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BRITAIN. 



Britain. 



Restric- 

 tions upon 

 the regent. 



Substance 

 of the re- 

 gency bill. 



small on tlie side of ministers, as to mark an antici- 

 pation of their declining. The substance of the first 

 resolution, was the expediency of his Royal High- 

 ness the Prince of Wales being appointed regent ; of 

 the second, to restrain him from creating a peerage in 

 any case, except as a reward for some important mi- 

 litary or naval achievement ; of the third, to prevent 

 him from granting any office in reversion, or any of- 

 fice, salary, or premium, except such offices as are by 

 law required to be granted for life, or during good 

 behaviour. The substance of the fourth resolution 

 was to vest in trustees, whatever part of his majesty's 

 property as was not already so vested. 



On the first of January 1811, the minister propo- 

 sed a fifth resolution respecting the royal household, 

 in which he was left in a minority. The resolution, 

 as amended by the opponents of ministry, was, that 

 the care of his majesty's person during his illness 

 should be committed to the queen, together with the 

 sole directicai of such portion of his majesty's house- 

 hold, as should be deemed suitable to a due attend- 

 ance and regard to his royal person, -j- 



The other most important articles of the regency 

 bill were in substance as follows : 



Her majesty was to have a council, to assist in the 

 discharge of the trusts committed by the act to her 

 majesty. 



Her majesty's council may examine the physicians, 

 and others in attendance on his majesty, upon oath. 



Her majesty's council shall meet at stated times, to 

 declare the state of his majesty's health, and transmit 

 a report to the president of the privy council, who 

 shall publish a copy in the London Gazette. 



Her majesty and council are eventually to notify 

 his majesty's restoration to health, by instrument sent 

 to the privy council. After such instrument has been 

 received and entered by the privy council, his majes- 

 ty may, by sign manual, require the privy council to 

 assemble. 



If his majesty, by the advice of his privy council, 

 shall signify his royal pleasure to resume the personal 

 exercise of his authority, and require a proclamation 

 to that effect to be issued, the powers of the act shall 



In case of the death of the regent, or her majesty, 

 or the resumption of the royal authority by his ma- 

 jesty, parliament, if then adjourned or prorogued, 

 shall meet ; or if dissolved, the members of the last 

 parliament shall meet. Members of the two houses 

 so meeting, shall be deemed the two houses of par- 

 liament j but not to continue to sit longer than six 

 months. 



The election of members is to be declared void, 

 by appointment to office by the regent, .or her ma- 

 jesty. 



The debates on the bill occupied both houses till 

 the end of the first week of February 1811, at which 

 period his Royal Highness entered upon his office of 

 regency. 



In concluding our view of public affairs at the close 



of 1810, we regret that we csnnot record the termi- E. 

 nation of our dispute with the states of America. ~~^'~ 

 The orders in council, as far back as November 1 807, GE g" 

 had put an end to all neutral commerce, except by 

 licence from England. By way of retaliation for Au " air . s of 

 these new and additional restrictions, Bonaparte is- America, 

 sued from Milan, in the December of the same year, 

 his decree, which bears the name of that place ; and as 

 the British orders had -declared, that they should be 

 continued in force till the Berlin decree was revoked, 

 so this decree from Milan declared, that its restric- 

 tions and penalties should remain in force till the or- 

 ders in council should be revoked. Each of the 

 belligerents informed Amenca, (unhappily now the 

 only neutral nation,) that they enforced the measure 

 of retaliation, not from hostility towards her, but in 

 self defence. Each of them desired America to com- 

 pel their enemy to respect her flag ; unless she did 

 so, they declared that they must enforce their reta- 

 liation. America protested against the grounds of 

 justification taken up by both parties : she declared 

 that both had violated her rights ; but she at last de- 

 termined to submit, for the present, whilst she en- 

 deavoured to prevail upon one party or the other to 

 give way first, and to revoke their orders or decrees. 

 After long and fruitless efforts to this effect, she 

 passed, on the first of May 1810, an act, in which 

 she provided, that if either Great Britain or France 

 should, before the 31st of May 1811, revoke, or mo- 

 dify her edicts so that the neutral commerce of Ame- 

 rica should be no longer violated, the fact should be 

 declared by the President of the United States by 

 proclamation ; and that then, if the other nation 

 should not, in three months from that time, revoke 

 or modify her edicts in like manner, the non-inter- 

 course act should be revived against that nation. On 

 the 5th of August 1810, the French minister for fo- 

 reign affairs communicated to Mr Armstrong-, the 

 American minister at Paris, that the decrees of Ber- 

 lin and Milan were revoked, and that, from the 1st 

 of November 1810, they would cease to be in force ; 

 it being understood that, in consequence of this re- 

 vocation, the British, should revoke their orders in 

 council, and renounce the new principles of blockade 

 which they had attempted to establish. Mr Arm- 

 strong having communicated this notification to Mr 

 Pinkney, the American minister in London, the lat- 

 ter wrote, on the 25th of August 1810, to Lord 

 Wellesley, our secretary of state for foreign affairs, 

 informing him of what had been done in France, and 

 at the same time observing, that he took it for grant- 

 ed 'hat the revocation of the British orders in coun- 

 cil would follow as a matter of course, and that he 

 hoped to be able to announce to his government that 

 snch revocation had taken place. Lord Welltsley's 

 answer was as follows : " 1 have the honour to ac- 

 knowledge the receipt of your letter, under date the 

 25th instant. On the 23d of February 1808, his 

 majesty's minister in America declared to the go- 

 vernment of the United States, ' his majesty's earn- 



) The original clause moved by Mr Perceval was, that, for a time to be limited, her majesty should have the power to re- 

 move and to nominate and appoint such persons as she should think proper, to the several offices in his majesty's household ; 

 and to dispose, order, and manage all other matters and things relating to the care of his majesty's royal person, during the 

 time foresaid. 



