TH

HE discussions in parliament, whether they relate to domestic concerns, and its own privileges; or whether they refer to foreign expeditions, or to our relations with other potentates and countries, will be found of considerable interest and importance. When the two houses met for business, the opening speech (which is given among the PUBLIC PAPERS) was read by commissioners, on account of his majesty's illness and infirmities. The chief topics in that production were, the Austrian peace; the expedition to Walcheren;-the situation of Sweden;-the necessity of assisting Portugal and Spain against the ambitious projects of France; the victory of Talavera; and the interruption of the intercourse with America. With respect to this last business it is said, "His majesty sincerely regrets this event; he has, however, received the strongest assurances from the American minister resident at this court, that the United States are desirous of main taining a friendly intercourse be

tween the two countries. This desire will be met by a corresponding disposition on the part of his majesty." The house of commons was called on for fresh supplies, with the assurance that his majesty deeply regretted the pressure which his subjects must feel, and which the protracted continuance of the war rendered inevitable. Both houses were desired to take into their consideration the state of the inferior clergy: they were, at the same time, assured that the ac counts, to be hereafter laid before them, respecting the state of trade and the revenue, would be found to be highly satisfactory; and finally, they were exhorted to call forth their utmost efforts of vigilance, fortitude, and perseverance.

Previously to our entering upon the parliamentary debates, we must consider, for a moment, the situation of other countries with which our interests are much involved. In our last volume we gave an account of the divorce of Bonaparte from the empress Josephine. It will there

be seen that all the Napoleon fa,mily met upon this important subject. No offspring had resulted from their union, and the emperor declared it to be necessary for the welfare of his empire, that he should leave an heir to the imperial throne. To this proposal she gave her full assent, in expressions of gratitude to her lord, who had highly exalted her, and to whose welfare she was ready to sacrifice every comfort of life. The senate of France, upon this representation, was as complaisant to Bonaparte as the parliament of England had three centuries before been to the wishes of Henry VIII. This subject does not appear to have excited a murmur in France. The people of that country had, about the same time, been flattered by a public exposé, laid before the senate by order of the executive government. In this, which seemed to absorb all their thoughts, the victories of France over its enemies, and the more important victories over the face of the country, by the digging of canals, levelling hills, piercing mountains, building bridges, ports and quays, are dis played with great ostentation. Improvements in agriculture, manufactures, arts, sciences, literature, form a part of the relation; and throughout it appears, that no sovereign in Europe can rival the emperor of the French in attention to the splendour and comfort of his subjects. There are in this public paper two points which affect religion;

the one is, that in France there shall be universal toleration, and the other relates to the pope, on which the exposé dilates very considerably. It dwells on his protection of the English in his capital; -on his acrimonious briefs;-on the hatred of the court of Rome to that of France;-on his complaints of the principles of toleration con

secrated in the Napoleon code, and on his endeavours to sow divisions in the empire. To overcome the pope's malignity, there remained only one of two modes of conduct, either to create a patriarch for France, or to destroy the pope's sovereignty as a temporal prince. The first might have excited religious disputes, the second was a right belonging to the imperial power. Neither the pope, says the exposé, nor any other priest, ought to enjoy any temporal sovereignty. Never shall the emperor acknowledge the right of the triple crown.

Besides the princes of the imperial house, other dependent kings and princes had travelled to France to pay their homage to their patron and creator. Most of them returned after the business was ended for which they came; but the king of Holland remained for some time, with the hope, perhaps, of conciEating his brother to his views of government. In this he was unsuccessful, and in a short time after he resigned his sovereignty, and the states of Holland have been annexed to the empire of France.

In the beginning of the year, a question of great importance was agitating in the North; for the diet of Sweden were considering whether there was any necessity for an order of bishops. The question of course was taken up very warmly by the clergy, who saw in the abolition of this order, a diminution of their interests. It was proposed that the duties discharged by the bishops should, in future, be performed by the deans of chapters. This, it was thought, would be of great advantage to the country, by improving the state of the inferior clergy, in appropriating the revenues of every see, as it became vacant, to their support, and dividing among the deans of the cathedrals

and

expressed himself of a different opinion from those who thought that our system of policy ought to be merely home defence, to the exclusion of any assistance afforded to our allies, and therefore justified the expeditions undertaken by ministers. His lordship, in the conclusion of his speech, dwelt upon the necessity of unanimity amongst ourselves; and observed, that Britons could only be injured by Britons; and that we were placed by Providence in such a situation that we might defy the world, if true to ourselves. The earl of St. Vincent said, he had intended never to open his lips again in that house; but he could not sit silent after the disasters and failures which had recently overwhelmed the country; disasters and failures which were solely attributable to the ignorance and incapacity of ministers; of those ministers who, on a former occasion, fired guns, rung bells, and trumpeted forth shouts of joy, as if for a great triumph, when that triumph turned out to be the disastrous convention of Cintra; and who now, in his majesty's speech, had converted a disaster into another triumph, talking of the glorious victory of Talavera, a victory which, to us, had all the consequences of defeat, the enemy taking prisoners whilst we took none; taking also our hospital with our sick and wounded, and our own troops finally obliged to retreat. He did not mean to condemn the conduct of the officers employed either in Spain or in Walcheren-he believed they did their duty-the disasters and failures in both instances were to be attributed to ministers. In the case of Wal, cheren, the expedition was ill-plan ned, ill-advised, and the object of it impracticable. It was high time that parliament should adopt mea

sures adequate to the present alarm, ing crisis of affairs, or else the voice of the country would resound like thunder in their ears. When he considered the state of the ministry themselves, he was quite at a loss to characterize them; the ministers popped in and popped out like the man and woman in a peasant's barometer; they changed situations and shuffled about; they rose up like tadpoles, they assumed all sorts of shapes, sometimes that of wasps, then of hornets, and sometimes that of locusts, devouring and devastat ing the country.

Lord Grenville." My lords, I am anxious to address your lordships thus early, for the purpose of moving such an amendment as I conceive necessary at the present crisis, that I may anticipate any casual observation by which the discussion of this night might have been drawn out of that course which I think ought to be adopted upon the present occasion. We are now imperiously called upon to do our duty, and to institute those inquiries which the misconduct of ministers has rendered absolutely necessary-a misconduct, from which a series of disasters and calamities have resulted to the country. My lords, my heart is full, and I must give vent to my feelings. The day must come when ministers will have to render an account to parliament of the treasure which they have wasted, and the lives which they have sacrificed, in useless and unprofitable expeditions. We owe it to the country, that the king's ministers should be called upon to render that account, and we shall not do our duty to the country if we do not insist upon it. The day will come when the mere fact of an overflowing treasury, alluded to in the speech of the king's commissioners, will be

utterly.