[187] The king left Kew on Tuesday, June 22, 1773, and reached
Portsmouth between ten and eleven the same morning, in order
to review the fleet at Spithead, consisting of twenty ships of
the line, two frigates, and three sloops. He returned to Kew on
Saturday, June 26. "A very great number of yachts, and other
sailing vessels and boats, many of them full of nobility and
gentry," followed the royal yacht _Augusta_, and "an incredible
multitude of people" lined the shores.
[188] On June 11, 1773, the Court of Proprietors of East India
Stock determined to reject the loan and conditions offered by the
Government; but on June 19 the East India Loan Bill was read a
third time in the Lower House. Parliament was prorogued from July
1, 1773, to January 13, 1774. Sujah Dowlah was the Nawab of Oude
(see note to Letter 192).
171.
_To his Stepmother._
London, June 15th, 1773.