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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 787: DISSOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT.
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.

DISSOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT.

According to the principles of the British constitution, the demise of the crown is followed by a dissolution of parliament within the next six months. On the meeting of parliament a royal message announced an immediate design of calling a new parliament, and invited them to concur in the necessary arrangements for carrying on the public service during the interval, Loyal addresses, suitable to the occasion, were voted nem. con.; and next day ministers obtained a pledge that the desired measure for the wants of government should be adopted. When the requisite votes of money were proposed, however, Mr. Hume, that pertinacious interrogator, took occasion to ask a very embarrassing question. In the necessary alteration of the form of prayer for the royal family, by his majesty’s command, the name of the queen was omitted. Mr. Hume desired to know whether any provision was to be made for her as queen? As Princess of Wales, her former allowance had of course ceased on the death of the late king: was she, as Queen of Great Britain, to be left to wander in beggary through foreign lands? or would parliament make a suitable provision for the maintenance of her dignified station? Lord Castlereagh endeavoured to evade this subject, and to elude an acknowledgment of the queen’s title, by stating that the “exalted personage” should suffer no pecuniary difficulties. In reply, Mr. Tierney, by commenting on the omission of her majesty’s name from the liturgy, on the rumours in circulation against her character, and on the report of a commission sent abroad to collect evidence against her, strove to force ministers into a direct consideration of the question; but they still preserved a cautious silence. Other members also endeavoured to provoke them to a discussion on the question; but they still adhered to their text—the required supplies, and these were suffered to pass without a division. This done, parliament was dissolved by commission on the 28th of February.