ich civil and religious liberty had made during his
reign: the desire which he had ever evinced to improve the moral and
intellectual condition of his people, still lived in their memory, and
taught them to feel when he descended into his grave that they had lost
a benefactor. He was mourned over as "the dear old king," and "the
good old king," and he will be venerated as such as long as the roll of
British history remains in existence.

CONTINUATION

OF

THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND,

By E. H. Nolan

GEORGE IV.

[Illustration: 374.jpg PORTRAIT OF GEORGE IV.]

CHAPTER XXXII.

{GEORGE IV. 1820-1821}

Accession of George IV...... Declaration of the King,
&c..... Dissolution of Parliament..... Cato-Street
Conspiracy..... Meeting of Parliament..... Bills for
amending the Criminal Code..... Education Bill..... Motion
for a Committee on the Corn Laws..... Motion for a Committee
respecting Free Trade..... The Civil List, &c...... Message
respecting the Queen..... Trial of the Queen.

ACCESSION OF GEORGE IV.

{A.D. 1820}

GEORGE IV. had long governed the empire, so that the acquisition of the
crown effected no other change than that of the title of regent to
king. The assumption of this new dignity, however, was followed by
perplexities of great magnitude. He had long repudiated his wife, now
Queen Caroline, and she had been living in foreign lands as an exile.
This step had alienated the affections of his people from him; and at
his accession to the throne, when he was induced to extend the limits of
the hostility he had displayed towards his consort, they became, out
of sympathy for an injured and helpless female, still more embittered
against him. His accession to the throne, however, gave Caroline an
opportunity of retaliation, which, as will be seen, she was not backward
in exercising.

DECLARATION OF THE KING, ETC.

The first public act of the new king was to summon a council, at which
the emblems of office, having been surrendered by the officers of the
crown, were immediately restored to their former possessors. His majesty
then made a declaration, in which, after having alluded to the demise
of his father, and his own long exercise of the royal prerogative,
he remarked that "nothing but the support which he had received from
parliament and the country, in times most eventful and circumstances
most arduous, could inspire him with that co