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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: 135 CHAPTER V. REGENCY RESOLUTIONS. 1810-1811. Critical Position of Government?Lord Sidmouth and Canning? Lord Wellesley?Propositions made to Canning and Castle- reagh?Correspondence of Canning, Castlereagh, and Perceval? Death of the Princess Amelia? Illness of the King? Meeting of Privy Council?Medical Examination of the King?Regency proposed?Limitations of the Regency?Protest of the Prince of Wales? Growing Reputation of Perceval? Difficulties of his Position?Painful Situation of Lord Gren- ville. Parliament was prorogued on the 21st June. The Session had been more prosperous than the most hopeful of Perceval's friends had anticipated. The Ministry had survived every danger; it had been subjected to only occasional defeat. The resolution of its chief Advocate in the House of Commons, and the dissensions of the Opposition had combined to preserve it from Parliamentary peril. But, at the same time, the experience of the Session had decisively demonstrated the critical condition of the Government. Its existence depended on the support of persons who might at anymoment be driven into opposition. The small knot of men, who had allied themselves with Lord Sid- mouth, and the still smaller group who had identified themselves with Canning, were able at any moment to convert the Ministerial majority into a minority. Bathurst's defection, in the beginning of the Session, had' led to the defeat of the Government on the Walcheren Committee; Canning's desertion, towards the close, had contributed to Bankes' successive victories on the Sinecure Resolutions. Under such circumstances it was obviously the policy of the Minister to attempt to permanently attach to himself one of these two parties. Canning had been his colleague; Sidmouth had been his former leader; ther...