five of her said council, to notify the same, by an instrument under her Majesty's hand, and signed also by the said five of her Majesty's said council, and addressed to the Lord President of his Majesty's most honourable privy council for the time being, or, in his absence, to one of his Majesty's principle secretaries of state; and the said Lord President, or secretary of state, shall, and is hereby required, on receipt thereof, to communicate the same to the said Regent, and to summon forthwith a privy council; and the members of his Majesty's most hon. privy council are hereby required to assemble in consequence of such summons; and the said Lord President, or, in his absence, the said Secretary of State, is required, in the presence of any six or more privy counsellors so assembled, to cause the said instrument to be entered on the books of the said privy council, and immediately thereafter to send a copy of such instrument to the Lord Mayor of the city of London, and likewise to cause the same to be printed in the London gazette.

And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That if at any time after the said instrument under the hand of her Majesty, and of five of her said Council, shall have been received and entered as aforesaid, his Majesty shall think proper, by an instrument under his sign manual, to require the Lord President of his Majesty's most honourable Privy Council for the time being, or, in his absence, one of his Majesty's principal Secretaries of State, to summon a council in his Majesty's presence, consisting of any number of persons, not less than nine, whom his Majesty shall name, not being members of the Council appointed by this Act to assist her Majesty, and who shall be, or shall have been members of his Majesty's most honourable privy council, the said Lord President, or Secretary of State shall, and he is hereby required to summon such persons accordingly, and as well the said Lord President, or Secretary of State, as the other persons so summoned, shall, and they are hereby required to attend at the time and place appointed by his Majesty, and such persons so assembled shall be, and be deemed to be, a privy council for the purpose herein-after mentioned.

And be it further enacted, by the authority aforesaid, That if his Majesty, by the advice of six of such privy council so assembled, shall signify his royal pleasure to resume the personal exercise of

his royal authority, and to issue a proclamation declaring the same, such proclamation shall be issued accordingly, countersigned by the said six of the said privy council; and all the powers and authorities given by this Act shall from thenceforth cease and determine, and the personal exercise of the royal authority by his Majesty shall be and be deemed to be resumed by his Majesty, and shall be exercised by his Majesty, to all intents and purposes, as if this Act had never been made.

And be it further enacted, by the authority aforesaid, That if the Parliament in being at the time of the issuing such proclamation as aforesaid shall then be separated by adjournment or prorogation, the said Parliament shall forthwith meet and sit, and if there shall be no Parliament in being at the time of issuing such proclamation as aforesaid, then, and in such case, the members of the last preceding Parliament shall forthwith meet and sit.

And be it enacted, That the said members so meeting and sitting, shall be deemed and taken to be the two Houses of Parliament, to all intents and purposes, as if the former Parliament had never been dissolved; but that they shall not continué to sit as the said two Houses, or be deemed and taken as such, for any longer time than six months after the day on which they shall so meet, and that they shall be subject to be sooner prorogued or dissolved.

Provided always, and be it enacted, That so much of this Act as provides that the said Regent shall not have power and authority to grant, in the name and on the behalf of his Majesty, any office or employment whatever in reversion, or to grant for any longer term than during his Majesty's pleasure any office, employment, salary, or pension whatever, may be varied or repealed by any act or acts to be made for that purpose in this present session of Parliament in so far only as relates to the granting of any office, employment, salary, or pension, to any person appointed to the office of Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain; or to any person retiring on account of age or infirmity from the office of Chief Justice or Justice of the Courts of King's-bench or Common Pleas, or Chief Baron or Baron of the Court of Exchequer at Westminster.

Provided also nevertheless, and be it enacted, That the said limitation of the power of the said Regent, with respect

to the granting, in the name and on the behalf of his Majesty, any rank, title, or dignity of the peerage of this realm, shall continue and be in force for and during the space of three years from the commencement of this Act, and no longer.

And be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, That this Act, and the several powers and authorities to be exercised by virtue of the same, shall commence and take effect from and after the 18th day of February, 1789.

Debates in the Lords on the Regency Bill.] Feb. 13. The Regency Bill was brought up from the Commons, read a first time, and ordered to be printed.

Feb. 16. The Bill was read a second time. On the motion, That it be committed,

The Duke of Grafton rose. He said he felt himself in an awkward situation, in rising then for the first time to speak to a Bill, of so much critical importance, the groundwork of which had undergone so much discussion in both Houses, that many of their lordships had delivered their sentiments upon the subject, and perhaps most of them had sanctioned those sentiments by their votes; but, anxious as he felt to avoid misrepresentation, when the propensity to misrepresent was so powerful, that even what appeared to him to have originated in the best and purest motives, had been in a most extraordinary manner imputed to the worst and the most sinister; and, fearful as he was, lest it should not be thought that the whole of the measures that had been pursued in the difficult situation in which the nation had found itself involved, in consequence of his Majesty's unfortunate illness, had his entire concurrence, he could not resist that opportunity of doing what he had been again and again prevented from, by repeated fits of illness, viz. deliver his sentiments on the principle of the Bill then under consideration. He would not trespass on their patience by going improperly into any argument respecting particular clauses. He meant merely in a general way to state his sentiments, not of parts of the Bill, but of the whole of the system of measures that had been adopted, declaring, that he heartily approved of it, as in his judgment most consonant with the true principles of the constitution. It had been extremely proper, in his opinion, for parliament to have those prece

dents in view, which had been collected and submitted to their consideration, though perhaps they were chosen from times, not precisely such as ought to be made the ground of immediate proceeding under the calamitous circumstances of the moment. In fact, the measures that had been adhered to seemed to him to, be wisely adapted to supply the temporary defect in the form of our government, and to be such as the remaining estates could best take to provide for the deficiency. There was one point to which, though he meant not to go into any discussion, he would just say a word or two; and that was, the clause that declared that nothing contained in the Bill, should be construed to extend to empower the Regent to give the royal assent to any Bill for repealing the Act of Uniformity. By giving his ap probation to the Bill, he wished not to be considered as declaring his opinion that the Act of Uniformity was infallible, or that it ought not, at any future period, to be rendered a subject of discussion and re-consideration. The original framers of the Act of Uniformity, he was persuaded, by no means intended it to be so regarded; but being actuated by the best motives, designed to frame the Act on the wisest principles, and being conscious of having done so, had thought it could not too often be brought under discussion. The Dissenters, he was convinced, were entitled to every degree of candour and liberality, that should be found consistent with true policy. He could easily conceive, that it had been difficult to decide, under cir cumstances so new and so embarrassing, upon what was the proper and most constitutional mode of proceeding, and therefore he gave those who opposed the Resolutions on which the Bill then before them was founded, full credit for having objected upon principles perfectly honourable and pure; he trusted, however, that those to whom he alluded would have the candour to give him the same degree of credit that he was willing to allow them.

Lord Southampton said, he was extremely embarrassed in rising to differ with the noble duke, and the more so, when he found himself obliged to differ with him on the principles of the constitution. He had long been accustomed to bow with reverence to the political system of the noble duke, and from a consciousness of his superior knowledge and ability, to make the noble duke's sentiments on public affairs his own political

creed; but, on the present occasion, so far from thinking with the noble duke, that the measures that had been pursued, and which had been rendered the groundwork of the Bill, were consonant to the true principles of the constitution, he considered them as the most nefarious measures, the most unconstitutional, and the most dangerous that had ever been adopted. He felt, like the noble duke, as a warm friend to his country, a warm friend to his sovereign, a warm friend to his royal progeny, and a warm friend to every thing that ought to be held sacred in the constitution; and he would appeal to the noble duke's candour, whether if he were minister, he could carry on a government under such restrictions as the Bill imposed on the Regent. He had ever acknow ledged with gratitude the salutary effects of the noble duke's administration, and the public had concurred in bestowing their cordial applause on no one measure of that administration more than the restraining the East India Company in respect to their dividends. That wholesome measure had proved the salvation of the Company. Would the noble duke say, that, acting as a minister under the restrictions of the Bill then under considera, tion, it would have been possible for him to have carried the salutary measure to which he had alluded into effect? The noble duke well knew, that the great cause of his leaving office, had been his having found, that the power of the Crown was not sufficient to enable him to carry on a government of efficacy and of vigour; how then could it be expected that the Regent should be able to carry on such a government with mutilated and diminished powers?

The Bill was ordered to be committed,

Feb. 17. The order of the day being read for the House to resolve itself into a committee on the Regency Bill, the Lord Chancellor left the woolsack, and lord Walsingham went to the table as chairman of the committee.

Lord Osborne proposed an amendment in the first clause, the object of which was, to insert words, confining the delegation of authority to the Prince of Wales to govern the kingdom, under the style and title of Prince Regent, "to the period of the duration of his Majesty's indisposition, and until the issuing the proclamation, declaring his Majesty's resumption of the personal exercise of the royal au

thority, as in manner herein-after provided."

This amendment was agreed to. When the clause restraining the Regent from giving the royal assent to any bill or bills for repealing or changing the order of succession to the crown, as the same stands established by the Act of Settlement, or to any act for repealing the Act of Uniformity, or the Act for securing the Presbyterian Church Government of Scot land, was read, a good deal of conversa tion ensued. The duke of Norfolk and lord Porchester contended, that restraining the Prince Regent from giving the royal assent to any bill for repealing the Act of Settlement, was an unnecessary restriction, as it was not to be imagined the Prince, as Regent, would injure his own interest as heir apparent to the crown.

Earl Stanhope said, their lordships had now come to the most important part of the Bill. Any person who looked into the act of parliament referred to in the clause, must be of opinion that the clause was ill worded. In the first place, the Act of Charles 2, was not an Act of the 18th, but of the 13th and 14th of that reign, Next, in that Act, there was a clause which re-enacted and confirmed all the statutes that were replete with persecutions of the most harsh and severe nature, He wished to qualify the wording of the clause, so as to leave the door open to discussion, and, if it should hereafter be the sense of Parliament, to a repeal not of the Act of Uniformity, but of all the persecuting statutes referred to by a clause in that Act; and he said he had some authority for the amendment that he should move, the right hon. gentleman who brought the Bill originally into the other House, having seemed to approve of such an alteration. His lordship here read the enacting clause in the 13th and 14th Charles 2, cap. 4, viz. "The several good laws and statutes of this realm, which have been formerly made, and are now in force, for the Uniformity of Prayer and Administration of Sacraments, shall stand and be in full force and strength to all intents and purposes, for the establishing and confirming the Book of Common Prayer annexed to this Act. And shall be applied, practised, and put in use, for the punishing of all offences contrary to the said laws, with relation to the book aforesaid, and no other." They had, his lordship said, had many different Common Prayer Books at different periods, and the

clause he had just read, re-enacted all the Acts referring to all those different Common Prayer Books, and many of them were as scandalous statutes as ever disgraced a statute book; and were clearly passed in the days of darkness and ignorance by those who had as little religion as humanity. Some of them contained rank blasphemy, as he would convince their lordships, by reading an abstract from one of them. His lordship read in this place the following abstract: the 2d and 3d Edw. 6. cap. 1, recites, that "the archbishop of Canterbury, and certain bishops, and other learned men, had been appointed by the King's uncle, the Lord Protector, and other of his highness's council, to draw, and make one convenient and meet order, rite, and fashion of common and open prayer and administration of the sacraments to be had and used in his Majesty's realms of England and Wales: the which at this time, by the aid of the Holy Ghost, with one uniform agreement is of them concluded, set forth, and delivered to his highness, to his great comfort and quietness of mind, in a book intituled, The Book of the Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacra⚫ments and other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church, after the Use of the • Church of England.' Sect. 2, enacts, "That if any person or persons whatsoever, after the feast of Penticoste then next coming, shall in any interludes, plays, songs, rhymes, or by other open words, declare or speak any thing in the derogation, depraving or despising of the same book, or of any thing therein contained, or any part thereof, shall, for the first offence, forfeit 10l., for the second offence, 201. and for the third offence forfeit all his goods and chattels, and suffer imprisonment during his life."

His lordship commented on this declaration, that the Common Prayer Book referred to in the above abstract, had been written with the assistance of the Holy Ghost, and then said, that in the very same reign by a subsequent statute, a new Book of Common Prayer was set up, as appeared by 5th and 6th Edw. 6, ch. 1, sect. 5, (speaking of the Book of Common Prayer, of 2d and 3d of Edw. 6.) " Therefore, as well for the more plain and manifest explanation hereof" (the same, observed his lordship, being unintelligible), "as for the more perfection of the said order of common service, in some places" (though the same had been best esta

blished by the Holy Ghost, as stated in the former act of parliament), " where it is necessary" (not merely expedient and proper, but, from its absurdity, necessary), "to make the same prayers and fashion of service more earnest and fit to stir Christian people to the true honouring of Almighty God (the book of the Holy Ghost being quite unfit for that purpose, infamous blasphemy!) the king, with the assent of the Lords and Commons, has caused the Book of Common Prayer to be explained, and made more fully perfect." Sect. 2. "If any person shall willingly hear and be present at any other manner or form of Common Prayer, than is set forth in the said book, annexed to this present statute, shall, for the first offence, suffer imprisonment for six months, without bail or mainprise; for the second offence, imprisonment for one whole year; and for the third offence, imprisonment during his or their lives." Even, therefore if present when the Book of the Holy Ghost is read. How barefaced and infamous!

His lordship mentioned the various statutes that were alluded to in the ge neral clause of reference in the 13th and 14th of Charles 2, sec. 24, in the following order, commenting on them as he men tioned them. The said Acts, viz. 2d and 3d Edw. 6, and 5th and 6th Edw. 6, repealed by Ist Mary, sec. 2, ch. 2. And 1st Elizabeth, chap. 2, sec. 2, revives 5th and 6th Edw. 6, as to book, with alterations and additions. This, his lordship observed, was the third book. Sect. 26, enacts that the Queen, by advice of certain commissioners of the Metropolitan, may ordain further rites and ceremonies. Therefore the order of the Common Prayer Books were, 1st, Holy Ghost next parliament; next the queen and archbishop of Canterbury. Sect. 9, depraving 3d book, 100 marks, first offence. Sect. 10, second offence, 400 marks. Sect. 11, third offence, forfeiture of goods and chattels, and imprisonment for life. Sect. 16. Church censure against persons offending against this Act. 5th Eliz. ch. 23, specifies the cases in which an excommunicated person may be imprisoned, by means of the writ de excommunicato capiendo.' Sect. 13, specifies said cases as follows: 5th Eliz. ch. 23, "An Act for the due execution of the writ de excommunicato capiendo.' Sect. 13, "And that if the offender against whom any such writ of excommunicato capiendo