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what was stated merely from loose and indefinite reports in circulation. He hoped the country would give the ministry credit for acting with the very best intentions at a most difficult crisis. "God help the man," said his lordship, who has an eye to our situations! We are told that we have no talents-that we have no judgement-that we are unfit to be intrusted with the affairs of the nation." He hoped their lordships would first look back to those whom they should admire, before they passed censure on the conduct of the present ministry. For his part, the great seal was intrusted to him by his majesty, and he would not therefore give it up till he knew that some one was legally appointed to receive it out of his hands. Lord Lauderdale thought there was an essential difference between the two modes: in the way by bill, the two houses of parliament, with out the intervention of a third person, took upon themselves to exercise one of the royal functions; whereas in the way of address there was no such direct assumption; a third party was made to interpose between the two houses and such an assumption, and the regent having in himself the power of assenting or denying, the integrity of the monarchy was thereby preserved. The question between both ways of proceeding was, had the two houses the power of putting the great seal to an act of parliament? The noble and learned lord on the woolsack had said, that he thought the precedent of 1788 conclusive upon the question of bill or address; but what was the necessity?-To enable the executive to act not to act for the executive.

He should put a case to their lord

ships :-If he had a right to present to a living, he as patron might, on a vacancy, present a clergy man to the living; but did that right of presentation give him the right of going himself into the living, ascending the pulpit, and discharging the functions of a clergyman?— Neither did the law of parliament, which was to be found in the usage of parliament, authorize the two houses to assume the exercise of the functions of the kingly power. The case already alluded to was tried before the twelve judges of the land, in Serjeants' Inn: their opi nion of that case, respecting the certiorari, was to be found in Plowden, and proved that in all cases, to give seals or signets legal effica cy, they must be the act of the kingly power. He would conclude with one observation, that if there was one act above all others which required the personal exercise of the king's authority, it was that of giv ing the royal assent to acts of parlia ment. He thought that the enacting of restrictions to any extent would be an act of traitorism to the country; it would indicate a want of feeling on the part of the two houses, towards the wishes of the people, perhaps unexampled. The noble lord had talked of the voice of the people being with them as to the delay which had taken place; he was confident that if the two houses passed any restrictions, the voice of the people would be loud throughout the country against them.

The house divided on the amendment, Contents Non-contents

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CHAPTER II.

Debate in the House of Commons on the Chancellor of the Exchequer's Resolutions the same Subject continued-Conversations respecting the Issue of Money-Debate in the House of Lords on Mr. Perceval's Resolutions-Debate in the House of Commons on the Issue of Money-The same Subject discussed in the House of Lords-Committees appointed to wait on the Prince of Wales and the Queen-Motions respecting the affixing the Great Seal-Error corrected -Conversation concerning the Execution of Cardosa-Committee appointed to examine the King's Privy Purse--Discussions on the Regency Bill.

W

E must devote another chapter to the subject of his majesty's illness and the regency, which occasioned very long and animated debates in both houses. On the 31st of December, after a conference with the lords, who notified their agreement to the resolutions which had been communicated to them on the 22d, the house of commons resolved itself into a committee of the whole house, on the state of the nation; upon which

The chancellor of the exchequer rose and stated, that the resolutions declaring the king's incapacity to exercise the royal functions, the right and duty of both houses to provide for the deficiency, and the mode of supplying that deficiency by means of a bill, having been agreed to by the lords, it now remained for the commons to consider of the measures that were/ proper to be adopted to supply the defect in the executive government, On a former occasion, in stating his view of this important subject to the house, he mentioned that it was his intention to follow, as nearly as circumstances would allow, the proceedings that were adopted in 1788. He then stated, that it would be his duty to submit a proposition to the house,calling upon his royal highness the prince of Wales

to take upon him the exercise of the royal authority, subject to certain restrictions in the use of it, and which restrictions it was intended should be limited in point of duration. That duty he now rose to discharge. The restrictions he had to propose were few in number. He would propose in the first place, that the regent should not have the power of creating peers; in the second, that he should be debarred from granting places or pensions for life; and the third restriction would apply to making provision for the custody of his majesty's person, which he would propose should be confided to the queen, and a council nominated to assist her. He would now, with the leave of the committee, read the first of the series of resolutions he intended to propose; which he did as follows:

"Resolved, That for the purpose of providing for the exercise of the royal authority during the conti nuance of his majesty's illness, in such manner, and to such extent, as the present circumstances and the urgent concerns of the nation appear to require, it is expedient that his royal highness the prince of Wales, being resident within the realm, shall be empowered to exercise and administer the royal au thority, according to the laws and

constitution of Great Britain, in the name and on behalf of his majesty, and under the style and title of Regent of the kingdom; and to use, execute, and perform, in the name and on the behalf of his majesty, all authorities, prerogatives, acts of government, and administration of the same, that belong to the king of this realm to use, execute, and perform, according to the law thereof, subject to such limitations and exceptions as shall be pro

vided."

In laying before the committee this or any other resolution, it would be desirable to separate as far as possible those points upon which a material or indeed any difference of opinion were likely to arise, from those upon which there would probably be an unanimity. He presumed that no difference of opinion could exist respecting the propriety of conferring the regency upon the prince of Wales; nor upon this other point, that it would not be advisable that, in the exercise of the powers so conferred, his royal highness should have associated with him any persons in the nature of a permanent council. Upon these two points no difference of opinion, he presumed, was like.ly to arise. The points upon which such unanimity might not probably prevail, and that were likely to give rise to debate, those relating to restrictions, called for the deepest attention. It would be right to ascertain whether any restrictions were necessary; what the nature of those restrictions should be; and, lastly, to what period they were to be continued. With respect to the first point, he wished the committee to keep in mind the nature of the duty they were called on to dis. charge on the present occasion. They were not called upon to sup

1811.

ply a vacancy in the throne, but they were called upon to supply a temporary suspension of the royal authority; which suspension there was every reason to hope, both from the opinion of eminent medical persons and the experience of similar instances of the royal indisposition, would not be protracted to a long period, but might shortly be put an end to by his majesty's restoration to the full exercise of his faculties. The committee had two very important objects to obtain : one, to provide for the security of the crown; the other, to provide an efficient government for the direction of the civil and military affairs of the country. There was another object, also, which it would be their duty to keep in view, namely, to remove every possible obstacle to the restoration of his majesty to the full exercise of the regal authority, whenever it should pleace Providence to establish his recovery. They were not only to provide for the effectual resumption of the royal functions, but to guard also against the creation of any obstacles to prevent the exercise of those functions, when the king should resume his authority. They should endeavour to secure both these objects; and if one of them should be found inconsistent with the other, they should maturely weigh their respective advantages and disadvantages, in order that they might be able to adopt that which was likely to be most beneficial, or at least less injurious to the interests of the state. In the former discussion it was maintained by some gentlemen on the opposite side, that the energies of the executive government would be diminished by any even the smallest restriction. This assertion was connected with the second point of the

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statement, namely, the providing a regency for twelve months and the fraction of time he had mentioned; within which time there was the strongest probability his majesty migl be restored to the full possession of his faculties, and for whom Providence might have in store many happy years of sovereignty. The restriction he intended to propose could not diminish the power of the regent for more than a twelvemonth; but any departure from it might diminish the power of the executive government for a much longer period. The duty which devolved upon the committee arose out of the necessity of the case. They had no right or authority to do any thing that they did not conceive to be necessary. They should therefore look to the nature of the necessity, and not go beyond it.

In discussing the propositions which he should have the honour of submitting to them, the committee would do well to act upon general considerations. This important subject was not to be settled upon principles of confidence or personal character. They should not look to the exalted situation or the numerous excellent qualities of the illustrious person who was to be invited to assume the office of regent. They were to put the prince of Wales entirely out of their consideration; they were to reflect how unwise and imprudent it would be, to found a precedent upon the merits of a particular individual, and not upon a sound and permanent constitutional foundation. In the history of this country, he believed there were very few instances, or rather there was hardly one, of a regency, in which there were not some restrictions upon the power so conferred. Those restrictions were not considered, as it was now said, an

insult to the person appointed to the regency, a degradation to the monarchy, or an injury to the constitution-Having first decided upon the general principle of the necessity of some restrictions, the house would have to decide whe ther particulat restrictions were necessary. Here the right honourable gentleman entered into an elaborate defence of the several propositions to be submitted to the house: and among other reasons he said, it had been suggested that the recovery of the king, after so many different attacks as he had had of his present unfortunate disorder, would become more doubtful, and that the people might be less inclined to believe it: therefore, supposing that to be the case, and that the people would be so slow to believe, night not the regent also be slow to believe, and have greater doubts on his mind as to the reality of the king's recovery? The house would see, then, that they ought to be guarded, when they were transferring all the powers of his majesty to a regent, in fixing some kind of restriction which might prevent those powers from being misused, so that, in case of his majesty's recovery in a short time, they might be restored to him as entire as possi ble.

With this view it seemed to him, that, at a time when the absolute necessity of the case required that powers should be given so highly important as those with which the regent must be invested, it became peculiarly the duty of parliament to take especial care the regent should not be able to misuse those powers; and particularly where the regent is the person that is to succeed to the crown, the utmost care should be taken to show plainly that the power is not the regent's,

but

but the king's; for whom he holds it in trust. He was of opinion that the regent, with respect to all foreign relations, should be made as strong as possible; that he should have the free use of all those prerogatives which would enable him to carry on and prosecute the war with vigour, and as much as possible to distress our enemies: but, with respect to the internal transactions of the entpire, he thought great caution should be used in giving him any powers which might be misused, as that of granting pensions certainly might. Having thus opened to the house the nature of the plan he meant to pursue respecting the restrictions, he would not then trespass longer on the time of the house, but would proceed to read the remaining resolutions:

"Resolved, That the power so to be given to his royal highness the prince of Wales shall not extend to the granting of any rank or dignity of the peerage of the realm to any person whatever, except to -(persons who have rendered eminent service to the country by sea or land.)

"Resolved, That the said power shall not extend to the granting of any office whatever in reversion, or to the granting of any office, salary, or pension, for other term than during his majesty's pleasure,except such offices as are by law required to be granted for life or during good behaviour, and except-(An exception will here be introduced in favour of persons rendering eminent services to the country by sea or land.)

"Resolved, That the said power shall not extend to the granting of any part of his majesty's real or personal estate, except as far as relates to the renewal of leases.

"Resolved, That the care of his majesty's royal person, during the continuance of his majesty's illness, shall be committed to the queen's most excellent majesty ; and that her majesty shall have the power to remove from, and to nominate and appoint such persons as she shall think proper, to the seve ral offices in his majesty's household; and to dispose, order, and manage, all other matters and things relating to the care of his majesty's royal person, during the time aforesaid; and that, for the better enabling her majesty to discharge this important task, it is also expedient that a council shall be appointed to advise and assist her majesty in the several matters aforesaid; and with power, from time to time, as they may see cause, to examine, upon oath, the physicians and others attending his majesty's person, touching the state of his majesty's health, and all matters relating thereto."

In the course of reading the last resolution, he begged the house to understand, that the intrusting of the custody of the king's person to the queen, was intended to continue during the whole of the regency; but that her majesty's power over the household was only to continue a twelvemonth. With respect to the council to be appointed as advisers to her majesty, he proposed to follow as nearly as possible the precedent of 1788, by confining it to the same number of four, who are to be nominated for the purpose, and invested with the same powers as those on the former occasion. As the period was to be limited to twelve months, and there were strong hopes that it might even not last above six weeks or two months, he thought the house, on mature consideration, would not D 2 hesitate

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