THE CHARACTER OF KING WILLIAM III. To THE EDITOR OF
THE "SPECTATOR."
SIH,—In your last number of the 23rd of April, in an article rela- tive to the Villiers family (second group), a passage occurs which might better have been omitted. It is the raking up and trying to confirm an old calumny that the Countess of Orkney was a mistress of King William III.
We have so few characters in our Royal annals who can lay any claim to decency and respectability in their social and marriage relations, that we ought to be very chary in allowing a good example to be cut away from us by the reproduction of the scan- dals of a very unscrupulous age.
William III., when asked by some intimate advisers to allow some of these calumnies to be answered and exposed, said "No, we will live them down," and perhaps one of the finest traits we have in our history is the perfect confidence that existed while life lasted between William and Mary.
The Hamilton family, in its various branches, were great sup- porters and profiters by the Revolution of 1688, and many of these obtained far larger grants than those reputed to have been obtained by Lord George Hamilton, Earl of Orkney, or, as stated in the Spectator, by his wife ; for instance, the Abercan Hamiltons, in Tyrone and Donegal ; the Clanbrassil Hamiltons, in Down and Louth ; Hamilton Lord Boyne, in Meath, Cavan, and elsewhere ; the Hamiltons of Hamiltons Bawn and of Milburn, in Down, Armagh, Derry, and Tipperary ; and many others of minor note.
That Lady Orkney should have had some interest with William appears in the strongest light by the account in the Spectator itself. Her mother, the daughter of Howard, Earl of Suffolk, was governess to the Princesses Mary and Anne, both afterwards Queens of England ; brought up with them, it was natural that such a friendship should exist as to cause Mary to appoint her as Maid of Honour near her own person, a situation quite open to p and surmise after the conduct of Maids of Honour in such Courts as Charles II., James IL, and Louis XIV., but only amusing when applied to the stern propriety and Presbyterianism of a William III. and a Hamilton of Hamilton ;—her sister married to Bentick, William's bosom friend, her brother one of the earliest and firmest supporters. Surely these were all claims, and perfectly sound ones, that in the distribution of favours the grant of an Irish forfeited estate should fall to their share, as well as to the others of the name that had worked in the cause, without having the favour alloyed by such an aspersion as family dishonour.
From William HI. we have not a respectable character with regard to domestic relations as connected with the Throne of England until good George Ill., and from that until the present day we have none to boast of except the example set by the late Prince Consort,—only three in about two centuries. Do, Mr. Spectator, leave us William III untarnished, and oblige A CONSTANT READ.ER.
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