The National Register. — London, England, 1811-01-06 00:00:00

THE NATIQNAL duty to supply the Executive Goverwment.-1 Hear, hear ! ) He agreed to the cwo adjournments.. •„:11 had taken place ; and in this he had differed from the opinion of those Hon. Friends with whom he usually acted; but he did this from principle, and with a view to giv,. tvery f;:cility to the hope that was then cuter tained of Ms Majesty's .I,;cekly recovery. But was that any rca son they should now sic quiet and do nothing, that because they bad the discretion they should nog use it ? But when this tested peck dent of 1788 came to he considered, he thought all these arguments in its defence came to the ground. They said this precedent of 1788 was applicable to the present case. He (Mr. S.) thought it totally different ; and he would say without affec tation, and he was sure, upon conviction, that was that great It ader of that measure (Mr. Pitt) now alive, he would give his vote against all these restrictions. But the Learned Gentlemen and the Alinisters, or the Ministers and the Learned Gentle man seemed to forget all law in their character of Mini stt • ; and the Learned and Right Hon. Gentleman (Mr. Secre tary Ryder) calls to his aid, a book, written by a Noble Friend of his at that time. " Ch !" but said the Learned and Right Hon. Gentleman, " if his Hon. Friend (Mr. Wynne) read Lord Crenville's book, he would have thought otherwise." He (Mr. S.) thanked God his Holt. Friend bad not written a book— ( Hear, hccr, hea r) and the Right Hon. Gentleman said, ii he had read that book, he never would have made that speech. He was pretty sure, when Lord Grenville was writing that book in 1788, he did not irusgine he was wridng it to answer his Noble Friend in 1810. But every man's speech, on the other side, relied upon the precedent of 1788. We will have the precedent of 17et>, the whole precedent of 1788, and Lathing but the prec: dent of 17SR ; and this was thehurthen of their song, the sommunt Locum of all their perfections. But he grounded himself upon this argument; that precedent, he thanked Heaven, bad never found its way into the Statute-Book ; and although i: was on the:Journals of that House, it was a disgrace to those .barnols, and should he b!ottedoutfilr ever. What, he asked, was the pe riod at which this measure was adopted ? It was at a time, when the greatest factions, that ever disgraced Parliament, existed on both sides of the Hunse.—(Loud cheers, with cries of Hear, hear ! ) He wished not to recollect that time ;it was not to be remembered. He could not but remember the words of Mr. Burke upon that occasion ; he could not recollect them without the utmost regret ; but was ashamed to repeat them. He well remembered also the words of Mr. Pi.t, who said, that in point of right, his Royal Highness the Prince or Wales had no more right to the Regency than any other man in the kingdom. eiuch was the party spirit of the time, such was the spirit itawhicn that measure was brought forward. The Prince was represented in 1768, as at the head of a faction to pull down and degrade the Regal dignity and authority. He stated this to shew that the precedent of 1788, did not apply in any respect to the present case.. He held in his hand the Bill of 1788; and in the Bill itself, there was internal evidence that the Regal au thority should not be restricted at sal. The very preamble of • this Bill was a gloring absurdity, and run thus :—" Whereas it has become expedient and necessary to assist his Majesty in the Government of these Kingdoms." Was not this an absurdity in itself, a complete " humLus" upon truth and common sense ? and after this, would the House believe, that this was. the fa mous precedent of 1788, in which so much stress had been laid, so much reliance had been placed ? He had the dishonour, if he • might so term it, of being one of the Committee of that day ; and as much as had been said upon former precedents, he beg. ged to state to the House, that that Committee was not even allowed the time or opportunity of looking into the records, in order to form a true judgment upon it. Some fusty parch ments, made up of bad Latin and bad French were handed to the Committee of that day, of which they could make nothing, and this it was contended was sufficient authority to graft the present proceeding upon. The object of the Bill of 17aS, went yearly to disinherit his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, to vilify and degrade that Noble Personage ; he trusted, therefore,i • su;:h a precedent would not be followed upon the present oc casion. The single precedent of 1718 then, was the whole of the case of the Hon. Gentlemen opposite. But he hoped he might be suffered to trace this measure through all its stages. That Bill made a permanent provision that the Regent should not make atny Peers at all, while Mr. Pitt had made upwards of pile hundred Peers; and here he observed on the dangerous tendency of . stich an influence; the House of Lords might have the whole se ontroul of the Government, or could there he a stronger proof that nothing bUt a party spirit guided the pro : reeditigiauf that House uron the occasion. By the same famous Bill, it was provided that the Queen should have a Council of four pergonit, and the four persons named in the Bili to be her Maja-sty's-Coundil were--the Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord: Chancellor 'fhurlow, the Archbishop of York, and Lord Ken yon—if any of these personages should die, it might have been expetted ) that out 'of respect to the Law and the Chter , :h, the 9 Heir Apparent might have some voice in the nomination of thv person to such vacancy. But, no! the Prince of Wales 'MINIMA to be trusted, and her Majesty, was to .select the persou who anti to fill this situation; and as he tinist speak out boldly and tell the truth, the whole of the provisions of that Bill were nut framed as against Princes generally, but against the Prince of Wales. They must not look therefore at this mea sure, as the Polar Star to lead them safe ho-) harbour, but as a beacon and warning to steer clear of the rocks which surrounded it. 'There could not he a more unfair, foul, and fallacious orgu- Ment than this. What waa meant by the sanction of the Royal authority ? What did the speech from the throne say ? Nothiu& that could be construed into an approbation by the Royal mind of such a measure. Nothing that could at all silty that Ms Majesty took any nutice of any distinction whatsoever. Lead Thurlow declared In the House of Peers, that his Majesty ha4l fdt the highest satisfaction on ;he conduct of both Houses at Pirliament; and that however some members might differ is opinion upon general principles, ht was convinced of their lcyalty and attachment to his Person and Government. As to hs Majesty's personal opinion on the questioa, ha conceived k was unpailiamentary to quote that speech as that of his Ma a jisty, but as the speech of his Ministers, and which was no !yore titan an approbation of their own act;.—As he should have another opportunity of geing at large into other branches of this question, he should not trouble the House with many more olservations. And having thus disabled this celebrate precedent of 17M8, he had little left to observe upon at prestot. Ire could not, '..nvever, pass by some points of a Noble Lord's (eastlereagh) spee , :h on a former Right, without a few °brier , \anions :—The Noble Lord would not . give the Regent the rower of creating a Nine." peer, but he would give hint abniltate controul over the whole of the Household. Thus the Noble. Lord drew both ways, to use Amore apprieeble phrase, ad hered to his old maxim of tun strings to leis Qul, and b.! woeds cf . the Noble Lord were worthy of particular notice- - Juppoie." stys the Noble Lord, " I was to be the Regent," and to lie sur;e the Noble Lord was highly qualified to MI that exalted station; 4 or suppose I was the Minister of the Regent, I should most annestl advise the Regent to withhold the grant of Peerage, because' said the Noble Lord," you would taereby prevent at great scene of jealousy, discord, and disagreement in your Councils."—Now ht could not conceive why the Noble Lord thould form an opinion unless he himself bad knows of the ex istence of some of those jealousies and discords in Cabinet upon the question of creating Petrages, and thus the Noble Lord would ease the Regent by the extinction of the whole Regal diaracter of the country. It certainty was a mos: exeellent plan a) give the Regent case ; to place the Regent on a bed of rosex.— i Loud cheers, and hear, hair )—He cautioned against exceed ing their legislative capacity. It had been doubted, whether they had tee power to issue writs for the election of Metubt rs. they ought not to remain an hour longer in sheir perilous situ- Ilion. What were the arguments adduced by otu . enemy, the . z:mperor of France, against us ?—they were , that our monarchy was enfeebled; though King's were madefor the people, aud lot the people for the Kings. This was the miserable of mist:a 'h+ ; and thus it was that the Devil quoted ficrirture, with a 'vengeance. against us h—( Cries No ! No ! )—The peopl4 of 110nd were not weary of the House of Brunswick. We were struggling, as we had struggled, for the noblest possible con dition of society.—(loud calls ,fur the Orestion ; universal con far and reiterated clamours for the Question ! ) Mr. G. WI Lso N supported the original Resolutions. Mr. CAN WING WAlcil not to detain the House, but what advantage could ensue from raking the ashes of the dead, in order to rekindle the flames of the living ? He would not for one, pluck stones from the monument of Mr. Fox, to erect another to Mr. Pitt; who did 1.o: know this surreptitious species of commemoration ? We lived, nevertheless, in times of gigantic stature, since Mr. Pitt was no itaager to be deemed great.—(Loud cries of hecr ! ) Sir S. RoatiLLY, intrudieg for some moments on their atten tion, denied his having introduced the species of argument com plained of. The KOK Hun. tacotlernan (Air. Canning) having first introduced the name of Air. Pitt, connecting it woth the precedent of i7BB, and dwelling much on the authority of that Statesman. Preeedenas were, however, necesutry to be cou.i dered here, as .they were iii Courts of Justice. Mr. Pitt's talents and influence were nothing, unless it could he shewn that tie had improved the cainditioteof soaletys—(Hear, hear ! ) Mr. CANNING here explained. Sir E. Be koletar asserted ;that he never felt any personal animosity to Mrs. Pitt, but soh:Iy: to his measures ; mint maintaio that his qualificationawe - e these for debate only. Ail arguments drawn ,rain premalentia appeared to him iiteonciii sive.—t Oaastion ! Qoeaitoa )-a/Whiletboy hi t. a fair House: %,f emulous, the people ought also to pousess a strung Executivo Government. The titres calital for this. If they looked at the map Of Europe, they would see the necesaity for unanimity and R.