508 
whole world was destined to feel the 
effects, carried off in the meridian of 
life; the princess-dowager and her 
son, Prince George, then in his 13th 
year, being left entirely in the hands 
of the Tories; and, among those who 
composed her secluded court, it was 
soon perceived that she placed her 
chief, or rather her sole, confidence in 
the Earl of Bute; the Earls Harcourt 
and Waldegrave, successively gover- 
nors of the prince, and noblemen of 
distinguished merit and accomplish- 
ments, being by their own confession 
mere cyphers. 
In Oct. 1760, died King George IT. 
leaving the nation in a state of great 
internal and external prosperity. The 
Whigs in power, united by a recent 
coalition, had, by a wonderful series of 
successes, risen to unexampled popu- 
larity. Parliamentary opposition was 
no more. As a political party, the 
Tories were scarcely remembered, and 
the political proscription, therefore, of 
that once obnoxious party had quietly 
and silently expired. Nota shadow of 
rational inducement existed to hazard 
the smallest innovation in the general 
system of government, when the great- 
est was resolved upon. George III. 
had been early taught to believe, that 
the Whigs had kept the crown in a 
state of thraldom, which he ought to 
shake off; and it was, as we are told, 
the often repeated admonition of the 
mother-princess, ‘George be king.” 
Of the new plan there cannot be a 
better illustration in a short compass 
than is exhibited in the following ex- 
tract of a letter from that most obse- 
quious of political parasites, Bubb 
Doddington, early in this reign created 
Lord Melcombe, to his patron the Earl 
of Bute, twomonthsscarcely subsequent 
to the accession of the new monarch. 
““The more I think of the conversa- 
tion of last Saturday about single 
resignations, or even combined ag- 
gression, the more I am confirmed in 
my opinion, that nothing should be 
done that can jusily be imputed to pre- 
cipitation, nothing be delayed that can 
be imputed to fear of them. This I 
say in case of aggression, which I 
think and hope will never happen. 
However, as I think they will drop off 
ere long, you will be pleased to think, 
only with yourself and your royal 
master, of proper persons to fill up the 
first rank with you, in case of death or 
desertion. Remember, my noble and 
generous friend, that to recover mo- 
Particulars concerning the University of Cambridge. 
[July 1, 
narchy from the inveterate usurpation 
of oligarchy, is a point too arduous 
and important to be achieved without 
much difficulty and some degree of 
danger; though none but what atten- 
tive moderation and unalterable firm- 
ness will certainly surmount.” It is 
superfluous to observe, that, in a very 
shorttime, allthe Whigs who disdained 
to act in subordination to the Tories, 
and in conformity to the high monar- 
chical principles now revived; were 
discarded without ceremony by the 
operation of that identical influence, 
which having been for their own ad- 
vantage fostered and organized by 
themselves, was now at once trans- 
ferred totheir antagonists; and, though 
no monarch was less capable than 
Geo. III. of any fixed design of sub- 
verting the constitution, or of delibe- 
rately acting wrong, ‘except when, 
(as Lord Waldegrave observes,) he 
mistook wrong for right,” itis equally 
true that no reign was ever more 
strongly marked, or its appalling re- 
sults more evidently determined, by 
the principles, the passions, and the 
prejudices of the sovereign. No one 
succeeded to the ascendancy whick 
Lord Bute had early acquired and 
long maintained over the king’s mind, 
and those only who concurred in the 
opinions of the monarch were the real 
favourites to the conclusion of his 
reign.” 
* ,” Vide Nichols’s Recollections, Lord 
Melcome’s Diary, E. Waldegrave’s Me- 
moirs, Bp. Watson’s Life, &c. &c. 
—— 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
OME of your last numbers have 
contained several particulars con- 
cerning the University of Cambridge: 
the letter of Cantabrigiensis, in your 
last, certainly, in some measure, re- 
futed the charges brought forward by 
the North American reviewers: but 
many accusations may yet be preferred 
against it, and truly substantiated. 
It would be ridiculous to deny that 
this justly celebrated university is the 
principal nursery of mathematical sci- 
ence in the world; for the successful 
pursuit of the higher branches it must, 
however, yield the palm to France and 
Scotland. The works of Laplace, of 
Legendre, and of Lacroix, are compa- 
ratively little known there: such a - 
blind and superstitious reverence is 
entertained for the name of Newton, 
that, generally speaking, the lucid ar- 
rangements 
