on, to a wish on the part of the government to profit by an abundant
harvest, and to the restoration of comparative quiet both in England and
in Ireland. A new parliament assembled at the end of November. The
prince regent's speech in opening it, though it noticed the suppression
of the Luddite disturbances, was inevitably devoted to the great events
in Spain and Russia, the conclusion of a treaty with Russia, and the
American declaration of war. After the Christmas recess, Castlereagh
presented an argumentative message from the prince fully discussing the
points at issue between Great Britain and the United States, upon which
Canning, though out of office, delivered a vigorous speech in defence of
the British position. Eldon, in the house of lords, went further, boldly
justifying the right of search, and denying the American contention that
original allegiance could be cancelled by naturalisation without the
consent of the mother-country. The Princess of Wales, who had long been
separated from the prince, was the cause of more parliamentary time
being wasted by a complaint which she addressed to the speaker against
the proceedings of the privy council. That body had approved
restrictions which her husband had thought fit to place on her
intercourse with her daughter, the Princess Charlotte. Parliament,
however, took no action in the matter.

Perhaps the most important measure enacted in the session of 1813 was
the so-called East India company's act. By this act the charter of the
company was renewed with a confirmation of its administrative privileges
and its monopoly of the China trade, but subject to material
reservations: the India trade was thrown open from April 10, 1814, and
the charter itself, thus restricted, was made terminable by three years'
notice after April 10, 1831. In this year the naval and military
armaments of Great Britain, considered as a whole, perhaps reached their
maximum strength, and the national expenditure rose to its highest
level, including, as it did, subsidies to foreign powers amounting to
about L10,500,000. Of the aggregate expenditure, about two-thirds,
L74,000,000, were provided by taxation, an enormous sum relatively to
the population and wealth of the country at that period. Patiently as
this burden was borne on the whole by the people of Great Britain, we
cannot wonder that Vansittart, the chancellor of the exchequer, should
have sought to lighten it in some degree by encroaching u