BOOK IV. Bailie, were the physicians first called in. By them the bulletins were signed, which were CHAP. XII. regularly issued, at first once, and afterwards twice a day, from the 29th of October to the 4th 1810 of November, when the signature of Dr. Reynolds, for the first time, appeared. On the 9th day of that month, Dr. Willis was called in; and from this circumstance it was inferred that his majesty's disorder had assumed a more decided and obstinate character than was originally contemplated.

When parliament again assembled on the 15th of November, ministers informed the two houses that the medical attendants of his majesty were unanimously of opinion that his majesty's health was in a state of progressive improvement, and that they continued to express the most flattering and confident hopes that he would, in a very short space of time, be enabled to resume the personal exercise of the royal functions. On the faith of these representations, the two houses, after some debate, consented to a second adjournment till the 29th of November.

In the interval, all the members of the privy council were summoned by the president to assemble for the purpose of examining the physicians, touching the state of his majesty's health, and the probability of his speedy resumption of the royal authority. Earl Camden, as president of the council, alone interrogated the physicians, and the answers, which were very short and general, conveyed an opinion that his majesty's complaint was of such a nature that his recovery could not be long delayed.

Taking their stand upon the result of this examination, ministers, when parliament met on the 29th of November, again moved and carried a further adjournment till the 13th of December. During this period, the disease of his majesty by no means abated, and it was generally understood that the malady threatened a long and tedious endurance, and even cast doubts upon the ultimate and perfect recovery of the royal patient. When, therefore, parliament met for the fourth time, ministers were under the necessity of proposing that the physicians should be examined by a committee, appointed by each house; and of explicitly stating, that if the report should not hold out a prospect of speedy

recovery, they would then propose measures to supply the defect in the royal authority. The physicians, in the examination that took place, described his majesty's disorder to be a derangement of mind, closely allied to delirium, and occasionally falling into it; and the result of the inquiry established the fact, that his majesty was not only at this time totally incapable of performing the high functions of his royal office, but that his recovery would be slow and remote. Under these circumstances, all idea of further adjournment was at an end, and ministers found it absolutely necessary to proceed towards the appointment of a regency. The session not having been opened by the royal authority, could not be constitutionally regarded as the parliament of the united kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, but merely as a convention of the two estates; it was necessary, therefore, to have regard to this character in the mode of their proceedings; and in opening the business in the house of commons, on the 20th of December, Mr. Perceval moved three distinct propositions, declaratory of the present incapacity of the king; of the competency of the two houses of parliament to supply the defect; and of the necessity of passing a bill for maintaining entire the constitutional authority of the king.* The first of these resolutions passed unanimously; the second, with the single negative of Sir Francis Burdett, who denied that all the estates of this realm were "lawfully, fully, and freely represented in par liament.' On the third resolution, Mr. Ponsonby moved an amendment, to the effect that an address should be presented to the Prince of Wales, praying him to take upon himself the office of regent. On this amendment, long and animated debates took place, but as Lord Grenville and his friends adhered to the doctrines which they had maintained and acted upon with Mr. Pitt on a former occasion, the opposition were out-voted in the commons by a majority of a hundred and twelve, and in the lords by twentysix voices.

It is evident that very serious objections existed to both modes of proceeding, whether by bill or by address; the mere reading over the resolutions suggest them: a regent was to be appointed by a bill, that is, in other words, the

BOOK IV. so completely and beneficially to the nation as he could wish. In these views the royal brothers CHAP. XII. of the prince fully concurred, and in a species of extra-official note to the chancellor of the exchequer, entered their protest against a proceeding, which they considered "perfectly unconstitutional, and as contrary to and subversive of the principles which seated their family upon the throne of this realm."

1810

Parliament was opened in the usual form by commission under the great seal, on the 15th of January, 1811. The regency bill, which had passed through the two houses as estates of the realm, was again brought before parliament in its regular and constitutional character; every part of it was again canvassed; and, on every debate and division, the strength and numbers of ministers increased, while the opposition became feeble and languid in their resistance.

It was well known that the political attachments and principles of the Prince Regent lay all on the side of Earl Grey and Lord Grenville; and it was naturally expected that the existing administration would be dissolved, and the members who now occupied the opposition benches, taken into power; but the period for the installation was fast approaching, and no arrangements for a new ministry had taken place. In the mean time, the malady of the king, after undergoing frequent and great variations, assumed a much more mild and favourable form, and the physicians again pronounced his majesty's complete recovery as not far distant. This circumstance, combined with the difficulty of administering the affairs of government by any other hands than those which would continue to possess, through the medium of the queen's council, so large a share of the power and

*

patronage of the executive, determined the prince to retain the present ministers. This determination he communicated to Mr. Perceval, in a note, dated the 4th of February; at the same time explicitly and candidly stating to him, that the irresistible impulse of filial duty and affection to his beloved and afflicted father, made him unwilling to do a single act which might retard his recovery; and that this consideration alone had dictated the decision now communicated to Mr. Perceval. He added, that it would not be one of the least blessings that would result from the restoration of his majesty to health and to the personal exercise of his royal functions, that it would rescue the regency from a situation of unexampled embarrassment, and put an end to a state of affairs, ill calculated, he feared, to sustain the interests of the united kingdom in this awful and perilous crisis, and most difficult to be reconciled to the genuine principles of the British constitution. Mr. Perceval, in reply, after stating the readiness of himself and his colleagues to remain in office, lamented that the prince should still regard the restrictions as unconstitutional; but assured him that, even under these restrictions, any ministry, which should possess the confidence and support of his royal highness, would find no difficulty in conducting the affairs of the nation with satisfaction, credit, and success.

By the continuance of the existing administration in office, the sub-division of the sovereign functions, occasioned by the regency bill, became again united in the executive government; and the prince and his ministers, by contributing their respective portions, preserved, in a considerable degree, the integrity of the sovereigu power and influence.

BONAPARTE, by subdividing the states of Europe, gratified the two most prevailing passions of his mind-his ambition and his hatred to England. In this way, he extended his power with his means of annoyance, and he hoped ultimately to obtain a maritime peace, by cutting off the commerce of Great Britain from the continent. The annexation of Holland to the French empire, the intermarriage of Napoleon with the princess of the house of Austria, and the extension of his influence in Sweden and along the shores of the German Ocean, emanated from these feelings, and tended to the accomplishment of these purposes.

The possession of Sweden could not be so openly and directly acquired, as the possession of other continental states; but a fortunate conjuncture in public affairs, soon afforded the opportunity of gaining such an influence in that country, as seemed to advance Napoleon's grand scheme of foreign policy. Charles Augustus, Prince of Augustenburg, who had, on the 24th of January, 1810, been elected to the dignity of Crown Prince of Sweden, died suddenly, on the 29th of May, in the same year, while he was reviewing some regiments of cavalry on Bonorp Heath; and his death was preceded and accompanied by circumstances, which excited in the minds of the populace, a strong and general suspicion, that he had been poisoned. In other times, his death might have appeared perfectly natural, as it probably was; but suspicions fixed upon the two families of Fersen and Piper, who were thought to be jealous of his popularity, and apprehensive that his elevation to the throne would destroy that influence which they had long enjoyed in the government. The interval which elapsed between the death of the prince and his interment, gave time for suspicion to spread; and when the funeral procession arrived at Stockholm, on the 20th of June, the agitation had increased to so alarming a degree, that the populace fell upon Count Axel Fersen, who led the procession in his carriage and six, and

1810

actually tore him to pieces. In order to calm BOOK IV. this dreadful ferment, a proclamation was issued by the king, and measures were adopted by the CHAP. XIII. government to remove the suspicions of the people, by an open judicial inquiry into the cause of the death of their favourite. A reward of twenty thousand rix dollars, was also offered to any person who would give such evidence, touching the supposed murder, as would convict the offender, whatever might be his rank or description. The result of the examination was, that the crown prince had died a natural death, by a fit of apoplexy; and public tranquillity being in a few days restored, the attention of the inhabitants of Sweden, as well as of a great part of Europe, was fixed on the choice that was about to be made of his successor.

On the 15th of August, the four estates of Sweden were assembled at Orebro, for the purpose of electing a crown prince, or heir apparent to the Swedish throne. The four candidates who aspired to this honour, were, Frederick VI. King of Denmark; the Prince of Oldenburg, son of Gustavus Adolphus, the late king; the Prince of Augustenburg, brother to the deceased crown prince; and the French Marshal Bernadotte, Prince of Ponte Corvo. Bonaparte, in a letter addressed to the diet, declared his determination not to interfere in the election; but the pleasure of the French emperor was sufficiently understood, and Charles XIII. in an address to that assembly, delivered on the 18th, stated" that the duty he owed to his country, induced him to propose to the assembled states of the empire, his serene highness Jean Baptiste Julian Bernadotte, Prince of Ponte Corvo, as Crown Prince of Sweden, and his royal majesty's successor to the Swedish throne." After a short deliberation, the diet unanimously acceded to the recommendation of their sovereign; and thus, Marshal Bernadotte, a man who had entered the ranks of the French army at the age of fifteen, became in the 48th year of his age, the presumptive heir to the crown

Early in the month of October, Bernadotte proceeded to Sweden; and on the 1st of November, he addressed the king, and the estates of the realm, in a complimentary speech, unfolding views of government, and maxims of policy, worthy of a statesman and a sage: "Gentlemen, deputies of the nobility, the clergy, the burghers, and the peasants,' said he, "sound policy, that which alone the laws of God authorize, must be founded upon justice and truth; such are the principles of the king; they shall also be mine. I have beheld war close at hand, I know its desolating properties; there is nothing which can console a country for the blood of its children, shed in a foreign land. foreign land. Peace is the first object of a wise and enlightened government. It is not the extent of a state which constitutes its force and independence, it is its laws, its industry, its commerce, and above all, its natural spirit. Sweden, it is true, has sustained great losses, but the honour of the Swedish nation has not suffered the least attaint. Let us submit, Gentlemen, to the decrees of providence, and let us recollect, that they have left us a soil sufficient to support our wants, and iron to defend it."

From this moment, Charles John, the official name given to the Crown Prince, may be considered as the efficient ruler of Sweden.Adverse to open and actual hostility with Great Britain, he continued for some time to permit the commercial intercourse to be carried on between the two countries; and when, in the month of December, war was declared against England, the Swedish declaration of war contained a frank, and almost explicit avowal that this resolution was taken at the instigation of Bonaparte.

The Emperor Napoleon, taking counsel of his vanity, sought a family alliance with the royal house of Austria; and Marshal Berthier, the Prince of Neufchatel was dispatched on a special mission to Vienna, to demand the Archduchess Maria Louisa in marriage. The prin

cess exulting in the conquest of the conqueror of the world, was easily won ;* and her royal father had penetration enough to perceive, that, by this union, he should be enabled either to participate in the glory and prosperity of Napoleon, or to recover his lost domínions by precipitating his fall, if adversity should overtake him. The council of Vienna, influenced by the interests of the state, removed the scruples of the father, by dwelling upon the duties of the sovereign; and moderated the emperor's feelings of humility, by unveiling to him the future, and expatiating upon the advantages of the proposed alliance. On Bonaparte himself, this alliance operated as a sort of talisman, it obscured all objects, unsettled his judgment, and introduced contrarieties into his whole system of government. Many of his own court, and those near his person, partook of the infatuation of their sovereign, and those who perceived the snare into which he was advancing, wanted courage to exhibit to him the consequences of his new engagements with Austria.

The marriage ceremony, in which the Archduke Charles, as the proxy of Napoleon, received the hand of his august relative, was performed on the 11th of March, at Vienna, in the church of the Augustines, and in the presence of the Emperor and Empress of Austria. On the 18th, the Empress and Queen, Maria Louisa, left Vienna, and arrived at Compeigne on the 27th, where she was met by the emperor. From Vienna to Paris, the road by which the princess advanced, seemed strewed with flowers; and this alliance afforded an inexhaustible source of amusement and gaiety to the volatile French and the stately German nations. On the 1st of April, the civil ceremony of the celebration and ratification of the marriage of the Emperor with the Princess Maria Louisa, took place in the hall of Mars, in the imperial chateau of St. Cloud; and on the following day, the religious ceremony was performed by the grand almoner and two assistant bishops, in the chapel of the Louvre. To mark the epoch of this marriage by acts of indulgence and benevolence, Bonaparte presented a free pardon to all deserters from the French armies, previous to the year 1806, and to all others on immediately joining their corps; all unpaid fines imposed by the judgment of the police were remitted; six thousand girls, each portioned by the state with