by a defect in our constitution, which was the intention, no doubt, of his majesty to obviate, by proposing to the consideration of his parliament the making a proper provision for the regular administration of government, if his successor should be a minor, for the king is never supposed to be a minor by law, but, upon his succession to the throne, becomes immediately invested with sovereign authority, and the whole executive power lodges in his hands, though an infant of but a month old; the consequence of which is, that he who, by whatever means, gets possession of the infant's person, is eventually possessed of legal authority and prerogative; and it was by this defect that the duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard III., intruded upon sovereign power, and perverted it to the destruction of those from whom it was derived. It is, indeed, enacted by the Stat. 8 William, that, upon the decease of the sovereign, the parliament shall meet, and that the session shall continue six months, but it is immediately added, unless the same shall be sooner prorogued or dissolved by the next heir to the crown, without any exception to exclude an infant, though of but a day old; so that if an infant be the next heir, whoever shall be in possession of his person may effectually prevent the parliament from acting, by dissolving or proroguing it as soon as it has met; and, as the law has not obliged them to call another, they may wait till they have found means to get such a parliament chosen as may give its sanction to every act of oppression and usurpation which has taken place, or which may be proposed. The parliament therefore cannot be a sufficient check upon a sole regent invested with sovereign authority, as its power may be so easily eluded; nor is this a mere speculative possibility, for the power of parliament was thus eluded by Richard III. while he was regent, and within one year he procured such members to be chosen as confirmed his usurpation; though when the king his brother died, there were nine persons* who would legally have succeeded to the crown before him. It may therefore be allowed that this regency bill, without considering it as a precedent for future times, was calculated not only for the public benefit and for the security of the young king, but also for the ease, the safety, and honour of the regent. It was for the secu rity of the prince, and the welfare of the public, that the regent was restrained from such acts as could admit of no remedy if they should appear to have been of pernicious consequence even by the king himself, when he had arrived at the age of maturity; but it was for the honour of the regent that she was invested with every other branch of sovereign authority; and, though she was restrained from the appointment of bishops and judges, who hold places for life, yet she was entitled by her sole power to appoint much more important officers for the time being, such as the lord-lieutenant of Ireland, the commander-in-chief of the army, the governors of the plantations, and many others; and, it was for her ease as well as for her safety that a council was appointed her, because the regent, as a subject, being still accountable for her conduct, it was of great moment to her that the consent and approbation of the chief officers of state to every important act of her government should be so authenticated, as that such consent and approbation • Five daughters and two sons of the late king, and a son and a daughter of the duke of Clarence, who was Richard's might easily be made to appear for her justifi- | tain them, not yet having any, were now more or cation, if any measure undertaken during her administration should be attended with unhappy consequences. Upon the whole, it is to be observed, that the opposition to this bill, as restraining the power of the regent by a council, and the zeal of many who are the known friends of liberty, for intrusting the princess dowager of Wales with a sovereign and unlimitted authority, will stand upon record as a proof of the wisdom of George II.; and, it must also be admitted, that the placing of this confidence in her royal highness was objected to for no other reason, than because it was thought to be inconsistent with the British constitution, to afford a precedent to posterity, which might hereafter be fatal to some of her royal highness's descendants, and to deprive her administration of a sanction which would at once add weight to her authority, wisdom to her councils, and security to her person. less assiduous in their visits to Leicester-house, according as the report was circulated of the state of the king's health; and, so great was the spirit of intrigue in those times, that when the king was once confined at. Hanover with the gout, private messengers were despatched almost daily from that place with an exact statement of his health, and policies were then frequently underwritten, giving ten guineas to receive one hundred, if a certain great personage lived a twelvemonth. His majesty being informed of policies being privately opened for the insurance of his life, actually sent fifty guineas for five risks; and, when at the expiration of the year the 500l. were paid him, he declared he never put 500l. with greater pleasure in his pocket, during the whole of his life*. The management of the education of the prince of Wales now devolved chiefly upon lord Bute, who, though a man uncommonly gifted with talent, yet, as has been already observed, was a very unfit person to whom the education of a heir-apparent to the crown should have been confided. It was chiefly owing to the tory As prince George was only thirteen years old when his father died, and George II. being not only at an advanced age, but at times very seriously afflicted with the gout, it was gene-principles of Bute, that the commercial world rally expected, according to the calculations of the extent of human life, that the regency bill would not remain a dead letter on the rolls of parliament; and the courtiers, who wished to retain their places, and those who wished to ob * was deprived of one of the most able works which was ever written upon the Elements of Commerce. The work has been briefly hinted at in Doddington's Diary, and was undertaken by the celebrated dean Tucker, on the recom George II., who was in every respect a very parsimonious character, was by no means averse to gaming, and the method which he adopted of providing for his old servants and dependants, and for his benefactions to the different charities, is not generally known. His favourite game was hazard; and previously to beginning the game, it was his invariable custom to declare on what individual, or on what charity he would bestow his winnings. He had a favourite German groom, who had been his regular attendant on all his journeys to Hanover, or as it was called in those days, his gaddings to his farm in Germany. This servant from old age and infirmity was unable to bear the fatigues of the journey, and of the extremely active life which his majesty pursued in Germany; and his royal master, wishing therefore to provide for him, set apart the winnings of one night's play, and fortune being unusually propitious to him, his majesty won 3,000l., the major part of which was lost by the duke of Cumberland. At another time he won 1,000l. for the Foundling Hospital, to which his majesty was particularly partial. On these occasions his majesty was accustomed to boast, that he did not burthen his country with the provision for his servants, for he made his friends provide for them. modation of the bishop of Bristol, expressly for which it was liable, and the cavils which might the use and benefit of the prince of Wales. be raised against it. In short, I soon found that < The history of the transaction shall be related there was scarcely a step I could take, but would in his own words, as it proves the right re- bring to light some glaring absurdity, which verend dean to have been possessed of prin- the length of time had rendered sacred, and ciples, which were by no means fitted for the which the multitude would have been taught corrupted atmosphere which then encircled the to contend for, as if all was at stake. Scarce court; and it is also a melancholy instance of a proposal could I make for introducing a free, the injury which the education of our late re- generous and impartial system of national comvered monarch received from the baneful in- merce, but it had such a number of popular fluence of party spirit. "This work," says errors to combat, as would have excited loud dean Tucker, “was undertaken at the desire clamours, and fierce opposition; and therefore, of Dr. Hayter, then lord bishop of Norwich, as the herd of mock patriots are ever on the and preceptor to the prince of Wales, his (late) watch to seize on all opportunities of inflaming majesty. His lordship's design was to put into the populace, by misrepresentations and false the hands of his royal pupil such a treatise as alarms; and as the people are too apt to swallow would convey both clear and comprehensive | every idle tale of this sort, I determined to ideas on the subject of national commerce, give no occasion to those who continually seek freed from the narrow conceptions of ignorant, occasion. In short, as I perceived I could not or the sinister views of crafty and designing serve my prince by a liberal and unrestrained men; and my honoured friend and reverend discussion of the points relative to these matdiocesan, the late lord bishop of Bristol, Dr. ters, I deemed it the better part to decline the Conybeare, was pleased to recommend me as undertaking, rather than do any thing, under a person not altogether unqualified to write on the sanction of his patronage, which might be such a subject; I therefore entered upon the of disservice to him, in the eyes of others; for work with all imaginary alacrity, and intended these reasons I laid the scheme aside; and if to entitle my performance- The Elements of ever I should resume and complete it, the work Commerce and Theory of Taxes;' but I had shall appear without any patronage, protection, not made a great progress before I discovered, or dedication whatever." Of this work, the that such a work was by no means proper to failure of which cannot be too much regretted, be sheltered under the protection of royal pa- parts only were printed, and distributed amongst tronage, on account of the many jealousies to his friends for correction. One was entitled, It is curious to trace the cause of the unjustifiable animosities which too often distinguish the lives of our most celebrated men. The circumstance of dean Tucker having written his "Elements of Commerce," gave rise to a serious quarrel between Dr. Warburton, afterwards bishop of Gloucester, and himself. Dr. Warburton was promoted to the see of Gloucester, from the deanery of Bristol, and the succession to the vacant deanery was supposed to lie between Dr. Squire and Dr. Tucker. A Mr. Allen had laid out a great sum of money in beautifying and repairing the deanery-house; and, as he was willing to complete his improvements, he inquired of bishop Warburton, what sort of men Doctors Squire and Tucker were. The bishop answered in his livèly manner, that the one made religion his trade-and the other, trade his religion. This sarcasm was never forgiven by dean Tucker, although, it is said, the bishop, at the sacrament, took the cup as a token of amity, and addressed the dean, desiring an oblivion of past misunderstandings. "Elements of Commerce," and the other, "In- | asserted in the case of our late monarch, when structions for Travellers." It was short, but well executed. It gave rise to a heavy, dull, German publication, by Berchtholdt, which, was not only prolix and diffuse, but utterly deficient in that concentration which peculiarly characterized the tract of dean Tucker. The prince of Wales was now fast verging to that period of life, when the generous feelings of the human heart begin to display themselves, and those attachments are formed, which either prove the bane or the happiness of our future life. A prince stands, as it were, upon the summit of an isolated hill, exposed to the view of all around him, and also to the shafts which malice may direct against him in the dark. That the prince of Wales might not have been fortunate in the choice of some of his associates is most certain, but that forms no good ground for the censure which was so indiscriminately attached to those persons who had the immediate control of his royal highness, and to whom he was, at that time, amenable for his conduct. People of an over-serious cast are inclined to blame a prince for choosing his associates among those who are addicted to gaiety and pleasure; but hilarity of disposition is certainly no proof either of levity or of negligence in the transaction of business; the most agreeable individuals are generally the most knowing and intelligent, and their company and conversation no less instructive than delighting. There is, at the same time, a close alliance between cheerfulness and probity; they naturally support each other, and are seldom found asunder. We sooner suspect the grave and morose than the mirthful and the gay. If friendship be the balm of life, why should the condition of a prince be thought incapable of this greatest and most rational of all enjoyments; as with more severity than truth, it was prince of Wales. Those who imagine that selfinterest is the only motive that induces men to devote themselves to princes, forget that such an opinion equally degrades every association that may prove profitable, and represents human nature as invariably base and sordid. But experience has evinced, that all degrees of society are capable of generous feelings. Princes, therefore, when endowed with amiable qualities, have as much right to expect personal predilection as any other individuals; why, therefore, should they be excluded from the participation of that common blessing-friendship? as if it were, in the order of things, that they should be denied the supremest felicity of life. A prince cannot, in fact, be happy, either in private or public life, to whom individuals of worth are not attached by that most endearing of all ties. How much then it behoves a prince to shew himself worthy of it on his side; unless, indeed, the attachment to him, as well as to any other man, be founded on affection arising from esteem, he has no right to expect any, and will certainly find none. But then, said the carping, cavilling, stiff-starched, moralists of the day, Would the prince of Wales have been guilty of those follies, which at times distinguished his early years, if he had not selected those characters for his associates, which were themselves vicious and unruly? And what were those follies? were they the consequences of degenerate turpitude, or of the precarious attachment to vicious propensities? Yes,-he did, indeed, in the company of his associates, and in the full swing of youthful mischief, break open the wells in the fishing punts at Brentford, and stole all the fish from them; some poor people in the vicinity of Kew received the fish, and the fishermen obtained quadruple the value of their property. The head gardener at Kew had one day | world. On the great arm-chair which was apordered half-a-dozen donkeys, who were lux-propriated for the person of his tutor, was a uriously regaling themselves on the royal herb-cushion, moveable at pleasure; on this cushion age, to be put into the pound. Neither the the prince deposited a small portion of pitch, prince of Wales, nor his brother Edward, saw which being brought into a state of softness by any crime in the act which the asses had com- the warmth of the tutor's body, its adhesive mitted, and, assisted by a few of his associates, powers were called into action; and when the the animals were soon at liberty; and having tutor rose, the cushion either stuck so close to once tasted of the sweets of the royal pastures, him, or he to the cushion, that it appeared as an they were soon seen frisking about them again, ornamental appendage to him. But this was to the no small delight of their liberators. not all; in the interior of the full-bottomed wig, a small portion of the same resinous ingredient was deposited, which, owing perhaps to its proximity to a heated brain, gradually diffused itself over the head and caused the wig to stick so close that it could not be detached without the aid of scissors, leaving that portion of the wig upon the head, where the pitch had exercised its influence*. But as a proof of the revengeful disposition of the young prince, the following story was circulated. His tutor had one day most severely reprimanded him for a neglect of his studies; and the prince, like all other youths who undergo correction, conceived that the trivial fault which he had committed was by no means commensurate to the reproof with which he had been visited. The harangue of the tutor closed with a positive injunction that in future he should stick closer to his studies. A wig was in those days an indispensable appendage to gentlemen of the liberal professions; but it does not follow that a tutor at that time, because he wore a wig was consequently more fitted for the important duties of his station, than a lawyer in our days, because he wears a wig, is by its virtue endowed with a knowledge of the laws of the country. It is certain that the prince of Wales entertained a high degree of regard for his tutor, but his severe injunction of sticking close to his studies, had a particular dissonant sound, which was very grating to the ears of his royal highness, and he resolved, if he stuck close, he would not be charged with singularity in the J These and other such like follies, the effect of the thoughtlessness and inconsideration of youth, were quoted as proofs of the dangerous consequences which would result to the young prince by an attachment to the associates which he had then selected for himself. His censurers saw not in those acts, merely the warm ebullition of a youthful temper joined to a knowledge of the high station which he filled, and therefore uneasy under every species of restraint, but they saw in them also the future indication of a vicious and dissolute prince. History, however, furnishes abundant proof that the greatest and wisest princes have had their friends and intimates, and were evidently indebted to them for much of their fame and prosperity. Henry IV. of France, for instance, I beg leave thus publicly to acknowledge, in the most grateful manner, the kindness which I have received from one of the most enlightened noblemen of the present age, and who possesses one of the first private libraries in the world, in permitting me to transcribe the above incidents from a most scarce work, entitled " Nursery Anecdotes, or a Prince's Frolics." The publication of this work was evidently undertaken with the most sinister views, but which were happily frustrated by the energetic measures of one of the most celebrated politicians of his times. |