ROYAL RESIDENCES 25 



rather consider their king as born an Englishman. 

 A true John Bull he proved to be in his sense of 

 duty, in his narrow outlook, and in his pig-headed 

 obstinacy. Too soon the sky clouded over this 

 well-meaning Prince, who took pains to repair 

 the deficiencies of his education, and had his 

 character quickly developed in the light that 

 pours upon a throne. The lessons of Kew had 

 not been thrown away upon him. That un- 

 official tutor, hitherto kept behind the scenes, 

 became his open counsellor, and presently Prime 

 Minister, till overthrown by blasts of popular 

 indignation excited against the unconstitutional 

 politician, the slandered favourite, and the 

 ambitious Scot, who made a magnet for drawing 

 crowds of his hungry countrymen to the source 

 of patronage. The young King shared the 

 unpopularity of his adviser. He fell out with 

 nobles and statesmen ; from the mob his carriage 

 had to be guarded by prize-fighters. And in the 

 irony of fate, the cry of liberty swelled loudest 

 round an unprincipled libertine, who, taking to 

 patriotism as "the last refuge of a scoundrel," 

 quickly rose to be the idol of the mob, and made 

 his fortune out of the cause in which he after- 

 wards boasted that he never believed. " I never 



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