For an enumeration of the children of George III. and Queen Charlotte (who died at Kew, 17th of November 1818) we refer to any of the Almanacs or Peerages. They were fifteen in all, namely, nine sons (of whom two, George, his successor, and William, reigned as kings of England, and one, Ernest, as king of Hanover), and six daughters, one of whom, Mary, is still living (1850).
On the subject of the character, moral and intellectual, of George IIL there is probably now not much difference of opinion. He had no pretensions to any superior penetration or vigour of understanding, but he possessed rather more than the ordinary endowment of prac tical tact and skill in the management both of affairs and of men. He was perfectly master of all the proprieties of his station, which never, at least on important occasions, lost any of its respectability or authority during his occupation of it. His firmness or tenacity of purpose was such as usually to defeat in the end any attempt that was made to thwart his wishes in the movements of domestic politics, and indeed it was generally believed that the royal spirit of determi nation or obstinacy had a considerable share in prolonging more than one of the great public contests in which the country was involved during this reign, after all reasonable hope of success had vanished. But it has generally been admitted that the persistency of George III., however mistaken or unfortunate, was for the most part conscientious —in other words, that he firmly believed himself to be in the right even in those cases In which he was possibly most in the wrong. The credit that was given to him upon this point operated with a power fully favourable effect, not only upon the estimation in which he was personally held, but in obtaining support to the measures of his govern ment. The decorum of his private conduct also was of much service to him, as well as probably efficacious in no slight degree in giving a higher tone to the publio manners and In making the domeetio virtues fsehionable even in the circles where they are most apt to be treated with neglect. It ought not moreover to be omitted, that, with what ever narrowness of view consequent upon his training and his position George III. may be chargeable, ho was—what many influential persons of his time were not—an avowed friend to the diffusion of education, and certainly was not afraid that his subjects would be made either more difficult to govern or worse in any other respect, by all classes and emery individual of them being taught to resd and to write.
It is scarcely necessary to observe that over all our Western world, and nowhere more than in England, the period forming tho reign of George III. is perhaps to be placed above every other of the same length iu modern history for the multitude end vastness both of the social changes and of the accessions to almost every department of human knowledge by which it has been signalised. It is worth remarking however that oven the political confusion and universal wars of the latter half of the period did not prevent that space from being at least as productive of valuable inventions and discoveries, and as distinguished for the busy and successful cultivation of every branch of science and literature, as the quieter time that preoeded.
Very great changes took place in the extent of the Brinell dominions during the reign of George IIL Ireland ceased to be a separate king dom—Hanover was lost and recovered—Canada was added to our colouies—our other and much more important poseessious on the North American continent were severed from us—a new empire, immense in its extent and population, was acquired in India. On the
whole, notwithstanding the loss of the American colonies, the power and influeuce of the state were undoubtedly much greater at the close of the reign than they were at its commencement. Of the commerce and wealth of the country it would be more correct to say that they were multiplied during this period than simply that they were increased. No financial operations were ever effected or undertaken or dreamt of in any other time or country approaching to the gigantic magnitude of those accomplished by the British goverumeut in the closing years of the late war. The revenue raised by taxation at the beginning of the reign was under nine millions ; it did not reach ten millions till the year 1773; in 17S0 it had increased to somewhat above 12,000,001.; in 1786 it was 15,000,0004 ; in 1793, at the com mencement of the war with France, it was 17,000,000. After this new taxes were imposed to a considerable amount, so that the entire revenue raised in 1800 exceeded 34,000,000/. From this date it continued to rise every year, till in 1815 it amounted to the immense sum of 72,210,512/. (' Official Tables of the Board of Trade,' part iii.) In the seven years from 1810 to 1816 inclusive, about 472,000,000/. were raised by taxes alone, being on an average above 67,000,000/. per annum. In 1819, the last year of the reign, the sum thus raised was still nearly 53,000,000/. The sums raised by loans were, to the end of the Seven Years War in 1768, about 32,000,000/. ; during the American War (1775-84) above 121,000,000/.; and during the last war with France (1793-1815) above 009,000,000/. In the year 1813, the total amount borrowed was 52,000,000/. funded, and above 55i unfunded, making, with the produce of the taxes, the total payments into the Exchequer for that year 107,597,6004, being at the enormous rate of above 2,000,000/. weekly. The national debt, which at the commencement of the reign was about 108;000,0001., on which was paid an annual interest of not quite 4,000,0001., had increased by the end of the reign to above 800,000,0004 of principal, bearing an interest of more than 30,000,0001.
The collection of the statutes passed in the reign of George III. is nearly four times as large as that of the whole mass of preceding English legislation from the Conquest. We can only here theution, as having most of a popular or historical interest, the Act of 1761, con tinuing the commissions of the judges notwithstanding any demise of the crown ; the Royal Marriage Act, already noticed; the Grenville Act of 1770 (amended in 1788), for the settlement of disputed elections of members of the House of Commons ; the act of 1782, disqualifying revenue officers from voting at elections, and govern ment contractors from sitting in the house; the act of 1792 (com monly called Fox's Libel Law), declaring the right of juries to judge of the law as well as of the fact in eases of libel; the act of 1801, excluding clergymen from the house of Commons; the act of 1807, abolishing the slave trade; Sir Samuel Hominy's acts of 1811 and 1818, for the amelioration of the criminal law ; the act of 1813, abolishing the penalties aud ineapacities to which Unitarians were formerly subjected; the act of 1819, abolishing the appeal of battle in cases of murder ; the Foreign Enlistment Act, of the same year ; and the acts of that year for the suppression of blasphemy and sedition, commonly called the Six Acts.