e from the man who was to do as much
harm to England as Bute had ever done. As Grenville had triumphed over
Bute and driven him into the background, so he wished to triumph over
the Princess Dowager and deprive her of power. In 1765 the King fell
ill for the first time of that malady from which he was to suffer so
often and so heavily. As soon as he was restored to health he proposed
the introduction of a Regency Bill to settle satisfactorily the
difficulties that might very well arise if the heir to the throne were
to succeed before the age of eighteen.

[Sidenote: 1765--The King seeks to remove Grenville]

Grenville acted in the matter of the Regency Bill as if the dearest
wish of his heart were to flout the King's wishes and to wound his
feelings. The King wished, lest he should again be stricken with
illness while the heir-apparent was still an infant, to be given the
right to name a regent by will. Grenville and Grenville's colleagues,
who were now as jealous of the authority of Bute as any subscriber to
the _North Briton_, saw or professed to see in the King's proposal an
insidious scheme for placing little less than royal power within the
reach of the favorite. They made it impossible for the King to name
Bute by limiting his choice to the members of the royal family. But
they went further than this in affronting the King. They limited his
choice of a regent to members of the royal family, but they also
limited the number of {73} members of the royal family from whom he
might make his choice. They insisted that the name of the King's
mother, of the Princess Dowager, should not be included in the Bill.
It is difficult to understand how the King could ever have been induced
to consent to this peculiarly galling insult. It seems that Grenville
assured him, on entirely false premises, that if her name were
mentioned in the Bill the House of Commons would be certain to strike
it out. Preferring the private to the public affront, George
surrendered to his minister, only to find that his minister was
flagrantly misinformed. The friends of the Princess in the House of
Commons moved that her name should be written into the Bill, and they
carried their point in Grenville's teeth. Grenville had played the
tyrant and George had accepted the humiliation for nothing. George
tried at once to overthrow Grenville. In those days a king who
disliked a minister had a very simple and easy way of showing and of
gratif