liable, and that it would be necessary for them to calculate upon a permanent annual excess of the charges over the means provided to answer them. All this might be very true; but for his part, as he was ignorant of the causes which rendered the civil list inadequate, it was impossible for him to come to the conclusions of the right hon. gentleman; for he must have proof that the present amount was insufficient to meet the expenditure, and not the mere allegation of the chancellor of the exchequer that it was so. It was the duty of the house to know how that excess had taken place, and that it had not taken place from extravagance, but had arisen from just and necessary causes. They had voted a sum for the maintenance of the dignity of the crown, and for supporting the expenses of government; in that provision certain dispositions had been thought proper to be made by them: but these revenues were now, by the unfortunate event which had taken place, necessarily transferred to him, who as regent was substituted in the place of him who wore the crown, to the person who was in the exercise of the functions of sovereignty. The crown was at present provided for, and the heir-apparent was also provided for. The most natural way of proceeding, therefore, was, to give him who exercises the functions of sovereignty all that is deemed necessary for the support of the crown; and give to the heirapparent all that parliament may have also thought necessary for the support of his dignity. He should have thought it necessary, there fore, that the amount of the other branches of revenue, with the proposed deductions from them, should have been stated, and then the prince had a right to as heir-appaamount of the revenue which the rent, so that it might at once be latter exceeded or fell short of these seen whether the amount of the deductions; and if it fell short, it was then the duty of the house to vote such a specific sum to his royal highness as would make the reve nue to be possessed by him as good as what was possessed by his father when reigning sovereign of this country. But instead of this simple and obvious mode of proceeding, the right honourable gentleman, by first taking so much from the civil list, and then taking prince of Wales, had introduced so much from the revenue of the plan, that, for his part, he was not such a complexity into his whole ashamed to say, he could form no accurate conception of it. right honourable gentleman had The stated to them, on the authority of the evidence of the physicians, that it would require a considerable sum of money to keep up such a state of splendour as might render the situ ation of his majesty comfortable. Whatever sum might be necessary for that purpose, no man could than himself, for no man could feel more cheerfully consent to grant more for the distresses of his sovereign, or be more sincerely disposed to contribute to their alleviation; but he could find nothing in the evidence of the physicians, and he had attended the committees from the beginning to the end of their examination, which in the least justified the supposition of the right honourable gentleman. He had contemplated the possibility of his majesty recovering to a sort of middle state; a state which would neither be perfect sanity nor yet insanity; a state in which he might remember his former situation, and entertain entertain just views on many of the ordinary occurrences of life, and yet not possess such a degree of judgement as to render him fit for the resumption of the royal function; a state which he might safely say would certainly be the most calamitous to his majesty that it is possible for the mind of man to conceive: for what could be a greater calamity than to be restored to such a degree of sensibility as might render him alive to all the horrors of his unhappy state, and add to his other miseries the consciousness of his degradation? But there was nothing in the evidence of the physicians to justify this supposition. The right honourable gentleman had attended the committee as well as himself, and this middle state must have been equally present to his mind at that time as at the present: but he would put it to him, if he had put any question to the physicians respecting the possibility of this intermediate state, or had obtained any evidence from them on the subject. All the physicians, with the exception of doctor Simmons, had said that his majesty's recovery was extremely improbable; one of them had said that it was all but hopeless, and another of them had said that it was all but impossible. But what evidence was there of this sort of non-descript state anticipated by the right honourable gentleman? What was there in the peculiar situation of his majesty, he would ask, which could make the existence of such a large establishment necessary to his comfort? Could he see the splendour with which it was proposed to surround him? That was impossible. Were there attendants to be retained familiarly to approach him? This the nature of his case would not allow. What was then necessary to his majesty? Was it such an establishment as might enable him, on his return to a happier state, to resume, without dif ficulty, his royal functions? This was the consideration by which the house had last year been influenced; but the case was widely altered at present, when, from the concurring evidence of all the physicians, little or no hope of this return was left. But if this happy return should ever take place, the exercise of the royal power would also return to him, and all the functions of royalty would necessarily revert to him. There was another part of the statement of the right honourable, gentleman, to which he could not help adverting, and that was, that on account of the diminished domestic state of the king, a smaller number of coaches and horses would be rendered necessary, and 10,000/. additional should, on this account, be granted to her ma. jesty, the queen; that is, because his majesty requires fewer coaches and horses, an additional income became necessary to the queen.But how could the diminution of the expense necessary to his majesty create an additional increase of expense to the queen? When his majesty was in the possession of health, he used these things for his own purposes; and when he was out of health, they were not necessary to the comforts of the queen. Because the king was not in a state to enjoy his usual comforts, it was not surely necessary to put her majesty the queen to any additional expense. This was a mode of reasoning which he confessed himself utterly unable to comprehend. There was another head of expense to which the right honour. able gentleman alluded, respecting which he had also to profess him. self entirely ignorant, and that was the 100,000l. necessary defray the expense attending the assumption of the regency. When this expense had been mentioned on the former year, it was well known by all of them, that his royal high ness had then declined receiving any thing from the public on that account. The right honourable gentleman had told them that he would be able to satisfy the house that the sum was not more than what was adequate for the occasion. This he might or he might not be able to do; but certainly his royal highness could expect no more from that house than a disposition to grant whatever sum should be shown to them to be necessary under each head of expenditure. Upon the whole, he hoped that the right honourable gentleman would not wish to hasten the consideration of the resolutions, but allow them to lie for a few days on the table; in which case, he assured him, he would endeavour to comprehend that plan which, at present, he was not ashamed to profess him self totally unable to do. He did not mean to say that he objected to the plan either particularly or in all its parts; all that he meant to say was, that he did not wish to be understood to have consented to it either in whole or in part. He. wished to grant what the splendour of monarchy required, and more than this he was very unwilling to do. The chancellor of the exchequer stated, that he should have no objection to allowing the resolutions lying on the table, did he not conceive that the plan would, with more propriety, come under consideration at a subsequent period. The natural course, if the resolutions were adopted, would be for a bill to follow them. Mr. Ponsonby confessed, the more he contemplated the plan of the right honourable gentleman, the less he understood it, though he hoped that in time he should be enabled to understand it. He would, however, ask, Did his royal highness agree to renounce his claim as duke of Cornwall, and was this sum given in that consideration? The chancellor of the exchequer said he had nothing to propose to the house on that subject. When it had formerly come before the house, he had then given it as his opinion, that the claim of his royal highness was without any foundation, and he had seen nothing since that time to render any alteration in his opinion necessary. He had, however, no difficulty in stating, that as far as it was possible to judge from looking back to the debates of that period, it was his opinion that his royal highness had then agreed to relinquish his claim. Mr. Tierney observed, with respect to the 100,0007. it was needless to say any thing at present; but if it could afterwards be shown that this was necessary to defray the expense cast on his royal highness last year, and the splendour necessary to be displayed in assuming the situation which he was about to undertake, he, for one, should not have the smallest objection to agree to it. He wished to say a few words on the plan submitted to them that night by the right honourable gentleman opposite, because of the complete dilemma in which he had been placed by him; for it was necessary, before consenting to vote for this plan, at least to understand it, and this he, for one, was utterly unable to do. It appeared, however, that they were asked a sum of money for the establishment of a second court. His majesty was still, it would appear, to be considered as the sovereign of the country, and the regent merely substituted, for the the purpose of carrying on the functions of the executive. He, for one, would not deny that any portion of splendour belonged to the man to whom the name of king belonged. No man was ever more beloved than George the Third was by the people of this country; and had the right honour able gentleman so called upon them, he would have been the first to testify the affection which he partook, in common with every one of his fellow-subjects; but still he must look to the splendour of the executive power, and take care that no other court whatever came in contact with it. By this new constitution of things, however, the queen, it seems, on behalf of his ajesty, was to have one court, and the prince regent another court. Was that necessary? Sure he was that it was dangerous. But could the right honourable gentleman make out its necessity? With respect to his majesty, he would never, to the latest moment of his life, forget that he was his king: but still it was necessary for the right honourable gentleman to satisfy the country, that the new splendour with which he proposes to invest her majesty's court was at all necessary for the comfort of his majesty. When he examined the list of those who were to constitute the queen's court, it was impossible not to smile when he observed the number of officers proposed the master of the robes, grooms of the stole, lords of state, equerries, &c. And in order to take care of the private property of bis majesty, three new officers with salaries were thought fit to be created, a business with which parhiment could certainly have nothing to do. Could any man be 10 blind as not to see the drift of that the right honourable gentleman in his disposal of all this influence?From the manner in which the right honourable gentleman had, on the opening of his speech that night, spoken of the regency bill, it almost looked as if he wished to make a bargain about the taking off the restrictions. He must have a separate court, with her majesty at the head of it. His majesty's unfortunate condition had now lasted upwards of fifteen months, and since last July it appears, from the evidence of the physicians, that the restrictions imposed on the prince regent were altogether unnecessary. The right honourable gentleman had allowed, when he enforced these restrictions, they were, pro tanto, an infringement on the executive power; but that they were rendered necessary, in order that no impediment might be thrown in the way of his majesty's recovery, and that he would only name one year, in order that parliament might, at the end of that period, be enabled, as soon as possible, to remove them. But the physicians had told them that no hopes of that recovery had existed since last July; and yet the right honourable gentleman had thought proper to put off the assembling of parliament for eighteen days longer than the period at which it became necessary. The right honourable gentleman ought to answer to the country why he made that unconstitutional bill last one day longer than it was necessary. With respect to the appointments about his majesty, was it a fact that any of the lords of the bedchamber, or any of the equerries, ever attended regularly, when there was a probability of his majesty's recovery? And now that such recovery was highly improbable, why was their attendance necessary? It was incumbent on the right honourable gentleman to show the necessity of this new court that he was setting up. He certainly did not wish to insinuate any thing unpleasant to her majesty, or to wound her feelings unnecessarily in any degree; but it was impossible for him not to perceive, and, perceiving, it was proper for him to state, that the additional expense was coupled with this court; because all that part of it which related to the lords of the bed-chamber was not necessary. He wished to know whether all this additional state was to be an abridgement of so much of what it had been usual for the kings of this country to receive on their particular appointments to the executive power. He wished to abstain from giving a direct opposition to any part of the right honourable gentleman's plan; but he confessed himself anxious to consider it in detail, and he could not help thinking that this was a subject that could not be too clearly or perspicuously arranged and understood, previously to the prince regent's full assumption of all the functions of royalty. Mr. Sheridan said, that he was induced to say a few words to the house in consequence of something which had fallen from the right honourable gentleman (Mr. Perceval), in answer to a question put by his right honourable friend (Mr. Ponsonby). His right honourable friend had inquired, whether it was the intention of the chancellor of the exchequer to bring forward any measure bearing reference to the arrears due to the prince of Wales, arising out of the revenues of the duchy of Cornwall? The answer of that right honourable gentleman had, indeed, surprised him. It stated that he had not referred to these arrears, and that he did not propose to bring forward any mention of a claim, the justice of which he was known to have always controverted. In this opinion, he believed, the right honourable gentleman was rather singular. In the year 1802, the general sense of the house was understood to be decisively in favour of the validity and legality of the prince's claims. In 1803, a message was received from his majesty, recommending the state of his royal highness's affairs to the consideration of the house. From what passed on this occasion, the right honourable gentleman says he conceived that the claims of the prince were finally relinquished. He (Mr. Sheridan) had reason to believe that an impression to this effect was pretty prevalent out of doors. He had himself met with it in various quarters. He was on this account the more desirous that the true circumstances of the case should be made known. The right honourable gentleman, he strongly apprehended, had derived his belief, with respect to the prince's non-assertion of his claims at the latter period (1803), from the loose reports of the debates in that house, contained in the Annual Register, instead of consulting that register of original documents, the journals on the table. In that publication it was stated that his royal highness had made a surrender of his claims, in contradiction to which he would quote the message from the prince, which message had been delivered to the house by Mr. Tyrwhitt, and was consequently recorded on their journals. No renunciation, he again asserted, had ever been made on the part of his royal highness, because such renunciation must |