ver, but
that they demanded it as a right; setting up the doctrine that when the
Sovereign, from any cause, became incapacitated, the Heir Apparent had
an indisputable claim to the executive authority during the continuance
of the incapacity, just as he would have on the demise of the Crown. It
was strange enough that this doctrine, which Mr. Pitt denounced as
"treason against the Constitution," should have been maintained by the
avowed champions of popular liberty; and that it should have been
reserved for the Ministers of the King to defend the interests of the
people against the encroachments of royalty. Mr. Pitt asserted that the
right of providing a remedy for the suspension of the regular powers of
Government rested solely with the people, "from whom," he added, "all
the powers of Government originate." The language he held upon this
occasion is remarkable not only from its constitutional soundness, but
for the perspicuity with which it states the actual question in contest,
stripped of all disguises and evasions. "To assert an inherent right in
the Prince of Wales to assume the Government, is virtually to revive
those exploded ideas of the divine and indefeasible authority of
Princes, which have so justly sunk into contempt and almost oblivion.
Kings and Princes derive their power from the people; and to the people
alone, through the organ of their representatives, does it appertain to
decide in cases for which the Constitution has made no specific or
positive provision." It will be seen that in the end the Prince of Wales
was obliged to abandon his claim of right, and that the steadfastness of
Pitt finally secured the recognition of the principle which placed in
the hands of Parliament the settlement of the conditions under which His
Royal Highness was to enter upon the Regency.

This glance at the subject is a little in advance of the correspondence;
but it will be useful as a key to the points of discussion thrown up in
its progress. The fulness and freshness of the letters, written daily,
and containing the most minute history of those proceedings that has yet
appeared in print, requires such slight elucidation as to render it
undesirable to interrupt their continuity by commentaries, except where
it may become necessary to direct attention to some special matter.

Both parties were now gathering their allies around them, and preparing
for a contest which was not very creditable to the political character
of