| HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAΙΝ. GEORGE III. i BOOK XIII. Accession of King George III. Auspicious Aspect of Affairs. Elevation of the Earl of Bute. First Session of Parliament -Memorable Speech from the Throne. Enormous Supplies. Commissions of the Judges made permanent. Resignation of the Speaker, Mr. Onslow. Dismission of Mr. Legge. Resignation of Lord Holderness-Succeeded by the Earl of Bute. State of Parties. Commotions excited by the Militia Act. Marriage of the King. Dominique captured. Belleisle captured. Ineffectual Negotiation for Peace. Resignation of Mr. Pitt. Rupture with Spain. Session of ParliamentSir John Cust chosen Speaker. Martinico captured. War declared by Spain against Portugal. Military Operations in that Kingdom. Havannah conquered. Manilla taken. Earl of Bute First Minister. Resignation of the Duke of Newcastle. Birth of the Prince of Wales. Peace signed at Fon tainebleau. Cider Tax. Resignation of Lord Bute-SucVOL. V. B ceeded by Mr. George Grenville, Prosecution of Mr. Wilkes, Project for taxing America. State of Europe. Demise of the Pretender. XIII } BOOK IN tracing the long series of royal descents which has taken place in this island since the 1760 foundation of the English monarchy, it will be fee difficult, perhaps impossible, to name any prince Accession of king who has succeeded to the crown under circumstances of greater and more signal advantage than the present sovereign. At the head of a firm, vigilant, and popular administration was placed a minister illustrious by the splendor of his talents and the magnanimity of his conduct; under whose superior ascendent, party spirit and parliamentary opposition seemed extinguished. Auspicious Great Britain, in conjunction with her numerous aspect of affairs. colonies and dependencies, exhibited to the world a grand political association, actuated by one common interest, and united, amidst a thousand subordinate diversities of opinion, in the sacred bonds of duty and affection. That fatal predilec tion for the claims of the exiled house of Stuart, formerly so prevalent, and which had rendered the task of government so difficult in the preceding reigns, was now no more. Notwithstanding the long continuance of a foreign war, the most complicated and extensive in which Great Britain had ever been engaged, the internal state of the kingdom was not only perfectly tranquil, XIII. but in the highest degree flourishing and pros- BOOK perous. The vast increase of commerce and manufactures enabled her to support the immense 1760. expence incurred in the prosecution of it, with a facility and even an alacrity altogether unprecedented and astonishing; and her more recent operations had in every part of the globe been attended with the most brilliant and fascinating success. As to the new monarch himself, though his character was far from being as yet perfectly developed, a very strong and apparently just partiality predominated in his favor. During the late reign he had uniformly abstained from all public interference in the affairs of government. His manners were in the highest degree decorous, his morals unblemished, and his personal accomplishments corresponded with the elevation of his rank and station. All appearances seemed to augur a reign of uninterrupted glory and felicity; and the regret which the nation for a moment felt at the sudden demise of the good old king, was immediately absorbed in the transports of joy excited by the auspicious commencement of the reign of the young monarch, who had very lately attained the age of complete majority; being born June 4, 1738. It must however be acknowledged, that certain circumstances existed, which, in the minds of persons of deeper reflection, occasioned suspicions and apprehensions not perfectly according with XIIL 1760. BOOK the feelings of the national enthusiasm. Through☑ out almost the whole course of the late reign, the prince of Wales, father of the present king, from various causes of jealousy and discontent too easily arising from the doubtful and difficult situation of an heir apparent, had been in direct and avowed opposition to the court. So far as the means of judging are afforded us, the prince in his general system of policy seems to have been distinguished by the rectitude of his intention, the generosity and ingenuousness of his conduct. He was desirous to govern the English nation upon maxims truly English, and was fired with the noble ambition of realizing in his own person, that grand and perfect model of A PATRIOT KING, delineated by the happiest effort of a transcendent genius. In consequence however of the coalition of the Whigs, which took place after the resignation of Sir Robert Walpole, the prince, whose reconciliation with the court proved of transient duration, was left entirely in the hands of the Tories, now affecting to style themselves the Country Party;" or, if the ancient nominal distinction was ever retained-REVOLUTION TORIES. The leaders of this party alleged with too much reason, that the Whigs, engrossing, as was notorious, the executive offices of the state with little intermission since the Revolution, and without any interval whatever since the accession of the house of Hanover, had introduced maxims of |