XXXIII

GEORGE III. AND THE AMERICAN

REVOLUTION

POINTS TO BE NOTICED

Dates of George III.'s reign; his character; why Pitt resigned; the party of the "King's friends''; purpose of George III. The case of John Wilkes; action of Parliament against him; outcome of the struggle; why the people sympathized with Wilkes; Edmund Burke attacks the corrupt influence of the Crown. Condition of England's colonies in America; why England passed the Stamp Act; its repeal; the "Boston Massacre'; the "Boston Tea-Party"; War of the American Revolution begins. Attitude of the English people towards the war; Fox and Pitt oppose the war; independence declared; course of the war; France aids the colonies; death of Pitt; Cornwallis surrenders; terms of the peace of 1783; what England learned from the war.

character

GEORGE III. came to the throne in 1760, and reigned until 1820. His reign covered a period of sixty years, Reign and which is longer than any other English of George sovereign has ruled, except Queen Victoria. (1760-1820). It was a very important reign because in it occurred many great changes.

III.

Unlike George I. and George II., who were more German than English, George III. took a deep interest in British affairs. In his first speech to Parliament, he said:

"Born and educated in this country, I glory in the name of Briton."

Unfortunately, his mother and his teachers had filled his mind with the idea that he must really rule as well as reign that is, that he must impose his own will upon the government, rather than be guided by the heads of the

great Whig families who ruled Parliament. If he had been a strong and wise man, this might have been an improvement. But although he was a good man, he was rather dull, and stupid, and very obstinate; and during the latter part of his reign he was insane most of the time. The result was that, as a great historian of England says: "He inflicted

more profound and enduring injuries upon his country than any other modern English King. He spent a long life in obstinately resisting measures which are now almost universally admitted to have been good, and in supporting measures which are as universally admitted to have been bad."

When Pitt, who had won such victories for England against France, found that his advice was no longer followed, he resigned his office, saying:

GEORGE III..

"I will not be responsible Ladies and gentlemen then pow

for measures which I am no

longer allowed to guide."

Party of

The

The Tories, who before had longed for a King of the Stuart line, gave their support to George III. King also built up, in the House of Commons, a party of "the King's friends," upon the King's whom he could rely. To those who promised to support him, and to their friends, he gave rich offices; Some members were bought by giving them profitable

friends."

contracts for government supplies. Others were bribed outright, with gifts of money. In the elections to the House of Commons the King used all his influence, to see that persons who would support his measures were elected.

All this was according to the evil practice of that time; but it was a new thing for the King to build up support by this means. It enabled him to get a party in the House of Commons which was numerous enough to make its support necessary to any ministry. When it suited the King's pleasure, his "friends" in the Commons voted against his own ministers, so that he became their master in fact as well as in name. George III. was like Charles I., in his desire to rule according to his own will. Unlike Charles, however, he did not attempt to override Parliament, but controlled it by corrupting its members.

Attempt

Wilkes.

One of King George's great mistakes was in urging his ministers to prosecute a Whig member of Parliament named John Wilkes. In No. 45 of a magato punish zine which he published, Wilkes had declared that a passage about the peace with France, in the King's speech to Parliament was false. Everyone knew that it was the practice for the ministers to write the speeches made by the King, but George III. took Wilkes's statement as an attack upon himself. Wilkes was accordingly arrested, but in such a way that the court released him, on the ground that the arrest was illegal.

At the next session of Parliament, the House of Commons expelled Wilkes, and caused a copy of No. 45 of his magazine to be burned by the hangman. Wilkes now fled from England, and for four years lived in France. When the next elections to Parliament took place he returned, and was elected from Middlesex, the

county in which London is situated. The people showed that they were on his side by chalking the figures "45" everywhere on street doors, on carriages, and even on the boot soles of the Austrian ambassador, whom they dragged from his carriage for that purpose. Benjamin Franklin, who was then in England, said that there was scarcely a house within fifteen miles of London that did not have this number marked upon it.

Still, Wilkes was not allowed to take his seat in Parliament. The House of Commons again expelled him; and when he was again elected they declared that he should never be capable of sitting in that body. However, in the end, Wilkes was victorious. Some years later he was permitted to take his seat; and then, nearly twenty years after the struggle first began, the House of Commons erased from its journals all the votes which it had passed against him. It was not because of his character that Wilkes triumphed, for he was a man of bad character. It was because he opposed the arbitrary acts of George III.'s government, and because he stood for personal liberty and the freedom of the press.

These were not the only complaints that the people had against the government. Meetings were held

Burke

govern

to protest against the corrupt means by Edmund which the King secured support in Parlia- attacks the ment. In 1780, a great Whig orator, ment. named Edmund Burke, introduced a bill to abolish a large number of useless offices, and to reduce the amount of money which the King's government might spend without giving an account of it. His object was to make it less easy for the King to corrupt Parliament. The bill was not passed, at this time.

But the discussion of it resulted in the passage of a resolution, in the House of Commons, which declared that

"The influence of the Crown has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished."

Two years later, another reform bill, based on the same principles as that which Burke had introduced, passed the House of Commons, and became law.

In spite of "the King's friends" George III. had lost a great share of that arbitrary power which he had built up so carefully. In part, this was due to his action against Wilkes; but it was due in a still larger part to the unwise measures by which, meanwhile, he lost the Thirteen American Colonies.

of the American colonies.

The Seven Years' War had freed the American colonies from their French enemies, and given them a great Condition western country into which their settlements could spread. It had also given them a knowledge of their own strength, and loosened the ties which bound them to the mother country. With the danger of French attack removed, they had no further need of British protection. The French Minister saw this, and, soon after the close of the war, he said:

“England will, one day, call upon her colonies to contribute towards supporting the burdens which they have helped to bring upon her; and they will answer by making themselves independent.'

The colonies had mines of iron and coal, forests, navigable rivers, and excellent harbors, and were fitted by nature not only for agriculture, but also for manufactures and commerce. Many people, therefore, engaged in the building of ships and in trade. England's treatment of its colonies was very much better than that which any other country gave its colonies at this time,