5 © ANNUAL REGISTER, 1806. 
- full redress of their grievances was 
removed ; and the prudent and con- 
siderate were disinclined to those 
violent counsels, from which they 
had already suffered so much; it 
was not to be supposed that all the 
Trish Roman Catholics were mode- 
rate and, prudent, but that many 
of them would join themselves to a 
French army, as soon as it made its 
appearance in their country. 
‘At this moment of danger and 
dismay, when the surrender of Ulm 
and battle of Austerlitz were still 
recent events, when the extent of 
the late calamities was still un- 
known, and the immediate conse. 
quences were apprehended to be 
more fatal than they have yet 
proved, share es no eflicient go- 
vernment in England. Mr. Pitt, 
in whose wisdom and patriotism the 
great majority of the people had, for 
many ycars,reposedtheir confidence, 
was sick at Bath. His colleagues 
were men of very inferior parts, 
and at that time they had credit for 
still less ability than they possessed. 
By giving effect to a system of ex- 
clusion, in the formation of his mi- 
nistry, he had suffered his country 
to be deprived, at the late critical 
period, of the services of her ablest 
statesman, and he had now the mor- 
tification to behold his schemes on 
the continent baffled by the enemy, 
ani his government at home desti- 
tu e of any effective support but his 
ovn. Ifany thing could have les- 
sened the public opinion of his col- 
leagues, it would have been the 
publication, at this time, of their 
demi-official bulletins, in which they 
announced a great victory of the 
allies over the French, after the 
battle of Austerlitz, on no hetter 
authority than the report of a pra- 
ting messenger, whose idle hearsays 
‘ 
they had the weakness to believe, 
in preference to the official dis. 
patches, of which he was the bear- 
er. This miserable fabrication was 
eagerly circulated by the ministers 
then in town, and for some days it 
met with universal credit among 
their adherents; but when the his- 
tory, as well as the falsehood of 
their intelligence was known, it 
covered them with shame and ridi. 
cule, and exposed them to the deri- 
sion even of those who had been the 
dupes of their story. : 
In this posture of affairs, parlia- 
ment, after repeated prorogations, 
was at length suffered to meet, on 
Tuesday, Jan. 21 ; and, as the state 
of his majesty’s eyes did not permit 
him to open that assembly in per- 
son, it was done by commission, 
the commissieners being the lord 
chancellor, the archbishop of Can- 
terbury, lord Ellenborough lord 
chief justice, the earl of Dartmouth 
lord chamberlain, and lord Hawkes- 
bury principal secretary of state 
for the home department. After 
the usual formalities, the commis- 
sion was read by the clerk at the 
table, and the lord chancellor 
then read the speech from the 
throne. 
The principal topics of the 
speech were congratulations on the 
splendour of our late naval suc. 
cesses, mixed with suitable expres. 
sions of regret for the lamented 
loss of lord Nelson, and a recom. 
mendation to parliament to bestow 
some mark of national munificence 
on his family. His majesty next 
informed parliament that he had di- 
rected the treaties to be laid before 
them, which he had concluded with 
foreign powers; and while he la- 
mented the late disastrous events 
on the continent, he congratulated 
them 
' 
