be termed, but it was a fiction admirably calculated to preserve the constitution, and, by adopting its form, to secure its substance. This fiction, in the first place, kept the Throne entire, if the King should be living, but incapable, in his natural character, of exercising the royal authority, Secondly, No bill which had not the King's name at the head of it, and, therefore, purported to be of Royal authority, could have a legal effect, a deficiency which this fiction would cure. Thirdly, if a King should, for a time, be deprived of the power of exercising the royal prerogatives personally, either on account of his non-age, or from his incapacity, through illness or otherwise, to attend Parliament, on his return to the power of acting as Sovereign, he would, from the use of this fiction, perceive that all his prerogatives had been carefully preserved.

The commission, his lordship proceeded to observe, must be issued by some authority; and, being once issued, with the great seal annexed to it, it must enforce obedience. He thought the two Houses, and they alone, had the power to direct the great seal to be put to the commission. The great seal, he added, was the high instrument, by which the King's fiat was irrevocably given; it was the mouth of royal authority, the organ by which the Sovereign spoke his

will. Such were its efficacy, and its unquestionable authority, that even were the Lord Chancellor to put the great seal, from caprice, to any commission, it could not be afterwards questioned; though such an act would, in effect, be a misdemeanour, yet it could make letters patent of such validity, that the judges themselves could not call them in question. If an Act of Parliament, passed by authority of a commission, issued under the great seal, and was indorsed with a roi le veut, it was valid. It must be received as a part of the statute law of the land, and could not be disputed.

His lordship referred to different periods of our history for circumstances analogous to the present, in order to justify the particular mode of proceeding now proposed to be adopted; and he apprised the House of the necessity which existed for a second commission under the great seal to give the royal assent to the regency bill, when it should have regularly passed through both Houses. He here adverted to a precedent, when Lord Hardwicke was Chancellor, who put the great seal to two separate commissions in the King's name, when the King was ill, and thought to be in danger. He assigned, as a last reason for passing the Regency Bill, that if such a measure did not pass, the present ministers would, of necessity, be obliged to retain their

places, because, without such a bill, they could not, possibly, resign their offices. He concluded by moving, that it was expedient and necessary that letters patent, under the great seal of Great Britain, should be issued by the authority of the two Houses of Parliament, in the usual form and tenour. In this commission were inserted the names of the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, and the Dukes of Cumberland and Gloucester. But the Duke of York desiring that his name might not appear in a place where his approbation of measures which he considered as unconstitutional and illegal might be inferred, and that the name of the Prince might also be erased; and a similar wish having been expressed by the Duke of Cumberland, in behalf of himself and his brother, the names of the four Royal Personages were withdrawn; when the motion passed without a division.

The resolution of the Lords being transmitted to the Commons, Mr. Pitt, on the 2d of February, moved for their concurrence therein. A long debate ensued, though no division took place. The resolution was defended, generally, on the ground that it afforded the only legal sanction to the proceedings of Parliament, of which the necessity of the case admitted; and it was opposed on the plea, that however their proceedings might be made formally legal, yet

being substantially and historically otherwise, it would have been much more safe, that the whole case should stand upon its own ground, distinguished as an irregular proceeding, justified only by necessity, than to call in counterfeit props to support it. On the following day, the Commons attended the House of Lords, when the commission was read. The Lords Commissioners were the Archbishop of Canterbury, Earl Bathurst, (who officiated as Speaker, in the absence of the Chancellor) the Lord Privyseal, the Marquis of Carmarthen, Lord Sydney, and the Lord Chamberlain. Earl Bathurst informed the Commons, that the illness of his Majesty had made it necessary that a commission in his name should pass the great seal, which they would hear read. It was, accordingly, read by the Clerk, when Earl Bathurst addressed the Parliament in a short speech, in which he said, that in pursuance of the authority given by the commission, amongst other things, to declare the causes of their present meeting, he had only to call their attention to the melancholy circumstances of his Majesty's illness; in consequence of which it became necessary to provide for the care of his Royal Person, and for the administration of Royal Authority, during the continuance of that calamity, in such manner as the exigency of the case seemed to

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require. On the same day, Mr. Pitt moved for leave to bring in the Regency Bill, and on the next day it was brought in, and read a first time, without any debate. debate. When proposed, however, to be read a second time, on the 6th of February, it was attacked, with great eloquence, but with still greater intemperance, by Mr. Burke, whose irritability of temper seems to have betrayed him into expressions, which no member ought to use, and which the House ought not to tolerate. He accused Dr. Willis of rashness, impetuosity, and presumption, in taking upon him to fix the probable duration of his Majesty's illness. Alluding to the restoration of the King to a capacity to resume the exercise of regal authority; he exclaimed, "Of his sanity, should God restore it, where was the confirmation? with a junto-an obscure and contemptible council! manifestly not wishing to produce a sound King, but to usurp the Government without one-where a proclamation was to supersede the two Houses--a proclamation from authority existing no more--for the He King governs not-but is governed!"* taxed the bill with reviving the doctrine of divine right, which had been exploded on the

An impartial Report, &c. p. 476.