The king was never diverted, by defeat and disaster, from his resolution to maintain the Final overthrow of Lord North's ministry, 1782. war with America: but the House of Commons was now determined upon peace; and a struggle ensued which was to decide the fate of the minister, and to overcome, by the power of Parliament, the stubborn will of the king. On the 22nd February, 1782, General Conway moved an address deprecating the continuance of the war, but was defeated by a majority of one.' On the 27th, he proposed another address with the same object. Lord North begged for a short respite: but an adjournment being refused by a majority of nineteen, the motion was agreed to without a division.2 93 On the receipt of the king's answer, General Conway moved a resolution that 'the House will consider as enemies to the king and country all who shall advise, or by any means attempt, the further prosecution of offensive war, for the purpose of reducing the revolted colonies to obedience by force.' In reply to this proposal, Lord North astonished the House by announcing,-not that he proposed to resign on the reversal of the policy, to which he was pledged,—but that he was prepared to give effect to the instructions of the House! Mr. Fox repudiated the principle of a minister remaining in office, to carry out the policy of his opponents, against his own judgment; and General Conway's resolution was agreed to. Lord North, however, persevered witn his propositions for peace, and declared his deter'Parl. Hist., xxii. 1028 2 Ibid., 1064. 4th March. Ibid., 1067. mination to retain office until the king should command him to resign, or the House should point out to him, in the clearest manner, the propriety of withdrawing. No time was lost in pressing him with the latter alternative. On the 8th March, a motion of Lord John Cavendish, charging all the misfortunes of the war upon the incompetency of the ministers, was lost by a majority of ten." On the 15th, Sir J. Rous moved that the House could no longer repose confidence in the present ministers,' and his motion was negatived by a majority of nine. On the 20th the assault was about to be repeated, when Lord North announced his resignation.1 concern at his minis The king had watched this struggle with great anxiety, as one personal to himself. Writing The king's to Lord North on the 17th March, after the fate of the motion of Sir J. Rous, he said: 'I am ters. resolved not to throw myself into the hands of the opposition at all events; and shall certainly, if things go as they seem to tend, know what my conscience as well as honour dictates, as the only way left for me.'5 He even desired the royal yacht to be prepared, and talked as if nothing were now left for him but to retire to Hanover." But it had become impossible to retain any longer in his service that confidential minister,' whom he had always 1 Parl. Hist., 1107. • Ibid. 1170. 2 Ibid. xxii. 1114. Fox Mem., i. 288; King's Letters to Lord North; Carr. of George III. with Lord North, ii. 414. • Fox Mem., i. 287 (Lord Holland's text). treated more as his friend than minister." 2 By the earnest solicitations of the king, Lord North had been induced to retain office against his own wishes: he had persisted in a policy of which he disapproved; and when forced to abandon it, he still held his ground, in order to protect the king from the intrusion of those whom his Majesty regarded as his personal enemies. He was now fairly driven from his post, and the king, appreciating the personal devotion of his minister, rewarded his zeal and fidelity with a munificent present from the privy purse.1 influence North's ministry. The king's correspondence with Lord North" The king's gives us a remarkable insight into the during Lord relations of his Majesty with that minister, and with the government of the country. Not only did he direct the minister in all important matters of foreign and domestic policy, but he instructed him as to the management of debates in Parliament, suggested what motions should be made 'King to Lord North, 2nd June, 1778. King's Letters to Lord North, 31st Jan., 17th, 22nd, 23rd, 29th, and 30th March, 8th April, May 6th, 26th, &c., 1778; 30th Nov., 1779; 19th May, 1780; 19th March, 1782. On the 19th March, 1782, the very day before he announced his intention to resign, the king wrote: If you resign before I have decided what to do, you will certainly for ever forfeit my regard.' The king, in his letter to Lord North, says: Allow me to assist you with 10,000l., 15,000l., or even 20,000l., if that will be sufficient.'-Lord Brougham's Life of George III.; Works, iii. 18. Mr. Adolphus states, from private information, that the present amounted to 30,000l. In 1777 he had also offered Lord North 15,000l., or 20,000l. if necessary, to set his affairs in order.-Corr. of George III. with Lord North, ii. 82. Appendix to Lord Brougham's Life of Lord North; Works, iii. 67. Corr. of George III. with Lord North; by W. B. Donne, 2 vols. 8vo. 1867. or opposed, and how measures should be carried. He reserved to himself all the patronage,-he arranged the entire cast of the administration,-settled the relative places and pretensions of ministers of state, of law officers, and members of his household,nominated and promoted the English and Scotch judges,-appointed and translated bishops, nominated deans, and dispensed other preferments in the church. He disposed of military governments, regiments, and commissions; and himself ordered the marching of troops. He gave or refused titles, honours, and pensions.3 All his directions were peremptory: Louis the Great himself could not have been more royal:-he enjoyed the consciousuess of and felt himself every inch a power, king.' 2 6 the king's But what had been the result of twenty years of kingcraft? Whenever the king's personal Results of influence had been the greatest, there had policy. been the fiercest turbulence and discontent among the people, the most signal failures in the measures of the government, and the heaviest disasters to the state. Of all the evil days of England during this king's long reign, the worst are recollected in the ministries of Lord Bute, Mr. Grenville, the Duke of 1 Corr. of George III. with Lord North, ii. 37, 212, 235, 368, et passim. Wraxall's Mem., ii. 148. Much to his credit, he secured the appointment of the poet Gray to the professorship of Modern History at Cambridge, 8th March, 1771. 2 25th October, 1775: On the receipt of your letter, I have ordered Elliott's dragoons to march from Henley to Hounslow.' 'We must husband honours,' wrote the king to Lord North on the 18th July, 1777, on refusing to make Sir W. Hamilton a privy. Councillor. Grafton, and Lord North. Nor had the royal will,-— however potential with ministers,-prevailed in the government of the country. He had been thwarted and humbled by his parliaments, and insulted by demagogues: parliamentary privilege, which he had sought to uphold as boldly as his own prerogative, had been defied and overcome by Wilkes and the printers: the liberty of the press, which he would have restrained, had been provoked into licentiousness; and his kingdom had been shorn of some of its fairest provinces.1 ministry, On the retirement of Lord North, the king subRockingham mitted, with a bad grace, to the Rock1782. ingham administration. He found places, indeed, for his own friends, but the policy of the cabinet was as distasteful to him as were the persons of some of the statesmen of whom it was composed. Its first principle was the concession of independence to America, which he had so long resisted: its second was the reduction of the influence of the crown, by the abolition of offices, the exclusion of contractors from Parliament, and the disfranchisement of revenue officers. Shortly after its formation, Mr. Fox, writing to Mr. Fitzpatrick, said: 'provided we can stay in long enough to give a good stout blow to the influence of the crown, I do not think it much signifies how soon we go out after.' This ministry was constituted of materials 1 See Mr. Powys's apt quotation from Gibbon, 12th Decr., 1781; Parl. Hist., xxii. 803; Wraxall's Mem., ii. 460. 2 Rockingham Mem., i. 452. Fox Mem. i. 317. 28th April, 1782. |