Our manufactures attained to an extent which the wildest visionary, half a century ago, would not have deemed possible. Our population, within only the last twenty years of this reign was increased by a third; and this augmented number was, on the whole, better supplied with the comforts and conveniences of life, than our comparatively small population in the middle of the preceding century. Enormous as our national expenditure had been, and heavy as were our public burdens, the riches that remained to us were still sufficient to make us the wonder and envy of Europe.

The increase of our domestic wealth and industry was accompanied by a vast extension of foreign dominion. We lost, inWe lost, indeed, an empire in the West, or rather, we planted a great and mighty people, who, though they no longer acknowledge our authority, are destined to spread our name, our laws, our manners, our language, our institutions, our old national recollections, the fame of our great men, over the whole of a vast continent. But this loss, if loss it is to be accounted, was much more than counterbalanced by the accession of the dominion of the East. Under George III. an immense empire was there formed and consolidated; and the world beheld sixty millions of souls, inhabiting the fairest and richest regions of Asia, submitting to our sway. This extension of our power was something far better, than an increase of national grandeur and wealth. It was a conquest and triumph of humanity. For whatever particular disorders may have taken place at the first establish

ment of our authority in these remote countries, our dominion has since conferred on their swarming population the benefits of mild government, and of an equal administration of justice, in a degree which Asia never before witnessed. We have long vaunted ourselves the masters of the sea; but it was under George III. that the boast was first turned into a proud and incontrovertible reality. Rodney -Howe-St. Vincent-Duncan -any one of these names was sufficient, singly, to have diffused splendor round a whole reign. But the reign of George III. could boast of them all, and of one greater than all of them together. The battles of the Nile, of Copenhagen, and of Trafalgar, were conflicts such as the world had never known till then. The victory of Trafalgar, more especially, was complete as imagination could picture. It derived a new perfection and sanctity even from the death of the hero who achieved it. Having annihilated the naval power of our enemies, and left us without a foe to meet us upon the ocean, Nelson had no longer any business on this earth. His task was finished; his race was run; the purposes of his high calling were accomplished. As there no longer remained any work worthy of him, it was fitting that he who had so triumphed, should, in the very moment of victory, quit this earthly scene, bequeathing to his country and his sovereign, the empire of the seas, and the me、 mory of the most glorious naval exploits which history has ever had to record. The state of the world after the death of Nelson was truly singular. While a gigantic military despot oppressed Europe, touching with one hand,

Lisbon, and with the other, Moscow, the sea was safe from the pollution of his authority. There he was powerless, as if for him the art of navigation had never existed: nor dared any flag but that of England venture to traverse the ocean. In this perfect naval supremacy there is something more magnificent, than in any other species of command. To rule upon land seems little wonderful; but for a people to acquire and maintain absolute empire on that element, which defies human power and art, appears almost out of the ordinary course of na

ture.

As the reign of George III. was a period of unrivalled naval glory, so it was illustrated by military exploits equal to those of the proudest days of our history. At a time, indeed, when we were deprived of his active superiutendance, the prospect on every side was such as to inspire even stout hearts with feelings not unlike despondency. Our armies, wherever they fought, had acquitted themselves bravely. But enemies surrounded us; the world was in arms against us; and though many nations offered up their vows and prayers to heaven for

our success, none dared refuse to co-operate in effecting our destruction. Circumstances, however, occurred to render the combat more equal. A succession of victories followed, not inferior in splendor to those of Marlborough, and more important in their results; till, at last, in the bloodiest and best-fought field of modern warfare, our enemy was laid prostrate before us; the days of the Henrys and the Edwards returned, and our armies entered Paris in triumph. Would that our late sovereign had participated, though only for a moment, in the knowledge of these events! What a satisfaction it would have been to his pure and upright heart to have known, that his son and his people had remained faithful to the great cause in which he and they had been engaged; that their efforts had been blest with the most triumphant success; that the crown of England had never been more rich in all temporal glory than during the last years of his own reign; and that it was his lot to transmit it to his descendants more solid and more brilliant, than it was when he received it from his forefathers.

On the morning after the demise of the late king, as many of the cabinet ministers, as were in town, resigned their credentials of office into the hands of the secretary of state for the home department, who, at a court held a few hours afterwards, delivered them to the sovereign. At the same court the lord chancellor appeared without the insignia of his high dignity, and gave up the seals to the king. These proceedings, which, on similar occasions, are generally matters of high importance both to the individuals and to the state, were in this case a mere ceremonial. The seals were immediately returned to lord Eldon, and the other cabinet ministers were severally re-appointed to their former offices. After the oaths of allegiance had been administered to those who were present, a privy council was, in compliance with the royal command, forthwith holden; and as many of his late majesty's council as were then in attendance, were re-sworn privy councillors to the new sovereign. The council being thus duly constituted, his majesty made the following declaration:

I have directed that you should be assembled here, in order that I may discharge the painful duty of announcing to you the death of the king, my beloved father.

"It is impossible for me adequately to express the state of my feelings upon this melancholy occasion; but I have the consolation of knowing, that the severe calamity with which his majesty has been afflicted for so many years, has never effaced from the minds of his subjects the impressions created by his

many virtues, and his example will, I am persuaded, live for ever in the grateful remembrance of his country.

"Called upon, in consequence of his majesty's indisposition, to exercise the prerogatives of the crown on his behalf, it was the first wish of my heart to be allowed to restore into his hands the powers with which I was intrusted. It has pleased Almighty God to determine otherwise, and I have not been insensible to the advantages which I have derived from administering in my dear father's name the government of this realm.

"The support which I have received from parliament and the country, in times the most eventful, and under the most arduous circumstances, could alone inspire me with that confidence which my present station demands.

"The experience of the past will, I trust, satisfy all classes of my people, that it will ever be my most anxious endeavour to promote their prosperity and happiness, and to maintain unimpaired the religion, laws, and liberties of the kingdom."

His majesty next, in compliance with the requisitions of law, took and subscribed the usual oaths, in the Scottish mode, for the security of the church of Scotland. The form for the proclamation of the new sovereign was then agreed upon; and, on the following day, that ceremonial was gone through with all due solemnity. As his late majesty expired on Saturday, and as the next day, Sunday, the 29th of January, was the anniversary of the martyrdom of Charles I. which is observed by our

church as a solemn fast, it was necessary to defer the ceremony of the proclamation till the Monday. Scarcely was the pageant over, when the sudden and severe illness of the king excited a general apprehension, that a new cause of public mourning might soon be added to those which existed already. For some days previous to the death of his father, he had laboured under a violent cold; and though seasonable precautions were taken against the progress of the malady, the agitation naturally produced by the loss of a parent and a brother, within the space of a single week, aided, no doubt, by the bustle and personal exertions which the commencement of a new reign made requisite, aggravated all the symptoms, so that towards the evening of the day (Jan. 31st) of his proclamation, they assumed an alarming aspect. When it was announced by a formal bulletin, on the following day, that the king had been attacked by an inflammation of the lungs-the very disease which, only seven days before, had in so short a time carried the duke of Kent to a premature grave-the most gloomy presages naturally suggested themselves. These, fortunately, were not verified by the event. After nine days his majesty was declared convalescent, though it was some time before he recovered his usual strength.

By the common law of England, the demise of the crown operated as a dissolution of the existing parliament. To prevent the inconveniencies which might arise from the want of a legislative power on the accession of a new sovereign, two statutes (7 & 8 W. III. c. 15, and 6 Anne, c. 7) have VOL. LXII.

enacted, that the parliament in being shall continue for six months after the death of any king or queen, unless sooner dissolved or prorogued by the successor to the crown; and that, if separated by adjournment or prorogation at the time of the demise of the crown, it shall notwithstanding assemble immediately. Accordingly, both Houses of Parliament, though they had adjourned from the end of December to the 15th of February, met on Sunday the 30th of January. Mr. Cowper, the chief clerk, administered the oaths to the lords in attendance, who immediately adjourned to the following day; but the members of the House of Commons, who had assembled, could not proceed to any business, as, in consequence of the absence of the lord high steward, the oaths could not be administered to them. On Monday both Houses again met. The lord high steward administered, in the long gallery, the oaths of allegiance to such members of the commons as were in attendance. Then, the Speaker having seated himself in the chair, and taken the customary oaths, the members who had been sworn before the high steward, were re-sworn at the table of the house. The swearing in of members continued until the 2nd of February, when both Houses adjourned to the 17th. The funeral obsequies of his late majesty were to be celebrated on Ash-Wednesday, the 16th of February; and it would have been indecent, that the public councils of the nation should have exhibited scenes of personal invective and political hostility, while the mortal remains of their late sovereign were not yet committed to the grave.

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