had been read in the presence of all the physicians, and one of the -members of the council had left Windsor, the physician alluded to in the last clause of the report, stated, in writing, to the other members of the council then re maining at Windsor, "that he had, unquestionably, made use of an expression, which he was apprehensive might carry a meaning far beyond what he intended to express, and assured the council, that whilst he thought the final recovery of his Majesty very improbable, he by no means despaired of it." The members of the council to whom the above statement was made, (having sworn the physician alluded to, to the truth thereof) afterwards communicated the same to the whole council, assembled this 5th day of January, who have deemed it right to subjoin this fact to the above declaration. Declaration of the Members of her Majesty's Council, respecting the State of his Majesty's Health, made on the 4th of April, 1812. "We, the underwritten, do hereby declare and certify, that the state of his Majesty's health, at the time of this our meeting, is not such as to enable him to resume the personal exercise of his royal authority. "That his Majesty's bodily health is as good as at any of the periods of our former reports. "That his Majesty's mental health is as much disordered as it has been during any part of his Majesty's indisposition. "That all the physicians in attendance concur in thinking, that his Majesty's final and complete recovery is extremely improbable, and they do not expect it; but they also concur in stating, that they do not entirely despair of it." Signed as above. Declaration of the Members of her Majesty's Council, respecting the State of his Majesty's Health, made on the 4th of July, 1812. "We, the underwritten, do hereby declare and certify, that the state of his Majesty's health, at the time of this our meeting, is not such as to enable his Majesty to resume the personal exercise of his royal functions. "That his Majesty's bodily health is as good as it was at the period of our last report. "That his Majesty's mental health is as much disordered as during any period of his Majesty's indisposition. "That the hope of bis Majesty's ultimate and complete recovery is diminished since the period of our last report; but that such recovery is not absolutely despaired of." Signed as above. Letter from his Royal Highness the Prince Regent to the Duke of York, and Answer from Earl Grey and Lord Grenville. My dearest brother, -As the restrictions on the exercise of the royal authority will shortly expire, when I must make my arrangements for the future administration of of the powers with which I am invested, I think it right to communicate to you those sentiments which I was withheld from expressing at an earlier period of the session, by my earnest desire, that the expected motion on the affairs of Ireland might undergo the deliberate discussion of parliament, unmixed with any other consideration. I think it hardly necessary to call your recollection to the recent circumstances under which I assumed the authority delegated to me by parliament At a moment of unexampled difficulty and danger, I was called upon to make a selection of persons to whom I should entrust the functions of the executive government. My sense of duty to our royal father solely decided that choice; and every private feeling gave way to considerations which admitted of no doubt or hesitation. I trust I acted in that respect as the genuine representative of the august person whose functions I was appointed to discharge; and I have the satisfaction of knowing, that such was the opinion of persons, for whose judgment and honourable principles I entertain the highest respect. In various instances, as you well know, where the law of the last session left me at full liberty, I waved any personal gratification, in order that his Majesty might resume, on his restoration to health, every power and prerogative belonging to his crown. I certainly am the last person in the kingdom to whom it can be permitted to despair of our royal father's recovery. A new æra is now arrived, and I cannot but reflect with satisfac. on, on the events which have distinguished the short period of my restricted regency. Instead of suffering in the loss of any of her possessions, by the gigantic force which has been employed against them, Great Britain has added most important acquisitions to her empire. The national faith has been preserved inviolate towards our allies; and if character is strength, as applied to a nation, the increased and increasing reputation of his Majesty's arms will shew to the nations of the continent how much they may still achieve when animated by a glorious spirit of resistance to a foreign yoke. In the critical situation of the war in the Peninsula, I shall be most anxious to avoid any measure which cau lead my allies to suppose that I mean to depart from the present system. Perseverance alone can achieve the great object in question; and I cannot withhold my approbation from those who have honourably distinguished themselves in the support of it. I have no predilections to indulge-no resentments to gratify-no objects to attain, but such as are common to the whole empire. If such is the leading principle of my conductand I can appeal to the past in evidence of what the future will be1 flatter myself I shall meet with the support of parliament, and of a candid and enlightened nation. Having made this communication of my sentiments in this new and extraordinary crisis of our affairs, I cannot conclude without expressing the gratification I should feel, if some of those persons with whom the early habits of my public life were formed, would strengthen my hands, and constitute a part of my government. With such sup port, port, and aided by a vigorous and united administration, formed on the most liberal basis, I shall look with additional confidence to a prosperous issue of the most arduous contest in which Great Britain was ever engaged. You are authorised to communicate these sentiments to Lord Grey, who, I have no doubt, will make them known to Lord Grenville. I am always, dearest Frederick, your affectionate brother, (Signed) GEORGE P. R. Carlton-house, Feb. 13, 1812. P.S. I shall send a copy of this letter immediately to Mr. Perceval. Letter from Lords Grey and February 15, 1812. Sir,- We beg leave most humbly to express to your Royal Highness our dutiful acknowledgements for the gracious and condescending manner in which you have had the goodness to communicate to us the letter of his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, on the subject of the arrangements to be now made for the future administration of the public affairs; and we take the liberty of availing ourselves of your gracious permission to address to your Royal Highness in this form what has occurred to us in consequence of that communication. The Prince Regent, after expressing to your Royal Highness in that letter his sentiments on various public matters, has, in the concluding paragraph, condescended to intimate his wish that "some of those persons with whom the early habits of his public life were formed would strengthen his Royal Highness's hands, and constitute a part of his government;" and his Royal Highness is pleased to add, "that with such support, aided by a vigorous and united administration, formed on the most liberal basis, he would look with additional confidence to a prosperous issue of the most arduous contest in which Great Britain has ever been engaged." On the other parts of his Royal Highness's letter we do not presume to offer any observations; but on the concluding paragraph, in so far as we may venture to suppose ourselves included in the gracious wish which it expresses, we owe it, in obedience and duty to his Royal Highness, to explain ourselves with frankness and sincerity. We beg leave most earnestly to assure his Royal Highness, that no sacrifices, except those of honour and duty, could appear to us too great to be made, for the purpose of healing the divisions of our country, and uniting both its government and its people. All personal exclusion we entirely disclaim: we rest on public measures; and it is on this ground alone that we must express, without reserve, the impossibility of our uniting with the present government. Our differences of opinion are too many and too important to admit of such an union. His Royal Highness will, we are confident, do us the justice to remember, that we have twice already acted on this impression; in 1809, on the proposition then made to us under his Majesty's authority; and last year, when his Royal Highness was pleased to require our advice respecting the for. mation of a new government. The reasons which we then humbly submitted to him are strengthened by the increasing dangers of the times; nor has there, down to this moment moment, appeared even any approximation towards such an agreement of opinion on the public interests, as can alone form a basis for the honourable union of parties previously opposed to each other. Into the detail of these differences best promote the ease, honour, and Duke of York. GRENVILLE. Message from the Prince Regent respecting Lord Wellington, February 18. "GEORGE P. R. we are unwilling to enter; they To his Royal Highness the embrace almost all the leading features of the present policy of the empire; but his Royal Highness has, himself, been pleased to advert to the late deliberations of parliament on the aff irs of Ireland. This is a subject, above all others, important in itself and connected with the most pressing dangers. Far from concurring in the sentiments which his Majesty's ministers have, on that occasion, so recently expressed, we entertain opinions directly opposite: we are firmly persuaded of the necessity of a total change in the present system of government in that country, and of the immediate repeal of those civil disabilities under which so large a portion of his Majesty's subjects still labour on account of their religious opinions. To recommend to parliament this repeal, is the first advice which it would be our duty to offer to his Royal Highness; nor could we, even for the shortest time, make ourselves responsible for any further delay in the proposal of a measure, with-out which we could entertain no hope of rendering ourselves useful to his Royal Highness, or to our country. We have only therefore further to beg your Royal Highness to lay before his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, the expression of our humble duty, and the sincere and respectful assurance of our earnest wishes for whatever may "The Prince Regent, in the name and on the behalf of his Majesty, having taken into his royal consideration the eminent and signal services performed by General Lord Viscount Wellington in the course of a long series of distinguished exploits in the campaigns in Spain and Portugal, and being desirous to mark the sense he entertains of services so honourable to the British arms, and so eminently beneficial to the interests of the nation, has conferred, in the name and on the behalf of his Majesty, upon General Lord Viscount Wellington, and the heirs male of his body, the rank and dignity of an Earl of the United Kingdom, by the name, style, and title of Earl of Wellington. "The Prince Regent, further desirous of granting to the Earl of Wellington a net annuity of 2,0001. in addition to the annuity already granted by parliament, and subject to the same limitations imposed in that grant, recommends to the House of Commons, to enable his Royal Highness, in the name and on the behalf of his Majesty, to grant and settle such annuity, and to make such further provision as aforesaid, aforesaid, as may be thought most effectual for the benefit of General the Earl of Wellington, and his family. "G. P. R." Message from the Prince Regent respecting the Princesses, March 20. GEORGE P. R. His Royal Highness the Prince Regent, in the name and on the behalf of his Majesty, thinks it necessary to acquaint the House of Commons, that, in pursuance of the powers vested in his Majesty by two acts passed in the 18th and 39th years of his present Majesty's reign, his Majesty was graciously pleased, by letters patent, bearing date February 2, 1812, to grant to their Royal Highnesses the Princesses Augusta, Elizabeth, Mary, Sophia, and Amelia, an annuity of 3000l. agreeably to the provisions and subject to the limitation of the said acts, which grant was to take effect from the demise of his Majesty; and his Royal Highness being desirous, in the present situation of the royal family, to be enabled to provide for the establishment of their Royal Highnesses the Princesses, by an immediate grant, recommends to the House of Commons to take the subject into its consideration, and to enable his Royal Highness to make such provision for their Royal Highnesses the Princesses, as in the liberality of parliament may be thought suitable to the actual situation of the Princesses, and to the circumstances of the present time. Report on the Nightly Watch and Police of the Metropolis. The report of the committee appointed to examine into the state of the nightly watch in the metropolis and the parishes adjacent, and further into the state of the police, and who were empowered to report their observations from time to time, to the house, is printed. The committee observe, that they first directed their inquiries to the state of the nightly watch. Had they found the defects in this part of the system of our police to have been such, at this moment, as to have demanded the immediate interposition of the legislature, they would have made an early report; but they had the satisfaction of observing, that the apprehensions which had been excited, had produced such a degree of activity and vigilance in many parishes and districts, and such a conviction that the former means of security were insufficient, that all immediate alarms on this head had been in a great measure removed. In some parishes, indeed, the zeal and energy of the inhabitants appears to have been the most exemplary and meritorious; they have agreed to take upon themselves, in rotation, the duties of superintendants of the nightly watch, to visit and inspect the watch-houses, the constables, beadles, patroles, and stationary watchmen; and a system of the nightly watch, thus introduced by voluntary exertions of the householders, has been so effectual, that your committee think it necessary only to recommend such measures to be enforced |