BOOK ness was at an end; for they must necessarily XXIII. 1788. adjudge the regency to the prince. But if they were to exercise an arbitrary elective power, Mr. Pitt might make himself competitor of the prince of Wales. Upon the regent of their ELECTION they would undoubtedly, as was the practice in all elective governments, impose such limitations as they thought proper. Thus the balance of the constitution would be destroyed, the executive power would become wholly dependent upon the legislative, and the genius of the government would be radically and essentially changed. The sovereign authority is not a property, but an office. To execute that office, certain powers are necessary; and whoever exercises it, and under whatever name he acts, ought to be possessed of those necessary powers; and no man under any title or denomination ought to be invested with more than are necessary. If hereditary monarchy be established as a salutary provision to frustrate the machinations of faction, the same rule applies to a regent, who ought to be invested with all the authority requisite to preserve the tranquillity and promote the welfare of the state." Mr. Fox not choosing to take the sense of the house, Mr. Pitt's motion for precedents was carried without a di vision. A similar motion was the next day made by lord Camden in the house of peers, and the doc XXIII. 1788. trine of Mr. Fox reprobated by his lordship with BOOK great severity. It was on the other hand defended with eloquence and ability by lord Loughborough, and lord Stormont, who concluded his speech with recommending an immediate address to the prince of Wales, entreating him to assume the exercise of the royal authority. The discussion of the abstract question of right being perceived to afford a great and unexpected advantage to the ministry, the duke of York, soon after this debate, in the name of the prince, expressed his wishes," that the question might be waved. No claim of right," his highness said, "had been advanced by the prince of Wales; and he was confident that his brother too well understood the sacred principles which seated the house of Brunswic upon the throne, ever to assume or exercise any power, be his claim what it might, that was not derived from the will of the people expressed by their representatives." Lord Thurlow, who had at first consented to take a part in the new administration, in the arrangement of which the post of lord president had been assigned to him, now varying the course of his policy, spoke with great energy of his "sentiments of affection towards the king. Nothing could be more disgraceful than to desert the sovereign in his distressed and helpless situation. His own debt of gratitude was ample; and when he XXIII. 3788 BOOK forgot his king might God forget him." These expressions were rumored to be the result of certain intimations, which his lordship had recently received, of the happy and not very distant prospect of the king's recovery. This was however as yet a matter of anxious and precarious speculation. In the committee on the state of the nation, December 16, Mr. Pitt moved two declaratory resolutions, importing, 1. The interruption of the royal authority; and 2. That it was the duty of the two houses of parliament to provide the means of supplying that defect. A vehement debate ensued; in the course of which Mr. Fox declared "the principles of the minister to be, that the monarchy was indeed hereditary, but that the executive power ought to be elective. The legal metaphysics that thus distinguished between the crown and its functions were to him unintelligible. The investigators should be schoolmen, and not statesinen, if a question that so deeply involved the existence of the constitution were to be thus discussed. Where (said he) is that famous DICTUM to be found, by which the crown is guarded with such inviolable sanctity, while its powers are left to the mercy of every assailant?" The resolution was at length carried, on a division, by 268 against 204 voices. This great point being gained, the ministry proceeded without hesitation or delay to convert it to their own pre-concerted purposes. XXIII. 1788. On the 23d of December, a third resolution BOOK passed, empowering the chancellor of Great Britain to affix the great seal to such bill of limitations as might be necessary to restrict the power of the future regent. This mode of procedure was opposed with great animation by lord North. "A person," said his lordship, "is to be set up without power or discretion; and this pageant, this fictitious being, is to give the force of a law to the decisions of the two houses. Was it ever before heard of, that there could be a power of giving assent without the power of refusing that assent? Would any man seriously maintain that the third estate thus conjured up is really distinct from the other two?" It was styled, in the heat and passion of debate," an insulting fraud," a "mockery of legislation," a "legal forgery." And an amendment was finally moved by Mr. Dempster, "That the prince of Wales be requested to take upon himself the administration of the government during the royal incapacity." On the division the amendment was negatived by 251 to 178 voices. The resolutions which had passed the commons being communicated for the concurrence of the lords, a similar amendment to that of Mr. Demp ster was moved by lord Rawdon; when, after a violent debate, the resolutions were confirmed, on a division of 66 to 99 peers. XXIII. 1789. BOOK On the 2d of January, 1789, to complete the singularity and perplexity of the business, died Mr. Cornwall, speaker of the house of commons; and on the 5th, the vacant chair was filled by Mr. Grenville, brother to lord Temple,—the irregula rity of his entering upon the duties of his office without the sanction of the royal approbation being scarcely noticed, amid the pressure of affairs so much more important. The plan of limitations, when ready to be introduced into the house, was obstructed by an unseasonable motion of Mr. Loveden, (January 6) that the physicians be reexamined on the subject of the king's illness, and the probability of recovery. This motion was the result of various reports respecting the disagree, ment of opinion amongst the physicians themselves,-reports sufficiently corroborated by the subsequent examination, which left the house as much in the dark as ever as to the event, answering no other purpose than to create an additional delay, of which the minister well knew the value and the advantage. A letter had previously been written to the prince of Wales by Mr. Pitt, informing his royal highness of the plan meant to be pursued:-that the care of the king's person, and the disposition of the royal household, should be com mitted to the queen, who would by this means be vested with the patronage of four hundred places, amongst which were the great offices of lord |