Accession of George III.-His education and character-Lord Bute-The king's first speechPolicy of the new reign-Independence of the Judges-The new Parliament-The king's marriage-Coronation-Negotiations for peace-Warlike operations-Affairs of the Continent-Frederick of Prussia-Negotiations broken off-The Family CompactResignation of Mr. Pitt-His pension-Debates in Parliament-War declared against Spain-Conquest of the Havannah, and other successes-Preliminaries of peace signedThe Peace of Paris-Conclusion of the Seven Years' War-The cost of the war, and its

uses.

Ir is related that, on the morning of the 25th of October, George, prince of Wales, taking an early ride in the neighbourhood of Kew, where he was residing, a messenger came to him, bearing a note from a German valet-dechambre who was about the person of George II., which note bore a private mark, as previously agreed, that declared the king was dead. The prince, suddenly become George III., showed no surprise or emotion; dropped no word to indicate what had happened; but, saying his horse was lame, turned back to Kew; and, dismounting, thus addressed his groom :-"I have said this horse is lame; I forbid you to say to the contrary." This is Walpole's relation, and this his comment :-"The first moment of the new reign afforded a symptom of the prince's character; of that cool dissimulation in which he had been so well initiated by his mother, and which comprehended almost the whole of what she had taught him."* We place this gossip of the servants' hall at the commencement of our narrative. It is quoted by lord John Russell as a trifling incident which showed the power which the young king had acquired over his countenance and manner. It is referred to by Mr. Massey, to show that George III. " was not always scrupulous on the point of veracity." Our readers will form their own opinion of this symptom of the royal character. Princes, as well as others of the higher orders of society, have been immemorially trained not to exhibit emotion; and the artifice by which the pupil of an adroit mother desired to conceal his irregular knowledge of a great fact may be paltry enough, but yet not a manifestation of habitual unveracity. Lord Waldegrave, who had unusual opportunities * "Memoirs of the Reign of King George III. Now first published from the original MSS. Edited by Sir Denis Le Marchant, Bart." 1845. Vol. i. p. 6. +"Bedford Correspondence."

+ History of England during the reign of George III." vol. i. p. 59.

66

242

ACCESSION OF GEORGE III.

[1760.

for studying the character of the prince, assigns to him, in his twenty-first year, qualities which may certainly be traced in his maturer life: "His parts, though not excellent, will be found very tolerable, if ever they are properly exercised. . . . . He is strictly honest, but wants that frank and open behaviour which makes honesty appear amiable . . . . His religion is free from hypocrisy, but is not of the most charitable sort. . . . He has spirit, but not of the active kind; and does not want resolution, but it is mixed with too much obstinacy. . . . He has great command of his passions, and will seldom do wrong, except when he mistakes wrong for right: but as often as this shall happen, it will be difficult to undeceive him, because he is unusually indolent, and has strong prejudices . . . . Whenever he is displeased his anger does not break out with heat and violence, but he becomes sullen and silent, and retires to his closet; not to compose his mind by study or contemplation, but merely to indulge the melancholy enjoyment of his own ill-humour. Even when the fit is ended, unfavourable symptoms very frequently return, which indicate that on certain occasions his royal highness has too correct a memory. . . . Though I have mentioned his good and bad qualities, without flattery, and without aggravation, allowances should still be made, on account of his youth, and his bad education."* With regard to the education of the prince, his mother told Doddington that it "had given her much pain. His book-learning she was no judge of, though she supposed it small or useless; but she hoped he might have been instructed in the general understanding of things." Speaking of Mr. Stone, the sub-governor, the princess-dowager said, "she once desired him to inform the prince about the constitution; but he declined it, to avoid giving jealousy to the bishop of Norwich." The bishop had the title of Preceptor. These instructors, according to lord Waldegrave, though men of sense, men of learning, and worthy good men, "had but little weight and influence. The mother and the nursery always prevailed." The partizans of lord Bute, Walpole says, "affected to celebrate the care he had taken of the king's education . . . His majesty had learned nothing but what a man who knew nothing could teach him." It has been, we think, hastily assumed, that this king, in his maturer life, added nothing to his scanty stores of knowledge.

Burke has described, in emphatic words, the state of the country at the period of the death of George II. "He carried the glory, the power, the commerce of England, to a height unknown even to this renowned nation in the times of its greatest prosperity; and he left his succession resting on the true and only true foundations of all national and all regal greatness; affection at home, reputation abroad, trust in allies, terror in rival nations."§ These triumphs of the last four years of George II.'s reign are thus pointed out, to contrast with the change that had taken place in ten years after the accession of George III. Junius, in the first of his celebrated Letters, holding that "to be acquainted with the merit of a ministry we need only observe the condition of the people," proceeds to say that, if " we see an universal spirit of distrust and dissatisfaction, a rapid decay of trade, Memoirs," p. 8.

*

1760.]

HIS EDUCATION AND CHARACTER.

243

dissensions in all parts of the empire, and a total loss of respect in the eyes of foreign powers, we may pronounce, without hesitation, that the government of the country is weak, distracted, and corrupt." Making every abatement for the party griefs of Burke, and the virulent hostility of Junius, we cannot doubt that during the first decade of the reign of George III. the times were "out of joint; " that a great change in the relations of the Crown to the Aristocracy had been effected; that a change of equal importance in the exercise of the power of the Sovereign, as distinguished from the power of a Ministry, had also been partially accomplished; and that the popular element in the House of Commons had been greatly diluted by the preponderance of the courtly element. Without entering minutely into the vast details which time has accumulated for the history of this period, we shall endeavour to present an impartial view of the events which indicate the policy systematically acted upon from the day of George III.'s accession-not passionately or inconsistently, but with a calm determination which showed that if Mr. Stone had neglected to teach the prince of Wales something about the Constitution, lord Bute had laboured to supply the deficiency. That policy, as set forth by Doddington, was "to recover monarchy from the inveterate usurpation of oligarchy;" and, further, to get rid of the necessary result of that domination, which was expressed in the lamentation of George II. to his Chancellor," Ministers are the king in this country." These conceptions could not be realised without difficulty and danger. Perhaps the greatest danger was in that partial success which made the House of Commons more odious to the people in its subserviency to the Crown, than was the Crown itself at any past period of its conflicts with the House of Commons. In these early struggles of his reign, the character of the young prince, as indicated by lord Waldegrave, comes out with tolerable clearness :-an intellect not deficient, but not highly cultivated-honesty without frankness -resolution, approaching to obstinacy-indolence, soon overcome by a strong will-violent prejudices, liable to mistake wrong for right-sullen angerenduring animosity. But we must not on the other hand forget that the party hostility, and even national dissatisfaction, which George III. provoked in many circumstances of his long reign, did not alienate from him the personal loyalty and even love of his people. They respected the example of his private life-his strong domestic affections; his simple tastes and unostentatious habits; his manly piety, of which no one doubted that it was "free from hypocrisy." We respect these qualities now; and knowing how much good was effected by the influence of his example, we may speak of his political errors with compassion rather than with virulence. Those errors, as far as the king's personal character was concerned, were more the subject of animadversion in the first twenty years of his reign, than in the subsequent period in which he exercised the regal authority. That he might possess the power as he advanced in life of correcting some of the original defects of his character, was anticipated by lord Waldegrave, in a passage which is omitted. in the printed edition of the "Memoirs," and which neutralises in some degree the generally unfavourable opinion which the governor had formed of the pupil. "When the prince shall succeed to his grandfather, there may

* January 21, 1769.

244

LORD BUTE-THE KING'S FIRST SPEECH.

[1760. possibly be changes of greater consequence." Lord Waldegrave refers to the confidence in lord Bute which had succeeded the authority of the nursery. "He will soon be sensible that a prince who suffers himself to be led, is not to be allowed the choice of a conductor. His pride will then give battle to his indolence; and having made this first effort, a moderate share of obstinacy will make him persevere." The pride and resolution of George III. subdued his indolence in a remarkable degree. Never did any ruler work harder, certainly too hard, in the endeavour to understand and influence public affairs. He did his best, within the limits of his ability. Lord Waldegrave adds, "His honesty will incline to do what is right; and the means cannot be wanting, where a good disposition of mind is joined with a tolerable capacity; for a superior genius does not seem to be a sine quâ non in the composition of a good king."*

The king for some time did "suffer himself to be led," and was not

"allowed the choice of a conductor." The earl of Bute prepared his Majesty's first Address to the Privy Council. The earl of Bute, the Groom of the Stole, was not only named by the king as a member of the Privy Council, but also of the Cabinet.t To Mr. Pitt this nomination must have been especially offensive; for in the king's speech to the Council he alluded to "a bloody and expensive war." The great minister, who had conducted that war toan issue which redeemed even its cost of blood and treasure, by raising England out of her abject prostration to a height which was her safety as well as her glory, was indignant at this tone; and insisted that the passage should go forth to the world as "an expensive but just and necessary war." But the duke of Newcastle and Mr. Pitt continued their alliance as ministers under the new sovereign. They were not very cordial. The influence of Bute was recognized in the smothered cry of "No Scotch favourite ;" and the uncertainty of the final preponderance of the rivals for power was expressed in the joking question, whether the king would burn in his chamber, Scotchcoal, Newcastle-coal, or Pit-coal.

On the 18th of November, the king opened the parliament. Lord Hardwicke prepared the Speech, of which he sent the draught to Mr. Pitt. When it was to be settled in the Cabinet, the words were inserted in the king's own writing which were long treasured up in loyal memories: "Born and educated

*First given in the "Edinburgh Review," vol. xxxvii. p. 17.

+ Sir Denis Le Marchant has pointed out that this nomination to the Cabinet, and not that to the Privy Council, was the subject of animadversion at the time.-Note to Walpole's "George III.'

1