The power of Wesley’s appeal was like that of the great Puritan movement of the seventeenth century (SS378, 417).  Nothing more effective had been heard since the days when Augustine and his band of monks set forth on their mission among the barbarous Saxons (S42).  The results answered fully to the zeal that awakened them.  Better than the growing prosperity of extending commerce, better than all the conquests made by the British flag in the east or west, was the new religious spirit which stirred the people of both England and America.  It provoked the National Church to emulation in good works; it planted schools, checked intemperance, and brought into vigorous activity whatever was best and bravest in a race that when true to itself is excelled by none.

547.  Summary.

The history of the reign may be summed up in the great Religious Movement begun by John Wesley, which has just been described, and in the Asiatic, Continental, and American wars with France, which ended in the extension of the power of Great Britain in both hemispheres,—­ in India in the Old World and in North America in the New.

George III—­1760-1820

548.  Accession and Character; the King’s Struggle with the Whigs.

By the death of George II his grandson,[1] George III, now came to the throne.  The new King was a man of excellent character, who prided himself on having been born an Englishman.  He had the best interests of his country at heart, but he lacked many of the qualities necessary to be a great ruler.  He was thoroughly conscientious, but he was narrow and stubborn to the last degree and he was at times insane.

[1] Frederick, Prince of Wales, George II’s son, died before his father, leaving his son George heir to the throne.  See Genealogical Table, p. 323.

His mother, who had seen how ministers and parties ruled in England (S534), resolved that her son should have the control.  Her constant injunction to the young Prince was, “Be King, George, be King!” so that when he came to power George was determined to be King if self-will could make him one.[2]

[2] See Summary of Constitutional History in the Appendix, p.xxv, S28.

But beneath this spirit of self-will there was a moral principle.  In being King, George III intended to carry out a reform such as neither George I nor George II could have accomplished, supposing that either one had possessed the desire to undertake it.

The great Whig (SS479, 507) families of rank and wealth had now held uninterrupted possession of the government for nearly half a century.  Their influence was so supreme that the sovereign had practically become a mere cipher, dependent for his authority on the political support which he received.  The King was resolved that this state of things should continue no longer.  He was determined to reassert the royal authority, secure a government which should reflect his principles, and have a ministry to whom he could dictate, instead of one that dictated to him.