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GEORGE III
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See also:GEORGE III . [George See also: The point at issue was whether the crown should be replaced in the position which George I. might have occupied at the beginning of his reign, selecting the ministers and influencing the deliberations of the See also:cabinet. For this struggle George III. possessed no inconsiderable advantages. With an inflexible tenacity of purpose, he was always ready to give way when resistance was really hopeless. As the first See also:English-born See also:sovereign of his See also:house, speaking from his See also:birth the See also:language of his subjects, he found a way to the See also:hearts of many who never regarded his predecessors as other than See also:foreign intruders. The contrast, too, between the pure domestic life which he led with his wife See also:Charlotte, whom he married in 1761, and the habits of three generations of his house, told in his favour with, the vast See also:majority of his subjects. Even his See also:marriage had been a See also:sacrifice to See also:duty. Soon after his See also:accession he had fallen in love with See also:Lady Sarah See also:Lennox, and had been observed to ride See also:morning by morning along the See also:Kensington Road, from which the See also:object of his affections was to be seen from the See also:lawn of See also: But they were none of them inclined to let power and the advantages of power slip from their hands without a struggle. For some years a contest of influence was carried on without dignity and without any worthy aim. The king was not strong enough to impose upon See also:parliament a See also:ministry of his own choice. But he gathered round himself a See also:body of dependants known as the king's See also:friends, who were secure of his favour, and who voted one way or the other according to his wishes. Under these circumstances no ministry could possibly be See also:stable; and yet every ministry was strong enough to impose some conditions on the king. See also:Lord Bute, the king's first choice, resigned from a sense of his own incompetency in 1763. George See also:Grenville was in See also:office till 1765; the See also:marquis of See also:Rockingham till 1766; Pitt, becoming earl of See also:Chatham, till illness compelled him to retire from the conduct of affairs in 1767, when he was succeeded by the See also:duke of See also:Grafton. But a struggle of interests could gain no real strength for any government, and the only See also:chance the king had of effecting a permanent change in the See also:balance of power See also:lay in the possibility of his associating himself with some phase of strong See also:national feeling, as Pitt had associated himself with the war feeling caused by the dissatisfaction spread by the weakness and ineptitude of his predecessors. Such a chance was offered by the question of the right to tax See also:America. The notion that See also:England was justified in throwing on America See also:part of the expenses caused in the See also:late war was popular in the See also:country, and no one adopted it more pertinaciously then George III. At the bottom the position which he assumed was as contrary to the principles of See also:parliamentary government as the encroachments of Charles I. had been. But it was veiled in the eyes of Englishmen by the prominence given to the power of the See also:British parliament rather than to the power of the British king. In fact the theory of parliamentary government, like most theories after their truth has See also:long been universally acknowledged, had become a superstition. Parliaments were held to be properly vested with authority, not because they adequately represented the national will, but simply because they were parliaments. There were thousands of See also:people in England to whom it never occurred that there was any See also:good reason why a British parliament should be allowed to See also:levy a duty on See also:tea in the See also:London docks and should not be allowed to levy a duty on tea at the wharves of See also:Boston. Undoubtedly George III. derived great strength from his honest participation in this See also:mistake. Contending under parliamentary forms, he did not See also:wound the susceptibilities of members of parliament, and when at last in 1770 he appointed Lord North—a minister of his own selection—prime minister, the object of his ambition was achieved with the concurrence of a large body of politicians who had nothing in See also:common with the servile See also:band of the king's friends. As long as the struggle with America was carried on with any See also:hope of success they gained that See also:kind of support which is always forthcoming to a government which shares in the errors and prejudices of its subjects. The See also:expulsion of Wilkes from the House of See also:Commons in 1769, and the refusal of the House to accept him as a member after his re-See also:election, raised a See also:grave constitutional question in which the king was wholly in the wrong; and Wilkes was popular in London and See also:Middlesex. But his See also:case roused no national indignation, and when in 1774 those See also:sharp See also:measures were taken with Boston which led to the commencement of the See also:American See also:rebellion in 1775, the opposition to the course taken by the king made little way either in parliament or in the country. See also:Burke might point out the folly and inexpedience of the proceedings of the government. Chatham might point out that the true spirit of English government was to be representative, and that that spirit was being violated at See also:home and abroad. George III., who thought that the first duty of the Americans was to obey himself, had on his See also:side the See also:mass of unreflecting Englishmen who thought that the first duty of all colonists was to be useful and submissive to the mother-country. The natural dislike of every country engaged in war to see itself defeated was on his side, and when the See also:news of See also:Burgoyne's surrender at See also:Saratoga arrived in 1777, subscriptions of See also:money to raise new regiments poured freely in. In See also: The public meetings held in the country on this subject have no unimportant place in the development of the constitution. Since the presentation of the Kentish See also:petition in the reign of William III. there had been from See also:time to time upheavings of popular feeling against the doings of the legislature, which kept up the tradition that parliament existed in See also:order to represent the nation. But these upheavings had all been so associated with See also:ignorance and violence as to make it very difficult for men of sense to look with displeasure upon the existing emancipation of the House of Commons from popular control. The See also:Sacheverell riots, the violent attacks upon the See also:Excise See also:Bill, the no less violent advocacy of the See also:Spanish War, the declamations of the supporters of Wilkes at a more See also:recent time, and even in this very year the See also:Gordon riots, were not likely to make thoughtful men anxious to place real power in the hands of the classes from whom such exhibitions of folly proceeded. But the See also:movement for economical reform was of a very different kind. It was carried on soberly in manner, and with a definite See also:practical object. It asked for no more than the king ought to have been willing to concede. It attacked useless See also:expenditure upon sinecures and unnecessary offices in the See also:household, the only use of which was to spread abroad corruption amongst the upper classes. George III. could not bear to be interfered with at all, or to surrender any See also:element of power which had served him in his long struggle with the Whigs. He held out for more than another year. The news of the See also:capitulation of See also:Yorktown reached London on the 25th of See also:November 1781. On the loth of March 1782 Lord North resigned. George III. accepted the consequences of defeat. He called the marquis of Rockingham to office at the See also:head of a ministry composed of pure Whigs and of the disciples of the late earl of Chatham, and he authorized the new ministry to open negotiations for peace. Their hands were greatly strengthened by See also:Rodney's victory over the French See also:fleet, and the failure of the combined French and Spanish attack upon See also:Gibraltar; and before the end of 1782 a provisional treaty was signed with America, preliminaries of peace with France and Spain being signed See also:early in the following year. On the 3rd of See also:September 1783 the definitive See also:treaties with the three countries were simultanL-ously concluded. " Sir," said the king to See also: This attempt to impose upon him a ministry which he disliked made the king very angry. But the new cabinet had a large majority in the House of Commons, and the only chance of resisting it lay in an appeal to the country against the House of Commons. Such an appeal was not likely to be responded to unless the ministers discredited themselves with the nation. Goerge III. therefore waited his time. Though a coalition between men bitterly opposed to one another in all See also:political principles and See also:drawn together by nothing but love of office was in itself discreditable, it needed some more See also:positive cause of dissatisfaction to arouse the constituencies, which were by no means so ready to interfere in political disputes at that time as they are now. Such dissatisfaction was given by the See also:India Bill, drawn up by Burke. As soon as it had passed through the Commons the king hastened to procure its rejection in the House of Lords by his personal intervention with the peers. He authorized Lord See also:Temple to declare in his name that he would See also:count any peer who voted for the bill as his enemy. On the 17th of See also:December 1783 the bill was thrown out. The next See also:day ministers were dismissed. William Pitt became prime minister. After some See also:weeks' struggle with a constantly decreasing majority in the Commons, the king dissolved parliament on the 25th of March 1784. The country rallied round the crown and the See also:young minister, and Pitt was firmly established in office.
There can be no reasonable doubt' that Pitt not only took See also:advantage of the king's intervention in the Lords, but was cognizant of the intrigue before it was actually carried out. It was upon him, too, that the See also:weight of reconciling the country to an See also:administration formed under such circumstances lay. The See also:general result, so far as George III. was concerned, was that to all outward See also:appearance he had won the great See also:battle of his life. It was he who was to appoint the prime minister, not any clique resting on a parliamentary support. But the circumstances under which the victory was won were such as to place the constitution in a position very different from that in which it would have been if the victory had been gained earlier in the reign. Intrigue there was indeed in 1783 and 1784 as there had been twenty years before. Parliamentary support was See also:con-ciliated by Pitt by the See also: But it may reasonably be doubted whether any one but the king was at that time capable of making the appeal. Lord Shelburne, the See also:leader of the ministry expelled by the coalition, was unpopular in the country, and the younger Pitt had not had time to make his great abilities known beyond a limited circle. The real question for the constitutional historian to See also:settle is not whether under See also:ordinary circumstances a king is the proper See also:person to place himself really as well as nominally at the head of the government; but whether under the See also:special circumstances 'See Lord Fitzmaurice's Life of Shelburne, iii. 393. which existed in 1783 it was not better that the king should See also:call upon the people to support him, than that government should be See also:left in the hands of men who rested their power on See also:close boroughs and the See also:dispensation of patronage, without looking beyond the walls of the House of Commons for support. That the king gained See also:credit far beyond his own deserts by the glories of Pitt's ministry is beyond a doubt. Nor can there be any reasonable doubt that his own example of domestic propriety did much to strengthen the position of his minister. It is true that that life was insufferably dull. No gleams of See also:literary or See also:artistic See also:taste lightened it up. The dependants of the See also:court became inured to dull routine unchequered by loving sympathy. The sons of the household were driven by the sheer weariness of such an existence into the coarsest profligacy. But all this was not visible from a distance. The See also:tide of moral and religious improvement which had set in in England since the days of See also:Wesley brought popularity to a king who was faithful to his wife, in the same way that the tide of manufacturing See also:industry and scientific progress brought popularity to the minister who in some measure translated into practice the principles of the See also:Wealth of Nations. Nor were there wanting subjects of importance beyond the circle of politics in which George III. showed a lively See also:interest. The voyages of See also:discovery which made known so large a part of the islands and coasts of the Pacific Ocean received from him a warm support. In the early days of the Royal See also:Academy, its finances were strengthened by liberal grants from the privy See also:purse. His favourite pursuit, however, was farming. When See also:Arthur Young was issuing his See also:Annals of See also:Agriculture, he was supplied with See also:information by the king, under the assumed name of Mr See also:Ralph See also:Robinson, See also:relating to a See also:farm at Petersham. The life of the king was suddenly clouded over. Early in his reign, in 1765, he had been out of See also:health, and—though the fact was studiously concealed at the time—symptoms of See also:mental See also:aberration were even then to be perceived. In See also:October 1788 he was again out of health, and in the beginning of the following See also:month his See also:insanity was beyond a doubt. Whilst Pitt and Fox were contending in the House of Commons over the terms on which the regency should be committed to the prince of Wales, the king was a helpless victim to the ignorance of physicians and the brutalities of his servants. At last Dr See also:Willis, who had made himself a name by prescribing gentleness instead of rigour in the treatment of the insane, was called in. Under his more humane management the king rapidly recovered. Before the end of February 1789 he was able to write to Pitt thanking him for his warm support of his interests during his illness. On the 23rd of April he went in person to St See also:Paul's to return thanks for his recovery.
The popular See also:enthusiasm which burst forth around St Paul's was but a foretaste of a popularity far more universal. The French Revolution frightened the great Whig landowners till they made their peace with the king. Those who thought that the true basis of government was aristocratical were now of one mind with those who thought that the true basis of government was monarchical; and these two classes were joined by a far larger multitude which had no political ideas whatever, but which had a moral horror of the See also:guillotine. As See also: No one has ever doubted that the king was absolutely convinced of the seriousnature of the objection. Nor can there be any doubt that he had the English people behind him. Both in his peace ministry and in his war ministry Pitt had taken his stand on royal favour and on popular support. Both failed him alike now, and he resigned office at once. The See also:shock to the king's mind was so great that it brought on a fresh attack of insanity. This time, however, the recovery was rapid. On the 14th of March 18or Pitt's resignation was formally accepted, and the late See also:speaker, Mr Addington, was installed in office as prime minister. The king was well pleased with the change. He was never capable of appreciating high merit in any one; and he was unable to perceive that the question on which Pitt had resigned was more than an improper question, with which he ought never to have meddled. " Tell him," he said, in directing his physician to inform Pitt of his restoration to health, " I am now quite well, quite recovered from my illness; but what has he not to See also:answer for, who has been the cause of my having been See also:ill at all? " Addington was a minister after his own mind. Thoroughly honest and respectable, with about the same See also:share of abilities as was possessed by the king himself, he was certainly not likely to startle the world by any flights of See also:genius. But for one circumstance Addington's ministry would have lasted long. So strong was the reaction against the Revolution that the bulk of the nation was almost as suspicious of genius as the king himself. Not only was there no outcry for legislative reforms, but the very See also:idea of reform was unpopular. The country gentlemen were predominant in parliament, and the country gentlemen as a body looked upon Addington with respect and See also:affection. Such a minister was there-fore admirably suited to preside over affairs at home in the existing state of opinion. But those who were content with inaction at home would not be content with inaction abroad. In time of peace Addington would have been popular for a See also:season. In time of war even his warmest admirers could not say that he was the man to See also:direct armies in the most terrible struggle which had ever been conducted by an English government. For the moment this difficulty was not See also:felt. On the 1st of October 18or, preliminaries of peace were signed between England and France, to be converted into the definitive peace of See also:Amiens on the 27th of March 1802. The ruler of France was now See also:Napoleon See also:Bonaparte, and few persons in England believed that he had any real purpose of bringing his aggressive violence to an end. " Do you know what I call this peace?" said the king; " an experimental peace, for it is nothing else. But it was unavoidable." The king was right. On the 18th of May 1803 the See also:declaration of war was laid before parliament. The war was accepted by all classes as inevitable, and the French preparations for an invasion of England roused the whole nation to a glow of enthusiasm only equalled by that felt when the See also:Armada threatened its shores. On the 26th of October the king reviewed the London See also:volunteers in See also:Hyde See also:Park. He found himself the centre of a great national movement with which he heartily sympathized, and which heartily sympathized with him. On the 12th of February 18o4 the king's mind was again affected. When he recovered, he found himself in the midst of a ministerial crisis. Public feeling allowed but one opinion to prevail in the country—that Pitt, not Addington, was the proper man to conduct the administration in time of war. Pitt was anxious to See also:form an administration on a broad basis, including Fox and all prominent leaders of both parties. The king would not hear of the See also:admission of Fox. His dislike of him was personal as well as political, as he knew that Fox had had a great share in See also:drawing the prince of Wales into a life of profligacy. Pitt accepted the king's terms, and formed an administration in which he was the only man of real ability. Eminent men, such as Lord Grenville, refused to join a ministry from which the king had excluded a great statesman on purely personal grounds. The whole question was reopened on Pitt's death on the 23rd of See also:January 1806. This time the king gave way. The ministry of All the Talents, as it was called, included Fox amongst its members. At first the king was observed to appear depressed at the See also:necessity of surrender. But Fox's See also:charm of. manner soon gained upon him. " Mr Fox," said the king, " I little thought that you and I should ever meet again in this place; but I have no See also:desire to look back upon old grievances, and you may See also:rest assured I never shall remind you of them." On the x3th of September Fox died, and it was not long before the king and the ministry were openly in collision. The ministry proposed a measure enabling all subjects of the crown to serve in the See also:army and See also:navy in spite of religious disqualifications. The king objected even to so slight a modification of the See also:laws against the Catholics and Dissenters, and the ministers consented to drop the bill. The king asked more than this. He demanded a written and positive engagement that this ministry would never, under any circumstances, propose to him " any measure of concession to the Catholics, or even connected with the question." The ministers very properly refused to bind themselves for the future. They were consequently turned out of office, and a new ministry was formed with the duke of Portland as first lord of the See also:treasury and Mr See also:Perceval as its real leader. The spirit of the new ministry was distinct hostility to the See also:Catholic claims. On the 27th of April 1807 a See also:dissolution of parliament was announced, and a majority in favour of the king's ministry was returned in the elections which speedily followed. The elections of 1807, like the elections of 1784, gave the king the mastery of the situation. In other respects they were the counterpart of one another. In 1784 the country declared, though perhaps without any clear conception of what it was doing, for a See also:wise and progressive policy. In 1807 it declared for an unwise and retrogressive policy, with a very clear under-See also:standing of what it meant. It is in his reliance upon the prejudices and ignorance of the country that the constitutional significance of the reign of George III. appears. Every strong government derives its power from its representative See also:character. At a time when the House of Commons was less really representative than at any other, a king was on the See also:throne who repjesented the country in its good and See also:bad qualities alike, in its hatred of revolutionary violence, its moral sturdiness, its contempt of foreigners, and its See also:defiance of all ideas which were in any way See also:strange. Therefore it was that his success was not permanently injurious to the working of the constitution as the success of Charles I. would have been. If he were followed by a king less English than himself, the strength of representative power would pass into other hands than those which held the See also:sceptre. The overthrow of the ministry of All the Talents was the last political See also:act of constitutional importance in which George III. took part. The substitution of Perceval for Portland as the nominal head of the ministry in 1809 was not an event of any real significance, and in 181 x the reign practically came to an end. The king's reason finally broke down after the death of the princess Amelia, his favourite See also:child; and the prince of Wales (see GEORGE IV.) became prince See also:regent. The remaining nine years of George III.'s life were passed in insanity and See also:blindness, and he died on the 29th of January 1820.
His wife, Charlotte See also:Sophia (1744-1818), was a daughter of Charles See also: G.) The numerous contemporary See also:memoirs and diaries are full of the best material for a picture of George See also:IIl.'s reign, apart from the See also:standard histories. See also:Thackeray's Four Georges must not be trusted so far as See also:historical See also:judgment is concerned; See also:Jesse's Memoirs of the Life and Reign of George III. (2nd ed., 1867) is chiefly concerned with personalities. See also Beckles Willson, George III., as Man, Monarch and Statesman (1907). Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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