The Statesman.
London, England, 1810-12-21 00:00:00

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-• -There were thee alive some of the most intelligent argon
whist° oosamted with constitutional and legislative itt-
form..tina.--aen who had acquired their knowledie from hay-
loft lived is the time of the troabl,-i which arose about that pe-
eled, when emsitimiliiiial and legislative proceedia were an
Patch the subject of discussion and of enquiry. The Parliament
at that time determined to pat the Crown on the head of the
Pelage of Gralleet but. while they did so, they went also de-
termined t I teltitotain tbeir sewn privileges. Before the Crown
was tendered to him, therefore, they read over to him and to
his with the Dream** of their Rlghte whieh they were re-
solved to preserve, aad ea the unpile-I assent to those Rights
then come to, between the two paree.4, iieclared William
and Mary Ken;; and Queen. That this, then, was the opinion
of the best-informed men of that time. AS to the regular aod
constitutional course of proceeding could out be doubted, but
• reined t. 4 follow as a matter of course. They did out think it
• cemory to proceed h- means of a fiction, or rather a trend ;
they dill not wish that
:tee Great Seal should seem in comesuni.
rate to any act of theirs the scent of another branch which
was incapable of signifying any sueh assent. They thought
that a Declaration expressive of the terms on which the
Throve was tendered to the Princess of Orange and her husband,
was etifficient to establish the Throne to them, and also to
secure their own liberties to the people of this country.—
'The Right Honourable Gentleman said, the act done at the
Revolasion was the making of a King, which this was not.
The act done at the Revolation, then, wo a paramount act to
'that, o.µ•-proposed; yet the Right Hon. Gentleman, while
be saw this superior act had been done by Address from the
two Houses, chose to think, that in conveying to the Prince of
' Wales the power of administering the &airs of the country,
for his fatker,he can only proceed byan act of Legislature. The
snore he (Mr. Ponseohy) ban considered the proceedings in the
year 1789. the more be was ustimished they could have been
adopted by the two Houses of Parliament at that time. How
• should. the Royal Alsent he known to have been obtained to
~ When Act ? it was required by Act of Parliament, that the
Royal Assent should be signified, either by the Kin himself, In,
• permit, and in fall Parliament, or by Letters Palette to Cent-
. snissioneete. soder the Sign Manual of the King himself. The
Act was so shiart that he should read it. It was an Act passed
in the 34d year of the reign of Henry VIII. declaring that Ml'
Acts which should receive the Royal Assent by letters seder
tbe.Great seal, and signed with the KiWe own hand. should•
be as gnod and effectual'as if the King had been personally pre-
sent, in full Pariiament, at the time of passing
The law therefore detlares, that there are only two soda in
which the Crown cm act with erred to. a legislatiye mesons,
so as to give it validity. First, by being himself personally
present in fell Parliament, apt there signifying his assent to it;
or. secondly, by a Commission under tile Great Seal, signed
with his Majesty's own hand.. Now, the question Is, is his Mae
jests capable of performing either of these Acts of Assent? Ti-
niest be admitted that heat anfortmettely incapable of perform:
log either oft hem. Was the House. then, to he called on to
proceed by B 11, which it was mtpossible could ever be res.-
Bered legal by receiving his hlajestea assent ? Why Were they
pat upon this ',pewee and artilleial mode of proceeding,
when they had is referent. and an wiesceptiouable mode point-
ed out to them. by observing that it had been acted on by
our mieesters its the best Of times. At the period when the Act
of the SSd Hem VIII. was passed, some other statutes bad also
been enacted for preventing the crime of treason. To the very
next year, namely, the first of Mary, these Treason Acts were res
pealed but, In teat sane year. another Act was passed, making
it freedom to counterfeit the Siren Manual of his Majesty, because
within very Act, declaring that Cummissions for giving the Royal
• Assent to all ROY which passed the two Hewes of Parliament,
should be valid to that effete, if signed under the hand of his
hlaiesty, with his Sign Manual. So the law was, and so it
continued to this day. Nothing could be more clear than what
Were the two things. some net of which was necessary to make
4 any Let of this kii4, passed by the two Houses of Porliammit suf-
. &tete ; nothing to., could be plainer than this, that neither
of those requisites could be procured at this time. About the
time of passing the Act of Henry VIII. also towards the end
of that Re4o, an Act of Attainder had parsed against the
Doke of efficient, which, in the beginning of the Reign of
Mary wits reversed, and the reason was this, namely, that the
4trismi Assent had sever Weir given to ihat Act of Attainder.
This case was referred to in one of Mr. (Misers precedents,
where the ground is stated to be that the King was then in such
extremity of sickens that be cnald out possibly be personally
present Varliainent, whilo the Act received his Royal
concurrence; that no commission for granting the Kiti,g's
Assent hod been signed by his Highness's own hand ; that
the Law of the Land was, and had been, that such as-
sent mete to be signified in his Majesty's 41%11 per-
sonal presence, in full Parliament, or by Letters Patent.
signed wed. his hand, and that by the Common Law, etch an
• net was void an c 1 dof no effect, a.. mast be deemed ;id Udall
to he no Art of Parliament. Now. if there could be tidied'
any nethorities oa any snbjett tante complete than those he Imd
• gaoled, to thew that there were but two modes to do an act
. essential to legislation in this case, and that his Majesty. could
. net at present do either of these arts, he was at a lOW 1011411 re..
' any such. It was °helms, if this proposition of the Right
lion. Gentlemen were agreed to by the House, it could be clue
fidrred in the character of an Act of Parliament. It would.
be a mere fiction, or what was worse, a fraud—an inipositioa
on the erientry I and went try helpers that his Majesty had given
to Y the Royal Assent, at a time a hen it was impossible that
be could have given any such assent. It was a monstrous dee-
trine 'to maintain. that the House ought lo be called on to sup-
ply it deficient', , the filling op of which was to essential to
the interacts of the country, cud of the King himself, by this
fraud, whet there were other mikes not subject to any such
abjection in which the measure might be accomplished, those.
t • lon, having been acted on in the very best eriods of our histo-
ry. The Right Honourable Gentleman (I'ercevul) desired to
know, if the : wo Houses were to vote Addresses to the Prince
of Wales, these Address' s would not woofer on hint the power
of discharging the fano ions of ;he Executive Government jest
to he proposed that power should be ronfe
if
by the prole).
Orion use had submitted tattle Haase (and if the Addtess so be
- • Voted by them would not be an of the House? He an-
.. SNE red. certainly; it Would give the same powers; it would be
mi act of that House; and Ise dteaet it shined have both those
effects. fie went along -with the Right Him. Gentleaian in
• rev* that the two Houses Of IPerilausent bad the right, ma
the only right mid In his opinion, it was alter their ditty to
supply the deficiency iu the Hlacutise.. All that he contended ,
• Ira,. that there was a consistent mode of doing thie.and'llekii
the he had now p • ed oust was this consistent Mode:
Tneari:Tit Han. Geotleinae (Mr. Pereeval), howevei, Said.
that by following his way, the House would .be enabled to
tett 'his Royal Ilighaeseerhat were the liosiations I:ilds.
ed en him, whereas in his (Mr. Ponsonbyli mode
• proreiWag, they would have no such opportunity. khe
denied utterly. It was just as possible to adjust theZj
mimeo& afterwards, when the Parliament was completn,„,
by the revival of the Royal Functions, as it could
be by tae defective and unconstitutional Act, recommended by
the (tight Hoe. Gentleman. For instance, did they wish to
swim the of hie Majesty's person, plurals his oidispoi.
tattoo, to be to the Qtteen. in which he concurred with the ~
Right Honourable Gentleman, as he -believed meet ;mettle
would do; was it to he conceived. or did the Right Houoisre
able Gentlemen imagine that his Royal llifhiwv would deny
his concurrence to such an arrangement, teen after, hy the e
drew of the House, lie had been invested with the (Akio( Re-
ggio ? Whet' the House should come to provide for the event
▪ litt Majesty's recovery, end the means of enabling him im-
mediately to resume his Royal Authority, both of which events
he heartily hoped to see speedily arrive, did the Right Ho-
nourable Gentleman think that his Royal Higbee*, the son of
his Majesty, stolid deny hie concurrence to sack arraage-
. MM.? As muciht, surely mut Loed Semen and the
other' persons whh or cgarried ap, the
be
of Rights to King
W iltiain, have had to suspect that not agree to
it, as the House to suspect that the rehire of Wales
would, after the House had addressed hen to mssime the
nemagement of affairs define the iodisposition of his father,
refuse to agree to suck linsitatitins as the House should judge
reasonable. When the House should have appointed his Royal
flightless Regent, they surely meant that lie should have the
power of assembling or dismaying them. Did the Right Hon.
Ventleinnti, hneever,• suspect that he would exercise that
power without due discretsuni Did the Right Hon. Geottetuan
suspect it, when the House should send up bills which were
necessary to be passed. that his Royal Dieters's would deny
them his assent I If he did not suspect soy of these things,, what
fear was there. though the Melanoma should tint go along with
the appointment to the oilier of ReteetVesAnother Act that he
• (lr. penson is
l) should prowe, the Address to the
qf Wales, wade he, that some proceeding should
immediately be taken to give validity to what the Home
bad done while it was wit complete.--flit the Right
Honourable 6eutlentan 'appose that the Prime of V4alee,
or any ether permit who *hook& be appointed Regent,
would schist in comply with the reasonable wishes of the two
Mouses of Parliament ? He (Mr. Ponsonby) code sot believe
that the Right Hoe. Gent. could entertain saeh so idea of a
• • person wheats be 'Memel(' 'termed to appoint liesient, of
these Kieddatts. He could not conceives° nsoestrims a prep).
r.shim. /he deacietwy in the Ram-wive Power mast be sup-
* e..
, plied in some amunee. and iu tisr. present calamity, there was
"' othersuaiye from whence the right to discharge the affairs of
the State could be derived, bat the Iwo Houses of Parliament.
• - The questinn now was, in what manse' a t low deficient, wan to be
supplied. The Right Ho,. Gentleman proposed to-follow the
.160 coarse permed in the ye:it 1 i 59, a course centre" la the cone
stitution, and a fraud on the country. If, bl proposing this
Mode of proceeding, the Right IlusnitirebleGeadeams thought,

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