PARLIAMENT PROROGUED.
This session terminated on the 18th of July. In his speech the king thanked the members for their long attendance, their loyalty, and their affection. At this time a prospect of brilliant successes had opened in India, and that the British would build up an empire more vast in its extent than that for which they were contending in the West. His majesty dwelt at some length upon this subject, and warmly applauded measures adopted, or in progress, for checking abuses in these possessions, and for making our conquests mutually advantageous to the natives and ourselves. On the subject of America he remarked:—“While I lament the continuance of the present troubles, and the extension of the war, I have the conscious satisfaction to reflect, that the constant aim of my councils has been to bring back my deluded subjects in America to the happiness and liberty they formerly enjoyed, and see the tranquillity of Europe restored. To defend the dominion and to maintain the rights of this country was on my part the sole cause, and was the only object of the war. Peace is the earnest wish of my heart; but I have too firm a reliance on the spirit and resources of the nation, and the powerful assistance of my parliament, and the protection of a just and all-ruling Providence, to accept it upon any other terms than such as may consist with the honour and dignity of my crown, and the permanent interests and security of my people.” At the time when his majesty delivered this speech there was indeed no prospect of peace: war raged on every hand.
GEORGE III. 1781-1782