The National Register. — London, England, 1817-02-03 00:00:00

FEBRUARY $. . _. suffrage, awl to make the House of Commons u mere animal organ of a ik newrary, was the very reverse of what the British Constitution had been at all times, from the earlies t periods to the present moment. itear!) In the very statement of this thing called Refinati, there was 11:111011:: but revolution. Universal Suffrage and Annual Parliami nos would extinguish every part of our political system. It; then we meant to defend the Constitution, it must not be done by coercing, or by driving men to jails, but by proving to the ntliriners the practical benefits which the Constitution was capable Of proancing. The best way to silence their elation r was, to enter on plans of amelioration ; and in the proseim• Linn of such plans, he wrth' lend the whole force of his mind, and be ready even to sacrifice his life. (Item., bear!) Lord Si itoorTit declared he never heard a speech in Par liament more calculated 111 !Wildfire IleSPOlitt• ncy, than the whieli hail .just been delivered by his Noble Friend ; for such must be the effect upon the country, if lie was well founded in his statement, that the public distresses were pH manent, instead of temporary, whereas he looked fir aarvl to the gradual removal of all the privations and difficulties mailer which we laboured. Here the Noble Viscomit entered into some historical statements, to spew that very great distresses had existed at the conclusion of the American war —distresses which, comparatively, inight Ie nearly as great as they were at present, when, within one year, a reduction of taxes to the amount nearly of eighteen millions had taken place ; and when we Karl a Sinking Fund, that was opei ating to the ex tifir,ion of our national debt. He entertained as much con stitutional jealousy respecting a nflitary force as any nom ; but the general state of Europe and the dearrst interests of the country absolutely required the extent of for cc which had been kept iip. He objected to the A inentlinent, because he saw iio constitutional ohiect that (multi be attained by it, and therefore lie should support the original .Address. Lord I)anat.kv strongly censured the 3linisters for the e °millet they permed at the opening of the Parliament, and for not having given any pledge of their intention to relieve the distresses of the comity. After observations from Lord Holland, the Amendment was negatived without a division, and the Address was then car ried, and ordered to be presented to the Prince Regent. 'lite Earl of Liveurnoi, moved an Address to the Prince Regent. congradolating his Royal Highness on the marriage of the Duke of Ghmeester with the Princess Mary; he also moved a similar Address to the Queen. 'limy were both agreed to, and ordered to be presented by the Lord* with white staves.—Adjourned. FRIDAY, JANUARY 31. PRIVILEGE. A message was brought from the Commons by , Mr. MN a nd others, stating, that the Commons, taking notice that at the laterwelerenee the same accommodation had not been afforded to the Managers of the Commons as had been provided on firmer occasions, and That the Seats fur the Manage's for the Lords had been differently placed, and rai-ed higher than before, contrary to ancient usage and pre cedent, requested that all this might not be drawu into pre cedent, and the place in which the conferences were held shooll be fitted up as usual. The messengers were ittformed by the Load Chancellor, that the House would send an IMS wet. RII FEBRUARV 1. At two reeling , . the Lords met, and immediately proceeded fo robe for the purpo.:e of presenting the Addre. , : on the Speech, to the Prinen Regent. About 21 l.ordr• Spiritual and Temporal were pre,.ent ; and at half-past two they 'nosed in procession to Carleton House. HOUSE OF COMMONS. TVENDA If, JAN. 214. The Speaker, attended by a numerous body of the mem bers, proceeded to the House of Peers, to hear the Speech read ft nun the 'throne, and at four the SPE %HEN took the Chair: when new writs were ordered for Aliillmist r. Lord Mallon, now Earl Stanhope; for Lemilmiderry, r. Sir G. appointed ViceTreasswer of Ireland —( Hear, hear , hear!)—for Portsmouth, r. the late Sir T. Miller; for %V ilton, v. the late H. Herbirot,-Esq. ; and tir several other planes. Sir F. lit R mere gave notice, that he should on this /Jay month submit a motion on the subject of Refocus in Parlia ment. THE PRINCE. IIF.GENT'S SPEECH. Lord VALLE - Poor then rose to move an Address to the Prince, upon his most gracious Speech. lie congratulated th.. House upon the happy ter Mims of tie: late destructive contest on the Contioent, and the es erthrow of the Military DCB{,l4 km %%Inch had been established by Iltionaparte, by the restoration of the legitimate race of Sovereigns. The Noble Lord also congratulated the House and the Country on the successful issue of the contest between this country and Algiers. Ile was well aware that some persons entertained doubts that us soon as the Des of Algiers had recovered from the effects of our late splendid victory, he would renew Isis system of piracy. He, however, entertained another opinion. Ile was persuaded it would be long,- indeed, before the 31e diterranean c ttttt merve %mild again be infested by the inroads of this piratical Power. The N Mile Lord alluded to the ter mination of our late short lest glorious contest in India, into which, he obsei red, we had been fleeced by repeated injuries uud insults. He considered that much praise was due to the N..ble Lord at the head of our exteesive :ess cerement in that gami e r of the globe, fur Isis conduet ihis lag the continttanee of that conflict. The Noble Lord thought the gratitude of the House was due to his Royal Highness for having thus early called the attention of the House to the subject of our espeilditure, altil for the ;swamis wish he expressed to adopt every possible system of economy and retrenchment. He tousled, I • :see, that the House. whilst it considered economy, would not forget what was due to the rank we had t.. support 4 ?Wil t ; ilati ws. lie was of Opillioll that we 8111.111111 find mailing so prodigal as imbecility, or so expensive as weakness. The Noble Lord then adverted to the falling off in the revenue of the country. He trusted this circumstance %vomit prove only temporary. 'Uhe distress of the people he also hoped would be timid to nrise ont of temporary musses, principally from the transition from a state of wire to 'settee ; and that a short time would show they were, though evils pressing so heavy at present, only of a temporary nature. file Noble Lord also adverted to the symptoms of disaffec tion w hich 11411 410%:•11theMsel yes in various parts of the coun try ; arising, he said, principally out of the arts of designing indil Moak, who, under the specious rev 01 Reform in Par -11411 led the people astray.—lie oh -erved, Parlia ment in the ensuing se,sion would have a most important duty to perform. 'the eyes of the country were upon them-01m, It. m ! --one part of the people were anxiously looking towards them for a relief of their distresses; the other part were look• THE NATIONAL REGISTER. ing to them for the preservation of that Constitution of which they had been deputed the guardians. The Noble bird expressed his conviction, that the I r.mse would not disappoint the hems and expectations, either of his Rival Highness, or the people. He again expressed his high satisfaction at the commimicatnnt of his Royal Highness, and concluded by luau Mg an Address, which was, as usual, an echo of the Speech. Mr. Dawson seronikil the Address. The substance of this !lon. Member's speech was Utc same as that of the mover. He conelnded by declaring the satisfaction he felt in seconding the Address proposed by the Noble Lord. he %ddres• was then read from the Chair. Mr. Poxso BY, in differing flout many topics urged by the Mover and Seconder or the Addres-, had no desire whatever to increase the despondency which existed to such an extent in the country. He agreed folly with the Address on the sobject of the Expedition to Algiers, and on the late War in India. lie also agreed, that the fate of tire country was in deed in the hands of the Parliament ; and feeling that to he the case, he should have - to make some o:isers al ions on the present Speech as delivered from the Throne ; and he should also have to desire the Clerk to read two iniragraphs from the Speech from the Throne at the commencement of last Ses sion. The Clerk then read the paragraphs in the Speech of last Session. Mr. PostsoNßY resumed. He wished now to be understood as speaking of the Speech only as the speech of Ministers. lie wished now to ask, how It the assertion, that one ma nid*actures were Ilontishing, t limed ont ? and, with respect to erouomy and retrenchment, he would ask, it' any one mea sure had been imposed by Ministers? and further, he would ask, had out every measure of retrenchment proposed by. others been opposed by them? After this what faith could be placed in speeches from the Throne? 2 / I :nr, hear!—The Mover find Seconder, on the present occasion, had been most confident in asserting that our present difficulties were only temporary, as arising out of temporary causes. He was persuaded he should, before lie sat down, be able to show them the contrary was the fact. The Right lion. Gentleman then proceeded to take a review of our finances, and coo. tended that they were exhatided. Our Consolidated Fund had no longer a surplus. And with respect to keeping our faith with the public ereolitor, the only incaas of doing so had been destroyed ; he meant the Sinking Fund. A sinking fund must be a fund which enabled a nation, or an individual, to pay off somuthing of his debt. We had no such sinking fund, we had, indeed, no sinking cued ; for, if in order to pay oft 10,000,0001 from one source, we were obliged to borrow 10,000,0001. firma another, he defied any one to say this was paying uhf from a sinking fund. It was no such thing --nei ther was there a temporary difficulty—the real difficulty under which we were labouring was excessive taxation. It WAS the ditty of the Parliament at this time to speak truth to the people. It was also the duty of the House, and of Go. vernment, to adopt every possilde economy and retrench ment. The House must show the people they were deter mined to do their duty. The only way to preserve the con tidence of the people in the House, would be fur the House to show by its conduct that they were determined not to trust the management of the public parse to his Majesty's Minis ters, let them be who they may. This would be the only way of preserving the confidence of the people. With respect to relief, where were the people to look for it ? Why, to the House; and he trusted they would not he disappointed. He understood Ministers had come to the determination now to make some reduction in the public expenditure. He hoped he had heard what was true; but he regretted much that they had not sooner come to this determination. He heard nothing of retrenchment, however, till near the meeting of Parlia ment:—why had not the general cry of the public been at tended to, and Parliament called together earlier There could be but one reason ; and that was, that Parliament was troublesome to the Rt. Hon Gentleman and his colleagues. The Right Hon. Gentleman concluded by stating, that it was necessary, if the House wished to preserve the confidence of the people, that they should prove their determination to deserve it, by looking most closely to the public expenditure in its minutest branches; if' they did this, he was eouvinced the people would still confitie in their representatives. With out •neli conduct on the part of the House, he was persuaded that all confidence between them and the people would cease. The Right Hun. Gentleman concluded by reading the following Amendment, which was to succeed ituinediately ittleis the two first paragraphs of the Address:— " That we have seen with the deepest concern the cont . - ell embarrassments of our agriculture, mannfictures, and commerce, the alarming deficiency of the revenue, and the unexampled distress of all classes of his Majesty's faithful subjects. "'that we are willing to indulge the hope that these dis tresses may be found to have originated in part from etre - stances a a temporary nature, and that some alleviation of them may lie produced by the continnatiou of peace ; bat that we should ill discharge our duty to Ins Royal Highness, and be guilty of countenancing a must Oangerous delusion, were we to conceal front him our opinion, that the pressure which now weighs so heavily 0.1 the resources of the coun try is much more extensive in its operatMit, more general in its causes, more severe in its effects, and more diffividt to be removed, than that which has prevailed at the termination of any former war. "That we are firmly persuaded that the same exemplary patience and fortitude with which all ranks have hitherth borne the difficulties under which they labour, trill cotainee to support them tinder such !milieus as may be foam' indis pensably necessary for the mud oida ble exigencies of the pub lic service; but that to maintain this disposition, it is incum bent on this House, by a severe and s drilant exercise of its powers, to prove to their fellow-subjects that the sacrifices wh'el, it may be died painful duty to make, are strictly limit ed .o the real necessitiesof the State. "That while we acknowledge the gracious disposition an nounced in his Royal I licitness's Speech from the Throne, we cannot help expressing our regret that his Royal Highness silo old not have been advised !Owner to adopt measures of the most rigid economy and retrenchment, particularly with re spect to our Military Establishment ; that to prompt and effec tual reduction in this, and every other branch of our expen diture, his Majesty's Mithful COIIIIIIOII% mast moor:Illy look, as the first step to relieve the guttering, and redress the ViClianecs of which the people so justly complain ; and that to citable themselves to assist Isis Royal HLltitess by their advice in the perform:wee of a ditty so imperiously called for by the present situation of the country, that they will lose no time in instituting a strict inquiry into the state of the mi. tion." Stich were the slew% he wished the IToivie to adopt; and lie trusted, front a beast; of their duty to llicuiscl% es laud the public, they would adopt them. Mr. BATHeR,T expressed his surprise at the apeerh of tl,e lilt Hon. Gentleman, who heal now adverted to the Speech e 4 the last Session and compluiwed tha• the tilescription there given of the state of the country did not now apply. Did not the :tight Hon. Gentleman recollect that things had changed, their sitnation ? With respect to the other paragraph of the Speech' of last Session, the same answer wroth/ apply to that ; and it' the House was not satisfied' with what had been done by Ministers last Session, be wished the Right Hon. Gentle man wotildlhave looked to the Speech, and he would then find that his Royal Highness strongly recommended to the House to enter early into an investigation and' consideration of the state of the maim). Did the Right Hon. Gentleman suppose his Majesty's Ministers would have introduced such a recom mendation into she Speech from the Throne, unless they bad been prepared to meet the House on the sabject % Mr. Lyme declared himself very little inclined to de spondency; yet he saw very little in the Speech to congra tulate himself upon. One part of it he considered its highl♦ objectionable; and that was, the paragraph which imputed the difficulties we were at present labouring under, not to the long emilitimince of the war, lint to its termination. Mr. C. GRANT coincided in opinion with the Right Him. Gentleman, and adotit►e(l tluit the distresses experienced by the agrienitural interest were also equally entitled to the t•oe. sidei ation of the 'loose. What was the state of the nation during the war in the latter respeet ? The effect tats this, that an impulse was given to iftricitltnre, by the difficulties thrown in the way of importation. 'Prosperity of course fol• lowed. A state of peace, however, altered the prosperous situation of that branch of matinfacture of the State; but the Corn Bill would be the means of restoring the former state of the agricultural interest. Adverting to the notice in the Speech, respecting the ili , affiTtion, the Hon. Gentleman observed, that the people in general were disposed to loyalty, but certainly there were others who were not so. At this partof the Hon.Gentlem.in's speech, two messengers from the Lords appeared at the Bar, with a communication, being admitted to the Table—they stated, that they were commanded by their Lordships, to desire a present roofer puce with this Millie, in the Painted Chamber, en a sultteet materially affecting the safety of his Royal Hi g hness ow Prince Regent, and the honour and dignity of Partiamenth and were directed to inform the tionse, that in the absence of the usual messengers, they, the Clerk Assistant, and Read ing-clerk were deputed to convey the Message. Mr. VANSITFAI,T then moved that the House do agree to a conference, and that Lord Binning do carry the ansuer to the Lords. On the return of the Noble Lord, Managers were named to hold the conference. On their return from holding the conference, Mr. Vallon,- TART stated to the House, that their Lordships had informed them, that ses eral daring °inners had been committrd on the person of the Prince Regent, on his passaee from tlw House of Parliament, and that they had agreed in an Ad. dress to his Royal Highness on the occasion, and had directed the Managers of the conference to communicate to this House the name of the witness who had proved the oat. races ' • which ass, the Right Hon. James Murray, commonly called Lord James Murray. The Right lion. Gentleman then moved, that the message from the Lords he now taken into consideration. Mr. C. WYNNE widied to know what course the Right Hon. Gentleman intended to adopt, in respect of the debate. Mr. VANSIMKT observed, that the House would better consult the respect due to the Crown by not proceeding any farther in the debate this afternoon, and would therefore move, that it be adjourned till to-morrow. The motion was agreed to. _ _ Here the commiideation of their Lordships was read by the Speaker froin the Chair, together with the Address agreed upon by their Lordships to his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, in the followilez words:— " SIR—We, his Mejesty's dutiful and loyal subjects, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled, beg leave to ad drois your Royal Highness upon the subject of the transaction of this day, and cannot sufficiently express our abhorrence of the daring and atrocious outrage which has this day been committed against the Person of your Royal Highness; we arc deeply concerned to per ceive, that any person could be found so desperate and flagitious as to perpetrate against your Royal highness an offence so atrocious in its nature. 66 We, your Royal Highness's dutiful and loyal House of Lords. Spiritual and Temporal, entreat your Royal Highness, in which we feel we shall be most heartily joined by all well-disposed persons in the aammunity,that you will use your utmost endeavours to discover and bring to justice all partita concerned—the actors, adders, and abettors, in this daring and unprecedented outrage." Mr. VA NSirr aRT then moved, that Lord James Murray be railed in and examined to the fart stated in the Address. Lord J. t v was then called to the bar; and in answer to certain questions put to him by the Chancellor of the Ex chequer, Mr. Cortyini, 51r. Wynne, and some other members, stated, that lie is a Lord of the Bedchamber to the Prince Ile. gent, :rid was in attcodinice on his Royal Highness in the carriage on their paisage from the House of Lords; on their return, between Carleton hone and St. James's, the glass of the carriage was fractured: it was the glass...on the Prince's lett hand.—The fracture appeared to be produced by two bullets, for mind apertures had been made in the glass, and the remainder of it was not broken Im had not the slit:West donlit the fracture was causal by bullets. About a Minot( after this happene4, a %cry large stone was thrown at the ia:o.r glass, mid then due.. or lour other stones, ts itli _teat violence : lie had exaniiii.:l the first glass Oat Iva, brokt as minutely . : there was no crowd mite the carriage at the time: but it' a pistol hail liven tired with gunpowder, the persist firing it, lie thanks, must hay.. been recogisizeil : he supposed, as nu report was by him, they might come trout an air gnu. 't hi re were no bullets luuud in the carriage; lie sup posed they were shot from one of the trees: the opposite glass was op. it was not broke at all; he got nut of the carriage immediately after tile Tenure Regent; did not search the earl i.me, nor did he know whether any Indicts were found at the bottom of it. 'lie Al:Aster of the Horse was in the car riage; splinte.s of the glass were found the stone which struck the opposite glass did not enter the eat riage; the glass was s -ry 11111 k. In answer to 3 question from Lord Mti.vox, the wittiest said, that this Royal Highness sat io the middle, butt% n the )faster of the Ilurse and the witness. 1 ho stone smashed the window and pounded the glass, which was remarkably thick. '!'here was a footman and a lite guardsiii in by tIM side of the carriage. I fe could not say whether the supposed bullets ties forated any part of the carriage. 'I he w does, having withdraw Mr. tNSITTAPT ronrck eel that no tirttlier infortnation imuld he neeeis:try, fluter the tr. ti ni n tl y they had jilt hi:. ud , to 110.11,• t u eqthat