a monument, he trusted that the Journals of that House would be still more durable. The page of history would narrate the fact of their abhorrence. It would be a consolation to posterity, that the same page would convey the information, that the person by whom it had been committed was, as far as the subject had been investigated, unconnected with any other. He hoped this would be confirmed. He should consider it his duty to take the sense of the House on the motion. He had never, from the first day, understood it to have been the intention of Mr. Perceval's nearest friends to make such a one; he presumed, therefore, that it originated entirely with the noble lord(Lord Clive bowed assent.) It did honour, he must assert, to the noble lord's feelings; and he trusted that in what he had said he should not be supposed to have meant any thing in the slightest degree disrespectful either to the noble lord or to Mr. Perceval's memory. His opposition to the motion was founded on public grounds alone. Mr. Canning said, it was impossible for any difference of opinion to be stated in a manner less grating than had been done by the hon. gentleman who spoke last. He thought that the proposition of a public funeral might have been misconstrued into an approbation of political principles, but the peculiar advantage of the present motion was, that it guarded against the danger of being liable to such misconstruction, after the fleeting debates of the day were. passed away (Hear!)-because care would be taken to make such a record as would not convey to the spectator, in time to come, one jot more or less than the meaning of the House. It could never lead to a suspicion of the insincerity of the sentiments formerly maintained by any gentleman in the House. The natural construction would rather be that all political animosities and differences were suspended; that the political character had been merged in the deeper feelings of regret which arose on the loss of so lamented an individual, and in the common sentiment of detestation of an act which transcended every thing in recent times in the history of our country-Hear, hear!) Mr. C. W. Wynne observed, that this was a very different case from that of great naval and military characters, who expired in the moment of victory. The monument to be erected on this occasion might be called a column of infamy. It would perpetuate the memory of an action which, if possible, he wished might be covered with oblivion. "Excedat ille dies avo, ne posterum æclum memoret.” Lord Milton was compelled, from a sense of duty, to object to the motion of his noble friend. It was impossible to erect a monument without recognising the merit of public services. Already had been done enough to testify the abhorrence of the House of the action, and their sense of the virtues of the individual. He should conceive the Journals of the House as durable a monument as any which the statuary could erect. Already Mr. Perceval's memory had been honoured with the tribute which had been paid to his public and private virtues, but the present measure was going a little farther. Mr. Wilberforce, in a speech in which he repeated his former eulogium on the private and public virtues of the late Mr. Perceval, supported the motion. He thought it an honour to the age in which he lived, that the display of private virtue on a public stage, should be thought worthy of those honours which had been hitherto exclusively appropriated to merits of a more imposing, though perhaps less useful character. Mr. Elliot wished to have it distinctly understood, that his only reason for objecting to the motion was, that he thought such distinctions should be conferred only in consideration of pre-eminent services to the country. The honour was a public one, and should be given in return for eminent public service.-The House divided: For the motion Majority 199 26 173 Mr. H. Sumner addressed the gentlemen in the lobby, begging of them not to go away till his motion for the provision of the family of Mr. Perceval was decided. The Speaker stated to the House, that in the progress of any money measure through that House, it could not proceed two stages in the course of the same evening. An understanding then took place that the debate should be on bringing up the Report on Wednesday. The House then having gone into the Committee, Mr. Hoskisson moved a Resolution, granting to Mr. Perceval's eldest son the sum of 1000l. per annum, from the 11th of May 1812, for the term of his natural life; and also an additional sum of 1000l. a year to the same, for the same period, to commence at the death of his mother, the Hon. Jane Perceval. This Resolution, with the exception of one or two dissentient voices, passed in the affirmative; when the House resumed, and the Report was ordered to be received on Wednesday. The House then went into the Committee upon the Orders in Council, when Mr. George Rowson, and Messrs. Heard and Holforth, were examined.-Adjourned to Wednesday. HOUSE OF LORDS. WEDNESDAY, MAY 20. Earl Stanhope, after stating that the very important Bill for the relief of the Irish Peasantry stood for Friday, observ ed that many of their lordships had expressed a wish that it should be postponed for a week, and he therefore proposed that the consideration of it should stand for Friday se'nnight. Ordered. ORDERS IN COUNCIL. Earl Bathurst, about seven o'clock, proposed that the further proceeding should be adjourned. The Earl of Lauderdale opposed this, observing, that they might proceed farther that evening, and that their duty to their country would not permit any unnecessary delay. He called upon the House to consider the present situation of the country. The labouring manufacturers were reduced to a state of unprecedented distress by the operation of these pernicious regulations, called the Orders in Council, and outrages produced heretofore unheard of in this country. Under such circumstances, unnecessary delay could not be justified. The House ought to proceed from day to day with this examination, and devote to it as large a portion of the day as they could. Earl Bathurst said, that he had to attend a meeting on public business that evening, otherwise he should not then have proposed the adjournment. As to the other point, their lordships would have a future opportunity of deciding whether the distresses of some classes of our manufacturers was or was not owing to the Orders in Council.Adjourned. HOUSE OF COMMONS. WEDNESDAY, MAY 20. New writs were moved for Northampton, in the room of the Right Honourable Spencer Perceval, deceased; and for the borough of Old Sarum, in the room of the Right Hon. Nicholas Vansittart, who since his election had accepted the offices of Chancellor of the Exchequer and Commissioner of the Treasury. Lord Jocelyn brought up at the bar, the answer of his royal highness the Prince Regent, to the Address of the House, praying him to cause a Monument to be erected to the memory of the late Mr. Perceval. Mr. Whitbread postponed the motion of which he had given notice on the Toleration Act till to-morrow fortnight, as it would be more agreeable to him to argue it in the presence of the new Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Vansittart), when his return should be made. ADDRESS TO THE REGENT. Mr. S. Wortley gave notice, that he should to-morrow move, that an humble Address be presented to the Prince Regent, praying that his Royal Highness would be pleased to adopt such measures as might lead to the formation of a strong, able, and efficient Administation. BELLINGHAM. Lord G. L. Gower rose to move for a paper, which, as there was no objection on the part of Ministers to producing, he hoped the House would forgive him for moving for without any previous notice. The paper that he should move for was a letter written by himself to the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, stating the case of John Bellingham, from the best of his recollection, aided by conversations with others, who had the best means of knowing the circumstances. As the character of Rimself, when Ambassador in Russia, had been attacked by this man, and the character of Sir Stephen Shairpe also (a most respectable servant of the public, a man always ready to listen to every representation made to him in the course of his public duty, and to relieve out of his own pocket the distresses of English subjects in Russia)-as he and Sir S. Shairpe had been thus charged with gross neglect of their public duty, he thought that it was due to him self, to Sir Stephen Shairpe, to the memory of Mr. Ferceval and the feelings of his family, to give to the public as full a statement as possible of the facts of the case. He concluded by moving for a copy of the letter written by him to Lord Castlereagh, bearing date the 17th of May. Lord Castlereagh expressed his consent to the motion, which was unanimously agreed to. MR. PERCEVAL'S FAMILY. On the Report being brought up, and the third Resolution being read, Mr. Whitbread said, that it was with great concern he found himself obliged to oppose this Resolution, and to take the sense of the House upon it. He had made no opposi tion to what had been originally proposed by his Majesty's Ministers as a fair and liberal provision, considering all the circumstances of the case and of the country, for the widow and afflicted family of Mr. Perceval: but when more was demanded, he could not conceive upon what other ground it could be given, but as a reward for public services which he could not be expected to acknowledge. It had been strongly put to him on a former night by a right honourable gentleman (Mr. Huskisson) whether the eldest son of Mr. Perceval could receive a liberal education for the sum of 2001. per ann. In answer to that, he would say, that when it appeared that Mrs. Perceval had of her private fortune 21007. that 20007. a year additional had been granted to her by that House, and 50,000l. for the children, and when he heard that Mrs. Perceval had also considerable expectations from another quarter (he probably alluded here to Lady Wilson, her mother), he could not but think that a lady who had 6500l. a year, with considerable expectations, had ample means to give liberal educations to all her 12 children, and that there were already means enough to place the sons in any profession for which they might have an inclination; he thought that as some little time had now elapsed since the motion was first proposed, the feelings of gentlemen might have cooled a little, and that they might be contented with the sum originally proposed. they were to consider what was done in the case of the families of other distinguished persons who died in the service of their country, it would be found that an annuity of 500. per annum to the widow, without any provision for the children, had been the remuneration given for very eminent If to oppos te appea as might in future them would be t CO |