MENTAL AND MORAL HEREDITY IN ROYALTY. 375 



minds. There is certainly nothing higher than grade eight (that of 

 Queen Caroline, Consort of George II.) 



There have never been a large percentage deficient on the moral 

 side, and we find the pedigree upholding this, for compared with the 

 Bourbon-Hapsburgs and Eomanofs, the families that have allied them- 

 selves to the ruling house of England have been remarkably good. 

 Quiet, domestic and religious traits have been the characteristics of the 

 various female lines and since the direct progenitors, George III. and 

 Edward of Kent, have had the same, such have been the later charac- 

 teristics of most of the members of the English house. These moral 

 qualities are perfectly in line with heredity but might be also explained 

 by environment, either home influence or public opinion changing with 

 the centuries. 



But if we adopt the environment view, we can not rightly explain the 

 bad characters as they appear, nor the contrasts that often mark the 

 children. There have not been any very depraved since George IV. He 

 and his brother, the Duke of York, were silly, dissipated men without 

 ambition or serious purpose; William IV., another brother, was not 

 much better. Their father and mother, George III. and Charlotte, were 

 as unlike them as could be, painfully punctilious in their daily lives, so 

 domestic and quiet as to be a subject of satire on«-ihis account. 



But George III. had eleven children who have left records. Of 

 these, three were the only black sheep. Why was this ? Because all the 

 others represent the majority of hereditary influence and turn out well. 

 George IV. and the Duke of York revert to their grandfather, Frederick 

 Prince of Wales, and are just like him. William IV., in his eccentricity, 

 subbornness, simple ways and feeble mind, resembled his father, George 

 III. His vices, if due to heredity, came from further back. In the 

 generation before this (brothers and sisters of George III.), there were 

 two in six who were very immoral. These were Edward, Duke of 

 York,* and Henry, Duke of Cumberland.! 



This percentage of one third is not as high as called for by heredity, 

 since both Frederick, Prince of Wales, and his consort, Augusta, were 

 rather immoral, which should call for fifty per cent., and to this should 

 be added the slight amount of influence from such characters further 

 back. 



The generation before this contains seven children of George II. 

 and Queen Caroline: X Frederick, 3, 3; J X William, 6, 3; Anne, 4, 4; 



* Doran, ' Queens of Hanover/ p. 406. 

 t Jesse, ' George III./ Vol. U., p. 2. 



t 3, 3 means grade 3 for intellect, 3 for the moral side. 

 6, 3 means grade 6 for intellect, 3 for the moral side. 

 The mark X is placed before those who may be considered ' bad ' and is 

 applied to those below grade 4. 



