The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1803-02-24 00:00:00

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Ilgetatity sr.& ee.rdielity wli;e2t refleged the tughtst
beitour on, it. He should not, after what had been
said on the- sub;e6t. have troubled the Holt loith a
*ford, if Istaid oat think that the le ingot.. fornjui
*fel s of the measure had not stidielenay
14111 that his 'Meal High lams, far frVeitegios• .
iffry btrethen open the ptthlic, came for hts
ownvightu The Prince, hail appealed in a proper,
qualified manner, for certain sums due to, and
„vittklibeld front hint: The House hid entered into a
large iliiCtission Colkerning the legal-shape in which
the claim could betriealf and-the question was sus-
pended, in erder that the House might be informed
that there was no other means of keeping back the
prosecution of. it, than the measure which. was now
proposed. This proposition, therefore, was brought
• forward, not in the shape of a' compromise, but
merely as the result of what the Chancellor of
this Exchequer thought to be his duty, and for
the honor of the country. Some gentlemen had
started at the word " compromise ;"• for his
part, he sass not so squeamish ; he saw nothing
amiss in the word. If the prosecution of ale suit
was not eor.:prornised, it must, of course, proceed,
' and might have very disagreeable convtinences.
On the one side it might• be said, that the. Prince's
friends brought forward this claim to the revenue of
the Duchy .of Cornwall, for the sole ptirpose of
causing the Parliament to interfere, and pay off his
' debts ; e contra, the Prince's friends Might assert,
that he wits kept out of his just claims. His Royal
Highness had clearly agreed to abandon these
claims ; and he wished to have it impressed on the
mind of the Hoese, that that was the precise si-
tuation in which he understood the P: ince to stand.
It was true, that His Royal Highness had been
during eight years in a vei-y disagreeable preitica,
men: ; but that the hardship vf it had been foreeen
at the time, and was not altogether attributable to
that I louse. They had not thrown any emharrass-
oients in the way of the Prince, but cadeavoured to
afi'ord a temporary relief ; and the only qaeseon
row was, whether they would relieve him from
them entirely ? The lion. Member then proceeded
(in his peculiar mode of irony) to advert to the un-
certainty of the end of the prosecution of the
Prince's claim, in case it should be proceeded in.
He said, that he had heard of a Chancery suit,
which a late Lord Chancellor had put into his
pocket, and kept it there eight years, in order to
determine the mode in which it should be proceeded
upon ; the present prosecution rniczht, for aught he
knew, share the same fate, as the Gentlemen of
the long robe were known to be extremely tena-
nacious of a gnod thing. (Loud laugh). The Ho-
nourable Member said, that he hoped the respect
which the Right lion. Mover of the present ques-
tion had for the sense of the House, as well as for
the Prince's honour, would induce him to bring for-
ward a clear and full statement of what was the
Prince's real situation, and not let the House pre-
sume that lie was to have a clear establishment, when
de facto that was not the case. One reason for his
pressing this circumstance was, that when, in 1797,
the Prince's debt was calculated, it was after-
wards found to exceed the calculation by seve-
ral thousand pofinds. In order to do away this
excess, it was proposed and acceded to, that a
deduaion of ten per ccntam upon the debt should be
made. The Prince, whose lioacur could not bear
the slightest stain, thought, and very justly too,
that this deduaion turned the transa&icn into a
composition with his creditors, which it certainly
did ; as every abatement which a debtor makes
front the amount of his creditor's demand, makes it
a composition instead of a payment in full The
Prince was unwilling, at that time, to trouble, the
House any further; but commissioned the Hon.
Member to desire, that the House would addano-
ther year to the time, for which his private revenue
was to be withheld for the payment of his debt. He
therefore submitted to the House, that, as this ad-
dition was for the purpose of satisfying the Prince's
conscience, and clearing his honour from this de-
dußion from his creditors demands, it should be
now provided for, so that nothing might put off the
time when his Royal Highness was to recover the
grandeur due to his rank.-
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER
thought himself entitled to claim their attention
again for a few moments, in consequence of the al-
lusions that had been made to him. The Prince, it
was said, felt himself under an obligation to make
good the dedudion made to his creditors. The Hon.
Gent. (Mr. Sheridan), it was true, did not assent
that he was; on the present occasion, authorised by
his Royal Highness to make any Such declaration,
but he was desirous that the House should under-
stand the nature of the arrangement made for the
payment of the debts. A Rt. Hon. Friend of his.
(Mr. Pitt) had, upon a round calculation, though
after very diligent enquiry, stated in the year 1795,
the amount of the Prince of Wales's debts to be
620,0(X1. but to exclude the possibility of leaving
any outstanding demands. caused another sum to be
ready ft.: the discharge f such as might not have
been brought forward. Tie consequence of these
dispositions was, that tin re was no debt, whose sal-
ficiencv and validity had b.!ea admitted, left unsa-
tisfied 'from any deficiency of funds. He was ready
to admit, however, that notwithstanding every pre-
caution and investigation, the aggregate of the
debts considerably exceeded the sum of 690,000/.
at which they had been estimated. The Commis-
sioners had a power under the a& of paying in
Debentures, at 5 per Cent. Some of the demands
were perfedly fair, and therefore fully admitted ;
but from others such parts were decluded as ap-
peared to be fraudulent or very exorbitant. It
must be obvious to every Gentleman, that amongst
these which seemed to the Commissioners (of winch
he himself had been one) to be fraudulent, there
were some of such a nature, as could not be impeded
to be publicly broughtiforward. Gentlemen would
also recollect, that under the .circumstances of his
Royal Highness at that time, great excess from an
ordinary demand had arisen from the, uncer-
tainty of payment, or the remoteness of time when
it should be made. That was ineVitably, he be-
lieved, the case in all transaktions of that nature.
The CoMmiseioners, therefore, *064. them-
selves justified • in availing 'theinselves of the
poen they had ender the Adt, and:to make pro.
portienate deduaions, with the exception tof sala-
ries, money lent, and rents. When the dedadtions.
were mide, they gave debentures,' of 100- each,
for the whole of tbeTernainins debt anSI, ler cent.
interest, dr Of flolfeaoh, beams es interott of Bt.
Per Ont.- The Option of that of timierecroars. war
to takethe sat. &beauties at AL:per. CllO, • interest,
and they in senora proposed them at remqte Pe-

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