George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 5, 13th edition.

[254] family did not include his mother. At the request

chap. XII.} 1765. April.

of the duke of Cumberland, the king, again without consulting his four ministers, gave directions, that his uncle and his brothers, five in all, should be specially designated as fixed members of the council. This they refused to approve; and yielded to his wishes only on condition that he should renounce the privilege which he had reserved of appointing four others To Grenville he refused this concession; but afterwards accepted it in concert with Northington. Grenville had certainly just cause of complaint, and on Sunday, the twenty-eighth of April, ‘with a firm and steady countenance,’ and at very great length, he expostulated with the king on his withholding confidence from his ministers. The king at first started and professed surprise; and as the conversation proceeded, grew ‘exceedingly agitated and disturbed, changed countenance, and flushed so much that the water stood in his eyes from the excessive heat of his face;’ but he neither denied nor admitted the charge; used no words of anger, of excuse, or of softening; and only put on a smile, when, at a ‘late hour,’ the tedious minister ‘made his bow.’ The bill for the regency was committed to Halifax, to be presented to the House of Lords. On the second reading, they consented, by a large majority,

May.

to leave to the king the naming of the regent. ‘But who are the royal family to whom the selection is restrained?’ asked the duke of Richmond, in the debate of the first of May. ‘Does it include the princess Amelia and the princess dowager?’ Talbot, one of the king's friends, answered, that it included both, and such was the opinion of the chancellor.