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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 786: DECLARATION OF THE KING, ETC.
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.

DECLARATION OF THE KING, ETC.

The first public act of the new king was to summon a council, at which the emblems of office, having been surrendered by the officers of the crown, were immediately restored to their former possessors. His majesty then made a declaration, in which, after having alluded to the demise of his father, and his own long exercise of the royal prerogative, he remarked that “nothing but the support which he had received from parliament and the country, in times most eventful and circumstances most arduous, could inspire him with that confidence which his present situation demanded.” He added, that he trusted the experience of the past would satisfy all classes of his people, that it would ever be his desire to promote their prosperity and happiness, as well as to maintain unimpaired the religion, laws, and liberties of the kingdom. This declaration, at the request of the council, was made public; and on Monday, the 31st of January, the king was proclaimed, first, under the portico of the palace, and then at various stations throughout his good city of London. On the same day the members of parliament were sworn in, and they adjourned to the 17th of February. In the meantime, however, alarming reports arose concerning his majesty’s health. He was attacked by a severe inflammation of the chest, which had lately proved fatal to his brother; and his physicians were in doubt about the result. Their forebodings, however, proved groundless; after the lapse of a week he was declared out of danger, although it was a considerable time before his health was re-established.