12 George the Fourth. JULY 9 



tion to none of your subjects in duty to none of your children in tenderness 

 and affection presumes to approach you, and again to repeat those offers which 

 he has already made through your majesty's ministers; A feeling of honest 

 ambition, a sense of what I owe to myself and my family, and, above all, the fear 

 of sinking in the estimation of that gallant army, which may be the support of 

 your majesty's crown, and my best hope hereafter, command me to persevere, and 

 to assure your majesty, with all humiliation and respect, that, conscious of the 

 justice of my claim, no human power can ever induce me to relinquish it. 



" Allow me to say, Sir, that I am bound to adopt this line of conduct by every 

 motive dear to me as a man, and sacred to me as a prince. Ought I not to come 

 forward in a moment of unexampled difficulty and danger ? Ought I not to 

 share in the glory of victory, when I have every thing to lose by defeat ? The 

 highest places in your majesty's service are filled by the younger branches of 

 the royal family ; to me alone no place is assigned ; I am not thought worthy to 

 be even the junior major-general of your army. If I could submit in silence to 

 such indignities, I should, indeed, deserve such treatment, and prove, to the 

 satisfaction of your enemies and my own, that I am entirely incapable of those 

 exertions, which my birth and the circumstances of the times peculiarly call for. 

 Standing so near the throne, when I am debased, the cause of royalty is wounded. 

 I cannot sink in public opinion without the participation of your majesty in my 

 degradation. Therefore, every motive of private feeling and public duty induces 

 me to implore your majesty to review your decision, and to place me in that 

 situation which my birth, the duties of my station, the example of my predeces- 

 sors, and the expectations of the people of England, entitle me to claim." 



The request was sternly refused, and it cannot be doubted that the re- 

 fusal further alienated the prince from his sovereign. But all discussion 

 was soon to be forgotten, in an event of the most afflicting nature. 



George the Third had been subject, since his recovery in 1789, to 

 relapses of short duration, and it is understood that in 1804 he was for 

 some deprived of his reason. In 1810 it became necessary to communi- 

 cate to Parliament the undoubted return of the former illness. The 

 question of the regency was revived, and discussed with great interest. 

 The proceedings terminated on the 5th February, 1811, when the bill 

 appointing the Prince of Wales Regent, under a number of restrictions, 

 became a law. The restrictions were to continue till the 1st February, 

 1812. 



As the opposition to the restrictions was conducted in concert with 

 the Prince, some surprise was manifested at his continuance of the Per- 

 ceval Administration in office. In a letter which was published at the 

 time, his Royal Highness apprised Mr. Perceval te that the irresistible 

 impulse of filial duty and affection to his beloved and afflicted father, 

 led him to dread that any act of the Regent might, in the smallest 

 degree, have the effect of interfering with the progress of his sovereign's 

 recovery, and that this consideration alone dictated the decision now com- 

 municated to Mr. Perceval." 



Yet when the restrictions on the Regency expired, the Whigs were 

 destined once more to be disappointed. Perceval was retained in power, 

 as some presumed, by Sheridan's dislike to the Greys and Grenvilles, or 

 as others by the express desire of the Queen ; but more probably by the 

 prince's knowledge of their domineering spirit and their national unpo- 

 pularity. 



On the 29th January 1820, George the Third departed this life, and 

 the Prince Regent, who had exercised the sovereignty with restrictions 

 since 1811, and without restrictions since 1812, now became King. By 

 the laws of this country, the Queen Consort is invested with certain 

 rights and privileges, and much anxiety had always been felt with 

 respect to the period when it would become necessary for the wife of 

 the sovereign to assert her rights. It was feared that the appearance of 



