Wimbledon, during his retirement from office, in Lord Sidmouth's administration, he took a public and generous mode of acknowledging that minister's merit. He filled a glass of wine, and, having desired the Queen and company to follow his example, he drank "to the health of the minister, who, in opposition to the opinion of his colleagues, and under the avowed reluctance of his sovereign, dared to plan, and carry into execution, the Egyptian expedition."

The King's conduct towards the Coalition ministry, and afterwards to Fox and Grenville's administration, both of which were well understood to be forced upon him by parliament, in opposition to his own choice and wishes, was equally candid, open, and manly. He used no arts to circumvent or deceive the councillors whom he unwillingly received into the cabinet; nor did he, on the other hand, impede their measures by petty opposition. While they were ministers, he gave them the full power of their situation; not affecting, at the same time, to conceal, that they were not those whose assistance he would voluntarily have chosen.

It is very well known, that many of the distinguished statesmen, who were called upon these occasions to approach the King's person, were surprised to find that they had formed a false estimate

of his character. They had repeated it so often, that they were themselves convinced that the King's firmness was but the pertinacity of an obstinate unpersuadable man, of small abilities and a contracted judgment. They found, on a nearer approach to the Sovereign, that it was the resolution of a man of strong intellectual capacity, a shrewd and excellent judge of mankind, well acquainted with the constitution of Great Britain, and yet better with the peculiar character of her inhabitants. They may say what they will of the King," said a Scottish Whig, of great and deserved esteem in that party," but he has more sense than the whole bunch of them."

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Indeed, however inferior George the Third might be to many of the ministers whom the voice of Parliament had recommended, in theoretical or general information, he possessed in a degree far superior to most, perhaps to all of them, an accurate practical acquaintance with the temper and opinions of the people of Great Britain. "Charles Fox," said a lady of great sagacity, when speaking of that accomplished statesman, " is a very clever and highly-gifted man, but he has never discovered the great secret that John Bull is a Tory by nature." The King, however, had made this discovery. He knew that the sense of the kingdom

could not be expressed by the mob, to whom the Whigs made too frequent appeals, and who swallow by wholesale whatever flatters their passions for the time; nor by the highest order of society, whom political connexions lead to form preconceived and unalterable opinions, or whom the eager pursuit of some favourite political scheme sometimes renders callous to the choice of the means by which it may be served; but by those numerous classes, whose education has prepared their minds for deciding on points which their leisure and habits give them opportunity and inclination to consider, and who, themselves unengaged in the game, can the more soundly judge of the manner in which it is played. The King was aware of the weight which his personal character gave him amongst that middling but independent portion of the community; and trusting to his influence amongst them, he watched for, and embraced, the opportunities when he could make a successful appeal to their judgment and feelings. He availed himself, perhaps equally, of his natural tact, and of the experience which the miscarriages of the early part of his reign had taught him, to wait for the moment when the popular gale shifted against an unacceptable ministry, to make this appeal; and he chose his time so judiciously, that he was always successful, be

cause, like an able general, he never commenced the contest until he had gained the advantageground on which the struggle was to be made. The two remarkable changes of administration which followed on Fox's India Bill, and on the Catholic question, manifested the King's skill in this species of tactics.

We have purposely delayed to mention one marked feature in George the Third's character. We have endeavoured to show him in his private and in his public capacity; but it remains to mention his sentiments and conduct in that relation, in which the King of the Islands, and of the Ocean which surrounds them, was of no higher importance than one of his meanest subjects. His conduct as a Christian indicated the firmest belief in the doctrines of our holy religion, as well as the deepest reverence for its practical precepts. He was conscientiously scrupulous, even where the grounds of his scruples might seem questionable; and his dismissing the Fox and Grenville administration, on the subject of Catholic Emancipation, could not be wondered at, since he had parted with Pitt on the same grounds. In both cases, the nation gave him credit for the utmost sincerity; and many sympathized with his feelings, who doubted the solidity of the grounds on which they were awakened. His Majesty set,

in his own conduct, as well as in the regulation of his family and household, the example of a sincere and pious Christian. His faith illustrated his conduct, and his conduct did credit to the doctrines which he received and defended.

Here, then, we pause, arrived by a circular path at the point from which we commenced. This Monarch, so worthy of affection, so devoted to his people, so faithful in the discharge of every duty, so blameless in his private conduct, whose greatest errors were the fruits of the best intentions, opened his career amid a storm of turbulence and calumny, and closed it, virtually at least, amidst national calamity, amounting nearly to despair. He nailed the colours of Britain to the mast; but he was not rewarded by seeing them float triumphant over all her enemies! He reaped not in this world the reward of his firmness, his virtue, his enduring patriotism; but was stricken with mental alienation, while he wept, broken-hearted, over the bed of a beloved and amiable daughter, and died the secluded inhabitant of a private apartment, in darkness mental as well as bodily.

Deep, therefore, is our conviction, while comparing the life of George III. with its termination, that Heaven had destined for our beloved Sovereign a far richer reward, in the applause of his own