248 A DESCRIPTION of BERKSHIRE. lofty pillars, with a large hall above D The other market towns are, i. Faringdon, about 13 miles W. of Abingdon, very pleasantly fituate on B the fide of a hill, and just before you enter the town on the fouth, from a fpacious plain between it and the village of Stanford, is a famous afcent, called Faringdon Hill, which commands a delightful profpe&t of the country round, and may be feen C at a great many miles diftance. Here is a large, handfome church, which had formerly a fpire, but now only a tower. This town has a well fre quented market on Tuesdays.-2. Wantage, 7 computed and about 9 measured miles S. E. of Faringdon, lowly fituate in the fruitful Vale of Whitehorse, an ancient town, formerly a royal ville, and noted for being the birth place of the brave and victorious K. Alfred, the fcourge of the Danes. The inhabitants have a tradition of the very fpot where E he was born. It has a good market on Saturdays for flesh, corn, and all forts of provifion. Here is a large, handsome church, in the form of a crofs, with a free grammar school in the church-yard. There are many fprings about the town, and a rivulet, which turns feveral mills. The cart and horfe roads are remarkably deep, fome of them being clayey and others rocky, fo that a person can scarce look down without fome degree of horror. About a mile from the town, on the brow of a hill, is a large camp of a quadrangular form, and a fingle work, which appears to be Roman: And east from hence is Cuckhamsley Hill, over F June which the Danes paffed, in their depreda tions, after they had, in 1006, deftroyed Wallingford.-3. Lamborn, or Langborn, about 6 miles S. W. from Wantage, has its name from a little bourn, or river, that rises near it, which contrary to other brooks, is highest in fummer, and almost dry in winter. Market on Fridays.-4. Eaft Inley, about 9 miles E. from Lamborn, has a market on Wednesday.-5. Hungerford, about 6 miles S. of Lamborn, a small town, in a moorish fituation on the river Kennet, with an indifferent market on Wednesday. It is chiefly noted for the best trouts and crawfish, and for lying in the great road from London to Bath, Bristol, &c. The conftable of the town, chofen annually, is lord of the manor, which is held immediately of the crown, They have a horn here, that holds about a quart, which, by an infeription on it, appears to have been given by John of Gaunt, together with a grant of the rial fishing, as they call it, in a certain part of the river. 6. Newbury, about 9 miles S. E. of Hungerford, feated in a fruitful plain on the river Kennet, formerly famous for the manufacture of broad cloth, but that being druggets principally employ the inhabitants, removed farther weft, the stuffs called in which they drive a great trade. John Winchcomb, commonly called Jack of Newbury, was the greatest clothier in Eng100 looms in his houfe, and armed and land in the time of Henry VIII. He kept clothed, at his own expence, 100 of his men to march in the expedition against the Scots, at Flodden. This town rofe out of the ruins of the ancient Spinæ, or Spene, now called Speenham-land, a small village about a mile N. W. part of which reaches as far as the new town, and has feveral good inns. Newbury is well built, has fpacious streets, and is governed by a mayor, high-fleward, &c. The market is on Thursdays, which is very great for corn, &c. The two famous battles fought here in the time of the civil wars, are well known in our history of thofe times.-7. Ockingham, about 6 miles S. E. of Reading, is the chief town in Windfor-Foreft, governed by an alderman, recorder, and capital burgeffes, and has a market on Tuesdays.-8, Maidenhead, 5 miles N. W. of Windfor, has a large wooden bridge over the Thames, is a great thorough-fare on the western road, and full of inns. Its market is on Wednesdays. It is governed by a high. steward, a mayor, a fteward, and 10 aldermen, out of whom Gtwo bridge-mafters are yearly chofen to take care of the bridge; for the maintenance of which the corporation receives toll from paffengers both above and under it, and have three trees allowed them annually out of Windfor-Foreft. JOUR 249 1751. JOURNAL of the PROCEEDINGS and DEBATES in the POLITICAL CLUB, continued from p. 211. As the Regency Bill, now paffed into a Law, was a Bill of fo much Confequence, and of a Nature fo new, we refolved to take the first Opportunity to confider it in our Club; therefore we procured a Copy of it A as foon as the Blanks were filled up, and refolved at our next Meeting to take it into Confideration; when, upon reading the firft material Claufe, Proculus Virginius flood up and spoke in Subftance thus: Mr. Chairman, SIR, A C ledge I have of the juftice, wisdom, and difcretion of her royal highness, but for many other reasons, which I fhall now beg leave to explain. I hope it will be allowed, Sir, that by our conftitution the whole executive power of the government is lodged in one fingle perfon under certain limitations, which are now perfectly known, and by which the liberties and privileges of the people are fecured. This is our true conftitution: This is what we never did B depart from without involving ourfelves into difficulties and misfortunes; and this is what we never ought to depart from without an evident neceffity. How can this neceffity arife, Sir? Not from any danger the people may be exposed to from a fole regent; for they are fufficiently guarded by the limitations, which the fovereign himself is fubjected to. It can therefore arife from nothing but the nature of our monarchy, which our ancestors wifely made hereditary, to avoid thofe misfortunes which elective monarchies are always expofed to. By this wife inftitution, as no human inftitution can be without fome inconveniences, we are expofed to the danger of having fometimes an infant king; and when this misfortune happens to us, we must neceffarily` lodge the executive power of our government in the hands of one fingle perfon with fovereign power, or we must circumfcribe his power, by faddling him with a council of regency. The latter, whenever it is done, is always an incroachment upon, or rather a total alteration of our conflitution, and experience has fhewn, that it can hardly ever fail of producing factious difputes and violent animofities in the nation; for thro' our whole hiftory we cannot produce one inftance where it Ii did S there are fome words at the end of this claufe, which relate to fome following regulations in the bill, and as I fhall be for having all thofe regulations left out, I believe it will now be proper, and indeed neceffary for me, to declare my fentiments upon this affair in general, and to give my reafons for being against thofe regulations; becafue, if the majority of this houfe fhould concur with me in D opinion, a piece of good fortune I very feldom meet with, when I happen to differ from the Hon. gentleman in the chair, thefe words muft be left out, or the clause must be poftponed. When I fay this, I believe, every gentleman will fuppofe E I mean the words refraints, limitations, and regulations following; for if it fhould be thought right to put the royal perfon, fo wifely and fo graciously recommended to us by his majefty for regent in cafe of his death, under no reftraints, limita tions, or regulations, but fuch as the fovereign power itielf is now by our conftitution fubjected to, thofe words muft certainly be left out of this claufe; and this I must declare to be my opinion, not only from the knowT Pr June, 1751. F 250 PROCEEDINGS of the POLITICAL CLUB, &c. June did not do fo; therefore we never ought to have recourse to it, except when it becomes neceflary for avoiding a greater danger, which is that to which an infant king, and his hereditary right to the crown, may be expofed, by appointing a fole regent or protector with fovereign power; for the nature of man is fuch, that it rarely happens, that one who has once got poffeffion of fovereign power, can willingly or freely confent to part with it. A C I know it will be faid, Sir, that by the bill now before us, the regent may act in many cafes without the advice or confent of the council of regency, and that the may difpofe of all pots and preferments, except a few named in the bill, by her own fole authority; and particularly, that fhe has the fole difpofal of all commiffions in the army, and the fale power of iffuing all orders and inftructions to the troops; but if we closely attend to this, we fhall find From the nature of our conftituti- B that her power, even in these reon therefore, Sir, it is extremely fpects, is altogether elufory; for in eafy to determine what we ought to the present state of things, when all do upon the prefent occafion. What principle feems to be out of the quefnecellity, what inducement can we tion, when immediate felf-interest have now to expofe the nation to feems to be the only motive for actithofe factions and animofities that alon, they that have the power of the ways have arifen, and always muft purfe muft of courfe have all other arife from our altering our conftitu- power, and the publick purfe the retion, by dividing the executive pow- gent is to have no power of, because er of our government, and lodging the cannot remove, no not so much as it in feveral hands? Can we appre- an inferior commiffioner of the treahend any danger to the perfon of fury, without the confent of a majothe infant king from his mother?rity of the council of regency. Then, Can we fuppofe that he will ever Sir, with refpect to the army, the have a thought of ufurping the regent, by the rules of our conftitucrown, or of keeping poffeffion of tion, can grant no commiffion to any the fovereign power for any longer officer, nor iflue orders to any troops, time than by this law we are to pre- but what must be counterfigned by fcribe? No man, therefore, can now the fecretary at war; and can we have any inducement for expofing fuppofe, that the regent can find any the nation to factions and animofiti- E fecretary at war, that will act in dies, and rendering her government rect oppofition to him who has the unealy to her, by cramping it with direction of the council of regency, a council of regency, unless it be and of the treafury that is to pay thole who have now by favour the him his falary? As to the navy, we difpenfing of the fovereign power, may eafily fee, that the regent can and who defire to have that establishhave no power over it; because all ed by law which they now hold only commiflions, and all orders and inby favour. If there be now fuch a ftructions must be counterfigned by man, or fuch a fet of men in the the lord high admiral, or a majority nation, I am fure, it is a ftrong ar- of the commiffioners of admiralty, gument against our faddling the re- over whom the regent is to have neigent with any council of regency: ther power nor influence; and as to It will be the height of madnefs to all ecclefiaftical and civil employchufe thofe very men for the council ments, we know that the grant of of regency, because it is plain they most of them, indeed I may fay of defign, that the regent fhall be no- all that are to be granted by the thing but a name, that the fhall be crown, mut have the concurrence of governed by them, or not be able to all. D F G the great leal, the privy feal, the fe cretaries |