The Lone Monarch. By Guy Boustead. (The Bodley Head. 15s.)
THE title of this book is by no means inaccurate as a descrip- tion of George III. He was indeed a lonely man, not only 23 the representative of a decaying ideal, but also because of the mental inadequacy which is evident in all the phases of his un- happy life. His " policy " was never anything more than a purely personal attitude ; the attitude of a• neurotic who clings tenaciously to the support of personal privilege, and who endea- vours to repair, with angry haste, every breach in his personal defences. That he should have been a king was a personal tragedy : perhaps a national tragedy also. Mr. Boustead's book is not written from this point of ley'. It is, upon the whole, a well-constructed, honest work, not ex- hibiting a high degree of literary elegance, but obviously
sincere.
As the book is not intended to be a work of scholarship, Mr. Boustead may be excused for not giving, in every case, the
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source of his quotations; but it is singular that he should have omitted from his brief Bibliography a recent volume of such importance as The Bute Letters (1756-66), which is indispensable to a proper understanding of the king. It is observable, also, that the name of a most eminent authority—Professor Namier--tins not appear, either in the Bibliography or the Index. •
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