86

66

The death bed of Mr. Fox bore witness to his sincerity respecting this, as well as another great national object. "Two things" said the expiring patriot, "I wish earnestly to see accomplished-PEACE WITH EUROPE, and the ABOLITION "OF THE SLAVE TRADE." "The very hope of the abolition (as Lord "Howick expressed it) quivered on "his lips in the last hour of his life." Had he lived it is probable, as the same noble lord stated, he would have attained the first of these objects with respect to the last, : "he had taken considerable pains to "convince some of his colleagues in "the cabinet of the propriety of the "measure." Lords Grenville and Grey, wanted no conviction, as they had uniformly acted with him. The bill for the final abolition was shortly introduced in the house of Lords by Lord Grenville; and we again perceive the happy result of SINCERITY on the part of the prime minister. Lord Grenville's motion, after a long debate, was carried by a majority of 100 to 36. The Duke of GLOCESTER on this occasion honourably distinguished himself from the rest of his royal relatives!

On Feb. 10, 1807, the bill was carried to the Commons. The opposers were heard by counsel, after which the

house divided, and the bill was read a second time on a division of 283 against 16! In the committee the period of abolition was fixed for May 1, 1807; and the bill was afterwards passed without a division, affording in the house of Commons an additional display of the glorious ef fects of MINISTERIAL SINCERITY in a good cause. Fears however, again revived on account of the change of ministry, as it was well known, several members of the no popery faction, were bent on the continuance of the traffic; these fears, happily, proved groundless. A commission for giving the royal assent to the bill, was signed the day before ministers delivered up the seals of office, and on March 25, 1807, the INFERNAL SLAVE TRADE was erased from the black catalogue of our national crimes!

Our author concludes the work with some suitable and animated reflections on the subject; every one of his readers will we doubt not enter into the spirit of his closing paragraph.

"Reader! Thou art now acquainted with the history of this contest! Rejoice in the manner of its termination ! And if thou feelest grateful for the event, retire within thy closet, and pour out thy thanksgivings to the Almighty for this his unspeakable act of mercy to thy op pressed fellow creatures!"

THE KING'S ILLNESS.

REPORT OF THE QUEEN'S COUNCIL. Queen's Lodge, Windsor, April 6, 1811.

Present, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Archbishop of York, Earl of Winchelsea, Earl of Aylesford, Lord Eldon, Lord Ellenborough, Sir W. Grant, (the Duke of Montrose being absent on account of indisposition.)

We, the members of the council

here present, appointed to assist her Majesty in the execution of the trust committed to her Majesty, by virtue of the statute passed in the 51st year of his Majesty's reign, entitled, “ an " act to provide for the administraof the royal authority, and for the care of his Majesty's royal person, during the continuance of his Ma jesty's illness, and for the resumption of the exercise of the royal authority by his Majesty:"--Having called before us, and examined on

eath, the physicians and other persons attendant on his Majesty, and having ascertained the state of his Majesty's health, by such other ways and means as appeared to us to be necessary for that purpose, do hereby declare the state of his Majesty's health at the time of this our meeting, as follows, viz.

That the indisposition with which his Majesty was afflicted at the time of the said act does still so far exist, that his Majesty is not yet restored to such a state of health as to be capable of resuming the personal exercise of his royal authority.

That his Majesty appears to have made material progress towards recovery since the passing of the act, and that all his Majesty's physicians continue to express their expectations of such recovery. (Signed) C. CANTUAR, E. EBOR, WINCHILSEA, AYLESFORD, ELDON, ELLEN BOROUGH, WILLIAM GRANT.

WESTMINSTER ADDRESS.

On the 18th ult. a numerous and respectable meeting of the householders, inhabitants of Westminster, was held to consider of an address to the Prince Regent. The HIGH BAILIFF took the chair, when Major CARTWRIGHT came forward, and after a suitable speech, proposed the following address.

TO THE PRINCE REGENT.

habitual suspensions of the royal authority, some of which have been but recently brought to light, that have been and are in their nature so portentous : so derogatory to your royal highness, but, we trust, that a repetition of such suspensions, which we know not how to distinguish from usurpations, will be rendered impracticable.

Independent of these unconstitutional proceedings, there had been much cause of complaint, if not of suspicion, in the obstacles interposed by ministers for preventing the accustomed access of the subject to their Sovereign: wherefore, Sir, in now beholding your royal highness Regent of the kingdom, we are inspired with a cheering hope; because his Majesty, should his health be happily restored, will assuredly, through the faithful report of your royal highness, learn the true condition of his kingdom, and the real sentiments of his loyal and aggrieved people.

In habitual suspensions of the regal functions, it is not a mere token we dis

cover whence to infer the existence of evil. In breaches of the constitution so flagrant, we do not witness mere slight indications of something wrong; but they are so many proofs that a borough faction, trampling on the rights of crown and people, triumphant reigns. In the example now fresh in all our minds, the indignant nation hath seen, in full display, that faction's odious pretensions, and your royal highness has been made sensible of its detested power.

Thirty years ago it was declared by Sir George Suville, in his place in parliament, that the Commons House was no more a representation of the people of this kingdom, than it was of the people

tuation.

But we trust that, by taking on you a nation's cares, demanding, as they now do, an undivided mind, the private griefs of your royal highness must be less painfully felt.

It has been, Sir, with extreme dissatisfaction we have contemplated those

once

The seats in that house, both for close and for open borouglus, are notoriously marketable. One of them, as we are credibly informed, was bought by a French King's mistress, for her English correspondent, in time of war; and it stands on record, that at another time those seats were purchased wholesale by the Nabob of Arcot, "for his intriguing agents. None then, Sir, can assure us, that at this day a whole, troop in the pay. of a Napoleon may not sit and vote in that house.

The inveteracy of this disease was made manifest to the whole world, when, in the cases of Mr. Wellesley, Lord Castlereagh, and the present minister, Mr.

Perceval, all accused of trafficking in those seats, not only no punishment ensued, but the traffic was vindicated, and for this extraordinary reason, that it was become as notorious as the sun at noon day!

Here, Sir, is the cancer of the state. With a house of Commons rapidly becoming, by the virulence of this pest, a mere mass of corruption, death must ensue, unless the cancer to its last fibre be eradicated, and free parliaments restored.

For such a restoration, your royal highness must perceive that no talent, no wisdom, no virtue in ministers, can become a substitute.

Proud and light men have, indeed, in all ages, pretended to such a skill; puffed up with a conceit of their own sufficiency, they have been abundantly ready to dispense with the constitution. But did not all history proclaim the absurdity of such pretensions, that absurdity must, to every reasoning mind, be self-evident.

The nature of the nefarious system of government which hath grown with the growth, and strengthened with the strength of the borough faction, is ascertained to us by long and calamitous experience. Its root is tyranny, its fruit is ruin. It scourged America into resistance; Ireland it tortured into rebellion. It disinherited your royal highness of many and flourishing states: and the numerous seamen of those states it alienated from the English navy.

It was this system of government which peopled our prisons with innocent persons, for the malignant prosecution of whom ministers took shelter under a bill of indemnity, passed by themselves and their abettors.

It is this system of government which hath pauperized more than a million of our English fellow subjects; and which daily augments their number.

It is this system of government that covers our once free land with Bastiles and barracks; that brands the millions of England as cowards, needing foreign soldiers for defenders; and that brings back upon us the doctrines and the cruelties of the Star Chamber.

This system of government, by a blind infatuation, confers on French and other foreign Roman catholic officers what it offensively refuses to native Irish, filling the hearts of the Irish millions with in

dignation and resentment ;-combust:ble passions which, so pent up, cannot without terror be contemplated.

This system of government hath, in the end, demonstrated the wickedness, and exposed the folly, of those who, to tear from the people all hope of a just reform, forced them into an unjust war: For, after hundreds of inillions have been insanely squandered, after rivers of blood have been inhumanly shed, after the nation, foiled and disgraced, bas been reduced to a forlorn hope-after all this has been brought on us by corrupt, short-sighted, and tyrannical men, for putting down and treading under foot Parliamentary Reform, it is at length seen, that in this reform, and in this reform alone, national salvation can be found.

During the machinations for fettering your royal highness, and bringing you under the galling yoke, you must, Sir, have noticed the faction's base ingratitude to the King your father, for whom with the deepest hypocrisy, they affect the greatest devotion. That system of government which has been our bane→→ that system of government which had its origin in the worst corruptions, and the most treacherous counsels of ill-advisers, they made no scruple to call the King's own system of government.

There is no view, Sir, of the nation's affairs, but must impress on your royal highness a conviction of the pernicious consequences of a system of government founded on a house of Commons in which the people are not represented.

Wherefore the subject which, above all others, for its paramount importance, we are anxious to rivet on your thoughts, is that which your royal highness has found to be uppermost in our ownParliamentary Reform.

It being our confident hope that the present session will not pass away without a renewal of parliamentary efforts in that cause, we believe, Sir, that a public knowledge of an earnest desire on the part of your royal highness for the success of those efforts, would assuredly cause their early triumph.

Convinced indeed we are, that whenever the crown and the subject, for mutual self-preservation, shall make common cause in pursuit of this indispensi❤ ble object, the odious, the intolerable usurpation of the borough faction, smitten by the united rays of the law, the

constitution, the throne, and the nation, must, like a noxious exhalation, melt in air, and disappear.

Against all counsel for protecting or fortifying the borough faction, who are hostile to your every interest, we trust your royal highness will be on your guard. Ours, Sir, were we entitled to offer it, would be counsel of another complexion; as will be that of all those loyal and faithful advisers, whose desire it is that your royal highness should escape the toils of the wicked, that you may not be unconstitutionally shackled, and made to appear the patron of a faction, instead of standing free, dignified, independent, and illustrious at the head of the nation.

Once, Sir, identified with the borough faction, farewell to greatness? Think, Sir, of a Prince of Asturias and a Godoy! Surrounded by the toils of that traitor, the unhappy Prince became instrumental in undermining his own reversionary throne, and in accelerating the downfall of the kingdom of his inheritance. In the borough faction, Sir, behold an army of Godoys!

It is this faction, Sir, ostentatious of its usurped dominions, which, for several months together, you have now a second time seen carrying on government over the English nation, without either a King or a Regent; thus striking in public opinion at the utility of the kingly office; thus striving to deepen the root of their own usurpation, and to accustom the people to the most extravagant exercise of their hateful

power.

Wherefore, Sir, we repeat, that it is a faction which alike tramples on the rights of crown and people. All but the name of king this insolent faction hath usurped. Nay, Sir, with a King's authority it is not content: the faction aims at nothing short of being despotic.

When, therefore, your royal highness with us shall be convinced, that the usurped authority of the faction is utterly incompatible with "the safety, "honour, and dignity of his Majesty, " and the welfare of his people," which, as Regent, you have sworn you will "in all things, to the utmost of your power and ability, consult and main"tain," that conviction in the mind of your royal highness will be to us a source of the most animating hope, and a pressage of recovered rights and liberties.

Were it not, Sir, a law of nature,

that none can taste the godlike pleasure reserved to the patriot saviour, who hath not first acutely felt the pain of contemplating public wrongs and calamities, the citizens of Westminster would have to regret, that the wrongs and calamities of their country should have made the principal theme of this their first salutation of your royal highness, in the character of Regent.

But having not failed to dwell also with emphasis on that reform, which is the sole remedy for the nation's political evils, they trust they have given the best proof of their anxiety, that the blessings of a grateful people should await your royal highness; and that by all posterity your name should be venerated as long as human records shall endure.

It is thus, Sir, the citizens of Westminster give you their pledge, that, in all your exertions for saving the state, they, with life and fortune, are determined to stand by your royal highness.

The following Resolutions were then proposed, and unanimously adopted :

Resolved, That this meeting think it right to make known to the Prince Regent their sentiments on public affairs, particularly on the absolute necessity of his royal highness's own consideration, a Parliamentary Reform, not only for but in a hope also, that, in case of surrendering his charge, he may report the same to his Majesty'; evil counsellors, having for many years past, de prived the people of this realm, of access to the throne.

Resolved, That this meeting approve and adopt the address which has been now read.

Resolved, That the HIGH BAILIFF, together with Sir FRANCIS BURDETT, our representative, are requested to preaddress of this meeting. sent to the Prince Regent the dutiful

Resolved, That the thanks of the electors of Westminster are due, and are hereby given, to their faithful represen qualified denial of an assertion made in tative Sir Francis Burdett, for his unDecember last, "That the Lords spintual and temporal, and Commons of Great Britain and Ireland, do lawfully, freely, and fully represent all the estates of the people of this realm," contrary to notorious fact-a fact, and a wrong, of which the people of this realm have so long and so constantly complained, but unfortunately without redress.

The address was presented by the High Bailiff and Sir F. Burdett, to the Prince Regent, at the levee, on the 23d. instant.

The following passage, truly picturing an affecting contrast in the condition of our country at two periods in the present reign, indignantly pourtraying the character of the minister by whom the affairs of the kingdom were at one time conducted, and thereby implying high approbation of that able and benevolent statesman, who, while living, enjoyed the highest place in the confidence of the Prince Regent, and therefore delicately insinuating a fine compliment, justly due to his Royal Highness, made part of the original address proposed by Major Cartwright, before he had, in compliance with the urgent request of a previous meeting, consented to shorten that address, that it might be more adapted to a popular meeting :

66

Contemplate, Sir, the contrast between England twenty years ago, and England at the present day! Then, at the head of the nations, she possessed peace, and the power of preserving it: Now, with scarcely a hope of peace, she struggles for self-preservation, against a successful subverter of states and kingdoms, whose means are immeasurable, whose talents are unrivalled, whose ambition is boundless, and whose plan, as vast as unexampled in its combinations, as dreadfully grand in its object-England's subjugationis in no slight degree advanced.

"It is only, Sir, by reflecting on this appalling contrast, your Royal Highness can rightly appreciate that SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT by which the present state of things were brought about'; as it is only by contemplating that fatal SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT you can view in its true light, the character of that shallow and destructive Statesman, with whose nauseous praise the abused nation to this hour is continually insulted!

"It is now, however, observable by whom, and to what end, that praise is bestowed. It is for the interest of the BOROUGH FACTION and their retainers to eulogize one who, through lust of power, cast from him an exalted name, to become their partener and their pandar-one who, without taste for true glory, like a desperate leader of a banditti, was content to become famous in

VOL. IX.

apostacy, illustrious in wickedness, and a public scourge !

"Again, Sir, allow us to recall to your remembrance England's former condition, her pre-eminent rank, and her high authority among the Sovereignties of Europe. Permit us also to bring back to your recollection how anxiously her protecting mediation was desired by France, for averting the dreaded war. Hence, Sir, we are warranted in believing, that, had sage and temperate counsels in this country then prevailed, the wisdom of England had saved the freedom of France-and in so doing had kept her within her own bounda ries, occupied in adjusting and consolidating her own new constitution."