24 AUGUST 1867, Page 19

BOOKS.

GEORGE THE THIRD.*

THE student of English history may thank Mr. Donne for a valu- able addition to his library. The seven hundred and fifty four letters contained in these volumes possess little interest for the

general reader, but as historical documents their value is con- siderable, and the notes which accompany the text show that the editor is admirably qualified for the work he has undertaken. Extracts from these letters have already been published, as our readers are aware, by Lord Stanhope, Earl Russell, and other writers, but the passages they have selected for insertion are themselves extracted from a selection formed many years ago by Sir James Macintosh, to whom the Royal manuscripts were con- fided. Such extracts are almost always unsatisfactory, are indeed often misleading, and we are glad to have the editor's assurance that with the exception of a few brief notes of appoint- ment of time or place he has printed all the letters preserved in the Queen's Library at Windsor Castle, " omitting and transpos- ing nothing in the series now for the first time presented to the public."

The estimate most of us have formed of the character of George HI. is not likely to be disturbed by the perusal of these curious documents. They are indeed eminently characteristic of the author, displaying very plainly some of his bad qualities as a monarch, and by occasional and brief touches his good qualities as a man. Much of the correspondence possesses all the dignity and dullness of an official document. The Royal author never forgets that he is an anointed king, but he often forgets the rules of grammar and ortho- graphy. He shows many fine qualities, moral and intellectual, great acuteness for objects coming across his point of sight, a regard for truth and conscience, an attention to details which, however, too often degenerates into fussiness, rigid punctuality which ought perhaps to be called punctiliousness, and a high sense of what God and England expect at his hands. " I know," he writes, " what my duty to my country makes me undertake, and threats cannot prevent me doing that to the fullest extent." This was quite true, but then unhappily, if fear could not turn him from his

purpose, neither could argument. George III., it has been often

said, was remarkable for common sense. Perhaps he was, but it was very common. His natural abilities were what may be termed respectable, his creed was orthodox, his principles were sound. He was honest, although he sanctioned bribery; he was patient, for he could endure long sermons, although he could not tolerate con- tradiction ; he was religious, although he hated his enemies as warmly as he loved his friends ; he was strictly moral, although he advocated duelling and public gambling ; he often acted unconsti- tutionally, but then he sinned with good intentions. We agree with Mr. Donne that George III. never deliberately attempted to set himself above the laws, but it is certain that he frequently transgressed them. Instead of regarding as a convenient fiction the doctrine that the King can do no wrong, he believed in it with as much firmness as in the efficacy of the Test Act. It is curious to notice, as we often may in these letters, how his estimate of his servants is affected by personal considerations. When ministers obeyed the King's behests they were honourable men, but when they ventured to differ from him and to take independent ground, he regarded them as " trumpets of sedition." The same feeling is evinced with regard to members of Parliament, who, if they pur- sued a policy distasteful to him, were invariably odious and con- temptible. His dislike of Chatham crops out continually. In 1775, in reply to some proposal for a pension, he writes:

The making Lord Chatham's family suffer for the conduct of the father is not in the least agreeable to my sentiments ; but I should choose to know him totally unable to appear on the public stage, before I agree to any offer of that kind, lest it should be wrongly construed a fear of him ; and indeed his political conduct the last winter was so abandoned, that he must in the eyes of the dispassionate have totally undone the merit of his former conduct. As to any gratitude to bo expected from him or his family, that would ho absurd, when the whole

• The Correspondence of King George the Third with Lord North from 1768 to 1789. Edited from the Originals at Wb.dsor. With an introduction and Natal. By W. Bodham Dome. 3 vole. Loudon: John Murray. 1867.

tenour of their lives have shown them void of that most honourable sentiment.

In one letter he speaks of Chatham's "specious words and male- volence," because he counselled the reconciliation of the colonists by the repeal of their grievances ; in another, he asserts that Lord Chatham's name "was always .his greatest merit ;" in a third

he writes " I solemnly declare that nothing shall bring me to treat personally with Lord Chatham ;" and when Chatham died, the King considered the address for a public funeral and a monument in Westminster Abbey a measure personally offensive to himself. Fox was in the Opposition, and therefore his eloquence is characterized as " noisy declamation," and Lord North is recommended to get as much business done as possible while that statesman is in Paris. He is greatly incensed, too, at Mr. Dundas, who has the presumption to oppose the Government, although more favours had been "heaped on the shoulders of that man than ever were bestowed on any Scotch lawyer ;" and he remarks that " men of talents, when not accompanied with integrity, are pests instead of blessings to society, and true wisdom ought to crush them rather than nourish them." For Lord North, during his many years of office, the King showed, as well he might, great kindness and consideration. He terms him his " sheet anchor," he offers to pay his debts, he inquires after his

family, when he is unwell he recommmends " ABSTINENCE and WATER as the ablest and safest physicians," he condescends occa-

sionally to call him "my dear Lord," and says that he shall never forget his friendship and zeal. He is sometimes so pleased with his conduct that he must needs write to tell him so, although ex- pecting a visit from the Minister within an hour or two. Indeed, many of George III.'s letters to Lord North are as brief, as unim- portant, and as frequent as some of those of Steele to his wife, but they prove at least the dose and friendly connection subsisting between the monarch and the Prime Minister. Nevertheless, when Lord North resigned his post, the King apparently lost his regard.

"Perhaps," says Mr. Donne, "the parting from Lord North was even more bitter to his Majesty than the recall of the Whigs to his council- table. But this good understanding did not long survive the fatal day' of March, 1782. There is a coolness in his letters to Lord North as merely Secretary of State, affording a strong contrast to the occasional warmth of his language to Lord North as First Lord of the Treasury. Their friendship ceased with the Coalition Ministry. The King thence- forward described his once loved and trusted servant as ' a man com- posed entirely of negative qualities,' as one who, for the sake of securing present ease, would risk any difficulties which might threaten the future."

There might be some truth in these statements, but they came with an ill grace from the monarch who had been served through a troubled and inglorious period by the most subservient of Prime Ministers.

The twelve years of Lord North's government were the most critical and unfortunate in the long reign of the King. In the autumn of 1768 Pitt resigned office, and George, who preferred mediocrity to genius, had what he preferred during the brief administration of Lord Bute and the disastrous administration of Mr. Grenville. Then came the first Rockingham Ministry, weak but honest, doing some good service to the country, and meriting in large degree the praise so eloquently awarded to it by Burke. But the King could not tolerate his Ministers, for " they constrained him to set his seal to unpalatable measures.

They made concessions where he was disposed to resist; they were stubborn where he was inclined to yield." Then followed the celebrated Grafton Cabinet, and the transference of the great com- moner to the Upper House. This administration being left with- out the guidance of its chief promised eventually to throw greater power into the Royal hands, and was therefore more pleasing to the King. He gained the power he sought for when in 1770 Lord North became First Lord of the Treasury, and during the ensuing years of political blunders and national humiliation the King took the helm in conjunction with the recognized com- mander, and pursued a course with the consent of the nation and the acquiescence of the Cabinet which drove the State ship upon the rocks.

In estimating the conduct of Geote III. at this juncture, it should

never be forgotten that he was unfortunate in his advisers, and un- fortunate also in the temper of the nation. The House of Com- mons was false to its principles, the Minister was false to his con- victions, while the people were as resolute as the King himself in their eagerness to subdue the great American rebellion ; and when he declared that it was his first duty to maintain the rights of the nation inviolate, it never occurred to him or them to ask how far those rights extended, and what he could reasonably maintain ? The ignorance which prevailed with regard to the strength and determination of the colonists would surprise us, if we did not remember the opinions held during a more recent struggle. The prescience of Chatham and Burke was not shared in by the men who were then most prominent for mental power or for genius. Dr. Johnson, as we all know, whenever he spoke or wrote upon the subject exhibited not only intolerance, but obtuseness ; and William Cowper, one of the gentlest and most loveable of God's creatures, advocated war to the death as resolutely as the great lexicographer. A little before the resignation of Lord North he wrote to the Rev. John Newton :- What course can Government take ? I have heard (for I never made the experiment) that if a man grasp a red-hot iron with his naked hand, it will stick to him, so that he cannot presently disengage himself from it. Such are the Colonies in the hands of the Administration. While they hold them they burn their fingers, and yet 'they must not quit them. It appears to me that the King is bound, both by the duty he owes to himself and his people, to consider himself with respect to every inch of his territories as a trustee,- deriving his interest in them froze-, j God, alurinvosted with them by Divine Authority for the benefit of his subjects. As he may not sell them or waste them, so he may not resign them to an enemy, or transfer his right to govern them to any, not even to themselves, no long as it is possible for him to keep it. If he does, he betrays at once his own interest and that of his other dominions. Viewing the thing in this light, if I sat on his Majesty's throne, I should be as obstinate as he, because, if I quitted the contest while I had any means left of carrying it on, I should never know that I had not relin- quished what I might have retained, or be able to render a satisfactory account to the doubts and inquiries of my own conscience.

The feeling so clearly expressed by Cowper animated the nation through the whole of the contest, and regulated every action of the King. Numberless passages of almost similar import might be extracted from these letters. " No inclination," writes the Monarch, " to get out of the present difficulties can incline me to enter into what I looked upon as the destruction of the Empire.

Step by step, the demands of America have risen : inde- pendence is their object : that certainly is one which every man not willing to sacrifice every object to a momentary and inglorious peace must concur with me in thinking that this country can never submit to." Another letter expressing the same sentiment, as it is brief, may be given entire. It was written in June, 1781, after a rejection of Fox's motion for a Committee to consider the American War :- It is difficult to express which appears more strongly, the manly for- titude of the great majority last night in rejecting the hackneyed question of a Committee for considering the American War, or the impudence of the minority in again bringing it forward, for whoever the most ardently wishes ler peace, mast feel that every repetition of this question in Par- liament only makes the rebels and the Bourbon family more desirous of continuing the war from the hopes of tiring out this country. We have it not at this hour in our power to make peace ; it is by steadiness and exertions that we are to get into a situation to effect it; and with the assistance of Divine Providence I am confident we shall soon find our enemies forced to look for that blessing. Among our many misfortunes, I feel one satisfaction that we have but one line to follow ; therefore at least diffidence and perplexity cannot attend us, and we have the greatest objects to make ns zealous in our pursuit, for we are contending for our whole consequence,—whether we are to rank among the Great Powers of Europe, or be reduced to one of the least considerable. He that is not stimulated by this consideration, does not deserve to be a member of this community.

We do not like to part from the worthy King without a kindly word. He deserves many of the epithets so freely lavished upon tombstones. He loved his children, loved his wife, loved his country, he strove to do his duty in the state of life into which it had pleased God to call him, his industry was untiring, his know- ledge of official details immense ; for many years of his reign, and especially during the administration of Lord North, he probably worked as hard as any man in the kingdom. And when sorrows came upon him—and he had many and bitter sorrows even before the final and overwhelming catastrophe—he bore them with humility and patience. He was eminently a brave, God-fearing man, and in considering his personal character it may be allowed that his moral virtues atone for his political defects. . This cor- respondence unfortunately shows us little more than one side of the King's character, and that the worst side. As an addition to our knowledge of an important period, it is, as we have said, a valuable contribution, and Mr. Donne deserves thanks for the care and skill with which he has edited the work.