of Buckingham (Lord Lieutenant) refuses to transmit their Address-Delegates appointed to carry it to the Prince-The Prince's Answer considered as an indirect censure on the Parliament of Great Britain-Protests of the Irish Peers against the legality of these proceedings, and pointing out their dangerous tendency.

[1789] During the short interval which occurred between the receipt of the Prince's communication to Mr. Pitt, and the renewal of the discussions in Parliament, contradictory reports had prevailed respecting the actual state of the King's health, founded on the opposite opinions of two of the physicians who attended his Majesty. Doctor Warren seemed to think the probability of his recovery less than it had been at the commencement of his illness, while Doctor Willis, who was more conversant with the peculiar malady with which it had pleased the Almighty to afflict our Sovereign, entertained very sanguine hopes that his illness would be of short duration. When the Parliament met, on the 6th of January, the day fixed by Mr. Pitt for proposing his restrictions on the regent, Mr. Loveden, the member for Abingdon, adverted to these opposite reports, reports, and, very justly, con

ceived that, as the nature of the restrictions would essentially depend on the pro bable duration of his Majesty's illness, it would be indispensably necessary to ascertain that before the House proceeded to consider the order of the day. He, therefore, moved, "that the physicians who have attended his Majesty should be again examined, to inform the House whether any alteration, or amend ment, had taken place in the state of the King's health, and if the present symptoms were such as to give reason to hope for his Majesty's speedy recovery."

This motion gave rise to a debate, in which more warmth than reason was displayed. Doctor Warren's opinion was attacked, by one side, as the polluted offspring of party-spirit, while that of Doctor Willis was arraigned, by the other, with equal, severity, but with infinitely more injustice. Mr. Pitt professed his opinion, that the order of the day ought to be proceeded with, but the turn which the debate took, and the very intemperate language which was used, induced him to alter it, and to acquiesce in the motion for re-examining the physicians before a select committee of the House on the ensuing day. This committee continued to sit for a whole week; - they brought up their

report to the House, on the 13th of January, and the 16th was the day fixed for taking it into consideration, by a committee of the whole House.

On that day, Mr. Pitt opened the business to the House by expressing his concern that the situation of the country should be such as to render it necessary for them to exercise the painful right of providing the means of supplying the deficiency which his Majesty's unfortunate illness had created in the government of the country. In doing so, however, he trusted that they should proceed in the manner best calculated to give general satisfaction, and most likely to secure the approbá tion of the people; which, he had the happiness to know, had generally attended every step which they had hitherto taken. He sincerely wished that every measure which he had to propose might be fully discussed, and fairly decided upon; that the nature of the case, the general principles on which they ought to proceed, and the application of those principles, might be clearly and distinctly pointed out. In this way, they would be best enabled to meet the emergency which now called for their effective interposition.

The business of the committee, notwithstanding the voluminous reports upon the table,

lay in a very narrow compass. In the last report, there was abundant matter of confirmation to him, of the propriety and prudence of those measures which, as the committee were aware, he was prepared to propose ten days before. But, though there was much material information in that report, there was no difference, in his opinion, in the ground of what he had to offer; as on the former day, as well as on the present, the committee had more information before them than was sufficient to bear him out in all that he should submit to their consideration. Had he, on that day, felt it necessary to state the ground on which he intended to build his proceeding, he should have stated it thus:-" That his Majesty was incapable of meeting his Parliament, or of attending to public business; that the unanimous opinion of his Majesty's physicians was, that his Majesty's recovery was more probable than the contrary, and that all the physicians agreed that it was impossible to ascertain when that so much wished-for event would take place; but that those who were more immediately conversant with the disorder, with which his Majesty was afflicted, had declared that the majority of such patients were cured; and that one of the physicians, the most conversant of any, had stated, that the greatest length of time for

which he had ever known the disorder to continue, was eighteen months, or two years, that the shortest period was three months, and that the average was five or six months." In saying even this, he should have said more than was necessary for any argument on the principle on which he proceeded. What they had to provide for, therefore, was no more than an interval, and he flattered himself that it would prove but a short interval: if, however, unfortunately, his Majesty's illness should be protracted, they might leave it to Parliament to do what was, at present, clearly unnecessary,to consider of a more permanent plan of goIf they regarded the disorder as not in itself incurable, every man must admit that the provisions ought not to be perma

vernment.

nent.

With regard to the difference of opinion between the physicians, as to the prospect of a recovery; Mr. Pitt said, it appeared to him to depend on two circumstances, by which it might be decided on whose opinion the greatest reliance ought to be placed. The first was, the knowledge of the malady in general; and the second, the knowledge of the particular case of the patient. Three of his majesty's physicians had been conversant with the malady; two others, though not so conversant, were