public corporations, and that left unsafe the great Charter itself, the
foundation of all our liberties. It was not merely, however, because it
struck at the principle of security so far as public companies and
chartered rights were concerned, that it incurred the strenuous
opposition of the King's friends. A more immediate objection was
discovered in the blow it aimed at the royal prerogative. The
establishment of a commission for the administration of the affairs of
India, without concert with the Crown, and whose members were
irremovable by the Sovereign, except upon an address from either House
of Parliament, was a bold attempt to reduce and narrow the King's
influence, which, in the menacing relations then subsisting between the
Ministers and the King, could only be regarded as a declaration of open
hostility. Upon this ill-considered measure the royal opposition took
its stand. But great difficulties were to be encountered before the
favourable opportunity thus afforded by the rashness of Ministers could
be turned to account.

The Bills passed triumphantly through the Commons, the second reading
being carried by a majority of 217 to 103; and on the 9th of December
Mr. Fox, attended by a numerous train of members, presented them at the
bar of the House of Lords. Here, then, the final battle was to be
fought. Lord Temple protested against the measure as "infamous," and as
seizing upon "the most inestimable part of the Constitution--our
chartered rights;" and was energetically supported by Thurlow, Richmond,
and Camden. But as something more than the ordinary parliamentary
resistance was necessary to effect the rejection at once of the plan and
its authors, Lord Temple obtained permission to make known the
sentiments of His Majesty on the subject, in order to give additional
weight and authority to the movements of the Opposition. The proverb
which has come down to us from Shakspeare, that the King's name is a
tower of strength, was never, perhaps, more effectively illustrated.

According to the version which is given in the accounts hitherto
published of these transactions, it was not till the 11th of December,
two days after the Bills had been read a first time in the Lords, that
His Majesty was apprised of the real character of the measure as it
affected his prerogative; and it was then, and not till then, His
Majesty determined to resist it. This statement goes to the effect--that
on the 11th of December, betw