The Statesman.
London, England, 1810-12-29 00:00:00

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- . . . • TUB ItEGSNCY.
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TO THE aoltrog OF THE STATE4MAIst.
Sze.,,:—Tiereis bit One way of viewing lII' e
ciliation, *bleb Mr. P - iacirvar. has thought proper
to perplex with difficulties, for the double porpoise
of protracting his stray in
office, and of renderlig the
Executive Government at 'ante inefficient and ludi-
crous, whenever it shall ba wrested from those who
have usurped it. Mr. PeaCival. has told the House
of eummopst that 66 they are assembled not to create
a King, bite to preserve undiminished the rights
of:one!" Ho would have been much nearer the
truth, had he frankly declared they were called
together by his special Mandate, and that of his C 01...
leagues, to create a Regent with all the exterior of
MAJZSTy, without any of his attributes—a mere
Pageant, decorated with all the symbols of Royal.
ty, but clipped and curtailed Of its Powers and
Prerogatives—a King in masquerade, fur those to
spurn who made him, and for those to laugh at who
should obey him. Mr. Peaceva L. asks, with an air
of triumph, 44 !flat is a Regent ?" The question,
in its technical sense, is certainly as embarrassing
as the Right Honourable Gentleman could wish it.;
but, if our Statutes are silent on the subject,—if
our laws, have not yet defined and ascertained the
precise duties of a kvgent,—Common Sense, which
Is antecedent to all Municipal Law, might have in.
formed him that a Regent, in the correct and original
sense of the word, is a person who governs, and in
the present instance a substitute for an ABSENT
KING. A Regent under such circumstances should
possess all the authority and prerogatives, tiering his
Regency, of the person he represents, or the re.
presentation will be imperfect, and his means inef.
ficiesnt for all the wholesome purposes of Govern.
mcnt.—lt would be a mere mockery of the Execu.
tive Power, less mischievous indeed than those
whom we suffer to insult our understanding, and
trifle with the honour and interests of the Empire.,
but to the full as contemptible. Is Mr. PERCETAL,
with all his professional knowledge, to be told, that
one of the great objects proposed by appointing a
Regent, is to preserve undiminished the rights of the
Crown ; but how are these rights to be preserved
in all their integrity, if the Executive Authority is
not fall in all its parts, with ample powers to select
and dismiss, to reward and punish, and to com.
!deftly 6110 in the word's best sense, the MA.
JESTY 'OP THE THRONE ? The matt who
Would" seriously contend that any other dif-
ference exists between a Regent and a King
than that the former is a King tie facto, and the
latter a King de jure, may have, a Went IPor quib.
ding, but Out for legislating; and if the correct-
ed' of his principles is to be measured by the cur.
reckless of his conceptions,' the Statutes will be a
much better sectirity for his honesty than his bond.
11.11a.ve maintained, Sir, in one of my former letters,
that insanity is virtually, for the time it lasts, a de..
Mite—in point of effect, it is precisely the same ; and
though it way riot be strictly legal, in the present very
imperfect kit° of our legislation, in the immediate
Heir-id the Crowe to ascend the Throne, or even
to exercise the Regal Functions, uninvited by the
State" of the Realm, during the natural life of the
.Soiereign, yet the danger of trusting to the wisdom
and integrity of any description of men to. rule the
Country, in the name of a Monarch turned of 70,
at once blind and insane, is far greater than any in.
jury that could flank to the Liberties* of the Pea-
ple, front the precedent of the Prince of,' WALES as-
suming, in the name of his father,
.and during his
mental derangement, the reins of Government. I
"will pass ovor the .affront offered to .the 'personal
thiracter of •thb Polack:, by the offensive measure
proposed of limiting the powers of the Regent, and
of giving him, even under such proposed restrictions,
a divided authority with these who, in the course of
24 hours, may become his subjects. :,
The Minister attempts ,to disguise•the ;mak by
pretending to legislate for futurity ! but en tape.
client that legal craft and chicanery can devise, chit
give a Legislative stamp to any measure or results.
lief) of Two Estates.of the Realm in the absence of
the Third*; • andlMr. PERCETAL should not only be
told, but compelled, to respect theinformatiott, that.
the annexing of any other conditions to the office
of -Regent, except that of surrendering it, when.
ever the person he represents is in a situation to
exercise it, is an assumption of poster more likely

to subvert than to fortify the Constitutieui and that
to impese testrietions, and give the Regent 'sloe'.
ates in the Government, is to weaketi the Executive
Power and reader it inefficient. The Pritiee of
WALES has decidedly the best and strongest pretea.
along to the Regency ; but independent of the as,,
askance: we derive of a faithful discharge of its idu
portant functions from the well-known virtues. of
his Royal Highness, ho is citified to possess in •
,all their plenitude the rights and prerogatives of the
Crown, unincumbcred by associates, and without

• Lord Gwent ELLE liaS revived a doctrine more applies'=
hle to the dins of EDWARD the Tiitari, than to those of
nzottoc the numb, by declaring that the Clergy constitute
.One of the Three Estates of the Realm. If his Lordship was
of a convivial and social disposition, I should suppose that he
was eat entirely recovered from t he delitioni of au Installatim
The University which elected hie) Chaoceitor,ou the
"peculation of Isis becoming ti,trti First Lord of the Treasury:
will, no doubt, be pleased 4 the croft of restoring the Chu relit
to that power which they lost by abusing it, and which cont-
rition setv.e tells us tney nioghl newer to have ptosessed ; but the
.great hulk of the nation are better acquainted with the cha.
rat ter of 411 c Priesthood, and of is to wish to see!
J either of thew in power again.

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'RE. -IttitESNAN
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abtrs.

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being dishonoured by restrictions. To fetter him
with either on his assuming the Regency, is to de.
grade him tot level with his subjects, to cripple
his Government, and throw the country into the
hands of an Oligarchy. it is for the two houses
of Parliament to correct the errors of those who'
would mislead them ; and if Ministers, counting ots
support from the Commons, should persevere in
the criminal design of rendering the Representative
Of Majesty, as they have done Majesty itself, a
Royal Cypher in the Kingdom ; the Peers, it. is to
be hoped, will feel their consequence in the Slate,
"mad convince Mr. PEIICEVAL that they are neither
his Clerks nor Pensioners.
Dec. 2J, 1810.

• AMICUS JUSTITIX.
sillmesimes3m2mmt •

•
NAVAL INTELLIGENCE-
. PORTSMOUTH, DEC. 28.
rived the //wear, Capt. Dixon, from a ernite.
Sailed the Galatea at:d Malacca frigatts for
the Cape of Good Hope; the Saturn of 74 guns,
Capt. Cumberland ; and the Ganges, of 74 guns,
Capt. Dundas,. for Plymouth ; the Wolvcrene,
Capt. Kerr, with :dispatches for Oporto and Lis.
bon ; 4extcrous, Lieut. Tomlinson, on a cruize ;
also from St. Helen's, the Cherburgh squadron, to
resume their station, from which they were blown
by the rate violent gales, viz. Donegal, Revenge,
Vengettr, and Diana frigate ; also the Sand-
wich lugger from Guernsey.'
Went out of hairbouithe Hawk, Cipt. ticiichicr.
DEM., Dec. 28.
Wind N. W. came down from the River the Cum-
berland, E. Indiaman, and sailed to :he westward.

&Hied the Zephyr sloop of war with the outward.
bound under convoy.
Arrived the Fisguard frigate from the Baltic,
and his MajestyN ship Aboukir, from Sheerness.

FALMOUTH. Dec. 26.
Sailed yesterday *his Majesty's ship Meropet• hkr
Plymouth.
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TO TIIE EDITOR OF THE STATESMAN.

STR,—llaving observed in your liberal and
useful Paper, of the 20th of lasts month, 'fiery,
simple and geometrical approximations fur the
circumference and area of the circle ; I think it
may be of considerable public benefit to communl.
sate, through the same channel, the following,
wilich I received from the same Gentleman, with
his permission to make then) known ; as they come
much nearer, and, when thrown into numbers, dif..
fer but little from the truth, even. in the seventh
place of decimals therefore are correct enough for
all the purposes of (agronomy, di u of .com-
moo. life.

The perimeter Of asTmiciibed polygon of twenty.
four sides, together with a fourth proportional•to
the perimeter of an inscribed dodecagon, the excess
of four of its sides above the diameter, and six sides
of the polygon of 24 sides; together also with a
fourth proportional to the perimeter of the in.
scribed dodecagon, half its excess above thrice the
diameter, and a fourth proportional to this perime. ,
ter, its excess above thrice the diameter, and nine.
tenths of one side of the inscribed polygon of oven.
ty.four sides is, very nearly indeed, equal to the
circumference of the circle. And the rectangle ea.!
der the geometrical line equal to these, and a fourth',
part of the diameter, or half the radius, is, very,
nearly indeed, equal to the area.
Thus, if P denote the perimeter of an inscribe
.polygon of twenty.four sides, p that of a dodecagon,
PF-3d 111,7,--(fl •
and d the diameter, p
,
very nearly indeed, equal to the circumference.
41 P•e— 3d 3P •
And 4- x (13 12 • 1-5.34' • is very
nearly indeed, equal to the area.
Hence are immediately derived Vet* near geotne.
trical expressions for the surfaces and solitlities
splrerest paraboloids, cones, spherical segments,
am • • 1 am,. sir, •