Star.
London, England, 1810-12-28 00:00:00

•or illegal 4. or not sanctioueit as it afterwards was—
what must liav'e become of at those various Acts to
'which I have alluded? If evt it were thoeWielouht-
tub all thOie proceedings must have fallen lo the
ground, and. must have commenced anew. But the
fact teas the reverse ; all these Bills went leken up
in the stages in which they were found by theeecond
.irfr.aammisstoners, and were afterwards passed under its
authority, and under these Acts, so passed, a conside-
rable portion of property was now held. These c;r-
-•-?r• cumstances proved that a full Parliamentary autho-
rity, duly sanctioned by the King, was given to the
proceedings adopted, in the first instance, by both
• }louses—indeed, it was constituting it a complete
Act of Parliament. With this great and incontro-
vertible authority before our eyes, can we hesitate a
4. moment as to the course of proceeding we ought to
t pursue ? as to our decision upon the legal mode of
Slling up the deficiency which now exists in the Go-
' vOrnment, and of giving effect to the Royal autho-
rity when we have the deliberate sanction of both
Mouses upon the case before us, not only this, but
-•
the full aut:,ority of the three branches of the Legis-
lature ?—Upon this view of the case, my Lords, I
pm at a I,lss to conceive how there can exist any dif-
ference of opinion. As to the question of future pro-
ceedings, I mean not at present to observe. I wish
that the question of the Resolution now before you
ahould rest upon its own merits. I think they involve
one of the greatest and most important questions ever
discussed in Parliament—they involve the most essen-
• tiel rights of the Legislature—they involve the most
.ossential rights of the Throne—and in these conside-
rations they involve every thing Most sacred in the
religion of the country, and every thing appertaining
to the reit and property of the country. Their
*doption w•luld, in my established conviction, afford
best security for the welfare and prosperity of the
I.4ottntry, and afford the most effctnal protection to
~^"die rights and interests of all. Under these impres-
. lions, and upon the grounds upon which I lave tres-
,! passed on the Committee' at such length, I feel my-
-o.4etlf perfectly warranted, as well as actuated by every
'consideration
of duty to my Sovereign and the cowl-
) try, to call upon your Lordships, by your vote, to
give these Resolutions the great sanction and autho-
:e- tit), of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of
!'.Great Britain and Ireland."
• Earl STANHOPE rose, to propo.e an amend-
-. inent to the second Resolution. He should not vote
o' few tharresoNsion an the grounds stated by the noble
a.l Secretary of State .(Lord Liverpool). That Noble
• Earl complained that he had interrupted him. It was
not his intention to interrupt -the Noble Earl in the
course of his speech,tint merely to remind himat the
• moment that the doctrines he was laying down were
, e `contrary to Acts of Parliament. He should have been
'sorry to have interrupted the Noble Secretary in the
,t tourse'he war pUrsuing ; for otherwise, the House
o would not have had the pleasure of hearing the
O strange assertions, thesextraordinary positions, which
• the Noble Secretary had thought proper to bring for-
Ia: Ward. Great stress had been laid by the Noble Se-
aretary on the virtue of the Great Seal, and he seem-

••..

0

ed much to rely do the authority of James 11. Their
Lordships would recollect, that the Great Seal had
been carried awayley this Very James 11. and hence
they might be warned of the vigilance with which it
-was necessary to guard it. If tl.eir Lordships would
• idlow him, he would put,: case :--Suppose a thief to
takeaway the Orem Seal ; suppose the Noble Secre-
r tan! himself to Inks it away, (he begged pardon for
• the supposition), and to affix it to an instrument
3 treating a Duke cf Flushing; suppose him also to affix
t it to an act for granting to himself a pension to any
• *moult he should think proper, might he not likewise
put it to a Bill of Indemnity to screen him from the
consequences of what he had just before been doing ?
On these points the Noble Earl seemed to be very
. learned indeed, but not quite so learned ashis legal friend
James 11. The Act-of Parliament to which he wish.

ed the Noble Sectietary to look, was no less an act
• than that for regulating the succession to the Crown.
• —Lit the Noble Secretary refer to theprovisions of
• that Act, and then he would ask him, whether he
modd bow to the authority of his friend limes 11.
.401 a• preference to the authority of this Act, of Parlia-
014sent ? What authority could the Great Seal carry
I:!,*ith it, when u..ed in the manner which is now inten-

coded to be proposed? Could it have any authority
:••-r,4l9tigeraltan until the successor to the crown should
„eve orders to the contrary ?—ln cases of illness of
. the Sovereign, he knew of no Act of Parliament
whicli gave that power. It was riot in the power of
..,:oitnjects to give it ; and therefore he cansidered.the
,-.44osolittion, in its present state, to be incomplete.-
7,,Tobe Noble Earl here read the Resolution, and pro-
f wised to amend it by substituting atter the word
" oeqtrire," the following words : " and until the
Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, shall
Jukve before' them sufficient and satisfactory proof of
the fact, that his Majesty is so far recovered as to be
perfectly able to discharge all the functions of the re-
• gal authority." What objection could there be to this ?
It had already been decided, that the two Houses are
competent to supply the detect in the exercise of the
royalfunctions ; that the power resiJed• in the two
Houses, and no where eh.e. That the Privy Copncil
hail no such power. The only authority, therefore,
to resort to, and to be guided by, was :he authority
of P•arliarnent He might also put the case of a dif-
ference of opinion among the physicians—two of them
fright think that the King was not so well as to be
abie to discharge the functions of the Sovereign, and
others of them, even four, might express a different
o;)iiiion--tbeY niight even come to be unanimous on
this point-unil then be might be thought to involve
so difficulty. • This reminded him of a story told hwy.
Jodge Buller of
.4 conversation with a oonntry Squire
. •eaut Judge Barnett. The Spike thought there could
be no difficulty in discharging the office of Judges, for
they ,lul (tally to decide between black.and white
Mot certainly there could be no difficulty in their
, task, ,observed Judge Burnett, if all they had to do
was to distinguish between black and white ; but that
ss!as out the case--all the difficulty lay in judging of
. c,the .greys. Such would be the embarrassment of their
i,,l,,,,mdships in the prelent case. The great difficulty
~fits thee precise thing which the two Houses
b a 4 tip4ltir awld .that they coldd not decide upon but
t.by ;isioptitrit; the amendment he had just proposed.
gusstion was then put unon Lord Stanhope's.
• poreildrAent, which was rejected without a. division.
f Lord HOLLAND theo.tose, to move ,the, previ-
hilitWaiurstlon. It was not AllititerktiOLl now p auswgr.
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