HIS MAJESTY’S INDISPOSITION.
Parliament had scarcely re-assembled after the Christmas recess, before it became known that the king was suffering from an attack of his old malady. It was announced by a bulletin on the 14th of February, that his majesty was much indisposed, and a succession of similar notices left little doubt as to the nature of the complaint. The attack, however, was not so serious as to render a suspension of the royal functions necessary; and on the 14th of March the lord chancellor declared that “the king was in such a state, as to warrant the lords commissioners in giving the royal assent to several bills.”
CHANGE IN THE MINISTRY—PITT RESUMES OFFICE.
At this time a systematic attack on ministers was pursued by all parties in opposition, through the medium of investigations into the military and naval affairs of the empire. Pitt himself at length appeared in the character of a direct antagonist to Addington. On the 15th of March he moved for an address, requesting that his majesty would order to be laid before parliament an account of the number of ships in commision on the 31st of December, 1793, on the 30th of September, 1801, and on the 31st of December, 1803, specifying the service in which they were respectively employed. The debate on this motion lasted several hours, but it was lost on a division, by a majority of two hundred and one votes against one hundred and thirty. Addington was next attacked by Fox, who, on the 23rd of April, moved for a committee to revise the several bills that had been proposed for the defence of the country. Fox had supported Pitt in his motion, and Pitt now stood forward to support his ancient rival. There was, indeed, but one point on which these two eminent men differed on this occasion, and that was, the power vested in the sovereign of calling all his subjects out to defend the country in case of an invasion. Fox questioned the royal prerogative in this particular, while Pitt asserted and maintained the principle. The concurrence of opinions, on all other points between the two rivals, however, produced a division, in which ministers had a majority of only fifty-two in a full house. Two days after the attack was renewed in a more effective manner; Mr. Yorke moved for the house to resolve itself into a committee on a bill for suspending the army of reserve act, and though Pitt resisted this, ministers had a majority of only thirty-seven. Mr. Addington now resolved, as soon as the financial concerns of the year could be adjusted, to retire from office. This was effected on the 12th of May; the supplies granted, being £36,000,000 for Great Britain alone; and on that day it was announced that Addington had resigned the office of chancellor of the exchequer, and that Pitt had been appointed to succeed him. Those of the Addington ministry retained were the Duke of Portland, president of the council; Lord Eldon, chancellor; the Earl of Westmoreland, lord privy seal; the Earl of Chatham, master-general of the ordnance; and Lord Castlereagh, president, at that time, of the board of control. The new members were Lord Melville, first lord of the admiralty; Lord Harrowby, secretary for foreign affairs; Lord Camden, secretary for the department of war and colonies; and Lord Mulgrave, chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, with a seat in the cabinet. The government of Ireland was left unchanged, except that Mr. Wickham, chief secretary, retired on account of ill health, and was succeeded by Sir Evan Nepean. The appointments made in the subordinate offices of state, were, Mr. William Dundas, secretary at war; George Rose and Lord Charles Somerset, joint pay-masters of the forces; the Duke of Montrose and Lord Charles Spencer, joint pay-masters general; Messrs. Huskisson and Sturges Bourne, secretaries to the treasury; and Mr. Canning, treasurer to the navy. No changes were made in the law departments of the country, and very few in the household offices; the most important in the latter was the appointment of the Marquis of Hertford to be master of the horse.
THE SLAVE-TRADE QUESTION.
On the 30th of May Mr. Wilberforce, who had been labouring in his vocation session after session, without making any visible progress in the noble cause he had espoused, moved for the appointment of a committee to consider the propriety of introducing a bill for the abolition of the slave-trade, after a time to be limited. Both Pitt and Fox supported the philanthropist, and his motion was carried by a majority of seventy-five against forty-nine. A bill was now brought in for the abolition, and the third reading was carried on the 28th of June, by a majority of sixty-nine voices against thirty-three. Mr. Wilberforce began to have hope that his long labour was about to be rewarded—that the one grand object of his life was now about to be accomplished. But he was doomed to be disappointed. It was rejected in the upper house, on the ground, that having been introduced at so late a period of the session, interested parties would be unable to obtain substantial justice.