70^ 



ANNUAL REGISTER. 



liar interest in this unparalleled 

 ti'aiisaetioii. His majesty cannot 

 therefore allow himself to entertain 

 a moment's doubt, that his Prussian 

 majcst)' will second and enforce, in 

 the most effectual manner, the re- 

 prcscvitations which have been made 

 by the senate of Hamburgh for the 

 immediate release of his majesty's 

 minister, and will further see the 

 urgent necessit}' of taking such mea- 

 sures as may be best calculated to 

 obtain from the French government, 

 a public reparation, adequate to 

 the heinous nature of the indignity, 

 and may also prevent, for the fu- 

 ture, the repetition of outrages, 

 ■which threaten to destroy the re- 

 maining distinctions of civilized 

 Europe. 



Resolutions! adopted by the House of 

 jisscmhly of Jamaka, relative to 

 the Governor's Speech at the pre- 

 ceding Prorogation. Dated 12th 

 December, 1804. 



Report made from the committee 

 appointed to take into considera- 

 tion his honour the licuteiiant-iro- 

 Ternor's speech at the last proroga- 

 tion, to search into precedents, and 

 to report the same, with their opi- 

 nion of the measures proper to be 

 .adopted by the house in conse- 

 quence thereof, stating that they 

 had proceeded to take the said 

 speech into their most serious consi- 

 deration : that, from the period of 

 the revolution, when the rights and 

 privileges of the respective branches 

 of the legislature were more accu- 

 rately ascertained than in remote 

 and turbulent times, the committee 

 have carefully searched the records 

 of parliament, and can find no in- 

 stance of a minister having ventured 



to suggest to the sovereign a speecl> 

 animadverting on the proceedings of 

 cither house of parliament. The 

 addresses of his present most sacred 

 majesty in parficular have ever been 

 most gracious, worthy of the ex- 

 alted virtue which has endeared him j 

 to all his subjects, and dictated by 

 a sacred respect for the principles of 

 freedom, Avhich have been uniform- 

 ly displayed by the illustrious 

 princes of the house of Brunswick 

 on the British throne : the com- 

 mittee have also searched the jour- 

 nals of this house, and find that, 

 from the year 1679-80, when the 

 political constitution of this island 

 may be considered to have been set- 

 tled, there have been few attempts 

 to encroach on the liberties of the 

 peojile, or abridge the privileges of 

 their representatives ; and none but 

 what have been vigilantly attended 

 to and iirmly resisted by the house 

 of assembly : it is with the deepest 

 regret that the committee' feel them- 

 selves under the necessity of giving 

 their opinion that the speech refer- 

 red to their consideration is a 

 breach of the privileges of .this 

 house, which, if submitfed to, might 

 be drawn into precedent, and lead 

 to the most fatal consequences. It 

 contains not only direct animadver- 

 sions on the proceedings of the 

 house, but on the particular subject 

 which the commons house of parlia- 

 ment have ever regarded as resting 

 exclusively with them, viz. the ex- 

 tent of the supply proper to be 

 granted for the exigencies of the go- 

 vernment. The law of parliament 

 on this subject being very clearly 

 laid down in tlie elegant commenta- 

 ries of sir William Blackstone, the 

 committee will refer to his autho- 

 rity, and with the greater confidence, 

 because on political questions he has 



not 



