CKOR<;I: in. 



iv. 



161 



Kxcheijiit-r, aiid ('aiming a secretarv nf -tale. In 

 ls<K IVivr\al -in-reeded to the preiuierabip, and 

 this wa- the la-i administration in forming which 



ire III. had any share. Hi* jubilee \\a- ce|e 

 l.ratcd ami. I popular rejoicing* on tin- 2."th October 

 I M>! i. In ISK) Princess Amelia, his youngest and 

 favourite child, l*came dangerously ill ; the uit- 

 liki-liliocid of her recovery proved upon him and 

 li.iMi-ncd an attack of mental derangement, which 

 incapacitated him for reigning. He had siillered 

 fnnii this malady more tlian once since 1789. In 

 1810 the Prince of Wales wan ap|>ointed regent. 

 Till his death, on 29th January 1820, at Windsor 

 Castle (he was the lir-t English king who died 

 there), George III. was hopelessly insane. He 

 lost his sight sis well as his senses. 



Though not a drop of English hlood ran in his 

 veins, yet George III. was a typical Englishman. He 

 was well-meaning and intensely patriotic ; he was 

 truly pious and a pattern of the domestic virtues. 

 His reign was marked by many vicissitudes, and 

 it extended over sixty years. Decisive battles in 

 America, India, and Europe were fought during its 

 course, and many grand conquests were achieved. 

 Great statesmen, such as Chatham, Pitt, and Fox, 

 adorned it ; great captains, such as Nelson and Wel- 

 lington, made their names immortal ; the greatest 

 names in modern English literature then rose above 

 the horizon ; parliamentary oratory was at its 

 zenith, and nothing was wanting to render the reign 

 the most glorious in the country's annals but greater 

 discretion on the part of the king. If George III. 

 hail l>een a little less of the typical Englishman, he 

 might have been a more admirable sovereign. It 

 was chiefly owing to his prejudices being respected 

 by those who ought to have opposed them that war 

 took the place or conciliation in America, and that 

 war was prosecuted against France, when the in- 

 terests of the country demanded neutrality among 

 the contending powers on the Continent. When 

 George III. ascended the throne the national debt, 

 in round numbers, was 138,000,000 sterling; before 

 his death it was upwards of 800,000,000. On 

 the other hand, the trade and commerce of the 

 country made gigantic strides during his reign. 

 At his accession the exports did not exceed 

 12,000,000 sterling; at his death they were up- 

 wards of 50,000,000. The imports between that 

 period rose from 8,000,000 to 36,000,000 sterling. 

 At the beginning of the last forty years of his reign 

 the numl>er of newspapers in the three kingdoms 

 was 61 ; at his death the number was 222. Several 

 years before he died the Times newspaper was 

 printed by steam, and the foundations or the daily 

 press as it now exists were laid in the reign of a 

 sovereign who was no favourer of newspapers. The 

 greatest of his misfortunes was to l>e the father of 

 the eldest son who succeeded him, and it is when 

 George IV. is considered that the merits of George 

 III. become the more conspicuous, and that ' Farmer 

 George,' as he was familiarly called during his 

 lifetime, appears a nobler figure in history than 

 the ' First Gentleman in Europe,' as his eldest son 

 was styled. 



See the histories of England by Stanhope, Massey, 

 ilartineau, and Lecky ; the Memoirs and Letters of 

 H. Wai pole; theGrcnville Papers; the Chatham, Rocking- 

 ham, Bedford, Auckland, and Malmeshury Correspond- 

 ence; the Letters of George III. to Lord North ; Bnrke's 

 Works; the Letters of Junius ; the Annual Register; 

 and The Opposition under Georr/e III., by Fraser Rae. 



GeprgC IV. the eldest son of George III., was 

 born in St James's Palace on 12th August 1762. 

 He became Prince Regent in Deceml>er 1810, 

 after both houses of parliament had passed resolu- 

 tions to the effect that the king was mentally in- 

 Capacitated for discharging the duties of his office. 

 He ascended the throne of the United Kingdom of 

 219 



Great Britain and Ireland after hi* father'* death 

 on 29th January 1820. Till the age of nineteen the 

 prince wan kept under strict dincipline, agaimit 

 which he sometime* rebelled. When he wait four- 

 teen one of hi.s tutor* resigned on the ground of ' the 

 UgOVtnuldc temper of his charge.' The Hiithopof 

 Lionfield, who then became hi* preceptor, gave the 

 following forecast of the Prince of Wale* : ' He will 

 l>e either the most polished gentleman or the mont 

 accomplished blackguard in Kurope ; po--.il, K an 

 admixture of both. At the age of eighteen the 

 prince had an intrigue with Mro Robinaon, an 

 actress, who obtained from him a l>ond for 20,000, 

 ami letters which she threatened to make public ; 

 she surrendered the letters for 5000, and the 

 l>ond in return for an annuity of 400. When 

 twenty he went through the ceremony of mar- 

 riage with Mrs Fitzherl>ert(q.v. ), a Roman Catholic, 

 and by so doing forfeited his title to the crown. 

 When the matter was mooted in the House of 

 Commons, he desired Fox to deny there had been 

 a marriage, and then he found fault with Fox for 

 making the statement. Late in life he said to 

 Lady Spencer, when consulting her about a gover- 

 ness for his daughter, ' Above all, I must teach 

 her to tell the truth. You know that I don't 

 speak the truth, and my brothers don't, and I find 

 it a great defect from which I would have my 

 daughter free. We have been brought up badly, 

 the queen having taught us to equivocate. ' The 

 prince led a wild life. Out of antagonism to his 

 father he aflected to be a Whig, and associated 

 with the leading members of the Opposition. 

 When a lad he annoyed his father by shouting 

 in his presence, ' Wilkes and Number 45 for ever ! 

 When writing about his eldest son to Lord North, 

 the king styled him an 'ill-advised young man,' 

 and much of the king's aversion to Fox, Burke, 

 and Sheridan was due to their associating with 

 and advising the Prince of Wales. In 1795 he 

 married Princess Caroline (q.v.) of Brunswick, 

 being induced to do so by parliament agreeing to 

 pay his debts, which amounted to 650,000. The 

 prince had shown himself an undntiful son ; he 

 now showed himself to he a bad husband ; and his 

 conduct to his daughter and only child, the Princess 

 Charlotte (q.v.), was that of a callous father. 

 After becoming king he endeavoured to get a 

 divorce from his wife, who was not more guilty 

 than himself of conjugal crimes ; but her death 

 on 7th August 1821 terminated a straggle which 

 had become a public scandal, and in which the 

 people sympathised with the queen. Nothing in 

 the reign of George IV. was more remarkable than 

 his coronation, which was celebrated with as great 

 pomp as that of any previous monarch, and with 

 tar greater splendour than that of William IV. or 

 Queen Victoria. It took place on 19th July 1821, 

 and it was described in the Edinburgh Weekly 

 Jointial by one who signed himself ' An Eye- 

 witness,' and who was Sir Walter Scott. Eleven 

 days after his coronation the king left London for 

 Ireland, while his queen lay on her deathbed. 

 In the Irish Avater, Byron writes of ' George 

 the triumphant' speeding 'to the long-cherished 

 isle which he loved like his bride.' In October of 

 the same year he went to Hanover, and was 

 crowned king. He stopped at Brussels on the way 

 and visited Waterloo, the Duke of Wellington act- 

 ing as his guide. In August 1822 he went to Edin- 

 burgh by water, where he had a magnificent recep- 

 tion, of which Sir Walter Scott was the organiser. 

 The last king who had visited Scotland Wore him 

 was Charles II. Though a professed Whig when 

 Prince of Wales, George IV. governed as his father 

 had done bv the aid of the Tories. Spencer Per- 

 ceval, Lord Liverpool, Canning, Viscount Goderich, 

 and the Duke of Wellington successively held office 



