were rendered remarkable by an unusual circumstance. After it had been read by the Speaker, and lord Jocelyn was rising to move the accustomed complimentary address, sir Francis Burdett rose at the same time, and having first caught the Speaker's eye, it was decided that he was in possession of the House. The baronet then, after a speech of warm and desultory invective against the principles of the war, the defects of the representation, and a variety of other matters of grievance, moved an address to the Prince Regent, intended, he said, " to embrace every point which his own sense of duty to his constituents, and to the country in general, suggested to him as essential." Accordingly, the proposed address was framed in the style of a memorial or remonstrance, laying before his Royal Highness all the instances of misgovernment and oppression, of infringment of the public liberty, and accumulation of abuses, which, in the opinion of the mover, a series of past years had afforded. After it had been read, lord Cochrane rose to second the motion, and in his speech particularly dwelt upon the misconduct of the war, and the little hope of final success. Lord Jocelyn then moved the address, which he had prepared, by way of amendment to that proposed by the honourable baronet, and was seconded by Mr. Vyse. Of the debate which followed, it is scarcely necessary to record the particulars, since the members in opposition, who agreed with sir Francis Burdett in parts of his statement of public evils could not concur with him in all points, and thought that many of the to

pics introduced would be better reserved for future discussion. They made some objections to the ministerial address, similar to those which were advanced in the House of Lords, and were replied to in a similar manner. The House then divided on sir F. Burdett's address, which had only one vote in its favour besides the two tellers, against 238. Lord Jocelyn's amendment was carried without a division.

On Jan. 8, lord Jocelyn appearing at the bar of the House with the report of the committee on the address, the question was put, that it should be brought up; when Mr. Whitbread rose to deliver those sentiments on the subject which the unexpected occurrence of yesterday had prevented him from declaring. He then at length stated his reasons for disagreeing with the address. These chiefly turned upon the fallacy of the hopes attempted to be excited by the present state of the Peninsula, concerning which he wished for more ample information in several points (which he mentioned) than had been afforded; upon the expression "conciliatory," applied to the negotiations with America, which appeared to him by no means entitled to that appellation: and upon a supposed impossibility of negociating a peace with France, arising from the personal character of its present ruler. He was answered by the chancellor of the exchequer, who began in a strain of sarcasm respecting the past prophecies of the honourable gentleman, which had been proved erroneous in the event; and he went on to show the reasons there were for looking forward cheerfully and sanguinely to the result of the con

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test on the Peninsula. He adverted to several of the questions that, had been asked by Mr. Whitbread, to some of which he gave general replies; and he affirmed that our army in Spain was at this moment 10,000 stronger than it had been the last year. He defended the conduct of government with respect to America, and represented the contingent evil of war as greater to her than to this country; and having noticed some other of the honourable gentleman's objections to the address, he concluded with hoping that the House would not be prevented, by the gloomy picture he had drawn, from concurring in it.

After Mr. Whitbread had called upon the last speaker for an explanation of his meaning in quoting upon him a satirical couplet from Pope, and had received a disavowal of any intention of giving offence; general Tarleton rose, and made a number of observations concerning the unfavourable state of affairs in the Peninsula, and the hopeless nature of the contest in which we have been so long engaged. He was followed by Mr. Creevey, whose remarks chiefly related to the public revenue, which, according to his information, had experienced a rapid and alarming decline; and for the purpose that the returns of taxes for the last year might be laid upon the table before the address was voted, he concluded with moving that the word "now" be left out of the motion before the House, and "this day se'nnight" be inserted in its place. This called up again the chancellor of the exchequer, who said, he had the satisfaction to state, that the honourable gentleman had

taken a black and very unfounded view of the revenue of the coun try. He acknowledged a diminu tion in the year 1811 of two mil→ lions from that of the preceding year; but the receipt in the latter was the greatest ever known; and that important branch, the excise, had produced more in 1811 than in the preceding year.

After some further debate, in which the former topics were recapitulated, Mr. Creevey's motion was put and negatived; and the report was then brought up and agreed to.

The thanks of the Houses of Parliament voted on occasion of military success, are generally such mere matters of course, in which ministers take the opportunity of gaining reflected approbation of their own measures, and their opponents seldom choose to expose themselves to the hazard of appearing reluctant to join in the praise due to meritorious services, that it is scarcely worth while to record them in the register of parliamentary transactions. Sometimes, however, the motions for this purpose call forth discussions which it is not unimportant to notice; and one of this kind occurred in the House of Commons on Jan. 10, upon the motion of the chancellor of the exchequer for thanks to lord Minto, governorgeneral of India, on account of the conquest of the islands of Bourbon and Mauritius, and the operations in the island of Java.

The right honourable gentleman introduced his motion with an eulogy of the wise and well-arranged plans of the governor-general, which had given birth to these successes. He went through

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the detail of the preparations made for the several expeditions, and the mode of execution; and after dis tributing his praise among the persons principally concerned, he moved, That the Thanks of this House be given to the right hon. Gilbert lord Minto, for the wisdom and ability with which the military resources of the British empire in India have been applied in the reduction of the power of the enemy in the eastern seas, by the conquest of the islands of Bourbon and Mauritius, and by the recent successful operations in the island of Java; and that this House doth attribute the brilliant and important successes which have crowned our arms in that quarter of the globe, to the vigorous system of well-concerted measures so wisely adopted and steadily pursued by Gilbert lord Minto.'

Mr. Sheridan then rose, and said, that though he could not he sitate a moment respecting the propriety of thanks as a reward for the discipline and gallantry displayed by the British army; yet he was not prepared to acknowledge the same claim on behalf of lord Minto. In the first place, he thought an absolute necessity ought to be made out for the governor-general to forsake his station at Bengal, and enter upon a voyage for six weeks or two months to be present at the conquest of Batavia. He then observed, that much merit had been attributed to lord Minto for having had every thing in readiness for the expedition against the Mauritius at the time he received the dispatches, authorising him to undertake it; and yet upon the first check that occurred, the whole object of the armament must have been disap

pointed, had it not been for the admirable conduct of captain Rowley. Thenext merit attributed to him was, that the time of the year rendering the success of the expedition against Batavia extremely doubtful, and admiral Drury having despaired of it on account of the lateness of the season, the governor-general had made himself at Bengal so much more master of the subject than that experienced naval officer, that it was determined to proceed; his praise, therefore, on this occasion, would be so much detracted from the merits of admiral Drury. He said, that he could not concur in the opinion delivered by the chancellor of the exchequer, that the importance ofthe acquisition was not to be contemplated in a question of this nature; and he thought that when a vote of thanks was required from the House to the planner of the expedition, there could not be a fitter time to inquire whether the acquisition was worth the lives it had cost; whether we can quit it without leaving the natives to certain destruction; or whether certain destruction will not attend our troops if they remain? Adverting again to lord Minto's accompanying the armament, he said, he had a rooted dislike to any civil control being exercised over the army or navy; it savoured too much of the French revolution, where a deputy from the convention always accompanied the troops, not to share the danger, but to participate in the glory.

Mr. Yorke defended the claim of lord Minto to the thanks of the House. With respect to the imputation on him for leaving his government, he asked, what was to prevent him ? Were there any commotion

commotions in Bengal to require his presence at that particular period? It was most important, not only to the success of the expedition, but to the settlement of the island, that he should be at Java. A great number of points were to be settled there which no person but the governor-general was competent to decide. With respect to his having procured the sailing of the expedition at a season which admiral Drury and sir S. Auchmuty also had at first thought unsuitable, it was a circumstance greatly to lord Minto's credit; for it was in consequence of having employed captain Gregg to try the soundings of the new course by the Caramalla, to the west of Borneo, by which he had convinced those officers that the armament could reach its destination before the S. W. winds set in.

Sir Henry Montgomery could not think that any thing the noble lord had done merited the honour proposed. He perhaps deserved censure for some of his acts at Java, especially that of giving freedom to all the slaves as soon as he arrived, which was letting loose a number of notoriously blood-thirsty men.

General Tarleton ridiculed the idea of such a man as sir S. Auch muty being sent on an expedition with a nurse to superintend him, and to whose decision or temerity in attacking fort Cornelis he attributed the salvation of the whole force.

After several other members had spoken on both sides of the question, it was put and carried. Thanks were afterwards agreed to nem. con. to all the other officers, and to the soldiers and seamen, concerned in the expeditions above mentioned

No debate took place in the House of Lords on the same motions.

The near approach of the period in which the Regency act was to expire, rendered necessary a particular and formal inquiry into the state of his majesty's bodily and mental health, and committees were appointed by both Houses for the examination of the king's phy. sicians on these points. The reports of each were laid before their respective Houses on Jan. 13 and 15, and have been printed: it will be sufficient here to state the general result. The medical gentlemen examined were, Doctors Heberden, Baillie, sir W. Halford, Monro, Simmons, John and Darling Willis. They all agreed respecting his majesty's present incapacity of attending public business, and also that his bodily health was either good or little impaired. They agreed likewise in representing his state of mind as greatly disordered. With respect to the chance of recovery; they concurred in thinking such an event improbable: but as to the degree of improbability, there was some difference, at least in their language, some representing it as bordering upon hopelessness, others as only a preponderance of improbability. On the whole, however, it was evident that the sum of opinion was such as to exclude any reasonable expectation of a recovery, and that little more was meant by the cautious terms employed, than to avoid a positive declaration that it was absolutely despaired of. The public at large had anticipated the physicians in a similar judgment.

A debate on a matter of little intrinsic importance, but one which gave an insight into the po

licy pursued by ministers in their connection with the Regent, occurred on the motion for a supply to his majesty, made in the House of Commons on January 9. Mr. Creevey rose, and after observing that it was the duty of that House to examine several subjects connected with the revenue before they entered into the consideration of the supply, adverted to an office lately bestowed on the regent's confidential servant, colonel M'Mahon. Twenty-nine years ago it had been stated, in the 10th report of the commissioners for public accounts that the office of paymaster of widows' pensions was a perfect sinecure, and ought to be abolished, and in one of the reports of the commissioners of military inquiry presented to the House, four years ago, the same opinion had been confirmed, and it was added, that on the decease of the present patentee, general Fox, they presumed that the office would be suppressed; yet in the face of these two reports, the ministers of the crown had advised his royal highness the Regent to confer the office on colonel M'Mahon. He concluded with moving an amendment, that the House would to-morrow se'nnight resolve itself into a committee of supply, in order to give an opportunity in the interim for the consideration he had suggested.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer began a reply with some observations on the prefatory matter in Mr. Creevey's speech, in which he had alluded to the conferring of some other places on members of parliament on account of their political conduct; and after defending the ministers in that re

spect, he came to the case of colonel M'Mahon. He corrected the honourable gentleman's supposition, that the place in question was held by patent for life; and asserted, that it had been distinctly communicated to the colonel, by his Royal Highness's command, that considering the circumstances under which the office stood, he was to hold it as subject to any view that the parliament might take of it.

Mr. Brougham considered the appointment as an insult to parliament, and said, that the communication to the colonel, mentioned by the chancellor of the exchequer, only proved that the ministers were conscious that they were flying in the teeth of those principles which had been recognized by the House and its commissioners. This observation was argued against by Mr. Croker, who defended ministers in respect of that and other appointments which had been objected to.

Mr. Whitbread thought that the last honourable gentleman had failed to remove the objectionable qualities of the case in question. The principle feature of blame in the transaction was, in his opinion, that of appointing the colonel dur. ing the recess of parliament, to a situation which every one must know to be a sinecure, and therefore an incumbrance on the public purse, and fit only to be abolished. After some other speakers had given their remarks on the subject, the House divided, for Mr. Creevey's amendment 11; against it 54. It should be observed, that the honourable character and merits of colonel M'Mahon were allowed on both sides. It may also

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