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Majesty's feelings would be shocked, when he recovered and found his household changed, was ridiculous. The bad advisers of the Regent were to be allowed the power of making war, peace, treaties, and the exercise of various other important authorities. To talk, therefore, of His Majesty's feelings, when he should recover and find his household changed, was to suppose that he would be less shocked to learn, that the constitution of his country was changed, part of his dominions ceded to foreign potentates, and other essential and important calamities and disgraces entailed on his country, which was like a man, who having been entrusted with the mansion house of a person, during his incapacity, to take care of it, should suffer it to go to ruin, and the winds of heaven to blow through almost every part of it, the enclosures to be broken down, the flocks of sheep to be shorn, and exposed to the storms, and all left to ruin and decay, except a few looking-glasses, and old worthless gilt lumber, that were locked up in an old fashioned drawing room. Mr. Sheridan represented the Ex-minister coming down to the house in state, with the cap of liberty on the end of a white staff, a retinue of black and white sticks attending him, and an army of beefeaters (whom the Master of the Horse, the Lord Steward, and Lord Chamberlain, were to be employed in marshalling) to clear his way through the lobby. He said, that he lately heard much of the political capacity of a King, but had never heard that the political capacity of a Lord of the Bedchamber was so inseparably connected with his body natural, that if the former were extinct, the latter could not without difficulty be found, when His Majesty should recover, and call back his household officers. He observed, that ministers were desirous of making it a condition with the Regent, that they were to have no claim upon him, provided the red book remained as it stood at present; let the Court Kalendar continue unaltered, and the Prince of Wales might be

Regent. Mr. Sheridan again adverted to what he stiled the minister's pretended regard for His Majesty's feelings, and asked the right honorable gentleman whether he thought His Majesty would not be hurt, when, upon his returning reason, he should know in what manner his sons, the Heir Apparent and the Duke of York, as well as the other Royal Dukes, had been treated by ministers, during his illness, especially after the gracious declarations which they had all heard of in another place. He observed, that the right honorable gentleman had admitted the restrictions to be evils, and had discussed them chiefly on the grounds of expediency; he combated them on that ground, and declared, that he fully admitted the doctrine of the lawyers, that the political capacity of the monarch was whole and entire, but that he must contend they were acting in direct opposition to that principle, and to what had originally made it a principle in our constitution. He said that he had no occasion to reason upon the question, it was enough to state his arguments; they were so evident, that they needed only to be heard to be admitted as if they had been proved. After a great variety of sarcasms, and shrewd observations, Mr. Sheridan concluded with declaring, that when it should be known by the public, that the motive for such restrictions was no other than because the Prince was going to take into his service a different set of men from those now in office, they would despise and detest the cunning and the craft from whence so wretched a proceeding had originated.

At length the committee divided on Mr. Powys's amendment on the first resolution; ayes 154; noes 227. The original resolution was then put and carried without a division. A division next took place on the second resolution relative to the creation of peers; ayes 216; noes 159. All the other resolutions, excepting that respecting the King's household, were then severally put and carried. The house adjourned.

JANUARY 19.

REGENCY RESTRICTIONS.

On this day Mr. Pitt moved his fifth resolution, committing the care of His Majesty's person to the Queen; and granting to her the power of removing from, and appointing all the offices of the household.

Mr. SHERIDAN observed, that it was not an agreeable task to enter on the degree of comparative abilities, with which the resolution had been debated; and the more so, when the person who undertook to comment on the matter, had himself been principally concerned in the debate. The right honorable gentleman's explanation required an explanation. The right honorable gentleman (Mr. Pitt) had given his right honorable friend (Mr. Fox) no answer whatever as to the time when the restrictions would be taken off the regency, in case his expectations of His Majesty's recovery should prove to have been unwarranted, as he verily believed they would turn out. And there was another matter of no small importance, respecting which the right honorable gentleman had not said one word, and that was the council to be provided for the Queen, as guardian and trustee of His Majesty's royal person. The right honorable gentleman, on his first opening of his plan, on a former day, had omitted to state even that there was to be a council, till the resolution came to be read; and then the right honorable gentleman had started up, and put in his council, like the postscript to a letter, or a matter of trifling consequence, taking care to tell them no more than it was to be a council of advice, not a council of controul. But the nature and constitution of the council ought to be explained; and the committee ought to be told of whom it was to consist before they were called upon to vote it.

During the course of the debate Mr. Bouverie had remarked, that the resolution consisted of three distinct propositions :-the

care of His Majesty's person; the power to remove or continue the household officers; and the appointment of a council. It was therefore proposed that they should be put separately; but Mr. Pitt not consenting to this, Mr. Bouverie moved, that the second clause of the resolution should be left out. The committee divided on this motion, when there appeared, ayes 165; noes 229. Lord North then moved, that the words "for a limited time" be added; upon which the committee again divided; ayes 164; noes 220. The house was then resumed; the several resolu tions reported and agreed to; and ordered to be delivered at a conference to the lords.

JANUARY 26.

REGENCY RESTRICTIONS.

Mr. Pitt informed the house, that the next step which he should propose, would be to lay the resolutions, voted by the two houses, before the Prince of Wales, in order to know whether his Royal Highness was willing to accept the regency upon those conditions; and, therefore, he gave notice that he should make a motion for an humble address for that purpose on the morrow.

Mr. SHERIDAN remarked, that what the right honorable gentleman (Mr. Pitt) had advanced in general terms of the intended motion for an address to the Prince of Wales, might do for those who would wish to give implicit confidence to every thing that fell from the right honorable gentleman; but there were other descriptions of men who might reasonably expect a more satisfactory answer. As the restrictions stood, the right honorable gentleman would be pleased to recollect, there was nothing in them which intimated that they were calculated to continue for a limited time only. Upon the face of the resolutions, they appeared designed to be permanent; and, therefore, he submitted it to the right honorable gentleman, whether it was not absolutely necessary, by some means or other, to signify to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, that they were meant to continue in force only for a limited time. Perhaps, the right honorable gentleman designed to do this, in the address; but certainly it was material, that it should be done one

way or the other. He understood, that there was to be a commission passed to open the parliament as soon as the Prince's answer to the address was received; and it was said, that his Royal Highness was to be one of the commissioners. He hoped, therefore, that the right honorable gentleman would inform the house how the commission was to be constituted? Mr. Sheridan pressed the necessity of signifying that the restrictions were to be only for a limited time; since, as the resolutions stood, they certainly warranted the idea of an intention to make them permanent.

Mr. Pitt replied, that when the resolution had been carried to the Prince of Wales, and the answer of his Royal Highness obtained, it would then be time enough to discuss the propriety of the commission to be passed for opening the parliament.

Mr. Sheridan desired to know if there was not some danger in adopting that mode of proceeding. He described the awkward situation in which it would place the Prince, by stating, that if the address was presented with the resolutions, and the answer should prove, that his Royal Highness was willing to accept the regency on those conditions, whether, when the commission was issued, and the Prince might not choose to have any thing to do with it, he would not be precluded from refusing; and be considered by his answer to have pledged himself to consent to all the subsequent proceedings relative to the appointment of the regency?

Mr. Pitt replied, that his first object would be to carry up the resolutions, and the other matters, such as the ordering a commission to be issued in the King's name for the opening of the parliament ; and various necessary points, would come under discussion hereafter.

JANUARY 27.

REGENCY RESTRICTIONS.

Mr. Pitt moved, "That a committee be appointed to communicate to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, the resolutions which the house of lords and commons have agreed to, for providing the

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