On the same day a report was brought up by Mr. secretary Ryder upon the state of the king's health; which report [see Public Papers] was read, and afterwards led to certain proceedings in both houses. Upon these we shall briefly touch. Jan. 4.-The earl of Liverpool, in the house of peers, rose to move the appointment of a select committee, to examine the physicians in attendance on his majesty, touching his majesty's health. His lordship observed, that they were now called upon to resort to this measure under different circumstances to those which existed in the last session. The privy council at that period had no jurisdiction in the case; they were summoned as the body that could most conveniently be summoned to examine the physicians, and made their report to parliament, which afterwards appointed committees of its own also to examine the physicians. Now under the act passed last session, the queen's council had a legal jurisdiction, and their reports under that act had already been laid on the table. As however some further legislative measure was necessary on this melancholy subject, he thought it would be more consistent with propriety, for the house to have on its journals the examination of the physicians in attendance on his ma jesty taken before a committee of its own body; and he should therefore move that a select committee be appointed to examine the physicians in attendance on his majesty, touch ing the state of his majesty's health since their last examination before a committee of this house.-Ordered. And also, that the said com mittee consist of 21 lords, and that they be chosen by ballot, each lord to deliver in his list before the next sitting of the house. A similar order was made in the house of commons. After this, when the speaker was putting the question, that a supply be granted, and that the house, tomorrow, resolve itself into a committee for that purpose, Mr. Creevey rose and complained, that the house was proceeding in the present state of the country, to the most important part of its duty, with no information to regulate its conduct. Committees had been appointed many years since to inquire into the best mode of retrenching the public expenditure, and innumerable reports had been made by them, recommending the abolition of almost innumerable places and pensions; but the house had yet come to no distinct resolution on the subject, and had taken no step to remove so gross a scandal on the nation. Indeed these com mittees had been so long sitting, that they seemed now to be considered as matters of course, and the grievances they were nominated to redress, ministers had been constantly employed in aggravating. What had taken place, even since the last separation of the house? No less than three new offices had been filled, and filled too by members of parliament: one of them had been made clerk of the coun cil; another, marshal of the admiralty; and the third, paymaster of widows' pensions; all of which offices had been occupied before by persons who were not members of the legislature. It was not long since another member had been made a master in chancery, who had never practised in that court; and would any man deny that the gift was conferred because the person receiving it had supported the political views of the ministers ? Sir John Sinclair, another member, who had devoted his attention almost solely to agricultural pursuits, had been made a collector of the excise, an office of great emolument. Did any man, however bigoted, doubt that the member for Colchester (whose mercantile concerns and the duties that devolved upon him as connected with the East Indies had chiefly occupied him) had been appointed marshal of the admiralty because his vote had always been at the service of the crown? Was it fair, was it just to the people of England groaning under taxation, and yet patiently suffering under many privations, that it should be held out to them, that the only trade that now succeeded was that of a member of parliament who truckled to the minister of the day? Before he sat down, it was the intention of the honourable member to submit a motion to the house, with a view that it should pledge itself to the early consideration of the subject of sinecure emoluments and pensions, with a view at a future period of founding upon it a place bill, a measure that must ul. timately be resorted to. He had now to mention a subject which it was necessary to touch with some delicacy; he alluded to the appointment of colonel McMahon to the office of paymaster of widows' pensions. The honourable member had the good fortune to be acquainted with him, and it was impossible that a more faithful or deserving servant of the prince regent could be selected for reward: but in recommending his royal highness to bestow the place in question upon colonel M'Mahon, the ministers had done great injustice to him, had offered a gross indignity to the prince, and an insult and outrage to the house of commons. It was now twenty-nine years since the committee of public accounts, in their 10th report, in the most decided terms stated, that the place of paymaster of widows' pensions was a useless burthen to the country, and ought to be abolished. The commissioners of military inquiry, in their report four years ago, alluding to the department of the secretary at war, referring to the 10th report of the committee of finance, state, that they coincide with it in every respect, and recommend, that at the death of general Fox, the then occupant, it should be abolished. General For had lately died; and yet, in the very teeth of these two commissions, ministers had ventured to advise the prince regent (by patent the honourable member presumed) to fill up the vacancy by nominating colonel M Mahon.-Why were the commissions made out?-Why did they make any reports at all, if the recommendation was not only to be disregarded, but to be treated with contempt ?-A more gross indignity to the prince, or a greater insult to the house, could scarcely be imagined. The honourable member thought it necessary to say thus much on this nomination (in which his firmness in maintaining his country's rights had not, he trusted, induced him to say any thing indelicate to his prince), or it would have been impossible for him to arraign the conduct of the first lord of the admiralty in appointing Mr. Thornton, or the first lord of the treasury in sess lecting sir John Sinclair. Thinking that no greater grievance could be complained of, and that there was no time fitter for the purpose than the present, he should move, as an amendment," that this house will, tomorrow se'nnight, resolve itself. into a committee of supply, and in the mean time that it will take into consideration the state of the various places of emolument, and pensions, in possession of the different mem bers of this house." The The chancellor of the exchequer would not by any means concur in the unconditional censure bestowed by the honourable gentleman. It was, as he understood it, founded upon two grounds. 1. That members of the house hold a great number of places. 2. That members have been nominated to certain offices before held by persons who were not connected with the legislature. It need scarcely be necessary to inform the house, that appointments to such offices as rendered members incapable of serving in parliament could not apply; and where the vacating of the seat was the consequence of accepting a place, it rested with the constituents of the person so vacating, whether they chose to re-elect him. Under these circumstances, it might have been as well if the hon. member had restrained his eagerness for attack, until the returns of those per sons who had accepted the offices complained of were before the house. What was the proposition? That no member of parliament was capable of filling any place of emolument; that if he were a bar rister of known talents, who had distinguished himself by his argument and his eloquence, he was unft to fulfil the duties of an office which required those abilities; that his very capacity was to be assigned as the ground for his incapacity. In the other case, it was intended to be said that a member of parliament was an improper person to fill an office, for the bare reason that he was a member of parliament. That was the proposition; because it ought to be recollected that the ho, nourable member himself had confessed, in terms of praise that could not be exceeded, that no man, from his character and talents, was more deserving of the reward that had been conferred upon him. The principal ground of objection there. fore was, that his constituents had thought him worthy of their confidence; and this is the first instance where the objection has been seriously urged and enforced by a motion. It had been said, however, that in the manner of conferring the appointment there was something degrading to the house and insulting to the prince. Such he distinctly understood to be the charge against ministers. The hon. member had presumed a great deal too much because the place had been granted, he took it for granted that it was by patent, and under circumstances, too, similar to those under which it had been conferred upon general Fox. It might have been better, before such supposi.. tions were indulged, that inquiry had been made, not only into the na ture of the grant, but into the office itself; for, if so much pains had been taken, the honourable member would have found that the office had never been given for life even to general Fox; and so far from any discredit being reflected on the prince regent, as flying in the face of the resolutions of the house or of its commissioners, it would be discovered that the nomination of colonel M Mahon cast the highest praise upon his royal highness. It so happened, that at the time the gift was conferred, col. M'Mahon was distinctly informed that, con-sidering the circumstances in which that office stood, with regard to the manner in which the public attention had been directed to it, he was to understand that he must receive it subject to any view parliament might hereafter take of it. "He was glad to listen to the cheers of the other side of the house; what he had stated might appear to them a great absurdity; but before he could consent to think so he must resign all he had learnt, and receive instruction from those who were so vehement. What he had stated he admitted was truly a cause of triumph. If, indeed, there was any thing in the world that could repel the calumnies cast upon this subject, and induce gentlemen in future to be more inquisitive than accusative, it was this explanation; but it seemed only with those who were so fond of perversion, to have added strength to the objections urged. The right honourable gentleman trusted, therefore, that what had been so vehemently brought forward fell completely to the ground. What was the situation of things as they now stood before the house? It was true that committees had recommended the abolition of these offices; but it had been accompanied by a suggestion that a certain number of sinecures should be continued, and that others should be compensated for by pensions; and in this instance, before any determination had been come to by the house on that subject, a place had been bestowed upon a person who, from the little the right hon. gentleman had seen of him, could scarcely be too highly rewarded. Thus was the charge made out, that great injustice had been done to the indi vidual, a gross indignity offered to the prince, and an insult and out rage committed to the house. For these reasons he could not see the slightest shadow of a reason for supporting the amendment. Mr. Brougham concurred most fully in every sentiment of praise which his honourable friend (Mr. Creevey) had expressed for colonel McMahon; and this concurrence was, in him, the less to be suspected, as he had no personal acquaintance with colonel M Mahon : but every thing that he had heard of him, every thing that had ever come to his knowledge, either of his public or private life, justified him in avowing this decided approbation of the eulogium which had been passed upon him by his honourable friend. In proportion, however, as the person appointed to the place in question was faultless-in proportion as it was impossible to object to the appointment upon any grounds. of personal disqualification, in that proportion the example itself might be considered as dangercus; for, had the minister advised his royal highness the prince regent to nominate a person manifestly incompetent, obviously and avowedly unfit, there would be little to apprehend as to the evil of the precedent. He considered the appointment as ill-advised, and as insulting to that house; not only because the commission of 1783, and of 1808, declared and confirmed the perfect inutility of the situation of payn.aster-general of widows' pensions, but because a much more recent decision of that house had established the same fact. In adverting to what might be considered as sinecures, the honourable member could not easily conceive that the office of master in chancery was one that came under that de scription; and he wished therefore that his honourable friend had not mentioned it. He was not, however, of the same opinion with re spect to that of cashier of excise, a situation which the ministers had bestowed on an honourable baronet (sir John Sinclair) at the very mo. ment when the commission of 1810 were deliberating whether the office should not be abolished. He concluded by giving his entire assent to to his honourable friend's amend. ment. Mr. Stephen rose to address the house under very evident feelings of agitation. He said he did not expect that he should have had to defend himself on an occasion like the present. He had, indeed, been appointed one of the masters in chancery, and he hoped his vigilant and conscientious discharge of that office would prove, at least, the sincerity of his wish to justify the preference that had been shown.He could not, however, sufficiently express his disapprobation of that system which was now become so prevalent, of inferring the impossibility that a member of parliament, holding a place under government, should be able to discharge his parlamentary duties conscientiously and wrh integrity. This was a morality not very much to be admired, and it was a gratuitous sup. position very little honourable to the human character. For him self, without any offensive egotism or arrogance, he believed that he was as capable of feeling and acting independently, at the present moment, as he was before he accepted the appointment alluded to. But why did the hon. gentleman inveigh with so much bitterness against those who hold situations under government? Why did he consider it as a thing so beyond the probabilities of life, that the same man could be an independent mem. ber of that house and a possessor of a place under the government? Was he prepared to act in conformity to his principles? Had he renounced all hope of political and official preferment? Did he wish to be understood as expressing this? He could not conceive, indeed, why a faithful servant of the crown might not be likewise a faithful representative of his constituents. He saw nothing incompatible in the two stations; but if every one who occupied them was to be exposed to malignant insinuations, if he was to be immediately the object of suspicious rancour, honourable men would soon cease to ac cept such appointments, lest they should be forthwith regarded as having necessarily bartered their integrity for their place. Mr. Whitbread was happy to ad'mit the great fitness of the honourable gentleman for the station which he filled, and which he was far from regarding as a sinecure. He conceived, indeed, that the intention of the honourable mover was not to censure the appointment, individually, to the mastership in chancery, but generally the practice of rewarding political votes by such appointments. In adverting to the case of col. M'Mahon, the intimation of his provisional nomination, which had been made to col. M'Mahon, and upon which so much stress was laid by the chancellor of the exchequer, appeared to him extremely futile and nugatory. The same might be said to any man receiving any species of appointment. what did it amount? What actual efficacy had it, as far as regards the resumption of the appointment?Could it now be taken from colonel M'Mahon without some other remuneration being given in its place? He did not wish to be considered as having any personal hostility towards colonel M'Mahon. He was a man of whom he never heard an evil report in his life, so blameless was his conduct, both public and private. He was a faithful servant of his royal mas ter. But he thought ministers had acted with great impropriety in advising the prince regent to reward his services by such an appointment. The house divided To |