go on without the Kingly office, they were innocent; but as he thought that while the constitution existed they could not do so, he should vote most cordially for the motion.

Lord Castlereagh rose to explain.-The hon. Baronet had made allusions to him as a person sufficiently oppressed with the weight of personal responsibility-He had only to ask of that honourable Baronet to prefer against him any charge which he thought worthy the attention of the House. He would meet it fairly, and he hoped the honourable. Baronet would bring it forward in the same open, candid, and manly manner, as the honourable gentleman (Mr. Whitbread) was accustomed to prefer his charges. (Hear!) One thing he must take the liberty to add, and that was, that he trusted the honourable Baronet would confine his attacks to those places where he (Lord Castlereagh) could answer them, and not where he could have no opportunity of defending himself. (Hear! hear!)

Sir F. Burdett replied, that at all times, and in all places, he should state his genuine opinions of the noble Lord's public conduct, according to the dictates of his own discretion.

The question was here loudly called for, and strangers were withdrawing, when

Mr. Whitbread rose to reply. He said, that as the House was on the point of dividing, he presumed that there was no gentleman present who intended to offer himself; if there was, he (Mr. Whitbread) now called upon him to rise, and he should most cheerfully give way; if there was not, he should proceed to reply to the little which had been said, premising at the same time that it would not be fair towards him in any gentleman who intended speaking, not to speak now, but wait till he had concluded. He had waited a considerable time in deference to the feelings of two individuals more nearly connected with one of the noble lords (Sidmouth), and he had waited for some time in respect to the feelings of that honourable gentleman, who certainly was present, yet who had been marvellously silent.

Mr. Bathurst did not think that any honourable member had a right thus to allude to private matters no way connected with the matter before the House. If, however, the honourable gentleman wanted a reason from him why he did not speak, he frankly owned it as his reason, that, were he to speak for an hour, he could not add one word to the able speech delivered by the noble Lord (Castlereagh). (Hear!) VOL. II.-1811. X

Mr. Whitbread then said, that as the House were not likely to have the benefits of that honourable gentleman's powers, he should now proceed at once to reply very briefly to what had been advanced; and, in the first place, he contended that not one of his assertions had been contradicted. He had stated nothing but facts, and nothing, of all he had asserted as facts, had been attempted to be contradicted. He had, indeed, waited for the attendance of the right honourable gentleman (Mr. Bathurst), and it was most true that he had attended; that he had, according to his own shewing, heard the best defence that could be offered in behalf of his noble Relative; and though that defence did not attempt to question the truth of any one of the facts, yet the right honourable gentleman had thought it prudent and discreet to give a silent vote upon such a question."The case (said Mr. Whithread) is before the House. I rest it upon a statement of facts, and that state, ment is not attempted to be controverted; the alleged facts are not disputed by that noble Lord, to whose speech, in the opinion of the right hon. gentleman (Mr. Bathurst), nothing can be added in behalf of the persons implicated. To the noble Lord, for his abundant personal civility, and still more for the very liberal credit he seems disposed to give my motives, I have to return my thanks; but if justice requires me to pay this tribute to the liberality of the noble Lord, it exacts from me a very marked distinc tion between the embarrassing kindness of the noble Lord and the frank hostility of the right hon. gentleman (Mr. Yorke). I certainly cannot charge him with too much liberality in construing my motives; but I crave nothing of the right honourable gentleman. He may continue to think of me as he will, while I shall endeavour to console myself under the consciousness of honest intentions. With respect to the noble Lord, I must again say, what I have said before so often, that really the noble Lord is at times quite merciless in his kindness. (A laugh.) He meets a political antagonist in a way so polished and so gentlemanly as to disarm his adversary of the ordinary means of defence. (Hear!) I confess the right honourable gentleman (Mr. Yorke) cannot justly be made the subject of a similar charge. (A laugh.) He does not embarrass one with the mild civilities of his air and manner. (A laugh.) He comes upon you, in his own direct way, which, though perhaps not more conclusive than that of the noble Lord, is certainly

much more bouncing. (A laugh.) However, they both agreed in one point, that as the hair of Lord Eldon's head ought not to be touched without subjecting their own hair to similar fatality, it was wisest and best to vote in the first instance, that there should be no inquiry at all. The noble Lord had ridiculed the idea of ministerial influence regulating the conduct of Parliament at that time. No doubt it was a most extravagant notion; but the noble Lord could not pretend to the influence of his honourable friend now in power. I cannot pretend to say what that influence may be, but the right honourable gentleman is fully competent to decide upon the growth and extent of it; for it did happen, that, in other times, the right honourable gentleman thought fifty too small a majority to keep him in power; but now, ten or a dozen majority against Ministers are too few to turn him out. (A laugh.) What had been said about pattern legislators and so on, may be very pointed and good when we come to find the application. The gentleman meant, perhaps, to say something against somebody; but as I am utterly ignorant of what it may refer to, perhaps I would not err very widely in attributing to that bouncing manner to which I have before alluded, that sort of air that will attempt to make weak things strong by speaking them in a strong way. The mistake may not be peculiar to the right honourable gentleman; but I recollect when he was one of the Ministers in 1801, his tone to-night reminded me of what he was then under certain circumstances of provocation-and, indeed, those circumstances were rather irritating. There was Mr. Addington at the head of the Government; and really the poor man was much to be pitied; (A laugh) night after night he had to answer Mr. Fox, and to be answered by Mr. Pitt! need I say more? what could the poor man do, thus placed between two such grinding stones? (General laughter.)—Still, bowever, was the tone of the right honourable gentleman (Mr. Yorke) unsubdued, and he bounced about with as much energy and as much effect as to-night. And it was of this Government that the noble Lord had said that Mr. Pitt had not at that period distinguished it with peculiar marks of his confidence. Confidence! Really the noble Lord has such an inverted mode of disguising things by words, that one would suppose the greatest possible favour which could be conferred on the noble Lord would be actually kicking him out of office (A laugh). The noble Lord had argued

that if the Government had not acted as it then did, they would have been the most miserable creatures; but so were they charged by Mr. Pitt to be. He did not mince his' meaning. He thought them very miserable men, men miserably deficient in the conduct of the affairs of this country, and men who consequently ought to be removed from the conduct of them; this was Mr. Pitt's opinion, and he acted upon it, for he left no effort untried till he suc ceeded in driving them from the helm. But much has been said upon the presumed competency of the King at that time, as any private individual might: the question had been touchingly put: Did the King do that, which, had he been a private individual, he could not legally have done? It is contended that his competency was the same: I deny it; and I am willing to come to the test upon that single point. How is this to be decided? By the papers I call for. You say that he was as competent as any private individual, whose restoration had been legally recognizedI challenge you to the proof of that. I affirm, without fear of contradiction, that had the King at that period been tried as a private subject, that the Lord High Chancellor, whom I now accuse, would have pronounced him incompetent for business. (Hear!) [Here Mr. Perceval signified: his dissent.] The right honourable gentleman may toss his head-but this is all that he can do if he could have done more, we should have heard him-as speak he must, for whom has be to speak with him? (A laugh!) It had been figuratively said, he believed, that the blind, the halt, and the lame, had been enlisted in his service; but, it appeared, that his choice took in the dumb also. His right honourable Colleagues were dumb from the old reason, that they could say nothing upon any subject; and the right honourable gentleman (Mr. Perceval) can be dumb, only because it is a subject upon which nothing can be said; for surely, if any thing could be said, that right honourable gentleman could do it. Mr. Whitbread next proceeded to comment on the facts asserted by him, and which had not been attempted to be contradicted. He asked if there was a man in England who believed, who suspected that at the time the King signed a Commission, he was at that moment under the coercive care of Dr. Simmons and his keepers? (Hear! hear!) He then recited the facts stated by him in his opening speech, contending, as he went along, that not one of them had been denied, much less refuted; and

concluded with putting it to the House, that if the King should shortly recover and again unfortunately relapse, where were the provisions for the integrity of the Executive Power, if the conduct of the Ministers in 1804 were to be sanctioned? But if that conduct was thought unworthy of that sanction-if it was not to be excused-he called upon the House to say how they could, consistently with their duty to their country, negative his proposition.

The House then divided-Ayes, 81-Noes, 198Majority against the motion, 117.Adjourned.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26.

NOTICE.

Mr. Whitbread gave notice, that he would on Monday se'nnight move for a Committee on the State of the Nation, for the purpose of adopting some permanent measure to guard against the inconveniences which might occur, though he hoped they never would, from any future similar relapse of his Majesty as that which had lately taken place.

MILITARY PUNISHMENT.

Colonel Wardle rose, pursuant to notice, to submit to the House a motion with respect to Corporal Curtis, late of the Oxford Militia. He should begin by stating, that the individual to whom his motion related was unknown to him; and he had never spoken to him or seen him. The officers who composed the regimental Court-martial were also unknown to him; but with respect to the Colonel of the Oxford Militia, he would say that no man possessed a higher character. (Hear! hear!) Several of his friends were well known to the Colonel, and thought most highly of him. He was convinced that no blame was to be imputed to him, but he conceived that he had been much misled by the misrepresentations of others. As this subject appeared to him worthy of being submitted to the consideration of the House, he would have wished for an opportunity to have conversed with the man; and went down to the sea-coast, in November last, for the purpose of visiting the man, who was then confined in the hospital at the Isle of Wight. The wind, however, blew so hard, and was so