510 POLITICAL CORRESPONDENCE. [1810. 



necessary from time to time until the middle of 

 December, when Perceval in the Commons announced 

 the determination of Government to follow the prece- 

 dent of 1788. He accordingly gave notice that on 

 the 20 tli December he should propose the adoption of 

 the three resolutions of 1788, Ponsonby expressing his 

 concurrence in the two first, but that he should offer 

 the most strenuous opposition to the third. It Avas 

 undeniably the duty of Parliament to find some 

 remedy for the difficulty caused by the incapacity of 

 the third branch of the legislature to exercise its 

 functions ; and it was proposed to do this by following 

 the third resolution of 1788, giving, under the sanction 

 of Parliament, the royal assent to a bill to be passed 

 by the two Houses, there being no possibility of ob- 

 taining the assent of the Crown, cither personally or 

 by commission. This meant that the two Houses 

 assumed to themselves the absolute power to legislate 

 an assumption the more monstrous because it pre- 

 tended to be the act of all the branches of the lemsla- 



o 



turc. If this could be done, the two Houses might 

 make war or peace, alter the coinage, create peers, and 

 perform any act which the principles of our constitu- 

 tion vest in the sovereign alone. The difficulties were 

 great, but unquestionably the least unconstitutional 

 mode of proceeding was by an address involving any 

 conditions or restrictions, which acceptance would 

 render valid and binding on the party addressed. 

 Lord Grey had been present in the Lords and took 

 part in the debate of the 15th November; but family 



