debts, after the vote then passed, as if bound thereto by a condition worded in the strongest manner: but the fact was, his Royal Highness had contracted no new debts; nor had he made any claims on the public for payment of his former debts; for surely the submittal to excessive restraints upon his own income for the liquidation of his Royal Highness's debts, was not to be termed a burthen on the coun

try for that purpose. But though his Royal High

ness had contracted no new debts, yet it was to be recollected, that if those arrangements made with a former Chancellor of the Exchequer for the liquidation of his debts, had failed in some instances of their intended effect, the Prince, feeling himself bound in honor to make good the deficiency, was still embarrassed, under the sense of that honorable obligation. On the former occasion, a sum of 600,0007. was voted in advance to the Prince for the liquidation of his debts, to be vested in the hands of trustees; but when by public advertisement all the claims of his Royal Highness were called in, the aggregate was found to amount to 650,0007.; consequently there was a deficit of 50,000l. It was not thought advisable to make a further application to parliament; but the commissioners, to supply the deficiency, proposed to the creditors an abatement, on their respective debts, of no less than 10 per cent. This deduction was not upon claims considered as any ways fraudulent or over-charged, but upon debts fairly fitted, and admitted to be just and reasonable. This, he contended, was, in direct terms, compromising the honor of his Royal Highness; it was not paying, but compounding his debts; and his Royal Highness, he said, had authorized him to declare, on a former occasion, that he had much rather again apply to parliament, and solicit a restriction of one year more upon his income, in order to pay in full every claim against him, than submit to a measure which his Royal Highness conceived to be so degrading to his honor; nor could

he conceive that honor satisfied until he had paid the last farthing. If then his Royal Highness was still to remain burthened with claims, which he conceived himself bound, as debts of honor, to discharge, it was obvious the chief end proposed to the house, of enabling his Royal Highness immediately to resume his rank and appropriate splendor, would not be attained by the vote proposed. If it was said he was, in consequence of this vote, to be restored to his whole income, but not yet to resume his rank and state, in God's name let the circumstances be explained to the house; and some definitive time mentioned at which an expectation, so anxiously and so generally entertained by the nation, was really to be fulfilled.

The resolution was agreed to without a division.

MARCH 4.

PRINCE OF WALES'S ESTABLISHMENT.

Mr. Calcraft moved,." That the house, anxiously desirous to give full effect to the important objects contained in His Majesty's most gracious message of the 16th of February, do appoint a select committee to inquire into the embarrassments of the Prince of Wales, and into the most effectual means of relieving them as speedily as possible, in order to enable His Royal Highness to resume the splendor and dignity due to his exalted station."

Mr. SHERIDAN, after the manner in which this question had been deprecated, and the manifest indisposition that had been shewn on the other side to enter into it, thought it unnecessary to assure the house, that it was not his intention to detain them long. Unquestionably if a division were to take place, he should vote for the original motion; but so little real difference of opinion did he see, that he could have no apprehension of coming to a division, There was but one object professed on both sides, and he was sure the manner of attaining that object, though it might, in the first instance, strike gentlemen very differently, would not ultimately be a

cause of dissension. right honorable gentleman (the Chancellor of the Exchequer) and those about him, to reply to the arguments of his honorable friend (Mr. Fox), he had reason to conclude that they were ready to do that justice to his Royal Highness to which he is undoubtedly entitled. His Royal Highness, upon the gracious intention conceived by His Majesty, and communicated to the house by His Majesty's message, with the advice of his law officers, adopted the resolution of abandoning his claims to the duchy of Cornwall. There was no doubt but his Royal Highnes's advisers, as well the one who had a seat in that House (Mr. Erskine) as the one who had not (Mr. Adam), had given his Royal Highness the advice most consistent with his dignity. But it was not for the house to consider that he did not act on the authority of private communications; he was bound as a member of parliament not to do so. Was there any reason to believe that his Royal Highness was indifferent to the restoration of his rank and state, or to the restoration to the same rank of that family which had shared in his obscurity? Let gentlemen look to the communication made by his Royal Highness, and they would there find it acknowledged that he was not indifferent. This was not information from private authority. The house had it from his Royal Highness himself; they had it on the face of their journals. All opinions were therefore agreed as to the object that was to be attained. His honorable friend, if the form of his motion produced any difficulty, would, he was sure, not hesitate to change it to the shape that would be least exceptionable. Let it be said, that the house would consider of it. The right honorable gentleman (the Chancellor of the Exchequer) had said, his Royal Highness was in a situation in which it was not to be entered that he should continue one hour longer that he was in a situation which he could not have that interchange of hospitality with

From the tardiness of the

the noble families of the country which it was most material that the heir apparent of the crown should keep up that he could not promote the arts, patronise talent, or contribute to the advancement of those various laudable institutions for which the present time was so remarkable. The house appeared to feel as the right honorable gentleman did; but now, as something more was required to accomplish the object, was the feeling of the house and the right honorable gentleman to be altered? We were told that those things must be endured, for which there was no remedy; but if there was a remedy, why should a great and confessed evil be longer endured? His attention to this subject had lately led him to look over what had been done in it in former times. He had found in the former debates a great deal of asperity, which he was sorry to find mingled with such a discussion. He was pleased to find that nothing of that kind had entered into the present discussion, with the exception of one honorable gentleman (Mr. Johnstone), whose accuracy in figures had been complimented by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, though that accuracy had commenced in miscalculation, and ended in false inference. The honorable gentleman declared himself sorry that a compromise had taken place. He, on the contrary, rejoiced at it, because much disagreeable consequence might result from the prosecution of the suit, and the legal advisers of his Royal Highness, who would give no advice inconsistent with his honor. The honorable gentleman conceived it an insult to the public to suppose that there is any balance due to his Royal Highness on the arrears. He was as little inclined to insult the public as the honorable gentleman; but he could not conceive the public so irritable as to fly into a rage at being called on to enter into an account on a matter in which the best informed persons were of opinion that there was a large balance against it. He gave the public credit for more justice and less irri

tability than the honorable gentleman. The indelicacy of entering into such an account had also been mentioned. He knew of no indelicacy in it, except, indeed, in the set-offs which gentlemen made against the revenues of the duchy. Was the Prince to be told by his Royal Father, "It is true, I owe you a large arrear accumulated during your minority, but I have to deduct the expenses of your nursing and education; there is so much for your cradle, and so much for your pap, and so much for your books?" The whole of the indelicacy was in this. The Prince of Wales had shared the same education and the same maintenance which had been enjoyed by the Duke of York. They were both maintained out of the Queen's privy purse, and it was on the occasion of that maintenance that parliament had made so large and liberal a grant for Her Majesty's service. The honorable gentleman (Mr. Johnstone), said, that the settlement made in 1795 ought not to be changed, and that there was no reason why it should not be continued in 1803. That may be a good argument, but it came rather late. It ought to have been advanced when the original grant on His Majesty's message was proposed. The honorable gentleman held his tongue then, and now, when His Majesty's message had recommended the object to the house, when the Chancellor of the Exchequer had stated that the object was so important and desirable as to admit of no delay, when the house assented to the principle, and seemed to feel no other objection to the measure proposed on it, than that it did not go far enough, the honorable gentleman came out with this argument, which went against the bill brought in on the resolution of the house in every stage. The honorable gentleman adduced a curious reason for not doing more now than was done in 1795. He said it was particularly necessary that the Prince of Wales should keep a greater state than in 1795, and have more trappings and lords of the bedcham