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

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was intended to propose was, tb make tliat comple:eby
• the Great Seal which at present could not be made so.
This was impossible. It reminded him of an expedient
hit upon at a Westminster Election by a body of men,
certainly tit it so enlightened as his Majesty's Ministers,
he meant the Irish chairmen. These people finding
themselves sometimes unpleasantly situated with re.
gard to the police officers, applied to one of the Com-
mittees at the election, to know if there would'he any
objection to their getting their poles painted like the
• constables' staves, conceiving that they would then,
in any quarrel, 64 have law on their side." -Tb4,•the
Nobble Lord appeared to think, • that by the Atifering
which he proposed to -the measure in agitation, he
shoukt " have the law on his side." If their Lord-
howevc r, wished to lay a foundation for the future
uturi)aticn by the two Houses of Parliaffient of the
• royal authority, they could pot do. it better than
by -assenting to the proposition of the 'Noble Lord.
What liould the Commission purport to dk?. By the
authority of the two nooses of Parliament to. open
the Parliament, to hold the Parliament, and to stand
in the place cif the' Crown. Admit such a principle,
and it might be applied in future to every illegal act
which a more encroaching Parliament than the pre-
sent-might wish to perform. What was the course
recommended td%e pursued ? In the first place, to
adopt a resolution, declaratory of the inefficiency of
his Majesty at present, to exercise the Royal Functions.
In the second place, to adopt a resolution that it was
the right and duty of the two Houses of Parliament to
provide for the deficiency thus occasioned. What fol-
lowed? To abandon. the right, and to forego the duty
To abandon the right, by surrender ing it to others ; to
forego the duty, by leaving the Country without a go-
vernor. All this, too, at a time when the events of a
fortnight, or of a week, might demand to meet them,
the united, powers of the Constitution—when a tern-
restuous sea was raging, on which the vessel of the
State was doomed to plough an unsteady and uncertain
course ! What would posterity say to this abandon.
tent of, duty ? More especially what would they say
when they found that the duty could have been so
easily accomplished by the appointment to the dis-
charge of the executive functions of an Illustrious
Personage, in whose merits all parties Concurred. It
was fitting that the power should be exercised only by
that individual. It was the essence as well as the
letter of Monarchy to be the rule of one perion. The
present was the fist time that he had heard of a Mo-
narchy being put into commission. With a full ton.
viction :)f thg propriety of his Noble Friend's amend-,
ment, he should certainly vote for it ; calculated as
it was to make the Constitution whale, and to replace,
it on the basis on which alone it could stand with

security. •
The Clerk again read the Resolution.
Lord GR ENVILLE rose, after a considerable
pause, and expensed his astonishment that the Noble
Lord ( Eldon) who was the law-adviser of the measures
now proposal, should not. have deemed it proper to
delivered his opinions on the present discussion.
'though he was awareihat Noble Lords might choose
their own time td deliver their sentiments;yet, horn
the situation in.which that Noble Lord -pat ticularly
'stood; he must consider him as highly c.-usurabie in 1
•• having reflaitied froni stating the grounds on Which
he had determined on ih2 course now recommended
' by. him and his colleagues in office. He (Lord Gren-
ville) did not rise to supply this deficiency, but he,
rose in great diffieulty—in difficulty, because lie wasl
.compelled to go against all his Noble Friends w lio had
spoken on this side of the House. If he rose to de-
fend Ministers, that indeed would be a task beyond
the power of any man living—if to say that they had
acted consistently with their duty to the • nation,
when, knowing the calamity that existed, they.had used
language to delude the Parliament into a desertion of
their duty, and to turn their backs on their Sovereign
and their country ; if he rose tomaintain, with the No-,
ble Earl ( Buckinghamshire) that protraction was me-
ritorious, no task could be so desperate as to convince
the Parliament, the country, and Europe, that in the
existing state of the world, that position could be de-
fended. It, as they were told, the world looked to
Britain as the last bulwark of retreating liberty, and
as the only country which yet maintained the appear-
ance of a struggle for independence, trusted to her as
to her firmest reliance, what then could be more unde-
niable than that a day or a week of the absence of G
wernment was one of. the greatest calamities that could
10041 the nation ? Therefore it was, that if he stosported
toe motion of Ministers, he was not to be supposed to
be in favour of their conduct, which be could ilk
view without feeling the deepest indignation and re-
sentment. At a future time he should conceive it. to
be his duty to call their Lordships' attention to the
assumption of these arrogant then of the exercise of
Regal power.— (Hear, Azar.) He would now state,
• in :;newer to what a Noble Earl (Buckinghamshire)
hate ells posed he would have done ir. aa situation simi-
lar t(i Ministers, the course. he Would have 'porsped.
Zslekerithstandiug all the peratoisive eloquence of his
NoiNke.Fekerds, he •was obliged to adhere to the opi-
nioiti be had formerly rnat9tanied. These opiniqns had
beets aried in silence .and retirement, and were now
agiiin brought to the test after no light investigation
into the principles of .the British Constitution ; and
this was briefly his septiment, " that the. proceeding
by till w r.s.tar preferabletoproceeding by Address."
—Toy this, weighing well the tatbarraisnratts on all,
sides, he must: Adhere.. The questiontheir Lordships
. bad this night to consider,was one of the utmost im-
portance ;abut yet the real point for their decision
• lay in a very narrow compass. He mild not agree
with those who thought that the Tiestion, whether
entire kingly lame' s sh old or should not be given to
the Regent, had any influence upon their decisions
on the question before them. This subject would at
• future period come under consideration, and with
.it this night they had nothing to do. The deficiency
in the Rvg.il functions might be supplied in two ways
...by bill or Address; and he would leave other to.
pits out of the question, to direct his attention to these
two modes, the adoption of one of which was of infi-
nite consequence to the Constitution and the country.
)4;i .;*ers had suffered e.ght weeks to elapse, for which
shay were deeply responsible ; and on allegations now
Los n to be false, had prevailed on Parliament to con-
rent to the delays they proposed. He trusted obey
Lad been themselves deceived ; but however that
was, had they oat succeeded in procuring the adop-

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• 7.
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such an act,, which juititicalioo was alwaysfounded
on the necessity for it. The Noble Secretary of State
b id contended, that the object of the Bill which it