The Sun.
London, England, 1812-06-12 00:00:00

liminary question , howtvcr, they felt it necessary
to ask i.Vhether. their. .liter. ty. extended. to,the.great
Officers of theflousehold; usually included in
litica me
l arrangents i.:Lordi Moira. ,replitld, that
the Prime had laid 'il.P iebtriakiii, inion hhu. ' He
felLit impos•sible,,howev4,
.t0..-agree in the point
'ils on public grotinds he :deemed it objection-.
able... Lords Grey.and Grenville .S.aid, that they.
also:acted upon. public pounds, and here the con-
versatioaended,with mutual expressions of regret,
On what authority then could the Noble tord,state
that`the removals intended in the household were
greater than ever were meditated before, under a
_chang-e of Administration? The object of th c vote of
the House was 'to procure an Administration of
strength _and efficiency. What would give that ''
Strength and efficiency '? The first thing Was a
Concurrence and agreement in--the principles. upon
-which they were to ,act : the next was a perfect .
union and good underStandinvamongSt the dif •
ferent Members—the, la,st,- though not the least,
was the good character. that they possessed, and
the good opinion which the country e ntertained
of their 'principles and talents.. There was another
thing which ought. not to be 'omitted,. and that .
was a 'conviction in Parliament and in the country,
that they possessed the .confidence of him they
served. , As to the first proposition, it was not
expected to- take a favourable turn ; but upon
the secondit• had been said, that the Noble Lords .
were not justified in breaking off upon such.
- grounds ; bust he would beg to Observe, that it was
00t..50 much their rapture as `tire rupture of the' .
!Noble tord who Commenced, the ncgociation ,
Those Who contended that they were not justified
knew but. little- of . the Constitution 4 It was a
:principie,Ontended for, and confirmed bythe Re. -
. volutionl a--.principle which. had dethroned the
• House -of Stuart, and raised the Douse Of Han-:
over. 9, the Sovereignty of: this Kingdom;
_that a .
.Kia-vg, who was by law. irresponsible, should have
-toponsible:-.Ministera to_adyise 'hint in all,things.
It:was the undoubted prerogative of the Crown to .
dismiss its ,Ministers, but while it had. them, it
should take their, advice in the exercise of all its
-prerogatives. The Right Hon. Gentle Man went •
back to the Restoration, ,He was unwilling togo
beyond
.-the Revolution for any Constitutional
_-
doctrine. He quoted the different. 'instances :in
which the Lord .:Chquiheilain. and Master of the
Horse were changed,with different changes of Ad-
stration. ,:The Noble Lords desired
,only to know'
if they could. 'exercise the, same power which Was
usually exercised in such cases ? hut an objection.
had, been taken to it on public grounds, He would,
put ,it to the candour of the House, what woukl
the people think of the confidence such. Ministers
possessed, if they did' not see them exercising those
usual , functions in the usual manner, ' and shew
• tberebY that there ryas no distinction between the
- Great offices .of the Court and.the Great offices of
the State? . He was..nOw to make some obser-
vations less pleasant to himself. ln none of the ,I
communications lo the Noble
.Lords were they
honoured with an interview with his Royal High-
ness; as was usual on the forming Of. a new Admi-
nistration, nor was there any thin;lithe proposal it-
self, or in the manner of it, which couldinduce them
to believe that they possessed much of the confidence
of the'.Throue. It was' therefore more necessary
to shew that they,possessed a constitutional confi-
dence. He then went into a train of argument to ,
prove .the importance , of •granting, the .Catholic.
Claims, .olrevoking the ,Orders in Council, and
..adopting-economical reform ; and-concluded with _
observing that
.of the proposed Addresses,
,he
should certainly prefer that suggested by his Noble
Friend (Lord Milton) .as most constitutional and
consistent with the dignityolParliament. , ...
Mr. BATIIIYiST- explained.
Mr.-CANNING. observed, that the appeal which
the Right Hon. 'Gentleman who had last spoken
(Mr. Ponsoilby) did himthe honour to make more
than once to him in the course of his speech. and
theshare which it was his fortune humbly to have
had, ,iuthetransactions so often alluded to in the
course. of the debate,- might probably leadthe House
to „expect
.that lie should trespass shortly upon its_
attention. inexplaining the part he had. in the
transactions, This he was the more ready. to do, .
because, he-owed it to the Noble Lords,..with
whom suecessively, and underwhOm he had acted
...on theoccasiOns alluded to,. to give an explana-.
,tion.of eertaimparticulars upon which he thought,
they.•had been misunderstood. In saying thus,
however, 'he could assure the Right Honour,-
able Gentleman, and the House, .that. he should
'cuter into the,. consideration of . these topics
with the same temper, feelings, and spirit, ,
with which he was
.sure the Right Honourable
.Gentleman and his friends would do him, and the.
Noble. LOrds with whom be had been associated,
the same justice to admit they had...been actuated
by throughout, as they were ready. to do by-him
and 'his Noble Friends, as to
.their conduct in the
discussions Which had taken place.
.His sole Ob-
ject in riaing;, therefore; was to state to the House
the -nature and colour - of the, transactions, as he,
and . the Noble-Persons with whom he 'had been
concerned, understood them-, and to abstain from
- making any unnecessary comment upon them, as
well as from any allusion to hiuiself- personally,
except in so far as .it may be indispensable
to a full exposition, 'and -correct understanding
of the subject. The Right Honourable Gentleman
had truly stated, that the object of *Tote of the
./' House, in the former instance; was to induce the
Prince Regent- to take measures for proViding a
strong and efficient Administration—the; Right
Honourable Gentleman had also rightly stated the
characteristics of efficiency and strength in tian
Administration—but the error into Which the
Right Honourable Gentleman appeared to have
fallen, if he would allow him to use the expres-
sion, was, that. he took it for granted that there
was only one way of foiming such. -an Admi-
nistration, and that was, to cut short . the
labour of the person appointed to form the
Administration,. by leaving him nothing to do
but to surrender'his commissiowinto the hands of
that man, who could command the greater number
of votes in the House of Commons.—When to
Marquis Wellesley the commission was entrusted
to form an Administration, it was obviously not
intended that the proceeding' was to he conducted
on the ground of the greatest numerical following
in that House. If the principle of the Right Ho-
nourable Gentleman, therefore, were. to be ad-
. raitted, nothing would have, remained far Mar-