it be placed, joining therewith the patronage now to be entrusted with the queen?

It was said, "Why object to this establishment, since an establishment for the Prince of Wales was never objected to, on the score of its giving an influence?" This was a most extraordinary argument. Because three or four places werenot dangerous, it was asked, Why be alarmed at four hundred? Because 50,000l. did not appear dangerous in the hands of the heir apparent, who had a great house to maintain, were 300,000l. to be divided? Besides, the prince's establishment, the small revenue from Cornwall excepted, was in the gift, and annually depended on the pleasure of the king. Several lords in this country, and even some commoners, enjoyed a more ample revenue than the Prince of Wales, because they had occasion for a less burdensome establishment. It was idle and ridiculous, therefore, to compare the two points. The argument of the splendour of the king, was still less to be regarded. What! did they mean to say, that during the unhappy malady of the king, they wished to exhibit the royal person with all the equipage and regalia of state, which were only applicable to public situations! It was insulting to the wounded feelings of the royal family, to imagine so indelicate and so gross a circumstance. Either from generosity, or in the spirit of reciprocity, an honourable gentleman (Mr. Pulteney) had contended that there was nothing in the present state of Europe which could give just reason for a strong government. This evidently alluded to the present deranged condition of France, of which the honourable member had lately been a spectator, and if the honourable gentleman meant that the low circumstances of France ought to induce us not to assail her when helpless, the argument had the generosity natural to the honourable member: but perhaps it was founded in that principle of reciprocity, which had lately prevailed, with respect to that rival power; that because she was lowered and embarrassed, we must lower ourselves to her standard; that this was to be done on motives of reciprocal affection, for the purpose of preserving the good understanding which now subsisted between us undiminished. There was a fellowship in misery, that endeared its objects to each other. Misery made us acquainted with strange companions; it levelled the superiority of pride; it softened the asperities of opposition. De graded and sunk to the condition in which France perhaps was at this moment, it would be thought an eligible mode of preserving her friendship, and prevent giving alarm to the rest of Europe. Unless for these reasons, he saw nothing in the present state of Europe to induce us to suffer, much less voluntarily to embrace a weak government.

The right honourable the chancellor of the exchequer had not explained to the committee two very essential points. If this household was to be established in the custody of the queen, when was the provision which he spoke of as being necessary for the state of the regent to be made, and what was to be the extent of it? This ought to have been mentioned. In his mind, the civil list would prove amply sufficient, both for the provision to the queen, in her care of the king's person, and also for the state of the regent, if this ridiculous and absurd scheme was not pursued. Upon this occasion, said Mr. Fox, it might perhaps be a matter of delicacy to state the opinion of his royal highness, but he knew the sentiments of his royal highness to be, that it would be highly irksome to him in the present melancholy and calamitous situation of the country, to add any new burdens, for the purpose of increasing the state and dignity of his own situation. He added, that perhaps it was not perfectly regular for him to state this; but as he knew it to be the sentiment of his royal highness, and did not consider the observation as improper, he had mentioned it to the committee. The other point upon which he wished for information, was the ideas of the right honourable gentleman, whether these restrictions were to have a limited duration, and what he should think the proper time for their expiration. In conclusion, Mr. Fox expressed his certainty, that when the pnblic came to view the whole of this scheme, and to compare it with that fourth estate, of which they had heard so much, they would see that the present one contained all the mischiefs that were only attributed to the other, and that it was in truth calculated to confer a favour inconsistent with the good government of the country.

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The resolutions being carried, were reported to the House, agreed to, and ordered to be delivered to the Lords at a conference. Having passed both Houses, the resolutions were, on the 30th of January, presented to the prince and queen by a committee of peers and commoners. To the joint address of the two Houses his royal highness returned this answer: 'My lords and gentlemen; I thank you for communicating to me the resolutions agreed to by the two Houses; and I request you to assure them in my name, that my duty to the king my father, and my anxious concern for the safety and interests of the people, which must be endangered by a longer suspension of the exercise of the royal authority, together with my respect for the united desires of the two Houses, outweigh in my mind every other consideration, and will determine me to undertake the weighty and important trust proposed to me, in conformity to the resolutions now communicated to me. I am sensible of the difficulties that must attend the execution of this trust, in the peculiar circumstances in which it is committed to my charge, of which, as I am acquainted

with no former example, my hopes of a successful administration cannot be founded on any past experience. But confiding that the limitations on the exercise of the royal authority deemed necessary for the present, have been approved by the two Houses only as a temporary measure, founded on the loyal hope, in which I ardently participate, that his majesty's disorder may not be of long duration, and trusting in the meanwhile that I shall receive a zealous and united support in the two Houses and in the nation, proportioned to the difficulty attending the discharge of my trust in this interval, I will entertain the pleasing hope, that my faithful endeavours to preserve the interests of the king, his crown and people, may be successful."-Her majesty's answer was to the following effect: "My lords and gentlemen; my duty and gratitude to the king, and the sense I must ever entertain of my great obligations to this country, will certainly engage my most earnest attention to the anxious and momentous trust intended to be reposed in me by parliament. It will be a great consolation to me to receive the aid of a council, of which I shall stand so much in need in the discharge of a duty wherein the happiness of my future life is indeed deeply interested, but which; a higher object, the happiness of a great, loyal, and affectionate people, renders still more important." The answers being communicated to the Houses, it was moved in the House of Lords, that letters patent should be issued under the great seal, empowering certain commissioners to open the parliament. The names of the proposed commissioners were read, and at their head were the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, the Dukes of Gloucester and Cumberland. The Duke of York rising, said he had not been informed that it was intended to insert his name in the commission; he, therefore, had not been able to take steps to prevent the nomination; not wishing to stand upon record, and to be handed to posterity as approving such a measure, he could not sanction the proceedings with his name: he deemed the proposition, as well as every other that had been embraced respecting the same object, to be unconstitutional and illegal: he desired, therefore, to have no concern with any part of the business; and requested that his name, and the name of his brother the Prince of Wales, might be left out of the commission: the Duke of Cumberland desired his own name and the Duke of Gloucester's might also be omitted: accordingly the princes were left out of the nomination. The resolution being carried, was on the 2nd of February adopted by the Commons; the following day the Houses assembled as a regular parliament, and, the lord chancellor being indisposed, Earl Bathurst, president of the council, opened the causes of the present meeting, and the objects for which they were to provide. On the 6th of February Mr. Pitt introduced his regency bill, founded on the principles already investigated, and the resolutions already voted. Its various clauses and provisions having undergone in detail much opposition, it was passed on the 12th of February, carried to the House of Lords, and read a second time without opposition.

In order to relieve the public anxiety, her majesty sent daily to St. James's accounts of the state of the king's health, as ascertained by

the opinion of his physicians. For some days these reports announced that his majesty's illness had begun to take a very favourable turn. On the 19th of February, the lord chancellor, as soon as the peers assembled in order to go into a committee on the regency bill, informed them, that the improvement of the king's health, already stated in the official reports of the physicians, was still progressive, an intelligence which certainly must prove pleasing to every man in the kingdom; in this situation of things he conceived they could not possibly proceed upon the bill before them, and therefore moved, that their lordships do immediately adjourn to the 24th. On the day appointed, the chancellor informed the House, that he had that morning attended his majesty by his express command, and had found him perfectly recovered: he therefore moved a farther adjournment, which being again repeated, his lordship on the 5th of March informed the peers, that his majesty would signify his farther pleasure to both Houses on Tuesday the 10th of March. Thus ended the necessity and project of a regency.

ADDRESS ON THE KING'S RECOVERY.

March 10.

HIS day theCommons, with their Speaker, being at the bar of

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his majesty, not thinking fit to be then present in his royal person, had caused a commission to be issued, authorizing the commissioners, who had been appointed by former letters patent to hold that parliament, to open and declare certain farther causes for holding the same. The commission being read, the chancellor addressed the two Houses in the name of the commissioners as follows:

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"My lords and gentlemen; in obedience to his majesty's commands, and by virtue of both commissions already mentioned to you, one of which has now been read, we proceed to lay before you such further matters as his majesty has judged proper to be now communicated to his parliament. His majesty being, by the blessing of Providence, happily recovered from the severe indisposition with which he has been afflicted, and being enabled to attend to the public affairs of his kingdoms, has commanded us to convey to you his warmest acknowledgements for the additional proofs which you have given of your affectionate attachment to his person, and your zealous concern for the honour and interests of his crown, and the security and good government of his dominions.-The interruption which has necessarily been occasioned to the public busines will, his majesty doubts not, afford you an additional incitement to apply yourselves, with as little delay as possible, to the different objects of national concern which require your atten

of

tion. His majesty has likewise ordered us to acquaint you that, since the close of the last session, he has concluded a treaty of defensive alliance with his good brother the King of Prussia, copies of which will be laid before you; that his majesty's endeavours were employed during the last summer, in conjunction with his allies, in order to prevent as much as possible, the extension of hostilities in the North, and to manifest his desire of effecting a general pacification; that no opportunity will be neglected on his part to promote this salutary object; and that he has, in the mean time, the satisfaction of receiving from all foreign courts continued assurances of their friendly dispositions to this country.

"Gentlemen of the House of Commons; we are commanded by his majesty to acquaint you, that the estimates for the current year will forthwith be laid before you; and that he is persuaded of your readiness to make the necessary provisions for the several branches of the public service.

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My lords and gentlemen; we have it particularly in charge from his majesty to assure you, that you cannot so effectually meet the most earnest wish of his majesty's heart, as by persevering in your uniform exertions for the public welfare, and by improving every occasion to promote the prosperity of his faithful people, from whom his majesty has received such repeated and affecting marks of invariable zeal, loyalty, and attachment, and whose happiness he must ever consider as inseparable from his own."

An Address of congratulation and thanks having been moved by Earl Gower, and seconded by Mr. Yorke,

Mr. Fox observed, that he was far, very far, indeed, from rising for the purpose of preventing the unanimous vote of the House, or of disturbing in any degree whatever the harmony which all must eagerly desire to see prevail on the present joyful occasion. He declared, that he trusted and hoped that the address would pass nemine contradicente; but, he could not avoid remarking that the honourable gentleman who spoke last, seemed to have taken considerable pains to prevent, if it were possible, that unanimity and harmony so generally to be desired on such an occasion as the present, and to create a difference of opinion. For himself he saw nothing in his majesty's speech which seemed liable to objection; nor was there any part of the address open to an exception. He had listened to the noble lord who moved the address with great attention, and he had never listened to a mover of an address with more satisfaction. The noble lord had not only moved it with great ability, but, if he would allow him to say so, in a manner which did more honour to his heart than his head. The noble lord had moved it like a man of understanding, because he had expressed the feelings of a man, and the feelings of a loyal and faithful subject to his sovereign: he had moved the address with as much elegance as he had ever witnessed, and, in his mind, with as