ON GEORGE IV Snt,—Why need " Janus " pick on
George IV as his most awful example of what the monarchy ought not so be? There is a point beyond which denigration becomes almost flattering, though that was not " Janus's " intention, I suppose. George IV is no case for whitewash, but it is arguable that at heart he was a straighter man than Charles I. Unlike Charles II, he did not accept foreign subsidy. Unlike his predecessors and his successor, he brought intellect and taste to his estate. His faults, and his misfortunes, are too well known ; but surely to select him• for the most damaging monarch in our history is to put him out of place.—
[" Janus " writes: " Personally, I regard George IV as a gross, un- filial and self-indulgent voluptuary, and those faults are accentuated by the fact that he was possessed of no mean intellect. But if it is desired to rank Charles I or Charles II lower still, I have no objection. And why forget James II ? "]
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