"
It may be doubted whether such a power as his Majesty desired was quite
consistent with the principles of the constitution. Parliament had,
indeed, granted Henry VIII. the still greater power of nominating a
series of successors; but the appointment which he consequently made by
will was eventually superseded, when, on the failure of his immediate
descendants, the representative of his elder sister, whom he had passed
over, was seated on the throne, to the exclusion of the descendants of
his younger sister, to whom he had given the preference. In France, the
last two kings, Louis XIII. and XIV., had both, when on their
death-beds, assumed the right of making the arrangements for the Regency
which would become necessary, the heir to the throne being in each case
a minor; but in each instance the arrangements which they had made were
disregarded.
However, on the present occasion the minister (who must be taken to have
framed the King's speech) and the Parliament agreed in the propriety of
conferring the nomination of the Regent on the King himself;[16] and the
bill might have passed almost without notice, had it not been for a
strange display of the Prime-minister's ill-temper and mismanagement.
Mr. Grenville was at all times uncourtly and dictatorial in his manner,
even to the King himself; he was also of a suspicious disposition; and
though he was universally believed to have owed his promotion to his
present office to the recommendation of Lord Bute,[17] he was extremely
jealous of his predecessor.
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