408 



GEORGE III. 



inents from Flanders, and the rapid assemblage of 

 troops from all quarters, to oppose and intercept 

 him, decided him to retreat, and the battle of Cullo- 

 den, April 17, 1746, terminated the struggles of the 

 house of Stuart. (See Edward, Charles.) During 

 these events, the king received numerous demonstra- 

 tions of attachment to his person and family ; and it 

 was obvious that the greater part of the nation con- 

 nected the interests of civil liberty with the support 

 of the principles which had called the house of Han- 

 over to the throne. In 1748, the war, which had 

 been very unproductive of advantage to England, 

 was terminated by the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. 

 In 1751 died Frederic, prince of Wales, who, having 

 lived for a considerable time at variance with his 

 father, was naturally thrown into the opposition 

 party, and thereby, in a manner which has not been 

 unusual with English heirs-apparent, became the 

 avowed patron of popular maxims of government. 

 In 1755, the disputes between Great Britain and 

 France, in relation to their respective boundaries in 

 Canada, produced hostilities in that country, and an 

 open war between the two nations the following year. 

 The events of this war, in which the principal powers 

 of Europe became engaged, under the able auspices 

 of Pitt (first earl of Chatham), raised Great Britain 

 to the pinnacle of power. In this state of affairs, 

 George II. died suddenly, October 25, 1760, in the 

 seventy-seventh year of his age and thirty-third of his 

 reign. George IV. was a prince of very moderate 

 abilities, parsimonious, and wholly regardless of 

 science or literature ; hasty and obstinate, but honest 

 and open in his disposition. His queen, the culti- 

 vated and well-informed Caroline, acquired a great 

 ascendancy over him, which did not, however, pre- 

 vent some of the irregular attachments so common 

 with royalty. 



GEORGE III., king of Great Britain, born June 

 4, 1738, was the eldest son of Frederic, prince of 

 Wales, by the princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha. On 

 the death of his father in 1751, his education was 

 intrusted to the earl of Harcourt and the bishop of 

 Norwich ; but the formation of his opinions and cha- 

 racter seems to have been materially influenced by the 

 maternal ascendency of the princess dowager, who was 

 principally guided by the counsels of the earl of 

 Bute. George III., who had been previously cre- 

 ated prince of Wales, ascended the throne on the 

 demise of his grandfather, George II., October 25, 

 1760, being then in his twenty-third year. A pros- 

 perous war having made the existing administration, 

 headed by Pitt (afterwards earl of Chatham), exceed- 

 ingly popular, no immediate change was made in 

 the cabinet, and the first speeches of the new king to 

 his council and parliament were favourable to the 

 anticipations formed of the conduct of a young prince 

 of unspotted reputation, who enjoyed the advantage 

 of being the first sovereign of the line born and edu- 

 cated in England. In 1761, the Pitt administration 

 exchanged Mr Legge and lord Holderness for vis- 

 count Barrington and the earl of Bute a fact wor- 

 thy of notice, as commencing that series of incessant 

 ministerial changes which distinguished the first ten 

 years of the reign of George III. In the same year, 

 Mr Pitt resigned the seals of foreign secretary, in 

 consequence of being outvoted in the cabinet on the 

 subject of a war with Spain. The marriage of the 

 king with the princess Charlotte Sophia of Mecklen- 

 burg-Strelitz (a union which in its result operated 

 materially on the domestic character of this reign) 

 also took place in 1761. A new administration, for- 

 mally headed by lord Bute, having entered into 

 negotiations with France and Spain, preliminaries of 

 peace with those nations were signed. November 3, 

 1762, at Fontainebleau. In 1763, the publication 



of the North Briton, by Wilkes (q. v.), in a spirit of 

 unsparing censure of the Bute administration, led to 

 a series of measures, the result of which proved 

 favourable to the interests of civil liberty. In 1764, 

 Mr George .Grenville. who had become premier by 

 the retirement of the earl of Bute, began those mea- 

 sures in relation to the American colonies, the con- 

 sequences of which proved so momentous ; and the 

 stamp act was passed the following year. About the 

 same time, in consequence of some appearances of 

 the mental derangement of the king, a bill was 

 passed to enable his majesty to appoint the queen, or 

 any of the royal family residing in England, guardian 

 to his successor, and regent of the kingdom. The 

 attempt of the ministry to confine the term royal 

 family to the descendants of George II., with the 

 exclusion of the princess dowager of Wales, caused 

 another change of administration, in which the mar- 

 quis of Rockingham was placed at the head of the 

 treasury. In 1766,the new administration repealed 

 American stamp act ; at the same time passing a d 

 claratory act, asserting the right of taxing the colonies. 

 The Rockingham cabinet was dissolved, July 30, 

 1766, and succeeded by one formed by the earl 

 of Chatham, who took the office of lord privy seal. 

 In 1768, lord Chatham, disgusted with the conduct of 

 Ins colleagues, resigned the privy seal, and was suc- 

 ceeded by lord Bristol. The same year was dis- 

 tinguished by the return of Mr Wilkes for Middlesex, 

 and the popular tumults attendant upon his imprison- 

 ment and outlawry. (See Wilkes.') The year 1770 

 was signalized by another change of administration, 

 which rendered lord North premier; by the passing 

 of the Grenville act in regulation of the proceedings 

 of the house of commons, in regard to contested 

 elections : by a bold address and remonstrance to 

 the throne from the livery and corporation of the 

 city of London ; and by the celebrated letters of 

 Junius. In the session of 1771, the house of com- 

 mons made an attempt to suppress the publication of 

 their debates, which failed ; and the debates have- 

 been published ever since. In 1772, the marriages 

 of the dukes of Gloucester and Cumberland with 

 lady Waldegrave and Mrs Horton, produced the 

 royal marriage act, which prevents the members of 

 the royal family from marrying, without the king's 

 approbation, before the age of twenty-five ; as also 

 subsequently, if disapproved by both houses of par- 

 liament. In 1773 the discontents in America burst 

 into an open flame, and a royal message in the com- 

 mencement of the sessions of 1774, called on parlia- 

 ment to maintain the supremacy of the mother coun- 

 try. (See United States. ) Notwithstanding the dis- 

 astrous American war, and the loss of an empire, 

 George III., by the steadiness with which he put 

 down the coalition administration, acquired a degree 

 of popularity which never afterwards entirely de- 

 serted him. Tiie smooth course of the early years 

 of the administration of Mr Pitt, materially added to 

 this disposition, which exhibited itself very strongly 

 when the constitutional malady of the king again 

 displayed itself in 1789, and still more upon his subse- 

 quent recovery. In reference to the French revolu- 

 tion, and the important contests which arose out of it, 

 it is sufficient to remark, that George III. zealously 

 coincided in the policy adopted by his administration. 

 A similar observation will apply to the domestic, 

 and Irish, and Indian policy of the Pitt cabinet ; as 

 also to the transactions connected with the Irish re- 

 bellion. George III. was immovable in his opposi- 

 tion to the demands of the Irish Catholics, and, 

 seconded by the influence of the church, and the 

 popular feeling, was enabled to eject the Fox and 

 Grenville administration, which succeeded on the 

 death of Mr Pitt. The proceedings of the Perceval 



