her daughter being the heiress-apparent would of necessity give her great weight and

power. Thus they prevented her from making, while her husband was weak, that attack, which, when he became strong, it was too late for her to think of making.

92. Thus, then, she had to live in this state of neglect until the year 1811, when the derangement of mind of the king rendered a regency necessary. And now, strictly speaking, begins the history of the Regency and Reign of George IV, during which we shall find, that greater innovations were made in the governing of the kingdom, greater inroads on the rights and liberties of the people, greater severities exercised on them, and a greater mass of misery endured by them, than during any former, or any ten former, reigns, the reign of George III. not excepted, though that reign, has been justly called a reign of taxation and of terror.

CHAPTER III.

From the Commencement of the Regency, in July, 1811, to the Death of the Prime Minister, Perceval, in May, 1812.

93. FROM the spring of 1807, until the month of June 1810, there had been, at times, rumours relative to the state of the king's mind. People talked about it very familiarly; but, as is always the case where great and terrible power exists, and especially with a press, nine-tenths of which was always directly or indirectly interested in propagating falsehood, amidst the mass of contradictory reports, the public could come at no certainty relative to the facts. There is nothing like a corrupt press, which has the appearance or name of being free, for the propagation or sustaining of falsehood; and, accordingly, with three hundred newspapers in circulation, and with all the boast about entire freedom of the press, the English people knew no more than the people of China did what was the real situation of the king during the three last-mentioned years. If any

person, being a private individual, had by any accident happened to come at a certain knowledge of the state of the king, and so certain as to be able to produce proof of it on oath, he would not have dared to make it known through the means of the press, unless willing, to subject himself to utter pecuniary ruin, and to a great chance of losing his life. But, at last, the fact of the derangement of mind and absolute insanity of the king could be disguised no longer; and, in the month of November, 1810, out came the fact.

94. It is of the greatest importance that the English people, at the important crisis in which I am writing, be enabled to call to mind the circumstances attending the disclosure of this insanity of the king. It was not announced in any official manner, until the month of November. The king had prorogued the parliament by commission, on the 21st June, 1810; but now, when the fact of the insanity could no longer be denied, it was declared openly in Parliament that the king had been incapable of affixing his signature to the commission for their further prorogation. In order to disguise the true state of the king from the people, fabricated stories were incessantly promulgated through the newspapers. In the month of October, and so late as the 25th of that month, it was stated that the king's daughter, the Princess Amelia, died; and it was related of her that, just before her death, she

had ordered a ring to be made, which she herself had placed on the finger of her father. This account was published, as I have observed before, on the 25th of October. On the same day, it was declared through the same channels, that the king was in perfect health. The words of this announcement or declaration are so remarkable, that they must find their place here, taken from a public paper, called the Morning Chronicle,' of the 25th of October. 'This day his majesty

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“ enters into the 51st year of his reign; and we rejoice to learn, that he possesses perfect health, "and promises the enjoyment of many years in "the bosom of his family and people." Battles, sieges, even conquests, are of little consequence when compared with the means by which a nation is duped and deluded on to its ruin. This same, this very same instructor of the public, on the 2nd of November, that is to say, seven clear days only after the former announcement, announced to the public, that the king had been in a state of great "agitation " from the date of three weeks before that 2nd of November. Nay, it announced to the public that, on the 25th of October, the very day when it before announced that the king was in perfect health, the king was in so dangerous a state that his attendants had thought it necessary to communicate the intelligence to the prime minister; that a council was held accordingly, and that the king was even then

consigned to the care of his physicians and keepers! Was ever nation so imposed upon as this? Was ever people so deluded by a press? Even after the 25th of October, these same vehi cles of intelligence informed the people, that the king had been riding out in Windsor Park with several members of his family and several of the nobility and gentry. But, at last, the fact could be denied no longer, and out it came, that the king had not been able to sign the commission for the prorogation of the parliament in June, though every thing had been transacted in his name, orders of council had been issued, and particularly one, for putting up prayers and thanksgivings for an abundant harvest, which order began in these words, "At the court at Wind66 sor, the 17th of October, 1810, present the King's most excellent Majesty in Council."

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95. The parliament had been prorogued by the king on the 21st of June. It met again on the 1st of November, in consequence of the king's acknowledged inability to sign the commission for their prorogation. We have seen that, on the 17th of October, the proclamation for the thanksgiving had represented him as present in the council at Windsor. On the same day another procla mation was issued in the same style, for further proroguing the parliament to the 29th of November; but, in order to give effect to this proclamation, it was necessary that a commission should