GEORGE IIL*
FEw British Sovereigns have bad harder measure meted out to-them in their lifetime and after death than George III. The savage innuendoes of " Junius " and the malicious mockery of "Peter Pinder " were echoed by Shelley and Byron at a date when the blind, demented old King might have won pity from a heart of stone. The fierce resentment of the Whig satirists was-transmitted to Thackeray, who dipped his pen in gall when he came to the third of the Four Georges. The virtues even
more than the failings of the King were utilised to the dis- advantage of the plain, homely Sovereign, who cared nothing for luxury, who lived like a plain country gentleman, and who was faithful to his wife. Nor has the defence been adequately presented. George III. has paid heavily for that want of appreciation for men of letters which was a characteristic of the -house of Hanover. Southey's unhappy panegyric is only remembered as the pretext for the " Vision of Judgment," and- Dr. Johnson's sturdy loyalty is actually a subject of apology to some of the commentators on Boswell. Mr. Beckles Willson has done a public service, and has produced an excellent book, in presenting to us the other side of the shield :— •
"George the Third of England," he maintains, " was a man —strong, earnest, virile—brave, loyal, kind-hearted, religious. Is if of no significance in a luxurious age that the King was simple, in an age of unrest that he was steadfast, in an age of libertinism that he was virtuous, in an age of pretence that he was sterling? The fact that the people of Britain learnt at last to reverence their ruler —this, and not the writings of Burke or the policy of Pitt, breasted the tide of the French Revolution."
We may assent to a portion of this eulogy without endorsing all Mr:-Wil conclusion' s or accepting his view of the political history of the reign. He is conspicuously unfair to the elder Pitt, not only during the later and clouded years, but in his hour of grandeur, when be bumbled the pride of France and Spain, and not only saved England, but secured the foundations of the British Empire. Nor can we follow Mr. Willson in his blind admiration for Bute, in spite of the natural revulsion from the ignorant and undeserved abuse of which he was the subject. The part played by him was one which was utterly subversive of the principle of the Constitution. But Mr. Willson has given us what on the whole we believe is a faithful present- ment of a brave, stubborn, and most typical Englishman. It is as true to-day as when Professor Brewer wrote more than. thirty years ago that every fresh investigation has lightened the load of aspersions once resting on his memory. The longer be reigned, the more he was beloved by his subjects. When dynasties were falling his throne stood safer and securer year by year. In spite of youth and inexperience, in spite of a bitter and factious Opposition, he succeeded in rallying to his side not only the House of Commons but the
nation, and it was be who revived those traditions of personal loyalty and attachment to the Sovereign of which his grand- daughter was to be the embodiment.
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