GEORGE IV. 



409 



administration, until the final retirement of the king 

 in 1810, need not be detailed here ; while the in- 

 sanity of the monarch renders the interval which 

 elapsed from his retirement to his death a blank in 

 his biography. His decease took place, January 29, 

 1820, in the 82d year of his age, and 59th of his 

 reign. George III. possessed personal courage and 

 steadiness of character in a high degree. Of a plain, 

 sound, but not enlarged understanding, he acted 

 upon his .convictions with sincerity. His tastes and 

 amusements were plain and practical. Literature and 

 the fine arts engrossed but a small share of his atten- 

 tion, and hunting, agriculture, mechanical contriv- 

 ances, and domestic intercourse, seem to have chiefly 

 occupied his leisure. Religious, moral, and tem- 

 perate, the decorum of his private life was always 

 exemplary. His deportment as a father and a hus- 

 band, according strictly with the national notions of 

 propriety, rendered him and the queen a constant 

 theme of praise ; and the throne was regarded as a 

 pattern in respect to the conjugal duties. 



GEORGE IV., FREDERIC AUGUSTUS ; king of 

 Great Britain, son of George III. and the prin- 

 cess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, born August 

 12, 1702, declared regent of Great Britain and 

 Ireland, with limited powers, February 3, 1811, 

 and regent of the new kingdom of Hanover in 1815. 

 He was educated, with much strictness, by doctor 

 Markham, subsequently archbishop of York, and 

 doctor Jackson, and, after 1776, by doctor Hurd 

 (bishop of Worcester), and Mr Arnold of St John's 

 college, at Cambridge. With a good education and 

 good talents, the prince of Wales united a prepos- 

 sessing exterior. He was easy and graceful in his 

 manners, affable and winning in his intercourse with 

 others, and one of the handsomest men in the king- 

 dom ; the idol of the women and of the people, al- 

 though abandoned to debauchery and gross excesses, 

 in company with colonel St Leger, colonel (since 

 general) Tarleton, and others. He now aimed at 

 popularity, associated with the whig nobility, and 

 formed political connexions with lord Moira, Fox, 

 Burke, Sheridan the leaders of the opposition. 

 After abandoning his former mistress, Mrs Robinson, 

 he attached himself to the beautiful widow Fitzher- 

 bert, a Catholic, and the opinion was very prevalent 

 that a marriage actually took place between the par- 

 ties. This connexion displeased the royal family 

 and the nation. His dissipated mode of life, and the 

 building of Carlton house, had loaded him with a 

 debt of more than .200,000 sterling, his income be- 

 ing at this time 50,000. The refusal of his father 

 to assist him, compelled him to adopt a system of re- 

 trenchment, in which he persevered for nearly a year. 

 He sold his stud of running horses, discharged many 

 of his state servants, stopped building, &c. His case 

 having finally been laid before parliament, in 1787, 

 Pitt acted as mediator, and parliament granted 

 160.000 for the payment of his debts. The ma- 

 lady of the king (1788) having raised the question of 

 R regency, Pitt proposed the limitation of the powers 

 of the regent, which Fox in vain opposed. (See Pitt 

 and Fox.) The Irish parliament concurred with Fox. 

 In 1795, the prince consented, on condition of the 

 payment of his debts, to marry the princess Caroline 

 of Brunswick. The marriage took place, April 8, 

 1795, on which occasion his income was increased to 

 125,000 sterling. When Napoleon threatened 

 Britain with an invasion, the prince, then only colonel 

 of a regiment of dragoons, while his brothers were 

 generals, and the duke of York was commander-in- 

 chief, desired to be promoted ; but the ministry and 

 the king to whom he made pressing applications on 

 this subject, refused his request. He took the oath 

 us regent, February 6, 1811, with some limitations on 



his exercise of the royal power, by act of parliament. 

 He could not, for example, name any peers, excepe 

 for important services, nor make any appointments 

 for life, &c. As he did not constitute the ministry on 

 the principles of his former friends, but continued the 

 Pitt party in power, he came to an open rupture with 

 his former supporters. Guided by the policy and 

 advice of Liverpool and Castlereagh, lie contributed 

 so powerfully to the success of legitimacy, that Louis 

 XVIII., after his restoration, declared himself in- 

 debted, for his crown, under God, to the prince of 

 Wales. Soon after that event, he received the em- 

 peror Alexander, the king of Prussia, and other 

 foreign princes, in London, with great splendour. 

 July 14, 1815, Napoleon addressed to the regent his 

 petition for an asylum. " Like Themistocles," said 

 his letter, " I throw myself upon the protection of the 

 most constant, and the most generous of my enemies." 

 But the British policy was governed by other prece- 

 dents than the stories of Plutarch. August 12, 1815, 

 he founded the Hanoverian civil and military order of 

 the Guelf,and (1818) the English order of St Patrick. 

 To the holy alliance he gave his assent only in his in- 

 dividual character, Oct. 6, 1815, the principles of the 

 English constitution not permitting his formal acces- 

 sion as king. At the same time, he undertook the 

 guardianship of the duchy of Brunswick, in which, in 

 1819, he re-established the old feudal estates. In 

 March, 1816, he informed parliament of the intended 

 marriage of his daughter, Charlotte, to prince Leo- 

 pold of Saxe-Coburg, which took place, May 2. The 

 interruption of the demand for manufactures after 

 the peace gave rise to much distress and discontent 

 among the people, and an unsuccessful attempt was 

 made on the life of the prince regent, as he was 

 going to Westminster, January 28, 1817, to open the 

 session of parliament. In October, 1818, his ambas- 

 sadors at the congress of Aix-la-Chapelle subscribed 

 to the declaration of November 19. France and 

 Britain, at this congress, were appointed to compel 

 the Barbary states to observe the law of nations 

 towards Europe. The king forbade any of his sub- 

 jects to enter into the service of the insurgents in 

 Spanish America. The abolition of the slave-trade 

 was more and more strictly enforced. At home, the 

 stoppage of trade produced continual ferments ; 

 especially when the magistracy of Manchester, Aug. 

 16, 1819, brought out the military against an assem- 

 blage of people, met to discuss the question of parlia- 

 mentary reform, on which occasion many lives were 

 lost. The distresses of the poor, after a twenty-three 

 years' war, which in addition to the prodigious 

 amount raised by taxes during its continuance, had 

 increased the national debt to about 900,000,000, 

 sterling, could only be gradually relieved, and strong 

 measures were adopted for restraining the malcon 

 tents, especially in Ireland, where bloody commo- 

 tions had broken out. Parliament, for the sake of 

 assisting emigrants, established, in 1819, a military 

 colony at the cape of Good Hope, on the borders of 

 Caffraria. The foreign trade and possessions of 

 the kingdom, meanwhile, were increasing. (See 

 Britain, and Hindostan.) George IV., who suc- 

 ceeded his father, January 29, 1820, was crowned in 

 Westminster abbey, July 19, 1821, with the ancient 

 ceremonies ; and, to increase the splendour of the 

 occasion, extraordinary ambassadors were sent from 

 the other powers of Europe. Previous to this, a pro- 

 cess was instituted before the house of lords, against 

 the queen, Caroline, for misconduct, for the purpose 

 of depriving her of the rights and privileges of queen 

 of England. (See Caroline, queen of Englaml.) 

 Soon after his coronation, the king undertook R 

 journey to Ireland, at which time he heard of 

 the queen's death, August 7, 1821, On this ooca- 



