with the bill; and he therefore
moved that their lordships should immediately adjourn to Tuesday next.
In reply to Thurlow, the Duke of York remarked,--"I trust your lordships
will do me the justice to believe that no person in the house could feel
equal pleasure with myself from the favourable account which the noble
lord on the woolsack has given, and the motion he has made to the house,
in which I heartily concur. I should have had great satisfaction in
making the same communication to the house, if I had been able to do
it from certain information. I thought it my duty yesterday, upon the
favourable reports given to the public, to request to be admitted to his
majesty's presence. From reasons very justifiable, no doubt, it was not
thought proper that I should have that satisfaction. From the knowledge
I have of my brother's sentiments, though I have had no immediate
communication with him upon the subject of this motion, I am convinced
he will feel equal, if not greater, pleasure than myself at the hopes of
his majesty's recovery, as it must relieve him from the embarrassment
of the situation in which this bill would have placed him, which nothing
but a strong sense of his duty to the public would have induced him
to undertake." Thurlow's proposed adjournment was agreed to, and the
regency bill there stopped.

The conduct of the Irish parliament in this matter formed a striking
contrast to that of the English. On receiving the intelligence of his
majesty's illness, a motion was made in the commons for presenting to
the Prince of Wales an address, requesting him to assume the government
of Ireland during the king's incapacity, with the full powers of the
executive branch. This motion, which was moved by Mr. Conolly and
supported by Grattan, passed without a division, and was confirmed by
the lords. The lord-lieutenant, the Marquess of Buckingham, late Earl
Temple, refused to transmit this address to England; and commissioners
were therefore appointed by both houses to present it in person to
the Prince of Wales. These delegates arrived in England on the 25th of
February, and on the following day they presented their address to the
prince at Carlton-house. The recovery of his majesty, however, rendered
the object of their commission nugatory: the prince returned his warmest
thanks to the delegates, but acquainted them with the change which had
taken place in the king's health, and which, he said, he hoped, within
a fe