The Statesman.
London, England, 1820-02-24 00:00:00

RETROSPECT.

--oese-•
It will never be forgotten that the Prince of Wales
ns, educated in the genuine principles of pure Whig-
m%: it was ever a consolation to recollect, that, but a
t:ort time previons to the unhappy formation of the
I:roomy, his Royal Highness took a marked opportti-
..ly to extol the sentiments of his great friend mail in-
-4.-..rter, Charles James Fox, and to express his sat's-
hsction that those sentiments had been steeply inculcated
to the mind of that amiable Princess, whose premature
.:oath the country still deplores, and will long have cause
:,....t seriously to deplore. It is reyorted that, on
that interesting occasion, his Royal Highness, in a short
bit elognest address, declared, " that he had made it
his first care to instil into the mind and heart of his
slaughter, the knowledge and love of the trite principles
of the British Constitution ; and he hail pointed out to
her young understanding, as a model fur study, the
political conduct of his most revered and lamented
rleml, Mr. Fox, who had . tett, and maintained with
'itch transrendeut force, 'be jnst principles iiittni which
the Hovernment, under his excellent Constitution, might
to he administered, fur the true and solid dignity of the
I rown, anti the real security, freedom, and happiness of
the ;ieolle."
Within a very few months after the delivery of thesecele-
breed sentiments, the debates respecting the establish-
ment of the Regency were norm, into, and the proud
oligarchy of financiers and boronglimongers dared un-
blushingly to avow the power they bad obtained, mid
tregnently exercised in private over the Crown itself.
:Is-cording to their own acknowledgment, the executive
authority had more than once been in secret abeyance,
while they had themselves enjoyed all the royal preen-
gativtts. •It was not surprising, therefore, that they were
unwilling to relinlaish even the nominal discretion of
the Crown to a Pnnce who professed principles such as
those which had so recently fallen from the lips of his
Ilayal Highness. They could not controvert the ClAiall
of the Prince of Wales, the heir to the throne, to sustain
the sceptre of his unhappy father, although even for
sti.:h a nefarious intention they bad a precedent in the
conduct of their extolled predecessor, Mr. Pitt. They
weitt more artfully to work. They brought about a
ilimplele rernlntion in the Constitution. They set the
Parliament above the Crown; and they did not hesitate
to speak openly of their mastagentent of such a Parlia-
ment. The concessions of that Parliament will never
I.e forgotten by the people of this country ; and we will
venture to mssnre any King of England, who at any time
1.13 F be willing to remember, anti to resent. the degrad-
i-tg limits which that Parliament and its controlling
Ministers dared to set to the exercise of the Royal dis-
ci etion, that such resentment will the inure endear hint
1., the loyal estimation of an indignant people. I
The protests of the Princes of the blood, in conjunc-
t on with other members of the Howse of Peers, against
many of the resolutions respecting the Regency, remain
inscribed on the journals of that House, in testimony
that the individuals of the Brunswick family were sen-
sible of this double compromise of the prerogatives of
the Crown and of the prerogatives of Parliament, and of
the indignity offered to both by the Ministry, who, under
the den 'nation of servants of the King, were, in real-
ity, at once the agents and the directors of an overbear-
ing oligarchy. (In the second resolution, which de.
chiral the Parliament competent to provide the means
of supplying. the defect of the personal exercise of the
rJyal anthonty, the Royal Dukes signed a protest, whirls
strongly intimated " the usurpation of the royal autho-
rity, unsancdoned by the laws, the consent of the estates,
or the know.dge of the Soverei ;" by which the power
Ohs of -Regency Was to be measured out, bs,4
owievagn
the Admlitsfration, to the at of the (.fawn. In pro-
testing against that contradictory resolitlion, which de-
elated, that, for maintaining the constitutional who-
city of the King, it was necessary that Parliaments 1
ii,,iiithl legislate respecting the powers entrusted to the
Regent, the Princes appear fully alive to the insult of-
f-red in such a resolution to their Royal brother. An
iiiiilt which can never be forgotten fiy the Brunswick
t tinily. and for which that family must undoubtedly de-
.ire an opportunity, when in conjunction with the in-
s 1,-ed people, to whose throne they were called, they
clay summon these oligarchies! agents to answer for
that and their other offences. In that protest, the Princes
and Peers declared, that they had, " hitherto learned
li,iin no one, that there existed any circumstance in the 1
st rtinn or eharacter of his Royal Highness the Prince
(4' Wales, which could snggest the propriety of desiring
at 'anger *celerity than our ancestors exacted from the 1
Prince of Orange, for his concurrence in such law as
they deemed necessary for the maintenance and safety
•.t the liberties of the people:" Yes, there was that in
the character of the Prince of Wales, which, while it
endeared him to the Whigs of the school of Charles
James Fox and the nation at large, terrified the agents'
of the usurping oligarchy; there was that declaration,
which, hut a few months before, he had pronounced,
tad in which he had declared his attachment to prin. I
t iples which these pretended servants of the Crown had
hang laboured to destroy.
I 'an the Royal Dukes asd his present Majesty save
hurled in oblivion that famous remonstrance to Mr. Per-
I era!, signed by all the Princes, in the presence of their 1
Royal brother, in which they said, " we feel it a duty
we'owe to his Majesty, to our country, and to ourselves,
t., enter oar solemn protest against measures we consider
a i perfectly unconstitutional as they arc contrary to, and
a rt,•ersire ,e; the principles which sealed oar family
~ p ~, the throne of this realm." This is a protest, which,
for their own reputation. ought never to be forgotten t•
when they are ready to vindicate the sentiment contained
i-, it, anti which the sly ?squirel endeavoured to slur
1/ ..er with his cast respecting " the express and concur-
rent support of precedent and Pacliatneat." they will
la n.lonhtedly find the people of this realm ready to rally
r:oand them. • • - :., a_

111AIMAR01111 AND 11111011•TURAL MURDER.
POWICOIIII.L, 11111. 15.--On Saturday, the 7th inst. at
Pllillipstown, in the county of Putnam, Leonard Cum-
mings
.was inhumanly butchered by John Mead, his
father-tn-law. The circumstances that attended this
horrid transaction, are said to he shortly as follows:
The deceased and his father-in-law, Maid, were return-
ing from a wood frolick, upon a sled, in company with
several other teams. Cummings had nnderatood that
Mead iiad abused his wife • Mead was interrogated upon
the subject by the deceased •, warm words ensued ; and
in the course of the altercation, it issaid that the de-
reused struck Mead over the shoulder with as ox gad;
. upon which Mead seized an axe, and although entreated
rot to strike with it by one of the cornpihy, who ob-
. eeeee d him in the act of raising it. give the deentabd a
h'aw which rut through his toiler bone, laid epee his
hotly about twelve inches, and cut a large gash in bia-1
heart. The deceased drew but one breath after reedy.
inc the blow; fell to the ground lifeless without speak-
ing or uttering a groan. Mead was immediately se-,
cared ; declaring when remonstrated with, thut..he eats
glad he had killed hint, and that be ought•tolleve died
before. 'lt h hardly meso' Wiley, Ikea aveselletof
wilful warder was given by Vie bogie= hi,
robbed
Guroser. Mead is hi tbegaet hf au
to await his trial. • •