18] 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1812. 



called upon the Chancellor of the 

 Exchequer, before the Speaker 

 should quit the chair, to assign 

 some reasons why the exararnatron 

 required should not be made. The 

 House was required to declare 

 blmdfold by this bill that such an 

 excess as 124,000/. ought to be in- 

 curred ; the fact of which excess 

 only came out by a side wind when 

 the bill was brought forward. He 

 then stated various objections to 

 the bill, of a similiar kind to those 

 advanced by other speakers. 



The Chancellor of the Exchequer 

 made a reply of considerable length, 

 in which he defended the general 

 principle of the bill, and explained 

 the cases of those persons whose 

 grants had been particularly allud- 

 ed to. Mr. Ponsonby then recapi- 

 tulated some of the objections made 

 on his side of the House ; and Mr. 

 Adam gave reasons why it was 

 proper that the bill should go into 

 a committee. The House then di- 

 vided iipen the question, that the 

 Speaker do now leave the chair, 

 which was carried by 141 to 59. 



The House having gone into a 

 committee on the bill, the first 

 clause, granting to his majesty 

 during his indisposition a further 

 sum from the consolidated fund was 

 read, and the blanks were filled up 

 with 70,000/. to commence from 

 1-ebruary 18, 1812. The Chan- 

 cellor of the Exchequer then pro- 

 posed that the other clauses down 

 to clause 14th should be postponed, 

 it being his intention to divide the 

 bill into two, and incorporate the 

 omitted clauses in a separate bill. 

 On the reading of the 14th clause, 

 by which the Regent declares his 

 intention of transferring 50,000/. 

 a year issued to him from the ex- 

 chequer, inaid of thecivil list, some 



of the opposition members suggest- 

 ed that the consent of his Royal 

 Hisjhness should be expressly sig- 

 nified, before the House roidd pro- 

 ceed in the business. The Chan- 

 cellor of the Exchequer then signi- 

 fied the Prince's consent, which 

 was entered on the Journals. 



The committee on the bill being 

 resumed, Mr. Brand objected to 

 the sum of 70,000/. remaining at 

 the disposal of the executive in 

 addition to the present civil list. 

 Mr. Adam rose, and made a parti- 

 cular statement of his Royal High- 

 ness's affairs, of which he had been 

 a managing trustee, which removed 

 Mr. B.'s objection, and seemed to 

 produce a general wish that his 

 Royal Highness should be relieved 

 from ihe embarrassments under 

 which he haH so long laboured. The 

 14th clause being passed, the 15th 

 was read, on which Mr. Brougham 

 strongly objected to the addition of 

 the 124,000/. from a secret fund to 

 supply the deficiencies of the civil 

 list. The House divided upon the 

 clause, and the numbers appeared 

 for it 105, against it 33. The 

 other clauses were then read, and 

 the report was ordered for the fol- 

 lowing day. 



On January 18th, the question 

 being put, that the report of this 

 bill be brought up, Mr. Brougham 

 rose to state his objections to it. 

 These chiefly turned upon the want 

 of sufficient investigation into the 

 state of the civil list, and the grants 

 made upon it, and the separate in- 

 fluence which would be established 

 by the provisions of the bill. He 

 was briefly corrected in some of his 

 statements by Mr. Rose. Mr. 

 Bennet then made a speech of 

 some length, of which the chief 

 topic was the influence of the 



crown 



