The National Register. — London, England, 1812-06-14 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER. UNE 14. n some measure with the choice of the servants of the Crown ; but the motion of the Noble Lord opposite (Folk stone) went, in his opinion, ra ther prematurely, to take away confidence from the persons upon whom the duties bf Government may be thrown. The Administration was s on open for the admission of great and Noble Persons; and surely to desire assistance in promoting the aims of the Government, could not lie metamorphosed, without violence, into an acknowledgment of their own incapacityo conduct the affairs of the nation. Accession of talents was voted and required ; but any such condescension of persons pesses sing those qualifications was discovered, upon application, to be hopeless. Three various proposals for address had been submitted to the House, some of them containing a mighty catalogue of national infelicities, which no person would be sorry to learn were half fabulous, all of which be hoped would be disposed of in the negative. Lord YARMOU t 11 said that the Officers of his Majesty's Household had manifested all possible inclination to accommodate themselves to 1 the pending negotiation. ( Hear ! J He spoke in the name of a large portion of the Household, who only desired ten minutes warning to surrender their situations; <load cheering) but the removal of tLe House hold, so strenuously inidsted upon as a preliminary of service of the Noble Earls, appeared to him be designed to go to a much greater extremity than ever was meditated in a new Administration before. He declared, before God, that to insist upon suds an extensive dis missal was for no other purpose but to offer humiliation to his Royal Highness himself. Mr. Po N sorter bad hearkened to expressions of a dubious complexion, employed by the Noble Lord (Yarmouth) and which he had assured the House, passed his lips for the first time. Who the Right Hon. Gentleman mentioned by the IJoble Lord was, who possessed such transcendent talents, who was such delightful company, he could not conjecture, but he would affirm, in the nettles of my Lento Grey and Grenville, that no conjecture or assertion was ever made so erroneously than that those No ble Persons determined to have the Household Officers dismiesed for the sole purpose of humbling that person to whom all respect was due.— 17pon tire 21st of last month, the Parliament, upon the motion of the Hon. Gentleman opposite, came to a resolution to address his Royal Highness to form a snore strong and efficient Administration, so that the great concerns of the nation might be dispatched with ability and confidence. That Hon. Gentleman (Mr. Wortley) he now saw oppo site to him, he had been accused of concerting the motion mutually with him, and he called upon that Hon. Gentleman to declare upon his ensullied and spotless honour, as a Gentleman, whether he had ever made any such communication, either to him or to those with whom he lived the intimacy of private and political friendship. The motion of the Address did not emanate from the side of the House on which he had the honour of sitting, neither did it find its strongest support from those persons usually denominated Members of the Opposition. It was not laboriously patronized by the Opposition, two Gentlemen only rose and delivered their opinions. He never recollected any question of such im portance from which there were so many of the Opposition absent; the intimation was so short, that Gentlemen, who were at a distance, had not time to receive intelligence of it; and the Ministerial side of the House had the honour of passing a vote of incapacity upon the Minis try almost without the participation of the Opposition. He begged to spy for his friends and for himself,- that they had no secret--no reserve upon the subject ; the more extensive the capacities were which the Administration could admit, the more would they be gratified, and the country assisted. It had been impressed upon the people's minds by the vote of the House, that a coalition of public men, of hitherto dissonant parties, was to take place, and a strong Administration, ful filling the expectancy of the nation, would be the consequence. It cer tainly was the wish of all those persons with whom he lived in friendly habits, to coalesce with the other Gentlemen who might be called to the Administration. It was the determination of his two Noble Friends and of himself to act with any men who could unite cordially upon some of the great and pending questions at present in agitation in the public mind. They were desirous to cast their portion of assistance into the grand political balance, and aid all the resplendent talents which came to the support of the Government. When the formation of such an Ad ministration was entrusted to the capacity of his Noble Friend (the Mar quis Wellesley), that Noble Person requested the assistance of his two Noble Friends (Grey and Grenville), informing them, that all party redilections were suppressed, ant' a general union of talents was to take place for the furtherance of the common cause of their country. Upon the cad of last month, the Marquis of Wellesley communicated to Lords Gr e y an d G renv ill e t h e p l an o f an Ad m ini s tration, adapted, . as was described, to the present posture of affairs. The Noble Mar qea said that he had been entrusted, by his Royal Highness, to collect together_ . an Administration of strength and character, for the more happy dispatch of public affairs, but in which he did not desire to take any situation. This Administration was to be totally unmarked by political dissensions. In the first place, the claims of the Roman Catholics were to be brought to a situation of adjustment and conciliatien, and in the second place the war upon th e P e nin s ul a w a s t o be c arried on in a more extensive scale of enteeprize, with an augmentation of the British Armies in Spain and Portugal. Throughout all that communication to his Noble Friends, the Marquis had not stated that lie had any authority to form an Ad ministration at that very time. He communicated only the views intended to be entertained by the coalition of parties. Upon the 24th of May, Without either cavilling or delay, the Lords Grey and Grenville "Pitched the Mowing answer ;—That they considered it to be the paramount duty of public men to abandon any object capable of promot ing personal animosity, so that sufficient effect might be given to the vote of Address moved by the House of Commons to his Royal High ness ; an Administration capable of sustaining the country successfully against the eminent peril in which it appeared to be placed, was what' they desired much to see; they bad no disposition to cavil at the admis sion of ditierent parties, respecting the measures supposed to be the determination of the new Government to adopt. They had formerly expressed pretty amply their opinions upon the Catholic clanns, in which they delighted to find they had the concurrence of the Noble Marquis himself, they would willingly support any Motion of any person t hat would lead to a conciliatory adjustment of the differences, withoet which they found it impossible to contribute their aid. in the next place, they ,yvere of opinion, that the direction of military operations was a question bf policy, nut of principle ; an unstable fluctuating scene of operations hich expanded or comracted, according to the capacity or inclination of the country ; but they believed that a careful hand to watch over the Public Expenditure, at a period like the present, would not be unac ceptable to the nation. A communication of the same nature having been made to another quantr, Lord Grey believed that he perceived some difference between the one submitted to himself, and the other • which he deemed to be important. He accordingly wrote to the Noble Marquis, informing him of the distinction which he apprehended had been made, and requested an explanation. Upon the receipt of the letter, Marquis ‘%rellesley immediately transmitted an answer, which l cleared up all misapprehensions, and restored the natural good under sta'idii:g between them.—Matters passed on without any further notifi cation until the first of June, when Marquis Wellesley wrote to his No ble Friends, informing them, that he had received ample authority to arrange an Administration, and was specially authorized to communi- I cate with them upon that subject; informing them of the names of these persons designed to form the Administration. It was proposed, that if twelve were nominated to the Cabinet, his Royal Highness was to have the disposal of five of them; awd should thirteen he found necessary, c.f these six were to be of the appointment of his Royal Highness. The Noble Lords considered the whole arrangement with due deference and, in a consultation, they concluded upon the following answer :—That they had contemplated the whole scheme with much attention, which had been submitted to them ; that they were not deterred either from the distressed situation of the Public, nor from the influences of private feeling, from accepting of the offers which had been made to them of being employed, where they might have been serviceable to their coun try; but it appeared to them, that a stipulated number of Cabinet Councillors ; to be retained for nomination by his Royal Highness, was a violation of the Address, for forming a strong and efficient Admi• nistrationn nor could they perceive any hope of ballancing the Cabinet with propriety, by such a stipulation. A Cabinet appeared to be a body of' Councillors, fastened together by mutual reliance upon each other's capacities and integrity, possessing eke the confidence of the Crown and a concurrence in public measures ; but no hope of such a Cabinet was presented to them by the plan snbmitted, and a certain deterioration of character in their own estimation and in that of the Public would un doubtedly follow their acceptance of offices under such regulations. TMs explanation vie.s so broad and so ample, that it anticipated almost all that he had to say upon the subject. The Crown had hitherto been in the habit of summoning in able men to Its Councils, but such a proposal as that, was of a nature so dissonant, that the first glance at it re-pulsed the mind, let it have been ever so prone to political compliance. For It took for granted, that a certain system of opposite interests would display themselves in the Cabinet, and attempted to raise a harier against imagi nary terrors. The first principle of a Cabinet was mutual confidence of its Members in each other, a sound political agreement, and total ab horrence of all jealousy and distinct interests. The answer of the Noble Lords having been dispatched to my Lord Wellesley, no further cor respondence took place under the auspices of the Prince Regent. But his Noble Friend, the Earl of Moira, returned a private answer upon the sd of June, wherein he lamented that a negotiation promising such happiness to the country should be broken off upon points ; and hoping that no blame could be attached to him, that letter was written with the accus tomed frankness and courtesy of the Noble Earl, but unhappily it was not expressing opinions of a higher authority than his own. In answer to which, Earl Gray immediately wrote that they were anxious to assist in the Government, but for the failure of the negotiations they imputed no blame to the Noble Earl ; they discovered an utter impossibility of complying with the request upon sound constitutional principles. liTpon the fourth of June, Lord Grey received a letter from the Noble Lot el saying, that he had received an explanatory letter from Lord Grin , %en h which he was gratified. He was not aware that his Re)) al Hi...lint ss had given further orders for a renewal of the negotiations, a circum stance which he deeply lamented, as a very successful explanation might have been made. He would be happy that under the sanc:ion of the Regent he had received a commission so conciliatory as to have effected the purpose for which theynegotiated. Lord,crey wrote an answer, in which he and Lord Grenville professed a readiness to comply with any desire of a conciliatory nature which /41Loyalnightiess might transmit. Soon afterwards, under the authork47l. 03g:Regent, a meeting took place between Lords Grey and Grenvi ,On the one side, and the Earl of Moira, in which Lord Erskine wassresent, upon the other, o,;nlie 6th of June. The Earl of Moira informed him that he was authorized to arrange a Government, and was deSiked to consult with their Lordshi p s upon the plan. After mentioning these concessions upon the Catholic /Mr: ;`,~'-~ re 13 1'