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gentleman himself had before altered his seat, though not perhaps his principle. The hon. gentleman would give him as well as himself the advantage of the classic maxim: Cælum, non animum mutant qui trans mare currunt.'

Mr. Tierney regarded the present as a most important question. The hon. member for Yorkshire had approved of the appointment on the ground that the Prince Regent was too weak and infirm an old gentleman to act without it, and thus, for once in his life, had made up his mind to a decided vote. He understood the hon. member also to bestow his approbation on the proceeding, because there had been a great addition to the business of the sovereign. Now where was the addition to be discovered? Was it in the foreign office? Had the present foreign minister more to communicate to his Royal Highness than his predecessor had to the King? Was it in the home department; Admitting this to have increased, was it not known that all the details were managed by the minister, leaving to the Prince nothing but the task of affixing his signature -a task from which no private secretary could relieve him. He hoped the hon. member for Yorkshire, on informing himself a little better on this part of the question, would see reason for changing his opinion. The only duty that could be named, certainly appeared to be that described by his hon. friend, of assorting and tying up papers in red tape, although the hon. gentleman, for the first time he believed in that House, had talked of the necessity of attending to the Prince's private concerns. The private secretary truly was to assist the Regent in his private correspondence. Now really, he was not aware of any increase in the private friends of that illustrious person which made such an appointment necessary. And if there were, what necessity was there for making the private letter-writer a privy counsellor? Colonel Taylor might or might not be private secretary to his Majesty, but he had no right to assume that he held such a situation. His appointment was not gazetted. He understood that his Majesty objected to his being a privy counsellor, not being willing to recognize the necessity of assistance in the discharge of his royal duties from any quarter whatever. Colonel Taylor, though not paid out of the privy purse, was paid out of the royal and special bounties; his salary never met the public eye, and it

For

could never furnish a precedent for the
appointment of colonel McMahon. By
the dexterity of their former patriotism,
the House had brought an additional bur-
den on the country of 300l. a year. It
was to be considered too, that the salary
of this appointment was not the only one
enjoyed by colonel M.Mahon. He had
undoubtedly been a faithful servant, but
was he not rewarded at least in a fair
proportion to his services? At that mo-
ment, as privy purse, he received 1,0007.
a year. As auditor of the duchy of Corn.
wall, he received 1,000l. a year more, be-
sides 500l. a year as secretary to the
Prince in his ducal capacity. With this
new office, therefore, he received 4,500l.
a year; which was pretty well. The
hon. member for Yorkshire, notwithstand-
ing the vote he was to give that night,
had yet started one little difficulty, which
was, however, something for an economi-
cal gentleman like him-he was sorry
that any money at all was to be paid by
the country for this appointment.
his part, he had no hostile feeling to colo-
nel M'Mahon, and wished to do nothing
unpleasant to the Prince. He would al-
low that it might be necessary for the
Prince to have advisers on military and
other subjects. This, however, was said
to be quite different; to be a private si-
tuation. He denied that there could be
any thing private in such a situation.
Colonel M'Mahon must either be secre-
tary of state, or he could be nothing.
Another thing he wished to know, was,
whether this was to be a place for life or
not? How did he know but that imme
diately after this appointment other per-
sons might be called in to discharge the
pretended duties of it, and that this might
turn out a direct sinecure for colonel
M'Mahon? He would own, for his own
part, if he were to have any transactions
with his Royal Highness, he would not
apply to him through the medium of the
right hon. gentleman opposite. He would
prefer the intervention of colonel M'Ma-
hon to going through all the tedious fri-
volities of Downing-street. Though some
men might be without prejudices and pre-
dilections, there were others who might
have them, and he, for one, certainly
would entertain a predilection for one of
these modes of application in preference
to the other.-The hon. member for York-
shire had said, he would have no objection
to the production of the papers moved
for, if they were wanted for the purpose

363] HOUSE OF COMMONS,

of information. That was exactly what he wished for. He asked for nothing but to know whether or not the country required this new office? He believed that it was no more than a pretence to obtain 2,000l. a year from the public for colonel McMahon.

Mr. Fuller should vote with all his heart Did not and soul against the motion. they allow on the other side that his Royal Highness had an immense number of private letters to write? And was that no ground for the appointment? Gentlemen should recollect, that when his Majesty ascended the throne, he was young and hearty. That he used to get up and go to bed early.-And that he was quite able to go through all his papers without any help. Now did not they know that and the Prince Regent was not so young, that he would therefore want a secretary? The question was a Grenville question. It was worse than a party question. If the Grenvilles wanted to be so very patriotic, why did not some of the family throw up their sinecures? It would have been real patriotism to take no more of the public money from an overburthened people; not to be sucking their blood as those patriots seemed, out of affection, deSinecures that, when termined to do. they were conferred on that family, were worth but about 5 or 6,000l. a year, now had increased to 30,000l.; and yet it was this bloated family that complained of colonel M Mahon's appointment. In fact it was their vanity that was disappointed, and all those measures were the result of that disappointment. There was a rancorous hatred lately manifested against all the measures of the Prince Regent, and it betrayed itself on this as well as on other occasions. Let the country now see who were the real friends of the Prince Regent. He did not mean any disparagement to lord Grey and the duke of Bedford; but they chose to load themselves If they would tie with the Grenvilles. a mill-stone about their neck and sink, it was not the fault of the Prince, nor of the country, but their own.

Mr. W. Wynn replied, when the House
divided,

For the motion 100: against it 176-
Majority 76.

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Burrell, sir C.
Buller, J. (Exeter)
Baker, J.
Baring, sir T.
Barret, sir C.
Biddulph, R. M.
Busk, W.
Brougham, H.
Baring, A.
Burdett, sir F.
Barham, J.
Chaloner, R.
Bennet, bon. H.

Cavendish, H.
Curwen, C.
Creevey, T.
Craig, J.
Cole, Ed.
Campbell, gen.
Combe, H. C.
Calvert, N.
Colborne, N. W. R.
Cuthbert, J. R.
Dillon, hon. H. A.
Dundas, hon. C. L.
Dundas, hon. L.
Duncannon, visc.
Eden, hon. G.
Elliot, rt. hon. W.
Ferguson, gen.
Folkestone, visc.

Grattan, rt. hon. H.

Grant, G. M.
Greenhill, R.
Gower, lord G. L.
Grenfell, P.
Hussey, T.
Harboard, hon. E.
Hibbert, G.
Hughes, W. H.
Hamilton, lord A.
Herbert, hon. W.
Horner, F.
Hutchinson, hon. C.
Halsey, Jos.
Ingleby, sir W.
Kemp, T.
Kensington, lord
King, sir J. D.

Knox, hon. T.
Knight, Robt.
Lamb, hon. W.
Lyttelton, hon, W.
Lemon, sir W.
Langton, G.
Latouche, R.
Martin, H.
Morris, E.
Morpeth, visc.
Milton, visc.
Macdonald,

J.

Maule, hon. W.
Madocks, W.
Mills, Wm.
Newport, sir J.
North, D.
O'Hara, C.
Ossulston, lord

O'Callaghen, J.
Ord, W.

Ponsonby, rt. hon. G.

Piggott, sir A.

Power, R.
Prittie, bon. F.
Ridley, sir M. W.

Sharp, R.

Romilly, sir S.

Sebright, sir J.

Smith, Wm.

Smith, S.

Smith, G.

Speir, A.

Scudamore, R. P.

Shipley, col.

Tierney, rt. hon. G.

Taylor, W.

Tarleton, gen.

Tremayne, L. H.
Vernon, G. G. V.
Williams, sir R.
Wrottesley, H.
Whitbread, S.
Ward, hon. J.
Western, C. C.
Wilkins, W.

TELLERS.

Wynn, C. W.
Giles, D.

BARRACK ESTIMATES.] The Report of the Committee of Supply being brought up and read,

Mr. Fremantle objected to the Barrack He said, that the barrack to Estimates. be erected in the Regent's Park was estimated to cost 133,500l. which was only to That at Liverpool, contain 416 men, which would be at the rate of 350l. per man. which was to contain 2 regiments of infantry, would cost 82,000l.; and that at Bristol, for only 800 men, was estimated at 60,000l. making a total of 275,000l. for three barracks. He then argued at length on the general extravagance of expenditure in the barrack system, which had

since the commencement of the war, cost the country upwards of 15 millions. When this enormous sum was taken into consideration, he was convinced the House would pause before they voted such a large additional sum as that now required, till they saw the estimate and the plan, and could thereby form something like a correct idea of the real expence.

pany, either in their corporate capacity or otherways, the petitioners, confiding in the liberal and enlightened views and wisdom of parliament, humbly hope and trust that the exclusive privileges of the company may not be renewed or continued, and that the East India trade may be made admissible to all the subjects of the empire, a measure that will certainly afford an extensive field for the employment of mer

Mr. Wharton contended, that the hon. gentleman had mixed the barrack expen-cantile talents and capital, now rendered diture with the building of barracks, and that the whole expence of barracks since the commencement of the war, did not amount to within two millions of the sum he had stated.

Mr. Whitbread proposed instead of the word "now," "this day se'nnight."

A conversation took place, in which Mr. Ponsonby, Mr. Wilberforce, Sir J. Newport, and Mr. Bankes, spoke in favour of the amendment; and it was at length agreed, on the suggestion of Mr. Bankes, that the report should be agreed to, with respect to all the articles, except those which related to the barracks, and that they should be deferred till this day se'nnight.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

Wednesday, April 15.

PETITIONS FROM DUNFERMLINE AND STIRLING RESPECTING THE RENEWAL OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY'S CHARTER.] A Petition of the provost magistrates and common council of the royal burgh of Dunfermline, in council assembled, was presented and read; setting forth,

"That, in the view of the approaching expiration of the Charter of the united company of merchants trading to the East Indies, by which a commercial monopoly is enjoyed by that company, in the humble opinion of the petitioners, highly prejudicial to the interests of the country at large, they beg leave respectfully to convey to the House their sentiments on a subject of such great and general importance, and especially at a crisis when, from the continental restrictions on the trade and manufactures of Great Britain and Ireland, the commercial interests of the empire have suffered incalculable injury; and that, far from presuming to obtrude any particular suggestions on a subject to which the united wisdom of the legislature is now called, the future government of British India, and disclaiming all interference with the East India trading com

nearly dormant through the tyrannic policy of a lawless despot, beyond whose iron grasp, the opening a field for a free and unfettered trade with so large a portion of the globe, comprehended under the ex. clusive grant to the East India company, holds out a fortunate substitute for the temporary loss of European commerce; and praying the House to adopt such measures as may render it lawful for any of his Majesty's subjects, from and after the 1st day of March 1814, to carry on, from any of the ports of the United Kingdom, a free and unlimited trade with the British possessions in India, and other countries situated to the East of the Cape of Good Hope and to the West of Cape Horn."

A Petition of the guildry of Stirling, was also presented and read; setting forth,

"That, in the prospect of the East India company's charter being soon expired, the petitioners beg leave respectfully to address the House on this very important subject, so highly interesting to the empire at large; and that they humbly plead the natural right that every British subject has to exercise a free trade with every country dependent upon or in amity with the British empire; that the experience of past ages sufficiently proves the general inexpediency of commercial monopolies ; that the monopoly hitherto enjoyed by the East India company, while it has excluded British subjects from any partici pation in the trade, so far from operating to the advantage of the company, has laid them under the necessity of frequently applying to government for enormous sums of the public money to support their establishment, so that even in this respect it is a national grievance; and that it is extremely discouraging, and in itself unnatural, that the merchants of foreign nations should be allowed the benefit of a free trade to British possessions of such magnitude, which is denied to British merchants; and the circumstance of Americans and other foreign nations carrying

on trade with those countries comprehend-worthy of the great cause in behalf of ed in the East India company's charter, which it was preferred; in bold and consticompletely refutes the arguments urged tutional language; it called upon that House by those interested in the monopoly, of a to make the British constitution stronger free trade being prejudicial to private than it then was, by extending it to every merchants, and that the petitioners hum- British subject. It spoke a language worthy bly beg leave farther to state, that the of men, who knew how to value the rights continuance of this monopoly bears pecu- they applied for, such as freemen should liarly hard on British merchants at present, at all times use, and a British parliament when our inveterate foe is exerting all his should at no period be unwilling to hear. power to shut out this nation from com- He had also to state, that every signature to mercial intercourse with the continent of the 'Petition was the hand-writing of the Europe, which renders the continuation of person whose name it specified, comprethat system peculiarly inexpedient; and hending almost all the Catholic respectathat, on the other hand, the admission of a bility, weight, influence, and property of free and unfettered trade with such a large the county. He could also assure the proportion of the population of the globe House, that there had been no sort of intermost fortunately presents a very seasonable ference made use of to swell the number of substitute for the loss of European com- the signatures, every man was left to do as merce, the vast extent of countries and va- he pleased, a circumstance that must have riety of climates, situated between the Cape created rather an awkward sort of contrast, of Good Hope and the Straits of Magellan, to that feverish anxiety evinced in other affording an extensive field for mercantile quarters to procure signatures to a Petition talents and capital, beyond the tyrannical of a very different tendency. He strongly grasp of the enemy; and such an opening deprecated every interposition of this sort cannot fail to prove highly gratifying and as most unconstitutional, as an attempt to beneficial to the British empire at large, disguise from parliament the real sentistrengthen and secure its vital interests, by ments of the Protestants of Ireland, upon reviving languishing commerce and ma- the subject of the claims of their Catholic nufactures at home, and most effectually- fellow-subjects. The Petition was then defeating the grand object of our invete- brought up and read; setting forth, rate foe on the continent; and praying the House neither to renew nor continue the exclusive privileges of the East India company, and in its wisdom to adopt such measures as may render it lawful for any of his Majesty's subjects, from and after the 1st day of March 1814, to carry on from all ports of the United Kingdom a free and unlimited trade with the British possessions in India, and with all other countries situated to the east of the Cape of Good Hope, and to the west of Cape Horn."

Ordered to lie upon the table.

PETITION OF THE ROMAN CATHOLICS OF CORK.] Mr. Hutchinson said, that he held in his hand a Petition from the Catholic inhabitants of the county and city of Cork, praying, that all persons professing the Roman Catholic persuasion, might be relieved from the pressure of those disabilities and disqualifications under which they at present laboured it was not his intention to go then at all into the discussion of a question, which was soon to be treated in a manner so much more suitable to its importance, but he begged the attention of the House, to the language and character of the Petition itself. It was every way

"That, contemplating the warning fate of surrounding nations, and the fearful disparity of our physical means in the vital conflict in which we are engaged, the Petitioners respectfully express, as they deeply feel, a serious and surely not irrational apprehension of the result, unless the legislature in its wisdom shall hasten to oppose an effectual counterpoise to the mighty power now wielded with such rancorous hostility for our destruction; and this great object, it appears to the Petitioners, can only be achieved, by calling into instantaneous action, and combining, in protection of these threatened realms, every vigorous and quickening impulse, all the elements of generous and moral feeling that can animate and exalt the human breast; and yet, amidst the crowding terrors of these days, in a war emphatically distinguished as a war of principle, when an enlightened policy would be anxious to communicate the equal benefits, in order to infuse the unconquered spirit of freedom, the Petitioners behold, with concern and dismay, a vast majority of the population of this land still degraded and discouraged; above four millions of a gallant and loyal people are summoned to

shed their blood in support of a constitu- | attainment of their wishes; and that here tion which unnerves the hand raised in its they hope they shall be indulged in addefence, by intercepting its fair reward, ducing, as a crowning proof of the tenets and checks the aspiration of their genius and practice of their ancient faith, the by the opposition of ungenerous barriers sublime example of its spiritual head, the to its course; they are precluded from nu- suffering and magnanimous Pius, who merous offices of trust and honour, the ob- stands an illustrious monument of glory to jects and incentives of a noble emulation, his religion, and of shame to many Christhough to many of these the more favoured tian princes; on him humiliations have alien is invited at home, and all are open, been heaped, and the cup of bitterness with the concurrence of the House, to the impotently exhausted; immovable in connewly conquered Catholic subject abroad; scious rectitude, he alone has defied the the native Catholic alone, as if marked by vengeance of a ruthless power, and, as bethe reprobating stamp of nature, is pro- came the great minister of peace, refused nounced unworthy of making his services, to join a confederacy leagued for the in every station, acceptable to his sove- overthrow of these kingdoms; his despoiler reign, or useful to his country; and that they may confidently maintain will meet these proscriptive statutes, the Petitioners little countenance or partiality from Calament to say, have transplanted from tholic Ireland; and that the Petitioners their natural soil the talents and fortunes will not stoop further to repel these caof many an able statesman and valiant lumnies, which even their propagators do soldier ; born to diffuse lustre on their not believe, but they refer with compla own, and compelled to promote the glo- cency, to the solemn recognition of their ries of another land; the Petitioners claim, meritorious demeanor by their own paras their kindred, while they deplore to liament, when it first invited them to the their country, the loss of many names of threshold of the constitution, a measure renown in foreign annals, and on the pre- wise and salutary at the time, but doubly sent great theatre of war, they trace, in grateful as a spontaneous emanation from some of the most distinguished actors, the royal breast; the benign and parental the blood and spirit of banished Irish- source, they are proud to acknowledge, of men; and that still a system, so injurious numerous other gracious favours; and in its operation, generated in times and with equal pleasure do the Petitioners apunder circumstances of which the very peal to the honourable and decisive testishadow has passed away, is, they blush mony of their Protestant fellow citizens, to add, attempted to be justified by whose just discernment has long obliterimputations aspersive of their morality ated, in society, the partial demarcations as Christians, and allegiance as subjects, of the law; with them the Petitioners are their enemies, and the enemies of the blended in all the sympathies of private edifice, would fain blot from the page life and communion of dearest interests; of history, and from the recollection of they would open wide, and hail as reathe House; that to their Catholic ances- son's triumph, their unqualified admission tors, Britons are mainly indebted for the to the sanctuary of British freedom, for to transcendent blessings of their constitu- them they have amply proved how deeply tion; they laid the firmest basis of the they have imbibed, and how prepared empire; and it surely is an ungenerous they are to vindicate its principles; they retribution to their memory to make the witnessed and they cheered their late ascreed they professed a title of exclusion sertion, constitutional they trust, and aufrom the more perfect fabric; that religion, thorized of that radical provision of its they are bound to infer, could inculcate guardian law, the right they at this monothing dangerous to society or prejudicial ment exercise of addressing the House; to the state, the sole and paramount sway and the Petitioners therefore feel warranted of which was owned by those men who respectfully, but most earnestly, to impress first defined the grand outlines of our civil on the wisdom of the House the policy of rights, and the influence of which, at the cherishing those elements of harmony and present day, subjects the master passions conciliation, which will unite in consentaof our nature, even interest and ambition, neous impulse all the energies of the state, to the controul of conscience; by moral will elect for their rulers, in the bosoms of man alone is that sacred bar held insepa- enfranchised Irishmen, a temple of everrable and inviolate which the law has in- lasting gratitude, and impart vigour to the terposed between the Petitioners and the arm, and ardour to the heart, of every in (VOL. XXII.) (2 B)

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