MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.
A.D. 1812
Parliament re-assembled on the 7th of January, when the speech of the prince-regent was delivered by commission. It dwelt chiefly on the events which had happened in the Peninsula, and on the differences which existed between England and America. The addresses were carried in both houses without a division, though not without debate and censure. In the lords, Grenville and Grey denounced the measures of government in no very soft language as regarded their war and foreign policy, and uttered some predictions of calamities which must follow any new rupture with America. In the commons Sir Francis Burdett proposed instead of an address a strong remonstrance to the regent, containing an elaborate statement of grievances, among which the constitution of the house was one of the most conspicuous. In making this proposal, the right honourable baronet declared that Englishmen for the last eighteen years had been daily losing their liberty; that a detestation of French liberty had produced the present war; that nothing had been done for Spain, and that if its cause was now taken up by the British government it had become hopeless; that the victories won by our armies were useless; and that parliament should be reformed.