of the ftate were not the property of individuals; they were public trufts to be confided to thofe who were politically competent to occupy them. The diffenters defired, as a matter of right and justice, a participation of offices. If this were granted, they might acquire a dangerous afcendency in corporations; and an exclufive corporation interest in the hands of the diffenters was a very different thing from the liberty of fitting in that houfe on the free choice of the general mass of electors. It was now indeed afferted, that they had no fuch object in contemplation. But it was neceffary to take into the account the real fprings by which human affairs were regulated, and not to depend upon the fecurity of words in contradiftinétion to the tenor and tendency of actions. There were perfons amongst the diffenters who would not admit any ecclefiaftical eftablishment to be neceffary. Againft fuch perfons it became the legislature to be upon their guard. He had indeed an high opinion of the merits of diffenters; but they already enjoyed every mental privilege, every freedom to ferve GoD according to their confciences in the most ample degree."

The motion of Mr. Beaufoy was powerfully fupported by Mr. Fox, who magnanimously declared, "that whatever perfonal reafon he might have to complain of the recent conduct of the diffenters, he would never lofe fight of the great principles of civil and religious liberty, on which the prefent application to the houfe was founded. He had confidered himself as honored in acting with them on many former occafions, and he acknowledged the general tenor of their political conduct to be in the highest degree meritorious. In his opinion, it was very unwife in any cafe to take religion as religion for a teft in politics; and he averred, that the maxims advanced by Mr. Pitt were fuch, that though he declined perfecution in words, he admitted the whole extent of it in principle." Upon a di

vifion,

vifion, after a long debate, the numbers appeared, for the motion 100, against it 173.

This was by no means, confidering the oppofition of the minister to the motion, a discouraging divifion on the first effort. But the diffenters were in the last degree astonished and chagrined at the part taken by Mr. Pitt in this debate, it being almoft univerfally understood by them, that the application would at leaft not be discountenanced by him. And the expreffions used by him in the previous conferences held with the leading diffenters, though far from amounting to a promise of support, were considered as certain indications of a favourable difpofition. Doubtlefs Mr. Pitt found, in the progrefs of the bufinefs, obstacles in the way of the repal which he had not at first apprehended; and he flattered himself, that his public profeffions of regard and efteen for the diffenters would fo far footh and conciliate their minds as to reconcile them to the difappointment they fuftained. But the most refined addrefs, and the greatest ability in the management of bufinefs, may cafily be overrated. It was not poffible for Mr. Pitt, on this grand question, to ftand well at once with the court and with the diffenters. The diffenters clearly perceived the difference between the fituation of Mr. Pitt and that of his predeceffor fir Robert Walpole, when the laft application for a repeal of the teft was made on their part above fifty years before. That wife minifter, though his judgment was decidedly in favor of the repeal abstractedly confidered, was juftly apprehenfive of the clamors which would have been unquestionably raised at that turbulent period against a measure, as the confequence of which the weak, the bigoted, and the factious would have joined in vociferating, that the CHURCH was in DANGER. It was an experiment at that time not worth the rifque ; and the minifter chofe the leaft of the two evils, condefcending himself to talk abfurdly, in order to prevent others from acting mifchievoufly. But that fenfelefs and terrific clamour

clamor had long fince become a mere brutum fulmen. The application of the diffenters in the prefent inftance was in unifon with the general fenfe of the public and of the parliament, or at least not inconfiftent with it; and a flight degree of countenance only from the court would have fufficed to enfure the fuccefs of the motion: nor, on the other hand, was the oppofition of the court fo openly and decidedly hoftile as to preclude the idea of future attempts.

The attention of the house and of the nation was foon transferred to a subject of a very different nature. When the prince of Wales attained the age of majority, A.D. 1783, the fum of fifty thoufand pounds per annum only was allotted to him out of the civil lift revenue to defray the entire expence of his establishment. Confidering the numerous falaries payable to the officers of his houfehold, this fum was manifeftly inadequate to the juft fupport of his rank and fituation in life; and the then ministers, Mr. Fox and lord North, ftrongly infifted upon the neceffity of fixing the revenue of the prince at one hundred thoufand pounds per annum, which the late king had enjoyed as prince of Wales at a period when the civil lift produced two hundred thoufand pounds per annum less than at prefent. To this the fovereign pofitively objected; and the prince in order to prevent difagreeable confequences, generoufly declared, that he chofe to depend upon the fpontaneous bounty of the king. The obvious refult of this miferable economy was, that the prince, in the four years which were now elapfed, had contracted debts to a large amount; his negligence as to pecuniary concerns being perhaps increased by the confcioufness of the extreme difficulty and apparent impoffibility of contracting his expences within the narrow limits of his income. The public, not fufficiently adverting to these circumftances, cenfured the prince with a too rigid feverity for the heedleffnefs and prodigality of his conduct. The ge

neral

neral prejudice was much heightened by the habitual and confidential intercourfe maintained by the prince with the great leaders of the late unpopular adminiftration. It was alfo too notorious to admit of disguise or palliation, that the prince was exempt from none of thofe youthful indifcretions and exceffes by which men of high rank in early life are for the moft part fo unhappily characterized.

A report of a very ferious nature had moreover for fome time paft gained very general credit; namely, that the prince had contracted a fecret marriage with a lady of the Roman catholic religion;-a fatal step, for which the acknowledged perfonal charms and mental accomplishments of Mrs. Fitzherbert (fuch was the name of the lady in queftion) would make in the public opinion a very inadequate compenfation. It is true that the marriage, in whatever mode it were folemnized could not by the royal marriage act be regarded as legal; and by a claufe in the act of fettlement, if the legality of the marriage were affirmed, the prince, by marrying a papift, would ipfo facto forfeit his right of fucceffion to the crown. His fituation therefore was in the highest degree fingular and critical, efpecially as the marriage act itfelf was by many perfons confidered as founded in fuch manifeft abfurdity and injustice, as to be in its own nature null and void. To balance thefe unfavorable circumftances, the prince was faid to poffefs good temper and good fenfe: his perfon was agreeable, his deportment affable and engaging, and, by mixing familiarly in the fociety of men of enlightened minds, he had, as there was good reafon to believe, acquired far jufter and more liberal ideas of the nature of government and the fpirit of legiflation than those which conftituted the policy of the prefent reign. Happily alfo, as it was contrary to law for the heir apparent to leave the kingdom, he had the advantage of an English education, and his manners and modes of thinking were entirely English; while the German education of the bishop of Ofnaburgh,

Ofhaburgh, now Duke of York, and of the other younger branches of the royal houfe, and their familiarity with the German courts, could have no other tendency than to infpire them with fentiments totally oppofite to the genius of the English conftitution. There is nothing indeed more furprizing in the history of the prefent reign, than the tame acquiefcence of the legislature in fo apparent an affront, as is implied in the fuppofition that an English prince cannot receive an education in England. proper for his ftation. England has, it must be confeffed been indeed grofsly and culpably inattentive to the education of her princes; and in this refpect, as well as many others, the prefent reign will furnish to pofterity a ftriking and inftructive leffon.

Finding his embarraffments continually increafing, and a large debt accumulated, the prince of Wales, in the fummer of 1786, applied to the king his father for alfiftance: but meeting with a harth and peremptory refufal, he adopted a refolution which feemed to indicate a firmnefs and vigor of mind, capable under a right direction of great and noble things. Suppreffing the establishment of his household, he formally vefted forty thoufand pounds per annum of his revenue in the hands of trustees for the liquidation of his debts. His ftud of running horfes, his hunters, and even his coach-horfes, were fold by public auction. The elegant improvements and additions making to the palace of Carlton House, where he refided, were fuddenly stopped, and the most splendid apartments fhut up from ufe; in this manner choofing to retire from the world, rather than forfeit the honor of a gentleman by practising on the credulity of his creditors,

Things had remained in this pofture for near a twelvemonth, when the prince was perfuaded to give his affent to a proposal for laying the state of his affairs before parliament; and on the 20th of April Mr. Alderman Newnham, member for the city of London, gave notice that VOL. II.

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