The armament arrived off the island on the 28th of November. On the following morning, a part of the troops under Major General 1Varde landed without op position in the bay of Maypon. the enemy retiring on their approach. Lieutenant Colonel Smith, w ith his bri gade, followed next morning, and gained the open coun try without much opposition ; some shots only having been fired by a small picket, by which a few men were wounded. The army moved forward the next morning, and took up a position about five miles from Port Louis. Falling in with a corps of the enemy in a strong posi tion, with field pieces, our advanced guard, under Co lonel Campbell, charged them with the greatest spirit, and compelled them to retire. The next morning, while making dispositions for a general attack, the enemy ask ed and obtained terms of capitulation. The garrison, naval and military, with their effects and baggage, were to be sent to France, without being considered prisoners of war. The inhabitants were to preserve their laws and religion, and property to be respected. A 52 gun ship, 5 frigates, three 30 gun prison ships, a sloop of 22, and two brigs of 14 guns, a schooner, and several gun boats, with 28 merchantmen, were made prizes in the harbour.
In September, the enemy made an abortive attempt on the island of Sicily. At daylight, on the morning of the 18th, a great body of King Joachini's flotilla appeared to be preparing an attempt to land between Messina and the Faro. While their movements engaged the atten tion of the main body of the British force, a debarkation was effected by a detachment near St Stefano. This corps consisted of 3500 Corsican and Neapolitan troops, who had crossed the straits in forty large boats, and gained the Sicilian shore before the dawn. Upon the first alarm, General Campbell repaired to the menaced quarter, where he found the German riflemen engaged with the enemy, and two other regiments occupying the post of Mili to prevent the advance of the French upon Messina. At day-break, he perceived the enemy alrea dy on the heights, and extending from thence to the beach. By a brisk attack, they were speedily put to the rout ; and besides a number of killed and wounded, 900 were intercepted in their retreat to the boats, and made prisoners. On the side of the British, only three private soldiers were wounded.
When parliament assembled on the first of Novem ber, ministers were obliged to announce very melancholy intelligence respecting the state of his majesty. The houses had been prorogued to that clay, aid it was known to have been the royal intention to extend the proroga tion, but from the king's state of mind, the Lord Chan cellor had found it impossible to procure a new signa ture. The Chancellor of the Exchequer stated that the symptoms of his majesty's disorder were exceedingly mild; that the strongest expectations of his speedy re covery were entertained, and made a motion, which was readily agreed to, that the house should adjourn for a fortnight.
During this first adjournment, the public anxiety was deeply fixed on the daily bulletins respecting the sove reign's health; but, from these vague announces, it was difficult to form an idea of his real situation. General and indistinct as they were, however, and each succes sively referring to a former one, as vague as the suc ceeding, they conveyed, upon the whole, an unfavoura ble expectation.
At the meeting of the 15th, the Chancellor of the Ex chequer proposed another adjournment, and carried it in spite of the strong remonstrances of several members of the opposition, who contended that the adjournment ought to be only from day to day, and that it was highly improper during a period of war, expenses, danger, and difficulty, to remain without consulting for the appoint ment of a new executive.
On the 29th the report of his majesty's physicians was submitted to the House of Commons, as it had been given before the Privy Council. Mr Perceval still hold ing out hopes of recovery, proposed a third adjourn ment for a fortnight ; declaring, however, that unless at the expiration of that time there was a prospect of speedy convalescence, he should not propose any farther delay to taking parliamentary steps for supplying the defi ciency of the regal power. After considerable opposi tion, the adjournment was carried as proposed.
On the 13th of December, committees were appointed to examine the king's physicians. The examination took place on the following Monday. All the physicians agreed in confident hopes of his majesty's ultimate re covery ; but none of them could predict the probable duration of the malady.
On the 20th of December, the Commons resolved themselves into a committee of the whole House, to con sider the state of the nation; when Mr Perccval pro duced his plan of the regency, of which, the first im portant feature to be considered, was the appointment of the regency by bill, (not by address to the Prince of Wales,) conformably to the precedent of the proposed regency in 1788. It was a point understood on both sides,
that the Prince of Wales was to be the sole regent ; but, in the debates which had already taken place, the opposition had taken the same ground as in the for mer question of the regency in 1788, and proposed the immediate measure of conferring authority on the Prince by address. Mr Perceval, anticipating the arguments for this proposal, contended, that the main objection to the procedure by bill, was equally applicable to the other mode. The house, it had been asserted, could not pass a real bill, because it could not legislate without the concurrence of the king, as well as of the upper house. To proceed by address, he main tained, would still be to legislate. Suppose the house should address his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales to assume authority, What was that authority ? It was not the authority of a king, which was clear and distinct —it was that of a regent, which was undefined, and must depend upon circumstances for its limits or exten sion. But supposing that the office of regent was in telligible, and was defined by law in its rights and du ties, What would be the regent's first act after his ap pointment ? The calling together of his majesty's par liament. How could he call them ? Would it not be by authorising the individual who happened to be in possession of the great seal, to put that seal to some commission, either authorising the regent himself, in the name of his majesty, to open the parliament, or au thorising commissioners appointed by the regent, for that purpose ? Not a single legislative act could be ac complished by the regent without the use of the great seal. The houses, it is true, would not directly com mand the great seal to be used, but they would, even in the procedure by address, authorise au individual to command it to be put. Therefore, the houses would legislate in the one mode of procedure as well as in the other. The gentlemen on the opposite side (Mr Per ceval continued) propose to transfer the whole regal authority by a single vote. But provision is to be made for the eventual restoration of his majesty to the exer cise of his power when his health shall return ; and in no way can the provisions for that resumption, and the restrictions necessary to be laid on the regent, be so well made as in proceeding by bill. The leaders of op position contended, that the procedure by address ex cluded no limitation or provision for the king's resump tion of authority, which parliament might choose to em body in such an address. " What reason, they asked,* is there for supposing that his Royal Highness will re fuse the limitations that shall be judged necessary, be cause they at c stated in an address instead of a bill ? Lord Somers, and the most distinguished constitutional patriots, did not think there was any danger in propos ing the necessary limitations in an address to the Prince of Orange to fill the throne, instead of a bill ; and there is no more danger of the Prince of Wales refusing the present offer, than of the Prince of Orange at a former period. The precedent of the proposed regency in 1788, they deprecated as unconstitutional, and distin guishing between restrictions which should fetter the executive in times so full of peril, and the necessary regulations for enabling his majesty to reassume his power at a proper period, they proposed, as an amend ment, that his Royal Highness should be immediately addressed to take upon himself the powers of regent." The present question, we think, might be reduced to two capital points, substantial expediency, and legal or constitutional form. With respect to the first, it was strongly urged, in the present case, as it had been urged twenty years before, that the powers which it is salutary to attach to monarchy, should be equally allowed to the regent as to the actual monarch. The regulations with respect to time, the provisions which shall enable the absent sovereign to return to power, arc essentially to be distinguished from limitations of the regal power. If this argument of upholding the executive in equal pre rogative during a regency as at other times, had any force in 1788, it had certainly additional force at a crisis of war, danger, and difficulty—a time, too, at which the heir apparent, if ever fit for the exercise of power, was at an unexceptionable age. With respect to the objec tion of informality being equally applicable to procedure by address as by bill, the arguments of the Chancellor of the Exchequer appear to be sophistical. Parliament, in proceeding by bill, clearly legislates without the third estate ; in the procedure by address, they do not. They authorise, indeed, a person to authorise the great seal to be used—but that is not using it themselves.