77 



GEORGE OF DENMARK, PRINCE. 



GEORGE OP DENMARK, PRINCE. 



Roman Catholic, as representative to the House of Commons for the 

 county of Clare ; the convention concluded tith of August, between 

 Ali Pasha, viceroy of Egypt, and Sir Edward Codrington, for the 

 evacuation of the Morea by the Turkish troops, in conformity with 

 which the whole Egyptian armament sailed for Alexandria on the 

 4th of October; the resignation by the Duke of Clarence, August 12, 

 of the office of lord-high-admiral, to which he had been appointed by 

 Mr. Canning ; the reeal, in December, of the Marquis of Anglesea 

 from the government of Ireland ; and the visit to this country, in the 

 bitter part of the year, of Donna Maria da Gloria, the young Queen 

 of Portugal. On the 26th of February, tfiis year, Lord John Russell 

 had carried his resolution in the House of Commons for the repeal 

 of the Test and Corporation Acts, against the opposition of ministers, 

 by a majority of 237 to 193. A bUl to effect the object of the reso- 

 lution was afterwards introduced, and ministers refraining from 

 joining the opposition to it ia the House of Lords, it was passed 

 into a law. This measur a had till now been uniformly resisted by 

 both sections of the administration under which it was thus 

 conceded. 



The great measure of domestic policy of the year 1829 was the 

 concession at last of Roman Catholic emancipation. The consideration 

 of the laws imposing disabilities on Roman Catholics, with a view to 

 the practicability of their safe removal, was recommended in the king's 

 speech, delivered at the opening of parliament on the 5th of February. 

 The Relief Bill, and another abolishing the forty-shilling freeholders 

 in Ireland, were brought into the House of Commons together by Mr. 

 Secretary Peel, and read a first time on the 10th of March. The 

 second reading of the Relief Bill was carried on the 1 8th by a majority 

 of 353 to 173 ; on the third reading, 30th of March, the numbers were, 

 ayes 320, noes 142 ; the second reading in the Lords was carried on 

 the 4th of April by a majority of 217 to 112; and the third reading 

 on the 10th by a majority of 213 to 104. Both bills received the royal 

 assent on the 13th. Mr. O'Connell presented himself to take his seat 

 for Clare on the 15th of May following ; but after he had been heard 

 at the bar, it was resolved by a majority of 190 to 116, that he should 

 not be entitled to sit or vote without first taking the oath of supremacy; 

 and on his refusal to take the said oath, a new writ was ordered to be 

 issued for Clare. 



In the early part of the year 1830 the king, who had for some time 

 post lived in great seclusion, was attacked by an illness which soon 

 assumed a serious appearance. After all prospect of his recovery had 

 been for some time lost, he died at Windsor Castle on the morning of 

 the 26th of June, in the sixty-eighth year of his age, and the eleventh 

 of his reign. The same day proclamation was made of the accession 

 of King William IV. 



Many important alterations of the laws were made in the reign of 

 George IV., besides the great national me mires tliat have been already 

 noticed. Both the laws relating to the punishment and those relating 

 to the trial of offences were consolidated and amended by several acts 

 introduced by Mr., afterwards Sir Robert, Peel, in which, and also in 

 the general administration of the law, considerable progress was made 

 in the application of the two great principles of diminishing the 

 sanguinary character and increasing the certainty of punishments. 

 Among the other legislative innovations of the reign may be enume- 

 rated the act of 1823, abolishing the ancient custom of burying persons 

 who had committed felo-de-se in cross-roads, with a stake driven through 

 their bodies; the Marriage Act Amendment Acts of 1822, 1823, and 

 1824; the act of 1824, for the restoration in blood of the representa- 

 tives of the Scottish peers attainted in 1715 and 1745 ; the act of the 

 same year for ascertaining and establishing a uniformity of weights 

 and measures ; the act of the same year for the repeal of the combi- 

 nation laws ; the act of 1827 to prevent arrests upon the mesne process 

 where the cause of action is under 201. ; the act of 1828 for rendering 

 a written memorandum necessary to the validity of certain promises 

 and engagements; the act of the same year for regulating the 

 importation of corn; the Metropolis Police Act of 1829; the act of 

 1830 repealing the beer duties ; and the act of the same year substi- 

 tuting the punishment of transportation for that of death, in cases of 

 forgery. The mention of these measures is sufficient to indicate the 

 progress of legislation daring the reign. 



OF.OROJ-: OK DENMARK, FKINCB, has a place in English history 

 as the husband of one of our queens, and as having resided many years 

 .land, and held a high public office. He was born April 21st 

 1653, and was the youngest son of Frederick III., king of Denmark, 

 and the only brother of Frederick's successor, Christian V. His 

 mother was Sophia Amelia, daughter of George, duke of Luneburg. 

 He made his first visit to England, after a short tour in France, in 

 July 1669, when he was introduced at court, but remained only a few 

 days. At the battle of Lunden, fought between t.'ie Danes and the 

 Swedes, December 14th 1676, Prince George is stated to have distin- 

 guished himself by his bravery ; and the rescue of the king his brother, 

 after he had been taken prisoner by the enemy, is attributed mainly 

 to him. The Princess Mary of York having been married to the Prince 

 of Orange in 1677, the duke her father is said to have pressed his 

 brother the king to leave to him the disposal of his other daughter 

 Anne ; but Charles thought it more advisable to comply in this instance 

 with the national wish, and to have her also married to a Protestant 

 Anne's first suitor was the Prince of Hanover (afterwards her successor, 



George I.), who came over to pay his addresses to her in 1681, but 

 had scarcely landed when he was recalled by his father, who had 

 negoeiated a marriage for him with the daughter of the Duke of Zell. 

 Some time afterwards overtures were made in behalf of his brother by 

 the king of Denmark ; and, Prince George having come over, he and 

 Anne were married at St. James's on the evening of the 2Sth of 

 July 1683. 



Oa the accession of his father-in-law as James II., Prince George was 

 made a privy councillor ; and he was not understood ever to have 

 made any opposition to the measures of the court till the last moment. 

 The truth however appears to be that ho was a mere cypher. 

 Charles II. is said to have declared that he had tried him drunk and 

 sober, and, he added with an oath, there was nothing in him. Nobody 

 seems to have thought it worth while at this time even to try to 

 make a tool of him. When the revolution came he is understood to 

 have acted under the direction of his wife. It had been arranged some 

 days before by her and Lord Churchill (afterwards the Duke of 

 Marlborough), who was much in their confidence, that he should go 

 over to the Prince of Orange, and Anne had transmitted to William 

 an express promise to that effect. Prince George however continued 

 with the king till the night of the 24th of November (16S8), when, 

 being at Andover, on his leaving table after having supped with James 

 by his majesty's invitation, he rode off iu company with the Duke of 

 Ormond, Lord Drumlanrig, and Mr. Boyle, and joined William at 

 Sherborne Castle ; having left behind him a letter to his father-in-law, 

 in which he attributed what he had done to zeal for the Protestaut 

 religion. " What ! " said James, when he was told of his flight, " est-il 

 possible gone too?" This, it seems, was the prince's common phrase 

 on all occasions; and it had been in great requisition during some 

 previous days, when reports of one desertion after another were 

 constantly coming in. 



After the acceptance of the crown by William, Prince George was 

 naturalised by act of parliament, and immediately before the coronation 

 of the new king and queen, in April 1689, he was created an English 

 peer by the titles of Baron of Wokingham, Earl of Kendal, and Duke 

 of Cumberland. He accompanied the king to Ireland in 1690, and 

 was present at the battle of the Boyne. He used to attend and vote 

 in the House of Lords both in the reign of William and in that of 

 Anne, and he was even made occasionally to vote against the court in 

 the former reign. His name stands affixed to the protest made against 

 the rejection of the Place Bill of 1692, which had passed the Commons, 

 and the defeat of which was only effected in the Upper House by the 

 greatest exertions of the government. In other cases, again, they would 

 get him to vote against his own convictions ; as, for iust.mce, in that 

 of the bill against Occasional Conformity brought in by the Tory 

 ministry in the first year of Queen Amie. Indeed he was only an 

 occasional conformist himself, being in the habit of attending the 

 Lutheran service in a chapel of his own, although he submitted to 

 take the sacrament according to the forms of the Church of England 

 when it became necessary to do so on his being appointed to office. 



On the accession of Anne, while the actual command of the army 

 was left in the hands of Marlborough, Prince George was declared 

 generalissimo of all the queen's forces by sea and land ; and he was 

 also made lord high admiral, but with the .novelty of a council to 

 assist or act along with him. The queen also sent a message to the 

 Commons, desiring them to make some suitable provision for her 

 husband iu case he should outlive her; and it was agreed that he 

 should in tint case have an income of 100,0002. Great opposition 

 however was made in the Lords to a clause iu the act exempting the 

 prince from being comprehended in an incapacity created by the act 

 settling the succession on the house of Hanover, which had provided 

 that no foreigner, although naturalised, should hold aiiy employment 

 under the crown after that family came to the throne. 



The prince's administration of the Admiralty was not glorious. In 

 1703, in 17U4, and again in 1707, the loudest complaints were brought 

 forward in parliament both against the proceedings of the lord high 

 admiral's council and the conduct of affairs at sea. In fact as Marl- 

 borough, now a duke, governed the army in his own name, he governed 

 the navy also through his brother, Admiral George Churchill, who was 

 all along the prince's chief adviser. The prince is said to have sometimes 

 complained of his insignificance or want of influence, but his dissatis- 

 faction evaporated in the quietebt way. Lord Dartmouth has some 

 curious notices of him in his splenetic notes to Burnct's history. In 

 one place he says : "His behaviour at the revolution showed he could 

 be made a tool of upon occasions, but King William treated him with 

 the utmost contempt. When Queen Anne came to the throne she 

 showed him little respect, but expected everybody else should give 

 him more than was his due ; but it was soon fouu 1 out that his inter- 

 posing was a prejudice in obtaining favours at court." Dartmouth 

 goes on to state that all foreign princes had him in very low esteem, 

 and he mentions some strange surmises made abroad as to the causes 

 of his want of influence which were certainly altogether imaginary. 

 " After thirty years living in England," this note concludes, "he died 

 of eating and drinking, without any man's thinking himself obliged to 

 him ; but I have been told that he would sometimes do ill offices, 

 though he never did a good one." (Burnet, ' Own Times,' i. 643. See 

 also note on ii. 489.) 



His death took place at Kensington Palace,- October 28th, 1708. 



