10] 



ANNUx^L REGISTER, ISl^. 



his motion. As to tiie apprehen- 

 sion of its being made a precedent, 

 there was no f;round for it, since 

 on the event of the demise of the 

 crown, the regent would succeed 

 also to the property of the crown. 

 Mr. Tiernej' thought that at 

 least his royal highness should 

 have been advised to send a mes- 

 sage to the House on the subject ; 

 and that parliament was not justi- 

 fied in asking him to accept of 

 such a sum unless they officially 

 knew that he required it. The 

 same idea was taken up by Mr. 

 Whitbread, who could not but 

 think it extraordinary, that after 

 the credit his royal highness had 

 gained from the country by declar- 

 ing his intention of laying no addi- 

 tional burdens on the public for his 

 expenses on assuming the regency, 

 a demand should now be made by 

 the minister as well on account of 

 those already incurred, as of those 

 that would now become necessary. 

 After Mr. Secretary Ryder and 

 Mr. Adam had endeavoured to do 

 away these remarks, and Mr. 

 Whitbread and Mr. Tierney had 

 renewed their objections, the 

 chancellor of the exchequer closed 

 the debate by an appeal to the feel- 

 ings of the house with respect to 

 the delicacy proper to be observed 

 towards the prince, and the regard 

 due to his dignity. The resolution, 

 with an amendment proposed by 

 him, of introducing after " ex- 

 penses" the w^ords " which have 

 been or may be," was then carried 

 without a division. 



On January 27th, the order of 

 the day being read for the House to 

 resolve itself into a committee on 

 the King's Household bill ; on the 

 motion, that the Speaker do leave 

 the chair, Mr. Tierney rose, and 



after alluding to the delicacy a* 

 well as the inportance of the sub- 

 ject before them, he proceeded to 

 observe, that the papers on the 

 table, however correct they might 

 be, by no means aft'orded the in- 

 formation desired ; for while they 

 gave a comparative statement of 

 the expenditure on the civil listfoi* 

 a few years, they afforded no in- 

 sight into the state of the vouchers, 

 why they had augmented in amount, 

 and how the money had been called 

 for. On this ground he wished to 

 have a distant day for going into 

 the discussion of the bill. In men- 

 tioning his objections, he began 

 with the part relative to his ma- 

 jesty's property. They were called 

 upon to appoint three commissioners 

 to superintend this fund, at a 

 salary of 1,000/. ayeareach, whence 

 an idea might be formed of the 

 magnitude of a sum that could 

 afford so large a proportion for the 

 mere auditing. He must protest 

 against parliament's recognizing 

 this fund, uninformed as they were 

 of its amount and nature. He must 

 likewise protest against the oath of 

 secrecy to be taken by these com- 

 missioners, which would exclude 

 parliament from the knowledge of 

 any abuse belonging to the fund. In 

 considering the act as it referred to 

 the regency, he must make two 

 assumptions : in the first place, that 

 it would place his royal highness 

 on the throne permanently, in case 

 his majesty did not recover ; se- 

 condly, that his royal highness 

 ceased to be prince of Wales on 

 that assumption, and of course, 

 whatever was vested in him as 

 such was at an end also ; that is to 

 say, the executive government 

 would be entirely in him. But 

 the principle? assumed would be 



violated 



