The Sun. — 1830-12-07 (London, England)

REGENCY BILL. Lord Lvunntoure moved the third reading of this Bill. The LORD CHANCELLOR role, not with the intention of offering any opposition to this Bill ; . its whole arrangements were such as to meet the. wishes of all parties. Every thing which the exigencies of the case required had been brought folly under consideration. But as this Bill would most likely form a precedent for after.times, he thought it necessary that it should go clown to future generations, stamped with, if • possible, every degree of authority. , It was, therefore of the greatest motnent, that whatever doubt or difficulty might have been thrown upon the measure itself, or the principle of it, either in that House or elsewhere. should he removed. Now be had been informed that with reference to the contingency contemplated and pro. vided fur in the Bill on their Lordships' table, and which had been noticed in their Lordships' House, it had been not there, but in another place, said, that if the Monarch of this country should die, leaving hie Consort enceinte, allegiance would be due to the infant in vents** sa ',wet For this doctrine he did not believe there was the least foundation ; and be had heard it propounded with great surprise, that in this particular there was any departure from'the general rule of the common law. It had been said that there was no precedent in the history of the country precisely to govern the case; and that, so far as he was informed, and so far as the greater learn ing of his Noble and Learned Friend (Lord Lyndhurst) enabled him to pronounce, was the fact but nevertheless there was an instance, to which his attention bad been directed by the kindness of a Learned Friend of his, which, although not occurring in the direct succession of the Kings of England, bore such an important and intimate connection with the Crown of England, and had occurred under such circum*Loxes, that it .ought not to be withdrawn from attention. . The ease he alluded to had occurred in, the reign of'llenry the Second. That Monarch bad a son Geoffry, who was Duke •of Brittany, which Henry was Duke of Normandy es well as King of England, and in the filet character entitled to the homage of Brittany ; Geoffry died, leaving a widow.. (Constance), and a daughter Ellinor. On the death( of Gsoffry, Ellinor was proclaimed heiress to the DUchy, and two claims were put in to the wardship, during her Minority ; one by Phillip. Augustus of France, the other by Henry of England; Phillip Augustus claiming to be the guardian, as Lord Paramount,— Henry as the immediate feudal superior of the Infant ; but althoughbothparties disputed the wardship, neither made any question of Ellinor's title to the Duchy. At the death of Geoffry, however, Constance, his widow, was enceinte, and while the Kings of •France and England were contesting the wardship of Mow, a son was born. Previous to the birth of the son it was on all bands agreed, that the child, in ventre • so mere, could not defeat the right of the living issue, Ellinor, who was Duchess, notwithstanding the fact of her mother's pregnancy. The claim of Ellinor was, however, defeasible, and the born child took the crown by' devolution. The child, of which Constance was delivered, Was no other. than Arthur, whose unhappy story was so well known in the history, and, it might be added, its the drama of the country: he had been immortalised by Shakspeare. He became Duke the moment he was born, and there was at once a defeasanee of the claim of Diner, and an end to the dispute arising out of that claim between King Henry and King Phillip Augustus. How the rights of Arthur had been afterwards dealt with are not material to the present inquiry. He as well as Ellinor were supposed to have been spirited away by King John; Arthur was believed to have been murdered by his uncle, and Ellinor incarcerated in a fortress in Wales; and, eventually, Alice, a younger slaughter of Constance by another husband, bad succeeded to the Duchy. This precedent bore strongly on the case to which the Bill referred ; it had met with the concurrence of the great feudaliata of France and the lawyers of England, and he was happy to find that the Bill was framed in conformity to the principles on which that precedent rested. He, therefore, en. tirely approved of its adoption. The Bill was then read a third time, and passed ; after which the House adjourned.  lIOUSE OP COMMONS, Disc. 6. Several new Members took the oaths and their seats.