fect to ridicule the idea, that the nation would be afflicted at the loss of an individual, who was never seen by thousands and thousands of his subjects. Granted: but how many tears were shed, how many bitter sighs breathed from honest, manly hearts, when Nelson died, by those who never gazed upon the lineaments of the departed warrior. The public virtues of public men become sacred links which bind their weal or woe to the sympathies of mankind. The emotions which thrill us as we follow the varying fortunes of those great names of antiquity, whose unperishable deeds have been the glowing theme of panegyric to the historian. The poet and the moralist, nay, the passions with which a well wrought tale of fiction agitates us, explain at once why the peasant and the courtier alike participated in the grief occasioned by the loss of our good king. But we are almost ashamed to have wasted even these few words upon the pert imbecility which has drawn them forth. The nation's homage which was spontaneously of turbed. But the moral virtues are of universal | all the noble feelings of our nature, who afapplication. A good man in domestic life affords a fit lesson for all to practise. It is no excuse for those who turn away in carelessness or despair from such a pattern, to cry out, "Oh! but he is a king." What is it that makes it easier for a king to be a faithful husband, or a tender parent, or a kind master, or a disinterested friend, or a dispenser of charity, or an example of temperance, or diligent in business, or moderate in pleasure, or a discourager of vice, or edifying in devotion, than any more humble member of the community? Has a monarch the benefit of early restraint and abstinence impressed upon his childhood more frequently than other men? When he obtains the crown, has he fewer cares to oppress him, and is his disposition therefore less excusable? Is he less surrounded by distractions to make him idle, or by vicious pleasures to seduce him? We are all, on the contrary, less exposed than princes to variety of temptation, and less pardonable than they are when we fall. It is but mere justice, in estimating the character of our late beloved sovereign, or offered to the virtues of George III. was like the any other, not only to record the excellence which he displays, but to allow for the dangers and difficulties through which he must arrive at it; for by them, undoubtedly, will all mankind be judged. And what, while he lived, and held his place amongst reasonable beings, what, it may be asked, was the influence of the royal virtues upon the nation at large? We are confident, that they did produce an extraordinary improvement in the general morality of the people of England; we are confident, that there has been, upon the whole, a sensible increase of domestic virtue in these islands, since the accession of George III. We know that there has been a vulgar sophistry employed, by a class of men whose single aim is to brutalize quality of mercy" twice blessed." It honours his memory who receives it, and it honours their hearts who bestow it. It was a noble instance of the moral character of the country. The virtues of the late king were precisely those which every genuine Englishman would wish to practise himself, would sedulously inculcate in his offspring, and warmly admire in his friend. They fix their throne where religion, piety, and truth have laid the foundations. A profligate man might respect them, for that is a tribute which vice is often compelled to pay, but he could not love them. The good only love the good, and the nation, therefore, has written its own proud eulogium in the unaffected sorrow with which it bewailed the loss of its revered monarch. There were no adventitious are laid up in the womb of time to be brought forth hereafter. The sovereign himself, even if he had possessed his faculties to the day of his decease would now no longer be the centre of motion in our political system-no longer the diffuser, in his own person, of bane and happiness. From a living man, from a crowned potentate, he is at once become the subject of history, and the time draws on when his character will be discussed with as tranquil feel circumstances attending his death, calculated to produce sudden and transitory impressions. He was aged and sorely afflicted. His descent to the tomb, therefore, might have been viewed as the simple discharge of that debt which we must all pay, and most of us much sooner than he did, and as a release from sufferings whose distressing character would almost have sanctified the wish for his dissolution: yet when the last hour came, all those naturalings, as any of the physical occurrences, or consolations fled, and his people mourned the public transactions of his day, The forthcomfinal extinction of his virtues with a grief as ing race will perceive whatever change may fresh and poignant as if their loss were pre-occur in our situation: it will not feel our grief, but so long as the last man of the present generation lives, George III. will always be spoken of with gratitude and love. mature. The operation produced by the virtuous life of our late sovereign, on the people whom he governed, can only be truly estimated by posterity, by those who shall measure him with his successors as well as his predecessors on the throne of England, and who shall have the power to contemplate the condition of the nation, and the state of society long after he shall have ceased, as well as before he began to rule. Yet it is impossible to conceive that the reign of George III. will not form a remarkable epoch in the British history, or that the sovereign's character, acting during so long a period on that of the people, will not have produced some change more observable by those who come after us, than by ourselves, who are in the midst of its production. Future historians, whilst describing effects which shall in their time have become broad, strong and vast, will have to retrace them in the story of our country to their original causes, which they will say first began to operate in the protracted reign of George III. So far as these causes partake of the nature of the defunct sovereign, we may hope that they will be good and beneficent, at present they are latent, they The example of our late king was indeed a blessing direct from Providence, sent down as if expressly to counteract the evil consequences of our unprecedented growth in wealth, luxury and power. We required a moral standard, that should be conspicuous as it was perfect, and in our sovereign we had one of surpassing excellence. It was a standard indeed so well fixed in the prepossessions of all the existing race of Englishmen, that our children yet unborn will profit by its salutary power over the memories and morals of their parents. It is a standard which we trust for a long time to come, it will not be easy to unsettle. If the successors of our late monarch conform to his example, they may indeed strengthen and prolong its influence. If they depart from it, even in that case, they will for a season but endear it to us the more; indeed we may say with the poet : In ripeness of years, and in fulness of glory, Our Father is gone to the place of his rest. How pure was thy life, and thy parting how blest! The angel of death the sad tidings revealing, The last sands of life in thy glass had been run, Came soft as the shade on a summer eve stealing, Which tells that the day and its labours are done. When earth was convuls'd, and her powers were shaken, By the tempest that burst in a deluge of bloodUnchanging thou stood'st, like a Heaven-lit beacon, And mark'd for the nations, their path in the flood; And, when, to the haven, in safety, had ridden, The ark of their hopes, then thy light was withdrawn, Still, still, at the tomb where her champion slumbers, And tracing the past, as thy virtues she numbers, Will honour them most when they lay them by thine. If then our present freedom-if the honours due to integrity, piety, and morals in high station-if correct conduct as a man, and polished manners as a gentleman-if the spirit of encouragement to national manufactures-if agricultural pursuits are benefits to the countryif attention to the welfare of the public at large -if the utmost care for the honour of the greater departments of the administration, which most immediately come in contact with the people, and for the religious establishment of the country, may claim our gratitude to the king, that gratitude will not be withheld by any Briton-that gratitude is due for benefits received by the nation from the personal conduct of its late sovereign, but infinitely more so to that supreme Ruler of the Universe, by "whom kings reign, and princes decree justice." May every successor of thy throne be ambiti ous to resemble, if he cannot emulate, thy illustrious example-and may the protestant church, the protestant state, and the protestant government, descend inviolate to the latest posterity. If we compare George III. either in his public capacity, or in his private conduct, with his two immediate predecessors, who may nevertheless be considered as amiable sovereigns, the comparison is highly flattering to their immediate successor. Less impetuous and irascible than his grandfather, he possessed likewise a more capacious mind, more command of temper, and better talents for government. In moderation, judgement, and vigour of intellect, he at least equalled the first George, while in every other quality of the heart, and of the understanding, he exceeded that monarch. In his private life, as a husband, a father, and a man, he was superior to either; and upon all occasions consulted the strictest rules of moral and refined decorum. Is it any wonder then, that there has been scarcely a single subject of patriotic, moral, or religious excellence in the British empire, during the long period of his sway, which has not felt a pleasure in celebrating the amiable and respectable traits in the character of George III. When we reflect on these circumstances, we may say with Horace, addressing ourselves to the British nation 1 Quando ullum inveniet parem? Where is the virtue which he has not shewn, Adieu then to the best of men, of patriots, and of kings. Live for ever in the endeared Never sat upon the throne of these kingdoms recollection of generations yet unborn. May a more virtuous, paternal, and pious king. an historian arise worthy to record thy unri- Never manifested a ruler of his people a more 720 PUBLIC AND PRIVATE LIFE OF GEORGE III. his authority, or of the great and beneficial end for which it was designed. Arduous as were his trials, long and momentous beyond former example as was the period of his reign, no difficulty, no temptation, no consideration was ever able to shake his firmness. He proved himself true to himself, his people, and his God. That principle of the constitution, which invested him with the exercise of mercy, was abundantly displayed. His was not the power armed with severity, but tempered with mildness. And strongly did the voice of pity plead in his breast, when the act of justice demanded the sanction of his name. It might be one thing, to celebrate the continuance of so long a reign, and another to commemorate the virtues of him who reigned. But, in the present instance, we are called as powerfully to the one as we are to the other. We behold the people's prosperity and the monarch's welfare inseparable. We view no spirit of aggrandizement, no cruelty of ambition, wasteful of public blood-no violent abuse of power, invasive of private happiness and public security-no profligacy of character, no forget fulness of himself, no neglect of his subjects' interests-but tenderest solicitude, paternal affection, constant and unwearied vigilance for their happiness, deep and becoming regard of his elevated station, and the exercise of every quality which can adorn the man and dignify the prince. The government of our church has been committed into hands which will not betray it. Pledged to maintain its interests, he has carefully guarded them. In the midst of his greatness he has thought upon his God. To him he has appealed in his prosperity: to him he has fled for refuge in his adversity. Christ has been the rock and anchor of his soul-a rock that cannot be shaken, an anchor that cannot be removed. If famine, or the foe, or pestilence, or sickness, has brought sorrow and affliction on his people, he has been the first to go into the house of the Lord his God, and entreat that the plague may be stayed; and, like the king of Israel at the dedication of the temple, has devoutly poured forth his soul in prayer: "Hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive!" In short, such has been his character in public and private life, that, amidst the wreck of crowns, to borrow the beautiful description of the Psalmist, "The Lord's hand hath held of the Psalmist, him fast, and his arm hath strengthened him. The enemy has not been able to do him violence, nor the son of wickedness to hurt him. And why? Because he putteth his trust in the Lord; and in the mercy of the Most High he shall not miscarry." INDEX. Address of the Lord-Mayor of London on the Ages of the crowned heads in Europe, 77. Allegiance of America thrown off, 370. Amelia, Princess, her conversation with her American vessel, anecdote of an, 145. American taxation, 295. Amount of the expense of the civic dinner at Ancaster, Duke of, his instructions respecting | 344 of the Princess Dowager of Wales, Arcot, Nabob of, letter from, to George III., 494. Bedford, Duke of, his motion respecting the Berkshire gentleman, anecdote of the, 385. Bible Societies, encouragement given to by Birch, Dr., extract of a letter from, 177. Boswell's Life of Johnson, extract from, 147. Bruce, Lord, appointed one of the tutors of the Brunton, Miss, compliment paid by her to their Buckingham-house settled upon the queen, 367. Buonaparte, letter from, to George III., 655. Burke, Mr., his motion on the king's preroga- Bute, Lord, his extraordinary origin, 125-his 312. Carlisle, Earl of, rebuked by George III., 576. attention to her family, ib.-birth-day ce- Chatham, Earl of, anécdote of, 91-anecdote Civil list, arrears of, 147. Clarence, Duke of, birth of the, 305-enters the Clevely, Lieutenaut, anecdote of, 610. Clutterbuck, Mr., his loyalty on the recovery Cobbin, Mr., extract from his French teacher, 489. Cremorne, Lord and Lady, their fête on the Countess of D-, anecdote of, 138. Dean Tucker, his Elements of Commerce, 68. Delany, Mrs., letter of, 381, 420, 454, 467, 475, 491. Denmark, King of, visits England, 326. Despard, Col., his conspiracy, 641. |