presumption in him to undertake the task. He should certainly feel uneasy at the idea of such a task being placed in his hands, if any ability were wanting to stir up the feelings of the House or of the country on the present occasion. Every one, however, who possessed the feelings of an Englishman, must concur in sentiments of abhorrence against such a deed as that which had been recently perpetrated (Hear!)-a deed disgusting to every man of common feeling, revolting to the first emotions of nature, and, happily, almost unheard of in this country. If any thing more were wanting to induce the House to concur in the proposition which it was his duty to submit to them, let them recollect the private virtues of the right hon. gentleman who was now unfortunately no more, and of whose services the country had been deprived by so abominable and diabolical an act. The House were called on to consider, that by this act one of the servants of the public had lost his life, and that too on account of a conscientious discharge of his public duty, by which he had drawn on himself the revenge of his assassin. It was his lordship's duty to mention to the House, that after the best consultation which Government had been enabled to hold on the subject, they had the satisfaction to find that the atrocious. act proceeded in consequence of an insulated fact unconnected with any public system of Government; and that whatever reproach the commission of such an offence might be supposed to bring on the national character, the act itself was confined to the individual by whom it was perpetrated. This being the case, he had only to call on the House to take into their consideration what it was proper and becoming in them to do in the case of a servant of the Crown, who had been deprived of his life for a conscientious discharge of his public duty. He was certain that in a case of this kind all political animosity must subside, and that gentlemen would look only to the fact before them: that no man would feel it an abandonment of his own principles, however opposite they might have been to those of his right hon. friend, nor any impeachment of his own sincerity in opposing him, that he now concurred in the present Address in favour of the family of his right hon. friend, now no more. It was to be recollected that his right hon. friend had left a lucrative profession, to the head of which, with his abilities, he was sure of rising, for the service of the public-feeling it to be his duty not to refuse

himself to the service of his country. His lordship knew that his right hon. friend had reluctantly been drawn from the prosecution of his professional avocations; and whatever difference there might be among gentlemen in that House, as to the services rendered by his right hon. friend to the public, yet it could not be denied that, but for the conscientious discharge of his public duty, his family would still continue to be blessed with the protection of so good a father. Whatever difference of opinion there might have been between his right hon. friend and some gentlemen in that House, he was convinced there was not one who did not give him credit for the sincerity of his principles, and for the conciliating nature of his disposition at all times. An enemy to his right hon. friend, as an individual, he was convinced could not be found. He was, from all these considerations, induced to anticipate that there would be no opposition to the grant which he should afterwards have to propose. He held it to be a public principle, that so long as persons were the servants of the Crown, unless they had done something to deprive them of that sanction, they were to be considered as under the protection of Parliament; and if they, in the discharge of their public duty, incurred the resentment of malignant individuals, there would on all such occasions be a disposition in Parliament to support them. In doing so his lordship thought the House was only discharging, in the strictest sense, what they owed to the country. The motion which he should now have to submit to the House, should only go to recognise the prin ciple, that the House would enable his royal highness the Prince Regent to make such provision for the family of his right hon. friend as should seem to the House to be necessary and consistent. As to the extent of the grant, that he should propose on a future day. His object should be, that the different branches of the family of his right hon. friend should be protected individually against poverty; and with this view, in framing the grant, he should propose to make the amount of the grant the subject of distribution among the family, but that it should not fall on the death of any of the individuals. He hoped it would be so settled that not an individual of the name of his right hon. friend should be suffered to be in distress: peculiar attention being at the same time paid, as far as in the House lay, to secure the comfort of the widow of his right hon. friend, whose happiness in this world might in a greater measure be sup

posed to be closed by the late atrocious act (Hear, hear!) The noble lord was greatly affected throughout his speech, and concluded by moving an Address to the Prince Regent, expressive of the abhorrence of the House at the atrocious murder of the late right hon. Spencer Perceval; their desire to mark the sense they entertained of his public services, by affording every assistance to his distressed and afflicted family; and that they will take the necessary measures to enable his royal highness to make provision for them accordingly.

Mr. Ponsonby felt the greatest anxiety to have it in his power to second the motion now submitted to the House, thinking, as he did, that the interest and character of the country and the honour of the House were concerned, in shewing that there was no difference of opinion on such a subject as the present; but that men of every description, and of every political sentiment, concurred in expressing the most marked indignation at such an atrocious act as that which had so recently been perpetrated. One of the greatest privileges enjoyed in this country was the freedom of expressing our opinion upon all subjects; but if such horrid acts were to be perpetrated, this country could be considered as little better than those where despotism prevailed. (Hear, hear!) Happily the noble lord had been able to state that the national character was not implicated, and that the atrocious act did not extend beyond the unhappy criminal who had been vile enough to perpetrate it. (Hear, hear !) Whatever differences of opinion might exist on any one subject, every man had a right to entertain his own opinions, to express what he felt, and to act accordingly and if any man was to suffer for a conscientious discharge of his duty, there was not a man in England who was not bound to assert the principle, that he was entitled to be protected, and that the House was bound, as far as the nature of the case would admit of, to remunerate his family for the loss they might have sustained. The noble lord had said, that the House ought to be liberal. He (Mr. Ponsonby) was convinced that there was not a man of common feeling or humanity in the country, who did not think that they ought to be so. As to the mode of distribution, that was a question for a future day; but he perfectly agreed in the principle suggested by the noble lord on that head, and that there should not be a branch of the right honourable gentleman's family, not one bearing the name of Perceval, VOL. III.-1812. 1

who should not be provided for-(hear, hear!) There was, perhaps, no man in that House, or in the country, who more completely differed from the right honourable gentleman in many points, and those too, points of importance, than he (Mr. Ponsonby) did. He did not know a man, however, of whose sense of honour he had a higher opinion, or for whom he had a greater personal affection. (Hear, hear!) He did not believe there ever was a man of more worth(hear, hear!) nor one who, in the various relations of husband, father, friend, was more eminently distinguished. (Hear, hear! while the emotions of the right honourable gentleman were such, as for a few moments to deprive him of the power of utterance.) It was not in the power of that House, or of the country, to compensate the family of the right honourable gentleman for the irreparable loss they had sustained; but they ought to resolve to make up for the loss, at least as far as they could, and to render the remainder of the lives of his family comfortable. (Hear, hear!)

The motion being put

Mr. Canning hoped that it would be unnecessary in him to offer any apology to the House, if even after the just and eloquent tribute which had been already paid to the memory of Mr. Perceval, he was still anxious to offer the expression of his full and cordial concurrence in every part of those acknowledgments. (Hear, hear!) However incompetent he might be to add any observations worthy of the deceased, or of the attention of the House, he trusted that he should be excused if for a few moments he indulged that anxiety. It was some consolation in the midst of that grief in which all participated, that he had only to join in the unanimous desire of bearing testimony to the virtues and talents of a man whose loss all parties agreed in deploring, and of whom it might with peculiar truth be said, that whatever was the strength and extent of political hostility, he had never, before the last calamity, provoked against himself a private enemy. (Hear, hear!) It was due to departed character to say, that no man could entertain opinions without feeling his confidence in their truth and justness increased, by finding them in unison with his; or differ from him in political sentiments, without acknowledging that his errors were the errors of a virtuous mind-(hear, hear!) No man who had happened to be joined with, and afterwards separated from him, but was truly sensible of the gra

tification which never failed to result from acting in concert with him. It must, however, furnish a great consolation to him and to the House, to be informed by the noble lord (Castlereagh) that the crime which had robbed them of the life and services of Mr. Perceval, appeared upon investigation to be confined to the individual perpetrator. (Hear, hear!) He thought the noble lord had done well in making this communication, because great mischief and alarm might have otherwise resulted from the misrepresentations of persons actuated by the best, as well as by the most evil principles. On the one hand, it might have been held up as an example and encouragement of practices foreign to the character, and abhorrent to the feelings of Englishmen; while on the other, it might have been regarded as the symptom of a general and prevailing spirit. He fully agreed in all that bad been said, both as to the propriety of expressing their abhorrence of the crime, which it was so painful to contemplate, and of pledging themselves to make adequate provision for an afflicted family. To that family, as well as to the country, the loss of Mr. Perceval was irreparable; but it was still in the power of the House, in some measure, to assuage the consequences to the former; and when they should call to recollection how often within the last two years they had listened to his voice, when it invited them to reward the triumphs and glories acquired abroad, it would afford a melancholy and not ungrateful pleasure to reflect, that there was at least left to them the opportunity of testifying their sense of his services, and their estimation of his merits. (Hear, hear!)

Mr. Whitbread said, having throughout been a marked and determined political antagonist of the right honourable gentleman, he did not think it would be becoming in him not to say, that he cordially concurred in granting to the family of that right honourable gentleman the only compensation for his loss which it was in the power of the House to make. That it was impossible there could be a man more distinguished for his private virtues, every person acquainted with the right honourable gentleman admitted, and was anxious to declare. Among his public virtues, the right honourable gentleman had one, which he (Mr. Whitbread) begged to mark, for the benefit and example of posterity. The right honourable gentleman had uniformly displayed a most perfect and unceasing controul of temper in that House. He (Mr. Whitbread) hoped, that beyond the door