press of business with which the House was generally encumbered towards the close of the Sessions; 40 or 50 orders of the day crowded into a single night, and Bills of great importance passing through their different stages at two or three o'clock in the morning, when it became impossible to object to them with any hope of being attended to. Whitbread and some others had said that they should vote for the long adjournment, because the Ministers had by their recent conduct entitled themselves to such a proof of confidence: upon which I observed, that the adjournment had not been proposed by the Ministers on any such ground, or on any other ground than that the state of public business made it unnecessary that Parliament should meet earlier; that, whatever confidence Ministers might be thought entitled to, the Commons suspending their own functions was not the proper way to manifest that confidence; and that we had no authority from our constituents to take such a step. If the sitting of Parliament was to be long suspended, the constitutional mode of proceeding was for the King to prorogue it, or to send a message to the Houses of Parliament, to desire them to adjourn: such a measure always proceeding upon the responsibility of Ministers. There

was no division.

24th, Fri. The Lord Chancellor's sittings ended. 26th, Sun. I went with my dear Anne and my children to Tanhurst, and stayed there till Jan. 9.

all

1814.

Jan. 9th, Sun. I returned to town, the Chancellor being to commence his sittings on the next day.

For the first seven days of our being at Tanhurst, we had the finest weather imaginable, a bright sunshine not interrupted by a single cloud; while London and the country many miles around it were, for the greatest part of the same time, involved in some of the thickest fogs ever remembered. We had afterwards a very heavy fall of

snow.*

24th, Mon. I dined at the British Coffee-house with the members of the Fox Club, it being the anniversary of Mr. Fox's birthday. This is the third year that I have been invited by the club, and that I have been present at this anniversary dinner. Previously to 1812 I never was invited to it.

Feb. 12th, Sat. Sir James Mansfield, the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, has, during the whole of this term, been prevented by illness from attending in Court; and, as he is in his 80th year, there have been various reports of his intended resignation, and of the promotions which are to take place in consequence of it. Sir Vicary Gibbs, it seems

*This frost was very severe, and lasted several weeks; and in the beginning of February the Thames was frozen over, and many hundred persons walked across it between London and Blackfriars Bridge.

agreed on all hands, is to succeed him; but who is to succeed Gibbs as Chief Baron seems not a little doubtful. For some time, it was considered

Garrow.

as quite settled that it was to be the Attorney-Ge- Sir William neral, and he has himself talked very confidently about it, has made inquiries respecting the probable state of business upon the different circuits, and has observed that it would be an affectation in him to be silent upon what every body else was speaking of. How well qualified he is to preside in a Court, in which all questions respecting the rights of the Crown in matters of property are decided, may be conjectured from what passed last summer in the House of Lords. On the claim to the Earldom of Airlie, which came on in last July, I, as counsel for the claimant, had endeavoured to remove the objection which had been taken by some of the Lords, particularly Lord Redesdale, that the title had become forfeited by the attainder of Lord Ogilvy in the year 1715. The question was, whether a Scotch entailed title of honour was forfeited by its devolving on an attainted person subsequent to his attainder; or whether (as I had to contend) it was merely suspended during his life, and on his death came to the next heir of entail. Garrow, as Attorney-General, on behalf of the Crown, had to answer Adam's and my argument. Perceiving, from his observations to me while the claim was depending, how little he knew of the matter, I was curious to see how, when it came to him to speak, he would extricate himself from his difficulty. He did extricate himself, but in a way for which I certainly was not prepared. He appeared at the bar

of the House of Lords with a written argument, the whole of which he very deliberately read, without venturing to add a single observation, or expression of his own. In the Stafford peerage, which stood for the same day, he did exactly the same thing. He merely read an argument which somebody had composed for him; and none of the Lords were malicious enough to interrupt him, or to put any questions to him on any of the doctrines which he had to maintain. I have since been informed that both these arguments were written by Hobhouse, one of the solicitors of the Treasury. A very new sort of exhibition this by an Attorney-General! Two days afterwards, in the Court of Chancery, on a question whether a manager of a theatre could discharge the duties of his office without personal attendance, I, who had to argue that he could not, said that it would be as difficult as for a counsel to do his duty in that court by writing arguments, and sending them to some person to read them for him. The Lord Chancellor interrupted me by saying, "In this court or in any other? And after the Court rose, he said to me, "You knew, I suppose, what I alluded to? It was Garrow's written argument in the House of Lords." So little respect has his Lordship for an Attorney-General, whom he himself appointed because he was agreeable to the Prince.

26th. Sir James Mansfield has recently resigned the Chief Justiceship of the Common Pleas, and has been succeeded by Sir Vicary Gibbs, the late Chief Baron of the Exchequer. Mr. Baron Thom

son has been appointed Lord Chief Baron; and this day Mr. Richards was sworn in a puisne Baron of the Exchequer. The Attorney-General has succeeded Richards as Chief Justice of Chester.

ment of the

ment.

March 1st, Tu. The two Houses of Parliament Adjournmet, and, upon an intimation given in each House Houses of that it was the desire of the Regent, they adjourned Parliato the 21st of March. Little opposition was made in either House, though the consequence of the Session of Parliament being postponed to so late a period is, that little more will be done than to pass the Bills brought in by Government, and to pass private Bills. Having stated my objections to this before, I did not think it necessary to say any thing now.

This was not the spontaneous adjournment of the House; but it took place in consequence of an intimation for which Ministers are responsible; and, if the motion to adjourn under such circumstances had been rejected, a prorogation must have followed, which would be attended with still greater inconveniences.

General ap

Chief

On a writ being moved for, on account of AttorneyGarrow having vacated his seat by accepting the pointed Chief Justiceship of Chester, I said that the ap- Justice of pointment which had given occasion to the motion Chester. was one which appeared to me to be so objectionable, that I thought it my duty to draw the attention of the House to it. The independence of the Judges had, ever since the Revolution, been considered as of the utmost importance; and, early in the present reign, it had been declared from the throne, that His Majesty considered their independence as essential to the impartial administra