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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 789: MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.
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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.

MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.

Although the country was still in a disturbed state, and seditious meetings were held on every hand, yet the elections proceeded without any acts of outrageous violence. The result of the elections was that opposition gained a slight accession of strength; but the new parliament appeared to take the complexion of that by which it had been preceded. Its members began to assemble on the 21st of April; but the session was not opened until the 27th of that month. On that day the king declared in his speech that he should follow the example of his father in solicitude for the welfare of the nation, and that the regal dignity should be supported without any additional burdens on the people. He expressed a determination to maintain public peace and tranquillity, lamented the pressure of distress and the prevalence of sedition, and concluded with a hope that the misguided multitude might be brought back to a sense of their errors. The usual addresses were carried unanimously.