In confequence of a meffage from the king, delivered by Mr. Pitt, ftating the reliance of his majesty upon the generofity of the houfe to enable him to fettle an establishment upon the prince and princefs fuited to their rank and dig. nity, and to relieve him from his prefent incumbrances, the house went, May 4, into a committee on this subject. Mr. Pitt, in the committee, declared that it was not his majefty's intention to require a specific fum for the dif charge of the debts of his royal highness, but to fet apart a certain portion of that income which might be granted by the liberality of parliament to their gradual liquidation. The extent of the debts was ftated by Mr. Pitt at between fix and seven hundred thousand pounds, no part of which, he faid, could poffibly be defrayed out of the civil lift. He obferved that the present income of the prince was 60,000/ per annum, exclufive of the duchy of Cornwall, which he eftimated at 13,000.; that the late prince of Wales, father of the prefent king, and the late king George II. when prince, poffeffed a net income of 100,000l. without that duchy, at a time, when money was of much more value than at prefent. He therefore proposed that the revenue of his royal highness should be 125,000 /. exclufive of the duchy; that the jointure of the princess should be 50,000 7. per annum; and that the proportion of the prince's income appropriated for the payment of his debts fhould be vefted in the hands of commiffioners. And in order that effectual provision might be made to prevent the recurrence of any fuch claim in future, he recommended that no arrear should, on any pretence, go beyond the quarter; that debts not then claimed fhould wholly lapse; and that all suits for the recovery of debts from his royal highness should lie against his officers.

These feveral regulations, though very neceffary and proper, being deemed, by fome admirers of étiquette, incompatible with the rank and dignity of the great perfonage concerned---much more fo, doubtlefs, in their eftimation,

than

than the contracting of debts he was unable to pay---the prince, with his characteristic generofity, and an implicit avowal of his former indiscretion, fent, on the 1ft of June, a meffage to the house by his attorney-general, Mr. Anftruther, stating "That he was defirous to acquicfce in whatever might be the fentiments of the houfe, both with refpect to his future expenditure, and the appropriation of any part of the income they might grant him for the discharge of his debts; his wifh was entirely to confult the wisdom of parliament. He was perfectly difpofed to acquiefce in any abatement of splendor they might judge necessary, and defired to have nothing but what the country might be cordially difpofed to think he ought to have. In fine, whatever measures were taken by parliament, would meet with his hearty concurrence."--The prince of Wales had now passed the season of youth, the errors incident to which, it might reasonably be hoped, he had by this time feen and relinquished. He poffeffed an excellent natural understanding, liberal fentiments, engaging manners, with many amiable and eftimable qualities. In alleviation of the imprudence he had fhewn, and of the fevere cenfure he had too juftly incurred by contracting a fecond time, in the fpace of eight years, so vast a debt, could only be alleged the extreme inadequacy of his income to his ftation in life. From the aggregate amount of the debt, ought, however, in reafon and equity, to be deducted the proceeds of the revenue of Cornwall during his minority, amounting, according to the accounts laid before parliament, to the fum of 233,000. and which, under the guardianship of the Court of Chancery, it was remarked, would have produced 350,000. This the king had received, as if it were a branch of the civil lift, for twenty-two years, under the poor pretence of defraying the expence of the prince's education. And if this deduction be admitted, the general expenditure of the prince will not be found, at the average, from the period of his attaining the age of majority to the prefent

present time, much to exceed the reasonable allowance of 100,000l. per annum.

It appeared, in the courfe of this investigation, much to the honor of the prince, that he had actually some time fince come to a refolution not to apply again to parliament, to retire from public life, and apply the greatest part of his income to the payment of his debts, agreeably to the advice of lord Thurlow and others; but that from this laudable defign he was vehemently diffuaded by lord Loughborough, who, no doubt, fpoke from direction, and who pretended that the advice in queftion favored too much of that given to M. Egalité, and he could guefs from what quarter it The plan was therefore relinquished. It was at length agreed, that the annual fum of 78,000l. should be appropriated to the discharge of the debts, which, it was calculated, would completely liquidate them in the space of nine years. In the mean time the prince, as the penalty of his indifcretion, was fatisfied to live in a comparatively private manner upon the remaining 60,oco l. and a bill, containing the provifions above mentioned, in a few weeks paffed, with pretty general concurrence, through

came.

both houfes.

In the course of the feffion Mr. Wilberforce renewed his motion for the immediate abolition of the infamous flave-trade, and was ably supported by Mr. Whitbread, Mr. William Smith, and Mr. Pitt; but the house was now grown cold and callous to all reafoning upon this fubject ; and, on the proposition of Mr. Dundas, who still profeffed himfelf friendly to the object, but adverse to the time, the confideration of the question was adjourned for fix months.

Late in the feflion Mr. Dundas made a very favorable report of the ftate of the East-India Company's affairs and finances, which he afferted to be better by the sum of ,412,249. than at the laft annual ftatement, which the houfe confirmed by the fanction of their vote.

The

The long-depending caufe of Mr. Haftings, which began February 12th, 1788, terminated during the present session. The charges against him had been comprised under four heads: 1. The Rajah Cheyt Sing. 2. The Begums of Oude. 3. Prefents. 4. Contracts. 4. Contracts. The report of the committee of peers was received on the 2d of April, and on the 23d the articles of accufation were submitted to the decifion of the houfe of lords. Out of four hundred peers, twenty-nine only deemed themselves competent to vote on the questions before the court; and of these, eight, viz. the lord-chancellor, the duke of Norfolk, the earls of Carnarvon, Radnor, Fitzwilliam, Suffolk, and Mansfield, and lord Walfingham, gave a verdict of guilty upon one or other of the charges preferred against him: fo that the acquittal could by no means be confidered either as unanimous or honorable. The truth is, that from the extraordinary length of this trial, the complexity of the evidence, and the multiplicity of the documents to be confulted, and, above all, from the obfcurity in which the merits of the cause were involved by being made for fo many years the perpetual theme of eloquence, it was very difficult, without bestowing a larger fhare of attention, or poffeffing an higher portion of discrimination, than falls to the lot of the generality of perfons, to determine without hesitation, upon the political character and conduct of the accufed. Had the evidence been condensed into a moderate compass, and divefted of the pomp of declamation and the violence of invective, it would have ftruck the public mind much more forcibly, and Mr. Haftings would fcarcely have escaped the cenfure and punishment due to a state-delinquent. Or if the house of peers had at all events returned a verdict of Not Guilty, the house of commons would have stood juftified in the view of the world at large, and the political reputation of Mr. Haftings would have fuftained irreparable injury. Upon the whole, it must be acknowledged, that this famous trial, which had attracted, by its importance

and

and duration, the attention of all Europe, was at length brought to a moft lame and impotent conclufion. The fpeaker of the house of commons, nevertheless, in giving the thanks of the house to the managers of the impeachment, in his official capacity, had the complaifance to say, that their exertions in this caufe had conferred honor not on themselves only, but on the house under whose authority they had acted; and he referred with dignity and propriety to the increased security which the conftitution had derived in the courfe of the proceedings on this trial, from the recognition and full confirmation of the principle, that an impeachment is not discontinued by a diffolution of par

liament.

The session terminated on the 27th of June, 1795. The fpeech from the throne, on this occafion feemed to breathe much more the air of pacification than at its commencement; and his majefty was graciously pleased to declare it to be impoffible to contemplate the internal fituation of the enemy, with whom we were contending, without indulging a hope that the prefent circumstances of France might, in their effects, haften the return of such a state of order and regular government as may be capable of maintaining the accustomed relations of amity and peace with other powers.

The proceedings of the Irish parliament during this feffion were scarcely lefs interefting and important than that of Great Britain. In the coalition which actually took place in the courfe of the preceding fummer, and which had been more than two years in contemplation, between the exifting administration and the Portland party, it was understood that the department of Ireland was to be entrufted altogether to the latter; and earl Fitzwilliam accepted the high and arduous office of lord-lieutenant of that kingdom, with the avowed purpose of admitting and establishing the claim of Catholic emancipation in its full extent. That nobleman, diftinguished by the beneficence of