Star. — London, England, 1810-12-28 00:00:00

1 NUMBER 74291 •. ..d••• ADMIIALTTSIRCI, Dame Air 40, 1810. NOTICE is hereby gives, That a Stoles of Oyer and Terminer and Goal Delivery, fir the Trig e Offneees emanated o rb High Seas, neogliia the jaerisdietias 'calm Admiralty 1 Entismi, wig it held at Joi)tioe ma, in rile Oil Iniky, Loader,, on Thad" the tga of Jznmary next, it eight o'clock in Me seerning. J. W. CROKER. 7,24NSPORT OFFICE, Dateseke 26, 1810. ri l liE COMMISSIONERS for CONDUCTING ; -IL NIS MAJESTT'S TRANSPORT SERVICE, for Wing ' Co.? of SICK a 7.1 WOUNDED SEAMEN, ad for M Caro and c„ t ,i, of PRISONERS of WAR, do hereby:iv. Notice, Tbat they will be ready at this Office, on Thursday the Sd of ;sundry, 1811, to receive sealed Tenders, and treat with such Pasoni as ;nay be wilting to contract for Victualling Prisoners of War, in health and in sicknesas at Edinburgh Castie,in North Britain, for six months certain. Y 3 Tender will be rusived el - ter ore (Math ea tbs day of treaty, eta Oaf .110:41:44 Ilus Lk party, or an agent for Aix, personally agerds. Each Tinder nowt is atm:partied by a Letter frets two respeetabli Pawns, eigagimg t 3 beams barn with the Person Midair:, Les sow of £ 2OOO far the duo perfirosaase of the Contrast. fairtb.:rjrattindsrs nay k baewa, by 47,441 yin e at skis Jtialoshot Wright, Eq. slreffir Pritaor>Y - ' ------- OFFICE OP,ORDIVANCE, Doormier 21, site, ri" HE PRINCIPAL OFFICERS of HIS MAI JESTrs ORDNANCE, do lortiy give Mao, That Proposals will be received at their Office in Pall-Mall, on er before Wednesday the 2d day of January next, from aU Per sons who may be willing to undertake the supply of the wider. mentioned quantities and description of English Timber, for ser vice of the Royal Carriage Department at Wootwiek via. Six Hundred Loads of Hewed Elm Timber, no Tree nailer 80 feet. Two Hundred Loads of 04, each Stick to contain 70 feet. Due half of the quantity specified to be delivered at Woolwich by the 31st day of March, and the remainder by the SOth day of June, 1911, and payment to be made by Monthly Certificates, within three months after the receipt of these Vouchers in the Office of the Honourable the Surveyor General, at the Tower. Ihe Proposals must be delivered at the Secretary's Office in Pall-mall aforesaid, for no smaller a proportion than one hundred Loads, sealed up, and indorsed, " Proposals for English Tim ber," but no ''ender can be admitted alter twelve o'clock at noon of the td of January next ; neither will any be noticed for less than ten Loads, or without the attendance of the party making st, or an Agent is his behalf.—By Order of the Board, R. H. CREW, Socretery. - : ' _ 1 ' - 11 . • • - , •....'. . : :e .•I t . d *...! A 1;-41f?t: %V •-• 1 1 k 114 "ReVA / ; 1 ' 4l '5 -- • cji 7l'! .. , i• ::),: tut u bpi - i • tv• I, •-.-; , 1) - , 44 i.ii ~ .. ' 1 an;11" Y'tt ' :Vlr N . .; .• '.. . s ... cL. , .. "..4 ) , .:Z. 2' . 'Li r : it 3, . . . .. _ _ ..., ._ bAY, The Noble Earl then referred tbilie lint*nage of the lletias, sigma by the Physicians, which he consi dered very different in their impart from what the Physicfians described to the Committee to have , been the situation of his Majesty at the corresponding pe riods. He contended, that no man from a perusal of these papers, could have known tie state the Save reignwas actually in at thetime. Upon the whole,when he viewed this part of the subject, on which, appa ready, a degree of delusion existed, equally injurious and reprehensible, he thought, That as the accounts given through those different-channels were so ma terially contradictory, the best expedient for arriving at the real truth, and the actual state of the Sove reign's health, would be a re-examination of the Phyv sictans, as those Gentlemen were in high estimation in the 'world for their great professional skill. He 'thought such a proceedutg was due to the dignity of Parliament, and necessary for the information of the Public at large, and as such he would earnestly re commend its-adoption. The Earl of LIVERPOOL did not conceive micassoli to trouble:their Lordships with any obser listines, in consequence of what had fallen from the Noble Earl, farther than to say, that he, and those with whom he had the honour to act, were ready at any time to fully discus's and justify the line of con duct adopted, under all the circumstances to which the Noble Earl had referrFd. He thought the dis cussion of such a topic would he highly irregular and inopportune in the present state of their Lordships' proceedings; he would therefore move the Order of the Day. The question being put from the Woolsack, their Lordships accordingly resolved into a Committee of the Whole House on THE STATE OE THE NATION, And Lord %VAL-IMO/IAM having taken the Chair, the Resolutions communicated by the Commons were then read by the Clerk, on which The Earl of LIVERPOOL rose and said, «I now feel myself called ••pon to address your Lordships upon the very important subject under your consider ation, and to call your particular attention to those Resolutions votee. and communicated to us by the .'House of Common, which you have just heard read, ATpon the first of these Resolutions, my Lords, I think at this time, unfortunately, there can arise no 'difference of opinion. In discharging the painful duty imposed on us by the statement of the melancholy fact referred to in this Resolution, I am persuaded it is intr. sible, to do justice to those feelings, by any attempt of mine to express them, with which we are 101 l actuated by so afflicting a circumstance. I can , not, however, help expressing the anxious hope we all must entertain on the restoration of a gracious and beloved Sovereign, under whose ausp . ...s, for more than fifty years, we have enloyed a portion of liberty ' and uninterrupted tranquillity, which was never ez w . , Ovid by say odor country oa the face of the glob and I feel we all must look with pleasing satisfaction tb the hopes held out of the re-establishment of his Majesty's health, and the hope of the ultimate re sumption, by himself, of the personal exercise of his royal authority. Notwithstanding, my Lords, what I have heard this night or on former occasions, I can take no blame to myself, nor attach any to my col-. leaf.. Tors ;n office, for those propositions we have from zu.ke to time made, in the hope that these measures, which now may eventually be necessary to adopt, might have been avoided. In this view of the case, it is impossible to consider the state in which the coun try may be involved under such circumstances—a si tuation in which it is now.nearly two centuries and an half ago since it was placed under a Government in any degree similar, which the afflicting consideration we all deplore may render necessary. I say, my Lords, when we reflect not only upon the difficulties but the degree of danger naturally incident to such changes, it is impossible that we should not pause when any reasonable hope presented itself of our being able to avoid such a state as that to which I have alluded. It was our duty, as Ministers, in such circumstances, and our duty to the Coun try, to endeavour to avoid it. Ido not say this,' my Lards, from any considerations of a personal , nature towards any individual, however exalted, but from public grounds, and from publit princi ples. Under these impressions, I shall, at the pre. sent moment, endeavour to avoid, as much as pos. sible, the consideration and discussion of all ex traneous points, or of any matter foreign from the subject regularly before us. If I decline entering upon any of these topics, it it not from any particular unwillingness, or desire to shrink from any such die. cu lions, but because I feel they are not necessarily involved in the questions now regularly before the Committee. The present questions should be wholly ' considered on their own grounds, and their exclusive merits, and not connected with any thing that may tend to embarrass, instead of facilitating the discus sion. That now before us entirely and alone respects the course and mode of the proceedings which it may be necessary to adopt; and as far as this considera tion went, that is, Is to the form of our proceedings.i I was induced - to think there would be so material., difference of opinim ; but as I uuderstend since, from what has passed in this House, and in other places, that it is intended not merely to ob . rect to the mode in which it is proposed to fill op the temporary defi ciency in the Constitution, but also to oppose the whole principle and course of the proceedings adopt ed in the year 1788. With respect, my Lads, to.. the principle of that great and salutary preeedentd when I consider it so analogous to, and founded on, 1 , the genuine principles of the Constitution of this Country • when I consider the great and eminent law authorities who have given their decided and express • sanction to that principle and course of proceeding, I feel it a aluestion of so muck magnitude and im portance that I cannot avoid stating those general principles, at least, on which, in my conviction, theth resolutions are fouadad, and which I conceive to 1W consonant m all thole great constitutional principles. by which Z howdy& your Lordships would wish to PARLIAMENTARr PROCEEDINGS. HOUSE OF LORDS, THURSDAY, DEC. 27. STATE OF SUS MAJESTY'S HEALTH. Previous to the Order of the Day beiug regularly entered upon, and on the occasion of their Lordships ' Order for referring the Report of the Committee ap pointed to examine the • Royal Physicians, to the Committee of the whole House, on the State of the Nation, being read, The Earl of CARLISLE rose, for the purpose of tailing their Lordships' attention to this particular part of the subject, which he conceived of considera ble importance. He briefly noticed the steps_which had been taken from the earlier period that the me lancholy situation of his Wear had been pubiisly known, to the present moment, the whole course of which, and the ptlneiple on which the conduct of Mi nisters proceeded, had his decided disapprobation. Zn coasequente of their repeated omissions to do that which the line of their duty prescribed to them, they wile now, after a lapse of five weeks, proceeding to do that which they should have done at the very ear lest opportunity, after that great national calatni:!. which they all deplored had Dairen place : they - were but now beginning to lay the foundation of that building, which, if they had done their real duty, not br.ly to their country but to themselves, it would be Considerably above. the ground—perhaps so far ad vanced, as merely to want the finishing hand to be put to it. This would now have been the case did Parliament perforns its duty upon this important crisis. Instead of it, the work was left to a govern ment, which, under the circumstances, had no parti cular description in the constitution ; it was in fact a species of usurpation.—( Some cheering from the Opteci iim Banque). The Noble Earl then reverted more particulaily to the state of his Majesty's health, the truth of which seemed to have been long concealed. .He gave full credit to the Noble Lords in Admini stration for their relevant conduct ; they must have been equally deceived with the rest of his Majesty's snbjects. When he looked over the document which tad just been regularly referred to the consideration of their Lordships, and compared what appearedl therein with some of the bulletins issued about the time to which he alluded, he must think it scarcely possible then that even Ministers themselves could be acquainted with these facts, or they never could have tome down, the middle of last month, and held the lauguage they did to Parliament, respecting the state /if his Majesty's health. But representations from ;such a quarter should not have been made the ;round of parliamentary proceeding ; they should then have themselves inquired into the real state of the ease and they should not have suffered the executive power of the Government to remain in the hands it has, +against the plainest principles and dictates of the consti tution. He repeated his idea, that Noble Lords in the Administration could not have been acquainted 'with the real state of the health of their Sovereign at the time, or they never would have so acted. He 'oe;zgeti their Lordships to consider what. the state %lents made by Doctors Willis and Heberden, re specting the state of his MA -sty, were at the tflue to, wl:ich he alluded. The Noble Lord here .quoted terrain parts of the report of the evidence of those tft:dical Crentlemen, which lay upon the table, par ticularly where the former describes the Royal Pa tent to have been, from tae severity of the fever, in n state of great !mil. This was about the 6th of No vember ; and when the latter stated that one of the paroxyrns appeased so severe as to give the Physi- 1 clans great apprehensions for the safety of his life, he.; could not suppose that Ministers could have been so acquainted with the real state of the case, and of the dangerous state of his Majesty, or they could never have raised hopes-of his recovering so timely as to render it unnecessary, in ail probability, for Parliament to take those steps which . were vex/ resently adopteid. ese to BEIL 28, be governed on suet oocasioes as the resent. The first principle laid down in forming the precedent of 1788, was, that the hroue must be considered as always full, and that the political capacitrof the So vereign was always in existence, whatever may be the immediate temporary personal situation of the Monarch. This I conceive to be a practical dis tinction of a nature necessary to insure to the go verned the existence of all the advantages to be derived from the principle of Monarchy. If the exercise of the royal authority during the life of the' legal Sovereign must be scrupulously reserved fort that Sovereign, any departure from this principle on I every occasion of temporary personal incapacity might be, to lead to all the inconveniences and I dangers of a disputed succession. The great object in 1 the establishment of the monarchical system WAS. its affording a security, and the certainty of its alibrd ing a bulwark, against the ambitioos designs of indivi duals the object should be, as far as possible, to se-1 cure this system against any interropties, and ao can- Centre and continue as far as possible the executive power to the King upon'the Throne. To these, my I Lords, should be added, the consideration that the 1 law knows no such office as that of Regent. That office was always created under special circumstances, and witl(reference to a special exigency. It was the uniform practice of our ancestors so to act, and in their wisdom they formed no general prece dent for the guidance of posterity upon the point; they felt the danger of meddling with a principle of the kind so great., that they thought that wbau► ever inconveniencies may arise from iti. being left open and undecided, these were less than what would result from laying down a general prospective rule, they thought it right to leave it to the wisdom of future Legislatures to povide for that species of Government, according to the special circumstances of the particular cases, as they may occur. Neither, my Lords, was it a principle of our ancestors, that the succession to the Regency should be regulated by that of the succession to the Monarchy ; nor does oath a principle, I believe, obtain in other countries .governed by the Monarchial system. Indeed, in some countries, the Heir Apparent, or Heir Presumptive, (upon insufficient grounds I should think) is con sidered as the last person in whom such an office should be vested. Even where the Salique Law prevails, the nese in succession to the Throne is not considered as the pmperest to exercise the authorities of a Regent. The assumed principle of a right vested in the next in succession to the office of Regent, was not founded on the principles of the Constitutien r nor was it to be found in the Statute Book. There was no instance in the history of the country of a Re gent who had not been appointed by the authority of the existing Legislature. Indeed, an instance of a claim to the Regency being made, was to be found in the reign of Henry VI. when thee nett of kin (the march being then in a state of infancy) claimed the exercio: of - the royal power. The claim was dis: cussed in Parliament, and it was the opinion of all the great authorities of that day, that such a claim was entirely unfounded ; and it was so determined by the Legislature. Indeed, all the cases in the his tory of the realm evinced that no Regent was ever appointed except by the authority of Parliament. It is also apparent, my Lords, from a review of our history, that there was no instance of a Regency, with the exception of the Duke of Gloucester, after wards King Richard the Third, and the Protector So merset, that was not in atone way or other limited and restrained by Parliament. Even the Duke of York, in the reign of Henry VI. notwithstanding all his power and influence, he could not obtain the Regency otherwise than as * restricted grant. I know, my Lords, it may be objected, that these cases to which I refer are drawn from times and pet 'ids of anar chy and violence • but they are times to which, in the opinions of the greatest legal and constitutional authorities, we should look for the foundatioits of that liberty which we now enjoy—that these founda tions were laid from the accession of Henry 111. to the reign of Henry VII. But, my Lords, it is not to precedents formed in these times that we can alone Infer ; we have them many degrees nearer to the present time. Ido not now mean the great case id 1788—that I shall advert to by and bye. The cases I mean afford us ample proof of the opinion of the country as to the principle. I allude to the Act of the Twenty-fifth of George the Second, made in contemplation of the minority%of his pre.. sent Majesty. I eater not into particular circum stances or arrangements, but it chews the prevalence of the principle at the time, that the nest in suc. cession was not, as a matter of course, entitled to the ' office or the powers of Regency, and that the office to be contingently exercised was not created without limitation or restriction. The Act for the eventual formation of a Regency, in the early part of the prt sent reign, proceeded upon the same principle, the next in succession to the Throne was not to be in-1 vested wit k the Regency, neither was it to be exer ;bed withtlut limitation or restriction. All the pre toildents and authorities in the Statute Book or in the page of history, evince the principle that no indivi dual whatever has any right to the office of Regent, save that he derived from Parliament, and that such I was founded on the best principles of the Constitu tion. I shall now proceed to the consideration of the') mode in which such office, in case of necessity, may I be conferred by the Legislature—there exists only two, that by Address and that by Bill. As to the. person on whom the office should be conferred they I were all agreed. By the mode of address. his Royal Highness would be desired to take upcin himself the Government of the country—by as act of the Legis lature it would be provided he should do so, but I would ask, if any particular individual has no legal title to the Regency, whether both modes of prone ding are of equal efficacy ? Howeiet, it proves) by your own shewing, that the authority proceeded from Parliament, whichever mode is adopted. The mode of Address iA shelf can confer no le al powers, and in every view I eau take of it. I cenwilet that of pr•• I V% eeeding by-Bill the only mode we can adopt. The Address, ray Lords, cm confer no legal power. it can form no. record, ran' he tacit notice of in the Courts beloS;. * Thelidtleese may call forth into itc tion any legitl power alechdy in exince. but eat "touter no power by law whiter did.. n ste Or 1,101401p1y Alight. No objection of this son wild lie against the mode of proceeding by Bm, which, with the Great Seal faxed to it, onset be duly regarded its all the Covets of the Realet. / eastern' that the aneeation of the Great Seal would have such efeet—theCeants were bound to obey it —no covenant could be mach against it k the Courts of law. Here— . Earl STANHOPE rose to order, bet on its ap peerieg the Noble Lord was not generally supplied. he observecrit was coatpetent for him to rise to corms a mistake - in a ilembierbf the Committee. The Ertel of HARROWBY observed. id onaneee, that his Noble Friend was perfectly in order, a miss Übe was no transgressing of order. " The gad of LIVERPOOL teamed ; be taohnr dad teethe itccuracy of his former position. e The velidity of the great seals may be questioned by Par liament; but it cannot be questioned in any of eh* Courts below. I cannot better express my opinion on this head. than by referring to the languap et great law authority now no, more. I mean the bite Lord Camden ; he had a particular degree of tor rectness in expressing his opinions, and I halve, from all that I have heard or read upon the midget, or from all I could collost from any conversation with persons eminently learned in the law, that 44 opinion of that great law Lord was incontrovertatin [gem the Noble Earl read the opinion be Aided to.] In illustrating the great legal authority of Ole Great Seal, nothing can form a more striking proof than the effect of its annexation to an Act passed towards the close of the reign of Henry Vill. where the royal assent was obtained under such circum stances as to render it a matter of doubt whetherithe assent was duly given. Yet that Act remained in force, and was never questioned during the roes of his successor, King Edward VI. This terms a strik ing proof of the efficacy of the Great Seal. which, even where it was doubtful whether the royal assent was duly obtained, yet for an interval of several years , its authority was not attempted to be set aside. It was 'only in Parliament that the salmi t y of the great seal can be questioned or revoked. Frozn all I have - said, my Lords, I must conclude, that in ease of, the personal incapacity of the King to signify his assent. there remains no other mode-to provide foe the defi ciency, but by legislation ; it lies only in the two.rel maining branches to provide for filling tip the defi ciency ; and of this, as I before oluerved, there' are numerous precedents.. The principle of she preterit proceeding, my Lords, goes.. througien= consideration of the Throne "being I Courts of Justice are open—that alLthelikersollfliena fromehewanre in foil is alive in all its parts. Itt r l c iellillittlpU I6Sti, the case was far otherwise—the T was vacant—the Courts of Justice teat shut-.dintietat Seal was destroyed. Under these eircumstaoces there was then no alternative—they had no powerosontu* 'thority to legislate, and they adapted that modepn der the circumstances which appeared so them most beneficial to the State—they, adopted it on tikt r hzie , gency - of the case. Another instante, my Lerch; id, .' dues' of the mode of preetioding by Addles', is As hell-known case of the Irhh Parliament in Ins. -'mt Body was pleased to determine on the Alba of Address; but to the immortal honour of- ..1 Noble Marquis who then resided in that countrp as the Representative of the Sovereign, hr withheld from it every sanction in his power, dad eve6'ne , ' fused to transmit is to this country. But, my UM,. a material cow ideration applies to this p of the Irish Parliament, I mean on the disc of the question of a Union with that countryi *- 11799, viz. that this very -proceeding of the Piro. 'lament of Ireland, in 17103, by the Mode of Ade dress, was urg.d as an argument for the Unien. lie inasmuch, as the Legislatures in their state may, on the occurrence of such . t o ' choose a different person to fi ll the Miscall' t in Ireland, from that chosen to fill the sante its England. This was admitted, as far as it MIK to be a conclusive argument. The precediet of 1 Imy Lords, I contend, in all its points and bears e. is the only one which, under the present and titteriele similar circutustanees, legally end constioniundily governs our proceedings: It wan amply and (darts-, ' l. cussed in both Houses of Parliament at the tiontebat ,,- .! the Resolutions which I have the honour • tbh Pe' Co submit to you, were tarried in both kkiettel.: sit considerable majorities. In addition to oleo Jl.'h eli already adverted to on this head , is the ct 11,4 07- that in puemance td the Resolutions of both dilineet, Parliament was opened by commission - end,. the great seal, on the 3d of Febniary ; and it-'lli arell. known, that towards thi close of that month his Mo. jesty happily recovered ; and on the I Oth of March, Parliament was regularly opened by a commission, 't i nder the accusto th ed formalities, the commission being signed by his Majesty. "By the first cm:ratio skin, I should state, that the Cause of the meetiog: of Parliament under audit circumstance was deli stated. , In the regular and ordinary commission for openfas the Session on the 10th of March, the foimer COW. mission was referred to and recognized. as appeared from the then Lord ehancellcr's speech tb tbdt Houses, in the name of his Majesty ; the forrnerCoku missioners were continued in the Cominission of' tilt 10th of March, and the act(' and proceedings Tender the former Commis ion were recognized and etirilirits. ed by that issued in the euetomaty, ,way, and sigried by his Majesty himself. In the laterite' between The Commissions, a variety of Legislative e roeeediegs had taken place, as private Bills. for which Petitions had been presented in tbe usual ;way * and :tine bl . .these wet* considerably advanced in their peeve*: ' Weal the former Corrirnissioo ;13 which the Greet Seal "was affixed not on the personal authority of hi,' Aye*/ , ilut on that of tha two Houses only, haki to bt inealid ~t ~t 1~ ~C --., .. - -7Purnrwm; - 1 "" '; . ,t'.lo"."'7 l P" - l c . .4 1 '4 64niproilt 4 ,11' 43:0;4:.: ' a ft,' .:101, f .............„.. _,...d„.„.. •. ...,,, ~. ' '..,5 , ' • . .„ .., ' . "''''' .. '. • -- . .... . 4 . .1 • i ... . • • ii