Their foreign policy had been correct, but they had shewn no more spirit than their predecessors, and the country was in that excited state in which people wanted to see some brilliant and exciting stroke of policy, though they were not at all clear what it was they desired.

Then a rift had begun to grow between the Regent and his Ministers.

The Liberalism of the Prince had never been very deep; it owed its origin in fact chiefly to his opposition to the reactionary government of his brother.
As an honest man he intended to govern strictly in accordance with the Constitution.

He had, however, from the beginning no intention of allowing the Chambers to encroach upon the prerogatives of the Crown.
The Ministers on the other hand regarded themselves to some extent as a Parliamentary Ministry; they had a majority in the House and they were inclined to defer to it.

The latent causes of difference were brought into activity by the question of army reform.
The Prince Regent was chiefly and primarily a soldier.