§ Her Majesty's gracious Speech in reply to the Addresses, delivered to the Members of both Houses, was as follows:
§ "My Lords and Members of the House of Commons,
§ "I thank you for the loyal and dutiful Addresses which on your behalf the Lord Chancellor and Mr. Speaker have presented to me.
§ "The event, whose 700th anniversary we are celebrating to-day, occupies a most important and distinguished place in the history of our Country, of the Commonwealth, and of free institutions throughout the world. In the manner of constitutional developments in this country, what was at the time little more than an expedient devised from earlier practice, became first an example and then a convention. It is now memorable as the prototype of our Parliamentary system which has, itself, served as a model for many others.
§ "To-day we celebrate more than the event itself. We are here to commemorate together the long and often troubled evolution of Parliamentary processes which stemmed from that first meeting, to which, in the course of time, the customs and traditions of Scotland and Ireland have so fruitfully contributed, and which now forms a common legacy cherished by the sister nations of the Commonwealth, whose Parliamentary Representatives it gives me particular pleasure to welcome today.
§ "It is a legacy of practice and also a legacy of intent. The evolution of our system owes much to the mixture of shrewdness and caution which prompted our predecessors throughout the centuries not hastily to devise and then to discard new forms of Government, but always where possible to adapt old forms to new needs; and to 455 their ability to recognise the forms and precedents most suitable to that purpose.
§ "The Parliament of 1265 has a particular significance in relation to the events of the time, but its importance to us to-day is that it stumbled upon and gave expression to ideas and principles which have been recognised and maintained with growing conviction ever since.
§ "The combination of Knights and Burgesses, strengthened and confirmed in the following century by the convention that the Knights should sit in the same House as the Burgesses and not with the greater nobility, was the growing point of our Parliamentary Institutions. They were to be fashioned and adapted during the succeeding centuries, at first with the encouragement of the Crown, later in conflict with it, and finally in happy union; but all the time expressing more surely the aspirations of the people as a whole.
§ "No one would claim that Parliament has maintained an unblemished record in its evolution but never has it abandoned its care for the liberties of this Kingdom, as succeeding generations have conceived them. The fulfilment of those liberties has been its greatest glory. Nor can this task ever be at an end; for each generation must still interpret and assert its liberties anew.
§ "Whatever mistakes may have been made in these 700 years, the persistent attachment to the great guiding principles of our way of life has served again and again to evoke that idealism and spirit of self-sacrifice that is interwoven in the normal sober and pragmatic character of our peoples.
§ "This combination of idealism and pragmatism has never been more needed than to-day when we are called to adjust ourselves to rapid changes of world influence, to new social forces and to unprecedented advances of science and technology. We are proud to say that never has Parliament failed in these qualities. Had it been otherwise, then what happened 700 years ago would be remembered now only as a discarded constitutional curiosity, and 456 there would be no cause to which to rededicate ourselves to-day.
§ "We are glad to meet here in the Great Hall of Westminster. We do not know for certain whether the Parliament of 1265 met here or not, though it seems that the conclusions of that Parliament were proclaimed here. But this Hall has been the scene of so many events, splendid or sombre, which have marked the course of our history, that it is forever associated in men's minds with those great principles for which Parliament has constantly striven. It is from that magnificent past, enshrined in the shadows of this Hall, that we can most surely look towards what the future may hold."
§ House resumed at half-past two o'clock, The LORD CHANCELLOR on the Woolsack.
§ The Lord Pender—Sat first in Parliament after the death of his father.