The Sun.
London, England, 1812-05-22 00:00:00

Meastlres had barn justifitsd hy -the re el,
he \could not in the tirvser. t instance consort to, a de-
viation from what hail been tie practice of the Con-
stitution. The Hoe, Gentleman nano broeglit
ward the motion had said, that he thougni it the
best and most manly way of proctesling. He (Mr.
W.) would reply in the-words Of a celebrated enooy-
rinius writer, when called upon by a•soldier, who
signed what he published with -his name; and called
upon hisantagonist (the anonymous writer-) to do the
saine—"That his doing so might be a, proof of spirit,
and if it we-re a proof of any thing apiiit he
should 'be inclined to follow 'his example." lie re-
membered the same question being distussed nearly
thirty years ago, when the right of the Crown was
contended for on the one hen& and denied on the
other, it was finally decided -that the House hid not
that "right. It appeared to him by no means proper
that they 'should throw any thing like labiate on the
appointments of the Prince heforte the Administra-
tion was formed,' and before they werelacqusioted
with its corfOituent parts. The Hon. Baronet
seemed to think, that before an Administration were
twined, the persons who were to compose it shotild
be called upon to declare w hat were their senti-
ments wit h rasped to the questiors. of C
Emancipation aed Parliamentary Reform. To this
he objeeled... He thought it was not for them to
put the persons who were to-be chosen members of
the Administration at the bard that HouSe, and in
quire of them• what they meant to do. He thought
it would become them better to let ,the Crown first
do its part, and then it would be for the House to
suppoit or oppose the Ministers as they should see
fit. It' was in these principles he (Mr. W.) had
been educated. Astiug upon, these, he bad hereto-
tbre seen the country great and glorious ; ono from
these, while he teirsamed a Member of that House,
lie svoula never depart. He thought the Honour-
able Baronet had unfairly charged, the evils, whiCh
had been experienced by the country, on Mr,, Pitt,
when he could not deny that that Right Hon. Gen-
tleman had possessed the confidence of Parliament
anal of the country. If he were to see a noble three-
masted vessel come into port severely fettered and
, disabled ; would he, from this view, prefer a charge
• against her commander, who might have- been
bravely fighting the battles of his country, Without
first taking into consideration the force to which it
had- beep opposed ? Such a tbarge would not be
more unjust to the Commander than it was to his.
late Right Hon. FriendeMr. Pitt to censure him for
the evils which had been felt by the • circumstances
of the times in which he lived. He wondered the
Honourable Baronet could think a reform in Parliaa
went would lighten the burdens of the petiole in
any• material degree. tie (Mr. Wilberforce) had
voted for a reform, not with any such idea, but
with a wish to do. away what many considered 'a
blot in the Constitution. He did not know that
the,- had ariy Pat liatnerntary, grounds for voting the
Address which was proposed. Of the three grounds
stated by the Hon. Mover, he wished to hear how
be made out his thitd: How did he know that
enough had"not -been done' to endeavonr th form a
strong Administration He supposed he only 'went
on what was known from the Newspapers. He
did not deubt the authenticity of what had there
been published, but to adopt 'a measure on docu-
ments so Hid before them, was' inconsistent with the
usages of Parliament. Rr his part, he (Mr. W.)
was ready to-support any Admiiihrtration which rea
gulatedits conduct with a view to the public good,
and he. only lamented, that at a crisis like the, pre-
sent, they. did not sufficiently castotf. their personal
prepossessions and predilections. At stich a petiod,
to recur again to the figure he had made use ofs he
thought, like the crew of a vessel in extreme danger,
they ought to uni.e heart and hand th fight the ship
.to the last. On every side he saw many Men who
dearly loved their country, but it was no exaggera-
tion to -say, that when they descended to personali-
ties, there was great danger of their being thiaunder's
stood by . many well disposed persons, who were
thus led to form very erroneous opinions of those
who sat in that 'EL use.
Sir F. ButeueTT explained..
Mr. WARD declared, that if the motion were hos-
tile to the Constitution, whatever temporary advan-
tage might be derived from it, he should agree with
the Hon. Member for Yorkshire, that that advan-
tage ought to be foregone. This, however, tie de-
nied. It was not contrary to the Constitution, it
was .not . contrary to precedent, that Parliament
should advise the Sovereign on every subject ; 'and
partictilarly on the formation of a new Administra-
tion. He allowed that. this. was a praCtice which
ought not to be resorted to too frequently ; buflif
eyelathere was a time for enforcing it,- it was the
present. Unless the principle of such an inter-
ference were wholly abandoned, it must tieadmit-
ted that the - present was preciaely the period in
which it Ought to,' be acted upon. There were
two conditions. necessary, in his opinion, to the
justification of such an ,interlerence on the part
of the House of Commons 5 namely, great public
diffiiulty and -danger, and acknewledged Weak-
ness in the 'Administration. With respea to the
first, no one ceuld question the pecul4r ditlicul
ties under which the country laboured, with refer-
ence both to it a external relations and to its Internal
stare: With respect to the second, he would spare
himself time disagreeable task of canvassing nhe per-
sonal charatters of. Gentlemen ; but he mast say,
that-
theweakness •of the existing Administratien
was a metier of -general and public feeling. Perhaps
this could not be bettele,ascertained thio by asking
IA hat' was the universal language in speaking of the
Government, before the death of Mr. Percevar?-
When it was then objected that the Administration
'required strength,,the answer uniformly -was, that
such were the charaCter, the talents, and the po-
pularity or Mr. Perceval, that alone he was able to
supply the deficiencies whin were acknowledged
to exist. The House would pay but an ill.compli-
went to Mr. Perceval,' if now that he, was 'with-
drawn from them by the late lamentable occur-
rence, they should still give their confidence•to per-
sons comparatively -so inadequate to the task of
carrying his system and principles into etfeet. But
an attempt, it would be said, had been made to.
add to the strength of AdminiStration ? What `WM
the nature of that attempt ? It very mach resem-
bled the offer that was made to two Noble, Lerdt.
in February last, except indeed; that it was still
More absurd, more inadmissible, more, insincere,
and would have-been disgraceful to the persons to
whom it was'addressed, had they accepted ' For
what were those persons asked-to dd.? To surroder