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That is not the only contingency, my Lords, which is now to be guarded against. Your Lordships will understand that events may occur by which for a long series of years the country may be left in this state -namely, that the heir to the throne, whether apparent or presumptive, may be an infant of tender years, and incapable of administering the duties and exercising the prerogatives of a sovereign. It is true, my Lords, that is a contingency which your Lordships would be most unwilling to contemplate, and which, if the prayers of the nation be heard, will never occur. The nation, my Lord, hopes, and has reason to hope, that the life of her Majesty will be prolonged far beyond the period at which an heir apparent would arrive at a majority. But, my Lords, whilst we trust in the goodness of Providence, it is likewise necessary for the wisdom of Parliament to guard against every contingency, and your Lordships are called upon to make provision for that event which may happen at any time for a long series of years, during which the heir to the throne would be an infant. Your Lordships have therefore to consider whether it is not expedient to guard against this possibility, and to provide the means by which, under any contingency, the duties and prerogatives of the Crown may be exercised and secured. If that should be your Lordships' opinion of the duty of Parliament, and if any of your Lordships should think it expedient now to make the provision, the question then will be First, to whom the important trust of exercising the royal powers, during the infancy of the Sovereign, shall be confided, and whether there shall be any provision made as to the mode in which that individual shall exercise those functions. It is a great relief to me in submitting a measure for this purpose to your Lordships' consideration, to find that under circumstances very similar to the present, the opinion of Parliament was declared in an act which passed in the year 1830. I say it is a great satisfaction to me, because that act passed under circumstances which entitled it pre-eminently to the consideration of this House, and not only received the sanction of both Houses, but became the law of the land, and was introduced by a noble and learned Friend, a Member of the then Administration. It made but little progress before that Administration

much approved of by Parliament, that it was taken up by the Government which followed, and became law by the unanimous approbation of all parties in Parliament. I said it was a great satisfaction to me to find that precedent, because it enables me to recal to your Lordships' recollection the provisions introduced into that measure on the two subjects I have referred to, and therefore supersedes in a great measure the necessity of travelling back to an earlier period of our history, and to the discussions of former Parliaments. The Act of 1830 was passed on the accession of his late Majesty, her present Majesty being then of tender years; of years that it would have been impossible, if the Crown had descended to her, for her personally to have administered its duties. The provisions of that act were, that in that event the Illustrious Mother of her Majesty should have the guardianship of the person of the Queen, and exercise the duties of the Crown, and act as Regent for her Majesty until she should attain the age of eighteen years, under certain restrictions. This act contemplated the Crown descending on a minor, and made provisions for the government. That to which I now call your Lordships' attention, also provides for the possible event of the Crown's descending to a minor. My Lords, the surviving parent, so identified with the interests of the infant Sovereign, is the person to whom you would naturally look as the proper person to have the care and guardianship of the infant, and to have the administration of the duties of the regal office. It was so considered in 1830, and I trust your Lordships will entertain the same opinion now. My Lords, the question then remains, whether the Regent so appointed should be fettered by any parliamentary restrictions, or whether the Regent should be permitted to exercise all the power, all the duties, and all the functions of the Sovereign? My Lords, a case may undoubtedly occur in which Parliament may think it necessary, for some temporary absence, or some temporary illness of the Sovereign, to provide the means of exercising the Royal authority, and yet the great object may be to preserve the Royal authority unimpaired to the Sovereign when he may return. Such was the object of the bill to which I have before adverted, and which passed in the first year of her Ma

Regent; it appointed lords justices, and | Sovereign incapable of acting for himself, the object of the bill was to do as little as should not have the power of assenting to might be, but to preserve things in that any bill by which the succession to the state that the Sovereign on coming into Throne could be in any manner altered. this country to assume the reins of govern- Your Lordships, I apprehend, will be of ment might find public affairs in the same opinion, that such a power should not be state, as nearly as possible, as they had confided to a Regent. I do conceive, been left by the preceding Sovereign. that your Lordships will also be of opinBut, my Lords, when your Lordships are ion, that no power should be given to a making provision, the object of which Regent of altering the laws which relate must be to provide for the Government of to the uniformity of worship in the the country for a long series of years, your Church of England. Neither should the Lordships will be of opinion, that it is not Regent have power to interfere with the prudent, that it is not safe, and that it is rights of the Church of Scotland. These not consistent with the principles of the powers should not be intrusted to a Re constitution, that the Sovereign power gent, but should be preserved entire to the should be fettered in the hands of the Sovereign. But, my Lords, with these Regent. The power and prerogatives of restrictions, with these exceptions, I trust the Crown are given to the Crown to pre- your Lordships will be of opinion, that serve the balance of the different parts of the Regent ought not to be called upon the Constitution of the country, they are to exercise the functions of the Sovereign given to the Crown in order to preserve with fettered and restricted powers. Your the power of the Crown in that state in Lordships are aware, that if it should seem which it is most beneficial to the public fit to Providence to inflict upon the counit should be preserved. They are not, try the misfortune of a termination to the therefore, given to the Crown for any life of the Sovereign before the time at other purpose than that of being exer- which the heir apparent could assume the cised, and as occasion may require, of reins of Government, and your Lordadding to or strengthening the power of ships should then be called upon to make the Crown, or dealing with the affairs of the necessary provisions, the country the State, in such manner as it is the duty would be in a state of anxiety from which of the Crown, according to the Constitu- your Lordships would be most anxious to tion, to exercise or deal with them. They relieve it, because this important question are not larger than the Constitution of the would then come to be discussed at a time country thought necessary, and if they when the Constitution would not be entire were necessary so to be exercised in the in which there would be no one to experson of the Sovereign sitting on the ercise the royal function, and prerogatives, Throne, in his own right, and in the pleni- whereas your Lordships are now called tude of the power a Sovereign exercises, upon at a time when the Constitution is how much more necessary must they be perfect to provide for an event which may when the powers of the Sovereign are ex-by possibility happen. It therefore, as I ercised by a person with the diminished powers and authority of a Regent, by one not acting in his own right, and wielding his own powers, but as a substitute for another? To impose fetters and restrictions in such a case would be to set a dangerous precedent, which I trust your Lordships will not be disposed to set. There are, however, certain restrictions which cannot interfere with the due exercise of the prerogative of the Crown, and which it might be thought proper to impose upon a Regent. I refer to those which were introduced in 1830, and which appear to be so proper and reasonable, that I bave introduced them into the present measure. It is obvious that a Re

apprehend, becomes the duty of Parlia-
ment now to provide for that contingency.
My Lords, I have now briefly stated what
are to be the provisions of the bill, and it
would be highly satisfactory, in a matter
so interesting to every individual in the
kingdom, to find, in adopting the provi-
sions and restrictions contained in the act
of 1830, that the proposition received
unanimous approbation.
Bill read a first time.

ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE.] The Lord Chancellor moved the third reading of the Administration of Justice Bill.

Lord Denman was of opinion, that it would be advisable to remove the present

HOUSE OF COMMONS,

Thursday, July 16, 1840.

MINUTES.] Bills. Read a first time:-Administration of Justice. Read a second time:-Toll on Lime; Commerce and Navigation; Church Discipline; Grand Jury Cess (Ireland); Court Houses (Ireland); Insolvent Debtors (Ireland).-Read a third time:-County Constabulary; Turnpike Trusts; Juvenile Offenders,

proving the forms and processes by which the business was carried on, as well as by adding to the judicial force of the court, although its present state might render that measure also absolutely necessary. The numerous petitions on this subject presented to their Lordships were not merely in favour of the present bill, but prayed likewise for further reforms. He was persuaded, that it was the duty of the BREACH OF PRIVILEGE.] Mr. W. O. heads of every department to cherish the Stanley rose to call the attention of the spirit of reform as far as that could wisely House to what he considered to be a be done, and this object could not be at- breach of privilege. It consisted of the foltained without calling in the aid of public lowing extract from a petition which had opinion to sanction their efforts. On one been presented to that House, and which part of this bill he looked with great satis-had been signed by the hon. Member for faction, he meant, that which abolished the Shropshire (Mr. O. Gore), for Carnarvonequity jurisdiction of the Court of Exche-shire (Mr. J. R. O. Gore), and for the boquer not that he presumed to form any rough of Carnarvon (Mr. W. B. Hughes). opinion as to the propriety of dealing with the Exchequer as an equity court, but that he believed the common law of the country would derive great benefit from the constant attention of the Chief Baron. The bill of 1830 had removed many of the difficulties which stood in the way of the Exchequer becoming a good common law court, and had led to the appointment of the great judges who had since sat in the court, and had rendered it one of the most important in the country.

the

"Early in the present Session a petition was presented to Parliament, entitled The Petitition of the undersigned landowners, and others, of the county of Carnarvon,' which bore the signatures of John Williams, high sheriff, the Lord Newborough, the Members for the county and borough, twelve justices of dents at Carnarvon, and which contained the peace, the mayor, and various other resifollowing passages:-That the interests of various landowners along the existing mail coach line through North Wales are deeply affected by the projects at issue; and that persons enjoying property at Holyhead, and in the island of Anglesea, have the deepest stake in the inquiry. That, under these circumstances, the strictest impartiality was called for, both as to the persons to be selected and the proceedings to be adopted in carrying the The Bishop of Salisbury had no other Address of the House of Commons into exeobject in rising than to express his deep cution. That such impartiality in the choice gratification that a bill should have come of persons appears to your petitioners not to up from the other House of Parliament, have been exercised, and that, under all the and would shortly receive their Lordships' circumstances of the case, there is every reason to believe, that any report these persons attention, having for its object to remedy may make in favour of a particular harbour and existing evils of a very serious nature in line of railway will be deemed by the public these most important institutions. A prejudiced and unsatisfactory. That the large proportion of these schools had be-grounds upon which your petitioners have come extremely limited in the range of been induced to form the belief stated are as their utility, and, from the general scope follow. That various public meetings and of this bill, and the mode in which its other proceedings took place before the address already cited was moved, at which the provisions were shaped, it was extremely relative merits of Holyhead Harbour and the likely to meet with a general concurrence. Harbour of Port Dynllaen, for the purposes The Lord Chancellor remarked, that the intended, were canvassed and discussed. grievance was felt in all parts of the coun- That at sundry meetings of this kind great try, and that nothing but an Act of Par- pains were taken on the part of Lord Stanley, liament could prevent any attempt at of Alderley, who is reputed to possess consiimprovement from being foiled by the derable property in the town of Holyhead and continued existence of the old regula-hon. William Owen Stanley, represents the the island of Anglesea, and whose son, the

Bill read a third time and passed.

GRAMMAR SCHOOLS.] The Earl of Devon moved the second reading of the Grammar Schools Bill.

tions.

county in Parliament, to show that Holyhead

Bill read a second time, and referred to was the fittest harbour for communicating with

COUNTY CONSTABULARY.] On the order of the day for the third reading of the County Constabulary bill,

Captain Pechell objected to the third reading of the bill on several grounds. He had resisted the measure in every stage last Session, but he had been foiled in his endeavour to exempt the towns that had mained in its original objectionable form. a police force, and the present bill reThe bill gave unqualified dissatisfaction to men of all parties in the towns, Tories, Whigs, and Radicals. If, however, this bill were rejected, the Act of last Session, which was not liked, would still remain. He hardly knew whether he ought to divide against the third reading; he felt inclined to give the hon. Gentleman (Mr. Fox Maule) a chance of re-considering his opinion, and to agree now to a clause exempting the large towns.

Mr. Law Hodges said, that although the Act of last year might be required in some counties, yet the desperate remedy proposed was not wanted in several; and, therefore, it was that he had introduced his own bill. As a remedy for the defects of the existing Act he did not object to the present bill.

Bill read a third time.

On the question that the bill do pass,

Mr. Denison moved the re-insertion of the 24th clause, which prevented magis. trates in Middlesex, Kent, Essex, Hertfordshire, and Surrey, from voting at Quarter Sessions upon questions on this bill, unless they were possessed of a certain property qualification within the district, and which had been rejected in committee. Unless this clause were introduced, the metropolitan magistrates, having no property in the district, might saddle the counties with heavy expenses.

House, he would oppose the clause.

head to a point in the London and Birmingham Railway was superior to a competing project from Port Dynllaen. That it appeared at one meeting (of which the hon. William Owen Stanley was the chairman) that Captain Beechy, R.N, had, for or at the instance of the parties interested, surveyed the Harbour of Holyhead, and reported upon its fitness for the intended purpose, and that his opinion in favour of Holyhead, had been delivered in and was quoted to the meeting by Captain W. J. Deans Dundas, Secretary to the Ordnance. That, under such circumstances, and after the

decided part taken in the matters in dispute by the promoters of the Holyhead line and the Secretary to the Ordnance, the appointment of the said Captain Beechy, R.N., who had already given judgment professionally in favour of that conclusion which so greatly served the purpose and interests of the interested parties, was not, in the opinion of your petitioners, consistent with that impartiality and that perfect fairness to all persons or interests concerned or affected, which ought to be insepa rable from the proceedings of Government acting on behalf of the Crown upon a public question of the very greatest importance."

He had made enquiry, and he could not find that any such petition as was here referred to had been presented to that House, but he found that such a petition had been presented in the other House of Parliament; and he held it to be a breach of the privileges of this House to allude to a petition which had not been presented. He must also complain of want of courtesy, in the fact that a petition which alluded to him by name had been presented without his receiving any notice of it.

Lord J. Russell said, that admitting all that had been said by the hon. Gentleman, he did not see in what way a breach of privilege had been committed. He wished the right hon. Gentleman, the Speaker, would give his opinion upon the point.

The Speaker said, he had no hesitation in stating that he did not understand the Mr. Rowland Alston said, there were petition in any way to involve a breach of many magistrates in Hertfordshire who privilege. The words referred to by the had acted with great credit, who would hon. Gentleman could only be taken as consider this clause a great stigma cast part of a petition that had been presented upon them; and as he thought no such to that House. The petition certainly re-implied censure ought to be passed by the flected upon the conduct of persons employed by the Government, and of Members of that House; but it referred to them in their private capacity, and not to their conduct as Members of that House. If any breach of privilege had been committed, it had been a breach of the privileges of the House of Lords. Subject at an end.

Mr. Fox Maule having withdrawn the clause in obedience to what he deemed the general feeling of the House, although he retained his former opinion of its utility, could not now consent to its re-introduction.

Sir Edward Knatchbull said, that if this clause were inserted, they would lose in

HOUSE OF COMMONS,

Thursday, July 16, 1840.

MINUTES.] Bills. Read a first time:-Administration of Justice.-Read a second time:-Toll on Lime; Commerce and Navigation; Church Discipline; Grand Jury Cess (Ireland); Court Houses (Ireland); Insolvent Debtors (Ireland).-Read a third time:-County Constabulary; Turnpike Trusts; Juvenile Offenders.

BREACH OF PRIVILEGE.] Mr. W. O. Stanley rose to call the attention of the House to what he considered to be a breach of privilege. It consisted of the following extract from a petition which had been presented to that House, and which

proving the forms and processes by which the business was carried on, as well as by adding to the judicial force of the court, although its present state might render that measure also absolutely necessary. The numerous petitions on this subject presented to their Lordships were not merely in favour of the present bill, but prayed likewise for further reforms. He was persuaded, that it was the duty of the heads of every department to cherish the spirit of reform as far as that could wisely be done, and this object could not be attained without calling in the aid of public opinion to sanction their efforts. On one part of this bill he looked with great satis-had been signed by the hon. Member for faction, he meant, that which abolished the equity jurisdiction of the Court of Exchequer not that he presumed to form any opinion as to the propriety of dealing with the Exchequer as an equity court, but that he believed the common law of the country would derive great benefit from the constant attention of the Chief Baron. The bill of 1830 had removed many of the difficulties which stood in the way of the Exchequer becoming a good common law court, and had led to the appointment of the great judges who had since sat in the court, and had rendered it one of the most important in the country.

Bill read a third time and passed.

GRAMMAR SCHOOLS.] The Earl of Devon moved the second reading of the Grammar Schools Bill.

Shropshire (Mr. O. Gore), for Carnarvonshire (Mr. J. R. O. Gore), and for the borough of Carnarvon (Mr. W. B. Hughes).

"Early in the present Session a petition was presented to Parliament, entitled 'The Petitition of the undersigned landowners, and others, of the county of Carnarvon,' which bore the signatures of John Williams, high sheriff, the Lord Newborough, the Members for the county and borough, twelve justices of the peace, the mayor, and various other resifollowing passages:-That the interests of dents at Carnarvon, and which contained the various landowners along the existing mail coach line through North Wales are deeply affected by the projects at issue; and that persons enjoying property at Holyhead, and in the island of Anglesea, have the deepest stake in the inquiry. That, under these circumstances, the strictest impartiality was called for, both as to the persons to be selected and the proceedings to be adopted in carrying the The Bishop of Salisbury had no other Address of the House of Commons into exeobject in rising than to express his deep cution. That such impartiality in the choice gratification that a bill should have come of persons appears to your petitioners not to up from the other House of Parliament, have been exercised, and that, under all the and would shortly receive their Lordships' circumstances of the case, there is every reaattention, having for its object to remedy may make in favour of a particular harbour and son to believe, that any report these persons existing evils of a very serious nature in line of railway will be deemed by the public these most important institutions. A prejudiced and unsatisfactory. That the large proportion of these schools had be- grounds upon which your petitioners have come extremely limited in the range of been induced to form the belief stated are as their utility, and, from the general scope follow. That various public meetings and of this bill, and the mode in which its other proceedings took place before the adprovisions were shaped, it was extremely relative merits of Holyhead Harbour and the dress already cited was moved, at which the likely to meet with a general concurrence. Harbour of Port Dynllaen, for the purposes The Lord Chancellor remarked, that the intended, were canvassed and discussed. grievance was felt in all parts of the coun- That at sundry meetings of this kind great try, and that nothing but an Act of Par- pains were taken on the part of Lord Stanley, liament could prevent any attempt at of Alderley, who is reputed to possess consiimprovement from being foiled by the derable property in the town of Holyhead and continued existence of the old regula-hon. William Owen Stanley, represents the the island of Anglesea, and whose son, the tions.

county in Parliament, to show that Holyhead

Bill read a second time, and referred to was the fittest harbour for communicating with

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