14 George the Four (ft. [\TuLY., 



with the king, this was refused by the privy council as not " of right." 

 She then insisted on forcing her way into Westminster Hall, but was 

 repelled. 



The coronation passed off with eclat, and the Queen vainly strove to 

 conceal her chagrin. Her health suffered from the effort. On the 30th of 

 July, whilst at Drury-lane Theatre, she was much indisposed. On August 

 the 7th, her life was terminated by inflammation of the bowels, which 

 produced mortification. 



In the midst of those domestic dissensions, the effect of personal errors, 

 the country had gone on from prosperity to prosperity, the result of the 

 manly policy and foresighted wisdom of Pitt, and the men educated in his 

 principles. Napoleon had been overthrown, and sent a prisoner to St. 

 Helena, where he died in 1822. Occasional distress tried the country, 

 but it rose with astonishing vigour from all its difficulties. The single 

 exception of the year 1 825, the year of the ' ( panic," is still memorable 

 for its shock of public credit, and for the unexplained cause of a ruin, 

 which for the time seemed to threaten the whole financial fabric of the 

 empire. Yet. Lord Liverpool, cautious and temperate, but altogether with- 

 out commanding powers of mind, had rather held the ministry together, 

 than governed the national councils, when in 1827 he fell into total 

 paralysis and idiotcy. 



On the 12th of April, 1827, Canning was appointed First Commissioner 

 of the Treasury and Premier. His supremacy was brief. An unlucky 

 and degrading coalition with the Whigs, visited him with public indig- 

 nation. His spirit was sensitive ; and he sank under the blow. A cold 

 caught in returning from Windsor hastened his dissolution ; and on the 

 8th of August of the same year he died, much reviled and much praised, 

 but pitied more than either. 



But the firmest ground for his panegyric was furnished by the con- 

 trast that followed in the Goderich Administration. The nation cried 

 out against this most feeble of all cabinets. It was less broken down than 

 shaken to pieces ; and after a few months of abortive experiment and 

 popular ridicule, it was haughtily abolished by the King, and its wreck 

 given over to the Duke of Wellington to compound it again in what 

 manner it might please this new arbiter of the fates of England. The 

 last legislative act of the King was the passing of the Catholic Question 

 in April, 1830 ; an act of which we will not trust ourselves to speak; 

 but which the infinite majority of the empire looked upon as the most 

 formidable and fatal exercise of the royal privilege, and which the apostate 

 minister who was its chief advocate, self-convicted, pronounced to be a 

 " breach of the Constitution." 



The details of his late Majesty's illness have been long before the public. 

 His first attack was in March last, from which he partially recovered. But 

 <on the 15th of April, the first bulletin was issued, announcing an affection 

 of the chest and lungs. The disease gradually became a disease of the 

 heart. The extraordinary vigour of his frame struggled long against 

 a distemper, which for the last month was known to be mortal. At 

 length the struggle was terminated by a cough which exhausted his 

 strength, and on Saturday, June 26, at a quarter past three in the morning 

 his Majesty died, fortunately, without pain. In this melancholy detail, 

 our only gratification is to be able to say, that for some time past, his 

 Majesty's mind had been turned to subjects of higher import than earth 

 can offer ; that he took an interest in religion, and often spent the in- 

 tervals between his pangs in prayer. 



