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information to communicate. He had just told the House, that the additional 10,000l. given lately to the Queen, was given to her on no other ground, but on account of her own additional expences. Now, he would appeal to the House, if the right hon. gentleman had not stated the expence the Queen would be put to on account of the Princesses as a reason for the grant, and if he had not particularly stated the expence of the removal from place to place of the royal daughters, as likely to make a part of that expence yet it would now appear, from what had been stated that night to the House, that the grant to the Princesses was to enable them to remove from place to place when they should think fit to do so. Grants

of this sort ought to be put on an intelligible footing. Was it on account of the time of life of the Princesses? Then it could not be suitable to all of them, because they were not all of the same age. What, upon such a principle as this, the eldest ought to have had long ago, the youngest ought not, perhaps, to receive for many years. On these grounds he felt himself compelled to oppose the Resolution.

Mr. Barham said, that he wished to put some questions to the right hon. gentleman, not as the confidential adviser of the Prince or his consort, but as the minister of this country. He wished to ask him in that capacity, why he had recommended an additional grant for the Princesses, and had entirely overlooked the person who was so much nearer to the throne than they were? He asked this question on public grounds, and he asked it of the right hon. gentleman, not as the adviser of the Prince, but as the minister of the country. He called upon the right hon. gentleman to state why no additional splendour was to be attached to the Princess of Wales, the wife of the Prince Regent.

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Mr. Tierney said, he rose to ask the right hon. gentleman no question, for he saw that he was likely to get no answer; but he thought they were entitled to conclude, from the sullen silence of the right hon. gentleman, that he sanctioned with his approbation the separation between the Prince and Princess. (Cry of No, no, from the Chancellor of the Exchequer.) The right hon. gentleman cried No-then let him give his reasons for his present conduct. (Cries of No, and Hear!) The Princess Regent had Mr. H. Thornton, though he felt himself not one farthing more assured to her than inclined to support a separate establish- 5,000l. She depended on the bounty of ment for the Princesses, considered him- the Prince for the other 17,000l. which self called upon to oppose the grant at might be withdrawn to-morrow morning present. Some enquiry ought to take at his pleasure. If the Princesses were to place, proving the necessity of throwing be made independent, why was she not such an additional burden on the people. made independent? She ought, undoubtHe could see no inconvenience in the edly, to be independent.-(Cries of No, no! House waiting till the report of the com- from the ministerial bench!) The right mittee on the Civil List came before them. hon. gentlemen say No, no!"-and I For his part, he wished to adopt the pru- say, said Mr. Tierney, "Yes, yes!-I call dent precaution of waiting the result of upon them for their reason why she should the investigations of that committee, be- not be independent? Both the right hon. fore he would venture to throw the whole, gentleman and the lord chancellor must or any part of such a burden on the people. have informed themselves fully with reMr. Wrottesley agreed with the hon. gen-spect to her conduct. If there was any tleman who spoke last, that they ought to wait till the report of the committee was before them. He remembered well when the settlement of the civil list came lately under their consideration, that the right hon. gentleman (the Chancellor of the Exchequer) did state, as a ground for the House to vote the 10,000l. to the Queen, that the Princesses would remain with her. He would now ask him-had he this grant then in contemplation? If so, had, he treated the House fairly? For himself he thought the right hon. gentleman had not acted in a candid manner towards the House.

thing in that conduct known to them, and unknown to the country, unworthy of her, the dignity of the country, and the dignity of the Prince Regent, required of the right hon. gentleman to bring forward an accusation against her." He wished an answer. If they could prove any thing against the credit of the Princess, parliament ought to take even that away from her which they now allowed; but if they could not, there was no reason why she should not be maintained suitably to her rank in the state. If the King were to die to-morrow, and she was to come to the throne, what would 'the right hon.

gentleman then do? Would there be no provision made for her similar to that which had been made for other queens of England? In the peculiar situation that the right hon. gentleman had stood, first as counsellor to the Princess, and now as minister and adviser to the Prince, there was no man capable of giving more information to the House. He wished to know why he had cast off one client to take a brief from another? He trusted that the right hon. gentleman was not the fomenter of the existing differences between the royal pair; and he really thought that he was bound, both to the country and his own character, to give some explanation of his conduct.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer said, that as for what he was bound to do from regard to the country and his own cha. racter, he should always judge for himself. He did not know in what capacity, or with what exact view, the right hon. gentleman came forward thus to question him; but he had no objection whatever to state, that neither in his capacity of counsellor to her Royal Highness, nor in any other character whatever, had he any charge against her Royal Highness, or the means of bringing forward any charge, and that he never meant to cast the slightest reflection upon her. He would say nothing further on the subject. As to this discussion, he had no delegated authority; no commands to propose an additional grant for the Princess of Wales. Nevertheless, if he could collect that it was the sense of parliament that such additional provision should be made, he made no doubt but that he would shortly be fully authorized to recommend it.

All be

Highness as Princess of Wales.
could conclude was, that as Princess of
Wales, and wife of the Prince Regent, the
right hon. gentleman and parliament
knowing of no charge against her, she
ought not to remain dependant on the plea-
sure of the Prince.

Mr. Courtenay said this was the first time, he believed, that the House had been called on to prescribe what Message ought to be communicated to them from the crown. He thought there was a delicacy with respect to the Prince Regent and the Princess of Wales, which the House ought not to lose sight of.

Mr. C. Adams considered this subject of the conduct and character of the Princess of Wales improperly introduced in the present question, and by a sort of side wind. Such a consideration was not before the committee, and he thought it unfair to hamper the right hon. gentleman in the way the right hon. gentlemen opposite were attempting.

This

Mr. Whitbread reprobated the doctrine thrown out by the right hon. gentleman, that he felt himself called upon to give no advice, but that if the House should shew any disposition to provide for her royal highness the Princess Regent, he should feel it his duty to make the communication to the Prince Regent. The House had now heard from a person who was so well qualified to judge, first as counsel employed by her royal highness the Princess of Wales, and then afterwards as the minister of the crown, that the conduct of her Royal Highness was perfectly blameless. It was certainly a very great satisfaction to hear, that no imputation could be cast on the Princess of Wales. Mr. Tierney contended, that it was when was peculiarly satisfactory, as the right grants were making for all the other hon. gentleman could not forget that her branches of the royal family, that a pro- Royal Highness once stood in his estimaposal for an increased establishment of the tion as a person who had been stigmatized Princess of Wales might be expected. for impropriety of conduct, and that he But the right hon. gentleman now gave published a Book for the express purpose the House to understand, that if they ab- of establishing her innocence, by the resolutely would have it so, why then he moval of those accusations. The right would abate something of his dignity, and hon. gentleman would do well not to forcomply with their desire so far as to re- get, however, that her Royal Highness commend a grant to her Royal Highness. still remained unvindicated. It appeared But in saying that he was not authorised, to him, that there was nothing improper -that he had no commands to bring for- in taking this subject into consideration at ward such a measure, the right hon. gen- the present time, when every branch of tleman was declaring, in other words, that the royal family, but the Princess Regent, he had not advised such a measure. He was provided for. When the right hon. was glad, however, to have heard the gentleman made a demand of an establishright hon. gentleman state distinctly, that ment for the unfortunate monarch, of so he knew no charge against her Royal many lords of the bed chamber, and so

[146 many grooms of the stole (and be it re- who so pointedly disapproved of what he membered, that they could be employed termed catechising the right hon. gentleonly in giving accounts to his anxious man opposite. So far from the questions subjects of the state of his Majesty's health, which had been addressed to that right of which the public could get accounts hon. gentleman being either improper, inonly once in a month)-when the House delicate, or unparliamentary, in his opisaw large grants made to all the younger nion they were exactly the reverse of all sons of his Majesty, and a grant of 9,000l. these. When grants were proposed to be per annum asked for to each of the Prin- made to remote branches of the royal facesses; he would put it to them if that mily, what could be more natural, or more was an improper time to come forward for directly in order, than to ask why another the purpose of claiming some provision for person, more nearly allied to the throne, a person in that high and exalted situation was alone passed by? On every propoin which her Royal Highness was placed? sition for a money grant, he had no hesi-When the House heard from a person so tation in declaring it to be his decided well acquainted with the subject as the conviction, that it was not only the right, right hon. gentleman, that her Royal High- but the duty of the House, to catechise ness was not in anywise blameable, when the right hon. gentleman. On the subthey heard this from the very man who ject which had been so repeatedly alluded would have proved to the world in his to this night, there was, in his conception book that she was innocent, he would of it, something extremely mysterious, again ask if this was an improper time to which required being accounted for; parcome forward with a proposal to parlia- ticularly, he thought the House was enment? It remained to be enquired, whe-titled to know from the right hon. gentlether the funds already provided were or were not sufficient for that purpose.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer observed, that what he had stated with respect to the Princess of Wales, was, that neither in his situation as counsel to her Royal Highness, nor in any other character, was he conscious that there existed a ground of charge against her. He should always be prepared to make the same statement.

Mr. Lockhart was of opinion that the only question now before the House was whether the annuity now proposed was fit to be granted to the Princesses? He was clearly of opinion it was no more than what was demanded, and of course the resolution had his decided support.

Mr. Ellison agreed, that the only question now for the consideration of the House was, the propriety of the grant now proposed to the Princesses. Whether an additional establishment should be made for the Princess of Wales was not a question before the House. He must deprecate the manner in which the right hon. gentleman, (Mr. Perceval) had been catechised on this subject.-It was unparliamentary, indelicate, and improper.-With family matters that House had nothing to do, and in at all interfering, gentlemen might widen, instead of healing, any breach which unfortunately at present existed.

Sir J. Newport rose to enter his protest against the doctrine laid down by the hon. gentleman who had just sat down, and (VOL. XXII.)

man, why he, who had been the advocate for her Royal Highness, should now have been converted into the person who was to withhold from her that justice to which she was entitled. He wished to ask too, whether the Book which the right hon. gentleman had at one time prepared for publication, had had the printer's name affixed to it, as was required by law, or whether, as had been reported, it was printed in the right hon. gentleman's own house? He repeated, that he thought the House entitled to know on what ground the right hon. gentleman, who had formerly been so loud in declaring the innocence of her Royal Highness, abstained from reccommending that she should be placed in that rank in the country to which she was justly entitled?

The Resolution was then put, and agreed to without a division, and the House having resumed, the report was ordered to be received to-morrow.

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fered a less severe execution, but who were equally unable to pay their debts. The law ought to apply generally, or not at all. In the present situation of the country, the mere circumstance of becoming a bankrupt did not, in his opinion, render a man unworthy of a seat in that House. He trusted some consideration would be had for those whose bankruptcies were attributable to misfortune alone; and he declared that he had known more instances than one of bankrupts who had evinced by their conduct the highest sentiments of honour.

Mr. Lockhart thought great credit was due to the hon. gentleman who introduced this Bill into the House. So far were the provisions of it from imposing a particular hardship, that the various existing statutes, if they were strictly interpreted, would in his opinion disqualify a bankrupt from retaining his seat, and would authorise a motion for a new writ in the case of a bankruptcy. Now the proposed measure did not go to an immediate removal; but left the possibility of ultimately retaining the seat. He did not doubt that many bankrupts entertained sentiments of high honour; but such an argument as that, on that account alone, they should not vacate their seats, went against all qualifications whatever.

Mr. W. Smith contended, that the legislature had wisely declared, that a member of the House of Commons should have a certain qualification, that he might be independent of any corrupt motives. A bankrupt necessarily declared himself not worth a shilling, and were that the sole ground of objection to a bankrupt's retaining his seat in parliament, he should think it amply sufficient.

Mr. Wynn observed, that the 300l. a year qualification required by the statute would be now equivalent to 1,000l. He thought it necessary to maintain the law of qualification in point of property in the elected as well as in the electors.

1. Mr. Lamb observed, that the Qualificacation Act provided, that a member should have a certain qualification when he took his seat, but further it did not go. He could not give his consent to a Bill which appeared to him to trench upon one of the first rights of the subject, namely an eligibility to sit in that House.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer allowed that the existing law was anomalous for Irish members becoming bankrupts, vaeated their seats, while English members

did not; but the hon. gentleman who brought in the Bill, had introduced provisions from the Irish act, which were not applicable to the English law of bankrupts. To equalise the situation of the members of both countries in this respect, the law must be embarrassed with many provisions of a different nature. At present, the Bill appeared to him to be extremely defective. An interval of six months was al-' lowed by it after the bankruptcy, before the exclusion of the bankrupt from the House. In the course of that time, either by gift, bequest, or his own exertions, the bankrupt might become better qualified than when he originally entered parliament. On the whole, he thought it better to reject the Bill, than to admit it with all the embarrassing provisions with which it must necessarily be attended.

Mr. Thompson declared, that his object was to preserve, as much as possible, the independence of parliament, and to prevent persons who possessed no qualification, from sitting in that House, and making laws for the community. No doubt there were honourable bankrupts, but nine cases of bankruptcy out of ten, were attributable to folly and imprudence. A country magistrate would look shyly at a justice, who presumed to sit on the bench and admister the law, after having paid his creditors a shilling or half-a-crown in the pound; nor did he think such a person much more fit for a legislator.

Mr. Giddy supported the Bill, on the principle that power and property ought never to be separated; and therefore, that all members of that House ought to be duly qualified by the possession of certain property. Nothing had tended more to injure that House in the public opinion, than that bankrupts and insolvent persons had been allowed to sit among them; and he was anxious to remove this stain from their character.

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The House then divided, For the second reading 22; Against it 19. Majority 3,

HOUSE OF LORDS.
Tuesday, March 24.

BANK OF ENGLAND NOTES.] Earl Grey said, that a measure was then in progress through the other House of Parliament, which embraced a subject of the utmost importance to the country. From all that he had heard on the subject, he could view the measure in no other light than as a Bill for making Bank-notes a

gal tender. In his opinion, therefore, prior to any discussion on the Bill, some information should be laid before the House, to shew how far, in the event of the measure having the effect, he stated, the public could receive it, without some sufficient security being given-to point out how far the country could rely on that which was proposed to be introduced as a valid security. He should, therefore, feel it his duty to move for an account of the number of notes which had been presented at the Bank, for payment, within a specific time, and refused, on the ground of their being forgeries. If no objection were made to the production of this paper, he would move for it to-morrow. If, however, any opposition were likely to be manifested, he would postpone it till after the holidays. The Earl of Liverpool observed, that he would, at present, say nothing more about the Bill to which the noble earl had adverted, than that he was entirely mistaken as to its principle. When the measure was regularly before them, he should be ready to state his opinion fully. With respect to the account for which the noble earl expressed his intention of moving, he was desirous, before such a motion was submitted to the House, to know, whether any objection against producing it, existed in the quarter from whence it must be derived; and, if any, what the nature of that objection was. That he might procure satisfaction on those points, he wished a short delay to take place. Probably, he should have an opportunity to-morrow, of acquiring that information; and, if so, he would communicate the result to the noble earl.

TOLERATION ACT.] Lord Holland said, that during the last session of parliament a Bill had been submitted to their lordships by a noble viscount (Sidmouth) whom he did not then see in his place, relative to the Dissenters, which, however, the House had not thought proper to adopt. Without meaning to state his own feelings and opinions, as they respected that Bill, their lordships must be aware that it had created a great sensation throughout the country, and that, in consequence, a new construction had been put on certain parts of the Toleration Act, different from any that had before prevailed, On that construction he would say nothing. It certainly would be indecorous for him or any other member of parliament, to animadvert on it, as having the sanction of judicial au

thority. He had heard some time since, that it was the intention of government to afford relief to those persons who were ex❤ posed, by this new construction, to severe disappointment, by introducing a Bill into parliament for that purpose. He always thought, that any act of grace came best from the executive government; and, while there was any expectation that they would propose some measure of relief, he had waited, with great anxiety, to give any humble assistance which lay in his power, towards its completion. But, as they were now approaching the recess, and a considerable part of the session had elapsed, he wished to be informed whether it was in the contemplation of the noble lords opposite, to submit any measure to parliament, of the nature to which he had adverted. Because, if no such intention existed, it would be a matter of serious consideration, whether a proposition should not be made by some noble lord not connected with the government.

The Earl of Liverpool said, that the question of construction had not yet been done with in the courts of law, for he understood that it was intended to have the decision of the court of King's-bench re viewed by appeal, or in some other way. When the question was completely settled in the courts below, then would be the time to bring before parliament whatever might be proper on the subject.

Lord Holland said, that the matter had been decided by the court of King's bench; and what he wanted to know was, whether there was any intention on the part of government to bring in such a Bill as that which he had mentioned in the course of the present session?

The Earl of Liverpool again asserted, that the question had not been altogether disposed of in the courts below. Some applications had been made to govern. ment for a Bill of this kind, but he thought it quite time enough to answer such ques tions as these, when the matter should be decided in the courts of law.

Earl Grey said, he understood the noble lord's opinion to be, that it was most expedient to let the business lie over until the disputed point was decided. It was a matter of great interest to a very large body of persons, and, therefore, it was highly im portant that they should be apprised of the decision as soon as possible. He should be glad to know, supposing the recent construction of the act was upheld, whether, in that case, government con

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