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tion, that it be read a second time that day three months. Some of the lords in its favour acknowledged that there were imperfections in it, but contended that no argument had been advanced against its principle, and that it might be

amended in its future stages. On a division, however, the Chancellor's motion was carried by 35 votes against 8; and thus the bill was lost, and with it, all the hopes of alleviation of the public burdens which it might have raised.

CHAPTER

CHAPTER VII.

Debate on Colonel M'Mahon's appointment of Private Secretary to the Prince Regent Debate on the Barrack Estimates-Motion respecting Military Punishments.

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FTER Colonel M'Mahon had been deprived of his place of pay-master of widows' pensions, he was remunerated by the appointment of keeper of the privy purse and private secretary to the Prince Regent. This circumstance was noticed in the House of Commons on March 23, by the Hon. J. W. Ward, who desired to be informed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer what salary was attached to these places, and what were their duties, as he did not know till now .that such a situation existed. The right honourable gentleman, in reply, said, that he presumed the honourable member was not ignorant that Colonel Taylor had held the same offices under the King, and the same salary which he received was continued to Colonel M'Mahon; that the duties were various and important, although the offices would carry with them no official sanction, the home secretary of state being still the organ for receiving and communicating the pleasure of the Regent. Mr. Whitbread then inquired whether before the nomination of Colonel Taylor as private secretary to the King, in consequence of his infirmity of sight, any such place had existed; and also, whether Col. M'Mahon was to be paid out of the same fund that Col. Taylor

had been. The Chancellor of the Exchequer admitted that no private secretary to the King had been appointed before his defect of sight; and upon being asked by Mr. Ward if he had any objection to name the adviser of the present appointment, he said that he had not the least difficulty in mentioning that it was himself.

On the 14th of April, Mr. C. W. Wynn rose in the house, pursuant to notice, to move for the production of the appointment of Colonel M'Mahon to the new office of private secretary to his Royal Highness the Prince Regent. He began with expressing his surprise at the intimation he had received that his motion was to be resisted, for surely the creation of a new office required as much as any thing to be submitted to the consideration of the House of Commons. With respect to the appointment of Col. Taylor, he denied that it formed any precedent for the present case, since it was only justified by the obvious necessity of the circumstances, of which nothing similar now existed. He alluded to former sovereigns who had dispatched a great variety of business without such an assistant, and especially the present King, who had paid a rigid attention to

public affairs till the period of his After several unfortunate illness. observations to shew that the appointment in question was not necessary, the honourable member went on to say, that it was a most unconstitutional proceeding to allow the secrets of the council to pass through a third person, and It he, perhaps, no counsellor. might perhaps be said that Colonel M'Mahon was a privy counsellor : so much the worse! By his secretary's oath he would be bound faithfully to read communications to his Royal Highness, and faithfully to write what he should com mand: but in his character of privy counsellor he was bound by oath to give his advice upon what he read. Was it fitting that the cabinet ministers should have their advice to their sovereign subject to the revision of his private secretary? If, indeed, it were acknowledged to be consistent with the constitution to have both an interior and an exterior cabinet, he could not understand why there should be a fourth secretary to carry the communications from one to the other. He then made some remarks on the improper time in which this appointment had been given, when the burdens and distresses of the country were universally felt; and said that it would appear to the public like a determination to create a place in order to compensate Colonel M Mahon for that of which the sense of parliament had deprived him. He concluded by moving, "That there be laid before the house a copy of any instrument by which the right honourable John M Mahon has been appointed private secretary to the Prince Regent in the name and on

the behalf of his Majesty. Also
for a copy of any minute of the
board of treasury thereon, direct-
ing the payment of the salary at-
tached to the same."

Lord Castlereagh said, that the
honourable gentleman had raised
this question to a degree of impor-
tance which could in no view be-
long to it. He denied that there
was any thing in the appointment
which detracted in the slightest
degree from the responsibility of
the ministers of the crown. The
nature of the office was precisely
the same as that of any other pri-
vate secretary in any other office
of state, differing only in the rank
of the personage under whom it
was held, and there was no founda-
tion for representing it as that of a
fourth secretary of state. He asked
whether it were possible for the
sovereign of this country to go on,
overwhelmed as he must be by the
public documents that were heaped
upon him, and scarcely able to dis-
engage his person from the accu
He thought the ne-
mulating pile by which he was
surrounded?
cessity of the appointment appa-
rent, and that there were no grounds
for censuring it; wherefore he
should oppose the production of
the paper, which was nothing more
than a grant of 20001. a year as a
salary.

Mr. Elliot observed, that there was a marked difference between the appointment of Colonel Taylor and Colonel M'Mahon; for that in the former instance his Majesty had never called for the assistance of a private secretary till he was obliged to it by his infirmities, whereas the Regent was happily free from any thing of the kind, If merely the arrangement of papers

in

in boxes was to be the duty of a private secretary, it could not be requisite that he should be a privy counsellor, or have a salary of 2000l. a year. But, in fact, the place of Colonel McMahon was of much greater consequence: and the honourable gentleman affirmed, that he was really a sworn adviser of the crown, and in the eye of the law was responsible for the contents of every paper laid before the regent. The office was either a public official one, or it was not: if the first, let the person who held it be appointed a secretary of state; if the latter, let him not be a privy counsellor with such a salary.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer observed, that the question could be considered only in two points of view, either as the office was illegal, or as it was inexpedient. As to the first, was it contended, that the crown had no power to create a new office? He would refer to the statute book for proof that such power was constitutional. Further, he would deny that this was a new one, as that of Colonel Taylor was exactly similar. It had been asserted that the private secretary of the Regent was the organ of his pleasure to all his subjects; but if it were meant by that phrase as signifying his approbation or disapprobation of any state act, it was not true that Colonel M'Mahon was competent to communicate the pleasure of the Regent in any way that could au. thorize any subject in the land to attend to it. This was no state office, but simply an appointment to relieve the bodily and manual labour which the prodigious influx of public business attached to the royal functions. The right honour

able gentleman, to shew the expediency of the appointment, then entered into some particulars of the vast mass of business which came before the Regent, and which af forded abundant occupation for such an officer to alleviate his labour; and he drew a comparison between the condition of his Majesty, enured from early youth to habits of diligence, and the routine of government, and that of the Prince Regent, who came to the task at a so much later period of life. He concluded with some sarcasm on the affected importance attached to the subject.

Mr. Ponsonby asked what was to be inferred from the argument of the necessity of the appoint ment? Why, that it was to be a perpetual, a permanent office. Every future sovereign might claim the same privilege, if the precedent were established. He would then beg the house to look a little to the future. We might have a monarch whose debilitated frame would render assistance of that kind dangerous, or one whose love of indolence and abhorrence of public duty wonld equally dispose him to employ it. Would that private secretary have no influence on the government under such circumstances? Was it not likely that the sovereign would sometimes lean upon his opinions and suggestions? It was not in the nature of things but that such an officer must be a powerful instrument in the administration. became, therefore, the duty of parliament rigidly to inquire into the nature and duties of such a post.

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Several other gentlemen followed on each side, some supporting the appointment on account of its uti

tility, others persisting to consider it as merely a pretext for obtaining an additional salary for a favourite servant. The house at length divided, for the motion, 100; against it, 176.

Although the ministry were thus victorious in the house, they were doubtless sensible that the idea of a new burden imposed upon the country, under circumstances of such dubious propriety, excited much public discontent. They therefore took the hint of one of their friends, (Mr. Wilberforce,) who, in defending the appointment, had expressed a wish that the salary of the new secretary should have been paid out of the Regent's privy purse; and this alteration was afterwards announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

One of the debates in which the influence of the crown in impeding the due limitation of the public expenditure appeared to give the most general offence, was that on the barrack estimates. On April 13, Mr. Wharton moved, in the committee of supply, "that a sum not exceeding 554,4411. be granted for the expense of the barrack department for the current year."

Mr. Freemantle said, he saw many things in those estimates which required a great deal of explanation; and he particularly instanced a barrack for the second regiment of life guards to be built in what was called the Regent's Park, at the expense of 138,0001.; barracks at Liverpool, estimated at 82,000l.; at Bristol, at 60,0001.; and a new stable at Brighton, at 26,0001.

Mr. Wharton, in explanation,

stated, that the term of the rented barracks of the life guards being expired, if they were to be kept in barracks at all, it was necessary that they should be built; and he gave reasons for the construction of the others.

Mr. Huskisson could not be satisfied with this explanation. The expence of the barracks for the life guards, he said, would be found, on calculation, to amount to nearly 4501. for each horse, an enormous sum, amounting, according to the interest usually allowed for money laid out in building, to 401.a year for the lodging of each trooper and his horse. He was afraid that in this new building there would be some attempt at splendour and aukward magnificence, and that it would be something between a palace and a stable. At Liverpool he thoughtsuch expense was unnecessary, as many warehouses might now be got which would make good temporary barracks. This was a time in which every expense that could be spared, ought to be so, and he thought the reasons for postponing those buildings were fully as strong now as when he was in the treasury.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer endeavoured to shew the necessity of these expenditures; and the debate then took a personal turn, with considerable acrimony, till it was closed by a division on an ameadment proposed by Mr. Huskisson, that the grant should be reduced to 400,000l. numbers were, for the amendment, 40; against it, 88.

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