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than of their sovereign. In such a situation of things, we see nothing blamable in the attempt to form a party independent of any of the existing political leaders. If George III. was not very partial to the first Pitt or to Charles Fox, there are circumstances which will account for his indifference. The latter had belonged successively to almost every party in the state; and, whatever his maturer years may have proved, his youth gave no high promise of political principle. The former had been engaged in the intrigues of Leicester-house, and may therefore have appeared in no very favourable light to the young prince. They who engage in cabals with an heir-apparent, in order to embarrass the wearer of the crown, should never expect to be honoured with much confidence, when the course of nature brings the expectancy of the throne into possession. The new sovereign, if he is capable of reflection, will be prone to believe, that they who served his predecessor faithfully, preferring present duties to future hopes, will be most likely to act with similar fidelity to himself.

As the character of George III. will ever be a bright example of private and public virtue, so his reign will, hereafter, attract the attention of all ages as a most brilliant period of English history. It may boast, beyond almost any other æra, of discoveries in science, inventions in the arts, and new sources of enjoyment opened up to the world by noble productions of genius. Though the age of Elizabeth produced two or three stupendous minds, with whom no individual of the last or present

century could enter the lists, yet the sum total of the additions then made to the intellectual riches of the species, cannot be compared with those, for which we have been indebted to the last sixty years. Within that period many of the sciences have assumed a form altogether new. Black, Priestley, Cavendish, Davy (to pass over multitudes of inferior, though distinguished names) entirely re-created chemistry. In the progress of that science many kindred subjects of speculation have shared; while innumerable arts connected with the daily business of life have been indebted to it for valuable improvements. Indeed, the rapid extension of science has been even less remarkable than the success with which it has been applied to purposes of immediate utility. The steam-engine-the lightning conductorthe coal-mine safety-lamp-the processes for bleaching and dyeing, will occur to every person as apposite illustrations of a remark, which could not be placed in its full light, without expounding a complete system of the philosophy of art.

Other branches of knowledge, of equally great, though not equally palpable importance, have been no less successfully cultivated. The metaphysical speculations of Reid, with the commentaries and controversial works to which they gave occasion, will, in future times, be one of the boasts of the reign of George III.; nor will this part of its literary glory be inconsiderable in the eyes of those, who are aware, that the destruction of a single error, the eradication of a single prejudice, the correction of a single corrupted habit of

thought, has a more real, though less obvious, influence on the happiness of the world, than the most striking discovery in physical science. It was under George III. that political economy rose into independent existence; and the same reign that saw its origin, beheld, likewise, its investigations carried to a great extent, and its results, not merely adopted in theory, but applied to the amendment of commercial legislation.

The same æra was wonderfully fruitful in every species of literary talent. Where shall we find, within the same number of years, a list of poets equal to those who were contemporary with our late sovereign? Where, in modern times, shall we select orators to equal Chatham or his son, Fox, Sheridan, or Burke? Hume, Robertson, Gibbon, Johnson, may fairly be named as ornaments of the same period.

The fine arts, too, were cultivated with greater success than at any former period. Some of them, such as Painting, may almost be said to have had their commencement among us with the late reign. That most delightful art enjoyed the especial patronage of our late sovereign, and, rising from the low situation in which it had previously been in England, produced, within a few years, names to which no country in Europe can oppose, during the same period, any thing equal. But it would be vain to attempt to give instances of all the exertions of genius, which illustrated the reign of George III; for the variety and originality, no less than the degree, of the species of talent which were displayed, is one of the characteristic features

of the times. And if this age be not hereafter classed with that of Pericles and Augustus among the ancients, with those of Leo X. and Louis XIV. among the continental nations of Europe, or of Elizabeth and Aune among ourselves, that will happen, not from any deficiency of intrinsic splendor, but from its not being separated from preceding and succeeding times by periods of sterility and darkness.

If the reign of George III. is nobly distinguished by the talents which flourished under it, it may perhaps, with still better reason, be proud of the extensive diffusion of knowledge among the people, which took place in the course of it. Never was there a time, when such strenuous and well-directed efforts were appropriated to that object, or were rewarded with equal success. Nor were these efforts confined within our own bounds. They embraced the conversion, the instruction, and the civilization of the most distant nations. Scarcely could a barbarous shore be fouud, which some one of our apostles of knowledge or religion had not visited: scarcely could a town or village in our island be named, which had not contributed its mite towards the prosecution of schemes intended for the general benefit of mankind.

At the same time, the country exhibited a spectacle of industry and opulence, superior to all that the world had hitherto witnessed. Our agriculture spread over lands which had till then been barren wastes; while, by a more skilful application of the powers of the soil, the produce yielded by those which had long been under the plough, was greatly augmented.

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Our manufactures attained to an extent which the wildest visionary, half a century ago, would not have deemed possible. Our population, within only the last twenty years of this reign was increased by a third; and this augmented number was, on the whole, better supplied with the comforts and conveniences of life, than our comparatively small population in the middle of the preceding century. Enormous as our national expenditure had been, and heavy as were our public burdens, the riches that remained to us were still sufficient to make us the wonder and envy of Europe.

The increase of our domestic wealth and industry was accoinpanied by a vast extension of foreign dominion. We lost, indeed, an empire in the West, or rather, we planted a great and mighty people, who, though they no longer acknowledge our authority, are destined to spread our name, our laws, our manners, our language, our institutions, our old national recollections, the fame of our great men, over the whole of a vast continent. But this loss, if loss it is to be accounted, was much more than counterbalanced by the accession of the dominion of the East. Under George III. an immense empire was there formed and consolidated; and the world beheld sixty millions of souls, inhabiting the fairest and richest regions of Asia, submitting to our sway. This extension of our power was something far better, than an increase of national grandeur and wealth. It was a conquest and triumph of humanity. For whatever particular disorders may have taken place at the first establish

ment of our authority in these remote countries, our dominion has since conferred on their swarming population the benefits of mild government, and of an equal administration of justice, in a degree which Asia never before witnessed.

We have long vaunted ourselves the masters of the sea; but it was under George III. that the boast was. first turned into a proud and incontrovertible reality. Rodney -Howe-St. Vincent -Duncan any one of these names was sufficient, singly, to have diffused splendor round a whole reign. But the reign of George III. could boast of them all, and of one greater than all of them together. The battles of the Nile, of Copenhagen, and of Trafalgar, were conflicts such as the world had never known till then. The victory of Trafalgar, more especially, was complete as imagination could picture. It derived a new perfection and sanctity even from the death of the hero who achieved it. Having annihilated the naval power of our enemies, and left us without a foe to meet us upon the ocean, Nelson had no longer any business on this earth. His task was finished; his race was run; the purposes of his high calling were accomplished. As there no longer remained any work worthy of him, it was fitting that he who had so triumphed, should, in the very moment of victory, quit this earthly scene, bequeathing to his country and his sovereign, the empire of the seas, and the me mory of the most glorious naval exploits which history has ever had to record.

The state of the world after the death of Nelson was truly singular. While a gigantic military despot oppressed Europe, touching with one hand,

Lisbon, and with the other, Moscow, the sea was safe from the pollution of his authority. There he was powerless, as if for him the art of navigation had never existed: nor dared any flag but that of England venture to traverse the ocean. In this perfect naval supremacy there is something more magnificent, than in any other species of command. To rule upon land seems little wonderful; but for a people to acquire and maintain absolute empire on that element, which defies human power and art, appears almost out of the ordinary course of na

ture.

As the reign of George III. was a period of unrivalled naval glory, so it was illustrated by military exploits equal to those of the proudest days of our history. At a time, indeed, when we were deprived of his active superintendance, the prospect on every side was such as to inspire even stout hearts with feelings not unlike despondency. Our armies, wherever they fought, had acquitted themselves bravely. But enemies surrounded us; the world was in arms against us; and though many nations offered up their vows and prayers to heaven for

our success, none dared refuse to co-operate in effecting our destruction. Circumstances, however, occurred to render the combat more equal. A succession of victories followed, not inferior in splendor to those of Mariborough, and more important in their results; till, at last, in the bloodiest and best-fought field of modern warfare, our enemy was laid prostrate before us; the days of the Henrys and the Edwards returned, and our armies entered Paris in triumph. Would that our late sovereign had participated, though only for a moment, in the knowledge of these events! What a satisfaction it would have been to his pure and upright heart to have known, that his son and his people had remained faithful to the great cause in which he and they had been engaged; that their efforts had been blest with the most triumphant success; that the crown of Eng land had never been more rich in all temporal glory than during the last years of his own reign; and that it was his lot to transmit it to his descendants more solid and more brilliant, than it was wheu he received it from his forefathers.

CHAP. II.

Accession of George IV-Court held-Re-appointment of the Ministers-Privy Council assemble-The King's Declaration to the Council-Proceedings in Council-King proclaimedThe King's Illness and Recovery-Meeting and Adjournment of Parliament-The Funeral of the late King-Parliament meets again-The King's Message-Addresses of Condolence from the two Houses-Reasons for a speedy Dissolution of ParliamentDebates on the proposed Dissolution of Parliament-Address to the Crown concerning the Dissolution-Votes of SupplyLord Lauderdale's Motion, complaining of the Proceedings of the Commons as an Infringement of the Privileges of the Lords -Bill to suspend the issuing of Writs to the Boroughs of Grampound, Penryn, Barnstaple, and Camelford-The Queen's Name omitted in the Liturgy-Debates in the Commons on the Situation of the Queen-Speeches of Mr. Tierney and Mr. Brougham -Prorogation of Parliament-Speech of the CommissionersDissolution of Parliament.

THE death of a sovereign generally gives birth to many hopes and fears in the bosoms of different persons, and to various speculations concerning the line of conduct likely to be pursued for the future. New prejudices and connexions begin to exert an influence on public affairs. If there were (as there always must be) any measures of the preceding reign unpalatable to a considerable part of the community, a pleasing alteration is expected from the real or supposed virtues of the new sovereign: for if men are disposed to judge harshly of their actual ruler, ascribing to him the blame of evils which it is not in his power to remedy or to alleviate, they are at least equally inclined to look with a partial eye to the heir of the throne, and to flatter

themselves with the hope of enjoying, under his sway, all the benefits of which they imagine that the measures followed by the wearers of the crown deprive them.

These feelings and these delusions had no scope at the acces sion of George IV. The new sovereign had already held the reins of power for eight years; his character and habits were known; his public policy had long been declared and acted upon; nor was there the slightest chance that any alteration would occur, either in the selection of those to whom the administration was entrusted, or in the principles on which it was carried on. royal power was in the same hands as before; it was in the title only that any change had taken place.

The

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