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 676: OPENING OF PARLIAMENT BY THE REGENT

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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.

OPENING OF PARLIAMENT BY THE REGENT

Parliament was not opened till the 12th of February, on which day the prince regent, having been previously installed at Carlton-house, opened it by commission. The speech delivered upon this occasion by the commissioners in the regent’s name dwelt upon the success of our armies in the Indian seas, and the repulse of the French and Neapolitans in their attack on Sicily; upon the failures of the French in Portugal and at Cadiz; and it expressed a hope that parliament would enable the regent to continue the most effectual assistance to the brave nations of the Peninsula. The whole speech breathed a warlike spirit; and though some deprecated war in the debate which followed on the addresses, they were carried in both houses without a division.