'Queen's House, Feb. 4th, 1774. 46 min. pt. 6 p.m.

'LORD NORTH,-Since you left me this day, I have seen Lieutenant-General Gage, who came to express his readiness, though so lately come from America, to return at a day's notice, if the conduct of the Colonies should induce the directing coercive measures. His language was very consonant to his character of an honest determined man. He says they will be lyons, whilst we are lambs; but, if we take the resolute part, they will undoubtedly prove very meek. He thinks the four regiments intended to relieve as many regiments in America, if sent to Boston, are sufficient to prevent any disturbance. I wish you would see him, and hear his ideas as to the mode of compelling Boston to submit to whatever may be thought necessary; indeed, all men seem now to feel that the fatal compliance in 1766 has encouraged the Americans annually to encrease in their pretensions to that thorough independency which one state has of another, but which is quite subversive of the obedience which a colony owes to its mother country.' (Vol. i. p. 164.)

The fatal compliance in 1766 to which the King refers was the Repeal of the Stamp Act; an Act only so far faulty that it did not concede enough. Burke speaks of its enactment as an event which caused more universal joy throughout the 'British dominions than perhaps any other that can be re'membered.'

The next letter was written on a proposal made by General Gage that the Penal Acts against the Colonists should be repealed. Mr. Donne quotes the following passage from Bancroft which testifies to the multiplicity of the General's difficulties and his expedients :

'Gage (says Mr. Bancroft*), who came flushed with confidence in an easy victory, at the end of four months was careworn, disheartened, and appalled. With the forces under his command, he hoped for no more than to pass the winter unmolested. At one moment, a suspension of the Penal Acts was his favourite advice, which the King ridiculed as senseless; at the next he demanded an army of twenty thousand men, to be composed of Canadian recruits, Indians, and hirelings from the continent of Europe; again, he would bring the Americans to terms by casting them off as fellowsubjects, and not suffering even a boat to go in or out of their harbours. Out of Boston his power was at an end.'

On these proposals the King writes thus:

Queen's House, November 19th, 1774. 17 min. pt. 3 p.m.

'LORD NORTH,-I return the private letters received from Lieut.General Gage; his idea of suspending the Acts appears to me the

Bancroft, Hist. of U. S., vol. vi. p. 79.

VOL. CXXVI. NO. CCLVII.

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most absurd that can be suggested. The people are ripe for mischief, upon which the mother-country adopts suspending the measures she has thought necessary: this must suggest to the Colonies a fear that alone prompts them to their present violence; we must either master them or totally leave them to themselves and treat them as aliens. I do not by this mean to insinuate that I am for advice [sic] [advising] new measures; but I am for supporting those already undertaken.' (Vol. i. p. 216.)

Again when he had received an intimation that the famous Olive-branch' mission was contemplated by the Colonists his opinions find expression in these terms:

"LORD NORTH,-I take this method of returning the secret letter from Maryland. The author seems to be a spirited man, and well adapted to the difficulties he may meet with; but where violence is with resolution repelled it commonly yields, and I owne, though a thorough friend to holding out the olive-branch, I have not the smallest doubt that, if it does not succeed, that when once vigorous measures appear to be the only means left of bringing the Americans to a due submission to the mother country, that the Colonies will submit.' (Vol. i. p. 229.)

When the struggle had become more obstinate and more desperate the King's aversion to the dismemberment of the empire found expression in the following not very elegantly composed or accurately spelt but perfectly intelligible sen

'If Lord North can see with the same degree of enthusiasm I do the beauty, excellence, and perfection of the British constitution as by law established, and consider that, if any one branch of the empire is alowed [sic] to cast off its dependency, that the others will infalably [sic] follow the example, that consequently, though an arduous struggle, that is worth going through any difficulty to preserve to latest posterity what the wisdom of our ancestors have carefully transmitted to us, he will not allow despondency to find a place in his breast, but resolve not merely out of duty to fill his post, but will resolve with vigour to meet every obstacle that may arise, he shall meet with most cordial support from me; but the times require vigour, or the state will be ruined.' (Vol. ii. pp. 215, 216.)

After France and Spain had openly allied themselves with the insurgent Colonies, the King, in answer to one of Lord North's many suggestions of a change of Ministry, wrote thus:

Before I will ever hear of any man's readiness to come into office, I will expect to see it signed under his hand that he is resolved to keep the empire entire, and that no troops 'shall be consequently withdrawn from thence, nor inde

'pendence ever allowed.' In 1781 only a few months before Cornwallis's capitulation, he thus comments on Fox's motion for a committee to consider the American War :

'It is difficult to express which appears more strongly, the manly fortitude of the great majority last night in rejecting the hacknied 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 for peace must feel that every repetition of this question in Parliament 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 us 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.' (Vol. ii. pp. 376, 377.)

Even two months later, he says: Should France not supply America amply, I think it has the appearance that this long 'contest will end as it ought, by the Colonies returning to the 'mother country; and I confess I will never put my hands to 'any other conclusion of this business.' Lastly, when Cornwallis was hemmed in by the American troops and their allies, without the means of extrication, without provisions, without hope, the King did not despair. Every one in England-and no one more clearly than Lord North-saw the coming blow. The King alone did not or would not see it. To him, indeed, faith was the evidence of things unseen. When all upon the western horizon was to others but one huge cloud charged with gloom and storm, to the King alone it presented a silver lining of light and hope. Even when Cornwallis had capitulated and success had crowned the arms of the insurgents, the King, still ignorant of the event, wrote thus to Lord North :

'Windsor, November 3rd, 1781. '54 min. pt. 11 p.m.

'LORD NORTH will be naturally curious to know what news has been brought this day by Lieut.-Col. Conway. I have within this halfhour seen him, and as far as I have been able as yet to collect from him, that, having had Sir Henry Clinton's leave to come to England when

the campaign was supposed to be at an end, and being better able, from having later left that province, than any one at New York, to state the situation of Ld. Cornwallis, Sir Henry had judged it right still to send him with his dispatches. His opinion seems to be that Ld. Cornwallis will certainly leave the Chesapeak and return to Charles Town after having beat La Fayette, and that both these are likely events; that before he sailed a report of this had arrived from Philadelphia; on the whole, he supposes we shall in very few days hear from Ld. Cornwallis, and he trusts Sir Henry Clinton will soon have somewhat to communicate. This I owne gives me satisfaction. With such excellent troops, if such an event can be effected, I think success must ensue. I feel the justness of our cause; I put the greatest confidence in [the] valour of both navy and army, and, above all, in the assistance of Divine Providence. The moment is certainly anxious; the dye is now cast whether this shall [continue?] a great empire or the least dignified of the European States. The object is certainly worth struggling for, and I trust the nation is equally determined with myself to meet the conclusion with firmness.' (Vol. ii. pp. 386, 387.)

We have now quoted abundantly from this very interesting correspondence, which derives additional value from the care bestowed by its conscientious editor Mr. Donne. And what is the impression which it leaves on our minds respecting the King's character and capacity? On the whole, it is, we think, not an unfavourable impression. But it is more favourable to him as a man than as a King, certainly as a constitutional King. Firmness hardened into invincible obstinacy, a love of authority and control, which, could it have been fully gratified, would have left very little room for the action of Parliament; and an habitual prejudice against individual statesmen which is incompatible with the principles of a limited monarchy. Had George III. been born heir to absolute sovereignty, his reign would have been one of the luckiest accidents possible for his subjects. He had certain qualities which win for absolute monarchs the loyalty of their people and the devotion of their personal adherents. His theory of government somewhat resembled that of the governor of a crown colony, assisted, but not controlled, by his council. As it was, George III. was after 1790 extremely popular with the bulk of the English people, who knew nothing of his relations towards the leaders of political parties, and cared little for the punctilios of constitutional government. To the traders and bankers outside the circle of metropolitan agitation-to the squirearchy in the country, to the middle-class inhabitants of provincial towns-above all, to the clergy and the yeomanry, it was a matter of supreme indifference that their King was suspected of intriguing to oust George Grenville, or of circumventing Lord Rockingham, or of

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conspiring to make the Great Commoner unpopular, or holding in reserve a corps of devoted official Janizaries prepared to upset his recognised Ministers. To some of them the worst of these suspicions appeared-and we think, justly appeared-to be destitute of foundation. To the majority they appeared utterly unimportant. They saw in the King a man who practised the virtues which they themselves most admired, and reflected the prejudices by which they themselves were mainly actuated. He was temperate, he was frugal, he was industrious, he was devout, he was courageous, he was affectionate. Did not the King work harder at public business than the generality of merchants worked at their own? Was not his dinner the model of a gentleman-farmer's family dinner? Did not the King ride about the country without pomp, and talk to yeomen and farmers like the good farmer George' that he was? Did he not keep his accounts with marvellous minuteness? Did he not date each of his letters with a methodical precision and particularity unrivalled by scriveners, bankers, and lawyers? Again, had not they seen him on the day of his coronation, unadvised by precedent or counsel, himself doff the Royal Crown that he might with becoming humility partake of the Holy Communion? They knew too how, on ascending the throne, he had rebuked a courtly preacher for a too adulatory sermon, and how he had written to Most Reverend Prelates to express his disapprobation of the secular festivities which had violated the traditional sanctity of episcopal palaces. At a period later than that of Lord North's Ministry good and thoughtful persons were melted into tears at the spectacle of the aged monarch going to the great metropolitan cathedral to return humble thanks to the Almighty for His goodness in restoring him from the dread darkness of a malady worse than death, to life, reason, and health. They knew too that on occasions which made Ministers and Privy Councillors mute through fear, the King alone had breathed courage into the cowed and hesitating circle. It was to his promptitude and spirit that London owed its rescue from the anarchy, at once shameful and terrible, with which the grotesque fanaticism of Lord G. Gordon had afflicted it. It was the King who took down on the spot Wedderburn's opinion that the troops might be legally employed: it was the King who ordered them to be called out: it was the King who declared his readiness to lead them. When an angry mob pelted the royal carriage on its way to Westminster, and his courtiers turned pale at the rude assault, the King alone was calm and undismayed; when fired at in the theatre, he alone of the royal party retained his