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As it stood at the Period of the Dissolution, September 29, 1812.

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CALIFORNIA

HISTORY OF EUROPE,

1812.

CHAP. I.

Domestic Affairs. Meeting of Parliament. Prince Regent's Speech on Opening the Session. State of the King's Health. King's Household Establishment. Debates in Parliament on some Points connected with the Civil List. Droits of Admiralty. Leeward Island Duties. Provision to the Princesses.

THE session of parliament was opened by commission on the 7th of January; and a speech was pronounced, which, as is usual on such occasions, alluded briefly to the state of public affairs, and to the leading features of the policy of administration. His royal highness the Prince Regent lamented the continued indisposition of his majesty; and had ordered copies of the last reports of the queen's council, respecting the king's health, to be laid be fore parliament. Suitable provisions were recommended for the support of the royal dignity, for the care of the royal person, and for affording all due facility to the resumption of the royal authority, in the event of the king's restoration to health. The successful defence of the kingdom of Portugal the bravery and discipline of the British and Portuguese troops-and the

VOL. V. PART I.

brilliant enterprise of General Hill in Spanish-Estremadura, were mentioned with high satisfaction. The consum. mate talents of Lord Wellington-the persevering bravery of the Spaniardsthe extension of the Guerilla system of warfare, and the hopes of ultimate success which so many favourable circumstances inspired, were expatiated upon, as affording strong inducements to continue the aid which Great Britain had hitherto afforded to the brave and oppressed nations of the peninsula. The great abilities of Lord Minto, the governor-general of India, in planning the expeditions against the isles of France and Bourbon-the talents and bravery of Sir Samuel Auchmuty and the officers and troops under his command, by whom the views of the governor-general were so well secondedand the entire destruction of the ene

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my's colonial power, were next ailuded to and parliament was reminded of the propriety of turning its attention towards the improvement of that mighty empire which Great Britain had established in the East. With reference to the subsisting relations betwixt Great Britain and America, it was stated, that, although the affair of the Chesapeake had been finally adjusted, the other discussions had not yet been brought to a close; but an assurance was given, that no measure of conciliation should be left untried, which might be found consistent with the rights and dignity of the empire. The finances of Ireland were represented as in a flourishing state; and the Prince Regent expressed his confidence, that, when the estimates for the year should be laid before parliament, a liberal disposition would be shewn to sustain the country in the great contest in which it was engaged.

The address was moved in the House of Lords by the Earl of Shaftesbury; the debate which succeeded was by no means interesting, except for the zeal displayed by Lords Grenville and Grey, to have their sweeping condemnation of the measures of government put upon record. These noble lords, although professing a sincere desire for unanimity on this occasion, were anxious to warn the country against reposing any confidence in the administration.

Lord Grenville, " considering the critical circumstances of the times, and the present alarming state of the country, would have been happy if the address proposed to the House had been so worded as to procure unanimity, on the present day, at least; yet, he did not feel surprised that such had not been the case, when he reflected, that the framers of the speech were the very men, who, by their obstinate blindness, had brought the country to the brink of ruin, and who, in the midst of the

distresses they themselves had occasioned, still held the same flattering and fallacious language. He would protest against a continuance of those measures which had brought such calamities on the country; calamities so real and so momentous, that they must soon press themselves with irresistible force on their lordships' attention, whether or not they were willing to give them the consideration they deserved. People might choose to close their eyes, but the force of truth must dispel the wilful blindness; they might choose to shut their ears, but the voice of a suffering nation must sooner or later be heard. The noble lord said he still retained his objections to every part of the system he had so often condemned; he still deprecated that wanton waste of money, and of all the public resources, when it was more necessary than ever to husband them with the most provident care. He still objected to those commercial measures, which were pompously announced as the most formidable weapon against the enemy, and which had recoiled on our own commerce and manufactures. He still retained his objections to a system of finance, which had forced a debased coin on the people, and had spread bankruptcy and ruin throughout the land."

Nor was Lord Grey less severe in his reproaches. "He should feel unhappy," he said, "if he departed from that house, without declaring that he retained all the opinions he had before held on subjects of great magnitude; opinions confirmed by experience and the evidence of facts; opinions which he should be ready to maintain and defend on future opportunities of discussing them. Whether the noble Secretary of State (Lord Liverpool) chose to allude to the affairs of America on which he had shewn much caution and silence, and ventured to call our transactions in that quarter a proof of the

firmly convinced that the system the noble baron had so much condemned, was the only one that had saved, or could have saved, this country; to the continuance of that system only, Europe could look for deliverance, and England for permanent safety; in short, by the merits of that system his lordship and his colleagues were determined to stand or fall." The address was carried without a division.

assertion, that the system of the government had contributed to the security, prosperity, and honour of the country; or whether he intended to refer to the system of our measures in the peninsula, he pledged himself that he should be ready to meet him, and to contend, that whatever might be said to have been done, had not been done to the promotion of the safety and honour of the country; and that the general system adopted had been, In the House of Commons the ordiin fact, the source of almost all our nary course of proceeding was deranpresent and impending calamities."-ged by a singular interference on the Such were the terms in which the part of Sir Francis Burdett. It is cuswhole policy of government was ar- tomary that the Speaker, on his reraigned, not at a season when it was turn from the House of Lords, should still untried, and might, therefore, with read to the Commons the speech from some plausibility, have been represent- the throne: the address is then moved ed as matter of uncertain and danger- and seconded, when a general debate ous experiment, but in the beginning ensues. Such is the usual course; but of the year 1812, when the measures Sir Francis Burdett thought proper of administration had already secured to anticipate the member who should so many practical advantages-when have moved the customary address, they had saved Portugal-kept alive and to make a long speech, and move the flame of patriotism in Spain, and a long address of his own, which, withopened up the fairest prospects for out touching on any of the topics alEurope. As the censure pronoun- luded to in the speech from the throne, ced by the leaders of opposition had exhibited a good summary of his own been vague and declamatory, the an- political eccentricities.-On this reswer made by the Earl of Liverpool markable occasion the honourable bawas of a general nature. "The pre-ronet began, by paying a compliment sent," his lordship was convinced, to his royal highness the Prince Re"was not a fit day to dwell on any gent, and by assuring the house that details; but the noble baron (Gren- the prince was not of a temper to be ville) had entered a general protest pleased by flattery; but that he would against the whole of the system pur- consider those members as his best sued by the present ministers, and on friends who pointed out the real griethat ground, he was ready to meet him vances under which his people labourthe more willingly, as that system and ed. It was of the utmost importance those measures so condemned, had at so great a crisis, that the prince stood the test of experience. Many should be addressed in a spirit of canopportunities would undoubtedly oc- dour and truth; and no member of par cur of canvassing the merits of their liament could do his duty to his constidifferent opinions; but, as the noble tuents, to his country, or to the Prince baron had been heard in support of his, Regent himself, if he failed to represent it would not be, perhaps, too much to his royal highness the general sentito presume, that the same indulgence ments of the people. This solemn bemight be allowed to him. He was ginning seemed to promise something

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