and parcel out the royal authority, so as the House of the Stuarts, was now revived to leave only the chance of a government, in favour of another House. The present necessarily so impotent, as to be scarce minister, he understood, had been called able to stand at all. All limited power" an heaven-born minister," in another was, from its nature, feeble; and the cir-place; they might fairly suppose, therecumstance of its being only temporary fore, that he had a divine right to take and uncertain, rendered it still more defi- to himself a larger portion of power and cient in vigour and in efficacy. The first of patronage, than he chose to leave to the object of the bill was, to nominate a person Prince on the Throne; and when he said to hold this weak, and almost useless go- the Prince on the Throne, he begged to vernment. The next purpose which it be understood as alluding to the Prince avowed its aim to effect was, the raising a of Wales, sitting on the Throne in his depower in opposition to that royal autho-legated character, on the behalf, in the rity. Those who gave such powers, were clearly to be the masters of them, and there could no doubt remain, but that the bill was drawn with a design to answer the rash ends of the mad and daring ambition of a right hon. gentleman, whose conduct had but too plainly manifested his view and his intentions. Thus, there was a partition of power, in which the Prince was destined to have no other than an official character, while all the palaces, offices, and dignities, were given to another. This partition was more odious and offensive, than the famous Partition Treaty, relative to the succession, on the death of the last Prince of the House of Austria. It was a partition founded on the most wicked and malicious principle; every thing that was degrading and restrictive, every thing that stamped a suspicion on the character of the Prince, and conveyed a gross affront to his Royal Highness, by holding him out as a person not to be trusted, as a person whom the public ought to suspect, and were likely to be deceived by, was done by what was withholden in the bill; while, on the other hand, all that was graceful, all that was honourable, all that was calculated to hold up a character as great, virtuous, and meritorious, was given where an opposition was set up to oppose and counteract the executive government. The bill affected to give the royal authority, and tended to answer the purposes of a faction, against that authority. Its real object was, to defeat the preferable claim, of the Prince of Wales to the regency, in the very moment that the claim, in practice and effect, was found to be irresistible; and to set up what had been termed the equal right of a subject, as paramount to the Prince's right. Mr. Burke declaimed upon the purport of the bill, in the view of which he considered it, and said, that the doctrine of divine right, which had been exploded in [VOL. XXVII.] name, and as the representative of his father. But, if the minister was already declared by one of his fanatics, to be a heaven-born minister, he did not wonder at his considering himself as acting under the influence of a divine right, and that he should go any lengths to secure the power at which he aimed. By the present bill, all the powers of distributing honours, and every charity, were denied the Regent. There were employed by the household, painters, architects, historiographers, and many other artists and artificers of dif ferent degrees, ranks, orders, and descriptions, to reward whom, the Prince was deprived of every possible opportunity. He was left without a table, without any provision, which resembled the shadow of royalty, farther than what he had enjoyed as Prince of Wales from his Majesty's personal bounty. Mr. Burke added, that although he trusted that he honoured her Majesty as much as any other subject, he did not think that she ought to have that patronage. She might be nominated to hold it, but he was confident that the exercise of it would devolve into other hands. The bill was calculated to eclipse the royal dignity, and to reduce the Regent to an official character, which was a scandal to the nation, and the more so, as coming from those who were thought men of honour; and, therefore, he should consider it as a wicked, base, and unjust action, not more degrading to the Prince of Wales, than disgraceful to the perpetrators. In consequence of the bill, responsibility was given to the Prince of Wales, who was saddled by having all the onerous duties of government imposed on him, without having any grateful powers to counterbalance the burthen; while the dignity, splendor, and real distribution of emoluments, were given to the minister. The bill meant not only to degrade the Prince of Wales, but the whole House of Brunswick, who were to be outlawed, excom[4 F] municated, and attainted, as having forfeited all claim to the confidence of the country! Gentlemen might smile as they pleased at this doctrine, but the conduct of the other side of the House was reprehensible, degrading the royal family, sowing the seeds of future distractions and disunion in that family, and verging to treasons, for which the justice of their country would he trust, one day overtake them, and bring them to trial. Mr. Burke was here interrupted by a general cry from the treasury side of the House, of "Order, order!" Mr. Pitt observed, that notwithstanding the right hon. gentleman chose to indulge himself with a direct attack upon him, in the style of invective in which he was accustomed to deliver himself in that House, he seldom thought it worth his while to call him to order, or indeed to make him any answer, because his speeches, from their extraordinary style, and the peculiarly violent tone of warmth and of passion with which they were generally delivered, seldom failed to give that impression, which those to whom they were directed wished them to give; but, when the acts of the House were called in question, and a bill avowedly founded on principles which the House had sanctioned by voting them, after much discussion and debate, in the form of distinct resolutions, was represented as amounting to the outlawry, excommunication, and attainder of the whole House of Brunswick; and the House was told distinctly and unequivocally, that they were proceeding to act treasons, for which at a future day it would be overtaken by the justice of their country, and brought to trial, he did hope that the House would interpose its authority. Mr. Burke said, that whenever he used any words that were disorderly, he presumed those who thought proper to call him to order, would state what the disorderly words were, as well to convince the House that he had been disorderly, as to enable him to explain his meaning in a regular manner. With regard to the charge of passion, which the right hon. gentleman had imputed to him, he confessed that he had expressed himself with warmth, originating from a deep consideration of the great importance of the subject, and not from any censurable imbecility of temper. So far from it, it would have been censurable in him, or in any man possessed of common feeling, to have refrained from that indication of warmth which he had betrayed, when speaking of a bill, from the provisions of which, the whole House of Brunswick were expressly excluded. When he saw that, under the pretence of providing a government, there was a provision made for tumult, disorder, and debility in that government, he felt as a man, conscious of the fatal effects of such a measure, must feel, and spoke warmly and even passionately upon the subject, but that warmth and that passion, arose from a due sense of the dreadful tendency of such a provision. And when ought he to speak of it, but when they were in the act of completing that very game of ambition, of which he had complained? In considering the manner in which that game of ambition was proposed to be played, and the measures that were resorted to in order to render it successful, was he not to look to the views, intentions, and designs of those whose object it was to win the game? If, by the sort of speeches he usually made, the style of his argument, and the warmth of his delivery, he served the right hon. gentleman, the right hon. gentleman ought to be much obliged to him. Sure he was, that he did not mean to further the right hon. gentleman's objects, and certain he likewise was, that the purposes of ambitious men were best served, by concealing all inquiry into their motives and intentions, and resorting to general encomiums on their conduct. In examining a bill that tended to cause a total revolution of the splendor of the Crown, to separate it from the executive government, and to give it to other and unknown persons, he had a right to look to the private views of those who brought in such a bill. If he found that such bill, under pretence of a compliment to the King, was calculated to degrade the royal family, and to serve the purposes of ambitious men, he had an undoubted right to examine into, and question the purity of the designs and intentions of its authors. Upon what principle, therefore, of propriety or reason, or common sense, had gentlemen deemed an argument, founded in such a purpose as he had explained, a fit subject for laughter? Such laughter was worse than madness itself, and more horrible than the senseless ravings of the unfortunate wretches who were chained to their cells. Mr. Burke declared that he had not rashly nor weakly suffered his reasoning on such a subject to hurry him into warmth, and contended, that nothing he had said was deserving of laughter or of ridicule. When the House had formed themselves into a committee, he should, he hoped, show that he was able to speak with temper, and prove, to the conviction of prejudice itself, that the arguments he had, before he was interrupted, only loosely and generally thrown out, were founded in truth and seriousness, and well worthy the solemn attention of every man in the country. At present, he would only show the effects of the bill collaterally. Mr. Burke then proceeded to touch on some of the provisions in the bill, which were, he remarked, so far new to the House, that they had neither been expressed in any of the resolutions, nor opened or stated in debate. One of the first points of this sort that he alluded to was, the privy purse of his Majesty, which, from 36,000l. a year, had been increased, first to 48,000l., and had at length swelled up to 60,000l. a year. That, of which they had hitherto heard nothing, was by the bill to be withheld from the Prince of Wales, who was to have no privy purse; so that by the bill they would separate from him the table, the honour, and the hospitality belonging to royalty, and were going, for what they knew to the contrary, to create a fund for bribing members of parliament, by entrusting the queen with the care and application of such an enormous sum of money. They gave such a large sum not for what the King would have done, were he well and in health, but for her Majesty's guessing what the King would have wished to have done, were he well; while the Prince of Wales, as Regent, was neither suffered to act liberally for himself, nor to think what his royal father would have had transacted. They had heard of the Queen's girdle, the Queen's shoes, and the Queen's mantle, and other parts of her personal attire, as heads of expense under the civil list, but they had never before heard of the Queen's having an enormous sum allowed her for guessing what the King would have done, had he not been insane. The Queen might be regarded as the King's trustee for accumulation, or his trustee for distributing money to no person knew whom. The sum might be given away in pensions to support the faction, and in bribes to the members of that House. The privy purse in his Majesty's hands had been responsibly placed; ac cording to the bill, it was to be entrusted where there was no responsibility what ever. Mr. Burke next adverted to that part of the bill which comprehended the provisions for the care of the King's person, from which the Prince of Wales, he observed, was expressly excluded. Perhaps, he said, that exclusion was proper; but why were the duke of York, and the dukes of Cumberland, of Gloucester, and the rest of the royal family, excluded? Was he to be laughed at, for saying that such a general exclusion upon the face of it appeared as if the whole House of Brunswick were outlawed, excommunicated, and attainted of high treason? Had the rest of the family no interest in the preservation of the King's person? Had they expressed that they had no wish for his recovery? His Majesty's person, and his Majesty's money, what security was there for either? The language of the bill clearly was, "Oh! keep the Prince from both, and let them lie at the mercy and the will of the kites and the crows of the air!” There seemed to be no other disqualification for coming near the royal person, and having any share in the care and guardianship of the personal property of the King, but the having sprung from his royal loins. How did they know but so large a sum as the amount of the King's privy purse, which his Majesty, had he been sane, might have consented to reduce to its former amount, in alleviation of his over-burthened civil list, was intended to be given to jobbers and monied men, to bribe them to adhere to the faction set up in opposition, and as a place of arms against the executive Government? Was he, then, to be laughed at, for saying, that by the bill, the House of Brunswick were excluded, proscribed, and attainted? The next part of the Bill which struck him as most extraordinary and highly objectionable, was that clause which gave the Queen's council the power to pronounce his Majesty recovered, and restore him to his government. An exclamation of Hear, hear! coming from the other side of the House, Mr Burke said, gentlemen act wisely in endeavouring to prevent what would follow from being heard, but he would repeat the expression. The powers given to the Queen's council to pronounce his Majesty recovered, and restore him to the exercise of his royal authority, were most extraordinary. The clause did not even specify of what number of the Queen's council those | have recovered his intellects. He maingifted with so extraordinary a power were tained the difficulty of getting a man to consist. That was to be provided for to swear, that a person who had lost his by the filling up of a blank.,Parliament understanding, was restored and in his had been deemed competent, to dethrone senses, compared with the ease of proa sovereign; but, when they came to the curing a man, from the conduct and conreturn of a king, to the exercise of his versation of another, to swear that he was royal functions, the whole power was out of his senses. He urged the utter given to a council, to consist of no person impossibility of bringing it to proof, wheknew whom. Mr. Burke declared, he ther a person who had been insane, was would, for the present, touch but on some perfectly recovered or not. What was few of the heads of this monster, and that likely to be the natural conduct of a peras shortly as possible. They had declared son so happily restored? Undoubtedly, the King incapable of exercising his royal his first object would be to revive those authority, after a full and solenin exami- domestic feelings, dearest to the human nation of his Majesty's physicians, but, heart. Were the King to recover, and whether he was to be deemed capable of had it in his power, would he not, on the resuming the exercise of the royal autho- restoration of his intellects, first call rity or not, was not to depend on any ex- his dearest son the Prince of Wales, into amination had by them. Before his Ma- his presence? Would he not next ask jesty had been declared incapable by par- for his next son the duke of York, and the liament, and before they had acted on rest of the royal progeny? Did the Bill that declaration of incapacity, his Ma- provide for this? No The whole was jesty's physicians had undergone four se- to be done in a blind manner, in the dark, parate, solemn, and scrupulous examina- and in a way most liable to suspicion. tions; one before the privy council, two The whole was a scheme, under the prebefore that House, and one upon oath be- tence of pronouncing his Majesty refore the other House. Thus parliament covered, to bring back an insane king. had exercised all its own powers of inves- Those who conceived, that the proof of a tigation, and superadded those of another man having recovered his understanding, of great authority. Why was there not was to depend on affidavits and entries, to be at least as scrupulous an examina- forgot that a sound king naturally courted tion of his Majesty's health, when a mo- public inspection, and was desirous of be tion of so much importance as his re-ing examined, and that his recovery should suming his authority was to be decided? be established to the conviction of his Out of personal delicacy and respect, the subjects. House had proceeded carefully to examine into and ascertain the fact of his Majesty's incapacity, before they grounded any proceeding upon it; and was it less important, less necessary, when the question was, whether the country was to be governed by a person in his senses or not, that the fact should be at least as correctly ascertained with respect to his Majesty's recovery? As the bill stood, until her Majesty should think fit to assert that the King was well, the people were not to know it. If the council were ministerial and if his Majesty were well enough to sit in a chair at the head of that council, the Bill provided that he should be declared capable. This was putting the whole power of changing the government into the hands of Dr. Willis and his keepers. A person who had been insane, might, he contended, be so subdued by coercion and severity, as to be capable of being prevailed on to act the farce appointed him, of appearing for a short period to Mr. Burke reiterated his objections to the Bill, and laid great stress on the circumstance of the House of Brunswick being excluded from any share of the guardianship of the King's person. He declared he did not suspect the Queen of being capable of acting improperly; but, as a public man, it was his duty to suspect situations and temptations, that might pervert the purest mind, and draw it aside from the straight path of rectitude, and thus render her Majesty the tool of ambitious men. He reprobated the Bill on account of its malevolent aspect, in excluding the House of Brunswick, and for its malicious attempt to guard against evils from a quarter, whence none were expected to come, and laying a quarter open, whence they were most to be dreaded. The House, he said, had proceeded step after step, and been led on to do that, which, if proposed altogether, would, he was persuaded, have been rejected by every man of honour. Like Macbeth, who, after having mur dered Duncan and Banquo, exclaimed, -I am in blood Stept in so far, that, should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o’er——— they found themselves inclined to proceed, from not daring to trace back their steps. Mr. Burke added, that he had thought it necessary to throw out this preliminary series of loose remarks, not doubting but if they were cooly and seriously attended to, they would call forth those of men of greater abilities than himself, and that like the man who first raised a spark, he should see that spark kindle into a flame hereafter. He added some farther general remarks on the Bill, and declared, that he had done what he intended, namely, laid open briefly the provisions of the Bill, that he should be authorized hereafter to compare those provisions with the declared principles on which the Bill had been ordered to be brought in, and to compare those principles back again with the provisions, and he did not doubt, but sooner or later, gentlemen would feel in their own breast as he felt. Before he sat down, Mr. Burke took notice of a charge, which, he said, had been brought against him, of having attacked a noble duke, for declaring in the other House, that the minister was a heaven-born minister. He had heard through the public prints, that such an expression had been made use of in the other House of Parliament, but he had not been present at the time or in the place himself. A minister who was heaven-born, certainly might plead a divine right, and to a divine right he should always bow; they had, before this, heard of heaven-born monarchs; and a heaven-born minister, he was persuaded, was soon likely to become a heaven-born monarch. Mr. Gamon said, that his noble relation, the duke of Chandos, in the course of debate, had adverted to an expression used by lord Chatham, who, once speaking of lord Clive, had termed him a heaven-born general, and had remarked that when the Hourishing state, to which the present Chancellor of the Exchequer had restored the revenue of the country were considered, he thought the term of a heavenborn minister was as fairly applicable to him, as that of a heaven-born general had been to lord Clive. The Bill was read a second time, and ordered to be committed to-morrow. Feb. 7. The House resolved itself into + a Committee on the Regency Bill. When the clause was read, by which it is enjoined, that the Regent shall bind himself by oath, to take care of the personal safety of the King to the utmost of his power and ability, and to govern according to the stipulations and restrictions recited in the bill, Mr. Burke said, that when he compared this clause with another in the same bill, he felt a persuasion that the framers of it intended it not only as a mockery of the Prince of Wales, but as an insult to common sense; for he found that the Prince, who was not to be entrusted with the custody of the royal person, was to swear that he would protect it; whilst those who were in fact to have the care of his Majesty, were not to be called upon to give any pledge whatever for the faithful discharge of the trust committed to them. He admitted that it was unlikely the person of the King should be in any danger from the Queen; but it was just as unlikely that there should be any cause for apprehension of danger to him from his son; and therefore both or neither should be bound to give the security of an oath for the protection of the royal person. As the Bill then stood, common sense must revolt at it; for the person who was actually to have the care of his Majesty, was left free from all engagements relative to the safety of the King; and the Regent, who was to have no power over his Majesty's person, was to swear that he would take care of him! Nay, the very persons who were to be appointed counsellors to the Queen, were not to enter into any engagement of this nature; for the oath which they were to take, was totally silent on this head, as appeared from the form of it, which he read as follows: "I A. B. do solemnly promise and swear, that I will truly and faithfully counsel and advise the Queen's most excellent Majesty, according to the best of my judgment, in all matters touching the care of his Majesty's royal person, and the disposing, ordering and managing all things relating thereto. So help me God." In this oath, Mr. Burke observed, there was not one word about the personal safety of the royal person; and though these counsellors were to be appointed to advise her Majesty touching the care of the King, they were not bound by the oath to consult the safety of his person in the advice that they should give. Thus was the |