largely on the increase; and that the revenue of the past year has been more than adequate to the demands of the public service. I recommend to your consideration a Bill which I have ordered to be framed for opening the coasting-trade of the United Kingdom to the ships of all friendly nations; and I look forward with satisfaction to the removal of the last legislative restriction upon the use of foreign shipping for the benefit of my people. Communications have been addressed by my command to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, with reference to the improvement which it may be desirable to effect in their institutions. These communications will be laid before you, and measures will be proposed for your consideration, with the view of giving effect to such improve ments. The establishments requisite for the conduct of the civil service, and the arrangements bearing upon its condition, have recently been under review; and I shall direct a plan to be laid before you which will have for its object to improve the system of admission, and thereby to increase the efficiency of the service. The recent measures of legal reform have proved highly beneficial, and the success which has attended them may well encourage you to proceed with further amendments. Bills will be submitted to you for transferring from the ecclesiastical to the civil courts the cognizance of testamentary and of matrimonial causes, and for giving increased efficiency to the superior courts of common law. The laws relating to the relief of the poor have of late undergone much salutary amendment; but there is one branch to which I earnestly direct your attention. The law of settlement impedes the freedom of labour; and if this restraint can with safety be relaxed, the workman may be enabled to increase the fruits of his industry, and the interests of capital and of labour will be more firmly united. Measures will be submitted to you for the amendment of the laws relating to the representation of the Commons in Parliament. Recent experience has shown that it is necessary to take more effectual precautions against the evils of bribery, and of corrupt practices at elections. It will also be your duty to consider whether more complete effect may not be given to the princioles of the Act of the last reign, whereby reforms were made in the representation of the people in Parliament. In recommending this subject to your consideration, my desire is to remove every cause of just complaint, to increase general confidence in the legislature, and to give additional stability to the settled institutions of the State. I submit to your wisdom the consideration of these important subjects; and I pray God to prosper your counsels and to guile your decisions. At the Court at Buckingham-Palace, the 30th day day of January, 1854. PRESENT, The QUEEN's Most Excellent Majesty in Council. Whereas by "The Pilotage Law Amendment Act, 1853," it was enacted "That it should be lawful for every pilotage authority, by regulation or bye-law, made with the consent of Her Majesty in Council, to fix, and, from time to time, to alter the rates and prices or other remuneration to be demanded and received by 66 pilots, licensed by such authority, or to substitute other rates and prices in lieu of those for the time being demanded or received, or to alter the mode of remunerating pilots in such manner, as such authority might, with such consent as aforesaid, think fit; so that no higher rates or prices should be demanded or received from the masters or owners of ships, than the rates and prices which might, if the said Act had not passed, have been demanded or received;" and likewise, to exempt the masters of any ships or vessels, or of any classes of ships or vessels, from being compelled to employ pilots, and to annex any terms or conditions to such exemptions, and from time to time to revoke and alter any exemptions so made, and to revise and extend any exemptions now existing by virtue of any Act of Parliament or Charter, upon such terms and conditions, and in such manner, as such authority, with such consent as aforesaid, might think fit." And whereas at a meeting of the Commissioners of Pilots of the port of Liverpool, being the pilotage authorities of the said port, according to the meaning of the said recited Act, it was resolved that, with the consent of Her Majesty in Council, the following regulations should be made with respect to coasting steamers plying from and to the port of Liverpool; that is to say: "That coasting steamers outward bound, proceeding to sea without a pilot, be altogether exempted from "the payment of pilotage; and that the rates of "pilotage for coasting steamers, inward bound, be "reduced from four shillings to one shilling per "foot when the services of a branch pilot are not "required on board the steamer; and that the "said regulations shall take effect at the expira"tion of one calendar month from the consent of "Her Majesty in Council being obtained thereto." And whereas the said regulations appear to be proper and reasonable: Now, therefore, Her Majesty, by virtue of the power vested in Her by the said recited Act, and by and with the advice of Her Privy Council, is pleased to approve, and doth hereby approve of the said regulations so submitted as aforesaid. Wm. L. Bathurst. At the Court at Buckingham-Palace, the 30th day of January, 1854. The QUEEN'S Most Excellent Majesty in Council was pleased to approve and ratify the scheme duly prepared (as set forth in this Gazette) by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for England For authorizing the sale of certain property formerly belonging to the prebend of Grantham Borealis, in the cathedral church of Salisbury. Buckingham-Palace, January 30, 1854. This day had audience of the Queen ; Namik Pacha, accompanied by Monsieur Musurus, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary from His Imperial Majesty the Sultan: To which audience his Excellency was introduced by the Earl of Clarendon, K.G., Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and conducted by Major-General the Honourable Sir Edward Cust, K.C.H., Master of the Ceremonies. Prince of Wales's Council-Chamber, Somerset- Francis Howell, of Ethy-House, in the county of Cornwall, Esq., has been appointed Sheriff of the county of Cornwall. Duchy of Lancaster, February 2, 1854. The Queen has been this day pleased to appoint Richard Fort, of Read-Hall, Esq., to be Sheriff for the county palatine of Lancaster for the ensuing. year Board of Trade, Whitehall, The Right Honourable the Lords of the Committee of Privy Council for Trade and Plantations have received, through the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, a copy of a Despatch from Her Majesty's Consul at Lisbon, reporting that the Board of Health at that place has declared Vigo to be infected with Cholera. Board of Trade, Whitehall, The Right Honourable the Lords of the Committee of Privy Council for Trade and Plantations have received, through the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, a copy of a Despatch from Her Majesty's Consul-General at Christiania, enclosing a Notice issued by the Royal Norwegian Marine Department, declaring that, in consequence of Malignant Cholera having ceased to exist in the country, vessels arriving from foreign infected ports will be subjected to the Norwegian Regulations in operation before the infection broke out. |