then rose. He said he was sure he only anticipated the feelings of the House and of the empire at large, when he observed, that it had never fallen to the lot of any individual, in or out of office, to call the attention of parliament to a transaction of a nature so painful as that to which he was now about to call their attention. Whatever indulgence he might experience from the liberality of the House, he could not but be aware, that it would have been much better had his right hon. friend near him (Mr. Secretary Ryder) addressed them on the present melancholy occasion. The feelings of his right hon. friend, however, were too powerfully affected to allow him to do so, and he trusted, that that circumstance would exonerate him from the charge of presumption in taking upon himself the task of calling upon the House to mark by their vote, their veneration for the memory of his great and dear friend. If it were a case in which great ability and eloquence were necessary to move the feelings of the House, he would have much more doubt of his competence to the undertaking; but whatever difference of political opinions might exist in that House, of this he was confident, that in the present instance, there could be only one feeling in the assembly which he had the honour to address—there could be but one feeling in the breasts of Englishmen—namely, the importance of rescuing the character of the country, and of distinguishing by the most marked disgust, an act of atrocity which was inconsistent with the first emotions of human nature. If there was any thing in addition to the private virtues of his right hon. friend which could make it the peculiar duty of parliament to concur in the sentiments expressed by his royal highness the Regent, in his most gracious Message to that House; it was the consideration that the loss which his family and the country deplored, was a loss occasioned by the attendance of his right hon. friend to the public service. The particular oc- currence which brought on the calamity in question, was produced by the conscientious discharge of public duty on the part of his right hon. friend, who would not permit a claim to be successfully preferred to government, for which he was satisfied there was no just foundation. It was a grateful part of his duty to mention, that, as far as they had been enabled to investigate the subject, government were of opinion that this was an insulated act; and that, whatever reproach it might otherwise cast on the national character, ought to be exclusively confined to the individual by whom it was perpetrated. It became the House to take into their consideration what it was proper and becoming in them to do in the case of a servant of the crown, who had been deprived of his life for the conscientious discharge of his public duty. He was persuaded that there was no assembly in which, under such circumstances, all political differences would subside more readily, than in that House. No man could feel guilty of any abandonment of principle, in turning aside for a moment from the consideration of those differences, to that of the case of his right hon. friend, nor could it ever be adduced as an impeachment of the sincerity of any man, however opposed in politics to his right hon. friend, that he concurred in the present provision for Mr. Perceval's family. Every one must be sensible of the peculiar situation of the family of his right hon. friend, from the circumstance of his having so disinterestedly devoted himself to the public service. He had deserted an honourable and a lucrative profession, at a moment when his great talents, which had since raised him so high in his new capacity, promised advantages which certainly nothing but a strong and unequalled sense of public duty could have induced him to forego.—He knew of his own knowledge that his right hon. friend had most reluctantly withdrawn from that profession. Whatever advantage the public might have derived from the change, it ought to be considered, that had it not taken place, his family might have been crowned with affluence, and with all the blessings that such a husband, such a father could bestow.—He was sure that whatever difference of opinion there might be with respect to his right hon. friend's political merits, it would be unanimously allowed that never had any individual in the discharge of great and important public duties, in times of the most arduous nature, conducted him- self in a manner so well calculated to conciliate a large portion of personal esteem. Never had man more friends and fewer enemies—nay, a single enemy was not to be found in the circle of those who personally knew him. Parliament could never pursue a better policy than carefully to shield those who were engaged in the public service against the effects of private and individual resentment. It was a duty due not less to their families than to the country. He felt and he spoke sincerely, that it would be only weakening the interest of the case to go farther into the subject: all that he called upon the House to do now, was, to recognize the general principle contained in his Royal Highness's Message. With respect to the extent of the grant, that would be a subject for consideration on a future day. The House would, he had no doubt, be anxious to protect from the danger of poverty all who bore the name of his lamented friend, and, therefore, in framing the grant, they would perhaps consider it wise to make it distributive, rather than to arrange it in such a way that the death of one or two members of the family might subject the rest to the loss of all benefit. As for the widow, her happiness in this world might now be regarded as closed; but it might afford her some consolation to know that parliament, in consideration of the merits and services of her departed husband, had made a suitable provision for her children. [Here the noble lord was so much affected that he was obliged to sit down amidst the loud cheers and strong sympathy of the House.] The motion was,

"That an humble Address be presented to his royal highness the Prince Regent, to return his Royal Highness the grateful thanks of this House, for his Royal Highness's most gracious Message. To assure his Royal Highness that they deeply participate in the severe loss his Royal Highness and the country have sustained, in consequence of the murder of the right hon. Spencer Perceval, first Commissioner of his Majesty's Treasury, and Chancellor of the Exchequer, of which most atrocious act, committed within the walls of parliament, they cannot, in terms sufficiently strong, express their abhorrence; and being desirous of marking their sense of the public and private virtues of Mr. Perceval, and of affording relief and assistance to his numerous and afflicted family, they beg leave humbly to assure his Royal High- ness, that they shall feel it a grateful act of public duty, under the melancholy circumstances of this afflicting case, to enable his Royal Highness, in the name and on the behalf of his Majesty, to make such provision for the widow and family of the right honourable Spencer Perceval, as may be consistent with the justice and the liberality of parliament."

expressed himself extremely anxious to second the motion. The character and honour of the House were concerned in shewing that no difference of political opinion would induce any member to hesitate for a moment in evincing the most indignant feelings at the horrible atrocity that had been committed. One of the great blessings of a free government was, that it allowed men to express their sentiments freely on all occasions, but if acts of revenge and assassination, like the present, were to prevail, the people would be in a condition no better than in those countries subject to the most rigid despotism. He was happy, therefore, to hear the noble lord state, that the national character was not tainted by any diffusion of this crime, but that, as far as could yet be ascertained, the guilt was confined to one unfortunate individual. Whatever difference of opinion might exist on political subjects, it was the right of every man in a free country to declare his sentiments. However opposed he might be in politics, to the individual to whose memory they were now called upon to pay a just tribute, he was persuaded that no man in the House, no man in England, would hesitate in vindicating the principle which he had just laid down, or would allow the family of that individual to suffer for the honest expression of his sentiments. The noble lord had expressed a wish that the grant should be liberal, and he (Mr. P.) was sure that there was but one sentiment on that subject in and out of the House. It was the duty of parliament to interfere, it could only consult its honour by interfering liberally. As for the particular distribution of the grant, that would be a subject for future discussion; but in his opinion, the principle recommended by the noble lord ought to be adopted. He was sure that it must be the wish of the House that no branch of the family of Mr. Perceval should be left in poverty to lament the fate of his unfortunate father. No man thought Mr. Perceval's political opinions more erroneous than he had always done, but he enter- tained the highest opinion of his honour, and the greatest affection to his person. He had known him in early life, and he had never known a man of greater worth. As a husband, as a father, as a friend, no man was more to be admired. As they could not restore a life so dear to all, they ought to do that which alone was in their power, and to alleviate the distresses of his family, and render the remnant of their lives as far comfortable as they could, and if possible, happy.

hoped that it would be unnecessary in him to offer any apology to the House, if even after the just and eloquent tribute which had been already paid to the memory of Mr. Perceval, he was still anxious to offer the expression of his full and cordial concurrence in every part of those acknowledgments. However incompetent he might be to add any observations worthy of the deceased, or of the attention of the House, he trusted that he should be excused, if for a few moments he indulged that anxiety. It was some consolation in the midst or that grief in which all participated, that he had only to join in the unanimous desire of bearing testimony to the virtues and talents of a man, whose loss all parties agreed in deploring, and of whom it might with peculiar truth be said, that whatever was the strength and extent of political hostility, he had never, before the last calamity, provoked against himself a private enemy. It was due to departed character to say, that no man could entertain opinions, without feeling his confidence in their truth and justness increased, by finding them in unison with those of his right hon. friend, or differ from him in political sentiments, without acknowledging that his errors were the errors of a virtuous mind; no man to whom it had happened to be joined with, and afterwards separated from him, but was truly sensible of the gratification which never failed to result from acting in concert with him. It must, however, furnish a great consolation to him and to the House, to be informed by the noble lord that the crime which had robbed them of the life and services of Mr. Perceval, appeared upon investigation to be confined to the individual perpetrator.—He thought the noble lord had done well in making this communication, because great mischief and alarm might have otherwise resulted from the misrepresentations of persons actuated by the best, as well as of others actuated by the most evil principles. On the one hand, it might have been held up as an example and encouragement of practices foreign to the character, and abhorrent to the feelings of Englishmen; while on the other, it might have been regarded as the symptom of a general and prevailing spirit of bloodshed and anarchy, forerunner of the evils which had desolated the rest of Europe. He fully agreed in all that had been said, both as to the propriety of expressing their abhorrence of the crime, which it was so painful to contemplate, and of pledging themselves to make adequate provision for an afflicted family. To that family, as well as to the country, the loss of Mr. Perceval was irreparable, but it was still in the power of the House, in some measure to assuage the consequences to the former. The utmost munificence of a generous nation could do no more; but when they recollected how often within the last two years they had listened to his voice, when it invited them to reward the glories and triumphs acquired abroad, it would afford a melancholy and not ungrateful pleasure to reflect, that there was at least left to them, the opportunity of testifying their sense of his services, and estimation of his merits.

declared, that having throughout been a marked and determined political antagonist of the right hon. gentleman, he did not think it would be becoming in him not to say, that he cordially concurred in granting to the family of that right hon. gentleman, the only compensation for his loss, which it was in the power of the House to make. That it was impossible there could be a man more distinguished for his private virtues, every person acquainted with the right hon. gentleman admitted, and was anxious to declare. Among his public virtues, the right hon. gentleman had one, which he (Mr. W.) begged to mark, for the benefit and example of posterity. The right hon. gent. had uniformly displayed a most perfect and unceasing controul of temper in that House. He (Mr. Whitbread) hoped, that beyond the door of that House, he had never on any occasion, carried a feeling of resentment or displeasure against any one of its members; against the right hon. gentleman, he had ever found it impossible to carry such a feeling even so far as the door.

The Address was then agreed to, nem. con.

moved that it should be presented by such members of the House as were privy counsellors.

thought it would be more in unison with the present feeling that it should be carried up by the whole House.

withdrew his motion, and the Address was ordered to be carried up by the whole House, according to the suggestion of Mr. Wynn.

expressed his admiration of the character of Mr. Perceval, and stated that he was at school with him when a boy, and that no person could be more respected and beloved by his master, or more idolized by his equals. He proposed that he should be honoured with a public funeral.

thought the wishes of his family should be consulted before they determined on any step of the kind.

After a few words from Mr. Canning to the same effect, the motion was not persisted in.

, after moving that the House should to-morrow form into a committee of the whole House, to consider the Message, which was agreed to, observed, that probably the House might find it expedient to adjourn from day to day; and that in that case it might be thought advisable to defer to a future period the Orders dropped, and the examination of witnesses in the committee on the Orders in Council.

Mr. Ponsonby, Mr. Whitbread, and Mr. Brougham, objected to the last proposition, on account of the expence and inconveniency to which witnesses attending both Houses of Parliament were liable.

It was at length determined that the House should be adjourned from day to day.

The other orders of the day were then postponed, and the House adjourned till to-morrow.