GEORGE III., son of Frederick Lewis, prince of Wales, succeeded his grandfather. George II. lie was born June 4, 1738, and died at Windsor castle Jan. 29, 1820, in the 60th year of his reign, which was eventful as well as long. On Sept. 8. 1761, he married the princess Charlotte Sophia, daughter of Charles duke of Mecklenburg Strelitz, and was by her the father of 15 children. His intellect was not of the strong est, but, like his two predecessors, he had firmness of purpose, and, in addition, a con scientiousness and sense of decorum unknown to them, while both friends and enemies could rely upon him—the one for favors, and the other for the reverse. His mind gave way several times—in 1764. in 1788, in 1801, in 1804; and in 1810, when the British were fighting behind the lines of Torres Vedras, his anal insanity supervened. He bad an abundance of cares, like most sovereigns. The Letters of Junius and the invectives of Wilkes annoyed him; so did the proposals to emancipate the Roman Catholics, and the terrible French revolution of 1789. His life was attempted by the maniacs Margaret Nicolson and a man named Hatfield. The marriages of two of his brothers with the widows of subjects displeased him, and led to the passing of the royal marriage bill, 12 Geo. III. c. 11, prohibiting the members of the royal family from contracting marriage without the consent of the king, if under 25 years of age, and the consent of parliament if above that age; and afterwards the undoubted debts and dissipation of his eldest son, who became George IV., his hardly doubtful marriage with Mrs. Fitzherbert, the Roman Catholic widow of two husbands, and the scandals of his public marriage with his cousin, Caroline of Brunswick, must have led the "good old king" to reflect that not oven a " marriage-bill " could cure all the domestic miseries of monarchs. Nor were matters of national excitement and magnitude awanting. A bill, imposing certain stamp-duties upon the American colonies, which had been resolved to be inexpedient in 1764, was passed in Mar:, 1765, and repealed in 1766 by the marquis of Rockingham's ministry; and in 1767, the chancellor of the exchequer, Mr. Townsend, brought forward a plan for the taxation of these colonies, which led to their revolt, the colonists object ing to be taxed by a parliament in which they were not represented. In 1770, lord North, the premier, brought in a bill for the repeal of all the recently imposed American duties, except the duty on tea, which was retained, to assert the English right to impose taxes on these colonies. In Dec., 1773, " Boston harbor is black with unexpected tea,"
cargoes of it being wantonly destroyed by the colonists; and on April 19, 1775, hostili ties commenced with the undecisive battle of Lexington, which on June 16 was followed by that of Bunker's Hill, which was a victory to the colonists, and helped to give them boldness to renounce the dominion of Great Britain, and publish the declaration of on July 4; 1776. George Washington, cti col. of militia, who had been appointed general of the insurgent colonists, took possession of Boston in that year, having compelled gen. Howe and the British troops to retire, and next year he gained an important advantage by the capture of Burgoyne's army of 10,000 fine troops, British and German. The French, Spanish, and Dutch all threw their weight into the Ameri can scale, and the checkered and disaStrous struggle ended in America by the surrender of lord Cornwallis, with a British army of 6,000, to Washington and the marquis de la Fayette. The French suffered at sea by the gallantry of the British under Byron, Hood, and Rodney, this last having, in 1782, in the West Indies, obtained over them a naval victory by the hitherto untried method of breaking the enemy's line. In that year, also, ,„men. Elliott repulsed the grand attack of the French and Spaniards, and put an end to their chances of success in the obdurate siege of Gibraltar. At Versailles, on Sept. 3, 1788, a peace was concluded with France and Spain, in which the independence of the American states was recognized, not a little to the satisfaction of many of the English at home, who, besides being tired of the struggle, had throughout sympathized with the American colonists, whose cause, originally good, had had its merits kept before the public mind by the elequence of Chatham, Fox, and Burke, three of the greatest orators of all time. • Meanwhile, the British rule in India was consolidated, and this was effected in no insignificant degree under the governor-generalship of Warren Hastings, a most able but somewhat unscrupulous man. His trial for misrule and oppression, famous for the elo quent accusations of Burke snd Sheridan, began in 1786, and was protracted for 9 years. Wars with Hyder Ali and his son Tippoo Saib were ended by the storming of Seringa patam in 1799.