ON

N January 27, the Prince Regent's Speech was made public to both Houses by commission, the persons entrusted with the office being the Lord Chancellor, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the earl of Harrowby, the earl of Westmorland, and the duke of Montrose. The Speech was read by the Lord Chancellor, and was to the following effect:

"My Lords and Gentlemen; "We are commanded by his royal highness the Prince Regent to inform you, that it is with great concern that he is obliged VOL. LX.

to announce to you the continuance of his Majesty's lamented indisposition.

"The Prince Regent is persuaded that you will deeply participate in the affliction with which his Royal Highness has been visited, by the calamitous and untimely death of his beloved and only child the Princess Charlotte.

Under this awful dispensation of Providence, it has been a soothing consolation to the Prince Regent's heart, to receive from all descriptions of his majesty's subjects the most cordial assurances both of their just sense of [B]

the

the loss which they have sustain ed, and of their sympathy with his parental sorrow; and, amidst his own sufferings, his Royal Highness has not been unmindful of the effect which this sad event must have on the interests and future prospects of the kingdom. "We are commanded to acquaint you, that the Prince Regent continues to receive from foreign powers the strongest as surances of their friendly disposition towards this country, and of their desire to maintain the general tranquillity.

"His Royal Highness has the satisfaction of being able to assure you, that the confidence which he has invariably felt in the stability of the great sources of our national prosperity has not been disappointed.

"The improvement which has taken place in the course of the last year, in almost every branch of our domestic industry, and the present state of public credit, afford abundant proof that the difficulties under which the country was labouring were chiefly to be ascribed to temporary

causes.

"So important a change could not fail to withdraw from the disaffected the principal means of which they had availed themselves for the purpose of fomenting a spirit of discontent, which unhap. pily led to acts of insurrection and treason; and his Royal High. ness entertains the most confident expectation, that the state of peace and tranquillity to which the country is now restored, will be maintained against all attempts to disturb it, by the persevering vigilance of magistracy, and by

the loyalty and good sense of the people.

"Gentlemen of the House of Commons;

"The Prince Regent has directed the estimates for the current year to be laid before you.

"His Royal Highness recommends to your continued attention the state of the public income and expenditure; and he is most happy in being able to acquaint you, that since you were last assembled in parliament, the revenue has been in a state of progressive improvement in its most important branches.

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My Lords and Gentlemen; "We are commanded by the Prince Regent to inform you,

that he has concluded treaties with the courts of Spain and Portugal, on the important subject of the abolition of the slave trade.

"His Royal Highness has di. rected that a copy of the former treaty should be immediately laid before you; and he will order a similar communication to be made of the latter treaty, as soon as the ratification of it shall have been exchanged.

"In these negotiations it has been his Royal Highness's endeavour, as far as circumstances would permit, to give effect to the recommendations contained in the joint addresses of the two Houses of Parliament: and his Royal Highness has a full reliance on your readiness to adopt such measures as may be necessary for fulfilling the engagements into which he has entered for that purpose.

"The Prince Regent has commanded us to direct your particular attention to the deficiency

which has so long existed in the number of places of public worship belonging to the established church, when compared with the increased and increasing population of the country.

"His Royal Highness most earnestly recommends this important subject to your early consideration, deeply impressed, as he has no doubt you are, with a just sense of the many blessings which this country, by the favour of divine Providence has enjoyed; and with the conviction, that the religious and moral habits of the people are the most sure and firm foundation of national prosperity."

The House was then adjourned till five o'clock.

When the House of Lords was resumed, the Earl of Liverpool presented a bill for the better regulation of Select Vestries, and moved, that it should be read a first time.

Lord Holland said, that he intended to save the noble earl the trouble of introducing this bill, by himself presenting a bill of the utmost importance, for the purpose of restoring the liberties of the people, which had been outraged by the passing of a bill for the suspension of the Habeas Corpus act. His lordship was decidedly of opinion, that no time ought to be lost in bringing for ward the act to which he had alluded; and he now wished to ask whether it was the intention of any lord on the opposite side to bring in a bill for the repeal of the Habeas Corpus Suspension act; and whether, in such a case,it was intended to move the suspension of the standing orders,

that such a bill might pass with more rapidity than usual?

The Earl of Liverpool observed, that if his lordship had waited till the discussion of the Address was over, he would have found that a noble friend of his, to whose department this business especially referred, would rise to present a bill for the repeal of the Habeas Corpus Suspension act, and also to move to take the standing orders into consideration to-morrow, that the repeal bill might pass without any delay.

After the address had passed the House of Lords without a dissentient voice, lord Sidmouth gave notice, that he meant, on the following day, to move a bill for the repeal of the Habeas Corpus Suspension act, and also for the suspension of the standing orders, which required a certain interval between the different stages of

bills.

In the House of Commons, on the same day, some other public business having been first gone through, an address in correspondence to the speech of the Prince Regent was moved by Mr. Wodehouse, seconded by Mr. Wyndham Quin. It was first replied to by lord Althorp, who particularly took notice of the conduct of the Attorney General in his prosecution of Hone for the crime of libelling. The Attorney-general made a reply in his own justification, which called up Sir Samuel Romilly. As this member occupied the House for a considerable time, we shall advert to his speech somewhat at large.

Sir Samuel Romilly, after a general introduction, began with considering the proceedings at [B2] Manchester,