ich on this occasion had been framed by Mr. Pitt;
and the Opposition, led by Lord Grey and Sir Samuel Romilly, raised as
nearly as possible the same objections to it which were now urged by Fox
and his adherents. The ministerial measure was, however, again supported
by considerable majorities; so that the course proposed by Mr. Pitt on
this occasion may be said to have received the sanction of two
Parliaments assembled and sitting under widely different circumstances;
and may, therefore, be taken as having established the rule which will
be adopted if such an emergency should, unfortunately, arise hereafter.
And indeed, though the propriety of Pitt's proposals has, as was
natural, been discussed by every historical and political writer who has
dealt with the history of that time, there has been a general
concurrence of opinion in favor of that statesman's measure. Lord John
Russell, while giving a document, entitled "Materials for a Pamphlet,"
in which he recognizes the handwriting of Lord Loughborough, and which
"contains the grounds of the opinion advanced by him, and adopted by Mr.
Fox, that, from the moment the two Houses of Parliament declared the
King unable to exercise his royal authority, a right to exercise that
authority attached to the Prince of Wales," does not suppress his own
opinion of the "erroneousness of this or any other doctrine that
attributes to any individual or any constituted authority existing in
the state a strict or legal right to claim or to dispose of the royal
authority while the King is alive, but incapable of exercising it."[120]

The only writer, as far as I am aware, who advocates the opposite view
is Lord Campbell, who, after quoting the speech of Lord Camden, from
which extracts have been made, comments on it, and on the whole
transaction, in the following terms: "From the course then adopted and
carried through, I presume it is now to be considered part of our
constitution that if ever, during the natural life of the sovereign, he
is unable by mental disease personally to exercise the royal functions,
the deficiency is to be supplied by the two Houses of Parliament, who,
in their _discretion_, will probably elect the heir-apparent Regent,
under such restrictions as they may please to propose, but who may
prefer the head of the ruling faction, and at once vest in him all the
prerogatives of the crown. On the two occasions referred to in the reign
of George III., the next heir being at