Memoirs of the Courts and Cabinets of George the Third | Page 2

jealousy of the prerogatives of the Crown.
He carried his zeal in that matter so far as even to draw upon himself
the charge of desiring to strain the rights of the Crown beyond
constitutional limitations. But as these limitations have never been
accurately defined, and as it has always been difficult to prescribe the
precise privileges which would relieve the Sovereign, on the one hand,
from being a mere state puppet, without giving him, on the other, too
great a preponderance of executive power, we need not discuss the
justice of an imputation which refers to the general complexion of the
King's views rather than to any particular acts of arbitrary authority.
That it was the great aim of His Majesty's life to preserve the royal
prerogatives from encroachment is undeniable; but it should be
remembered that when George III. ascended the throne, the relative
powers and responsibilities of the Sovereign and his advisers were not

so clearly marked or so well understood as they are at present; and if
His Majesty's jealousy of the rights which he believed to be vested in
his person led him to trespass upon the independence of his servants, or
to resist what he considered the extreme demands of the Parliament, it
was an error against the excesses of which our Constitution affords the
easiest and simplest means of redress.
Intimately conversant with official routine, and thoroughly master of
the details of every department of the Government, he acquired a
familiar knowledge of all the appointments in the gift of the Ministry,
and reserved to himself the right of controlling them. Nor was this
monopoly of patronage confined to offices of importance or
considerable emolument; it descended even to commissions in the army,
and the disposal of small places which custom as well as expediency
had delegated to the heads of those branches of service to which they
belonged. His Majesty's pertinacity on these points frequently
precipitated painful embarrassments of a personal nature, entailed much
disagreeable correspondence, and sometimes produced
misunderstandings and alienations of far greater moment than the
paltry considerations in which they originated. Amongst the numerous
instances in which His Majesty insisted on the preservation of
patronage in his own hands, one of the most conspicuous was his
stipulation with the Marquis of Rockingham for unconditional power
over the nomination of the household, at a moment when the exigency
of public affairs compelled him to surrender other points of infinitely
greater importance. We shall find in the course of the following letters
that His Majesty's desire to advance the interests of particular
individuals interfered seriously, on some occasions, with the
convenience of the public service.
The same spirit guided His Majesty's conduct, as far as the forms of the
Constitution would permit, in his choice of Ministers. He had strong
personal likings and antipathies, and rather than consent to have a
Ministry imposed upon him consisting of men he disapproved, he
would have suffered any amount of difficulty or inconvenience. He
prevailed upon Lord North to remain in office three years in the face of
sinking majorities, and against his Lordship's own wishes, for the sole

purpose of keeping out the Whigs, whom he regarded with a feeling of
the bitterest aversion. Good reasons, no doubt, might be suggested for
this passionate abhorrence of the Whigs, who, independently of party
antecedents, had given His Majesty much cause of uneasiness, by their
strenuous opposition to the measures of his favourite Ministers, and by
their alliance with his son. So deeply was this feeling rooted in His
Majesty's mind, that when a junction with that party seemed to be all
but inevitable in March, 1778, he threatened to abdicate rather than be
"trampled on by his enemies." Four years afterwards he explicitly
repeated the same threat under the excitement of an adverse division;
and it was supposed by those who were best acquainted with the
firmness of his resolution that, had he been forced to extremities, he
would have carried his menace into execution.
His conduct to his Ministers was equally steadfast where he bestowed
his confidence, and stubborn where he withheld it. There were certain
questions upon which he was known to be inexorable, and upon which
it was useless to attempt to move him. Of these the most prominent
were the American War, Catholic Emancipation, and Parliamentary
Reform. Whether his judgment was right or wrong on these questions,
it was fixed and unalterable; and the Ministers who took office under
George III. knew beforehand the conditions of their service, so far as
these paramount articles of faith were concerned. It was the knowledge
of this rigorous trait in His Majesty's character, that made the Marquis
of Rockingham insist upon submitting to the King a programme of the
policy he intended to pursue before