who believed that the conduct of her royal highness had not been free from blame, were decidedly of opinion that she had been most unfairly and harshly treated, not only in the original report, but in almost all the subsequent stages of the proceedings; while the very great majority who had not a doubt of her complete innocence, and who even believed her conduct to have been spotless in every respect and on every occasion, was disposed to give a character to the proceedings against her, which we do not think it safe to describe. In a very short time, nothing was talked of but the hardships of her case; and as the British nation is never slow to sympathize with the afflicted, and to support the persecuted, the princess of Wales, more particularly as a female,-a deserted wife, -and the mother of the future sovereign of these realms,-obtained the most full portion of British sympathy and support. As soon as her innocence was declared, by the prince regent's ministers in parliament, to be completely established, addresses of congratulation poured in to her from all quarters of the kingdom; and, for a season, no individual ever possessed so much popularity as she did. But other events of greater national importance occurring, and the novelty wearing off, before the conclusion of the year the princess of Wales was scarcely ever mentioned. But though the nation turned aside its attention and interest from her to other subjects, it still retained, in a great degree, those feelings towards the prince, which his behaviour to the princess had given rise to; and no small share of his want of popularity may be attributed to his conduct towards her.

During the course of these proceedings respecting the princess of Wales, the ministry, as well as the opposition, were placed in an awkward and embarrassing situation; and neither of them did themselves much credit by the manner in which they conducted themselves. Most of the ministers, it will be recollected, had been the friends and advisers of the princess when the investigation into her conduct first began; and as ministers of the prince they were now called upon to desert the princess and her cause, and to take up his views and interests. Hence it may be supposed, that their conduct on this occasion was neither consistent nor dignified:-the conduct of the opposition was not at all less reprehensible, though it bore the appearance of being more consistent; for they still preserved the character of friends of the prince of Wales, on this occasion, though they were no longer the friends of the prince regent.

It will be seen from the parlia mentary proceedings on this subject, that the warmest friends and advocates of the princess were those who are considered as belonging to no party; especially Mr.Whitbread; and certainly the whole of his behaviour does him great credit. Perhaps no man's character suffered more on this trying occasion than that of the earl of Moira: in the examination of some of the witnessés respecting the charge of pregnancy, he betrayed an apparent desire to discover evidence of its truth; and he seemed to have lent himself to the prince's interest, through the whole transaction, in a manner neither becoming his rank, nor his reputation for high and unsullied honour.

CHAPTER

ESIDES the discussions on

Bthe East India bill, and re

specting the princess of Wales, which took place in the year 1813, there are some other points connected with what may be properly termed the domestic history of Great Britain, which require our notice.

These points are indeed of very inferior importance and interest, compared with the two former; yet they ought not to be passed over altogether in silence, as they either serve to show the temper and degree of knowledge on subjects connected with the wise and prudent administration and well-being of states, possessed by the people of this country, or they involve subjects more properly his torical. The points to which we allude, and to which we mean to devote this chapter, are the appointment of a vice-chancellor; the catholics;-the Orange lodges; -the debates on the war in Spain; the regent's speech on the prorogation of parliament;-and the report of the corn committee.

It is well known that the office of lord chancellor is one of the most elevated and arduous under the crown; and that, by uniting in the same person this office and that of speaker of the house of lords, the duties are necessarily very considerably increased: some of the most important duties which the chancellor, in his latter character of speaker of the house of lords, has to discharge, are those which concern appeals: the house of lords is the highest court of appeal, in civil cases, in the kingdom; and the appeal cases before it from England are neither very numerous nor very important: yet those from Scotland-probably on account of the different constitution and usages of the civil courts there-are exceedingly numerous, and often involve the disposal of property of great magnitude, as well as the allotment of the highest hereditary honours in the state. Strictly speaking, the whole house of lords ought to form this high and dernier court of ap peal; but the decision is left ge

nerally

nerally to the lord chancellor, the other law lords, and any ind vi duals who may feel interested in the particular case: on the lord chancellor, however, fall the principal weight and responsibility: he is supposed, ex officio, to have paid particular attention to all subjects on which appeals are made to the house of lords. When this is considered, and it is further reflected, that by the very nature of a court of equity, the court of chancery, where he also presides, must be very slow and deliberate in its proceedings, and that all cases of difficulty and extreme importance are almost certain to come before this court, we need not be surprised if the business were too much for one individual. In the court of chancery, indeed, the lord chancellor has the assistance of the master of the rolls; but still the duties of the office are extremely arduous, and, to be strict ly and conscientiously discharged, require a very considerable portion of time and attention.

Lord Eldon, who has held the office of lord high chancellor ever since Mr. Fox's party went out of power, is well known to be a man most scrupulously anxious to discharge his duty in such a manner as he thinks right; and for this purpose, no case comes before him, either in the court of chancery or by appeal to the house of lords, on which he does not bestow the 'most laborious and minute attention: he seems, indeed, to carry his scrupulosity to an improper and prejudicial length; for it ought always to be recollected, that in law, in some cases at least, nearly as much mischief may ensue from a protracted determination as from one that is erroneous; and that in a judge, decision, accompanied and guarded no doubt by close exa

mination, and a conscientious wish to do right, is a quality of the very first importance. However, whether ent rely from the numerous and important duties which he had to perform, or partly from this cause and his own individual character and mode of transacting business in the house of lords in appeal cases, the consequence was that these appeals were very much in arrear; and it was found necessary for parliament to adopt some measure by which the arrear might be brought up, and for the future avoided. The subject underwent considerable discussion in parliament; and at length it was determined to appoint a vice-chancellor. It is not our intention here to discuss the propriety of this determination at length, but merely as matter of history, and, that our readers may have some grounds on which they may judge of the necessity of this new office, to state some facts, which were established by the investigations of the committee which was appointed by patliament on this subject.

In the first place it appeared, contrary to all probability and expectation, that the number of suits in chancery had not increased since the days of lord Hardwicke: this is a singular fact in the history of the country, and to account for which, even on any plausible grounds, would carry us beyond our limits, as well as out of our proper province: but some curious discussions on the national character, as indicated by this circumstance, might be entered into ;-the bearing of the fact on our mote immediate and proper object, the necessity of the new office, need not be pointed out.

In the second place, as signing commissions of bankruptcy forms

part

part of the duty of the lord chancellor, it becomes necessary, in investigating this subject, to inquire into their actual comparative numbers now and at former periods; and it was found that during the year 1812 they amounted to nearly double the usual number:-this fact is interesting, both as connected with the commercial state and history of the country, and as giving some insight into the revenue of the lord chancellor, and consequently the propriety and justice, if an assistant were appointed him, that this assistant should be paid entirely by himself:-the average fee of a bankrupt's commission is 157. the whole number in 1812 was 1800;-consequently from this source the lord chancellor must have derived the sum of 27,0001. The regular salary of the lord high chancellor is 10,000l. his joint income therefore will be 37,0002.

In the third place, it was fixed that the salary of the vice-chancellor should be 50007. a year :there were of course two consider. ations: the fund from which this was to be paid; and the duties which he ought to perform, in order most effectually to lighten the official burden of the lord chancellor. It was determined, after much discussion, that the salary of the vice chancellor should be paid out of the "Dead fund," a fund consisting of money originally deposited by private suitors, who, as well as all their representatives, had died before their suits were terminated. -That this fund should have been able to supply a salary of 50001 per annum, proves most incontestably the necessity of some reformation in the court of chancery. But with respect to the appropriation of this fund to this particular purpose, one remark may be of

fered:-when the plan of appointing a vice-chancellor was first agitated, the expense of the appointment was strongly objected to: to this the supporters of the measure replied, that the expense would not come out of the public purse; of course it was concluded from this reply, that the lord chancellor, not being able himself to discharge all the duties of his office, would, on the appointment of an assistant, cheerfully come forward and pay that, assistant himself. When there fore it was proposed to take the salary of the vice-chancellor from the "Dead fund," much surprise was expressed; but ministers and the supporters of the measure contended, that the public purse did not pay the salary, though it must be evident that the money constituting this fund, having no legal claimants, must be public property: at any rate, the expectation that the lord chancellor would defray the expense of the appointment of a vice chancellor was disappointed. With regard to the distribution of the business, sir S. Romilly proposed that the bankrupt cases should be withdrawn from the su perintendance of the chancellor, and placed under that of the vice-chancellor: this, though containing a very feasible scheme, was rejected; and it was ultimately determined that no defined and systematic division of business should take place; but that the vice-chancellor should assist his principal as he should direct.

With respect to the catholics, it is not our intention to enter on the justice of their claims in this place. This has been done on different occasions in our former volumes: all we mean here is, to make some remarks on the rejection of the bill' for their relief, and on the spirit

which they manifested, and the conduct which they pursued, in consequence of this rejection. The catholics had been undoubtedly led to expect that their claims would be granted and this expectation must have been evidently strengthened, when they found ministers not making the catholic question a cabinet question, but leaving it entirely to its own merits and weight: perhaps they might have been disposed to doubt of the sincerity of ministers on this occasion; and this suspicion certainly would not have been weakened when they reflected that they were, for the most part, the pupils and admirers of that Mr. Pitt, who always spoke and voted for the abolition of the slave trade, yet was never able to effect it. There is, however, good reason to believe that ministers were sincere in their wishes that the bill in favour of the catholics might pass. How then came it, it will naturally be inquired, that it was thrown out? The cause of its rejection, the impartial historian is no doubt bound to state and explain, if he can get at it with certainty but as only surmises and conjectures were hazarded on this point, it may not only be just and fair, but prudent in him not to attempt to trace this unfortunate circumstance to the cause from which it is generally supposed to have proceeded.-We call it an unfortunate circumstance; -unfortunate for the prince regent for his ministers-for the nation at large-and for the catholics. It was unfortunate for the prince regent, because, though he was known to have been a friend to catholic emancipation, before he became regent, yet a report had gone abroad that his opinions on this subject were radically changed; and this report, certainly not calcu

lated to increase his character for steadiness of opinion, was unfortunately confirmed by the circumstance, that many of the members of his household voted against the catholics. The imagination natu rally passed from them to their master; and some persons thought that they could thus account for the disappointment of the hopes of the catholics. It was unfortunate for the ministers that the catholic bill was thrown out, because they had conducted themselves, since they came into office, with so much prudence, good sense, liberality, and moderation, that the granting of the catholic claims seemed alone wanting to render them such a mi nistry, as every real and enlightened friend to his country would wish to preside over its affairs and interests. It was unfortunate for the nation, because, whatever opinion may be entertained respecting the justice of the catholic claims, all must allow that, by conciliating and attaching them to the consti tution, a great national good would be effected; and that the bill which was rejected, was brought into the house under such favourable circumstances, as must have led the nation to hope that the day was near at hand, when their conciliation and attachment would be brought about. But it was peculiarly unfortunate for the catholics themselves, since it created jea lousies and divisions among that body; and thus has weakened them so much, that they will never be able to come forward again with equal probability of success. they have injured their own cause, not merely by their mutual jealousy, and their divisions, but also in a much greater degree by the violent and absurd conduct of some of their leading members. Much

may