directed the estimates for the service of the current year to be laid before you. He trusts that you will furnish him with such supplies as may be necessary to enable him to continue the contest in which h's Majesty is engaged, with that spirit and exertion which will afford the best prospect of its successful termination.

His Royal Highness commands us to recommend that you should resume the consideration of the state of the finances of Ireland, which you had commenced in the last session of parliament. He has the satisfaction to inform you, that the improved receipt of the revenue of Ireland in the last, as compared with the preceding year, confirms the belief, that the depression which that revenue had experienced is to be attributed to accidental and temporary causes.

My Lords and Gentlemen,-The Prince Regent is satisfied that you entertain a just sense of the arduous duties which his Royal Highness has been called upon to fulfil, in consequence of his Majesty's continued indisposition.

Under this severe calamity, his Royal Highness derives the greatest consolation from his reliance on your experienced wisdom, loyalty, and public spirit; to which, in every difficulty, he will resort, with a firm confidence, that, through your assistance and support, he shall be enabled, under the blessings of Divine Providence, successfully to discharge the important functions of the high trust reposed in him; and in the name and on the behalf of his beloved father and revered sovereign, to maintain, unimpaired, the prosperity and honour of the nation.

Declaration of the Members of her Majesty's Council respecting the State of his Majesty's Health made on the 5th of Jan. 1812.

We, the under-written members of the council, &c. having duly met together, on this 4th day of Jan. 1812, at the Queen's Lodge, near to Windsor Castle, and having called before us, and examined upon oath, the physicians and other persons: attendant upon his Majesty, and having ascertained the state of his Majesty's health by all such ways and means as appear to us to be necessary for that purpose, do hereby declare and certify, that the state of his Majesty's health, at the time of this our meeting, is not such as to enable his Majesty to resume the personal exercise of his royal authority:

That his Majesty's bodily health appears to us to be as good as at any of the periods of our former reports:

That his Majesty's mental health appears to us not to be worse than at the period of our last report:

That all the physicians attending his Majesty agree in stating, that they think his Majesty's complete and final recovery improbable; differing, however, as to the degree of such improbability: some of them expressing themselves as not despairing,-others as not entirely despairing, and one of them representing that he cannot help de spairing of such recovery. (Signed)

C. CANTUAR, E. EBOR, MONTROSE, WINCHILSEA,

AYLESFORD, ELDON,

ELLENBOROUGH,

W. GRANT.

Shortly after the above report

had

had been read in the presence of ali the physicians, and one of the members of the council had left Windsor, the physician alluded to in the last clause of the report, stated, in writing, to the other members of the council then remaining at Windsor," that he had, unquestionably, made use of an expression, which he was apprehensive might carry a meaning far beyond what he intended to express, and assured the council, that whilst he thought the final recovery of his Majesty very improbable, he by no means despaired of it."

The members of the council to whom the above statement was made, (having sworn the physician alluded to, to the truth thereof) afterwards communicated the same to the whole council, assembled this 5th day of January, who have deemed it right to subjoin this fact to the above declaration.

Declaration of the Members of her Majesty's Council, respecting the State of his Majesty's Health, made on the 4th of April, 1812.

We, the underwritten, do hereby declare and certify, that the state of his Majesty's health, at the time of this our meeting, is not such as to enable him to resume the personal exercise of his royal authority.

"That his Majesty's bodily health is as good as at any of the periods of our former reports.

"That his Majesty's mental health is as much disordered as it

has been during any part of his Majesty's indisposition.

"That all the physicians in attendance concur in thinking, that his Majesty's final and complete recovery is extremely improbable, and they do not expect it; búť they also concur in stating, that they do not entirely despair of it." Signed as above.

Declaration of the Members of her Majesty's Council, respecting the State of his Majesty's Health, made on the 4th of July, 1812.

"We, the underwritten, dö hereby declare and certify, that the state of his Majesty's health, at the time of this our meeting, is not such as to enable his Majesty. to resume the personal exercise of his royal functions.

"That his Majesty's bodily health is as good as it was at the period of our last report.

That his Majesty's mental. health is as much disordered as during any period of his Majesty's indisposition.

"That the hope of bis Majesty's ultimate and complete recovery is diminished since the period of our last report; but that such recovery. is not absolutely despaired of." Signed as above.

Letter from his Royal Highness the Prince Regent to the Duke of York, and Answer from Earl Grey and Lord Grenville.

My dearest brother,-As the restrictions on the exercise of the royal authority will shortly expire, when I must make my arrangements for the future administration

of the powers with which I am invested, I think it right to communicate to you those sentiments which I was withheld from ex pressing at an earlier period of the session, by my earnest desire, that the expected motion on the affairs of Ireland might undergo the deliberate discussion of parliament, unmixed with any other consideration.

I think it hardly necessary to call your recollection to the recent circomstances under which I assumed the authority delegated to me by parliament. At a moment of unexampled difficulty and danger, I was called upon to make a selection of persons to whom I should entrust the functions of the executive government.

My sense of duty to our royal father solely decided that choice; and every private feeling gave way to considerations which admitted of no doubt or hesitation. I trust I acted in that respect as the genuine representative of the august person whose functions I was appointed to discharge; and I have the satisfaction of knowing, that such was the opinion of persons, for whose judgment and honourable principles I entertain the highest respect.

In various instances, as you well know, where the law of the last session left me at full liberty, I waved any personal gratification, in order that his Majesty might resume, on his restoration to health, every power and prerogative belonging to his crown. I certainly am the last person in the kingdom to whom it can be permitted to despair of our royal father's recovery. A new æra is now arrived, and I cannot but reflect with satisfaction, on the events which have

distinguished the short period of my restricted regency. Instead of suffering in the loss of any of her pos sessions, by the gigantic force which has been employed against them, Great Britain has added most important acquisitions to her empire. The national faith has been preserved inviolate towards our allies; and if character is strength, as applied to a nation, the increased and increasing reputation of his Majesty's arms will shew to the nations of the continent how much they may still achieve when ani, mated by a glorious spirit of resistance to a foreign yoke. In the critical situation of the war in the Peninsula, I shall be most anxious to avoid any measure which can lead my allies to suppose that I mean to depart from the present system. Perseverance alone can achieve the great object in question; and I cannot withhold my approbation from those who have honourably distinguished themselves in the support of it. I have no predilections to indulge-no resentments to gratify-no objects to attain, but such as are common to the whole empire. If such is the leading principle of my conductand I can appeal to the past in evidence of what the future will beI flatter myself I shall meet with the support of parliament, and of a candid and enlightened nation.

Having made this communication of my sentiments in this new and extraordinary crisis of our affairs, I cannot conclude without expressing the gratification I should feel, if some of those persons with whom the early habits of my public life were formed, would strengthen my hands, and constitute a part of my government. With such sup

port,

port, and aided by a vigorous and united administration, formed on the most liberal basis, I shall look with additional confidence to a prosperous issue of the most arduous contest in which Great Britain was ever engaged. You are authorised to communicate these sentiments to Lord Grey, who, I have no doubt, will make them known to Lord Grenville.

I am always, dearest Frederick, your affectionate brother, (Signed) GEORGE P. R. Carlton-house, Feb. 13, 1812. P.S I shall send a copy of this letter immediately to Mr. Perceval.

Letter from Lords Grey and Grenville.

February 15, 1812. Sir,-We beg leave most humbly to express to your Royal Highness our dutiful acknowledgements for the gracious and condescending manner in which you have had the goodness to communicate to us the letter of his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, on the subject of the arrangements to be now made for the future administration of the public affairs; and we take the liberty of availing ourselves of your gracious permission to address to your Royal Highness in this form what has occurred to us in consequence of that communication.

The Prince Regent, after expressing to your Royal Highness in that letter his sentiments on various public matters, has, in the concluding paragraph, condescended to intimate his wish that "some of those persons with whom the early habits of his public life were formed would strengthen his Royal Highness's hands, and constitute a part of his government;" and his

Royal Highness is pleased to add, "that with such support, aided by a vigorous and united administration, formed on the most liberal basis, he would look with additional confidence to a prosperous issue of the most arduous contest in which Great Britain has ever been engaged."

On the other parts of his Royal Highness's letter we do not presume to offer any observations; but on the concluding paragraph, in so far as we may venture to suppose ourselves included in the gracious wish which it expresses, we owe it, in obedience and duty to his Royal Highness, to explain ourselves with frankness and sincerity.

We beg leave most earnestly to assure his Royal Highness, that no sacrifices, except those of honour and duty, could appear to us too great to be made, for the purpose of healing the divisions of our country, and uniting both its government and its people. All personal exclusion we entirely disclaim: we rest on public measures; and it is on this ground alone that we must express, without reserve, the impossibility of our uniting with the present government. Our differences of opinion are too many and too important to admit of such an union. His Royal Highness will, we are confident, do us the justice to remember, that we have twice already acted on this impression; in 1809, on the proposition then made to us under his Majesty's authority; and last year, when his Royal Highness was pleased to require our advice respecting the formation of a new government. The reasons which we then humbly submitted to him are strengthened by the increasing dangers of the times; nor has there, down to this

moment,