sday, February 22d, the debate took place in the House of Commons.
It came on in the form of a motion for an address to the Sovereign,
praying that he would make to the Prince of Wales an independent
allowance of one hundred thousand a year. The motion was proposed by
Pulteney himself. Lord Hervey seems to be surprised that Pulteney, after
having advised the prince not to press on any such motion, should,
nevertheless, when the prince did persevere, actually propose the motion
himself. But such a course is common enough even in our own days, when
statesmen make greater effort at political and personal consistency. A
man often argues long and earnestly in the Cabinet or in the councils of
the Opposition against some particular proposal, and then, when it is, in
spite of his advice, made a party resolve, he goes to the House of
Commons and speaks in its favor; nay, even it may be, proposes it.
Pulteney made a long and what would now be called an exhaustive speech.
It was stuffed full of portentous erudition about the early history of
the eldest sons of English kings. The speech was said to have been
delivered with much less than Pulteney's usual force and fire; and
indeed, so far as one can judge by the accounts--they can hardly be
called reports--preserved of it, one is obliged to regard it as rather a
languid and academical dissertation. We start off with what Henry the
Third did for his son, afterwards Edward the First, when that noble youth
had reached the unripe age of fourteen. He granted to him the Duchy of
Guienne; he put him in possession of the Earldom of {83} Chester; he made
him owner of the cities and towns of Bristol, Stamford, and Grantham,
with several other castles and manors; he created him Prince of Wales, to
which, lest it should be merely a barren title, he annexed all the
conquered lands in Wales; and he created him Governor of Ireland. All
this, to be sure, was mightily liberal on the part of Henry the Third,
and a very handsome and right royal way of providing for his own family;
but it might be supposed an argument rather to frighten than to encourage
a modern English Parliament. But the orator went on to show what
glorious deeds in arms were done by this highly endowed prince, and the
inferences which he appeared to wish his audience to draw were twofold:
first, that Edward would never have done these glorious deeds if his
father had not given him these magnificent allowances; and next, tha