completely before them. With that view it was that he had risen, and although he did not wish to press any unnecessary motion on the House, yet, as the limitations would necessarily be governed by the greater or less proportion of

Carlton-house, on Tuesday night, the 30th of December.

"Sir; The proceedings in parliament being now brought to a point, which will render it necessary to propose to the House of Commons, the particular measures to be taken for supplying the defect of the personal exercise of the royal authority during the present interval, and your Royal Highness having some time since signified your pleasure, that any communication on this subject should be iL writing, I take the liberty of respectfully entreating your Royal Highness's permission to submit to your consideration the outlines of the plan which his Majesty's confidential servants humbly conceive (according to the best judgment which they are able to form) to be proper to be proposed in the present circumstances.

"It is their humble opinion, that your Royal Highness should be empowered to exercise the royal authority in the name and on the behalf of his Majesty, during his Majesty's illness, and to do all acts which might legally be done by his Majesty; with provisions, nevertheless, that the care of his Majesty's royal person, and the management of his Majesty's household, and the direction and appointment of the officers and servants therein, should be in the Queen, under such regulations as may be thought necessary.That the power to be exercised by your royal highness should not extend to the granting the real or personal property of the King, (except as far as relates to the renewal of leases) to the granting any office in reversion, or to the granting, for any other term than during his Majesty's pleasure, any pension, or any office whatever, except such as must by law be granted for life, or during good behaviour; nor to the granting any rank or dignity of the peerage of this realm to any person except his Majesty's issue, who shall have attained the age of twenty-one years.

"These are the chief points which have occurred to his Majesty's servants. I beg leave to add, that their ideas are formed on the supposition that his Majesty's illness is only temporary, and may be of no long duration. It may be difficult to fix beforehand, the precise period for which these provisions ought to last; but if unfortunately his Majesty's recovery should be protracted to a more distant period than there is reason at present to imagine, it will be open hereafter to the wisdom of parliament, to re-consider these provisions whenever the circumstances appear to call for it.

"If your Royal Highness should be pleased

the probability of his Majesty's speedy recovery, that important fact ought to be ascertained; because, if his Majesty's present incapacity was but a mere temporary. suspension of the exercise of the royal authority, limitations to a particular extent.

to require any farther explanation on the subject, and should condescend to signify your orders, that I should have the honour of attending your Royal Highness for that purpose, or to intimate any other mode in which your Royal Highness may wish to receive such explanation, I shall respectfully wait your Royal Highness's commands. I have the honour to be, with the utmost deference and submission, Sir, your Royal Highness's most dutiful and devoted servant, "Downing Street, W. PITT. "Tuesday Night, Dec. 30, 1788." COPY of the PAPER delivered by the Prince of Wales to the Lord Chancellor, in reply to the Letter sent to his Royal Highness from Mr. Pitt.

"The Prince of Wales learns from Mr. Pitt's letter, that the proceedings in parlia ment are now in a train which enables Mr.. Pitt, according to the intimation in his former letter, to communicate to the Prince, the outlines of the plan which his Majesty's confidential servants conceive to be proper to be proposed in the present circumstances.

"Concerning the steps already taken by Mr. Pitt, the Prince is silent.-Nothing done by the two Houses of Parliament can be a proper subject of his animadversion; but when previously to any discussion in parliament, the outlines of a scheme of government are sent for his consideration, in which it is proposed that he shall be personally and principally concerned, and by which the royal authority, and the public welfare may be deeply affected, the Prince would be unjustifiable, were he to withhold an explicit decla ration of his sentiments. His silence might be construed into a previous approbation of a plan, the accomplishment of which every motive of duty to his father and sovereign, as well as of regard for the public interest, obliges him to consider as injurious to both.

"In the state of deep distress, in which the Prince, and the whole royal family were involved, by the heavy calamity which has fallen upon the King, and at a moment when government, deprived of its chief energy and support, seemed peculiarly to need the cordial and united aid of all descriptions of good subjects, it was not expected by the Prince, that a plan should be offered to his consideration, by which government was to be rendered difficult, if not impracticable, in the hands of any person intended to represent the King's authority--much less in the hands of his eldest son-the heir apparent of his kingdoms, and the person most bound to the mainte

only might be proper; but it would have a very different effect on men's minds, if the suspension was to last for any considerable length of time. He concluded with moving" That a considerable space of time having elapsed since the examina

nance of his Majesty's just prerogatives and authority, as well as most interested in the happiness, the prosperity, and the glory of the people.

"The Prince forbears to remark on the several parts of the sketch of the plan laid before him; he apprehends it must have been formed with sufficient deliberation, to preclude the probability of any argument of his producing an alteration of sentiment in the projectors of it. But he trusts with confidence to the wisdom and justice of parliament, when the whole of the subject, and the circumstances connected with it, shall come under their deliberation.

"He observes, therefore, only generally on the heads communicated by Mr. Pitt; and it is with deep regret the Prince makes the observation, that he sees, in the contents of that paper, a project for producing weakness, disorder, and insecurity in every branch of the administration of affairs.-A project for dividing the royal family from each other for separating the court from the state, and therefore by disjoining government from its natural and accustomed support.-A scheme for disconnecting the authority to command service, from the power of animating it by reward; and for allotting to the Prince all the invidious duties of government, without the means of softening them to the public by any one act of grace, favour, or benignity.

"The Prince's feelings, on contemplating this plan, are also rendered still more painful to him, by observing that it is not founded on any general principle, but is calculated to infuse jealousies and suspicion (wholly groundless, he trusts) in that quarter, whose confidence it will ever be the first pride of his life to merit and obtain.

"With regard to the motive and object of the limitations and restrictions proposed, the Prince can have but little to observe. No light or information is offered him by his Majesty's ministers on these points. They have informed him what the powers are which they mean to refuse him, not why they are withheld.

"The Prince, however, holding as he does, that it is an undoubted and fundamental principle of this constitution, that the powers and prerogatives of the Crown are vested there, as a trust for the benefit of the people; and that they are sacred only as they are necessary to the preservation of that poise and balance of the constitution, which experience has proved to be the true security of the liberty of the subject-must be allowed to observe, that the plea of public utility ought to

tion of the physicians, with respect to his Majesty's health, it is necessary to know whether any alteration or amendment has taken place, and that therefore the physicians be called upon to inform this House if the present symptoms are such as give

be strong, manifest, and urgent, which calls for the extinction or suspension of any one of those essential rights in the supreme power, or its representative; or which can justify the Prince in consenting, that, in his person, an experiment shall be made to ascertain with how small a portion of the kingly power the executive government of this country may be carried on.

"The Prince has only to add, that if security for his Majesty's repossessing his rightful government, whenever it shall please Providence, in bounty to the country, to remove the calamity with which he is afflicted, be any part of the object of this plan, the Prince has only to be convinced that any measure is necessary, or even conducive, to that end, to be the first to urge it as the preliminary and paramount consideration of any settlement in which he would consent to share.

"If attention to what it is presumed might be his Majesty's feelings and wishes on the happy day of his recovery, be the object, it is with the truest sincerity the Prince expresses his firm conviction, that no event would be more repugnant to the feelings of his royal father, than the knowledge, that the government of his son and representative had exhibited the sovereign power of the realm in a state of degradation, of curtailed authority, and diminished energy-a state, hurtful in practice to the prosperity and good government of his people, and injurious in its precedent to the security of the Monarch, and the rights of his family.

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Upon that part of the plan which regards the King's real and personal property, the Prince feels himself compelled to remark, that it was not necessary for Mr. Pitt, nor proper to suggest to the Prince, the restraint he proposes against the Prince's granting away the King's real and personal property. The Prince does not conceive that, during the King's life, he is, by law, entitled to make any such grant; and he is sure, that he has never shown the smallest inclination to possess any such power. But it remains with Mr. Pitt to consider the eventual interests of the royal family, and to provide a proper and natural security against the mismanagement of them by others.

"The Prince has discharged an indispensable duty, in thus giving his free opinion on the plan submitted to his consideration.

"His conviction of the evils which may arise to the King's interests, to the peace and happiness of the royal family, and to the safety and welfare of the nation, from the government of the country remaining longer

tions as to what might, or might not be fit restrictions to impose on the regent. The Chancellor of the Exchequer seemed to go upon the report of the physicians, when they were examined by a committee of that House, and had said, that they all agreed that there was a probability of his Majesty's recovery, and that at no distant period. It was not necessary to enter into any argument as to the precision of what the right hon. gentleman had stated, but certainly he had not precisely stated the facts as resulting from the report of the examination of his Majesty's physicians. That they generally agreed that it was probable his Majesty might recover, was undoubtedly true; but they did not agree as to the period when that recovery might be expected. Dr. Warren had not only made no such declaration, but had averred that he was perfectly ignorant concerning it, and had expressly said, that he could not give any satisfactory answer whatsoever upon the subject. If, therefore, they were to go upon the order of the day, they were bound to shut their ears to all the reports out of doors, and as the right hon. gentleman had desired them to confine themselves to the facts resulting from the report on the table, they ought to do so strictly, only keeping in their minds (what of course, would not fail to have its due impression on every gentleman) the circumstance, that the information upon which they were desired to proceed, was information communicated four weeks ago; and that therefore, they were to consider that four weeks had elapsed without any alteration whatever in his Majesty's health. Mr. Fox added, that many contrary reports in favour of his Majesty's recovery were in circulation. He thought the matter proper to be laid before House; not that he was much in the habit of paying attention to common reports; in general, no man treated them with more contempt; but he had heard that, in another place, a person of no inconsiderable authority, his Majesty's first minister, first in rank, and by no means last in consequence, he meant the Lord Chancellor had declared that he had grounds to hope soon to hear of his Majesty's recovery. This declaration he could not but consider as highly improper to be made, because, as on the one hand, if any man should unfortunately have reason to entertain the melancholy opinion, that there was no probability of his Majesty's recovery at all, he should deem it highly

improper for such a one to declare his sentiments; so, on the other hand, if any man thought that he had good reason to imagine that his Majesty's recovery was at hand, it appeared to him equally improper for him to declare it, because that no man ought to declare his sentiments either on one side of the question or the other, unless the grounds upon which those sentiments rested, could be rendered the objects of examination and inquiry, and call forth facts substantiated by evidence. Mr. Fox adverted to the possible case of certain persons spreading rumours, merely with a view to delude the people by false hopes, and induce gentlemen to give their votes under an ill-founded presumption of his Majesty's recovery, of which there might not in truth exist the smallest probability. Perhaps it would be wise to shut their ears against all rumours whatever, and to act merely from the report of their committee. In that report they would see, that his Majesty's physicians had all of them been asked, whether signs of convalescence appeared, which was beyond all question a material part of the examination. If no signs of convalescence had since appeared, and none, the physicians had all agreed, had then appeared, a new inquiry certainly was not necessary. If signs of convalescence had since appeared in his Majesty-as it had been industriously rumoured they had— an inquiry was necessary; first, with respect to the fact of those signs; and secondly, with respect to the opinions formed of those signs by his Majesty's physicians.

Mr. Edwards conceived that the physicians had not desired to be understood that his Majesty had afforded symptoms of a recovery having begun to take place, but that there were previous signs of a recovery being likely to take place. This information was given the House four weeks ago, and therefore he was of opinion, that a fresh examination should be had, because, though there was no symptom of an actual recovery but the semblance of a symptom, it ought to be ascertained to the House whether the probability of his Majesty's recovery had increased or diminished.

Mr. Burke begged leave to congratulate the House upon the declaration of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, that he was anxious that the government should be put in a situation to act with energy and effect. It was the first time that they had

heard of such a declaration, and it was well worthy their notice. The House would recollect, that when the report of their Committee was laid upon the table, they were given to understand that the King's illness was likely to last but a short time, and then, a full month afterwards, they heard they were exactly in the same state of expectancy which they experienced when their report was made. The right honourable gentleman had declared, that they were to go upon that report as the ground of their proceedings, having no more recent intelligence upon which they could, with propriety, ground their investigations. The right hon. gentleman would not surely contend, that the report of the House of Lords had not been made since the report of that House; because the examination of the House of Lords was taken since, and taken on oath, which, it must be allowed, gave the report of the House of Lords more authority than the report upon their table could possess. That report the Lords had published for their information, and for the information of the world in general. That report he held in his hand, and that report said, that the probability of his Majesty's recovery was more doubtful than their report stated it to be. No person could (the right hon. gentleman had declared) or ought to state facts without substantiating them, and going into an inquiry. He (Mr. Burke) had taken pains to ascertain facts, and he was ready, at a proper time, to prove them to the conviction of the right hon. gentleman and of that House. Not having been of the Committee, he possessed but little authority, and therefore he had endeavoured to supply the deficiency by information, and had resorted to the report of the House of Lords. In consequence of his Majesty's unfortunate illness, what infinite calamities had befallen the country; calamities which, unless speedily prevented, might be followed by others, the event of which he dreaded to contemplate; and, therefore, the sooner the government was restored to its wonted -energy the better; but then, it ought to be really a government of energy and effect, and not a maimed, crippled, and impotent mockery of government. In order to ascertain the fact, however, that his Majesty's illness was not likely to be of short duration, let them turn to the report printed by the House of Lords. Mr. Burke here read several questions and answers from the examination of one

of his Majesty's physicians before the Committee of the House of Lords, the substance of which questions and answers was as follows:

"Are there any signs of a returning understanding? No.-Since you was examined last at the Privy Council, have there been any more favourable symptoms of his Majesty's recovery? There are no symptoms of this disorder, but the single one of want of understanding. The words and the actions of persons under this disorder are accidental, and depend upon the difference of the persons themselves. A man that has a variety of ideas, will talk and act very differently from one who has fewer ideas, or has led a different course of life: his words and actions will be determined by the peculiarity of the man, and not by the distemper. Under this explanation the symptoms are more favourable.-Is the probability of his Majesty's recovery of his understanding varied or affected any way by the actual duration of his illness? The probability of cure diminishes as the time of the disorder lengthens."-Here, Mr. Burke remarked, was a regular ratio to guide the House in. forming their judgment; strong grounds were laid for the government of their opinions, and if the argument was true, no fit occasion could present itself to examine the physicians again. If the last answer which he had read, was to be depended on-and let them remember it was an answer delivered by a grave and learned physician on oath-it bound their Speaker, it bound him, and it bound every member of the House. It was their duty to pay it due attention before they cut and carved the government, as they would cut out morsels for hounds, rather than immolate it as a sacrifice to the gods. The report in his hand expressly said, that his Majesty's recovery was less probable, because his illness had now continued a full month longer than when his Majesty's physicians were examined before a Committee of that House. The other side of the House expressing some displeasure at Mr. Burke's mode of reasoning, he said, that he perceived it was the wish of some gentlemen to disturb him, and prevent his delivering his sentiments. They had often done so with too much success before, but he was determined that they never should gain their ends again.

Mr. Bastard thought it immaterial to the purpose which they all professed to feel at heart, to have a farther examination