should ever occur, application was to be made to parliament. Had that application ever been made? No; and the reason was obvious: ministers had had recourse to a contingent fund, out of which they discharged the arrears, of which contingent fund parliament had not, at the time when the former bill passed, the remotest conception. Would it at that time have been believed, that the arrear would amount, during nine years, to the enormous sum annually of 124,0007? How did it come out that such was the fact?-Not in any regular official way, but by a sidewind, when the present bill was brought forward. Parliament now, without the least information, was called to vote that this arrear of 124,000. was absolutely necessary; and the house would remember, that if it did not amount to that sum legislative interference was unnecessary. Ministers insisted that it must be incurred, but no provision was made for it. Some honourable members felt a reluctance in voting against the bill, because the principle of it was, they said, to provide for the care of his majesty's person. He denied that such was the principle-it was the title of the bill, it was true, but the title and the contents were as much at variance as the two sides of the house. If he were asked, whether there was any necessity for the measure, for the purpose of providing fitly for the afflicted sovereign, undoubtedly he should reply directly in the negative. Were the anxiety and affection of the prince regent not to be confided in? If he were fit to assure the reins of government, surely it would not be denied that he was competent to the care of his father. If indeed he were asked, what the real principles of the bill

were, he should say that it was a bill to create and support a separate influence-which might be employed in a manner insulting to the regent, and injurious to the country. But upon this his right honourable friend (Mr. Tierney) had dwelt with so much ability, and had placed the subject in so strong and clear a light, that he could scarcely add a word without weakening what had been said. He had strong objections to the principle of the bill; and before he could consent to the speaker's leaving the chair, there were many things which he hoped to hear explained. At all events, therefore, he wished the postponement of this question.

The chancellor of the exchequer began by observing, that the honourable member who had just sat down ascribed to him (the chancellor) a disinclination to give any explanation on the present question, though he knew not upon what grounds, or with what justice, such an accusation could be maintained. He had been actuated, indeed, in the silence which he had hitherto maintained, not by any wish to refuse such information as he was enabled to afford, but by the very express purpose of giving, at once, as complete an answer to what might, be urged in objection as he could. Here the honourable gentleman went into an elaborate vindication of the bill, and concluded with asking, Was it to be believed, that if the prince regent thought there was any thing insulting or distrustful in the provisions of the present bill, he would have permitted those in his service to have come down to that house and claim from it all the sanction that was due to such a measure so introduced?-or, if they had done so, is it to be supposed that there was any thing in the na

ture of the restrictions imposed upon his royal highness, that for a moment precluded him from dismissing such persons from his service and that too within a fortnight of the termination of the restrictions? But so far was he (Mr. P.) from thinking that he had taken a course invidious towards his royal highness, he was confident that if he had proposed to place his royal highness in that most invidious situation in which he was now told he ought to have been placed, that he would have had many of those gentlemen on the other side exclaim. ing loudly against it, as a scheme to throw an odious and invidious office upon his royal highness. He (Mr. P.) had proposed to the house what he thought to be the best, and what he feared gentlemen, as long as they sat on the other side, would always think the worst; but he left it confidently to the house and the country to decide between them. Mr. Perceval next adverted to the objections founded upon the creation of a double court. What, he asked, was this second court? what, after all, was this mighty source of alarm? This great court, big with so many momentary terrors to the gentlemen opposite, it was made up of four lords of the bedchamber, a groom of the stole, and all the pages (a laugh). He repeated it and even all the pages (a laugh). The pages, surely, were not to be overlooked, when gentlemen were gravely considering the awful accession of parliamentary influence this second court would acquire by vir tue of this bill. But, seriously, did gentlemen forget that the establishment of this second court, if it could be called a court, was incidental to the very nature of the arrangement which seemed to be admitted upon all sides as necessary? If they ap

prove of the arrangement, how could they object to one of its essential parts? He trusted that they did not carry their constitutional alarms so far as to fear that the constitution itself was so nicely balanced, that four lords of the bedchamber could overturn it, even though all the pages were thrown into the scale.

Several other members spoke pro and con; after which there was a majority of 82 for going into the committee. During the debates on the several parts of the bill, the principle having been admitted, Mr. Adam said, a considerable deal of reference had been made to some peculiarities in the situation of the prince regent, which some gentlemen called honourable obligations, and to which others gave the real term, debts. It was of very little importance, however, what denomination was applied to them. From the year 1795, his royal highness had not been in the course of managing his own affairs; but the course was, when an account was not paid after the lapse of a quarter, that the person claiming it should give ten days notice to the proper officer, and if he failed to give such notice, the demand could not afterwards be recovered; or if the officer neglected to give it in, he himself became liable to pay it. It was impossible that in such an establishment things could go on with such strictness as this; and it was an additional trait in his royal highness's honourable character, that he would not suffer any persons to be sufferers by omissions such as these. It so happened that in 1803 there were debts which could not be liquidated; and at the same time three times 60,0001. were given to his royal highness by anticipation. There were a number of obligations of honour due by his royal highness;

one

one of them being a debt to the elector of Hesse, or, as it was then called, the foreign loan. One half of these were to be paid by commissioners appointed for the purpose; and the other half, being an obligation of honour, his royal highness took on himself. There were a number of creditors, from whose accounts a deduction of ten per cent. was taken by the persons appointed to investigate them. From many this deduction was properly made, and from others not. But his royal highness thought himself in honour bound to pay this to them all. It was at this time clearly understood that his income was to suffer no defalcation, but that a certain proportion of it was to be applied in payment of his debts. The income tax had then ceased; but being soon after renewed, by the strict letter of the law his royal highness became subject to the property tax, by which means 12,000l. a year of that fund, which his officers had calculated upon for the discharge of his debts, was swallowed up, and produced a considerable embarrassment. In these circumstances they went on for two or three years; and in the year 1808 or 1809 there were other demands of a personal nature which fell on his royal highness; and he, anxious to save the public from any fresh burthen on account of his family in a time of war, himself discharged this obligation, to the amount of 49,0001. These different sums, and which he had no idea he should have been called on to pay, amounted to 175,0001. These were assets which his royal highness had a right to calculate on, and which would have gone a considerable length in the payment of his debts. There was, however, another pecujarity in the situation of his royal ghness. He lived in a royal

palace, and for his house, unlike all other royal palaces, he had been obliged to pay taxes and other burthens, even where the furniture was not his own, to the amount of upwards of 4,000l. a year. He had even laid out sums of money in repairing and beautifying what was really a royal palace. These sums in the whole would go nearly to the full payment of all the debts of his royal highness, excluding the foreign claims. Up to the year 1809 his royal highness had paid 12,000!. a year to the princess of Wales, and from that time he had increased it to 17,000. So that the amount of his obligations at this moment exceeded 53,000l. a year; and in the situation in which his royal highness was now placed, having to step from prince of Wales to prince regent, his first wish was, that those obligations of honour should not be defeated, while at the same time as little additional burthen as possible was thrown on the country. If there was a measure calculated to effect this object, he (Mr. Adam) thought the present was that mea, sure. From 16 to 17,0001. a year additional was necessary to liquidate all these demands; and his royal highness could not, in these circumstances, propose to hand over to the civil list a greater sum than 50,000l. a year. He was hopeful, however, that the affairs of the civil list might after this be carried on without any additional burthen to the country. The prince of Wales made no additional charge on the public on his own account. Supposing for a moment he were to give up the 70,0007; if he were to come to parliament, and ask of them as he did before; if he addressed himself ad verecundiam to gentlemen, he could not doubt that they would think it proper that the

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whole amount of his royal highness's debts should be paid. He (Mr. Adam) could say, that it was not the intention of his royal highness to set up his claim on account of Cornwall; but, to his mind, it formed a strong feature in his royal highness's case. Taking all the sums he has expended, and by which he has improved the royal palaces; all the sums he has paid, which never prince before paid, amounting to upwards of 300,0007. besides his claim on account of Cornwall, on which subject anxious and deliberate opinions had been given, all in his royal highness's favour, by a lord chancellor of England, a lord chancellor of Ireland, and a chief justice of the court of common pleas;--when these things were considered, and when his royal highness came and asked of parliament only to enable him to fulfil the honourable obligations he had entered into; he (Mr. Adam) asked, ought not such a claim to pass not only as necessary, but by acclamation? He (Mr. Adam) was one of the persons by whom the trust to which he had alluded was formed; and he could say, not only had it not been impeded, but it had been accelerated by his royal highness. From his own property of Cornwall, about 60,0007. had been received, all of which had gone in discharge of his royal highness's debts, except 30007. Of these he (Mr. Adam) himself had sent 10007. to one, another 10007. to a second, and the third 10007. to a third object of liberality, which did honour to the heart of his royal highness. Of the trustces by whom his royal highness's affairs were managed, he should say nothing. The house would form their own judgement on that head. Besides himself, (Mr. Adam) they consisted

of colonel McMahon and Mr. Coutts, his royal highness's banker. He trusted they had at least acted like honest men. Mr. Adam concluded in words to the following effect: " I have now said all that is necessary to make a just impression of the situation and conduct of the prince. I trust I have done it with perfect respect and order as it regards the house, with sincerity as to the country, and fidelity to the prince. It is the last act of my parliamentary life-probably the last time I shall address you within this house; from which I am about to retire on account of the pressure of patrimonial losses, which I hope to repair by professional pursuits: but with this the house can have nothing to do. I hope, however, I may indulge that elation of mind which results from doing what is right; and that I may close a long political life with the reflection that I have honestly discharged my duty."

Mr. Brand declared, that if the matter had been introduced in the fair and candid manner in which it had now been explained, he should have been the last man in the house to have opposed it. At the same time he should infinitely prefer immediately freeing his royal highness from all embarrassments-a measure to which he could not conceive that there could be the smallest disinclination expressed either in the house or out of it.

The several clauses of the bill having been discussed, and carried by large majorities, the report was moved to be brought up on the following day (Jan. 28th); which being, put,

Mr. Brougham said he had insuperable objections to the bill now before the house, and did not think that any alterations which it might

have undergone in the committee were at all likely to obviate them. The house were doubtless now, and are, after the discussion which had taken place, aware of the real nature and complexion of this business; they were now aware that this was a bill, the object of which was to raise an additional sum of 70,0001. and this of itself was a sufficient ground for pausing, and demanding inquiry before proceeding further. His honourable friend beside him had accordingly called for inquiry and explanation, and an answer to these demands. The chancellor of the exchequer had given what he conceived to be a satisfactory explanation, but what, in his opinion, was by no means sufficient to warrant the house to come to a conclusion in favour of this money bill. How did the chancellor of the exchequer attempt to get rid of the explanation wanted? The right honourable gentleman (Mr. Perceval) was all full of offers of explanation, and of as many papers as could be wished for. It was true they did not long enjoy this pleasant dream of information; for when a right honourable friend of his, who was for der of the reality than the dreams of information, made some demands upon him, his answer at once showed that he was only ready to explain when it suited himself. But taking up this question on the ground of the right honourable gentleman, he still conceived he was entitled to explanation; and therefore he was anxious, on the very first opportunity, of meeting the right honourable gentleman upon it, and of conjuring the house to enter upon an inquiry into the whole of the grounds of the subject. The bare fact, that a new civil list was to be arranged, was sufficient to bear him up in stating, that parliament were not now enti

tied to do what they had never yet ventured to do on any former occasion,-to make an additional grant of money, and sanction an excess to the enormous amount of 120,0007. without the most strict and detailed' inquiry into the subject by a committee of the house. The explanations and speeches which had been delivered in that house, however gratifying they might be in other respects, were certainly by no means satisfactory. These speeches were the language of parties; but it was necessary to have something more than this, to have something like evidence. How very differently the house of commons had acted on former occasions! When only 60,000Z. was asked by Mr. Pitt or lord Sidmouth, no less than three select' committees were appointed, who, after the most laborious and painful investigation, laid the grounds of their opinion before the house. There were men to make speeches then as well as now. There were chancellors of the exchequer who could upon occasion state to the house the effects produced by the depreciation of the circulating medium, then as well as now. The house had all that, then as well as now; but Mr. Pitt, lord Sidmouth, and those distinguished men who composed the last administration, knew too well the duty they owed to the house, to the people, and to their sovereign, to ask the house to be satisfied with mere specches and well-turned periods in matters of arithmetical calculation. They produced the report of the committee. It was very true, that even after these reports were presented, the subject met with much opposition; and it required all the eloquence of those men afterwards to accomplish their object: but then that cloquence was more in point than at D 4 present.