although a true sense
of their own independence ought to have shown them that there were
national objections against allowing the Prince to indemnify himself by
the use of the royal prerogatives in Ireland for the restraints which
were put upon him in England. The object to which, under these difficult
circumstances, Lord Buckingham and Mr. Grenville directed their
attention, was to assimilate, as nearly as possible, the Regency Bills
in both countries, so as to prevent the occurrence of so great an
anomaly as that of having a Regent whose powers should be strictly
limited in the one kingdom, and who should, at the same time, be
invested with unrestricted powers in the other. The Parliament of
Ireland possessed the unquestionable right of deciding the Regency in
their own way, leaving the legal validity of the act for subsequent
consideration; and as it was understood that the Opposition intended to
move an Address to the Prince, which there was reason to believe they
would be able to carry, calling upon His Royal Highness to assume the
Government of Ireland unconditionally during the term of His Majesty's
illness, the position of Lord Buckingham had become peculiarly
embarrassing. What course should be taken in the event of such an
Address being carried? This question is anxiously discussed in numerous
communications between Lord Buckingham and Mr. Grenville and other
members of the Government. The predicament was so strange, and involved
constitutional considerations of such importance, as to give the most
serious disquietude to the Administration. The first expedient thought
of was to delay the proceedings of the Irish Parliament, by adjournment,
or any other available means, till after the Regent had been appointed
in England, provided the motion for the Address could be successfully
resisted in the first instance. But as it was almost certain the
Administration would be beaten on that motion, it remained to be
determined whether Lord Buckingham, in that event, should refuse to
transmit the Address to His Royal Highness. Upon the propriety of so
extreme a measure Mr. Grenville entertained some doubts in the
beginning. By refusing to transmit the Address, the Lord-Lieutenant
would clearly put himself in the way as an obstacle to that mode of
providing for the emergency which the two Houses of Parliament were
determined to adopt; or, on the other hand, by sending it he would make
himself, in some degree, a party to a