The Sun.
London, England, 1840-07-17 00:00:00

dianship of the person of the Queen, and exercise the
duties of, and act as Regent for, her Majesty, i
until she should attain the age of 18 years,
under certain restrictions. This Act contemplated
the Crown descending on a minor, and making provi-
sions for tile Government. That to which I now call
your Lordships' attention, also provides for the possible
event of the Crown's descending to a minor ; and in
that possible event there is a possibility, at least,
of the infant's surviving its parent. My Lords,
that surviving parent, so identified with the inte-
rests of the infant Sovereign, is the person to whom
you would naturally look as the proper person to have
the care and guardianship of the infant, and to have
the administration of the duties of office. It was
so considered in 1830, and I trust your Lordships will
entertain the same opinion now.—( Hear, hear.) An-
other question remains, whether the Regent so ap-
pointed should be fettered by any Parliamenty re-
strictions, or whether the Regent should be permitted
to exercise all the power, all the duties, and all
the functions of the Sovereign? My Lords, a case
may, undoubtedly, occur, in which Parliament may
think it necessary, for some temporary abs nee, or some
temporary illness of the Sovereign, to provide the means
of exercising the Royal authority, and yet the great ob-
ject may be to preserve the royal authority unimpaired
to the Sovpreign when he may return. Such was the
object of the Bill to which I have before adveited, and
which passed in the first year of her Majesty's reign.
That Bill did not appoint a Regent—it appointed Lords
Justices, and the object of the Bill was to do as little as
might be, but to preserve things in that state that
the Sovereign on coming into this country to assume
the reins of Government might find public affairs in
the same state, as
,bas
pnreeacreleyding
Sovereign. But, my
as possible, as tlry had
been left
Lords when your Lordships are making provision, the
object of which must be to provide for the govern-
ment of the country for a long series of years,
your Lordships will be of opinion that it is not prudent,
that it is n A safe, and that it is not consistent with the
principles of the Constitution that the sovereign power
should be lettered in the hands of the Regent.
—( Hear, hear, hear, from Lord Lyndhurst and
otl.er Noble Lords.) The power and preroga-
tives of the Crown are given to the Crown to
preserve the balance of the different parts of the Con-
stitution of the country ; they are given to the Crown
in order to preserve the power of the Crown
in that state in which it is most beneficial to the
public it should be preserved. They are not,
therefore, give to the Crown for any other
purpose than being exercised, and as occasion may re-
quire, of adding to or strengthening the power of the
Crown, or dealing with the affairs of the State, in such
manner as it is the duty of the Crown, according to the
Constitution, to exercise or deal with them. They are not
larger than the Constitution of the country thought neces-
sary ; and if they be necessary so to be exercised in the
person of the Sovereign sitting on the throne, in
his own right, and in the plenitnde of the power a Sove-
reign exercises how much more necessary ;must
they be when the powers of the Sovereign are exercised
not by one in his own right, but by a person with the
diminished powers and authority of a Regent.—(Hear.)
Any provisions fettering and restraining the power
which the Regent would have to exercise, is what I do
not expect your Lordships would be disposed to im-
pose. There were, however, my Lords, certain restric-
tions which cannot interfere with the due exercise of
the Royal functions, and which yopr Lordships will
agree with me in thinking might properly become pro-
visions of the Bill. My Lords, I now refer to those
provisions which were inserted in the Bill of 1830 ; in
my opinion they are so proper, so little liable to ob-
jection, that I have introduced them into the present
Bill. My Lords, it is obvious that the Regent upon,
for, and in behalf of the Sovereign, who is of tender
years, should not have power to assent to any Bill which
alters, or in any way fetters the succession to the
Throne. My Lords, there are two other provisions
which your Lordships, I have no doubt, will be of
opinion ought to be inserted in the Bill—two other
powers Which ought not to be confided to the
Regent. I have no doubt your Lordships wiil
bo of opinion that during the period when the
Regent shall be acting under the provisions of
this Bill, and while the Sovereign is yet under age,
he should have no power of assenting to any Bill which
would alter the laws which regulate the uniformity of
the worship in the Church of England—(Hear, hear)—
and that he should not have power to assent to any law
altering the public worship of the Church orScotland
These, my Lords, are powers which in my.opinion ought
not to be given—these powers ought not to be entrusted
to the Regent, so that when the Sovereign assumes the
reigns of his Government he may find those important
rights reserved to him.—( Hear, hear.) My Lords, with
these restrictions, with these exceptions, I trust your
Lordships will not think that the Regent ought to be
called upon to exercise all the authority. and power of the
Crown with fettered powers.—( Hear, hear, hear.)
My Lords, in making provision for such an event,
others objections may arise, but in the year 1830
they did not prevail, and if it should please Provi7
dence so to afflict the country as to terminate the
life of the Sovereign, before the period when an heir
could assume the reins of Government—if that
event should happen without your Lordships having
made provision for the Government under such circum-

stances, the country would be in a state which could
not afford your Lordships satisfaction. Because then,
my Lords, we should be called upon to discuss this
question, when the country was not in a position to do
so with calmness and temper, and when there would be
no party in the State invested with the power to exer-
cise the royal authority ; whereas, now, we are called
upon to provide for the probability of that event
when all the parts of the Constitution arc perfect,
and to make provision for a contingency which,
however remote we may hope it to be, yet
it is one that by possibility may happen, and which
I think it is the duty of Parliament to provide
for. My Lords, I have briefly stated what the objects
and provisions of the Bill are ; and it would be a matter
of great satisfaction to me that a measure so interest..
ing to all parties, and which adopts the provisions and
restrictions of the Bill of 1830, should meet with the
unanimous approbation of your Lordships.—( Hear.)
The Bill was then read a first time, and ordered to
be read a second time on Monday next.
ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE BILL.
The LORD CHANCELLOR having moved the
third reading of this Bill,
Lord DENMAN took the opportunity of expressing
his approbation of the principles of the Bill. He ap-
proved particularly of the 44th clause, which gave the
Lord Chancellor the power of altering the who!e prac-
tice of his Court.

The Marquis of WESTMEATH wished that the
clause in question were extended to Ireland.
Lord BROUGHAM said that there was no reason
why a similar enactment should not be introduced with
regard to the Court of Chancery in Ireland. The Bill
did not, however, contain a provision to that effect, es
the measure was one which, in its complete form, could
regard England only.
The Marquis of WESTMEATH hoped that next
Session the Government would bring in a Bill relative
to the Court of Chancery in Ireland.

The Bill wa then read a third time, and passed.
BEER BILL.

The Marquis of WESTMINSTER presented peti-
tions frora the retailers of beer of Bath, Birmingham,
and Portsmouth, praying for an erinaization of the law
relating to the sale of beer. The Noble Marquis ob-
served, that as this subject had been, on the whole,
satisfactorily adjusted by the Bill in the other House of
Parliament, he should not offer any opposition to the
measure when it reached their Lordships, and he
trusted it would pass into a law.
WEAVER CHURCHES.

The NOBLE MARQUIS then presented a petition
against the Weaver Churches Bill, and observed that a
more unjust measure had~ never been presented to their
Lordships.

Lord STANLEY, of Alderley, presented petitions
against the 13111 from Weaver and other places in Ches-
ter. The proposition laid down on the introduction of
the measure into the other House was of the most
that that should be done, but it was
startling description, for it. was said wherever a popula-
tion was drawn together, those who had been the means
of drawing that population together ought to provide
churches for them. It might be exceedingly right, me-
rally speaking,contrary to all principle to make it the law of the land.
It might just as well be said that if a manufacturer or a
railway company
drew a thousand men round their pre-
mises they ought to be compelled by law to build
churches for them. He hoped their Lordships would
well reflect upthe subject before they agreed to the
on
Bill.

whoT hdereßw:slil
,irgPoef SALISBURY contended that those
masses together laid themselves under
the obligation of providing spiritual instruction for them.
The object of the Bill was highly meritor:ous, and it en-
abled parties to fulfil a great moral obligation.
GRAMMAR SCHOOLS BILL.
The E „.1 of DEVON moved the second
reading of this Bill, and stated that after it
was read a second time, he intended to move that it be
referred to a Select Committee, in order that informa-
tion might be obtained as to several po:nts, which was
absolutely necessary before the measure could be made
perfect.

Tile Bishop of SALISBURY did not intend to offer
anY oPposition to the second reading, but expressed his
gratification that such a Bill had been sent up from the
other House, as it would tend to remedy many existing
evils.
Committee was one that met with his cordial con-
ThQ proposition for referring the Bill to a Select
con-
currence.

Lord PORTMAN also approved of the Bill.
The LORD CHANCELLOR said that no one
could be better aware of the absuse and evils that ex-
isted in grammar schools than those who have had long
experience in the Court of Chancery. Many of the
schools were fettered by old trusts which rendered them.
of no -use-at all, and nothing hut an Act of Parliament_
could remedy that evil._