XXIII. 1788. éloquence," that if, as had been asserted by the BOOK members for Liverpool, the trade could not be carried on in any other manner, he would retract what he had said on a former day, and, waving every farther discussion, give his instant vote for the annihilation of a traffic thus shocking to humanity. He trusted that the house, being now in possession of such evidence as was never before exhibited, would endeavour to extricate themselves from the guilt and remorse which every man ought to feel for having so long overlooked such cruelty and oppression." The bill was car. ried up June 18th to the house of lords, where it was fated to encounter the determined opposition of lord Thurlow. His lordship said, that the bill was full of inconsistency and nonsense. The French had lately offered premiums to encourage the African trade, and the natural presumption was, that we ought to do the same. This measure appeared to him very like a breach of parliamentary faith. As to himself, he scrupled not to say, "that if the fit of philanthropy which had slept so many years had been suffered to sleep one summer longer, it would have appeared to him more wise than to take up the subject in this disjointed manner." The duke of Chandos ventured to predict a general insurrection of the negroes in the West Indies, in consequence of the agitation of the present question. And lord Sydney, who had 1 XXIIL 1788. BOOK once ranked among the friends of liberty, expressed in warm terms his admiration of the system of the slave laws established in Jamaica, and saw no room for any improvement. The bill was defended by the duke of Richmond and marquis Townshend in a manner which did honor to their understanding and feelings and it finally passed by a consider. able majority. Alarming illness of The king put an end to the session July 11, by a speech from the throne, in which he complimented the two houses on their attention and li berality. "His faithful subjects had every reason (as he affirmed) to expect the continuance of the blessings of peace; and the engagements which he had recently formed with the king of Prussia and the States General of the United Provinces, would, he trusted, promote the security and welfare of his own dominions, and contribute to the general tranquility of Europe." Soon after the recess of parliament, the king, the king. who had been for some time rather indisposed, was advised by his physicians to try the mineral waters of Cheltenham, which he was believed to drink in too profuse a quantity. His health appeared, nevertheless, during his residence there, greatly established; and he amused himself and gratified his people by various excursions in the vicinity of that place, displaying on these occasions inuch condescension and affability, and being every parliament. The parliament had been prorogued to the Session of 20th of November; a few days previous to which, a circular letter was issued by the ministers, in which the impracticability of a farther prorogation was signified, and the attendance of the members earnestly requested. Parliament being accordingly assembled, the state of the king's health was formally notified to the house of peers by the lordchancellor, and to the commons by Mr. Pitt and as the session of parliament could not be opened in the regular mode, an adjournment of fourteen days was recommended; at the end of which term, if the king's illness should unhappily continue, it would be incumbent upon them to enter into the immediate consideration of the state of public affairs. Upon the re-assembling of parliament, on the 4th of December, a report of the Board of Privy Council was presented to the two houses, containing an examination of the royal physicians; and it, was properly suggested, that, considering the extreme delicacy of the subject, and the dignity of XXIII. 1788. BOOK the person concerned, parliament would do well to rest satisfied without any more direct and express information, especially as the examinations of council had been taken upon oath, which the house of commons had no power to administer. Proceedings rela regency. The situation of affairs was at this period sintive to the gularly critical. The prince of Wales, into whose hands the government of the country was soon likely to fall, retained a deep resentment against the present ministers for their recent conduct respecting him, and took no pains to conceal his decided predilection for the person and politics of Mr. Fox. This distinguished leader, on the earliest intelligence of the king's indisposition, had returned from a summer excursion to the continent with incredible expedition; and in contemp lation of an approaching change, a new arrangement of administration was already believed to be formed, consisting of the principal members of the former coalition ministry, lord North only excepted, and of which the duke of Portland was to be once more the ostensible head. The policy of opposition seemed evidently repugnant to every idea of unnecessary delay. Yet doubts were unaccountably started by Mr. Fox, Mr. Burke, and others of the same party, whether parliament could in this momentous case dispense with that sort of evidence on which they had been accustomed to proceed. The validity of the objection XXIII. 1788. was very faintly contested, and a committee of BOOK twenty-one persons in each house, after no long debate, appointed to examine and report the sentiments of the royal physicians. The report of the committee was laid upon the table of the house of commons on the 10th of December when a motion was made by Mr. Pitt, for the appointment of another committee to inspect the journals for precedents of such proceedings as had been adopted in former instances, when the sovereign authority was suspended by sickness, infirmity, or any other cause. Mr. Fox, sensible perhaps of his former error, now opposed with energy the present motion, as calculated only for delay. With respect to precedents, there were, he said, notoriously none which applied to the present instance; and he affirmed, that all which was requisite to their ultimate decision had been obtained by the report now lying upon their table. By that report they had ascertained the incapacity of the sovereign. And he advanced as a proposition deducible from the principles of the constitution, and the analogy of the law of hereditary succession, "that whenever the sovereign was incapable of exercising the functions of his high office, the heir apparent, if of full age and capacity, had as indisputable a claim to the exercise of the executive authority, in the name and on the behalf of the sovereign, during |