the confidence reposed in me by his Majesty's ministers, and by the commander in chief, by the gracious favour of his royal highness the Prince Regent, and by the reliance which I had on the support of my gallant friends, the general officers of the army, and on the bravery of the officers and troops, to carry on the operations in such a manner as to acquire for me those marks of the approbation of this House, for which I have now the honour to make my humble acknowledgments. Sir, it is impossible for me to express the gratitude which I feel; I can only assure the House, that I shall always be ready to serve his Majesty in any capacity in which my services can be deemed useful, with the same zeal for my country which has already acquired for me the approbation of this House."

This speech was received with loud cheers, at the end of which the Speaker, who had sat covered during its delivery, rose, and thus addressed his Grace:

"My Lord,-Since last I had the honour of addressing you from this place, a series of eventful years has elapsed; but none without some mark and note of your rising glory.

"The military triumphs which your valour has achieved, upon the banks of the Douro and the Tagus, of the Ebro and the Garonne, have called forth the spontaneous shouts of admiring nations, Those triumphs it is needless on this day to recount. Their names have been written by your conquering sword in the annals of Europe, and we shall hand them down with exultation to our children's children.

"It is not, however, the grandeur

of military success which has alone fixed our admiration, or commanded our applause; it has been that generous and lofty spirit which inspired your troops with unbounded coufidence, and taught them to know that the day of battle was always a day of victory; that moral courage and enduring fortitude, which, in perilous times, when gloom and doubt had beset ordinary minds, stood nevertheless unshaken; and that ascendancy of character, which, uniting the energies of jealous and rival nations, enabled you to wield at will the fate and fortunes of mighty empires.

"For the repeated thanks and grants bestowed upon you by this House, in gratitude for your many and eminent services, you have thought fit this day to offer us your acknowledgments; but this nation well knows that it is still largely your debtor. It owes to you the proud satisfaction, that amidst the constellation of illus trious warriors who have recently visited our country, we could present to them a leader of our own, to whom all, by common accla mation, conceded the pre-eminence; and when the will of heaven, and the common destinies of our nature, shall have swept away the present generation, you will have left your great name an imperishable monument, exciting others to like deeds of glory,— and serving at once to adorn, defend, and perpetuate the existence of this country amongst the ruling nations of the earth.

"It now remains only, that we congratulate your Grace upon the high and important mission on which you are about to proceed, and we doubt not that the

same splendid talents so conspicuous in war, will maintain with equal authority, firmness, and temper, our national honour and interests in peace."

His Grace then withdrew, making the same obeisances as when he entered; and all the members rising again, he was reconducted by the serjeant to the door of the House. After he was goue, Lord Castlereagh moved, that what the Duke had said on returning thanks to the House, together with the Speaker's answer, be printed in the votes, which was agreed to nem. ·

con.

This was the termination of one of the most impressive and dignified scenes that had been witnessed by modern times in either house of parliament.

In the parliamentary history of the last year, we had to record certain proceedings respecting the Princess of Wales, which excited considerable interest in the nation. It would have been gratifying to every friend of the royal family if no farther occasion had been given of bringing before the public the unfortunate differences which have so long prevailed among the illustrious personages composing it; but we find ourselves obliged again to allot a place in our pages to a discussion in parliament arising from the same lamented cause.

On June 1st, Mr. Methuen rose in the House of Commons, in consequence of a correspondence which had been laid before the public, to ask a right honourable gentleman (Mr. Bathurst) which of his Majesty's ministers it was who had advised his royal highness the Prince Regent to take those measures which had been taken to prevent the Princess of

Wales from appearing at her Majesty's drawing-room. Mr. B. having declined an answer, Mr. M. gave notice that he should on Friday next bring forward a motion on the subject.

Mr. Ponsonby desired to say a few words on a subject connected with that which had been introduced; and having read a paragraph from the Morning Herald, professing to give an account of an opposition council held with relation to this matter, in which the names of several peers and commoners were given, a little disguised by dashes, he declared the paragraph a most impudent falsehood, no such meeting having been held or thought of. This assertion was confirmed by Mr. Whitbread.

On June 3rd, the Speaker acquainted the House, that since they met he had received a letter from the Princess of Wales with three enclosures, which he was desired to communicate to the House, and which he would read, with their pleasure. This being signified, he read the first letter, in which her Royal Highness requested the Speaker to inform the House that the Prince Regent had been advised to take such steps as have prevented her from appearing at court, and to declare his "fixed and unalterable determination never to meet the Princess of Wales on any occasion, either in public or private." The Princess then made some observations on the dangerous nature of this advice, and on the duty which she found incumbent on her to make this communication to the House, together with the correspondence which had passed on the occasion.

The accompanying letters were

then, upon order, read by the clerk of the house. The first was a letter from the Princess of Wales to the Regent, enclosing a note which she had received from the Queen, and her answer. In this letter her Royal Highness, alluding to the declaration made by the Regent of never meeting her, demands what circumstances can justify the proceeding he has thought fit to adopt; states the possibility of their being called upon to appear in public together; and pleads the peculiar hardship of treating her with this marked indignity, at a time when so many illustrious strangers are expected to visit England.

The Queen's letter to the Princess informs her of the Prince Regent's declaration above quoted, and gives it as a reason why it is impossible for her Majesty to receive her at a drawing-room at which he must necessarily be present. The remainder of the correspondence consists of letters and replies between the Queen and the Princess, in which the former declines entering into any farther explanation of the conduct pursued on this occasion. [See the Letters at length in the State Papers.]

After the letters had been read, Mr. Methuen rose, and the house being cleared of strangers on motion of Mr. Lygon, he began his speech with a reference to the proved innocence of her Royal Highness of any criminal charge, which ought to have procured for her a very different treatment. He defended her appeal to the nation by the publication of the letters in question, and dwelt on the peculiar severity of exposing her to indignity at such a period as the present. He asked if it were in

tended to exclude her from the ceremonial of her daughter's nuptials, or from that of an eventual coronation; and he claimed for her the common birth-right of English subjects, to be proved guilty or treated as innocent. He concluded with moving, "That an humble address be presented to his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, to pray his Royal Highness that he will be graciously pleased to acquaint the house, by whose advice his Royal Highness was induced to form the "fixed and unalterable determination never to meet her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales upon any occasion, either in private or public," as communicated by his Royal Highness to her Majesty ; together with the reasons submitted to his Royal Highness, upon which such advice was founded."

The motion being seconded, Mr. Bathurst denied that it was within the province of the House of Commons to interfere in this case. He observed, that there had been no prohibition against the Princess's attending her Majesty's drawing-room, and the Prince had only signified his intention of not meeting her there. He said it was not an unusual thing for members of the Royal Family to be excluded from the court of the sove reign; and referred to the frequent dissensions in that family during the reigns of George I. and II. He did not conceive that the restriction of the Princess from attending the Queen's drawingrooms during the present month necessarily implied animosity towards her. The unhappy differences between the Prince and Princess of Wales might have arisen from difference of taste, or

other causes unconnected with guilt or innocence. With regard to the minute of council to which the honourable gentleman had referred, it made a distinction be tween criminality and minor charges, and therefore was not so complete an acquittal as had been represented. He deprecated these appeals to the public as injurious to the peace of the Royal Family, and said that the house was now called upon to interfere merely about the etiquette of a drawing

room.

Mr. Whitbread commented with severity on the speech of the right hon. gentleman as special, minute, wavering, assuming a right to exclude, yet seeming conscious that the party advised had no such right. He contended that a great indignity, a cruel punishment, had been inflicted on an innocent per son, who had been protected by the King as long as he enjoyed the use of his faculties, and was now to look for other protectors. He said, that in the cases of George I. and II. the charges were speeific. Georgel. directed the publication of all the letters that passed between his son and himself, and circulated them among the foreign ministers, that all the world might know the grounds on which he had acted. How different the schemes now devised to attack a woman, and contrive obstacles to her defence! He dwelt with much warmth upon many of the circumstances attending the present case, and concluded with hoping that the Princess, if denied the protection of this house, would assert her right to appear at court, and dare the advisers of the Regent to execute their intentions.

Mr. Stuart Wortley said, he

could not vote for the motion, not thinking it in parliamentary form; but he could not help saying that he thought the present proceedings against the Princess of Wales were cruel in the extreme. Some other members, who joined in the debate, also expressing their disapprobation of the motion, Mr. Methuen consented to withdraw it.

It was not, however, the intention of the hon. gentleman to withdraw the subject entirely from the consideration of the house; and having given notice of an intended motion relative to the Princess of Wales, he rose on June 23rd to introduce it. He declared, that in deference to the opinion of the house, he should not retrace his former steps, but should confine himself to the topic of her Royal Highness's income. After expressing his regret and astonishment that nothing had yet been done to ameliorate the condition of the Princess, he proceeded to make a statement of her present income, which was only five thou sand per annum, independently of the Prince Regent's pleasure; and he concluded with moving, "That this house will, on Tuesday next, take into consideration the correspondence communicated to the Speaker on Friday, June 3rd, by her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales."

Lord Castlereagh, in his reply, observed, that this was the first time parliament had been told that an increased provision for her Royal Highness was the object which her friends had in view; but although he was happy to find this the declared purpose of the motion, yet he would depart from that dry consideration so far as was necessary to distinguish those