ent soon gave him the most public opportunity for the
display of his official faculties. In the autumn of 1788, the king was
attacked with disorder of the mind, and the great question of the
regency necessarily came before Parliament. The Whigs, who regarded the
Prince of Wales as their dependent, if not as their dupe, insisted on
his succession to the unlimited prerogatives of the sovereign; the
Tories insisted, on the other hand, that Parliament alone had a right to
confer the regency and to assign its powers, though they admitted that
the choice, in the present instance, ought to fall upon the Prince of
Wales. A question of this importance naturally brought out all the
ability on both sides. Pitt and the solicitor-general took the lead on
the side of limitation, and the prince ultimately accepted the regency
on their terms. It became unnecessary, however; for, while the bill was
in the House of Lords, a communication was made by the chancellor, that
the king's health was in a favourable state.

His majesty was able to return to business in March.

Lord Thurlow had been universally charged with carrying on an intrigue
with the Opposition, for the purpose of continuing in office under the
regency. Lord Eldon's belief is introduced against that charge; but
there can be no doubt whatever that the charge was universally rumoured
at the time; that anecdotes confirmatory of the fact were told in every
direction; that no known attempt was ever made to answer them; and that,
from the period of the regency, an alienation arose, which finally
determined his dismissal by the minister. The well-known boast of the
chancellor's loyalty to the incapacitated king, which produced such
animadversion in the House, and such burlesque out of it--Burke's
ridicule of his official sensibilities, "the iron tears down Pluto's
cheeks," were all founded on the public belief of this intrigue. And it
is certainly no answer, at the end of half a century of uncontradicted
opinion, to say that no formal accusation on the subject was made on the
king's recovery, when the whole subject of the regency had become alike
distasteful to both sides of the House--to Ministers, from delicacy to
the king; and to Opposition, from a sense of failure.

Soon after Scott became solicitor-general, the king, at Weymouth, said,
"Well, I hope your promotion has been beneficial to you?" He asked his
majesty if he meant his professional income. "Yes," said the king, "in