mnch to secure the comfort and wellbeing of human life.

It might, at first sight, appear, that this smooth stream of public affairs was favourable to those who stood at the helm. It certainly relieved them from many difficulties as to action, yet the fact is, that it neither fixed them more firmly in their seats, nor strengthened their parliamentary majority. It had the contrary of both these tendencies. When the vessel of the state is severely tossed, all the well-appointed mariners cling to the helm, provided, at least, it be held by a hand at all qualified to steer it. When the tide of innovation appears flowing too rapidly, they make it a fixed principle to Support throughout the actually existing authorities, and to arm them with every instrument which appears necessary for stemming the torrent; but, when the danger appears past, and affairs resume a tranquil aspect, the usual current of British habits and ideas returns, jealousy of public rights, and a watchful care of public money, becomes then the prominent sentiment in a large proportion of the legislative body. All the great steps taken against ministries within parliament, have been when they had least to dread from without. It has therefore been a standing charge, by the opponents of all administrationsthat every report made by them as to internal disturbances, is got up for the express purpose of terrifying parliament into a support of their persons, and an enlargement of their powers; that the statements prompted by such motives, rest either on no grounds at all, or are at least so vastly magnified, as scarcely to retain any analogy to the real state of the case. That ministers either did or could impose so grossly upon the country as they are daily charged with doing, will not probably be cre

dited by any considerate observer. It may, however, be admitted, that a body, whose leaning must ever be on the side of power, may be more apt to go beyond than within the just estimate. Parliament, too, the more that in the moment of alarm they are inclined to overrate the urgency of the danger, have so much stronger a tendency, on the return of calm, to consider the peril as chimerical, and even to laugh at their former fears.

Under these advantages the Whigs began their campaign. They invoked the constitution, and the liberty of the subject, of which they considered themselves the natural guardians. To this theme they justly expected to find a British parliament alive, after the impulse was past which had excited the temporary suspension of some of its proudest rights. The force of their onset was broken by the promptitude with which ministers threw back into the hands of parliament those irregular and anomalous powers, with which they had been temporarily invested. Still their opponents were not without hopes of pursuing and harassing them even in this prompt retreat. In evil days, measures in themselves evil, must sometimes be resorted to: and in the moment of perplexity, alarm, and irritation, it is difficult to avoid carrying these farther than is authorized by the absolute necessity of the case. Some such measures could now be produced, the charge founded upon which was not wholly unsupported by public opinion. There could be produced, moreover, a considerable mass of individual suffering, incurred under the operation of the powers entrusted to ministers for the preservation of the public tranquillity. The system of imprisonment, and of protracted detention without trial, is contrary to every principle of a free constitution. Till the Habeas Corpus act was pass

ed, British liberty could never be considered as placed on a solid basis. All other institutions must have been to a great extent nugatory, while the crown possessed, without controul, such a power of individual intimidation. Exercised in the most mild and moderate manner, and within the limits of the strictest necessity, it cannot fail to involve individuals in extensive extra-judicial suffering. They must be dragged from their homes and families-must be confined for a length of time in inconvenient, often unwholesome, recesses, mixed, perhaps, with profligate and disgusting society-their employments must be suspended, and probably exposed to permanent loss their character seriously injured, and all this while, being untried, they are, according to the fixed principles of the law of England, to be considered as innocent.— They are persons, whose individual rights it has been necessary to sacrifice to the general good. Being then, whether guilty or innocent, presumed innocent in the eye of the law, they have a very clear right, in equity, to a compensation for all the loss they have sustained, and to a solatium for the hardships and painful feelings to which they have been exposed. This could be ascertained, too, without the necessity of any inquisition or injurious disclosure. No inquiry would be needful into the practices in which they had been engaged, or the grounds on which they had been apprehended, but simply into what they had suffered. We know only one ground upon which the natural advocates of this class of persons can be justified in never having advanced such a claim. The measures in question being in their own nature irregular and unjust, ought, it may be said, to continue such: nothing ought to be done to legalize what is illegal-to reduce it into a regular shape, and strip it of

tr

My Lords and Gentlemen, "We are commanded by his Royal Highness the Prince Regent to inform you, that it is with great concern that he is obliged to announce to you the continuance of his Majesty's lamented indisposition.

"The Prince Regent is persuaded that you will deeply participate in the affliction with which his Royal Highness has been visited, by the calamitous and untimely death of his beloved and only child the Princess Charlotte.

"Under this awful dispensation of Providence, it has been a soothing consolation to the Prince Regent's heart, to receive from all descriptions of his Majesty's subjects the most cordial assurances, both of their just sense of the loss which they have sus. tained, and of their sympathy with his parental sorrow: and, amidst his own sufferings, his Royal Highness has not been unmindful of the effect which this sad event must have on the interests and future prospects of the kingdom.

"We are commanded to acquaint you, that the Prince Regent continues to receive from foreign powers the strongest assurances of their friendly disposition towards this country, and of their desire to maintain the general tranquillity.

"His Royal Highness has the satisfaction of being able to assure you, that the confidence which he has invariably felt in the stability of the great sources of our national prosperity has not been disappointed.

"The improvement which has taken place in the course of the last year, in almost every branch of our domestic industry, and the present state of public credit, afford abundant proof that the difficulties under which the country was labouring were chiefly to be ascribed to temporary causes.

"So important a change could not fail to withdraw from the disaffected the principal means of which they had availed themselves for the purpose of fomenting a spirit of discontent, which unhappily led to acts of insurrection and treason; and his Royal Highness entertains the most confident expectation, that the state of peace and tranquillity, to which the country is now restored, will be maintained against all attempts to disturb it, by the persevering vigilance of magistracy, and by the loyalty and good sense of the people.

"Gentlemen of the House of Commons, "The Prince Regent has directed the estimates for the current year to be laid before you.

"His Royal Highness recommends to your continued attention the state of the public income and expenditure; and he is most happy in being able to acquaint you, that since you were last assembled in parliament, the revenue has been in a state of progressive improvement in its most important branches.

"My Lords and Gentlemen, "We are commanded by the Prince Regent to inform you, that he has concluded treaties with the courts of Spain and Portugal, on the important subject of the abolition of the slave-trade.

"His Royal Highness has directed that a copy of the former treaty should be immediately laid before you; and he will order a similar communication to be made of the latter treaty, as soon as the ratification of it shall have been exchanged.

"In these negociations, it has been his Royal Highness's endeavour, as far as circumstances would permit, to give effect to the recommendations contained in the joint addresses of the two houses of Parliament: and his Royal Highness has a full reliance on your readiness to adopt such measures as may be necessary for fulfilling the engagements into which he has entered for that purpose.

"The Prince Regent has commanded us to direct your particular attention to the deficiency which has so long existed in the number of places of public worship belonging to the established church, when compared with the increased and increasing population of the country.

"His Royal Highness most earnestly recommends this important subject to your early consideration, deeply impressed, as he has no doubt you are, with a just sense of the many blessings which this country, by the favour of Divine Providence, has enjoyed; and with the conviction, that the religious and moral habits of the people are the most sure and firm foundation of national prosperity."

It was not long of appearing what would be the main subject of debate during the present session. The leaders of the opposition in both Houses were so eager to press the subject of

the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act, that before there was time to move the address to the Prince Regent, Lord Holland, in the Lords, and Lord Althorp, in the Commons, intimated, that they held in their hands a proposition for its repeal. Lords Liverpool and Castlereagh, in their respective houses, stated in reply, that it was the immediate intention of ministers themselves to propose a bill to that effect, with a view to the immediate passing of which they would also move to suspend the standing orders of the House.

This affair being disposed of, an address, echoing as usual the speech, was moved in the Lords by the Earl of Aylesford and Lord Selsey, in the Commons by Mr Wodehouse and Mr Wyndham Quin. The first topic which was forced on their attention, was the untimely and lamented fate of the Princess Charlotte, a just panegyric on her virtues and the hopes they had inspired, the gloom with which this sad event had overspread the nation, and the sympathy due to the heavy loss sustained by the illustrious parent. After this melancholy topic, all the others, which the state of the nation suggested, were of a cheering nature. The country, Lord Selsey observed, had at that time been threat ened with anarchy and rebellion; commerce had become stagnant in all its channels; and a deep and settled gloom and consternation hung over the country, of a darker character than any they had experienced during the long course of the preceding hostilities. To this, however, a triumph had succeeded, a triumph not indeed accompanied by the "pride, pomp, and circumstance of war," but one wherein wisdom and moderation had counteracted the desolating spirit of revolution, crushed the seeds of anarchy, and re-established peace, confidence, and tranquillity.

"Last year," said Mr Quin, "strong men were to be seen in distress for want of work; now wages have advanced; industry, which is the staple foundation of national wealth, has a fair field spread for its exertion. The country, if I may so express myself, feels an increased circulation in every artery, in every channel of its commerce.-Last year the fires were extinguished in most of the iron works, now they are in full activity, and the price of iron has risen from 87. or 91. to about 147. a ton. The demand for linen, the staple of the north of Ireland, is unprecedented, both as to quantity and price. The funds are noweighty, last year about sixty-three. Money is most abundant, and when lent at mortgage to good security, lowering in rate of interest, and to be had at 44 per cent, at the same time that sales of land are effected at better prices than last year. Gold too has re-appeared, and the little request in which it is held, seems to declare, that a belief in the stability of our financial system is universal. Let me notice the return of confidence among all classes and descriptions of men;

the farmer, the manufacturer, the merchant, all seem to feel its vivifying influence." The country was said to be now reaping the fruits of its noble exertions, which it could never have attained, had it followed a less wise and energetic system. The profound peace which reigned on the continent with every hope of continuance, and the treaties concluded with Spain and Portugal for the suppression of the slave trade in their respective territories, furnished grounds of high congratulation. The proposal for the erecting and endowing of new churches was mentioned as strongly called for by the present deficiency in the accommodation for public worship. It indicated also the regard paid by the administration to the religious

and moral welfare of the community, an object with which national safety and prosperity were so intimately connected.

The leaders on the opposite side did not come forward in that high tone, and with that imposing front, which they had displayed at the commence ment of the former session. The principal speakers did not even make their appearance. By those who spoke, it was stated, that their concurrence in the first paragraph of the speech, that relating to the Princess Charlotte, was so entire, as to make them anxious to avoid all appearance of dissent. Although, likewise, they protested strenuously against the idea, that the restored tranquillity of the country was in any degree due, either to the present ministers, or to the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, the address was otherwise such as, though they could not cordially approve, they did not feel themselves positively called upon to controvert. Some skirmishing, however, took place on particular points. Lord Althorpe, in the Commons, arraigned the trial of Hone on three successive indictments. He certainly considered the parodies highly reprehensible, though he would have thought the mode of proceeding by a grand jury preferable to that on an information ex officio. But that which appeared to him wholly indefensible, was the twice following up the acquittal with a new trial on a similar libel, thus appealing as it were from jury to jury, and endeavouring to bring the institution itself into contempt. "The sanction of three verdicts was thus given to a practice condemnable by all well-disposed persons, all through the injudicious zeal of the honourable and learned gentleman. Had the case been other wise, and the defendant been convicted upon the third trial, there can be little doubt his punishment would have

nearly equalled those resulting from a conviction upon the three several informations; and yet, in that case, he would have been acquitted by the ma→ jority of the juries. This mode of proceeding cannot be considered candid or liberal. An unfair advantage appears to have been taken of the accused, by subjecting him to reiterated trials, and reiterated and painful exertions."

These remarks called up the Attorney-General, who declared, that there had been nothing litigious in the proceedings against Mr Hone. It might be made a question, whether any of the libels was a proper subject of prosecution; but if that were decided in the affirmative, he certainly conceived it his duty to proceed against the whole. Was it because three separate and distinct libels,three publications charged as libels at least,-had been sent forth by the same person, that two out of the three, on a verdict of acquittal being pronounced on the first trial, ought not to be prosecuted? If only one had been selected, the inference must have been, that the other two were innocent, justifiable, and might be circulated at pleasure. It certainly was a matter of serious consideration, after the first verdict, whether he should go on: but he was finally convinced, that, by doing otherwise, he would be guilty of a gross dereliction of duty. His mind had not been at all convinced, though by the law of England the jury had the right,-and God forbid they should not have it,—of deciding on the guilt or innocence of the party accused;-yet still he had not been convinced that the publications in question were not what they had been charged to be. On such matters, every man was entitled to exercise his own judgment. Had he felt that he had been in error when he first proceeded against them,