nothing to do but to find the means of meeting the expence.

But no, said the right honourable gentleman, the time will come when the House of Commons will have the whole subject before them, when the regulations themselves will be before them. Then, why not wait till then, before they pass any bill upon the subject? O! but it was necessary to have something to hold out to the soldier; some pledge on the part of Parliament. So it was a pledge, then! and if a pledge, that must be fulfilled-what became of the discretion of the House of Commons? The dilemma was inextricable-and the right honourable gentleman had not even made one effort to escape from it.

But, after all, why were not the regulations ready to be laid before Parliament now? Was it possible that the right honourable gentleman (Mr. Windham) who certainly had given his undivided attention to this plan; for nothing else of any sort or kind he had done, or appeared to think he had to do; was it possible that after so many years consideration out of office, so much mature reflection in office before he brought forward his plan at all—that after that plan had now been two months announced to the House as perfected in all its parts, he was not now ready to bring forward the regulations, which after all were the vital part of his whole system? It could not be. It could not be. He had them ready for he had framed the bill originally with clauses to detail them; and precious clauses they were; particularly those which were to give his Majesty, in compensation to be sure for those parts of his royal prerogative which were taken away from him, a prerogative. which he never dreamt of exercising, an unlimited power over the almanack. Days were to be weeks; weeks, months; and months, years, at his command; two years were to be one, and one year was to be two. Such clauses there were; but what was become of them? Has the right honourable gentleman altered his own mind about them in the short time that has elapsed since he brought them in? And was he prepared to urge that whimsical variety and instability of judgment, that perpetual fluctuatiou of counsel, as a ground for the House of Commons giving unbounded credit and confidence to what he might produce hereafter? The whole of the argument, if argument it might be called, of the right honourable gentleman resolved itself simply into a claim of confidence on the part of administration.

The

The House were to vote this bill, they were to take the pledge contained in it, in perfect confidence that the miRisters would exact nothing from them in consequence of that pledge, but what the House must approve, when it should come to be submitted to their consideration. And the right honourable gentleman who spoke last seemed to take it very ill that this confidence was withheld, and the propriety of giving it questioned, by persons who, as he aid, at the outset of the present government had professed s desire to support them.

For my own part, said Mr. Canning, I have no pledge or promise of that sort to account for: I have nothing to retract, or qualify, or explain. I never offered any general professions of support. I never thought myself called upon to do so. I have given my opinion freely, as a member of parliament, on the measures of the government, as they have been brought forward: and sorry have 1 been to find, that scarcely one of the measures which have originated with them has been such as I did not feel myself bound to oppose. And I quite concur in the opinion expressed by my noble and learned friends (Lord Castlereagh and Mr. Perceval) as to the general character both of the system of the present ministers, and of the manner in which it has been carried into effect, and in which public business has been conducted in this House, since this great administration came into office-that nothing can form a more ludicrous contrast than their promises and their performance. Of one noble person indeed, in the other House of Parliament (Lord Grenville), who forms a part of the administration, I have once before had occasion to speak. Perhaps it is to that occasion the right honourable gentleman alluded. I did once say (it was early in the session, and before the measures and system of the government had been developed) that I was desirous of placing confidence in an administration of which he was the head. My personal confidence, my personal esteem and regard for that noble person, continue uaimpaired :-but to talk of him now at the head of the government; after all that we have heard, all that we have seen, to consider him as the presiding and directiug mind, is impossible. I am sorry for it. But I admit no claim for confidence arising from an expression which was applied to an individual, and which was founded on an error as to his weight and situation in

the

the government. In his colleagues I neither have, nor ever professed to have, the confidence which they now de mand; and by my vote of this night I shall certainly refuse to give it to them.

The Attorney General spoke in support of the bill, and said it was one that ought to be considered, not as distinct frem, but pari passa with the mutiny bill; and that the provisions of both stood equally pledged upon the faith of Parliament and the discretion of his Majesty.

Mr. Rose considered this the only explanation given as yet. He complained of the enormous and unnecessary expence in which this measure would involve the country, and concluded by expressing his conviction that a noble Jord, whom he had hitherto been taught to consider as the head of his Majesty's councils (Lord Grenville) had no hand whatever in concerting these measures. He had always heard that noble lord alluded to by his Majesty's present ministers of this House, as at the head of his Majesty's present government; but he now found there really was no ostensible minister in that department but the right honourable gentleman (Mr. Fox). For the noble lord (Grenville) and his consummate talents and high character, his own esteem never sustained the smallest abatement; but as to his colleagues, hs was quite sure thst the whole history of Parliament never presented such a period of ministerial imbecillity, inefficiency, and confusion, as since his Majesty's present administration was found.

Lord Temple rose with much warmth, and expressed his utter indifference as to what opinion the right honourable gentleman or his friends might form of the talents of himself, or those with whom he had the honour to act; but he could now assure that right honourable gentleman, that he spoke the language and sentiments of his noble relation (Lord Grenville), when he stated that he thanked no man for compliments paid to him at the expence of his colleagues.

After a few words from Dr. Laurence, in support of the bill, the House divided

Majority for the bill -35

The bill was then read a third time, passed, and ordered

to the Lords. Adjourned.

HOUSE

HOUSE OF LORDS.

FRIDAY, JUNE 19.

In the appeal Seymour . the Earl of Euston and Lord Henry Seymour, Mr. Richards was heard for the respondents, after which the further consideration of it was postponed till the next day.

The royal assent was given by commission to the property tax bill, the Irish sugar bill, the Irish stamp duties bill, the Irish additional force repeal bill, and several pri

vate bills.

The commissioners were the Lord Chancellor, Lord Walsingham, and Lord Auckland.

Lord Henry Petty, and several other members of the House of Cominous, brought up a message, stating that the House of Commons requested a conference with their Lordships, on a subject in which the reputation of the country, and the interests of justice and sound policy, were deeply concerned.

The House agreed to a conference presently in the Painted Chamber, of which the messengers from the Commons being called in, were informed. A committee was appointed to manage the conference.

Mr. Alexander, Mr. Chewte, Mr. Byng, Mr. Graham, Mr. Joddrell, Sir Martin Fowkes, and several other members of the House of Commons, brought up the Chelsea allowance bill, the Irish malt duty bill, and several private bills.

The House being informed that the Commons waited the conference in the Painted Chamber, the committee appointed to manage it, consisting of the Duke of Norfolk, Earls of Radnor and Romney, Lord Viscount Falmouth, the Bishop of St. Asaph, Lords Holland, Keith, Dundas, Ellen- borough and Lauderdale, went forth to the Painted Chamber. Shortly afterwards they returned; when the Duke of Norfolk reported that the Commons had communicated to them a certain resolution (the resolution adopted by the House of Commons relative to the abolition of the slave trade, on the motion of Mr. Fox, on the preceding Tuesday).

The Earl of Aboyne presented several petitions from Peers of Scotland, stating the vacancy which they conceived to have been caused in the representative peerage of " that country, in consequence of the Earl of Eglintoun, one

of

of the sixteen representative peers of Scotland in the present parliament, having been created a peer of the united kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and praying such relief therein as to the House should seem meet.

Ordered to lie on the table.

MUTÍNY BILL.

The House resolved itself into a committee on the mutiny Bill; Lord Walsingham in the Chair.

A short conversation took place between the Earl of Westmorland, Earl Spencer, and Lord Hawkesbury, as to the mode of proceeding. It was at length agreed to read the bill short until they came to the schedule containing the new form of oath, to which it was intended to object.

The Earl of Westmorland, on this part of the bill delivered his opinion at some length. He contended that it was an invasion of the King's prerogative, inasmuch as it prescribed the exact term for which men should be enlisted to, serve in the army, and precluded his majesty from enlisting. men upon any other condition. This was an abridgment of the power and an infringement of the prerogative of the Crown, in taking from the King that power over the army which had hitherto been constitutionally vested in the Crown -a measure too, which went to change the whole constitution of the army, was introduced in the shape of a clause in the mutiny bill, thus leaving that House no choice but between the dangerous nature of the experiment attempted to be tried, and the inconveniences which would result from from the disorganization of the army in consequence of not passing the mutiny bill. Thus also would his Majesty be called upon to sacrifice a material portion of his power and his prerogative, besause it would be said that the mutiny bill must be passed or else the army could not be kept together. Those who on a former occasion advis ed his Majesty not to give his assent to a bill which went to abridge the King's prerogative, but the refusal to sanction which only left things as they were, could not now say that no other consequence would result than leaving things as they were; they might say, your ministers have made a bill different to that which your Majesty ordered to be brought in, but a mutiny bill must be sanctioned or the army cannot exist.

Earl Spencer spoke to order. The noble carl had, he