prorogued. It was of course intended that this proclamation, which of itself was of no efficacy to prorogue parliament, should be followed by the usual commission signed by the king, and read in the house of peers by commissioners appointed for that purpose. An unexpected and melancholy circumstance, however, prevented this from taking place.

The youngest and favourite daughter of his majesty, the princess Amelia, had long suffered under a most painful and dangerous complaint. During the year 1809, and especially about the time of the jubilee, her life was despaired of; and in the opinion of the most skilful medical men it was scarcely thought possible that she could survive many days. Contrary, how ever, to their belief and predictions, she recovered so far as to be pronounced out of immediate danger, and even to afford some slight and transient hopes of ultimate and perfect health. But these hopes were indeed but slight and transient. In the months of September and October 1810, she rapidly and alarmingly grew worse, and soon reached such a state as to preclude almost the possibility of long continuance in life. This circumstance, of an amiable and beloved daugh. ter in the prime of life passing rapidly on to her dissolution in the midst of the most acute sufferings, naturally preyed on the mind and the parental feelings of his majesty: his whole soul became absorbed in the fate of his daughter: he dwelt on it with harassing and weakening grief and despair; till at length the powers of his understanding gave way, and he fell a prey to that mental disorder under which he had suffered so much about twenty years before,

In this state it was of course impossible for him to appoint com. missioners to meet parliament on the first day of November, and to prorogue it, agreeably to the proclamation which had been issued, to a future day. When, therefore, parliament assembled on that day there was no power to prorogue it; and on the other hand, the king not being present and no commission being sent for opening the parliament, they could not as a parliament constitutionally proceed to business. The only case exactly similar, and to which therefore the houses of lords and commons could look up as a regular precedent, was that of 1789: parliament that year had been prorogued to the 20th of November; and as the regular commission for its further intended prorogation had not been signed by the king, it necessarily met on that day. The peers and the commons remained each in their separate chambers; and the chancellor in the former, and Mr. Pitt in the latter, having informed their re spective houses of the cause of their assembling without the usual notice and summons, and stated the impropriety of their proceeding to any public business under such circumstances, an adjournment for fifteen days was unanimously resolved upon. This precedent was strictly followed upon the present melancholy occasion. Indeed it was particularly necessary that an adjournment should take place, since scarcely any members of either house were in London. In the house of lords, therefore, the chancellor, on the motion of the earl of Liverpool, was directed to write a letter to every noble lord, informing him that the house of lords expected his attendance on Thursday the 15th day of November;

and

and in the house of commons the speaker, on the motion of Mr. Perceval, was directed to transmit a similar notice to the members of that house.

From the peculiarly mild symp. toms which his majesty's complaint assumed at the commencement of his illness, it was hoped that it would not be of long continuance, but would soon yield to medical care and skill. Sir Henry Halford, and Drs. Heberden and Baillie were the physicians first called in: they signed the bulletins that were regularly issued, at first once and afterwards twice a day, from the 29th of October to the 4th of November, when the signature of Dr. Reynolds appeared. On the 9th of that month Dr. Willis was called in; and then there was too much reason to apprehend that his majesty's disorder was deemed of a more decided and obstinate nature than was originally supposed.

When parliament met again on the 15th of November, ministers informed each house respectively that the medical attendants on his majesty expressed the most flattering and confident hopes that he would in a very short space of time be enabled to resume the exercise of the royal functions; and they therefore moved that parliament should again adjourn for another fortnight, to the 29th of November. Although a few members gave it as their opinion that parlament should immediately take the proper and constitutional measures to supply the deficiency in the royal authority, yet by far the greatest number in both houses thought that deference to the judgement of the physicians, as well as delicacy to his majesty, called for another adjournment; and as the prince's

more immediate friends were de cidedly and unanimously of this opinion, the determination of parliament not to proceed immediately to supply the vacancy in the royal power, but to wait the events of another fortnight, was very gene. rally approved of by the nation as highly proper and becoming, as well as honourable to the feelings of the heir apparent.

During the progress of the second fortnight, (that is fromthe 15th to the 29th of November,) his majesty's disorder, instead of relaxing in its strength or assuming a milder and more favourable aspect, put on the appearance of more obstinacy, and threatened to be of long continuance. Ministers could not expect that parliament would again be satisfied with their report of the examination and opinions of the physicians. It had been plainly stated during the former debate that parliament could not constitutionally receive, and therefore could not constitutionally act upon, evidence on any point, even of the smallest moment, not taken in the regular manner before a committee appointed by each house for each special purpose. The appointment of such committees, however, ministers wished to postpone as long as circumstances would permit ; and determined to have recourse to them only after every intermediate measure had been adopted. A few days therefore before the 29th of November, the president of the council summoned all the members of his majesty's most honourable privy council to assemble for the purpose of examining the physi cians touching the state of his majesty's health, and the probability in their opinion of his speedy resumption of the royal authority. When the privy council met, the

regular

regular forms forbade any member of it, who felt so disposed, to put any particular questions to the physicians. The president of the council alone interrogated them; and not according to his own judgement, or in a very strict and searching manner. On the contrary, a few general questions touching the actual state of his majesty at that time, and the probability of his speedy recovery, were put to each physician by the president of the council. The answers of course were equally short, and expressed the opinion of each of the physicians, that although his majesty at that time was certainly incapable of exercising the royal functions, yet they had no doubts of his recovery, and that his recovery would not be long delayed.

Taking their stand upon the result of this examination, ministers, when parliament met on the 29th of November, again moved a further adjournment for another fortnight, till the 13th of December. In support of this motion they urged the extreme indelicacy of proceeding to fill up the defect in the exercise of the royal authority, when, in the opinion of those who from their opportunities of observation, as well as from their skill and experience, were the best qualified to judge, that defect would be of very short duration. They called upon parliament not to show any backwardness to put the same trust in an examination of the physicians, conducted before all the members of the privy council, and communicated now in the presence of those who had witnessed it, that they had done a fortnight before, when on the faith of an examination conducted solely by his majestv's ministers they had acceded to the motion of adjournment. Even

those members who had at that time objected to an adjournment, because parliament knew nothing respecting his majesty's health but what ministers thought proper to communicate, could not with any consistency step forward to oppose the present motion, since it was grounded on a regular and public examination of the physicians, the result of which was communicated in a manner and from a quarter that must place it above all ambiguity or suspicion. Ministers further urged in support of a further adjournment, that no evil could possibly result from it: in the short space of a fortnight there was not the most distant probability that any circumstance would arise which would necessarily call for the exercise of the royal authority. Much good therefore would result from the adjournment, while it could. scarcely produce any serious inconvenience. It would unequivocally manifest the respect which parlia ment entertained for the king; while, on the contrary, if measures were immediately adopted to sup ply the defect in the royal authori ty, in the face of the opinions of all the physicians that they entertained the most sanguine hopes of his ma jesty's speedy recovery, would it not bear the appearance of disrespect, and almost of a wish to set aside a monarch under whom the nation had reached a most enviable and unparalleled height of prosperi ty and happiness; a monarch who, during the whole course of a reign seldom equalled in point of duration, had uniformly studied the welfare of his people?

The answer of the opposition to these arguments proceeded in many respects on strong ground. In reply to the argument that there was much more reason now, when the

regular

regular and official examination of the physicians by the privy council was before parliament, to act on their opinion, than there had been on the 15th of November, when ministers alone conveyed it, they observed that that very opinion, though now proceeding from a more constitutional source, and a source which parliament might perhaps recognise and act upon, was in itself much less worthy of confidence than it had been a fortnight before. On the 15th of November ministers had informed parliament that the physicians unanimously expressed their firm belief that his majesty would speedily recover, so as to be capable of resuming the exercise of the royal functions. On this belief, communicated to parliament, ministers grounded their motion for an adjournment to the 29th of November. It was therefore to be supposed, that they understood the physicians to be of opinion, that by the end of the adjournment his majesty would either be perfectly recovered, or that symptoms of amendment would have discovered themselves under such an unequivocal character, and in such a regular and progressive manner, that his recovery might be deemed certain within a very short space of time. Now, what had been actu. ally the case? If a judgement were to be formed from the bulletins, which had been issued between the 15th and 29th of November, (and the bulle: ins assuredly would rather soften than aggravate the real state of his majesty's health, if that state were unfavourable,) his majesty, so far from having made the slightest or slowest advance towards recovery, was most assuredly then, on the 29th of November, not merely worse, but in a more unpromis

ing condition than he had been on the 15th of that month.--Parlia ment, therefore, might deem a communication of the opinion of the physicians, coming from the privy council, before whom they had been regularly and solemnly examined, as deserving of more weight than a communication of their opinion, taken by ministers in a loose and irregular manner; and yet it might, without the charge of inconsistency, put less confidence, not in the communication of the opinion given before the privy council, but in the opinion itself. The malady with which it had seemed fit to Providence to afflict his majesty, spurned the skill and the predictions of medical men more than most others: it was no wonder therefore that they should have been mistaken; that they had been so was too fully and fatally proved by the state of his majesty's, disorder between the 15th and 29th of November; and as this particular kind of malady gained strength, when it was not actually weakened by time, there was too much reason to apprehend that the predictions of the physicians would not meet a more accurate fulfilment during the next fortnight; and that at the end of that time ministers themselves would be convinced that present hope of recovery was unfounded,while they had yet to commence their measures for supplying the defect in the royal authority.

Those who opposed the motion for another adjournment, contended, that the question of delicacy or respect to the sovereign was very unfairly and improperly introduced; but if it were to be taken into consideration, it ought to be viewed in connexion with the probability of his majesty's speedy recovery, and with the inconvenience

and