ornament of the bench on which he sat this surely was not a subject for derision; and his noble friend might feel himself perfectly tranquil in the metropolis, surrounded by all kinds of protection; but it was impossible to describe the alarm, the painful anxiety, which had been experienced by numbers of most respectable persons in the disturbed districts. A calm had not yet been produced. Only yesterday's post brought accounts of a respectable old man of seventy, in the west riding of Yorkshire, having his house entered, his arms taken away, and himself so much maltreated that his life was in danger. As he had heard, with regret, of reflections cast on the magistracy of those counties, he thought it only justice to assert, that their conduct had in general been most exemplary; and he could not let that opportunity pass without bearing his testimony to the conduct of general Maitland, whom he was proud to call his friend, and who, in the command with which he was intrusted, had acted with a delicacy, an intelligence and discretion, not to be exceeded. He

trusted that the abundant harvest, of which we had the prospect, and the full employment likely to be given to our manufacturers, notwithstanding present appearances, would do much to allay the spirit of disaffection; but in the mean time the powers of the present bill were absolutely necessary. He regretted that its enactment should be delayed a single day, because he knew the feelings of multitudes of most respectable men in the disturbed districts, who were anxiously looking to it as a means of security.

Lord Grosvenor said, though he did not mean to oppose the bill, he

wished it to be delayed for some time. The recall of the orders in council had already done much to give employment and restore tranquillity, and the agitation which still remained would soon subside. The report of the secret committee seemed to have been drawn up by one of the ministers; for, from a family feeling, it described the promptitude and alertness of go-, vernment where no one else sawit.

Lord Sidmouth contended, that any further delay would only encourage the progress of assassination, and the destruction of property. The report, he believed, was the report of the whole committee, and not of any individual.

Lord Holland said he should be very brief in his remarks, because an understanding appeared to exist, that there should be only one discussion on the bill; and it suited some noble lords that it should be deferred to another stage. But he, for one, wished to be understood as opposing the principle of the bill in toto. On one part of the noble viscount's speech he felt it necessary to say a few words. He had not treated the calamities and anxieties of individuals with derision, as the noble lord seemed to imagine; nothing could be further from his thoughts; but he had not been able to collect, from the speech of the noble lord, a single argument to show the necéssity of such extraordinary powers, though he was not unwilling that something should be done, out of sheer decency to the noble lord who brought down the green bag with so much solemnity. He was persuaded that the dangers of the country had been prodigiously mag

nified.

Earl Stanhope never would consent to pass a bill hostile to the constitution,

constitution, without evidence of its necessity. The committee had examined no parole evidence, and two petitions against the bill had been presented that very day.-The bill was however passed, though not without a steady opposition from several members.

Lord Holland, in a most nervous and eloquent speech, brought in a bill to correct and reform the application of informations ex officio: he said this was the more necessary, as these kind of prosecutions had considerably increased of late. In seven years from 1800 there had been but 15 informations filed: whereas in the three later years there had been 42; and of these 15 had never been tried. He referred to the case of an individual who had three of these ex officio informations filed against him; of which only one had been proceeded in, and in that he was acquitted; but the expense to him had been 2961. 18. 11d.

Lord Ellenborough replied in his usual style, and moved that the bill be rejected, which it was, though the mover was ably supported in his arguments by lord Erskine and other noble lords.

Sir Thomas Turton introduced, by a most able speech, a number of

resolutions relating to the finances of the country, from which he inferred that it was the bounden duty of ministers to practise the most rigid economy, and to endeavour to procure to the people the blessings of peace, as the only effectual means of relieving the burdens of the

country.

Mr. Tierney, by way of amendment, moved another series of resolutions in their stead, contending that nothing but strong measures of finance could save the country from ruin.

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The chancellor of the exchequer said that the country was embarked in such a scale of expence that it would be imprudent to attempt to carry the war taxes to any thing like a corresponding amount. tax on capital had been attempted in other countries, and had been found very productive; perhaps it might be advisable to propose a tax on capital in lieu of part of the income tax. He moved the previous question on the resolutious of sir Thomas Turton and Mr. Tierney, which was carried.

The parliament was prorogued on the 31st of July, with a speech to both houses, delivered by the lord chancellor, and which will be found among the Public Papers.

1812.

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entertain

As

S the period approached at which the restrictions on the prince regent were to terminate, the curiosity and interest of the public in general were strongly excited; while the expectations, the hopes, the apprehensions, and the fears of the different political parties were respectively roused, according to the light in which they viewed the conduct that the prince had pursued while his powers were limited and restricted, and the inferences which they drew from that conduct.

It was well known that when the prince had resolved to continue Mr. Perceval as prime minister, he had considered himself as acting solely as his father's agent; and had expressly declared, that a regard to his father's plans, and what he might reasonably suppose would have been his wishes, had alone prompted him to this measure, These motives had not only been expressly and completely laid open to Mr. Perceval when the prince communicated to him his wishes that he would continue in power, but every opportunity seemed to be taken of conveying to Mr. Perceval's apprehension and feelings (in a manner he could not misunderstand, and which must have been sufficiently prating and humiliating to him) the prince's dislike of him, and at

tachment to his old political and personal friends.

Only a very few months clapsed, however, before it was strongly rumoured that the regent's feelings and conduct towards Mr. Perceval were undergoing a change; and this rumour gained strength: and at last appealed to such open and unequivocal proofs, that it could no longer be doubted. Still the old friends of the prince clung to the hopes they had so long and fondly cherished; still they expected, and declared openly that they expected, that the prince would choose them as his ministers, when ever he could act of his own entire free will. As, however, there were instances of his public conduct, and proofs of his forming an attachment to Mr. Perceval,-the former of which could not easily or clearly be reconciled to his supposed whig principles, and the lat ter were undoubtedly indicative that his dislike to Mr. Perceval was on the wane, and was about to be succeeded by sentiments of a directly opposite nature:-his old friends were compelled to have recourse to many hypotheses, in order to satisfy themselves and the public that they had still reason to entertain hopes that they continued the regent's favourites, and would soon be his ministers.-With respect to

the

the public measures which the prince pursued, there was not much difficulty in accounting for them: they were the measures of his ministers, not his own. He sanctioned them, indeed, but he did not approve of them; and he sanctioned them, only because in his actions as regent, he wished entirely to lose sight of his own opinions and principles, and to conduct himself solely and most strictly on the rules he laid down,-viz. as the agent of his father. But his old friends went further in explanation and defence of his public conduct; and the nation in general, at first, were disposed to go along with them: for although the regent, in what might strictly and properly be considered as the continuation of his father's measures, put himself completely into the hands of his ministers, and did not even express a wish to have a will of his own, yet, in other cases of a less important nature, he manifested his attachment to his old principles. As these instances were rather sought after by him, than merely taken advantage of when they occurred, and as they were employed in the most open and decisive manner to publish to the nation his sentiments and feelings, it was very natural for his old friends, and for the country at large, to regard them as proofs of his adherence to the political doctrines in which he had been brought up.

It was remarked, however, at the time that Mr. Perceval and his friends received, only with a smile of a very ambiguous, or rather alarming character and import, the appeal to these instances of the prince's consistency and steadiness, which was made to them with insulting triumph by the opposition. They pretended, indeed, that they had no hopes of continuing in of

fice after the restrictions should be taken off but their actions did not correspond with their language; and it was generally supposed, long before this period arrived, that their apprehensions on this point had completely vanished. Indeed, the change in the prince's sentiments and behaviour to them, on which, of course, they rested their hopes, was growing daily more decidedly marked, and more openly displayed: from complete dislike, manifested not in the most dignified or decorous manner, he gradually passed to endurance; from mere endurance, to something like interest and attachment; and had not the change been rather too rapid and violent, and the character of the prince not such as justified secure and complete dependence, it might fairly have been inferred, some time before the restrictions ceased, that the opposition and the prince were sundered for ever; and that Mr. Perceval would continue his minister, and Mr. Perceval's politics would become his politics.

As might naturally be expected, the feelings and language of the court party changed, as the change in the prince became more marked and evident: his former whig principles were forgotten, or they were ascribed solely to the influence of those men to whom, in the blind and warm confidence of youth, he had given up his mind and conduct. He was, however, now about to make ample atonement for the venial errors of his former life; and as that portion of his life had, in some degree, resembled the conduct of Henry V., while prince of Wales, his new flatterers did not hesitate to predict that, when he came to the throne, the same splendour of public success, the same vigorous

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vigorous administration of affairs, and the same reform of private conduct, would be witnessed by an admiring nation.

The opposition durst not allow their language to be changed with respect to him, whatever change their sentiments and hopes might have undergone: till the period arrived when the restrictions ceased, it was prudent in them still to continue the language of flattery and expectation; but the sore and awkward manner in which they cluded or rebutted the proofs of his attachment to Mr. Perceval, and the slights he put upon his own party, and the laboured though unsuccessful attempts which they made to convince the world that they still expected to be his ministers, sufficiently indicated the state of their feelings, and the bitter disappointment under which they writhed.

There was, however, a third party in the nation, who were likely to experience a still more bitter disappointment than was to be the lot of the regular opposition. This party consisted of sir Francis Burdett and his friends. It is not easy to perceive on what ground they had built their expectations, or whether they actually indulged them; but they openly and loudly expressed their hopes, that when the prince became unrestricted regent, he would favour their darling scheme of parliamentary reform. Viewing him as friendly to this measure, they were loud, unequivocal, and almost violent, in his praise; and their conduct was such as to have almost a ridiculous, or a suspicious effect: for when those men were seen applauding the prince, and outvying the court party in their expressions of zeal and attachment to royalty, and their former principles and conduct

were recollected, and brought into contrast with their present avowal and behaviour, it was extremely difficult to keep down the suspicion that all was not sincere; that they wished merely to forward their own views and plans; and that as soon as they perceived that the regent was cool or averse towards them, they would change their language and conduct towards him. This latter expectation, or conjecture, however, was not immediately or fully verified; for it must be acknowledged, that long after the whig party had ceased to entertain any hopes that the prince would take them into power,—and when, in consequence of their disappointment, they had indulged in bitter and sarcastic language towards him, and with more rancour than prudence had endeavoured to revenge themselves upon him, for blasting their hopes and forsaking his old principles and friends, even at this time, sir Francis Burdett and his party (though, if they were sincere in their expectations of the line of conduct which the regent would pursue, their disappointment must have been more extreme and bitter) still continued to indulge the hope that he would recover himself, for sake the political principles and conduct of his father, dismiss his. father's ministers, and pay attention solely to what they represented as the wishes and the real interests of the nation.

Such was the state of political feeling, the nature and tendency of political expectation, with regard to the prince, among the three great parties in parliament: it is not so easy to ascertain and describe the feelings and expectations of the na tion at large on this interesting and important subject. The prince had for a long time certainly been re

garded