Soon after his accession, George III espoused the Princess Charlotte
of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, by whom he had a large family. One of his
earliest political measures was to confer one of the state-secretaryships
upon the Earl of Bute, a Scottish nobleman of Tory or Jacobite
predilections, who had been his preceptor, and possessed a great
influence over his mind. This, with other alterations, infused a
peaceful disposition into his majesty’s counsels, which was not much
relished by Mr. Pitt. That minister, having secretly discovered that
Spain was about to join France against Britain, and being thwarted in
the line of policy, which he consequently thought it necessary to
assume, retired with a pension, and a peerage to his wife; after which
the ministry was rendered still less of a warlike temper. A
negotiation for peace was entered into with France, which offered, for
that end, to give up almost all her colonial possessions. The demands
of the British were, however, rather more exorbitant than France
expected, and not only was the treaty broken off, but Spain commenced
those hostilities which Mr. Pitt had foretold. Nevertheless, Britain
continued that splendid career of conquest, which, except at the
beginning, had been her fortune during the whole of this war. In a
very few months Spain lost Havana, Manilla, and all the Philippine
Isles. The Spanish forces were also driven out of Portugal, which they
had unjustly invaded. At sea the British fleets reigned everywhere
triumphant, and at no former period was the country in so proud a
situation. The ministry, however, were sensible that war, even with
all this good fortune, was a losing game; and they therefore, much
against the will of the nation, concluded a peace in February 1763.
By this treaty Great Britain gave up a certain portion of her
conquests, in exchange for others which had been wrested from her; but
she was nevertheless a gainer to an immense amount. She acquired from
the French, Canada, that part of Louisiana east of the Mississippi,
Cape Breton, Senegal, the islands of Grenada, Dominica, St. Vincent’s,
and Tobago, with all the acquisitions which the French had made upon
the Coromandel coast in the East Indias since 1749. From Spain she
acquired Minorca, East and West Florida, with certain privileges of
value. The continental states in alliance with Great Britain were also
left as they had been. These advantages on the part of Great Britain
had been purchased at the expense of an addition of sixty millions to
the national debt, which now amounted in all to £133,959,270.
Since the accession of the Brunswick family in 1714, the government
had been chiefly conducted by the Whig party, who formed a very
powerful section of the aristocracy of England. Walpole, Pelham,
Newcastle, and Pitt, had all ruled chiefly through the strength of
this great body, who, till the period subsequent to the rebellion of
1745, seem to have had the support of the most influential portion of
the people. After that period, when the Stuart claims ceased to have
any effect in keeping the crown in check, a division appears to have
grown up between the government and the people, which was manifested
in various forms even before the demise of George II, but broke out in
a very violent manner during the early years of his successor’s reign.
George III, who had imbibed high notions of the royal prerogative from
the Earl of Bute, showed, from the beginning of his career, an anxious
desire to extend the power of the crown, to shake off the influence of
the great Whig families, and keep popular force of all kinds within
strict limits.
A stranger, with no connection in the country, a favorite, and,
moreover, a man of unprepossessing manners, the Earl of Bute had
neither the support of the aristocracy nor of the people. He was
assailed in Parliament, and through the newspapers, with the most
violent abuse――the unpopular peace furnishing a powerful topic against
him. To this storm he at length yielded, by retiring (April 8, 1763).