CHAPTER IV.
Changes of Administration .-- The Coalition Ministry .-- The Establishment of the Prince of Wales .-- Fox's India Bill .-- The King Defeats it by the Agency of Lord Temple .-- The Ministry is Dismissed, and Succeeded by Mr.
Pitt's Administration .-- Opposition to the New Ministry in the House of Commons .-- Merits of the Contest between the Old and the New Ministry .-- Power of Pitt .-- Pitt's India Bill .-- Bill for the Government of Canada .-- The Marriage of the Prince of Wales to Mrs.
Fitzherbert .-- The King becomes Deranged .-- Proposal of a Regency .-- Opinions of Various Writers on the Course adopted .-- Spread of Revolutionary Societies and Opinions .-- Bills for the Repression of Sedition and Treason .-- The Alien Act .-- The Traitorous Correspondence Act .-- Treason and Sedition Bills .-- Failure of some Prosecutions under them.
The occurrences of the next year brought the question of the influence of the crown into greater prominence.

Lord Rockingham's administration, unfortunately, came to a premature termination by his death at the beginning of July.

With a strange arrogance, Fox claimed the right of dictating the choice of his successor to the King, making his pretensions the more unwarrantable by the character of the person whom he desired to nominate, the Duke of Portland, who, though a man of vast property and considerable borough influence, was destitute of ability of any kind, and had not even any of that official experience which in some situations may at times compensate or conceal the want of talent.[73] The King preferred Lord Shelburne, a statesman whose capacity was confessedly of a very high order, who had more than once been Secretary of State,[74] and who had been recognized as the leader of what was sometimes called the Chatham section of the Whigs, ever since the death of the great Earl.

Indeed, if George III.

had been guided by his own wishes and judgment alone, he would have placed him at the Treasury, in preference to Lord Rockingham, three months before.