend to raise the great mass of the people in comfort, to promote
agriculture, and to lessen the pressure of that competition for the
occupation of land, which has been the fruitful source of crime and
misery."
In the House of Lords, the debate on the address in reply to the Queen's
speech was not very remarkable.
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