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The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria cover

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 585: LETTER OF THE PRINCE OF WALES.
By Edward Farr
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About This Book

The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

LETTER OF THE PRINCE OF WALES.

While parliament was sitting, and when the country was preparing for war, the Prince of Wales repeated a claim, which he had often made before, for military promotion, requiring to be placed in a situation where his example might contribute to excite the loyalty of the people. This was a natural request; for the Duke of York had for some years been captain-general and commander-in-chief of the forces, and the Dukes of Kent, Cumberland, and Cambridge were lieutenant-generals, but the prince himself was simply a colonel of dragoons. No notice, however, was taken of this letter, and it was only by repeated applications that a reply was elicited. That reply was, that should the enemy succeed in landing, he, the prince, would have an opportunity of manifesting his zeal at the head of his regiment. Thus disappointed in his views, six days before the prorogation of parliament, he addressed a letter on the subject to the king himself; and from him likewise received a similar reply. The prince now exhibited a very unfriendly spirit both towards his majesty and Mr. Addington. In a letter to the Duke of York, he called “the opportunity of displaying his zeal at the head of his regiment,” which was intended to be consolatory to his feelings, “a degrading mockery.” The whole correspondence, in truth, brought great discredit, both on the heir-apparent and his advisers. It ended, however, in the prince joining his regiment at Brighton, in opposition to the expressed wish of Addington; he being bound to do so, he remarked, “by the king’s precise order, and by that honest zeal which was not allowed any fitter sphere for its action.”