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THE

ANNUAL REGISTER,

For the Year 1819.

GENERAL HISTORY.

CHAPTER I.

THE HE first session of the sixth parliament of the united kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland having assembled on the 14th of January 1819, the Prince Regent appointed Sir Richard Richards, Lord Chief Baron of the Court of Exchequer, to sit in the place of the Lord Chancellor during the time of his temporary absence. This was accordingly effected with due solemnity; and certain lords Commissioners were put in nomination, of whom the Lord President of the council, the earl of Harrowby, took the lead. A number of members of the House of Commons being then introduced, they and the Lords were informed by the Lord President, that, it not being convenient for the Prince Regent to VOL. LXI.

attend in person, he had been pleased to cause a commission to be issued under the great seal authorizing the Lords and Commons to open this parliament. After this form had been complied with, the Commons withdrew, and the Houses were adjourned during pleasure.

The choice of a Speaker to the House of Commons was the next object for consideration; and on the same day, the right hon. Robert Peel rose, after a complimentary speech, to propose the right hon. Charles Manners Sutton, to fill for a second time the same distinguished post. He was seconded by lord Clive; and the House now loudly calling upon Mr. Manners Sutton to occupy the chair, he was conducted, [B]

amidst

amidst the unanimous cry from all parts of the House, to his

seat.

On the 21st of January, the Lord Chancellor read the Prince Regent's Speech, the contents of which were to the following ef

fect:

My Lords and Gentlemen; We are commanded by his Royal Highness the Prince Regent to express to you the deep regret which he feels in the continuance of his Majesty's lamented indisposition.

In announcing to you the severe calamity with which it has pleased Divine Providence to visit the Prince Regent, the Royal Family, and the nation, by the death of her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom, his Royal Highness has commanded us to direct your attention to the consideration of such measures as this melancholy event has rendered necessary and expedient with respect to the care of his Majesty's sacred person.

We are directed to inform you that the negotiations which have taken place at Aix-la-Chapelle, have led to the evacuation of the French territory by the allied armies.

The Prince Regent has given orders, that the convention concluded for this purpose, as well as the other documents connected with this arrangement, shall be laid before you; and he is persuaded that you will view with peculiar satisfaction the intimate union which so happily subsists among the powers who were parties to these transactions, and the unvaried disposition which has been manifested in all their pro

ceedings for the preservation of the peace and tranquillity of Eu

rope.

The Prince Regent has commanded us further to acquaint you, that a Treaty has been concluded between his Royal Highness and the government of the United States of America, for the renewal, for a further term of years, of the Commercial Convention now subsisting between the two nations, and for the amicable adjustment of several points of mutual importance to the interests of both countries: and, as soon as the ratifications shall have been exchanged, his Royal Highness will give directions that a copy of this treaty shall be laid before you.

Gentlemen of the House of
Commons;

The Prince Regent has directed that the estimates for the current year shall be laid before you.

His Royal Highness feels assured, that you will learn with satisfaction the extent of reduction which the present situation of Europe, and the circumstances of the British empire, have enabled his Royal Highness to effect in the naval and military establishments of the country.

His Royal Highness has also the gratification of announcing to you, a considerable and progressive improvement of the revenue in its most important branches.

My Lords and Gentlemen; The Prince Regent has directed to be laid before you such papers as are necessary to show the origin and result of the war in the East Indies.

His Royal Highness commands us to inform you, that the opera

tiens undertaken by the governorgeneral in council against the Pindarries, were dictated by the strictest principles of self-defence; and that in the extended hostilities which followed upon those operations, the Mahratta princes were, in every instance, the aggressors. Under the provident and skilful superintendence of the marquis of Hastings the campaign was marked, in every point, by brilliant achievements and successes; and his majesty's forces, and those of the East India Company (native as well as European) rivalled each other in sustaining the reputation of the British arms.

The Prince Regent has the greatest pleasure in being able to inform you, that the trade, commerce, and manufactures of the country are in a most flourishing

condition.

The favourable change which has so rapidly taken place in the internal circumstances of the United Kingdom, affords the strongest proof of the solidity of its resources.

To cultivate and improve the advantages of our present situation will be the object of your deliberations; and his Royal Highness has commanded us to assure you of his disposition to concur and co-operate in whatever may be best calculated to secure to his majesty's subjects the full benefits of that state of peace which, by the blessing of Providence, has been so happily re-established throughout Eu

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noble lords, the Earl of Warwick and Lord Saltoun, of whose speeches it is unnecessary to make any extracts.

The Marquis of Lansdowne next rose, and after a general declaration of his unwillingness to oppose an address to the crown, he said that he found himself bound to state a few considerations which presented themselves to his mind, not as objections to the motions now made, but as omitting the notice of other topics. He began with touching upon the state of France, respecting which, he was happy to find that there was a general agreement respecting the liberal manner in which she ought to be treated. Among the omissions he, however, remarked upon that of the slavetrade, on which he observed, that the manner in which it was passed over in the speech gave a too plain indication of the want of success of its efforts. The state of the revenue, in which the speech had shown a gradual improvement, was, he said, chiefly valuable as furnishing an index of the revival of active industry; but whether it had extended to the labouring and agricultural classes was still a matter of doubt. In the meantime he must remind their lordships, that the prospect was by no means such as to relieve them from the necessity of increasing their endeavours to reduce the expenditure of the country to a more economical scale. For this purpose his lordship attempted to show, that all the improvements still left a deficiency of 14 millions to raise the amount of the income to a parity with that of the expenditure. A subject of far [B2]

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