GENERAL HISTORY. 



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public affairs till the period of his 

 unfortunate illness. After several 

 observations to shew that the ap- 

 pointment in question was not ne- 

 cessary, the honourable member 

 •went on to say, that it was a most 

 unconstitutional proceeding to al- 

 low the secrets of the council to 

 pass through a third person, and 

 he, perhaps, no counsellor. It 

 might perhaps be said that Colonel 

 M'Mahon was a privy counsellor: 

 so much the worse ! By his secre- 

 tary's oath he would be bound 

 faithfully to read communications 

 to his Royal Highness, and faith- 

 fully to write what he should com- 

 mand : but in his character of 

 privy counsellor he was bound by 

 oath to give his advice upon what 

 he read. Was it fitting that the 

 cabinet ministers should have their 

 advice to their sovereign subject to 

 the revision of his private secre- 

 tary ? If, indeed, it were acknow- 

 ledged to be consistent with the 

 constitution to have both an interior 

 and an exterior cabinet,he could not 

 understand why there should be a 

 fourth secretary to carry the com- 

 munications from one to the other. 

 He then made some remarks on 

 the improper time in which this 

 appointment had been given, when 

 the burdens and distresses of the 

 country were universally felt; and 

 said that it would appear to the 

 public like a determination to 

 create a place in order to compen- 

 sate Colonel M'Mahon for that of 

 which the sense of parliament had 

 deprived him. He concluded by 

 moving, " That there be laid be- 

 fore the house a copy of any in- 

 strument by which the right ho- 

 nourable John M'Mahon has been 

 appointed private secretary to the 

 Prince Regent in the name and on 



the behalf of his Majesty. Also 

 for a copy of any minute of the 

 board of treasury thereon, direct- 

 ing the payment of the salary at- 

 tached to the same." 



Lord Castlereagh said, that the 

 honourable gentleman had raised 

 this question to a degree of import- 

 ance which could in no view be- 

 long to it. He denied that there 

 was any thing in the appointment 

 which detracted in the slightest 

 degree from the responsibility of 

 the ministers of the crown. The 

 nature of the office was precisely 

 the same as that of any other pri- 

 vate secretary in any other office 

 of state, differing only in the rank 

 of the personage under whom it 

 was held, and there was no founda- 

 tion for representing it as that of a 

 fourth secretary of state. He asked 

 whether it were possible for the 

 sovereign of this country to go on, 

 overwhelmed as he must be by the 

 public documents that were heaped 

 upon him, and scarcely able to dis- 

 engage his person from the accu- 

 mulating pile by which he was 

 surrounded? He thought the ne- 

 cessity of the appointment appa- 

 rent, and that there were no grounds 

 for censuring it; wherefore he 

 should oppose the production of 

 the paper, which was nothing more 

 than a grant of 2,000/, a year as a 

 salary. 



Mr, Elliot observed, that there 

 was a marked difference between 

 the appointment of Colonel Taylor 

 and Colonel M'Mahon ; for that in 

 the former instance his Majesty 

 had never called for the assistance 

 of a private secretary till he was 

 obliged to it by his infirmities, 

 whereas the Regent was happily 

 free from any thing of the kind. 

 If merely the arrangement of papers 



in 



