1765.

DANGEROUS ILLNESS OF THE KING.

159

sagacious and prudent, of the colonial patriots admitted the necessity of submission to the imperial legislature.*

of the King.

Yet it is certain that this measure of taxation for the colonies would have ruined the Ministry Sudden illness which proposed, and attempted to carry it into effect, had not that fate been anticipated by their mismanagement of a question of domestic policy of the simplest character. While the Stamp Act was passing through its last stages, the King was seized with a dangerous illness, the first attack of that fearful malady, by which the later years of his life were wholly obscured.† The cloud, however, on this occasion quickly passed away; but the King, duly impressed by such an awful warning, himself gave directions to his ministers to provide for the Executive Government in the event of his premature decease. The laws of the realm recognised no incapacity in the Sovereign from nonage, or any other cause; therefore it became necessary to The constitumake special provision for each particular tion did not case. In the rude, irregular periods of the regency. monarchy, the mode of appointing a guardian or regent of the kingdom during the minority of the King, had varied according to the circumstances of the time. A powerful subject would sometimes assume the office of Protector, and afterwards procure from Parliament, or from the Privy Council, the confirmation of his authority. But in most instances the regent was appointed by the great barons in Parliament assembled. A statute of Henry the Eighth, vested the Government, during the infancy of the heir to

*Such were the counsels of Otis, the eloquent representative of Boston; of Fetch, the Governor of Connecticut, by popular election; of Hutchinson, and of Franklin himself.-BANCROFT'S

History of the American Revolution.

† Adolphus' History of England, vol. i. p. 177, 2nd edition. -Quarterly Review, June 1840. + Co. Litt. 43.

160

DISCUSSIONS IN PARLIAMENT.

CH. VI.

the Crown, in his or her mother, together with such councillors as His Majesty should, by will or otherwise, appoint; and it was in pursuance of this disposition that the Duke of Somerset afterwards became Protector of the realm. The next occasion on which it became expedient to provide for the minority of the Sovereign was the death of the Prince of Wales in 1751, when the Princess Dowager was constituted regent in the event of the demise of the Crown during the infancy of her son. The course, therefore, which constitutional usage, as well as natural propriety, prescribed, was plain and clear. The Queen Consort had every claim short of absolute right, which no candidate could have, to represent him. But passing by this simple and obvious mode of settling the question, the King and the Ministry between them dealt with it in such a manner as to cause the most unseemly discussions in Parliament, and ultimately the fall of the administration itself.

The Regency Bill.

The whole transaction is one of the most obscure passages in the history of this reign. The King desired to reserve to himself the power of naming the regent by an instrument revocable at pleasure. Grenville objected to a reservation which was absurd, as well as unprecedented, for it afforded no security for the exercise of the power at a time when His Majesty should be competent to make an election. The minister advised in accordance with the last precedent, that the regent should be named in the speech from the throne, which recommended a Regency Bill to the consideration of Parliament; and he reluctantly deferred so far to His Majesty's wishes as to consent that the choice should be restricted to the Queen and the members of the royal family usually resident in England. But when a bill, framed in accordance with this suggestion, was introduced into the House of Lords, questions immediately arose as to the meaning of its most

1765

ON THE REGENCY BILL.

161

important terms. Who were the royal family? Did it include the Princess Dowager? Was the Queen eligible? And the appropriate result of a debate at once indecent and ridiculous, was to pronounce the King's mother ineligible as not being a member of the royal family; and to refer to the consideration of the Judges the question as to the capacity of his royal consort to hold the office of regent, by reason of Her Majesty being a foreigner. The Judges decided that the Queen was eligible; upon which the Duke of Richmond, with the view of removing any doubt as to the Princess Dowager, moved that the name of Her Royal Highness should be inserted in the bill. This motion should have been carried unanimously. It was respectful neither to His Majesty nor to his mother that Her Royal Highness's position should be a matter of question; and it was a positive insult, that the Princess should be wilfully excluded by a technicality from an honour due to her exalted station.

But there were considerations not wanting in cogency which determined the ministers in opposing the nomination of the Princess Dowager. An opinion prevailed even in the best informed circles, that the King's days were numbered,* and the possibility of Bute's return to power, under the auspices of his royal patroness, had a strong effect not only on Whig place-seekers, but on the minds of statesmen who were above the mere terror of exclusion from office. The Duke of Bedford, for example, who had taken office reluctantly, and had already signified to Grenville his intention of retiring at the end of the session of Parliament, not only entertained, on high constitutional principle, the strongest repugnance to Bute's political system, but also the worst opinion of

* Lord Holland told Horace Walpole that the King was in a consumption, and could not live

VOL. I.

M

a year.-WALPOLE's Memoirs of Geo. III.

162

DUKE OF BEDFORD'S OPPOSITION.

CH. VI.

the man. He therefore opposed the pretensions of the Princess, because he considered them identical with Bute's return to power, and the restoration of the hated prerogative policy. These were, doubtless, the reasons which prevailed with him, when, upon the question being raised in the House of Lords, he stated his opinion, contrary to that of the Lord Chancellor, that the royal family was limited to the persons in the order of succession to the Crown. And when forced by the amendment proposed by the Duke of Richmond, to declare himself plainly, he at once opposed it. The motion was negatived without a division.

Insertion of a

But the matter was not suffered to rest here. Halifax and Sandwich, not content with new clause. having defeated the attempt of the Princess's friends, must needs assume the offensive, and the plan which they adopted was of the most audacious character. The two Secretaries of State on the following day, without, as it would appear, consulting their colleagues, went to the King and told him that the bill would not pass the House of Commons, unless the persons eligible to the regency were more particularly defined; intimating plainly that the Princess Dowager would be objected to. The King, anxious that his mother should not be exposed to indignity, himself, it appears, desired that words should be framed for the purpose of excluding Her Royal Highness. Accordingly, the qualification of any regent, other than the Queen, was with His Majesty's sanction, limited to any person of the royal family descended from the late King, His Majesty's grandfather.' With these words in his pocket, Halifax hurried down to the House of Lords; and having intimated that he came by special command, he moved the re-commitment of the bill, and inserted a clause containing the words above stated.

It is certain that the King had been taken by

1765. AUDACIOUS PROCEEDINGS OF LORD HALIFAX. 163

surprise, and in the agitation of the moment, from a mere motive of filial respect and affection, had lent himself to a proceeding which might be The King misconstrued as a mean and heartless desertion led by Halifax. of his parent. Of all his ministers, Halifax and Sandwich stood lowest in His Majesty's esteem ;* it is to the last degree improbable, therefore, that he would have selected them as his confidential advisers in a matter of the utmost delicacy, and in which he took the deepest personal interest. The conduct of these noblemen cannot be too strongly censured. It was perfidious, fraudulent, unmanly; nor is it possible wholly to exempt the Duke of Bedford and Grenville from blame for failing to disavow this scandalous proceeding. Halifax, indeed, practised deceit upon his colleagues as well as upon his royal master, with reference to this business, but it can hardly be believed with the same success. He made it appear that the exclusion of the Princess had, in the first instance, been suggested by the King, and even asserted that he had endeavoured to dissuade His Majesty from taking such a course.† The most insinuating of all falsehoods is one which is literally true, and such a falsehood was this. It was undoubtedly the fact that His Majesty had urged the insertion of words, which should exclude the Princess, before the bill left the House of Lords; and it is possible that Halifax, having succeeded in possessing the King's mind with the apprehension of an affront being put upon the Princess by the House of Commons, unless this precaution was taken, might have affected to argue that such a precaution was not absolutely necessary. There would have been nothing incon

* Grenville's Diary, 1764, passim.

Lord Halifax repeatedly assured Mr. Grenville that the words 'born in England' had been first proposed by the King

to him and Lord Sandwich, and that he had rather held back in it, telling His Majesty that it might possibly not be necessary. -GRENVILLE'S Diary. Correspondence, vol. iii. p. 157.