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GEOEGE III. Wellesley, they performed anything worthy of the high name of their country. Pitt died in 1806, and the government passed into the hands of a coalition ministry, of which Lord Grenville and Mr. Fox were the chiefs. The object of the latter was the restoration of peace with France, but he died before anything could be done. The coalition endeavored to grant some relief to the Catholics, but the king got rid of them, and a ministry of tories was formed, headed by the duke of Portland (end of March, 1807). This ministry was probably the worst England ever had, and though it succeeded in the attack on Denmark, taking possession of the Danish fleet, the immorality of that attack more than balanced its success. Operations in Spain and Portugal were badly conducted ; and the Walcheren expedition in 1809, which might have struck a deadly blow at Napoleon's power while he was combating Austria on the Danube, was probably the worst managed un- dertaking even in English history. This fail- ure led to the breaking up of the Portland ministry, for which the Perceval ministry was substituted, an improvement on its predecessor, inasmuch as Marquis Wellesley took the for- eign office. The commencement of the 50th year of the king's reign, October, 1809, was observed as a jubilee. There was little occa- sion for rejoicing. The war had failed utter- ly on land ; France ruled almost the whole of continental Europe ; the disputes with the United States threatened to add a new enemy to those England already had ; while the con- duct of some of the king's sons was flagrantly profligate. His second son, the duke of York, was compelled to resign the post of commander- in-chief, in consequence of the exposures made by Mrs. Clarke. In 1810 died the princess Amelia, the king's youngest and favorite daughter, and the king suffered so much from anxiety during her illness that he lost his rea- son for ever. More than once he had been raving mad. The first indication of his disease appeared on the very day of the completion of the 50th year of his reign, Oct. 25, 1810. His reign ceased in fact from that date, although in law it lasted more than nine years longer. The prince of Wales became prince regent by act of parliament on Feb. 5, 1811. The na- tional events of the regency will be found un- der the title GEORGE IV. The care of the king's person was given first to the queen, and in 1819 to the duke of York. To his early education George III. owed a want of frankness and a moodiness when angry which did him much harm. But though he began his reign ignorant and ill educated, he learned much, and his last years of rule were as pop- ular as the first had been unpopular. ^ His original purpose to make himself an arbitrary monarch yielded to the rebuffs of his many defeats, and his personal morality and manly integrity and piety caused him to be respect- ed and even beloved. A weak man natural- ly, and perhaps never strictly sane, he reigned GEORGE IV. 709 50 years, and left a memory in refreshing con- trast with that of his immoral and un-English predecessors. GEORGE (Angnstus Frederick) IV., son of the preceding and of Queen Charlotte, born Aug 12, 1762, died June 26, 1830. He was edu- cated with great care, and closely restrained until 18 years of age, when he commenced a career of extravagance and profligacy that con- trasted painfully with the upright life of his father. He early formed a connection with Mrs. Mary Robinson, an actress, and the wife of an attorney, who afterward became well known from her novels, verses, and autobiog- raphy. He became intimate with Fox, Sheri- dan, and other whig leaders, who were his companions in dissipation, and whose politics he adopted, in open opposition to his father. In 1783 his friends came into power as the famous coalition ministry, and on Nov. 11 he took his seat in the house of lords as duke of Corn- wall, and as a supporter of the new adminis- tration, while they immediately demanded for him an augumented establishment and allow- ance, and Carlton house was assigned to him as a residence. When his friends fell from office he stood by them, and tried to restore them. In 1786 the debts of the prince were brought before parliament by Sheridan, but the king would not sanction a bill of relief. In the preceding year the prince had privately married Mrs. Fitzherbert. There is no doubt about the marriage, but it was illegal as being without the consent of the king; and Mrs. Fitzherbert being a Roman Catholic, the mar- riage, if valid, would have excluded the prince from the succession. When it was referred to in the debate on the prince's debts, Fox denied it, as he said, by the highest authority. In 1791 a difference arose between the prince and his sporting companions, and he sold his horses, shut up Carlton house, and devoted himself to the payment of his creditors, and in a speech in the house of lords separated himself from his old political friends. In 1795 he espoused his cousin, Caroline of Brunswick, in order to get his debts paid. After they had lived to- gether for a year, during which their only child, the princess Charlotte, was born, they separated by common consent. Anxious for a complete divorce, the prince endeavored to prove his wife unfaithful. At this time he had returned to associations with Fox and his old friends, and was made a rallying centre by the whigs, while the tories naturally clung to the prin- cess, who had the sympathy of the king. Un- der these circumstances took place the first investigation by parliament into her conduct. The main decisions of the investigation, which alone were made public, acquit the princess fully, although the matter was made a subject of political dispute. It seems that at most she was guilty while in England only of im- prudent acts, and her father-in-law always protected her, not only because he had caused the marriage, but because he hated her hus-