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RIEGO'S DISGRACE.

CORTES CLOSES.

THE first session of the cortes closed on the ninth of November, when a speech was read to them in the name of the king, who, under the pretext of sickness, remained at the Escurial. Previous to their final separation, however, the cortes resolved, among many other measures strongly indicating distrust of the monarch, that three-fourths of their whole number should invariably remain at their posts, to be in readiness to counteract any scheme which might arise prejudicial to public welfare. The long and continued absence of this infatuated sovereign from the capital gave great umbrage to the populace and constitutionalists, as his motions could not be so well ascertained at the Escurial as they might be at Madrid. Nor did it appear that this jealousy was without foundation; for on the sixteenth of November, only one week after the closing of the cortes, Ferdinand being still resident at the Escurial, nominated general Carvajal to the government of New Castile, without causing the appointment to be duly countersigned, as was requi. site, by the proper ministers. The permanent deputation of the cortes, in conjunction with the municipal body of the capital, immediately met; and, whilst the whole population of the city was in a state of the utmost exasperation, they drew up and presented to his majesty a most energetic and decisive remonstrance, in which, among various other matters, they pointed out the absolute necessity of the king's residing at Madrid.

was the political state of Spain, towards whom all Europe turned its eyes with an extreme anxiety of expectation, viewing the extraordinary spectacle of a country in which the spirit of firm resistance to a faithless, cruel, and bigoted monarch had displayed itself in such an unparalleled manner, and hitherto with such successful and triumphant results. REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENTS IN PORTUGAL.

AMONG these discontented chiefs, Riego particularly distinguished himself. It had been resolved that the army of the Isle of Leon should be disbanded; and as a compensation for the loss of that military command, Riego was nominated captain-general of Gallicia. This change not suiting with the powerful ambition of his mind, he repaired to the capital to protest against the measure; but finding all his arguments and endeavours useless, and wholly failing in his remonstrances with the admi- THE neighbouring state of Portugal could not renistration, he essayed to overawe the cortes by dint main long unaffected by the eruption which had shaof his popularity with the lower orders of the peo-ken the Spanish kingdom. Similar causes produce ple, and his influence in the several political clubs similarity of effects. The removal of the monarch with which Madrid at that time abounded. Govern- and his court to the Brazils had tended to make the ment, however, acted with becoming firmness, re- nobles less loyal in their inclinings; and the comfusing to submit to a dictator: laws were enacted munity, seeing themselves as it were abandoned by to prevent the recurrence of abuses originating from the royal family, now that the necessity for their factious clubs and assemblies-several of the most exile no longer existed, were more easily swayed active rioters were subjected to punishment-and by the resident nobility; whilst the army, in addiRiego himself, being stript of his office of captain- tion to many other causes of discontent, were soregeneral, was banished to his native town of Oviedo. ly mortified by the circumstance of marshal Beresford being continued in the supreme command, and about a hundred British officers still retaining their commissions, now that the war was concluded, and during a period which promised a long continuance of peace. Marshal Beresford had sailed for Rio Janeiro in the month of April, aud during his absence the spirit of revolution first manifested it self at Oporto; which was ripened into open revolt against the authorities, under the auspices of Don Bernado Correa de Castro Sepulveda, a young nobleman, and commander of the eighteenth regiment. On the twenty-fourth of August an address was read to the regiments stationed there, inviting them to assist in the establishment of a constitutional gov ernment. This invitation was hailed by the assembled troops with loud acclamations; and subsequently, in the presence of the governor, the bishop, and the city magistrates, a provisional junto was appointed, consisting of sixteen members, charged with the government of the country until the cortes should meet. This junto, as a preliminary measure, made a declaration of their reverence for the rights and immunities of the church, and of all the constituted authorities, joined to a most devoted attachment to the monarchy established in the house of Braganza. The English officers were informed that they were to enjoy a continuance of their respective rauks and emoluments until the meeting of the cortes should take place: but they were strictly enjoined not to take any part whatever in the events then passing. On the other hand, the regency at Lisbon sent forth a proclamation, on the twenty-ninth of August, deprecating the whole of the transactions which had taken place at Operto-condemning it as an illegal conspiracy, and declaring that it was vested in the sovereign alone, the right of convoking the cortes. Ultimately discovering that the defection of the soldiery was general in all the provinces, they yielded to necessity, and published a proclamation for the speedy assem blage of the cortes.-Don Sepulveda had in the interim marched to attack count Amarante, the commander of Trosos Montes, who, finding himself abandoned by his troops, sought refuge in Gallicia; by which Sepulveda reached Coimbra unopposed, and proceeded forthwith to the capital, followed by the provisional junto. September fifteenth-a day always celebrated with military pomp by the garrison of Lisbon, as the anniversary of the deliverance of Portugal from the oppression of a foreigu yoke, in defiance of the attempts of the regency to prevent it-the sixteenth regiment mustered in the Rocio, the principal square of the metropolis, at three o'clock in the afternoon, and were speedily joined by the tenth_regiment from the castle, the fourth from Campo D'Ourique, the artillery from the Caes dos Salvados, and the cavalry from Alcantara-until both the Rocio and the Praca were filled with troops, headed by, their officers, and in full order of march. Aided by this army, the constitution was proclaimed; the regency halls were opened; and a new set of governors appointed. During these proceedings the troops remained quietly on the ground till near eleven at night, when they marched back, according to orders, to their several quarters, in the highest regularity:-and thus was this great change brought about, without the most trif ling disturbance, or slightest indication of riot. The Oporto junto entered Lisbon on the first of

In one part

of this timely address they observed-" Your majesty's absence has occasioned apprehensions that are aggravated by nominations to importaut employments, of persons notoriously opposed to the constitutional system, which your majesty has sworn to preserve, and which we are all ready to defend to the last drop of our blood. We are compelled, sire, to say, that without some public manifestation to the new institutions, of a nature to destroy every hope in their most determined enemies, confidence cannot be re-established. This manifestation, in our opinion, can be none other than your majesty's return to the midst of your children, and the immediate extraordinary convocation of the cortes."

FERDINAND RETURNS TO MADRID. THE king, in apparent compliance with this address, returned unwillingly on the twenty-first of November to the capital; and shortly after, the commands in the different provinces were, with an increased spirit of reluctance on his part, bestowed on the most violent partizans of the revolution.Among those so distinguished, the ambitious Riego was appointed captain-general of Arragon: whilst Morales, the leader of the Estremaduran disturbances, with a few of his adherents, fled for safety into Portugal; but being taken by the Portuguese, he was delivered over by them to the Spanish authorities. The army was now completely organized, and received the king's sanction: it was arranged as a peace establishment, to consist of sixty-six thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight men, which was to be doubled in the event of war. The three regi ments of Swiss soldiers were suppressed; and throughout the different provinces large enrolments of militia took place.-Such, at this eventful period,

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NINE days from this, lord Beresford returned from Rio Janeiro, in his Britannic majesty's ship the Vengeur, and cast anchor in the Tagus. His lordship expressed an extreme desire to land, and requested permission to be allowed so to do, in the capacity of a simple British subject, having various affairs of a private nature to settle in Portugal. The public alarm excited by his arrival was so great, that it was deemed necessary from motives combining the marshal's personal safety, as well as to preserve the public tranquillity, to refuse a compliance with this request, as well as to use every possible means to hasten his departure, without suffering him to have any private communication with the shore. Finding matters thus imperatively conducted, marshal Beresford at length sailed for England in the Arabella packet; and after his departure, captain Maitland delivered a sum of money to the junta, from the Vengeur, which he had conveyed from Rio Janeiro, for the purpose of paying the army. Strong and serious differences of opinion were now elicited between the two juntas of Lisbon and Oporto; the former one being desirous of adhering without deviation to the ancient forms and principles of the constitution, while the latter, far more tending to democracy, was anxious to adopt the constitution of Spain in its most ample form. The leader of the violent party was Silveira, who succeeded in obtaining a decree, that the cortes should be elected as in Spain, according to the population, and that one deputy should be returned for every thirty thousand inhabitants. Not content with this success, they prevailed with the troops to assemble on the eleventh of November, round the palace, where the junta were then engaged in deliberation, and in obedience to their tumultuous clamours, the junta also decreed, that the constitution of Spain should be adopted in its fullest extent. The command of the army was then conferred upon one of their most active and zeal. ous partisans, whilst Silveira himself assumed the department of foreign affairs. In consequence of these measures, the more moderate party of the junta now withdrew from the council, and one hundred and fifty officers of the army threw up their commissions. These events filled the kingdom with consternation, and Texeira, commander in chief at Lisbon, by whose influence they had been consummated, soon saw cause to repent the part he had achieved. Sepulveda now strenuously exerted himself to make the army sensible of their erroneous proceeding on the eleventh, and was so far successful, that on the seventeenth November a military council was convened, consisting of general officers, and others, commanders of divisious, who came to a series of resolutions, which enumerated, "that the public welfare required that those members who lately desired their discharge, should resume their functions; that the election of deputies to the cortes be made according to the Spanish system, but that no other part of the Spanish constitution be enacted, except when the cortes shall meet and adopt it, with such alterations as they shall judge proper." The effect of these declaratory resolutions, was the immediate re-ascendancy of the moderate party, by whom Silveira was stript of all power, ordered to quit the city within two hours, and to retire to his estates at Canales, from whence he was not to depart, upon any pretext, without first having obtained permission of the executive. These changes were hailed with unbounded applause, by the people at large, who now began to look forward with confidence and hope to the meeting of the cortes; which expectation was not then to be realized, as they did not assemble till nearly a year afterwards. In several other parts of Europe, the minds of the people were also much agitated by the spirit of free and bold inquiry; and consequently the system of governments embracing general representation, obtained numerous proselytes wherever such opinions were suffered to be promulgated.

POLITICAL MOVEMENTS AT NAPLES, &c. NAPLES made an effort at obtaining a constitution, founded on the representative system, and the king was compelled to cede to the remonstrances of the people, backed as they were by the military. On the sixth of July, he issued a proclamation, promising to publish the basis of a constitutional code within a week. A deputation from the army was immediately sent to Naples, to insist that his majesty should adopt the broad principle of the Spanish constitution, within the space of twenty-four hours. Upon receiving this demand, be instantly resolved to lay aside the exercise of his royal functions; and on the same evening, he declared his eldest son, the duke of Calabria, vicargeneral of the kingdom.

On the following day, the vicar-general announced his acceptance of the Spanish constitution, and at the same time, the king confirmed this act of his son, and for the due observance of it, pledged his royal faith. On the ninth, the revolutionary army made its triumphal entry into Naples; the vicar-general named the provisional junta; and on the thirteenth, both himself and his royal father swore fidelity to the new constitution, in the presence of the assembled junta. The leaders of the revolution immediately despatched ambassadors to the principal European courts, but their envoys were received and acknowledged only at Madrid; Austria did not even attempt to disguise her feelings, or dissemble her hostile intent, but sent forth the most violent proclamations against the new government, anathematising the Carbonari, the supposed instigators of the revolutionary proceedings, forbidding the exportation of any military stores to Naples, and ultimately sealed this frank avowal of her sentiments, by preparations for assembling a large army in Italy in the most prompt and effective manner.

MEETING OF SOVEREIGNS.

In the latter end of October, a meeting of the emperors of Russia and Austria, with the king of Prussia, took place at Troppau, to deliberate on the necessary measures which the existing state of Naples called upon them imperiously to adopt. The result of which conference was, that the regal triumvirate, by letters dated the twentieth November, invited the Neapolitan monarch to give them the meeting at Laybach; and on the thirteenth of December, he accordingly embarked on board the English ship Vengear, from whence he landed at Leghorn, and arrived at Laybach on December the twenty-eighth. The parliament of Naples, although they did not at all approve of the sovereign's removal, ventured no measures in opposition thereto.

REVOLUTION IN SICILY.

WHILST these occurrences were taking place in Naples, scenes of greater anarchy and more sanguinary disorder, were transacting in Sicily. The news of the acceptance and adoption of the Spanish constitution, reached Palermo on the fourteenth, and the intelligence gave rise to the most enthusi astic demonstrations of exulting joy. On the fol lowing morning, which happened to be the grand national festival of the Sicilians, some trivial cir cumstance roused the popular indignation against general Church, an Englishman, employed in the Neapolitan army, which ended in his being assaulted, and the plundering of his house. The multitude having by these acts commenced a career of misguided, lawless persecution and outrage, proceeded to the most desperate excesses; eight hundred galley slaves were immediately liberated and armed; and this insurrection being led on by a Franciscan monk, called Vaglica, successfully attacked the garrison. The regular troops being overpowed by this brutal force, every species of atrocity was without hesitation committed; many persons were killed in the heat of the conflict, besides a considerable number, among whom were the princes Aci and Cattolica, who were deliberately butchered after it was concluded. On the seventeenth July, an attempt was made to form some sort of provisional government; a junta was appointed, a civic guard established, and the galley slaves were commanded to surrender their arms and depart from the city. These arrangements were but of short duration, being subsequent

ly overthrown, and a new junta formed, of which prince Pateno was nominated the president; till, on the twenty-fifth September, a Neapolitan army, commanded by Floristan Pepe, arrived before Pa lermo, which capitulated on the fifth of October; on the next day Pepe took possession of the town, and immediately proclaimed the Spanish constitution. It was expressly stipulated by the capitulation, that the Sicilian states-general were to decide, whether the parliament of Sicily should be declared independent, or be united to that of Naples. The Neapolitan legislature, however, wholly annulledfidence in the various measures he therein prothis article; and a new general, with large reinforcements for the army, was speedily sent to succeed Pepe, who was thus removed.

The junta being first dissolved, the Neapolitans gave the earliest proof of the practical application of their ardent love of freedom, and their devotion to liberal principles, by levying the most unjustifiable contributions, and treating Palermo, not as an integral part of their states, but in all respects as a foreign town subjugated by the success of their arms, and entitled thereby to endure every severity from the hands of a triumphant and savage con

queror.

The Autocrat of all the Russias, with a policy replete with worldly wisdom, had continued as a boon to this annexation to his widely extended dominions, the title of an independent kingdom; flattering this ancient (though dismembered nation,) with the right of having its own military force, and its diet or legislative assembly, composed as formerly of two separate chambers. In conformity with this arrangement, or act of sovereign grace, the emperor Alexander himself opened the session with an address, highly adapted to beget full conpounded to their legislatorial consideration. The measures he recommended were of an extremely popular aspect, consisting in "a modification of the constitution of the senate," a "plan of a criminal as well as a civil code." None of these measures, though strenuously debated, met with final adop tion; and on the closing of the sessions on the first of October, his imperial majesty in his speech, expressed his extreme disappointment at the rejec tion of these ministerial projets. Notwithstanding the resistance of the diet to his will, this powerful monarch continued the same line of political forbearance, and far from visiting Poland with any further indications of his anger, pursued that landably wise path towards it, which, by upholding and patronizing every scheme, likely to extend the comthe other parts of his vast dominions, is rapidly tending to consolidate his colossal power, as supreme ruler of that empire, of almost unnumbered millions of civilised and barbaric subjects committed to his sway.

ASSEMBLY OF THE POLISH DIET. WHILST the more genial shores of France, Spain, Portugal, and Italy, were subjected to divers poli-mercial intercourse of that nominal kingdom, with tical explosions, whilst liberty was attempting some amelioration of men and manners in those realms, the north of Europe remained in a comparatively quiescent state, unvisited by any occurrence of ma terial interest, unless indeed the transactions of the diet of Poland be deemed worthy of consideration.

CHAPTER II.

Opening of Parliament—His Majesty's Speech-Debates on the Conduct of Ministers relative to the Queen-Country Petitions to restore Queen's Name to Liturgy-Queen's Message to the House of Com mons-Provision for her Majesty-Discussion on the Question of Emancipating the Catholics-Bill for Relief of Catholics introduced and passed through the House of Commons-Rejected in the House of Lords-Borough of Grampound disfranchised-The Franchise transferred to the County of York -Committee to inquire into Cause of Agricultural Distress-Report of Committee-Bank of England resumption of Cash Payments-Ways and Means for the current Year-Parliament ProroguedDeath of Napoleon, ex-Emperor of France, in Captivity at Saint Helena-Situation of the QueenHer Conduct, and Correspondence with Officers of State-Coronation of George IV.

OPENING OF PARLIAMENT.

.821. THE first public occurrence which took place this year was the assembly of parliament; on which occasion the king went in state to the house of lords, and opened the session by delivering a most gracious speech from the throne. DEBATES ON THE CONDUCT OF MINISTERS RELATIVE TO QUEEN.

THE debates in both houses, consequent on the usual motions for addresses of thanks to the sovereign in grateful return for the royal speech, were long, and warmly contested; and strongly indicated the feelings and opinions of the ministerial partizans, as well as of those adhering to the opposition, on the various important topics touched upon therein; and chiefly upon the line of conduct which government had displayed towards the queen :-a conduct which was more scrutinizingly developed, and severely commented on, by the members in opposition to ministers in the house of commons, than in the lords. Immediately after the assembled house had heard the speech read by the speaker, on their return, lord Árchibald Hamilton gave notice of a motion touching the omission of her majesty's name in the liturgy; and he was followed by Mr. Wetherell-a gentleman eminent in the law, and who to this period had invariably supported the ministry-who immediately moved for the production of certain papers and documents relating to the mode of the insertion of the names of the king, queen, and other branches of the royal family, in the collects and litanies of the Liturgy, including the period from the reign of James the first to the present day; and for the several orders of council for the insertion, omission, or change of such names, from the commencement of the reign of Henry the eighth. An objection was made by lord Castlereagh to such a motion being brought forward without previous notice-suggesting the propriety of his withdrawing it for the present. This suggestion was not attended to; Mr. Wetherell persisted in his motion; on which lord Castlereagh moved the previous question, and thus pressed to a division. Mr. Wetherell's was negatived by a majority of ninety. one: the numbers being two hundred and sixty votes against one hundred and sixty-nine. The marquis of Tavistock, on the following day, gave notice, that on the fifth of February it was his intention to move a resolution expressive of the opinion of the house on the conduct of ministers, in the late proceedings which they had instituted against the queen.

COUNTRY PETITIONS. DURING this period the attention of the house was daily occupied, for a considerable portion of its time, with listening to the multifarious petitions which were presented from every part of the king dom, complaining of the late proceedings against her majesty. Most of these numerous petitioners expressed in the strongest terms of reprobation their dislike of the governmental measures; and

prayed for the restoration of her majesty's name to the Liturgy, and that the house would exert its utmost influence in advising the king to dismiss from his councils his present ministers-whose misconduct, as they alleged, had very seriously endangered the dignity of the crown, and greatly disturbed the peace, harmony, and welfare of the nation, by their pernicious advice. Several of the members to whom the presentation of these petitions had been entrusted, embraced the opportunity of delivering their own sentiments upon the subjects thereof; and many speeches were embued with all the warmth of feeling, flow of language, and force of eloquence, which such an occasion might be expected to produce. Lord Archibald Hamilton's motion, of which he had given due notice, came before the house on the twenty-sixth of January; and was couched in the following form:-" That the order in council of the twelfth of February, 1820, under which the name of her majesty, Caroline, queen consort, has been omitted in the liturgy, and in the accustomed prayers of the church, appears to this house to have been a measure ill advised and inexpedient." This motion originated a very long and animated debate, during which much legal lore, and deep as well as antiquarian research into history, were elicited by Sir James Mackintosh and Mr. Wetherell-who severally supported the mo tion, and argued in strong and able terms, that the said order in council was not only inexpedient but illegal. In reply to these assertions the attorneygeneral and the solicitor-general contended the point of necessity, and also that, it was not illegal; and the former learned gentleman observed, that the act of uniformity gave a power to omit as well as to alter or change, as was evident from the fact, that the Liturgy annexed to that act, and which Mr. Wetherell had so rightly considered as part of it, contains a blank in the place of the name of queen, which, without such vested power of addition or omission, could never have been supplied. The conduct of government was defended by Lord Castlereagh, in a most luminous speech; in which, after ably refuting the several allegations adduced, he concludes in the following remarkable terms:

"For myself," said his lordship, " I can safely affirm, that I have acted as the nature of the case absolutely required; and were that act to be done again, I would pursue exactly the same line of conduct-a line which I feel to be in no degree a matter of option, but an imperative duty. In a case so surrounded by difficulties, government did not act without deliberation. No doubt they were embarrassed by the prospect of the use which would be made of the question by the seditious and disaffected. It is to be regretted too, that the law on the case is not more clear; but as the case stood, had they at first inserted her name in the liturgy, while such heavy charges against her lay on the council table, and had afterwards been compelled to erase it on account of the confirmation of those charges, the moral indignation of the country would have overwhelmed us. But it was said, that the queen was now proved innocent-that she had been tried and acquitted-and that her name should now be

restored as matter of course. As to the opinion of gentlemen opposite on this point, it has not with me much weight and I will tell them why; because their conviction was as strong before the evidence was given as after. I will admit, however, that technically she may be said to be acquitted; and therefore may claim the possession of those privileges to which she had strictly a legal right; but the insertion of her name in the liturgy is not a matter of right; and when her character has been so far affected by the evidence in support of the charges against her, that one hundred and twenty three peers had pronounced her guilty, the crown cannot be advised to grant this or any other matter of grace and favour, which it is at the pleasure of the crown to grant or withhold. Towards the queen, personally, I repeat, I feel compassion. When once the proceedings against her had closed, ministers were resolved to move no further measures on the subject; but since they who affect to be her friends, have renewed the discussion, be theirs the odium, and theirs the mischief which must result from its useless agitation. But I cannot be silent upon her conduct, since she has been so infatuated as to deliver herself into the hands of a party, which, I believe to have views dangerous to the public tranquillity and the constitution. I feel 1 cannot honour her more in a political than in a moral point of view. Has she not in her answers to addresses, reviled the king, degraded the crown, and vilified both houses of parliament? But, thank God, the country is coming to its senses. I do not doubt, that if parliament pursue its tone of dignified determination, the efforts of that party will soon expire in despair. Your path of duty is plain. You ought either to sustain the actual government in unimpaired honour and character, that its usefulness to the country may not be diminished; or you should by a fair, tangible, and manly proceeding, put an end at once to the present cabinet."

- When this statement of his lordship was ended, Mr. Brougham followed in favour of lord A. Hamilton's motion. In allusion to his assertion on a previous occasion, that the queen was not degraded by the omission of her name in the liturgy, he confessed that he was then unwilling to allow that the queen was degraded by that act: "It was not for me, at that time to declare, that my royal mistress was degraded, when she had to meet all the terrors of the threatened investigation; I say the 'terrors' of the investigation; not that innocence should be exposed to danger from injustice or inquiry, but her majesty was on the brink of an investigation in which innocence was no security; in which she was to be met by perjured men and perjured women; and by bribing men and bribing women; where the long arm of power, and the long purse of an administration stretch ed their influence over Italian hands and Italian hearts; over hearts ready to crouch to the one, over hands greedy to snatch at the other. From such trial, from such a threatened prosecution the most guiltless might shrink without incur ring for a moment the imputation of crime!" In the conclusion of his speech, Mr. Brougham hap. pily contended, that gentlemen, who thought variously on one point, but who agreed on others, should choose the point on which they could unite, not that on which they differed. Most of them thought the omission of the queen's name illegal, some doubted its illegality; all were clear as to its being inexpedient and ill-advised. "The queen," said Mr. Brougham, "has been acquitted-she must be treated as if she had never been tried: or there is no justice in England. What is the object of my noble friend's motion ?-To call back the attention of parliament to the weighty affairs from which it had been distracted, to give opportunity, (which while this overwhelming subject occupied the country, could not be afforded,) to consider the distresses of a people, who now, unmindful of their own sufferings, poured forth their generous and disinterested petitions in favour of their persecuted queen." The result of this motion of lord Archibald Hamilton, was evaded by the question of adjournment being carried, which produced ayes three hundred and ten, noes two hundred and nine, leaving a ministerial majority of a hundred and one votes.

So died the first attempt to bring before parliament the conduct of ministers, as relating to her majesty. A second endeavour was then made in

the shape of a distinct and specific charge of misconduct, which was ushered to the notice of the house by the marquis of Tavistock, in the shape of a motion for a vote of censure upon the entire proceedings held by government towards her majesty. His lordship stated, "his purpose was not merely to obtain from the house an expression of their sense of the late proceedings against her majesty, but to drive the present ministers from power. Mr. Lambton seconded this motion, and while so doing, roundly charged ministers with being guilty of the grossest inconsistency and mismanagement, throughout the whole of these proceedings, which he fully and ably detailed from the omission of her majesty's name in the liturgy, to the circumstances attending the prorogation of the last session of parliament. After a lengthened debate, which oc cupied two entire evenings, the house on its division presented the following appearance, ayes one hundred and seventy-eight, noes three hundred and twenty-four; thus was the motion of the marquis lost by a majority against it of one hundred and forty-six votes.

The third and last attack during the session, which ministers had to combat against, respecting the lamentable procedure against the queen, was in consequence of a motion brought forward by Mr. John Smith, and seconded by Mr. Tennyson, the form of which was as follows: "That the house having taken into consideration the circumstance of the queen's name not being inserted in the collects, prayers, and litanies of the church; and also the numerous petitions from the people, addressed to this house, complaining thereof; is of opinion, that under all existing circumstances, it is highly expedient that her majesty's name should be inserted in the said collects, prayers, and litanies; and that such a measure would greatly tend to remove the discontents that exist on that subject in the public mind." The numbers, on a division of the house, were one hundred and seventy-eight in favour of the motion; against it, two hundred and ninety-eight; being a majority on the side of ministers of one hundred and twenty.

The above majorities having so decisively declared the sentiments of the house upon the conduct of ministers, as connected with the late proceedings against her majesty, it was deemed by their opponents as useless to persist, and the matter went to rest for the present, the question not being resumed during the session.

QUEEN'S MEssage.

ON the point of the future provision for the queen, the ministry had come to a resolution to propose in the house of commons, that his majesty should be enabled to grant an annual sum not exceeding fifty thousand pounds, out of the consolidated fund, for the separate use and establishment of her majesty. When the day arrived for the house to go into a committee on this subject, Mr. Brougham rose and stated, that he had received the queen's commands to present to the house the following message :

"CAROLINE R.

"The queen having learned that the house of commons has appointed this day for taking into consideration the part of the king's most gracions speech, which relates to her, deems it necessary to declare, that she is duly sensible of his majesty's condescension in recommending an arrangement respecting her to the consideration of parliament. She is aware that this recommendation must be understood as referring to a provision for the support of her estate and dignity; and from what has lately passed, she is apprehensive that such a provision may be unaccompanied by the possession of her rights and privileges in the ample manner wherein former queens consort, her royal predecessors, have been wont, in times past, to enjoy them. It is far from the queen's inclination needlessly to throw obstacles in the way of a settlement, which she desires, in common with the whole country, and which she feels persuaded, the best interests of all parties equally require and being most anxious to avoid any thing that might create irritation, she cautiously abstains from any observation on the unexampled predicaments in which she is placed; but she feels it due to the house, and to herself, respectfully to declare that she perseveres in the resolution of declining any arrangement, while hea name continues to be excluded from the liturgy."

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