injunction for having the money arifing from it paid into the Britifh exchequer; and, at laft, his majefty being indifpofed, received "the royal affent by commiflion on the 22d of March 1765.

Befides this bill's enacting, that the money arifing from the duties impofed by it, fhould be referved for defraying the charge of protecting the colonies, there paffed another to encourage the importation of all kinds of timber from them; which, confidering how plentiful that article is in moit parts of North America and the little time neceffary to cut down trees, to what is requifite to raife flax and hemp, might in fome places compenfate the operation of the ftamp-duty, at leaft much more readily than the douceurs allowed in the preceding feflion could counteract the effects of the import and export duties laid on at

But it feems the

the fame time. the fame time. colonies were by this time too much foured for the most powerful fweeteners to have any falutary effects upon them. Interefting however as the confequences have been, it would be unpardonable in us, after mentioning the king's illness, not to lay afide the thoughts of them and every thing elfe, till we have confidered thofe of an event, which, independent of that gratitude to which his majesty's conftant attention to the happinefs of his people fo juftly entitles him, could not but fill their breafts with the greateft anxiety for their own welfare, confidering the infancy of his majefty's children, and the tempeit expected in North America, the weathering of which might require that dif patch and vigour incompatible with a divided or delegated command.

A

NXIOUS as the people might be for his majefty's health and life from principles of gratitude and intereft, he appears to have been equally fo for their fafety and welfare, from motives of princely duty and parental atfection, joined to that tender concern for his children and family, which, notwithstanding the rants of fome writers who would have

a king to be deftitute of all domeftic feelings, no fober man would ferioufly with to see a king want, fince it is by what a monarch feels in his own breaft he can alone form any judgment of what his fubjects muft feel in theirs; and, therefore, did he with them ever fo well, might, without fuch feelings, often miftake the means of making them happy.

Till

Till the reign of his late majefty, it had been ufual with the kings of England to appoint, by their own mere motion and authority, regents to their dominions, and guardians to their heirs, in cafe of their fucceeding to the crown at an age too feeble to bear the weight of it. But trufts of this kind had been so often altered by parliament, or abufed by the truftees to the difadvantage of their pupils and the people, for want of a legal check upon them, that it now appeared high time to purfue fome middle courfe, in which whatever fhare of choice the king might part with fhould be made up to him by the ftability of what he retained; and the fubjects, at the fame time, indulged with fuch a participation of a truft fo highly concerning them, as might feem their due, in virtue of the late alterations made in the conftitution for their benefit.

This important end, it is plain, could only be obtained by an act of the legislature, in which the parliament thould confirm the king's nomination of a regent and guardian, or approve of a certain num. ber of perfons for his majefty to chufe fome one or other of them, whom he might think propereft to truft with fo momentous a charge. And, as his making known his nomination of any one fingle perfon, and ftill more that nomination being confirmed by parliament, might create expectations of the prefent king's death injurious to his life, the latter method was thought the moft eligible; and it was, accordingly, that purfued on the death of the prince of Wales, father to his prefent Majefty.

the late king fhould be more anxi ous for the fafety and welfare of his grandchildren, and of fubjects amongst whom he was not born, than the prefent, for that of his immediate iffue, and of a people whom he is pleafed to glory in calling his countrymen, and to whom he had given fo many proofs of his really confidering them as fuch.

The measures, therefore, fo wifely purfued in the late reign, could not fail of being adopted in this. Accordingly, as foon as his majefty's healthAP. 24th would permit him to ap 1765. pear abroad, he repaired to parlia ment, and after mentioning his illness, and the thoughts, with which, though not attended with danger, it had affected him touching the welfare of his children and his people, proposed to their confideration, whether, under the prefent circumftances, it might not be expedient to veft in him the power of appointing, from time to time, by inftruments in writing under his fign manual, the queen or fome other perfon of his royal family ufually refiding in Great Britain, to be the guardian of any of his children, that might fucceed to the throne before the age of eighteen, and the regent of his kingdoms, until his fucceffor fhould attain that age, fubject to the restrictions and regulations fpecified in the act made on occafion of his father's death; the regent fo appointed to be affifted by a council, composed of the feveral perfons, who, by reafon of their dignities and offices, were conftituted members of the council eftablished by that act, together with thofe whom they might think proper to leave to his majefty's nomination.

[D] 4

This

This affecting and gracious fpeech having been anfwered, as foon as forms would adınit, by a joint addrefs from both houfes, well adapted to exprefs thofe fentiments, which it deferved, and thofe fenfations which the occafion of it had fo juftly excited, the lords, being the houfe in which it was propereft fuch a bill fhould take its rife, as it did not relate to any tax, and their lordships could befides command the immediate affiftance of the judges, fo neceffary in an affair of that importance, ordered a bill to be brought in, in conformity to his majesty's fpeech; and, when paffed their houfe, fent it to the commons, who, being early apprized of the lords being before-hand with them, in taking up the affair, deferred all confideration of the matter, till they fhould hear from their lordthips.

One would be apt to imagine, that it being ufual with, if not the business of the fervants of the crown to move affairs of this nature, and the fecretaries of ftate, the most immediate fervants of the crown, being both in the upper houfe, this bill would not only have been brought into that houfe, but have paffed it likewife in fuch a form, as might do juftice to that wifdom and goodness, manifefted by his majesty on every occafion, in which the happiness of his people was concerned. But fo far from it, no perfon, by this bill, in the form it had paffed the houfe of lords, could be named guardian and regent except the queen, or fome one perfon of the royal family defcended from the late king, whofe ufual refidence, at the time of paffing this act, fhould have

been, and from thenceforth, until fuch nomination, fhould continue to be in Great Britain; nor any of his majefty's family appointed of the council of regency, along with the great officers of ftate, except his majefty's brothers, and his uncle the duke of Cumberland; nor any perfon permitted to be named by his majefty to fucceed them in cafe of death, that was not a natural born fubject of the realm: by which claufes, the princess of Wales was not only fet afide as guardian or regent, but even, as not being born in the British dominions, though naturalized by act of parliament, utterly excluded from the council of regency, though next to the queen the must be allowed the perfon, whom it was moft natural for his majefty to with invested with these trufts, as one to whom, next to their own mother, the lives and fafety of his children could not fail of being deareft: not to mention her inability to fucceed to the throne, and which, therefore, in lefs virtuous times, and in a lefs virtuous family than the prefent royal family of Great Britain, might be an equal motive to the naming of her.

Notwithstanding thefe facrifices made of his majesty's moft tender feelings, the bill fent down by the house of lords had fcarcely been read in the houfe of commons, when a motion was made to addreis his majesty, that out of his tender and paternal regard for his people, he would be graciously pleafed to name the perfon or perfons, whom in his royal wifdom he thould think fit to propofe to the confideration of parliament for the execution of the high trufts of guardian and re.

gent,

gent, the house apprehending it not warranted by precedent, nor agreeable to the principles of the free conftitution of Great Britain, to veft fuch trufts in any perfon or perfons, not particularly named and approved of in par. liament.

Not only this motion, as placing the affair in a very wrong light, paffed in the negative by a very great majority; but, as it were, to make his majefty's family fome amends for the many infults of fered to it by one, who had belonged to that houfe, and by many of the unthinking people reprefented by it, the prince's dowager of Wales was named next after the queen as one of the perfons, whom his majefty might appoint to the guardianthip of his fucceffors under age, and to the regency of his realms. This. however, did not pafs without fuch a debate, as rendered it improper to infift upon any further amendment; fo that, whatever defire the friends of the royal family might have to fecure to the princess of Wales a feat in the council of regency, or at leaft a door to it, they thought it moft expedient not to propofe it at prefent. The bill, therefore, without any other amendment, was returned to the houfe of lords; and, that amendment being approved by their lordships, received the royal affent on the 15th of May 1765.

Whilft this important affair was under the confideration of the legislature, the journeymen filkweavers of London, re inforced by thofe of all the other trades more immediately depending upon that branch, conceiving them.

felves greatly injured by the too free ufe of French and other wrought filks, affembled by beat of drum, with their wives and children, to the amount of many thoufands, in Spital fields, and Moor-fields, in order to petition for redress by a total prohibition of that article; and from thence, directed by leaders, and arrayed under fuch colours as might not only contribute to keep them together, but remind themfelves and acquaint the public with the fuppofed caufes of that diftrefs, which their pallid looks and emaciated carcafes made fufficiently evident, marched feveral ways, fome through the city, others through St. George's fields, and a third party through Holborn and St. Giles's, or the new north roads made between the east and weft ends of the town, to St. James's and Westminster Hall; and not only furrounded the palace and the two houfes of parliament, but by their numbers, in fome measure, obftructed the communication between them. They even stopt feveral of the members in their chairs and coaches; and, though it was only to befeech them in the humbleft terms to pity their wretched condition, so unufual a ftep, confidering the reports spread of the weavers of the inland towns and their dependents in trade coming up to join their diftreffed brethren in London, could not fail of creating the most alarming apprehenfions for the public tranquillity. For had this once happened, or had these af flicted members, instead of seeking redress from the head, taken upon them to redress themselves, there is no telling how far the

flame

flame might have fpread, or what ravages it might have made before it could be extinguifhed. But, providentially, their rage, which was prevented from breaking out into greater outrages by a mild yet fteady exertion of the civil power, affifted by the military, as part of that conftitutional force, called the pfe comitatus, after fpending itself in befetting the houfe of a nobleman, fufpected of favouring the wear of French

goods, and of having delivered his fentiments concerning them with uncommon harfhnefs, and in breaking the windows of fome houfes accufed of felling French filks, was finally appeafed, without further mifchief, by a feafonable fubfcription for their prefent relief, and an affociation amongst the principal filk mercers to recall all the orders they had given for foreign manufac tures.

ILL thofe events happened, of which we have fpoken in the last chapter, no miniftry, perhaps, ever food higher than the laft in the good graces and confidence of their monarch; one of them, it is to be prefumed, was even confidered as a confeffor in the caufe of injured majefty, on account of the profecution and perfecution he had fuffered for his extraordinary warmth in detecting and bringing to juftice the authors, printers, and publithers of the North Briton. But as, on the one hand, the different fate, which the regency bill met with in the houfe of commons, to what it had in the house of peers, (where fuch a bill might have expected better fuccefs, were it only on account of both the fecretaries of ftate fitting in that houfe) feemed to indicate, that

their zeal for the honour of the royal family was greatly abated, or that perfonal refentment had a greater fhare in their proceedings against the above injurious paper than difinterefted loyalty; f6, on the other hand, it was impoffible, that, in the course of the debates in council occafioned by the alarming commotions amongst the journeymen filk weavers, it should not appear, that, whatever they themfelves might take to be the caufes of their diftrefs, it was more owing to a want of the ufual call for the work of their looms from the British colonies, on account of the late injudicious restraints and taxes laid on the colony trade, than any extraordinary importation of French or other foreign filks.

It is, therefore, no way furprizing, that, there thus appearing

fome