The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1803-03-15 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS.
MORDAV, MARCH 14,
The Irish Stamp Duty Bill, the Irish Clsalkin
Bill, the Marine Mutiny Bill, the Jrish DutA
and four private Bills, were brought up from the
Commons by Mr. Alexander, Mr. 11•Monckton,
Mr. Howard, and -others, presented and read a first
time. An appeal was peremptorily ordered to be
hea;d on Thursday.

PRINCE OF WALES'S ANNUITY BILL.
Lord PELHAM moved the Order of the Day,
that this Bill be read a second time. It was read
accordingly.
Lord PELHAM then rose, and said, on the pre-
sent occasion he did not think it necessary to say
much. Their Lordships were aware, tl.tt by a Bill
passed in the year 1;1).5, a portion of the Income
allotted to his Royal Highness the Prince of
Wales was set apart 'and 'vested in Trustees,
for the purpose of discharging annually a given
part of his Royal Highness's Debts. The pre-
sent Bill had been introduced into Parliament, in
consequence of his Majesty's Message, and was
meant to a& by anticipation upon the Bill of 1793,
by the operation of which. his Royal Highness's
Debts would, as therein provided for, be fully dis-
charged in four years, from the present period ; but
his Majesty was desirons that so illustrious a part of
his Royal Family, as the Prince of Wales, should be
enabled to re-assume the state and dignity becoming
his high rank and station, and hence the Royal
Messale had been sent to Parliament, upon which
the present Bill was founded. His I.ordship said,
with that explanation, he would content himself,
and move that the Bill be now mad a second
time.

Lord RAWDON (Earl of Moira) rose, and said,
he had very little to trouble the llouse with, but that
having the honour to have a scat in the Council of
his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, as Duke
of Cornwall, he had- it in authority to declare, that
his Royal Highness felt the most dutiful and affec-
tionate regard to his Majesty for the gracious Mes-
sage which his Majesty had been pleased to send to
Parliament in his behalf, and to Parliament for the
liberal manner in which they had been pleased to.
make the provision for him under the present
Bill ; that his Royal. Highness thought it ne-
cessary to state, that there still remained cer-
tain claims upon him, which he thought it due
from him in honour and in justice to discharge, and
for that purpose he should think it necessary to create
a pretty large sinking-fund out of the income that he
should now, by the present Bill, be in possession of,
to he applied to the discharge of the said claims,
which he admitted to be fair claims, and such as it
became his justice and his honour to clear off, pre-
vious to his assuming that state and dignity in
which the Public and Parliament had expressed
their wishes that he should appear, as Heir Appa-
rant of the Crown. . These claims, his Lordship
said, were neither new, nor secret in their nature ;
the public were aware of them, and, therefore, it
was unnecessary for him to go into any discussion
of them at that moment. But his Royal Highness
had thought it right to have them stated to the House,
in order to avoid the imputation of censure on his
part, on the ground of having contributed, in the
smallest d celisee, to baulk the public expeaation, in
seeing him immediately re-assume his state and dig-
nity. With regard to the claim of his Royal High-
ness upon the public, for the revenues of. the
Duchy of Cornwall, from the year 1762 to the
year 1783, his Royal Highness, from the best
legal advice, was satisfied of the validity of his
claim, and had instituted a suit for the recovery
of the same, but in consequence of his Majes-
. ty's gracious Message, and the liberal manlier in
which Parliament had been pleased to aft upon it,
under the present Bill, added to other considerations,
which, to his infinite honour, made their due impres-
sion upon his mind, he had given direaions to his
Law Officers to waive his claims and drop the suit.
The Earl of CARLISLE reminded their Lord-
ships, that he .had, a few days since, given the
House to expect that he should bring forward some
specific proposition on the subjea ; but, after the
very satisfactory speech the House had just heard
from the Noble Lord near him (Lord Rawdon),
which they were bound to consider as an intimation
from a very high and respeetable authority, he
should think it becoming the decorum and decency
which he felt to be at all times due to that illustri-
ous Personage to forego. • Indeed, the very great
and important change that had taken place, in pub-
lic affairs, and the magnitude and consequence of
political communications that had. been made to
each House of Parliament within the course of the
last week, swallowed up every other consideratian,
and ought to engross all their thoughts and care.
The country stood in a most perilous situation, and
required the utmost vigilance on the part of Go-
vernment, and the fullest exertion of the wisdom of
Parliament, to take such measures as should appear
to be best calculated to avert the danger that stared
us in the face. He, therefore, under ouch circum-
stances, would be the last man who would take any
step likely to embarrass Government, or to call their
attention off from the great work upon their hands.
He would, for that reason,_ conclude with giving his
concurrence to the Bill before the House.
Lord CLIFTON (Earl of Darnley) rose to take
notice of a single expression made use of by the No-
ble Earl who had just sat doivn. He could not ad-
mit that the country could fairly be stated to be in a
" perilous" situation. . Had Ministers been less alert
and vigorous in their preparations ; had they re-
mained inactive upon their posts ; inattentive observ-
ers of what was passing in the ports of Holland and
France, the country might iraleed have fallen into a
" perilous" situationa-a situation of lamentable and
almost irremediable danger: but, surely, when we
witnes the Sovereign magnanimously coming for-
ward and graciously assnring Parliament that he
• woalastand or fall with his people—When we behold
Parliaxisent, with a aucklen pranaptituip adopting tae
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resist bolds active and eeergetic measures to strength-
en the hands of Government—and when we behold
the public spirit spring up, responsive to, the public
exigency, and manifest itself in every corner of 'the
kingdom, there could be no occasion to despond of
the safety of the country, or hold the dejected lan-
guage of abjeet despair ! His Lordship said, he had
not a doubt, if it became aeceseary to plunge again
into war, the adversary would have ample cause to
regret his rashness in having provoked A high and
spirited nation to resent the wanton and daring in-
sult, of insatiable ambition, and blind despotisms
With regard to what had fallen frbm the Noble Ba-
ron near him, 1t did the illustrious Personage so
often alluded to, the highest honour it satisfied his
mind completely, that were it not from the alecious
wish of his Royal Highness to discharge those debts,
for tae payment of whiclr he.felt himself bound ia
honour and in justice to provide, Parliament would
have heard nothing of the claims of his Royal
Highness on the revenue of the Duchy of
Cornwall—claims which were undoubtedly the
.PrinCe's just due. His Lordship said, he should
support the Bill. • .
The DUKE of NOttFOLK said, he was dis-
satisned with the Bill. It did not, in his-opinion,
grant a summary way adequate to the support of
the Prince of Wales in that splendour and rank in
which he ought to be enabled to live. His Grace
said, a Prince of Wales ought not only to be able
to live at his own ease, and with every possible per-
sonal comfort to himself, but to throw a sort of
lustre and glory round him by the daily exercise of
acts of charity, munificence, and patronage. He
ought at least to be set in his superior orb, as Heir
Apparent of the 'Throne, and to move in a higher
circle than the most wealthy Nobleman or Com-
moner either in that or the other House of Parlia-
ment. With regard to the present Bill, by the
Constitution of Parliament, all Money-Bills must
originate in the other House; otherwise, had the
rules of proceeding in their Lordships' House
permitted, he should have moved to have re-
jeeted the present Bill, ;es granting a sum by no
means large enough to meet the meaning of his
Majesty's Message, and have introduced another
Bill granting a sum large enough to come up to the
ideas that he had just saggestei, as to the manner
in which he thougnt a Prince of Wales ought to be
enabled to live. The Duke said, he had the haVpi-
ncss to have lived in habits of great intimacy with
his Royal Highness, but it had not been his goad
fortune very lately to have seen him, nor had he had
an opportunity of exchanging one word with him on
the subject of the provision now making for him; but
be must repeat it, that the Bill did not appear to him
to do the Prince common justice.
The Earl of CARNARVON denied that the
Bill was in the least consonant to the (stied end
the purport of his Majesty's Message. It was not,
he contended, a Bill to id:vie his Royal Highness the
Prince cf Wales from the incurnbrinces under which
he laboured, and to •enable him to live with that
state, honour, and dignity which became his Illus-
trious birth and high rank; It was, in truth, a Bill
to pay off a part of the debti of the Crown; or ra-
ther to discharge a portion of the incumbrances of
the Civil List, without the concurrence or know-
ledge of Parliament. If not a sort of compromise,
it was doing one thing where it affected to do ano-
ther, and a very different thing. He therefore, his
Lordship said, must solemnly withhold his consent
from the Bill, as a Bill not founded upon the Royal
Message, upon which it was avowedly founded.
Lord PELHAM said, he had little imagined,
that he should have hadoccasion to add a word to
what he had already eaid, but it was impossible for
hint to let what had fallen from the Noble Flarl op
posite to him pass unnoticed. The present Bill *as
directly the reverse of what the Noble Earl had
stated it to be. It was no compromise; nor did it
bear any the smallest relation to the dbts of the
Crown, or the debts of the Civil List. It was at
Bill expressly founded on his Majesty's Message, for
granting an annuity of 60,0001. per annum to bis
Royal Highness the Prince of Wales for four years.
in order to enable him to resume his state and dignity
sooner than he could be expected to do underthe opera-
tion of the Bill of 1795. The Crown and Civil
List had nothing to do with the Bill. the reve-
nues of the Duchy of Cornwall, during the Prince
of Wales's minority, had been applied to the State,
not to the Civil List, or the uses of the Crown. His
Lordship said, he had the good fortune to have
lived in habits of great intimacy with the illustrious
petsonage alludedto, and he felt it to be somewhat
difficult to know hotv to speak with propriety in the
different .situations in which his private friendship
for his Royal Highness placed him, and his public
• duty as a Minister. But from Wile,: he himself
knew, unless the Noble Earl had the honotir cf.
having had a later communication with the Prince,
he could concur in every word that had faTlen upon
subjeert from the Noble Lord (Lord Ilawdon) oppee
site to him.
The Earl of CARNARVON still maintained his
argument, that the Bill was not agreeable• to the
King's Message, and that it was a Bill fin discharg-
ing a part of t'he it tunabrances of the Civil List, and
not a Bill to enable the Prince of Wales to resume
the honour, state, and dignity, becoming his illustri-
ous birth and high rank.
After Lord Carnarton's reply,
Lord RAWDON Earl Of Moira) rose, he said,
merely to confine himself to explanation, but that
explanation, he had no doubt, the House would feel
to be absolutely necessary, after what had Wien
from the Noble Earl on the same Bench with him.
He was a little astonished to hear the Noble Earl
consider the Bill in the light in which he had cone
tended it ought to be regarded. He certainly had
done the subjeel the justice to rejed the application
of the word " compromise" to it. It could not be
so considered, in•any fair, reasonable view of it.
As little could it with any sort of propriety be
termed, a Dill for paying oft a part of the Debts of
the Crown, or in other words, the Debts of the Civil
List ; Since it never at any tune, nor by any one per-
son, who had made himself acquAintecil.vith the fait,

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