to exercise an arbitrary elective power, Mr. Pitt might make himself the competitor of the prince of Wales. Upon the regent of their ELECTION they would undoubtedly, as was the practice in all elective governments, impofe fuch limitations as they thought proper. Thus the balance of the conftitution would be deftroyed, the executive power would become wholly dependent upon the legiflative, and the genius of the government would be radically and effentially changed. The fovereign authority is not a property, but an office. To execute that office, certain powers are neceffary; and whoever exercises it, and under whatever name he acts, ought to be poffeffed of thofe neceffary powers; and no man under any title or denomination ought to be invested with more than are neceffary. If hereditary monarchy be established as a falutary provifion to fruftrate the machinations of faction, the fame rule applies to a regent, who ought to be invefted with all the authority requifite to preferve the tranquillity and promote the welfare of the ftate." Mr. Fox not choofing to take the fenfe of the houfe, Mr. Pitt's motion for precedents was carried without a divifion.

A fimilar motion was the next day made by lord Camden in the house of peers, and the doctrine of Mr. Fox reprobated by his lordship with great feverity. It was on the other hand defended with eloquence and ability by lord Loughborough, and lord Stormont, who concluded his fpeech with recommending an immediate address to the prince of Wales, entreating him to affume the exercise of the royal authority. The difcuffion of the abftract queftion of right being perceived to afford a great and unexpected advantage to the miniftry, the duke of York, soon after this debate, in the name of the prince, expreffed his wifhes," that the question might be waved. No claim of right, his highnefs faid, had been advanced by the prince of Wales; and he was confident that his brother too well understood the facred principles which feated the

house

houfe of Brunswick upon the throne, ever to affume or exercife any power, be his claim what it might, that was not derived from the will of the people expreffed by their reprefentatives."

Lord Thurlow, who had at firft confented to take a part in the new adminiftration, in the arrangement of which the poft of lord prefident had been affigned to him, now varying the courfe of his policy, fpoke with great energy of his fentiments of affection towards the king. Nothing could be more difgraceful than to defert the fovereign in his distreffed and helpless fituation. His own debt of gratitude was ample, and when he forgot his king might GOD forget him." Thefe expreflions were rumored to be the refult of certain intimations, which his lordship had recently received of the happy and not very diftant profpect of the king's recovery. This was however as yet a matter of anxious and precarious fpeculation.

In the committee on the ftate of the nation, December 16, Mr. Pitt moved two declaratory refolutions, importing, 1. The interruption of the royal authority; and 2. That it was the duty of the two houfes of parliament to provide the means of fupplying that defect. A vehement debate enfued; in the courfe of which Mr. Fox declared the principles of the minifter to be, that the monarchy was indeed hereditary, but that the executive power ought to be elective. The legal metaphyfics that thus distin guished between the crown and its functions were to him unintelligible. The inveftigators fhould be fchoolmen, and not statesmen, if a question that fo deeply involved the existence of the conftitution were to be thus difcuffed. Where, faid he, is that famous DICTUM to be found, by which the crown is guarded with fuch inviolable fanctity, while its powers are left to the mercy of every affailant? The refolution was at length carried, or a divifion, by 268 against 204 voices. This great point being gained, the

ministry

miniftry proceeded without hesitation or delay to convert it to their own pre-concerted purpofes.

On the 23d of December, a third refolution paffed, empowering the chancellor of Great Britain to affix the great feal to fuch bill of limitations as might be neceffary to restrict the power of the future regent. This mode of procedure was oppofed with great animation by lord North. "A perfon," faid his lordfhip, "is to be fet up without power or difcretion; and this pageant, this fictitious being, is to give the force of a law to the decifions of the two houfes. Was it ever before heard of, that there could be a power of giving affent without the power of refufing that affent? Would any man feriously maintain that the third eftate thus conjured up is really distinct from the other two?" It was ftyled, in the heat and paffion of debate," an infulting fraud," a "mockery of legiflation," a "legal forgery." And an amendment was finally moved by Mr. Dempfter, "That the prince of Wales be requefted to take upon himself the administration of the government during the royal incapacity." On the divifion the amendment was negatived by 251 to 178 voices.

The refolutions which had paffed the commons being communicated for the concurrence of the lords, a fimilar amendment to that of Mr. Dempfter was moved by lord Rawdon, when, after a violent debate, the refolutions. were confirmed, on a divifion of 66 to 99 peers.

On the 2d of January 1789, to complete the fingularity and perplexity of the business, died Mr. Cornwall, fpeaker of the house of commons; and on the 5th, the vacant chair was filled by Mr. Grenville, brother to lord Temple, -the irregularity of his entering upon the duties of his office without the fanction of the royal approbation being fcarcely noticed, amid the preffure of affairs fo much more important. The bill of Limitations, when ready to be introduced into the houfe, was obftructed by an unfeasonable motion of Mr. Loveden, that the phyficians be re-examin

ed

ed on the fubject of the king's illnefs, and the probability of recovery. This motion was the refult of various reports refpecting the difagreement of opinion amongst the phyficians themselves,-reports fufficiently corroborated by the fubfequent examination, which left the houfe as much in the dark as ever as to the event; answering no other purpose than to create an additional delay, of which the minifter well knew the value and the advantage. A letter was at length written to the prince of Wales by Mr. Pitt, informing his royal highness of the plan meant to be pursued that the care of the king's perfon, and the difpofition of the royal household, fhould be committed to the queen, who would by this means be vested with the patronage of four hundred places, amongst which were the great offices of lord Steward, lord Chamberlain, and mafter of the horse. That the power of the prince should not extend to the granting any office, reverfion, or penfion, for any other term than during the king's pleasure, nor to the conferring any peerage. The answer of the prince was firm, dignified, and temperate. He faid, “it was with deep regret that he perceived in the propofitions of administration a project for introducing weakness, diforder, and infecurity into every branch of political business; -for feparating the court from the state, and depriving government of its natural and accustomed fupport; a fcheme for disconnecting the authority to command service from the power of animating it by reward; and for allotting to him all the invidious duties of the kingly ftation, without the means of foftening them to the public by any one act of grace, favor, or benignity. He obferved, that the plea of public utility must be strong, manifest, and urgent, that could thus require the extinction or fufpenfion of any one of thofe effential rights in the fupreme power or its representative, or which could justify the prince in confenting, that in his perfon an experiment fhould be made to afcertain with how small a portion of kingly power

the

the executive government of his country could be conducted. In fine, the prince declared, that his conviction of the evils which might otherwife arife, outweighed in his mind every other confideration, and would determine him to undertake the painful truft impofed upon him by that melancholy neceffity, which of all the king's fubjects he deplored the most."

The bill intended to carry into effect this wild and dangerous project, the offspring of party intereft and perfonal ambition, calculated only, as was juftly and forcibly remarked, "to establish a weak government and a strong oppofition," was brought into the houfe on the 16th of January 1789. Long and violent debates enfued, in the courfe of which a proteft was entered on the journals of the houfe of lords, figned by the duke of York, at the head of the princes of the blood, and fifty-five other peers expreflive of their higheft indignation at the restrictions on the executive authority thus arbitrarily impofed. These extraordinary proceedings were at length, happily for the public, arrefted in their progrefs, by an intimation from the lord chancellor, that the king was declared by his phyficians to be in a state of convalefcence. This was followed by a declaration on the 10th of March, that his majefty, being perfectly recovered from his indifpofition, had ordered a commiffion to be iffued for holding the parlia ment in the ufual manner. The tidings of the king's recovery diffufed the moft general and heartfelt fatisfaction. A national thankfgiving was appointed, and the king himself went in folemn proceffion to the cathedral of St. Paul's to offer up his grateful devotions on this event; which was celebrated throughout the kingdom by fplendid illuminations, and all the other accuftomed demonftrations. of joy.

The conduct of the Irifh parliament in this bufinefs formed a ftriking contraft to that of the English; and was dictated by a policy the moft fimple, obvious, and ra

tional.