THE

great concern which OCcupied the attention of parliament, and excited the public interest, at the commencement of this year, was the supplying of that deficiency in the executive branch of the government which the continued mental indisposition of his Majesty had created. After repeated adjournments of parliament by the ministers, in hopes of a favourable turn in the King's malady, it appeared no longer possible to avoid the measure of form ing a regency; and the chancellor of the exchequer, Mr. Perceval, on December 20th, moved in the house of commons three resolutions, copied from those of Mr. Pitt on the like occurrence in 1788-9; the first, declarative of VOL. LIII.

the present incapacity of the Sovereign; the second, of the competency of the two houses of parliament to supply that incapacity; and the third, that the proper mode of doing it would be by bill. of these, the 1st passed unanimously; the 2nd with the single negative of Sir Francis Burdett; but on the 3rd, Mr. Ponsonby moved an amendment, That an address should be presented to the Prince of Wales, praying him to take upon himself the office of Regent. On this motion a division took place, in which the amend ment was rejected, the votes for it being 157, against it 269, majority for the minister 112. In the house of lords the same resolutions were proposed, and carried [B]

for the issue of sums of money for the service of the army and navy. They give a copy of the oath of office taken by them, the tenor of which they conceive prohibitory of their complying with the requi

sition made to them.

After the house had resolved itself into a committee for the discussion of this matter, the chancellor of the exchequer made a speech introductory to the following motion" That it is the opinion of this committee, that it is necessary, in the exigencies of the present conjuncture, that, until due provision shall be made for supplying the defect in the royal authority, such sums as have been appropriated for the services of the navy and army, by the act of last session of parliament, and other acts for enabling his Majesty to raise three millions, should be issued, in conformity with said acts accordingly; and that it is expedient that the lords commissioners of his Majesty's treasury should be required to issue their warrants to the auditor of the exchequer, for the payment of such sums as the exigency may render necessary; and that the said auditor and officers of the exchequer are authorized and commanded to pay obedience to the warrant in this be half, and to pay such sums as appear necessary, according to the warrant of any three or more of the lords commissioners of the treasury, which they may issue

from time to time."

A long debate ensued, in which the members of opposition argued that the exigency of the case arose from the delays of the ministry in supplying the deficiency in the royal authority, and that the mode

proposed of getting over the difficulty was an assumption of the executive power by the two houses of parliament, for which they had no authority. The question being at length called for, several amendments were proposed, the tendency of which was to limit the sums to be drawn by the treasury, and to ensure their application. These were all negatived, and the question was carried without a division: the report was then brought up, and ordered to be communicated to the lords.

On January 5th, the resolutions of the commons being brought up to the lords, produced a debate, opened on the part of ministers by the Earl of Liverpool. He was followed by Lord Grenville, who declared that he was still of opinion, that the ministers in this business had acted in a manner as injurious to the real interests of the country, and as subversive of the principles of the constitution, as it was possible for them to have done. After various observations concerning the law with respect to issues from the treasury, and the illegality of the act required from himself, he concluded that it was the duty of parliament to relieve. the country from its present difficulties in as short a time as possible, during the crippled state of the executive government. He said, he meant to accede to the resolution proposed to their lordships, because he felt the inconvenience of delaying the issuing of public money; but he condemned in the highest degree the conduct of those by whom the necessity had been created.

The lord chancellor, in answer to those who might ask why he had