liament should entertain the subject. The noble lord seems to have a great deal of information in store-let him give it-my whole object is, that if she deserves it, the Princess of Wales should be put in such a situation as to be able to discharge in future the public duties that fall upon her, by being enabled to appear with credit at any drawing-room that may be held, I never said she ought to force her way into the Queen's drawing-rooms, but this I will maintain, that if she does not go, her absence is not to be attributed to any want of merit on her part, to any positive demerit, and still less to any imputation of guilt.

Upon the subject of the princess Charlotte of Wales, I am little disposed to say any thing; I have no means of access to her person; I never spoke to the princess in my life; but I must be forgiven if I say, that if the feelings of affection of the young princess, by what has passed, have been strongly roused, it gives an earnest of conduct in future to her subjects, that will confer upon her the highest honour, and upon her people the greatest blessings. I lament that parliament did not, last year, take some step. This fresh insult, offered through the queen, at the instigation of a secret adviser, might then have been spared. It therefore becomes us now to interpose; we owe it to the royal family; and I contend that, if we do not, we shall most deliberately betray the trust that has been reposed in us by the country, in which there is but one feeling from one end to the other.

The noble lord made a great parade; but I must say, that in a pecuniary point of view I do not think the Princess of Wales has been kindly treated. When she lived in Carlton house she had 17,000l. a year, besides her 5,000l. and yet, when she had to maintain a separate establishment, with all its increased expences, her income was reduced to 12,000l. a year. The noble lord says, what could the Prince do more? I answer, that he could have referred it to parliament, and what motive was there for not doing it? Parliament never knew of these debts of the Regent, now so much talked of, for Mr. Perceval so wrapped them up, and made such an involved statement of them, that they were never discovered. Those debts amounted, we understand, to between 4 and 500,000l. and at the time of the Regency 60,000l. per annum was given, besides the proceeds from the Duchy of

Cornwall, to provide for their liquidation, and what the Prince paid for the sums due from his wife was not deducted out of his income, but only out of the sum that would otherwise have been applied to pay his own creditors. So that the expences of the Princess of Wales were not paid by her husband, were not paid by the public, but by the creditors of the Prince Regent; and I appeal to the House, whether this is a situation in which it is fit that the future queen of this country should be placed?

Although I would not advise her Royal Highness to demand the payment of 50,000l. a year, provided as her jointure, yet I think that she has an unanswerable claim to it, and she has the more need of it to maintain that splendour and state which will protect her in some degree from the efforts of the promoters of cabals. The noble lord said, that a suitable provision may possibly be made. Will that satisfy the House? They virtually ac knowledge that the treatment of her Royal Highness has been proper, and then at the end of this session, or perhaps not until the next, the noble lord may come down with what he calls a suitable allowance: Nothing in my opinion can produce in this case a better effect, than for the House to shew that it takes an interest in the question; and if this motion be withdrawn, it will be obvious that in its result it takes no interest whatever. Considering the time that has elapsed since this question was first introduced, recollecting the willingness the noble lord now professes to add to the provision of the Princess of Wales, and observing the heated state of the public feeling upon this question, it must be admitted that ministers have been grossly culpable in not endeavouring to put a stop to further discussions by conciliatory proposals. The public feeling has been now raised to a great height, and what will induce it to subside I do not know ;-assuredly the country would not be satisfied, if an injury like that sustained by her Royal Highness should go unresented. I say that her claims are rested upon grounds not to be shaken; and I any confident the House will not tamely submit to insults offered to its future queen, the cause of which has hitherto been unexplained. I flatter myself that we shall not separate without doing something to restore the Princess of Wales to that comfort which she has every right to enjoy, if not to that splendour she has every

right to maintain. Let us shew that we' participate in the general feeling of the nation; that her Royal Highness is not without a protector, and that that protector is the House of Commons.

Mr. Grattan said, that he approved of the object of the motion of the hon. gentleman, because that object was, by an exertion of the ordinary power of the House, practically to repel the calumnies thrown on her royal highness the Princess of Wales. This object was to be effected, not by restoring her to her dignities, but by increasing the means of maintaining her establishment. But the object of the noble lord was the same, provided it could be done in a manner respectful to the Prince of Wales. It was proper that the Princess of Wales should be supported by parliament, provided for by parliament, but not in such a manner as to give her a victory over her husband. As the noble lord had in view the same object, not perhaps as the Princess of Wales had, but as the parliament ought to have, he was glad to accede to his suggestion, and to suffer the motion of the hon. gentleman to be withdrawn; because if the hon. gentleman persisted in his motion, and failed, he would injure the cause he espoused; and if he succeeded, he would do no more than the ministers consented to do. The dispute was about the manner, and the manner of the hon. gentleman would fail, while that of the noble lord would succeed: he could not, therefore, but prefer the manner of the noble lord. The case was this papers had been communicated to the Speaker, and by him to the House, containing a correspondence, which stated that the Prince of Wales would not enter any company where his wife should be. What did this prove?-An entire separation in mind; as what had been said by the noble lord, proved a complete separation by instrument between the Prince of Wales and his wife.-By parliament, what course was to be taken, if they were to enter into the quarrel? (which certainly should never be done but in the last instance). To attempt to oblige his Royal Highness to take back his wife would be unjustifiable-to interfere to procure her admission to the queen's drawing rooms, was a power which it might be doubted whether or no it was within the province of the House to exert, it being a matter not strictly political, but comparatively trivial. How, then, could the House act, but by providing for the lady-by de ( VOL. XXVIII. )

claring, that as she was not admitted to share in the establishment of her husband,` parliament would give her one of her own? This he thought the best possible way, of proceeding, for the interest of the wife, the feelings of the husband, and the dignity of the House.

Mr. Methuen wished to know the intention of the noble lord, before he consented to withdraw his motion.

Lord Castlereagh said that, as he found the sense of the House to be in favour of an addition to the revenue of the Princess of Wales, though he had no positive instruction upon the subject, yet from his general knowledge of the sentiments of the Prince Regent, he felt himself justified in giving his consent to any measure that had in view to effectuate that object.

Mr. Ponsonby.-I am glad at last to hear a pledge given by the noble lord, that the establishment of her royal highness the Princess of Wales shall be made a subject for the consideration of the House, though difficulties have arisen as to the mode of proceeding. I am glad, too, that I was preceded by my right hon. friend, because he has shewn himself as averse as I can be to a stretch of the jurisdiction of the House, for which now there can be no necessity, as by the declaration of this night, the purposes of the most sanguine friends of her Royal Highness must have been answered. In my opinion, it would have been most improper for the House to have interfered to procure the admission of her Royal Highness to the drawing room; but that we can interfere in a way most proper, no one now can doubt. The Commons of England, voting under the present circumstances an increase of allowance to her royal highness the Princess of Wales, in effect determine that she does not deserve to be visited by fresh insults and indignities, but that she is worthy of her high station, and that they therefore afford her the means of supporting that rank. Such a vote will be not only a virtual acquittal of her Royal Highness, but a condemnation of those who advised that most indiscreet letter, by which she was insulted. I am glad that the noble lord has found an opportunity for giving this pledge-and I will tell him why he has found an opportunity, because he perceives that parliament and the coun try loudly demand it.

Mr. Methuen then withdrew his motion.

BILL FOR THE BETTER EXECUTION OF (M)

THE LAWS IN IRELAND.] Mr. Peel said, that in rising to submit to the House the motion of which he had given notice, he felt it incumbent upon him to explain his reasons for not having, at an earlier period, called the attention of parliament to this most important subject. The state of Ireland had unfortunately for some time been such, as to call for the adoption of some additional measures in order to preserve public tranquillity, and he certainly was prepared, at a much earlier period of the session, to have submitted them to the consideration of parliament. The evil which it was now proposed to remedy, had not, he was sorry to say, risen on a sudden; it had existed for a considerable time, indeed, he might say, for the whole period that he had had the honour of forming a part of the Irish government. Many parts of Ireland had been in a disturbed state, excesses had been committed, and disaffection prevailed, which it was known that the ordinary powers of the law were insufficient to repress. He therefore was prepared early in the session, to have submitted the present measure to the House, but the great and glorious events which occurred at that time, the overthrow of the monstrous tyranny established by Buonaparté in France, the restoration of the ligitimate sovereign, and the general pacification of Europe, induced him to suspend his proposition until he saw what effect was produced in Ireland by these important events, and he hoped he should stand justified in the opinion of the House, for having, under such circumstances, and for such an object, delayed the production of this measure: he did not wish that at a season of general happiness and rejoicing for the restoration of tranquillity, Ireland alone should form an exemption.

He was not, he confessed, very sanguine in his expectations of the effect that would be produced upon the tranquillity of Ireland, by the events to which he had alluded; but he thought the government of Ireland were bound to make the experiment, and to defer the measure as long as the necessity of the case would permit. With that view, the measure had been deferred, and he wished he could now state to the House, that these events which had restored tranquillity to the rest of Europe, bad restored tranquillity to Ireland; unfortunately, the effect they had produced upon Ireland was not very great; he could not congratulate the House and the country upon the state of that part of the United

Kingdom, nor could he, consistently with his duty, postpone the production of this measure till another session.

Before he submitted to the House the details of the measure which he now proposed to bring forward, he should beg leave very shortly, to state the nature of those disturbances, for which he now wished to propose a remedy. Those disturbances originated in different causesthe first that he should mention, were those which were the result of political combinations. In stating this part of the subject, it was far from his intention to exaggerate the objects which the persons so combining had in view, or the danger that was to be apprehended from them. He could not suppose that these combinations, which had for their object the overthrow of the government and the separation of Ireland from Great Britain, could find any supporters among men of any talents or weight in the country. These combinations consisted of idle infatuated people, with little education, and who were the dupes of men who possessed certainly more means of acquiring information than themselves, but still, he trusted, had none of those qualifications which could render them formidable, as the leaders of popular insurrection. But that these were combinations, whose object was to overthrow the existing government, to transfer the allegiance of the people to foreign powers, and for other objects of a similar kind, and that the individuals composing those societies, were bound together by oaths, there could not, unfortunately, be a doubt. In stating the grounds upon which he made assertions of this kind, he should rely only upon documents, the authority of which could not be questioned; he would not quote the verbal or written communications which had been made to government, which though in many instances were well founded, yet in others might be liable to a suspicion that they were exaggerated, from the fears naturally entertained by individuals from the appearance of immediate danger, and the recollection of past events. But to prove the existence of these combinations, he should only rest upon documents of unquestionable authenticity-he should refer to the oath, which was proved in evidence, at the last assizes in Ireland, against several persons charged with these combinations, and upon which they were convicted. Mr. Peel then read the oath, by which the person taking it, bound himself

alluded with unfeigned regret; he meant that which arose from religious animosity. Interruptions of the public tranquillity arising from such a cause, were the most to be lamented, and he feared the most difficult to be remedied. He would not now enter into the history of those unfortunate disputes, but he had the satisfaction to say, that notwithstanding the pains which had been taken in Ireland by means of the press and of inflammatory speeches, to induce the Roman Catholics of Ireland to believe that the Irish govern ment was not disposed to administer impartial justice to them as well as to their Protestant fellow-subjects, that these efforts had in a great degree failed of success, and there was indisputable evidence to shew the lower orders of Catholics were satisfied, that government were determined to treat all offenders against the public peace, whatever religious creed they might profess, most impartially.

In order to give the House an idea of the extent to which this irritation prevailed, it was only necessary for him to allude to a melancholy and fatal affray which had recently taken place at a village in the county of Cavan; though the accounts which had been given of this transaction were greatly exaggerated, still the House would learn with deep regret, that it was not terminated until seven persons had lost their lives, and many were wounded. On hearing of this unfortunate occurrence, the Irish government not entertaining any doubt of, and still less wishing to throw any imputation of the competency of the local authorities to conduct an enquiry into the causes of it, with fairness and impartiality, but desirous of obtaining information from a source that would be free even from the possibility of suspicion or imputation, sent down a gentleman of the Irish bar, of the highest professional eminence, and qualified by his commission, by his talents, acuteness and judgment, Mr. Jobb, to examine into the subject. The report of that gentleman stated, that the unfortunate dispute which had occurred was not a premeditated one, that there had existed animosity between the parties, but that the outrage in question did not proceed from a previously concerted conflict. Mr. Peel then read an extract from the report which Mr. Jobb had made, to the following effect: "I should not consider that I had done my duty if I omitted to state, that both parties, and per

sons of every description, expressed great satisfaction at the interposition of government, and appeared to rely confidently on the impartial administration of justice as well on the enquiry as on the future trials." He read this with satisfaction, because it shewed that the wicked attempts which had been made to convince the people that justice would not be fairly administered to them, had not succeeded.

He had now enumerated the principal features of those disturbances which had so long agitated Ireland. There subsisted in Ireland many obstacles in the way of the ordinary administration of the law, and one of the greatest was the difficulty of procuring persons to give information to government, and evidence against the violation of the peace. There was in Ireland, if he might be allowed the expression, a sort of romantic feeling, independent of any consideration of personal danger, which rendered the name and character of an informer odious, and was almost sufficient of itself to close the ordinary sources from whence information could be derived.

This feeling, he admitted, was most powerfully assisted in its operation, by the dreadful system of intimidation, which was established in the disturbed districts with the view of preventing evidence from being given. As be had proved every assertion that he had hitherto made, by a reference to some authentic document, he should follow the example on this occasion, and shew the extent to which this system of intimidation was carried, by a reference to the most melancholy record which any court of justice could exhibit. He would allude to the case of a person of the name of James Connell. He saw an hon. gentleman, the member for Westmeath, in the House, and he was sure he would confirm his statement upon this subject; this unfortunate man (Connell) had given information against some persons for administering unlawful oaths-it was found necessary, after he had given information, to keep him in gaol for his personal security, until he was brought up to Dublin to give evidence. He (Mr. Peel) afterwards saw this man, and cautioned him against going back to his own country; he was, however, so desirous of returning, that no advice could restrain him, and he went home; he, however, had the prudence to remain some days in the house of lord Castlemaine, but upon the departure of that noble lord, Connell