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the debt of his Royal Highnefs certainly made part of the deberation of the Houfe. He owned there was a point on which he could not help touching, as being extremely applicable to this cafe. He thought he might look for fome refources upon this occafion from his Majefty. It might be faid, he fhould give any thing very confiderable; this was a point into which he could not enter until his Majefty had notified his royal difpofition to give fomething. He most egregioutly mistook the difpofitions of the Public, if fomething of this nature would not be very well received by them. He did not say that the whole fix hundred thousand pounds fhould be paid by his Majefty; but he would fay, because he felt, that it was a little unfeemly, that at a time of fuch general calamity, his Majefty fhould be the only perfon in the kingdom who did not contribute a fingle farthing towards the discharge of the incumbrances of the Prince of Wales. This, he could not help repeating, was unfeemly. He hoped his Majefty would be better advifed upon this fubject. A glorious opportunity offered itself for the difplay of royal munificence, and handfome conduct upon fuch an occafion as this would do more even for the conftitution than the moft vigorous exertion of the arm of power. It was with this view that he had contended, and forry he was that he had contended unfuccefsfully, against the additional one hundred thousand pounds a year to the income of his Majefty himfelf during the continuance of the American war, becaufe, when all the fubjects of his Majefty felt fo much during that war, he thought that his Majefty would do well to fhew them a leffon of frugality and economy. If this principle was correct, and the application of it juft at that time, how much more fo was it at prefent, when the question is, "How much are the burdens to be laid upon the Public to relieve the Prince of Wales from debt?"He, would fay again, it was unfortunate that fome perfon had not advised his Majefty to lead the way upon this occafion, and to fhew the Public an example of liberality, and convince them that he felt himself the neceffity there was of indulging a generous temper. When this fubject fhould come to be difcuffed, happy fhould he be if the Houfe, by a gracious communication, fhould be given to understand that the Illuftrious Perfonage to whom he alluded, intended to take fome fhare of the con tingent burden which might be felt from this. He trufted alfe that the whole of the additional income of his Royal Highnes, together with the Dutchy of Cornwall, would be appropriated folely to the liquidation of the debts. According to the calculation of an Hon. Gentleman (Mr. Curwen), it would take ten years even then to difcharge them. But he

ftill adhered to his original idea of making a very different difpofition of the Dutchy of Cornwall from what had been pronoted by the minifter. According to his idea of the thing, the Public would have a confiderable advantage by the fale of the Dutchy of Cornwall, in a pecuniary fenfe, as likewife from the diminution of the patronage of the Crown, already much too extenfive; and it would alfo place many Gentlemen, now interefted there, in a fituation lefs dependent than they were at prefent. And further, it would relieve his Royal Highnefs himlelf from that dependence on the Crown, and whoever should be the minifter of the day, a thing in itfelf extremely defirable as well for the Heir Apparent of the Throne as for the interests of the Public; for a Prince ought to be an opulent and independent nobleman, before he should become a wife, virtuous, and illuftrious monarch; and in proportion to the elevation of his rank, muft a ftate of dependence be painful to his feelings, and dangerous to the Public. He now came to the point in which the Houfe was more immediately concerned, the guarantee of the debt. It was true the Houfe was not to pay one fhilling, and it had both the revenue and, the means of payment in its own hands; but there were fome contingencies notwithstanding. The lives of Princes are as precarious as the lives of other men; and if the life of the Prince fhould not laft fo long as the time of limitation for the payment of the debts, there would certainly be a contingentrilk. This rifk is more or lefs then, as the period of limitation for the payment of the debts is fhortened or extended. By the fale of the Dutchy, therefore, the period for the pay-ment would be fhorter, and the risk be confequently lefs. The rifk alfo to the Illuftrious Perfonage alluded to would not then be the fame as now.

He concluded by fuppofing that the Houfe, in voting for, the prefent motion, would do no more than for private perfons and families, when a guarantee is made in the faine way. That is, he conceived every Member who voted for the inftruction would be as much at liberty as ever to vote hereafter upon the guarantee, exclufively confidered, as he thought proper.

Mr. Anftruther, in explanation, took notice of the two parts of the prefent propofition before the Houfe; one being a provifion against the contracting of debts in future, the other for the payment of thofe already contracted. The fum had been; already voted, and therefore no Gentleman, by agreeing to the motion before the Houfe, would add to the burden of his conflituents a fingle fhilling. There must be fome degree of contingent risk to the Public, but as it was only in the event of the demife, both of his Majefty and of his Royal Dighnefs, before

before the period of the final adjustment of the debt, the contingent riik was reduced to a degree of minutenefs that was hardly worth confideration. With respect to the Dutchy of Cornwall, he did not pretend to fay, that Parliament had not the power to order it to be fold; they certainly had that power, for they had the power of making what regulations they thought fit, with regard to the maintenance of the Royal Family; but he muft beg leave to obferve, that the Dutchy of Cornwall was not the abfolute property of the Prince of Wales; for if the Prince of Wales were to die to-day, the Dutchy of Cornwall would veft in his Royal Highness the Duke of York to-morrow, and the Houfe would have as good a right to order the eftate of any individual to be fold as this eftate. (A cry of No, No! from various parts of the Houfe.) Mr. Anftruther perfifted in his declaration, and obferved, that thus the next in fucceffion would be deprived of his right by the fale of the eftate. There had also been a good deal of mifapprehenfion as to the value of this eftate; two-thirds of it were not rent out of land, but a duty on tin in the county of Cornwall, and the other part confifted of a dry unimproveable rent; and therefore thofe who talked about what the Dutchy of Cornwall would produce, talked without real knowledge of the matter, Every account he had heard or feen upon this fubject was very much exaggerated, and therefore he thought it neceflary to explain this. With refpect to his Majefty contributing, he wished to fay nothing; Gentlemen spoke upon that fubject as if they had a great deal of knowledge of it; all he could fay was, that he did not know that his Majefty had the means-in fhort, he knew nothing of the matter. "He, as a Member of Parliament, wifhed to confider what was fit for Parliament to do, and not to call upon his Majefty to exer cife his bounty. He was fure that his Royal Highnefs, by his condefcenfion, would endear himfelf in the affection of the Public: And he defired to follow the example of the Prince, in his endeavours to conciliate the public opinion and affection, Mr. Bulard oppofed the principle of Parliament interfering at all with the debts of the Prince. He thought the precedent would be a dangerous one; and he thought alfo that Parliament were not empowered to do this by our conftitution. He faid, no man could feel more anxious than he did to alleviate the fituation of the Prince, and to put him in poffeffion of all the fplendour due to his rank; but the queftion was, whether, under all the circumftances, he could do that confiftently with his duty to his conftituents.

Gentlemen, in fpeaking of the liquidation of the Prince's debts, feemed to think that Parliament was bound in duty to ́

pay

pay them. That it might be a proper question for Parliament to take into confideration, he would not deny; but that they were called upon, either by their duty to their conftituents or to the King, abfolutely, to provide a fund for the payment of thofe debts, was a propofition to which he would never give his affent. It had been faid, that the fum to be annually allowed to the Prince had been already voted, and that this motion did not tend to lay any other burden upon the people; but he confidered this as a delufion arifing from the complicated ftate of the queftion; and he was apprehenfive that the Houfe might be led on to meafures, the probable confequences of which they did not forefce. The two queftions, of the income to be allowed to the Prince, and the difcharging of the debts, had, in his opinion, very improperly been mixed; the confequence of which was, that many Gentlemen voted on the fame fide of the queftion, though with totally oppofite views: For inflance, fome of the Gentlemen who voted for allowing the Prince the larger fum, did it upon the principle that one hundred and twenty-five thousand pounds was not too much to fupport the proper dignity of his Royal Highness's Gituation; while other Gentlemen, who alfo concurred in voting for the larger fum, thought fixty thousand pounds a year a fufficient income for him, and wifhed that the remainder fhould go to the difcharge of his debts. In order to avoid this confufion, the proper way would have been to have brought the fubject of the debts diftinctly before Parliament; and having once come to a clear decifion upon that point, there would have been no difficulty about the reft. He did not at all approve of this mode of fettering the Prince; he thought it would even have been better to leave it to the Prince, to ap portion what part of his income he pleafed to the payment of his debts; he fhould therefore give his vote againit the motion.

Mr. Whitbread faid, he fhould alfo vote against the motion. He did not agree with thofe Gentlemen who contended that this motion would not, if agreed to, tend to increase the burdens of the people; on the contrary, it feemed to him to tend to that object, becaufe, by that Houfe taking upon itself to make thefe regulations for the liquidation of those debts, they were taking the firft ftep towards pledging themselves for the payment of them contingently; becaufe, if this meafure were adopted, there could be no doubt but that the Houfe muft guarantee the payment. But there was another way, in which the Public would be burdened, in order to difcharge thofe debts. Many of the Gentlemen who voted for allowing the Prince the larger fum, did it upon the principle that a por

tion of it was to go to the payment of the debts; whereas, if they had not exifted, a much smaller fum might have been voted. It was an impofition therefore upon the Houfe, and upon the people, to fay that the Public was not to a certain degree burdened for the payment of the debts.. In his opinion, the proper way would have been for minifters to have applied to Parliament for a fit income to be given to the Prince, without taking any notice whatever of the debts, but to have let his Highnefs act himself upon that fubject. Something had been faid about the Crown affifting in the discharge of the debts; he did not hesitate to fay distinctly, that the Crown was bound to come forward upon this occafion, becaufe, during the minority of his Royal Highnefs, the whole of the income of the Dutchy of Cornwall was received by his Majefty. It had alfo been faid, that it could not be expected that his Majefty fhould pay the debts of the Prince of Wales out of his favings from the revenue of Hanover. He was of a contrary opinion; and thought that the people of Hanover were as much interested in the fate of the heir to the Electorate, as the people of England were in that of the heir to the Crown. Gentlemen had faid, that it was neceffary for his Royal Highnefs to keep up a confiderable degree of fplendour; this was a propofition which he should totally deny-the people, under the prefent circumftances, did not look for fplendour, and he believed they would be better pleafed to fee it fufpended for

a time.

Mr. Hawkins Browne confidered the queftion as already decided by an almoft unanimous voice. He lamented the neceflity there was for an application to Parliament; but the duty which was owed to the conftitution was a paramount confideration. The affiftance fhould be granted not only for his Royal Highness's fake, but for the general good, which was involved in the character and fituation of a Prince of Wales, as Heir Apparent to the Crown; and he hoped and was of opinion, that from the judicious arrangement which was now about to be made in the appropriation of that part of the establishment which was propofed for his Royal Highness, no future occafion would arife of a fimilar application to Parliament.

Mr. Lambton thought that the queftion was, whether the House would or would not take any notice of the debts of his Royal Highnefs the Prince of Wales? and upon that point he confefled, that although his Royal Highnefs had been indifereet in contracting them, they ought to be taken into confideration by Parliament. He really thought that the tran quillity of this country required that we fhould make the prefent facrifice.

The

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