the behalf of the King, during the continuance of his Majesty's present indisposition.'

On the reading of the third resolution, an amendment was moved by Mr. Ponsonby to the following effect:

'That a humble address be presented to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, requesting that his Royal Highness will be pleased to take upon him during the indisposition of the King, and no longer, the government of this realm; and administer the same in the name and in the behalf of his Majesty, under the style and title of Regent of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.'

This amendment was lost by a majority of 112, but it had the special tendency of exposing the views of the Prince's party, as it was supported by those members who were known to stand the highest in the confidence and favour of his Royal Highness; and, further, it had the untoward effect of arousing the vigilance of the ministerial party in regard to the support of the restrictions, which were shortly to be submitted to the consideration of parliament.

On the same day, in the House of Peers, the question of the resolutions was agitated in a cursory way, owing to some questions put by Lord Holland, respecting the course intended to be pursued by the existing administration; but it was not until the 27th, that the resolutions were formally moved by the Earl of Liverpool, and which drew from the Duke of Sussex one of the most virulent speeches against ministers which had ever been pronounced upon the subject. It arose in support of the following amendment to the third resolution moved by Lord Holland.

That his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, being of mature age, be requested to take upon himself the exercise of the powers and authorities of the crown, in the name and on the behalf of the King, during the continuance of his Majesty's present indisposition, and no longer.'

That an address, founded on this resolution, be presented to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, requesting him to take upon himself the government aforesaid; and that it be at

the same time, and in the same manner, communicated to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, that it is further the opinion of this committee, that it will be expedient to abstain from the exercise of all such powers as the immediate exigencies of the state shall not call into action, until parliament shall have passed a bill or bills for the future care of his Majesty's royal person, during his Majesty's present indisposition, and the securing to his Majesty, whenever it shall please Divine Providence to restore his health, the resumption of his royal authority.

Our limits will not allow us to give verbatim the manly speech of his Royal Highness, but the following detached parts will fully exhibit its genuine tone and temper.

My Lords, if I understand anything of the constitution of my country, the ministers of the Sovereign are a set of men whom the King calls to his councils, and therefore are they styled his confidential servants. They are to take the pleasure of their Sovereign, to advise him upon all matters wherein the welfare and interests of his people are concerned, to the best of their knowledge and judgment, for which they are responsible to parliament. In consequence of their representations, his Majesty commands them how to act; and for the execution of these royal commands, they are equally amenable to the grand tribunal of the empire.

Now, then, my Lords, are we to allow ourselves to be persuaded, dare those ministers assert, that they have acted as they would have advised their royal master, whom they have not seen for these last eight weeks, with whom they have had no personal communication, who has no free will of his own, and who is separated from all the tenderest ties of nature? My Lords, if these late courageous ministers have acted, they have usurped a power which they have no right to exercise. If they have been frightened-if they have hesitated-if they have stumbled, and not acted, why then, my Lords, they are equally treasonable for allowing the magistracy of royalty to be suspended for such a length of time; which is a situation the constitution can never know, and, of course, can never

acknowledge. It is a shock the most dreadful, the most deadly, the constitution has ever received since the period of the Revolution.

'My Lords, the Sovereign is a sole corporation; he never dies; he enjoys a political immortality. In attempting, therefore, the destruction of this grand constitutional principle, these late ministers of his Majesty have committed a regicide act against the magistracy of royalty.

'My Lords, I hear of restrictions in the regency. I say my Lords, these restrictions cannot, must not be. If you feel the necessity of a regent, he must have full powers, and not be the very mummery or mockery of royalty; which is the system ministers are anxious to adopt. He must be, my Lords, an efficient magistrate, with those prerogatives which the common law of England assigns to a king, and which the people of the United Kingdom have a right to demand. The law has frequently provided a remedy of a regency for the infancy of our kings. So if a king should fall into such an unfortunate situation as assimilates him to that position, then the estates of the realm may, upon the parity of the case, seek the remedy provided for an infant, and lodge the power in a regent. And as, in the weakness of infancy, a prince regent has always, in law, had the same power with the king, who has not, or, from misfortunes, cannot have a will, therefore, the Regent's will is the same as the King's will, and consequently the power ought, and must be the same-but with this security, that, in the exercise of his important functions, the right of the Sovereign is owned by the Regent to remain in the King, and that he becomes the crown guardian of those rights.

Feeling as I do at this moment, my Lords, I cannot conclude otherwise than by imploring your Lordships to pay your most serious attention to a subject in which the vital parts of our constitution are concerned, and in quoting the words of a late learned Lord who filled the woolsack at the former and similar momentous period of 1788-" May God forget me, if I forget my King !"-and to which pious and fervent ejaculation I must further add with equal devotion-May God

forget me, if I forget the constitution of this country!—that constitution which placed my family upon the throne of these realms; that constitution which has been long our pride, and the envy of all surrounding nations; and, for the want of which blessing, they have all been confounded into one horrible mass of anarchy, ruin and despair, while we stand secure of revolutions, firm as a rock; as a great beacon of civil, constitutional, and religious liberty, in the midst of a subjugated and desolated world; that constitution for which my family have pledged themselves to live and die.’

The Duke of York followed on the same side; but his speech, in point of argument, was merely an echo of some of the sentiments so ably expressed by his royal brother.

We are now arrived at the important point of the celebrated restrictions which were imposed on the Prince of Wales, as Regent; and which, although accepted of, and acted under, were well known not to be very palatable to his Royal Highness, nor agreeable to those who expected to profit by the exercise of an unlimited power. On the 31st of December, the House of Commons, after a conference with the Lords, resolved itself into a Committee of the whole House, on the state of the nation, when the Chancellor of the Exchequer rose and stated, that the resolutions declaring the King's incapacity to exercise the royal functions having been agreed to by the Lords, it now remained for the Commons to consider of the measures that were proper to be adopted, to supply the defect in the executive government. He then stated, it would be his duty to submit a proposition to the House, calling upon his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales to take upon himself the exercise of the royal authority, subject to certain restrictions in the use of it, and which restrictions it was intended should be limited in point of duration. He would propose, in the first place, that the Regent should not have the power of creating peers; in the second, that he should be debarred from granting places or pensions for life; and the third restriction would apply to making provision for the custody of

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his Majesty's person, which he would propose, should be confided to the Queen, and a council nominated to assist her.. He, therefore, accordingly moved the first resolution as follows:

'Resolved, That for the purpose of providing for the exercise of the royal authority, during the continuance of his Majesty's illness, in such manner, and to such extent, as the present circumstances and the urgent concerns of the nation appear to require, it is expedient that his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, being resident within the realm, shall be empowered to exercise and administer the royal authority, according to the laws and constitution of Great Britain, in the name and on behalf of his Majesty, all authorities, prerogatives, acts of government, and administration of the same, that belong to the King of this realm to use, execute, and perform, according to the law thereof, subject to such limitations and exceptions as shall be provided,'

Having entered fully into the principles of that resolution he proceeded to read the following ones,

'Resolved, That the care of his Majesty's royal person, during the continuance of his Majesty's illness, shall be committed to the Queen's most excellent Majesty; and that her Majesty shall have the power to remove from, and to nominate and appoint such persons as she shall think proper, to the several offices in his Majesty's household; and to dispose, order and manage all other matters and things relating to the care of his Majesty's royal person, during the time aforesaid; and that, for the better enabling her Majesty to discharge this important task, it is also expedient that a council shall be appointed to advise and assist her Majesty in the several matters aforesaid; and with power, from time to time, as they may see cause, to examine, upon oath, the physicians and others attending his Majesty's person, touching the state of his Majesty's health, and all matters relating thereto.

Resolved, That the power so to be given to his Royal High