s and death of the Princess Amelia, his favourite daughter, and
was perhaps aggravated by the Walcheren expedition and the disgrace of
the Duke of York. Parliament met on November 1, and was adjourned more
than once before a committee was appointed to examine the royal
physicians. Acting on their report, the ministers proposed and carried
resolutions declaring the king's incapacity, and the right and duty of
the two houses to provide for the emergency. It was also determined to
define by act of parliament the powers to be exercised in the king's
name and behalf. This implied a limitation of the regent's authority,
and was resented by the Prince of Wales and his friends. Perceval,
however, was able to rely on the precedent of 1788, to which Grenville,
for one, had been a party, and, after considerable opposition, the
prince was made regent under several temporary restrictions. With
certain exceptions, he was precluded from granting any peerage or office
tenable for life; the royal property was vested in trustees for the
king's benefit, and the personal care of the king was entrusted to the
queen, with the advice of a council. In this form, the regency bill was
passed on February 4, 1811, after a protest from the other sons of
George III. and violent attacks upon Eldon by Grenville and Grey. On the
5th, the regent took the oaths before the privy council, but, in
accepting the restrictions, he delicately expressed regret that he
should not have been trusted to impose upon himself proper limitations
for the exercise of royal patronage. The interregnum thus established
was to be provisional only, and was to cease on February 1, 1812, but
the queen and her private council, with the concurrence of the privy
council, were empowered to annul it at any time, by announcing the
king's recovery, when he could resume his powers by proclamation.

[Pageheading: _THE REGENCY BILL._]

The hopes of the opposition had been greatly excited by the prospect of
a regency, and it was generally expected that a change of ministry would
be its immediate consequence. Private communications had, in fact,
passed between the prince and the whig lords, Grenville and Grey, but
they were rendered nugatory by the dictatorial tone assumed by those
lords and by the unwillingness of the prince to dispense with the advice
of Moira and Sheridan. The two whig lords had by the prince's desire
prepared a reply to the address from the houses of parliament,
prepar