The Sun.
London, England, 1810-12-28 00:00:00

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'NUMBER 5709.1

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

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HOUSE OF PEERS.
TIItYRSDAY, DEC. 27:
STATE OF kilS MAJESTY'S HEALTI-I.
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Previous to the Order of the Day being regular'
ly entered upon, and on the occasion of their °Lord-
ships' Order for referring the Report of the Coin-
, rnittee tbexatnioe the Royal Physicians, to the Com-
Inittee of the wthole House; on the State of the Na-
tion, being read, •
The Earl ot CARLISLE rose, for the purpose of
calling their Lordships' attention to this patticular
part of the_ subject, which he conceived dl consi-
derable importance. He briefly noticed the steps
which had. been taken front the earliest period that
the melan,choly situation of his Majesty had been
Publicly known, to the present moment, the whole
course of which, and the principle' on which the
Conduct of Ministers proceeded, had his dee.ded disap-
.probation. In consequence of their repeated otnis-
Lions to do that which the line of their duty pre-
scribed to them, they were now, after a lapse of
five weeks, proceediug to do. that which the should
lhaVe done at the eery earliest opportunity, alter that
great national calamity welch they all deplored had
taken place.; they were now liegmiting to lay the
foundation of that building, which, if they had dune
their feat duty, not only to their country but to them-
selves, it would be' considerably above the grinith—
Perhaps so far. advanced, .as merely to want the
finishing hand to be-put to it. This would now have
been the case did Parliament perform itsduty uphn
this.i important crisis. Instead of it, the work was
left to a Gorernment,whicleunder the circumstances,
had no particular description in the constiOtion ; it
Was in fact a species of usurpation. The, Noble
Earl then reverted more perticelarly to the state of
hishMajesty's health, the truth of which seemed to'
have been long concealed. He gave full credit to the
Noble Lords of Administration .for their relevant
conduct ; they must have been -equally deceived
with the rest of his IVlejesty'ssubje.hts. When tie looked
Over the document which had 'just been regularly re-
ferred to the consideration t5l- their Lordships, and
compared what appeared therein with some of the
bulletins issued about the time to whieb he alluded, '
he must think it scarcely possible then that even ,
Ministers themselves could be acquainted who these
lads, or they never could have c..ene down, the
huddle of last nio hh, and held the language
they did to Pailiametit, respecting the state of. his
Majesty'-s health. But representatiotis from suet,
quarter shoule not have been wade the ground ot
Parliamentary proceeding; they should then ,have
themselves inquired into the real state of the case ;
and they shoeld' not have sutlered the exeeueve
Power of the Government to remain in the hands it.
has; against the plainest principles 1114.1 dietates of
the Cons itutiote He repeated his idea, that Noble
Lords in the Administration could not have beep ac-
quainted with the real state of the health of :their
Sovereign at the time, or they never would have so
ailed. He begged their Lordships to
.consider what
the statements net& by Dpaors Willis and Heber-
den, respecting the state his Majesty, really were at
the time to v hich he alluded. The Noble hart, here
quoted certain parts of the report of the eyideuce of
those Medical Gentlemen, which lay upon the ta,
We, particularly where the former describes the
Royal Patient to has ebeen, from the severity of the
lever, in a state of great peril. This washibeut the
6th of November ; and when the latter stated
.that
one of the paroxysms apeeared so severe as to give
the Physicians great apprehensions. for the safety of\
his life, he could not suppose that Ministers could
have been acquaihted with the real state of the case, .
and of the dangerous state.of his- Majesty, or they
could never have raised hopes of his recovering so
timely as to render it 'unnecessary, in ad probabi-
lity, for Parliament to take those steps which-were
very recently adopted. The, Noble
,Earl then re-
' ferred 40- the language of the Bulletins, signed by
Me- Physicians, which he considered very dit-ferent
in their import from what the Physicians described
to the Committee to have been the situation of his
- _ Majesty at the corresponding pet sods. He con-
tended, that no man, from a perusal of those papers,
-could have known the state the Sovereign was ac-
tually in at the time. Upon the whole, when he
viewed this part of the subject, on which, apparent-
,a degree of deleeion existed, equally injurioui
and reprehensible, he thought, that as the accounts
given through those ditlerept channels wete so ma-
terially coettadiclory, the best expedient for enis ing
at the real truth, and the actual state ot the Stave.-
reign's health, would be a re-examination of the
Physicians; and a proceeding of this kind would be
the more desirable, as these Gentlemen were inhigh
esiimation in the world for their great professional.
skill. He thought such a proceeding was due to the
dignity of Parliament, and necessary for the informa-.
tioni of the Pubhcat large, and as such, he would
earnestly recommend its• adoption.
The Earl of LIVERPOOL did not conceive it neces-
sary to trouble their Lordships with any observe-
tion,s, in ,cottsequeoce of w hat had fallen from the
Noble Earl, farther than to say, that he, and those
with ,whom he, had the honour to ael, were ready at
any time to fully discuss and justify the line of con-
duet adopted, under all the circumstances to which
h the Noble Earl had referred. He thought the dis-
cussion of such a topic would he highly irregular and
itiopporiune in the. present shoe of their Lordship's'
rat eed jugs ; he would therefore move the Order
of the Day. ' .
The,questiOn being put from the Wools'aek, their
Lordships accordingly resolved into a Committee of
the w hole House on .
.. THE STATE OF THE NATION,
And Lord WALSINGILA.KoavinE tAeti the Chair, the
• Resoitatioes communicated
,by the Conattic.his were
thou read by the Geri:, oe which -
Tt4e Eari of LIVER oo;. rose, and said, " I now

RI DA Y,

feel myself called upon to address your . Lordships
,upon the very important subject 'nodes your cons
sideration, and to call your particular attention to
those Resolutions voted and communicated to us by
the House of Commons, which yoti have just' heard
read. Upon the first of these Resolutions, my
Lords, I think at this time, unfortuoatelyr there
can arise no difference of opinion. In discharging
the painful duty impoSed ott us by the statement of
the melancholy fad referred to in this resolutions I
our persuaded it is impossible, to do justice to those
feelings, by any attempt of
,mine to express them,
wtth which we. are all actuated by so afflicting a
circumstance. I 'canOot,\ however, help expressing
the anxious hop we all must entertain on the re-
toration of a gracious and beloved Soveleigo, under
whose auspices, for more than fifty years, we have
enjoyed a-portion of -litsZ..rty_astd uninterripted tran-
quility, which was never enjoyed by any. other
country on the face of the globe; and -I feel we all
must took with pleasing satisfaction to the hopes
held out of the re-establishment of his Majesiy'.s
health, and the hope of :he ultimate resumption,
himself, of the personal exercise of his Royal Au-
thority. Notwithstauding, my Lords, what I have
heard s night or on former occasions, I can take
no blame to myself, nor attach any to my colleagues
in office, for those propcisitions we have from • time
to time made, in the hope that these measures,
which it now may eventually 'be necessary to adopt,
might have been assoided. In this View of rime case,
it is impossible to consider the state io which the
country must be involved under such circumstances
—a situation -in which it, is now narly two cen-
tuties and an half ago since it was placed un:!er a
'Government in any degree similar, which the af-
flict ing consideration we all deplore may render.ue-
cessary. I say, my Lords, wheel we reflect not only
upon the difficulties but the degree of danger na-
turally incident 10 such changes, it is impossible
that we should. not pause when any reasonable pros-
pea presented itself of our being able to at oid such
a .state a. that to which I have alluded. It was our
duty as Ministers, in such circumstances, and our
duty to the country, to endeavour to avoid it. Ido
not say this, my Louis, from any conilderations of
a personal nature towards any individual, however
exalted, but from nubile grounds, and from public
principles. Under these impressions, 1 shall, at the
present moment, endeavour to avoid, as much as
possible,•the consideration and discussion of all ex-
traneous points, or of any matter foreign from the
subject regularly before us. If I deslitie entering
upon arty of these topics, it is not from any pit Ocular
nnwillingoess, or de:ure to shrink from arts such ni,,
cussions, hut because I tee! they are net oecessarily
iiivelvetytt the questionS tow regularly before Ina
Committee. The pres,mtquestions should tie wholly
considered on their own grounds, and titeir.exclusive
merits, and not. cOnnec!ed witheauy thing that.,
mayseend to enubarrasa, insteascl of tacilitatilig 'he •
discussion. That now t3efore- us entirely aid alone
respeas the course-and mode of the pioceedings
which it may be necessary to adopt ; and its far as
this consideration wear, that is, as to
,the form of
our proceedings, I was induced-to think. there Would
he no material differeoce
.of opinion ; but as. I un-
derstand since, from what has passed in this. House,
and in other places, that it is intended not merely to
object to the ,mode in which it is proposed to fill
up, the temporary deficiency in the Constitution,
but also to, oppose the whole principle aod. course
of the proceedings adopted in the' year 1788.
With respect, my Lords, to the principle of that
great and salutary precedent, when I consider it so
analogous to, and Wooded on, the genuine. principles
. of the Constitution of this country ; when .1 consider
the great and eminent law authorities who have given
theit decided and express sansaion to that principle
and course of procett.lings I feel it a question, of so
much magnitude and impot tarice that 1 cannot avoid •
stating those. general principles, at least, on which;
in my coui;itiion, these resolutions are founded, and
which I 'conceive to by consonant to all those great
constitutional principles, by which I conclude your
Lordishins would wfsh to be governed on such occa-
sions, as the present. The firseprinciple Joist down in
forming the precedent of 788,was, that the. Throne
must be considered as always fell, and that th4oli-
tical capacity of the Sovereign was always in exist-
clice,whatever may be the immediate temporary per-
situation of the Monat ch. -This I CUllt::::1 VC to be
a pratlical distinction'of a trate% neces•elry to ensure
to the governed the existence of all toe advantages
to besdeneed from the principle rat Mottaichv. If
the exercise of the royalauthority during the tile of
tlie legal Soveregn must be acrupolously reserved for
that Soveleian,,aily depintureefroto this principle
on every occasican of temporary persoaallucanacity
might be, to lead to all the iueonveniencies and dan-
gers of a disputed succession.. The great object in
the eStahlishment of the toduarchical system was, its
affording a security, and the certainty of its afford-
ing a bulWark, against the ambitioisa designs of indi-
viduals ; ttie object should be, as far 2s possible, to se-
cure tins system against any interruption.andao coat-
centre sand continue as far as possible the executive
posses to the King upon the Throne., Tis these miry
Lords, should be added, the consideration that the
law knows no such office•as that. of Regent: That
office was al ays created under special circumstances,
and with reference to a special exigency. It was the
uniform practice of our ancestets" so to act, and in
their wisdom they formed no general precedent
for the guidance of posterity orison the. point ;
they. felt the danger of meddling witn a principle of
the kind su great, that they thoualit that as hatever
• inconvenienctes may.arise from its being left oprn
and undecided, these were less than what would
result from laying down it,general prospeetive rule ;
riTy tt-ought it right' to leave it to the wisdom of
free gido ures to
~provide fm= that
to'the

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