solation to the latest moment of his life, that though he differed on many points from that most distinguished statesman, he had the honour to have concurred with him upon all the great principles of the constitution, upon all the grand rules of order, and upon the unalterable necessity of maintaining the ancient existing establishment. He had no apology to offer for what he had done. He had but done his duty. If Mr. Gale Jones thought his committal illegal, why had he not applied for his habeas corpus? Why had not sir F. Burdett if he thought so why, because they were convinced the commitment was legal. If not, the day after the commitment, they might have had their habeas and been liberated. When gentlemen talked so much of the innocent blood that had been shed, and asked upon whom it should fie, he could have no hesitation in answering upon sir F. Burdett, on his head the blood will lie till the day of judgment. If it was necessary for him to justify his principles, it was impossible for any man to contend that it was necessary to the extent to which he had carried his resistance, and which alone had led to the shedding of blood. He considered, that however ignorant the petitioners might be of the constitution, yet to charge the House directly with an assumption of arbitrary power, with breaking open the house of an Englishman, and with being the occasion of the shedding of innocent blood, was an insult so marked, that it must have been intended as such.

Mr. Brand was astonished at hearing an bon. and learned gent. (Mr. Stephen) speak so lightly of rejecting a petition presented on the part of so respectable a portion of the people. If he were to examine this petition minutely, he must say there was no charge on the House of Commons for causing the shedding of innocent blood, as there were entire sentences intervening between the complaint of the conduct of the House of Commons and the mention of that circumstance. When it had been stated that the meeting was attended by every thing that was most respectable in the county, it could not be supposed that it was their intention to insult the House. Mr. Creevey said, that the friendship he long entertained for the hon. baronet (sir F. Burdett), made it impossible for him. not to advert to some expressions which had fallen from a right hon. gent. (Mr. Yorke). He had said that the blood of the innocent persons who had lost their

lives, must rest to the day of judgment on the head of the hon. baronet. Now what was it that the hon. baronet had done? He had only maintained what he conceived to be the political rights of Englishmen. The hon. baronet denied that the House had legally the right to imprison the subjects of this country by their own authority; and being of that opinion, he would not yield a willing obedience to their warrant, but resolved to shut his door, and try whether the House of Commons would go the length of breaking into his house. He would not say whether his hon. friend was right or wrong in his opinion, but he was convinced that it was an opinion which he seriously and conscientiously entertained. He thought that bad motives ought not to be lightly imputed to any man; and if the right hon. gent. chose to say that the innocent blood which was spilt was on the head of sir F. Burdett, he would be fully as well satisfied in saying, that it was on the head of that right hon. gent. He concluded by moving that the debate be adjourned.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer opposed the adjournment, as he thought that the subject had already been sufficiently debated.

Mr. C. Dundas expressed a wish that the hon. gent. would withdraw his motion for the adjournment.

Mr. Whitbread coincided in that recom mendation; and to shew that he did not wish to protract the debate, he would ab stain from replying to many things which had fallen from the first lord of the ad miralty, although certainly that right hon. gent. had given considerable provocations. But when the right hon. gent. denounced a member of that House, a member of society, and stated that innocent blood was upon his head, he would say, what he should be very sorry to say, that either upon the head of the hon. bart. or on that of the right hon. gent. himself, was this blood to rest till washed off at the day of judgment. He thought no man should hastily impute bad motives, and that all should remember that precept of Holy Writ, "Judge not lest ye be judged,"

The House then divided: For receiving the petition 36; For rejecting it 78.-The Petition was of course rejected.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

Thursday, June 7.

[KING'S MESSAGE FOR AUGMENTING

highest of human gratifications. No, his honourable mind was ever conscious that if it did not enjoy, at least it deserved the good opinion of the country.-That he actually had the good opinion of all those who are capable of truly appreciating character, I have not the slightest doubt. Among all those who attach any value to real public virtue and talent, I am firmly persuaded that no man ever stood higher. If he had faults and indiscretions, which of us are without them? but his faults and indiscretions were not of any ordinary cast, for they sprung from no ordinary source. They were not the effect of any deficiency of understanding or lowness of view-no, but of that high-minded generosity which was his peculiar characteristic. His disinterestedness was wholly unquestionable. Never did he appear to regard in the slightest degree in what manner his public conduct might affect himself-how it might impair his character or his circumstances. Influenced alone by what he conceived to be right, he steadily pursued it without any dread of consequences. Whether his ideas of right or wrong were generally correct, or whether results generally justified those ideas, certain I am that I anticipate the concurrence of those who closely observed him, that the feelings and the motives I have described, were the uniform guides of his conduct.At an early period of his life, he had attached himself to another great man (Mr. Burke) whose loss the country had already deplored. He imbibed from that great character those opinions which he invariably pursued; and though, at one time, it might be said, that he became exceedingly alarmed at what some might regard as improvements, but what others might consider as innovations, it proceeded from a reverential awe for the true principles of the constitution.-The noble lord then exprest that it had been his wish to avoid any thing which could tend to excite controversy and to confine himself to those points, upon which controversy was impossible. It was his wish to say something on those parts of his character which others might not have had opportunities of observing, but he felt himself unequal to the task. Perhaps it was unnecessary that he should do so. The House knew his public character; and certain he was, that among his friends and foes there was but one opinion-that in his death they had sustained a loss which perhaps the youngest among them might not live

to see repaired. Having thus unburdened his own mind, on the occasion, he believed he had no more to say. Had he not so expressed himself, his conduct might have been justly considered more extraordinary. He lamented what he had said had been so inelegantly spoken, but he was not able sufficiently to master his feelings to express himself as he could wish. He concluded by moving-"That the Speaker do issue his writ for a burgess to serve in parliament for the borough of Higham Ferrers, in the room of the right hon. William Windham, deceased."

Mr. Canning, though he had been long in the habit of opposing the public conduct of the illustrious character now no more, rose to bear his testimony to those talents and virtues which had distinguished Mr. Windham's splendid career. He felt equally with the noble lord, the impossibility of doing justice to talents so exalted, to virtues so rare. Among all the storms and all the contests which had raged in his time, whatever might have been the frenzy of the moment, he above all, had avoided the appearance and the reality of soliciting popular approbation. But if his conduct had not made him the object of transient popularity, it had secured him what was of greater value, lasting and unperishable admiration. At no time could so great a character pay the last debt of nature, without leaving a chasm much to be deplored, and difficult to fill up; but never was there a period at which his loss could be more sensibly felt than at the present. Throughout his life, from a sincere sense of public duty, he had exposed himself to every threatening evil, in what he conceived to be the cause of his country. He had left them a proof that conduct so upright, if not calculated to gain the applause of a party, was certain of conciliating universal esteem. It had often been his (Mr. Canning's) fate, during the time he had been his contemporary, to oppose his public conduct. This he had frequently done, thinking he (Mr. Windham) carried the best principles to an excess, but never once had he suspected his motives to be dishonourable.-There was a selfishness of which it was difficult for a' public man to divest himself-the selfish pleasure of pleasing those with whom they were in the habit of acting; but' superior still, even of this most amiable of all selfish feelings had Mr. Windham been acquitted, both by his political friends and opponents. When he recol.

lected the accomplishments by which that great character had been graced when he considered the extent of his knowledge, and the force of his eloquence, which, if not the most commanding they had ever heard, was the most insinuating which, if it did not convince, delighted all who heard it, made them feel with the man while speaking, and enter into his heart, he could not but feel somewhat reconciled to that which had been called "a blot in our constitution." He alluded to the boroughs of which so many complaints had been made. He did not say that if none such already existed in the constitution, he would create them, but among the necessary imperfections of our system, he thought it must be admitted that they had turned to a good account. The noble lord had concluded his speech by moving that a new writ be issued for the borough of Higham Ferrers-that was one of those boroughs held up as defects in the parliamentary representation of that House. He begged the House would recollect that when, from a loss of popularity, that right hon. gentleman was deprived of a seat for his native county, that House had been indebted for the services and the splendid talents of Mr. Windham to the borough of Higham Ferrers.

A new writ was then ordered to be issued for the said borough.

[CAPTAIN FOSKETT.] Mr. Lyttleton said, he supposed that many gentlemen might have imagined that in consequence of a recent event he should have postponed the consideration of the present subject. He felt as much abhorrence as any man could possibly do at the cruel and barbarous attack lately made upon the royal personage who was the subject of this Petition. [See vol.16, p. 751.] In consequence of this circumstance, he was anxious to postpone the question, provided it did not interfere with the individual interests of capt. Foskett, or the general interests of the army, which he considered equally involved. From any deliberation on the subject he was, however, relieved on that day by a message from his royal highness the duke of Cumberland, desiring if possible, that the question might be no longer deferred. He was well aware that in proposing the consideration of the present Petition many serious difficulties must arise. That House was in general indisposed to the consideration of military subjects-they seemed to look on them with a superstition-a kind

of sacred awe, as if they were inaccessible to common view, and ought to remain un touched and unpolluted, in a sort of sanctum sanctorum. He was ready to allow that there were very few cases in which an interference with the king's prerogative was advisable; but he would say, where grievances were refused to be redressed, it was the duty of that House to make a respectful remonstrance, and if after this remonstrance such military grievances still remained, they ought then to withhold the supplies of the army. The case of captain Foskett was a peculiar grievance, a case in which a standing law of the army had been violated, to the detriment of an unoffending individual.-The hon. member here stated the three grounds of complaint against the duke of Cumberland; the first of which was an attempt to force a junior officer over the head of captain Foskett. The second, detaining him at home when the regiment was ordered on foreign service; and the third was, the refusal to him of regular leave of absence. The hon. member proved those grievances by a reference to several military documents which had passed upon the subject. He then proceeded to defend captain Fos kett from several charges which had been made against him by an hon. general opposite, and particularly from the accusation with respect to the duel. He observed however, that one of captain Foskett's alleged grievances took place before the duel, so that it could not possibly be fairly introduced to palliate the injustice towards him. If there was any thing unfair in the duel, the way would have been to have brought him to trial at the time, and not keep it hanging over him in ter‐ rorem on every subsequent occasion. The fact was, however, that no charge of inhumanity could be brought against captain Foskett on that occasion, as he had uniformly evinced a disposition to conciliation. How, he would ask, was it possible for an officer to shape his conduct, if he was equally liable to dismissal for fighting or not fighting?-He then read several letters on the subject of the duel spoken of, which he thought went to exculpate him from any charges made against his character, as the handsome testimony borne by Wallace, the antagonist of the officer to whom capt. Foskett was second, established the propriety of his conduct in the most satisfactory manner. When so much was said by the hon. general on the enor mity of pistols with hair triggers being