is Majesty's personal friends as that which was
furnished by the well-known desire of His Majesty to seize upon the
first opportunity to make a breach with the Cabinet, Lord Temple and
those who acted with him would have suffered His Majesty to continue in
the ignorance ascribed to him--assuming, which it is unreasonable to
assume, that His Majesty really was ignorant of the scope and design of
a ministerial proposal which had called up remonstrances and protests
from all parts of the kingdom.

It is scarcely necessary to say that Lord Temple did not wait until the
Bills had reached the House of Lords, to submit to the King his opinion
of them; and that he had all throughout earnestly impressed upon His
Majesty the objectionable spirit of those clauses that infringed the
royal prerogative. This was, indeed, the only vulnerable point upon
which His Majesty's direct interference could be properly invoked. The
difficulty that had hitherto stood in the way was as to the manner in
which the interposition of the King's authority could be brought to bear
constitutionally on the measure, during its progress through Parliament.
Ministers had an ascertained and decisive majority in the Commons, and
Lord Temple seems to have felt that it would have been unwise in His
Majesty to have interfered at that stage of the proceedings, when his
interference was likely to have failed of the desired effect. The last
resource was in the Peers. To have implicated the King's name in the
opposition to the measure, while it yet was in the hands of the Commons,
would have fatally compromised His Majesty's position; and for that
excellent reason, Lord Temple reserved the declaration of His Majesty's
opinion for that arena where it was most likely to exercise a practical
influence. The moment chosen was just before the debate on the principle
of the Bills. Had His Majesty been advised to preserve his neutrality
pending the discussion in the Lords, the probability was, that the
measure would have passed that House, and that he would have been
ultimately reduced to the necessity of refusing his assent to it; an
extremity from which he was delivered by the prompt and novel course
recommended by Lord Temple.

Amongst the Grenville papers there is the rough draught of a memorandum,
which reveals to us not only the suggestions upon which the King acted
in this emergency, but the no less important fact that the line of
action was submitted to His Majesty