42 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1804. 



of ]iis majosfy's health. He wished 

 to know -whether that was true, ' 

 which had been .staled in another 

 place, that there vi as " no necessary 

 suspension of the royal functions ?" 

 The house had hilherfo no informa- 

 tion on the subject, except from 

 the bulletins of the physicians ; 

 which were by no means satisfac- 

 tory, •especially when it Mas con- 

 sidered, that there was a fifth per- 

 son" of the medical profesiion who 

 attended his majesty, and whose 

 name was never subscribed to those 

 bulletins. 



Lord Hawlvsbury expressly staled 

 that there did <'xist no necessary 

 suspension of his majesty's roya! 

 functions or authorities. 



JjordGrenville trusted that minis- 

 ters were so far sensible of the great 

 responsibility under which they act- 

 ed, as not to bring forward any 

 measure of Lmjjortance, or give it 

 the royal sanction, until it had that 

 perfect coirsent on the part of his 

 majesty, which alone could sive it 

 any value in t!ic eyes of the nation. 

 Upon a former occaJion it had been 

 considerctl, what vas the point of 

 convalescence which made the in- 

 terference of file Ic£;islature unne- 

 cessary, and tlieii it was decided, 

 that it was when his majesty could 

 come to the parliament, and per- 

 sonally discharge his royal functions. 

 lie hoped that no false delicacy had 

 dictated the declaration tJsat had 

 been made, and that ministers re- 

 collc6ted that they had a duty to tli« 

 public as well as to their sovereign. 



Lord King declared himself not 

 satisfied, as the opinion of the fifth 

 physician had not been laid before 

 the public. 



Lord Haws})ary insisted that he 

 had made his statement on sufficient 

 authority. 



Lord Carlisle considered that tie 

 1 



silence of the fifth physician gafe 

 reason to doubt that the medical 

 men were agreed on the subject. 



Lord Fitzvvilliam thought the an. 

 swer given by ministers was too ge- 

 neral, and wished for one more ex- 

 plicit. 



The Lord Chancellor perfe6lly 

 coincided with, and confirmed, the 

 statement of lord Ilawksbury, as 

 to his majesty's convalescence. 



Lord Caernarvon thought it im- 

 proper to think so much of personal 

 delicacy, at a period of national 

 danger lilcc the present. He thought 

 that ministers should not presume 

 to exercise any part of the royal 

 functions ; he, therefore, wished to 

 know from them, whether they had 

 the usual access to his majesty, or 

 any actual knowledge of the state 

 of his health ? lie hud often heard 

 tlie term " responsibility" used, but 

 he thought it was of very little 

 con?equcnc<>, compared to the na- 

 tional security. 



After a short conversation, in 

 which ministers asserted that no fur- 

 ther communication was necessary, 

 die house adjourned. 



On the 2nd of March Mr. secre- 

 tary Yorke stated to the committee 

 of the whole house of commons up- 

 on the vlounteer consolidation act, 

 the outlines of his plan, with re- 

 speft to his granting exemptions to 

 those volunteers only who should 

 have attended a certain number of 

 days on parade. He disapproved 

 Mr. Pitt's plan of attaching to them 

 a number of regular oHicers on per- 

 manent pay, as he considered that 

 such a measure wonld be far too 

 expensive. He also doubted the 

 possibility of recjuiring an attendance 

 of so many days, a^ that right ho- 

 nourable gentleman had suggested. 



Mr. Pitt suggested that an express 

 clause should be inserted in the bill, 



for 



