S14] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1814. 



time, and passed. It received the 

 royal assent at the close of the 

 session. 



On December 2nd, The Earl of 

 Liverpool moved an adjournment 

 of the House of Lords to the 9th 

 of February next. 



Lord Grenville said, that to this 

 motion he must decidedly object. 

 Their Lordships had been called 

 together in times wiien legislative 

 deliberation was more than usually 

 necessary. There was hardly a 

 branch of the public administra- 

 tion that did not require the ma- 

 turest consideration of parliament, 

 yet under these circumstances an 

 adjournment of from two to three 

 months was proposed without a 

 single reason assigned. His lord- 

 ship then touched upon the sub- 

 jects which peculiarly demanded 

 their immediate attention. These 

 were, the corn laws, the state of 

 the circulating medium of the 

 country, its finances, the reduc- 

 tion of tlie immense war establish- 

 ments, and the war with America, 

 which, from the demands ad- 

 vanced by us, appeared to be con- 

 verted to a war of agj^randisement. 

 Was this a situation of things in 

 which, for reasons of private con- 

 venience, they ought to turn their 

 backs on their public duties ? 



T/te Earl of Liverpool began by 

 observing, that it was an error to 

 suppose that the adjournment im- 

 plied a waste of two or three 

 months, since, until the last ses- 

 sion, the House had long been 

 accustomed not to meet before the 

 middle of Januarj', not more than 

 three weeks preced'ng the time to 

 which the adjournment was pro- 

 posed to extend. With respect to 



the topics waiting for parliamen-^ 

 tary consideration, he was fully 

 aware of their importance, but the 

 internal concerns of the empire 

 were too closely connected with 

 the external, to be disposed of 

 without reference to each other. 

 On some of the points alluded ta 

 by the noble lord, he thought it 

 best to keep silence ; but with 

 respect to the charge made relative 

 to the American negociation, their 

 lordships might be assured, that 

 aggrandisement on the part of this 

 country formed no feature of it. 



The Duke of Sussex gave his 

 opinion on some of the treaties 

 with foreign countries which had 

 transpired, and expressed his wishes 

 with regard to several of the points 

 to be settled at the congress. 



The Earl of Donoughmore, in 

 reply to the assertion, that the 

 time proposed for the adjourn- 

 ment was not much beyond the 

 usual period, observed, that the 

 present was in no respect a usual 

 time, and that the weighty con- 

 cerns now under discussion at 

 Vienna, were precisely a reason 

 why parliament should be at hand 

 to give counsel to ministers. But, 

 (said he) their language to parlia- 

 ment is tantamount to this— 

 " You are very good instruments 

 of taxation, but we do not want 

 you as advisers." 



The question was then put and 

 carried. 



The motion for adjournment in 

 the House of Commons occasioned 

 a debate, of which it is unneces- 

 sary to relate the particulars. A 

 division took place on the ques^ 

 tion — For the motion, 86 ; Against 

 it, 23 : Majority, 63. 



