Lord Chatham urged a conciliatory policy with the Americans in 1777. The same year Bur-goyne's army surrendered, and four years later Cornwallis capitulated. The fortunes of England were never before so low; and though the successful defence of Gibraltar, and the naval victory won by Rodney over De Grasse, closed the war with some flashes of glory, the contrast between the state of things then and 20 years before was most humiliating to all reflecting Englishmen. The king was compelled to submit to a whig ministry, headed by the marquis of Rockingham and Charles James Fox (March, 1782). Lord Rockingham's death (July 1) caused the new ministry to fall to pieces, and power passed into the hands of the earl of Shelburne and the younger William Pitt. American independence was acknowledged, and peace restored, though the king was even then resolute to continue the contest, and talked of retiring to Hanover because of the coercion to which he was subjected. The Shelburne ministry was driven from power by the famous coalition of the Foxite whigs with the tories who followed Lord North (April, 1783). The king hated this ministry intensely, and talked of going to Hanover more than ever, and probably refrained from going because of the hint that while it would be easy to reach that country, it would not be so easy to get back to England. His submission was short-lived. The coalition broke down in an attempt to put a stop to the misgovernment of India. Its India bill passed the commons, but was thrown out by the lords in consequence of royal influence having been brought to bear on the minds of some of the peers.

The king then dismissed the ministry, and placed Pitt at the head of his councils (December). After the new ministry had carried on a conflict with the coalition party in the commons until the latter had lost its majority, parliament was dissolved, and in the elections that followed the coalition was annihilated. The king, with the Pitt ministry, was now as popular as formerly he had been odious, and the tory party commenced a reign of nearly half a century. The prince of Wales was now of age. His loose life was all the more distasteful to the king because his associates were mostly whigs. As George I. had hated his eldest son, and George II. followed his father's example, so did George III. hate the heir apparent. Public affairs, however, went on smoothly, save that the impeachment of Hastings, who was patronized by the king, was brought about by the aid of Pitt. In August, 1786, an attempt upon the king's life was made by an insane woman named Margaret Nicholson. The labors of John Howard had led to legislation for prison reform. Various expedients were tried, and in 1787 the first convicts were transported to New South Wales. In 1788 the king was severely assailed by that illness which finally rendered him incapable of attending to business.

A fierce struggle was commenced between parties, the object of the whigs being to have the prince of Wales made king under the title of regent should the royal illness continue, while the tories were determined to abridge materially the powers of the regent. The recovery of the king put an end to the contest, and was the subject of great national rejoicing. Immediately afterward occurred the commencement of the French revolution, which arrested his attention; and that great movement found in him the most determined of its enemies. Before the breaking out of the war with France, a dispute took place with Russia, the object being to prevent the conquest of Turkey by Catharine II. The opposition rallied and gained strength, but Turkey was saved. Another dispute occurred with Spain, but did not lead to war. The war with revolutionary France began in 1793; and though the English maintained their naval character, defeating the French off Brest on June 1, 1794, at the Nile on Aug. 1, 1798, and elsewhere, the Spaniards at Cape St. Vincent, Feb. 14, 1797, and the Dutch at Camperduin, Oct. 11, their military character was not raised by its events.

The most arbitrary rule was maintained at home, and nothing but the firmness of English juries prevented the establishment of as complete a reign of terror in Great Britain as existed in France. Ireland was goaded into rebellion, which was suppressed by measures as cruel and bloody as any perpetrated by the French republicans in La Vendee and Brittany. The union between Great Britain and Ireland was effected in 1800, the parliament of the latter ceasing to exist, while she was allowed to send 100 members of the house of commons and 30 representative peers to the imperial parliament. Peace was made with France in 1802, though against the king's wishes, his opinion being always in favor of bloodshed, unless his enemy should unconditionally submit. The French had been driven out of Egypt, and Malta captured from them. The peace was but a hollow truce, and the refusal of the English to give up Malta led to the renewal of the war in 1803. The Pitt ministry had broken down in 1801, really on the question of peace with France, but ostensibly because of the king's bigotry, he refusing relief to the Catholics, though it had been understood that it was to be granted as one of the conditions of the Irish union.

Henry Ad-dington became premier, and kept his post until after the renewal of the war, when Pitt returned to office. The threats of Napoleon to invade England, and the vast preparations he made for that purpose, caused the people to rally around the throne, and an immense force was on foot, of regulars, militia, and volunteers, while the navy was much increased. Spain was drawn into the war on the side of France, and their united fleets were destroyed in Nelson's victory at Trafalgar (1805), which made England irresistible on the ocean, and settled the invasion question for that generation. For some time the war on the part of England was chiefly confined to the ocean, though she assisted the enemies of France with money. Such military expeditions as she fitted out were on a small scale, and mostly failed. In South America, in Egypt, in the north of Europe, her armies either were beaten or accomplished nothing; and it was not until the breaking out of the Peninsular war in 1808 that, under the command of Moore and Wellesley, they performed anything worthy of the high name of their country. Pitt died in 1806, and the government passed into the hands of a coalition ministry, of which Lord Grenville and Mr. Fox were the chiefs.

The object of the latter was the restoration of peace with France, but he died before anything could be done. The coalition endeavored to grant some relief to the Catholics, but the king got rid of them, and a ministry of tories was formed, headed by the duke of Portland (end of March, 1807). This ministry was probably the worst England ever had, and though it succeeded in the attack on Denmark, taking possession of the Danish fleet, the immorality of that attack more than balanced its success. Operations in Spain and Portugal were badly conducted; and the Walcheren expedition in 1809, which might have struck a deadly blow at Napoleon's power while he was combating Austria on the Danube, was probably the worst managed undertaking even in English history. This failure led to the breaking up of the Portland ministry, for which the Perceval ministry was substituted, an improvement on its predecessor, inasmuch as Marquis Wellesley took the foreign office. The commencement of the 50th year of the king's reign, October, 1809, was observed as a jubilee. There was little occasion for rejoicing.

The war had failed utterly on land; France ruled almost the whole of continental Europe; the disputes with the United States threatened to add a new enemy to those England already had; while the conduct of some of the king's sons was flagrantly profligate. His second son, the duke of York, was compelled to resign the post of commander-in-chief, in consequence of the exposures made by Mrs. Clarke. In 1810 died the princess Amelia, the king's youngest and favorite daughter, and the king suffered so much from anxiety during her illness that he lost his reason for ever. More than once he had been raving mad. The first indication of his disease appeared on the very day of the completion of the 50th year of his reign, Oct. 25, 1810. His reign ceased in fact from that date, although in law it lasted more than nine years longer. The prince of Wales became prince regent by act of parliament on Feb. 5, 1811. The national events of the regency will be found under the title George IV. The care of the king's person was given first to the queen, and in 1819 to the duke of York. To his early education George III. owed a want of frankness and a moodiness when angry which did him much harm.

But though he began his reign ignorant and ill educated, he learned much, and his last years of rule were as popular as the first had been unpopular. His original purpose to make himself an arbitrary monarch yielded to the rebuffs of his many defeats, and his personal morality and manly integrity and piety caused him to be respected and even beloved. A weak man naturally, and perhaps never strictly sane, he reigned 50 years, and left a memory in refreshing contrast with that of his immoral and un-English predecessors.