George Grenville - Prime Minister

Prime Minister

Grenville's first act was to prosecute John Wilkes for publishing in The North Briton newspaper an article deriding King' George III's speech made on 23 April 1763. Wilkes was prosecuted for "seditious libel" and, after a duel with a Grenville supporter Samuel Martin, fled to France. Wilkes was later elected and re-elected by the Middlesex constituency. He was continually refused admission to parliament by parliament, and proved a problem to several successive governments.

As Britain was trying to recover from the costs of the Seven Years War and now in dire need of finances for the British army in the American colonies, Grenville's most immediate task was to restore the nation's finances. He also had to deal with the fall-out from Pontiac's Rebellion, which erupted in North America in 1763. Prominent measures of his administration included the prosecution of John Wilkes and the passing of the American Stamp Act 1765, which led to the first symptoms of alienation between American colonies and Great Britain.

Further information: Grenville Ministry

Read more about this topic:  George Grenville

Famous quotes containing the words prime minister, prime and/or minister:

    Being prime minister is a lonely job.... you cannot lead from the crowd.
    Margaret Thatcher (b. 1925)

    ... unless the actor is able to discourse most eloquently without opening his lips, he lacks the prime essential of a finished artist.
    Julia Marlowe (1870–1950)

    He had a gentleman-like frankness in his behaviour, and as a great point of honour as a minister can have, especially a minister at the head of the treasury, where numberless sturdy and insatiable beggars of condition apply, who cannot all be gratified, nor all with safety be refused.
    Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)