besides those sitting as commissioners were, the earl of Aylesford, the earl of Liverpool, the marquis Wellesley, lord Mulgrave, and lord Ellenborough. None of the royal dukes were named in it, nor were any of them present. The usual words, "having seen, and perfectly understood," were left out. The commission, after reciting the former commission of the 15th of January, and declaring its validity, was worded in other respects nearly as usual in commissions issued by the king's authority, and to the usual words by the king himself were added, "by and with the advice of the lords spiritual and. temporal, and commons in parliament assembled HISTORY OF THE WAR. CHAP. LXV State of Parties-Mr. Perceval and his friends are retained in power-Parliamentary transactions--Disturbances at Nottingham-Affairs of the Peninsula-Retreat of Massena-Cruelties of the French-Battle of Fuentes d'Honor, or D'DonoroBATTLE OF ALBUERA-BATTLE OF BAROSSA-Death of the Duke of Albuquerque-Siege of Tarragona-Movements of the various Armies-Proceedings of the Cortes-Licentiousness and rapacity of Joseph Buonaparte-He flies from Madrid. TH HE hopes of the opposition were raised to the highest pitch during the progress of the regency bill. The disposition of the prince was apparently favorable to their views; he entertained a personal regard for some of the leaders of the party, and it was believed that many of his political opinions were imbibed from Mr. Fox. It was therefore extremely probable that a change of ministry would take place, and all the opponents of government from lords Grey and Grenville down to the very dregs of the Burdettite faction, vied with each other in exulting over a falling enemy, and in hailing the expected approach of political redemption. In a few of the principal towns of England the agitators drew up petitions against the restrictions; the livery of London set the example, and the charge of usurping the sovereign power was re-echoed against Mr. Perceval and his colleagues with the usual intemperance of the city orators. The opposition were strong in borough influence, while Mr. Perceval by the course which he pursued concerning the regency, lost the support of those members of the royal family, who were most connected with the existing government. The journals of the opposition were numerous and active, but there existed between them diffeVOL. II. rences too numerous and important to be easily accommodated. On the question of catholic emancipation the opinions of the Foxites, the Grenvilles, and the reformists were agreed, but the Grenvilles were at variance with all their allies on the subject of parliamentary reform, and the reformists were undetermined among themselves respecting the nature and extent of their plans of reformation. The foreign policy of Mr. Whitbread and sir Francis Burdett was directed to absolute concession on every topic of dispute, and that of lord Grenville and his friends to a cautious and defensive war. Lord Holland on the contrary would have acted with additional vigor in aid of Spain, and would have been supported by lord Moira, Mr. Sheridan, the marquis of Lansdowne, and Mr. Ponsonby. At the commencement of the new arrangements lords Grey and Grenville could not accord in their deliberations, and the former retired to the country in disgust. They found it however expedient to agree, and the earl returned at the moment when the prince was deliberating respecting the restrictions imposed by parliament. The answer which the two lords advised was shewn by the prince to Mr. Sheridan, who declared that in consequence of its violence 2.0 of expression and opinion it would involve gress of his sovereign's recovery. This consideration alone dictates the decision now communicated to Mr. Perceval." The minister replied in terms of regret at the impression produced on his royal highness by the terms of the bill of regency, that in the expression of the prince's anxiety for the restoration of his father's health, he and his colleagues could see nothing but additional motives for the most anxious exertions to give satisfaction to his royal highness, by endeavoring to promote his views for the security and happiness of the country, and that the recent measures would not have been recommended to the adoption of parliament nor obtained its sanction but on the sincere though possibly erroneous conviction that they in no degree trenched on the true principles of the British constitution. 1811. The ceremony of installing the prince regent was performed on the 6th of February, and it was soon apparent that the administration of Mr. Perceval was perfectly established. When that gentleman was first invested with power the tide of popularity was in favor of him and his colleagues, because any men would have been popular who succeeded to such an administration as that of All the Talents, but a series of adverse events had gradually diminished the influence of his party, without in any degree lessening the contempt and odium with which his opponents were regarded. His accession to power was attributed to a private correspondence with his majesty, and to his consequent exertions in preventing the publication of a " Book," recording the unfortunate circumstances connected with the princess of Wales. the princess of Wales. Whether the con jecture be just or malicious it was fortu tunate that at this critical period the duties of government should have fallen upon a man so able, so honest, and so intrepid. When the prop by which the public believed that he was entirely supported was taken away, then it was that he felt his own resources; the people beheld him self-confident in his motives and measures, and with the firmness of integrity he persevered in his steady course, neither deterred from his duty by the clamors of faction, discouraged by the revilings of unprincipled demagogues, nor humiliated by the avowed displeasure of the prince, in whose power it would remain to dismiss him from office. It was now, and perhaps for the first time, that he became conscious of his own powers, and the dignity of his nature shone forth. It was seen that the man whose individual character was without a spot, carried the pure principles of his privacy into public action, and possessed the steadiness and intrepidity of the statesman, in as eminent a degree, as the milder and more endearing virtues of domestic life. The first subject of importance that demanded the consideration of the regency parliament, was a violent and ridiculous circular letter transmitted by Mr. Wellesley Poole, secretary of the lord lieutenant of Ireland, to the sheriffs and chief magistrates of all the counties in that kingdom. It was disavowed by the minister, and the question was dismissed by a large majority. On the 25th of February, Mr. Whitbread stated that the king was attacked with a return of his constitutional disorder, on the 14th of February, 1804, and the circumstance on the next day was announced to the public. On March the 6th, the chancellor, lord Eldon, stated in the house of lords, that he had been closeted with the king on the 5th of the month. On the 9th of March, a commission from his majesty was issued, and on the 26th, lord Sidmouth brought down a message from the sovereign. On these grounds he moved "that a committee be appointed to examine the lords', journals for the evidence of the physicians, respecting his majesty's state in 1804, and to report the same to the house. The majority of the house of commons were impressed with the conviction that his majesty had been induced to exercise his functions at a time when his faculties were incompetent to the duty of his station; but the delicacy of the subject, and the incidental discussions to which it would have prepared the way, influenced the decision of the mem bers, and the motion was negatived by 193 against 81. In the house of lords, lord Holland brought forward a motion respecting infor mations ex-officio. He stated that, from 1801 to 1806, only fourteen informations ex-officio were filed; that in the three succeeding years the persons subjected to this process amounted to forty-two, of which only sixteen had been brought to justice; and that a noli prosequi had been granted to the Morning Post, in a prosecution for libel, because that paper supported the cause of ministers. The motion was rejected on the ground that no specific charge of importance had been adduced, by a majority of 119 against 36. Yet it was justly stated that the power of vexing and harassing those against whom the attorney-general filed his informations exofficio at his own pleasure, was not less unlimited than unjust. In all other cases, where an individual has to contend with the crown, he is fortified by the rules and forms of the law, which serve as a bar against oppression. But in cases of libel, the accused has to contend with the same power, without any of those advantages which are enjoyed in the case of treason. The attorney-general is empowered to file his informations according to his own discretion; and, after subjecting the object of his severity to infinite trouble and expense, may withdraw his process without proceeding to trial. The attorney-general has a personal interest in the number of informations by the fees which he receives, and the legislature ought surely to guard against the possible union of pecuniary interest, with a desire to cultivate, by zealous services, the favor of the court. The disposition on the part of the minis-. ters, when unthwarted in their views by the officious interference of the attorneygeneral to ameliorate the system of military flogging, did not prevent colonel Wardle from moving a committee for inquiring into the case of a corporal in the Oxford militia, and his own statement was shewn to be so exaggerated and incorrect, that when he and sir Francis Burdett counted. the house, the colonel of the Oxford militia was the only member who voted with them for an inquiry into his own conduct against a majority of 91. Colonel Wardle represented this corporal as an injured man; whereas, it appeared that his offence was of an aggravated nature, and that he had endeavored to spread dissatisfaction in the regiment. The whole conduct of colonel Wardle was indiscreet and presumptuous in the highest degree, and he obtained the name of "a walking committee" of the house of commons. But the misconduct of the member and the falsity of his charge, had nothing to do with the merits of the general question. His violence, however, and the perseverance of sir Francis Burdett, determined the crown lawyers to persist in bringing to judgment, and prosecuting with extreme severity, the literary opponents of the system of flogging. Some of these cases, with their origin, progress, and consequences, will become the theme will become the theme of further observation. Soon after the installation of the regent, a rumour prevailed that the duke of York would be restored to office. The ministers calculated upon the fickleness of popular feeling, and upon the change which had been produced in the minds of the public, by the utter disrepute which now attached to those individuals by whose means the duke had been displaced. The governThe government was not deceived. Even the most violent of the democratical journals were silent; many of the newspapers expressed the most ardent satisfaction at what they were pleased to term an act of justice; and when the reappointment was actually announced, it passed, after a few animadversions in parliament, with as little attention as any other part of the gazette. Lord Cochrane, with his usual infelicity, in proposing a series of motions on the subject of injustice and corruption in the admiralty courts, materially injured the cause which it was his intention to support, by the intemperance of his language, and the exaggeration of his statements. After mentioning his own imprisonment. at Malta, from which he had effected a clandestine escape, and moving for papers which would prove that in various instances, besides his own, the judge, the marshal, and the register of the vice-admiralty court of Malta, had abused their offices, he counteracted the whole impression of his statement by asserting that he would undertake to prove the possibility of reducing the naval force in the Mediterranean to one third of its present number, and of saving 5,000,000 if the admiralty court would perform their duty. An opinion so derogatory to the naval character, pronounced by a distinguished member of their own profession, excited universal dissatisfaction, and the particular ground of the complaints which he adduced, appeared, when they were examined, so frivolous and vexatious, that he found. no person to second or support him, notwithstanding his general feeling on the subject of admiralty abuses was but too well founded. Exclusive of parliamentary proceedings, the domestic affairs of the British empire were comparatively destitute of interest. The commercial distresses indicated by the lists of bankrupts, induced among the middle classes a desponding apathy, and the uncertain state of his majesty's health, and of the consequent duration of the regency, and the system of government likely to be pursued under it, placed the superior ranks in a state of dubious expectation. With the exception, therefore, of some feeble attempts to awaken the public attention to the cause of parliamentary reform, and some of the usual party contests in the city of London, scarcely any occasions occurred to agitate any considerable bodies on a political account in this part of the united kingdom. Another exception, indeed, might be made, with respect. to the alarm excited among the dissenters by lord Sidmouth's bill; but the operation of their remonstrance was silent, and its effect was produced before the public at large was apprised of its existence. Very different was the impression made on the public by the proceedings of the catholics in Ireland, in pursuit of that. |