against 213. A bill founded upon these resolutions was brought in on the 15th. Sundry amendments proposed, in the committee, by the opposition, were rejected by small ministerial majorities. On the bill being reported,

Mr. HUSKISSON said, he would very shortly state the general view which he entertained of the objects of the Bill. The first object was, to make provision for the guardianship of the royal person, and for maintaining about him that degree of state and dignity which were suitable to his present situation. The second object was, to transfer to the Regent as much of the executive power and influence as might be thought necessary, in order to render the government strong and efficient for public purposes. The third and last object, in his mind, was to make adequate provision for the re-assumption of the royal authority on the restoration of his Majesty's health, and thereby prevent any embarrassment to a future executive government.

Having these three important objects in view, he had voted for the Resolutions, as they had come amended out of the Committee on the State of the Nation, and he naturally concluded that, in the framing of the Bill, all of them would have been strictly adhered to. As the Bill, however, now stood, the second object was, in a great measure, lost sight of. For in the clause of the Bill as it now stood, they seemed to him to have stripped the Regent of that portion of power and influence, which were indispensably necessary to enable him effectually to carry on the affairs of government with vigour; and had given to the Queen more than, in his opinion, was really necessary to accomplish the security and accommodation of the royal person, with the state necessary to the King in his present circumstances, and to enable him to resume, upon his recovery, the royal functions and authority. This was the great ground of his objection to this part of the Bill. It

placed under the control of her Majesty some of the offices of the household, which did not seem at all necessary to his Majesty's personal comfort and dignity, and which did not go to secure his Majesty's return to power. If, therefore, these offices were withheld from the control of the Regent, and were not in themselves necessary to the care of his Majesty's person, the House, he contended, had not acted up to the spirit of their Resolutions.

Sure he was, that some of the offices withheld from the Regent were not necessary to her Majesty, as guardian of the King's person; and, upon this principle, he objected to any compromise, or any division of this influence, which some gentlemen seemed inclined to countenance. All that was necessary for the Queen, in the circumstances in which her Majesty was to be placed, he would cheerfully grant; and all that was necessary for the due exercise of the royal authority, in the person of the Regent, he would in like manner admit: but he must protest against any thing like a division of the executive influence and authority. There were some gentlemen who had been in the habit of maintaining, that the influence of the Crown was greater than it ought to be; but, whatever might be the ground of their opinion on that subject, and however much disposed they might be to diminish that influence, certain he was, that they would not say, that to divide that influence was the proper way of diminishing it.

He was certain also, that the present was not a proper time to introduce any such reduction. It was necessary that the Prince Regent should have all the fair and accus tomed influence of government; and if the Bill should pass as it now stood, abridging, as it did, that influence so considerably, it would be necessary that some means should be afterwards found to remove the obstacles thus created, and to add to the influence of the Executive, to the degree

necessary for the practical exercise of its arduous and im portant functions. There were others, however, who thought, and according to his view justly thought, that the influence of the Crown was not more than sufficient to carry on the affairs of government; and to those gentlemen it would be unnecessary for him to say, that this clause of the Bill would, upon this principle, be the more objectionable. If the present acknowledged influence of the Crown was not, in ordinary times, too great, it would be highly impolitic to diminish it in the person of the Regent. He must, therefore, look with jealousy and apprehension at any measure that went either to abridge or divide that power, and of course to render the Executive less efficient. He contended particularly against that part of the amendment, which went to impose upon the Queen the necessity of selecting a certain number of the lords and grooms of the bed-chamber. This was a task of too difficult and delicate a nature, he conceived, for her Majesty; and, if such a division was thought necessary, he argued, that it ought to be provided for by the Bill.

Much had been addressed to the feelings of the House, on the distressing circumstances in which his Majesty would be placed, if he should find himself, on his recovery, deprived of all his favourite servants. He did not say that such a consideration was wholly improper; but he did not conceive that the present measure would obviate the objection. How was the Queen to judge which six of the twelve lords of the bed-chamber would be most acceptable to his Majesty on his recovery? It was imposing an onus on her Majesty, which the House itself in this instance declined. If six were, therefore, to be removed, the same difficulty in this respect might exist, as if the whole were to be removed; and the question would still recur, whether the remaining six were at all necessary to the King's

comfort or dignity, in his present circumstances. According to the spirit of the original Resolutions, they ought to avoid giving any political power to the Queen that was not necessary for the greater security and comfort of her royal husband. The sovereign authority ought not to be weakened by being divided, and all the necessary influence ought to be vested in the person of the Regent, by whom they expected the executive functions to be performed, in all their due vigour and energy. He approved of leaving the whole control of the household, so far as related to his Majesty's person, in the hands of the Queen; but, for more power or influence than referred to this certainly important trust, he could not see any necessity.

COMMERCIAL CREDIT BILL.

March 1, 1811.

The commercial distress of the country began about this time to be so severely felt, that the Chancellor of the Exchequer this day called the attention of the House to the subject. He observed, that numerous representations had reached him from the manufacturing and mercantile portion of the community, of the disadvantages under which they were labouring, and which they attributed to the state of credit, and the condition of the markets. At first, he said, he did not believe that the evil prevailed to the extent stated; but, so various were the applications made to him, that he thought it at length his duty, in order that the House might ascertain its existence, and provide a remedy, to move, "That a Select Committee be appointed to inquire into the state of Commercial Credit, and report the same to the House." The members proposed by Mr. Perceval were, himself, Mr. Manning, Sir J. Sinclair, Mr. Brogden, Sir J. Shaw, Mr. Staniforth, Mr. Irving, Mr. H. Thornton, Mr. R. Shaw, the Lord Advocate, Mr. Dundas, Sir T. Baring, Mr. A. Baring, Mr. Sharp, Mr. Long, Mr. Combe, Mr. Marryatt, Sir J. Newport, Mr. Foster, and Mr. C. Ellis. Mr. Horner thought that, at any rate, the late Secretary to the Treasury should be on the committee, and moved, that the name of Mr. Huskisson be added.

Mr. HUSKISSON said, he hoped that his name would not be added to the Committee. It was his wish rather to wait for the Report, to hear the information and opinions of others who concurred with the principles which he was known to entertain upon the subject. It was his opinion, that, the present commercial embarrassments proceeded, not from any interruption of public credit, but, in a great degree, from the absence of individual confidence; in which latter respect, it much resembled the state of things in the year 1793.

There were, however, other points in which it differed from that period. He alluded to the actual loss of considerable property, by the measures of the enemy, and the spirit of speculation and overtrading, which prevailed to a greater extent than it had done at any former time.

Mr. Canning thought it very possible that the Chancellor of the Exchequer might have some particular reason for not wishing his honourable friend to be a member of the Committee; which was appointed more to ascertain the immediate causes and extent of the evil, than those more remote causes, which had produced the present state of things. Mr. Horner said that, under these circumstances, he should not press his motion.

May 11.

The Committee made its Report to the House on the 7th; stating it to be their decided opinion, that the Commercial distress was of such a nature as to render parliamentary relief highly expedient and necessary, and recommending, that Exchequer Bills, to the amount of six millions, should be issued for that purpose. The Report being taken into consideration on the 11th, a Resolution to that effect was moved by the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Mr. HUSKISSON said, it was not his intention, in what he had to offer, to question either the amount of the sum recommended in the Report of the Committee to be advanced, or the extent of the suffering under which the manufacturers laboured. He begged the House to believe,