none that was not matted and filthy, though without oil or grease, and to our great astonishment free from lice. Their beards were of the same color with their hair, and bushy and thick; they are not, however, suffered to grow long. A man whom we had seen one day with his beard somewhat longer than his companions, we saw the next with it somewhat shorter, and upon examination found the ends of the hairs burnt. From this incident, and our having never seen any sharp instrument among them, we concluded that both the hair and the beard were kept short by singeing them.

They appeared to have no fixed habitations, for we saw Native houses nothing like a town or village in the whole country. Their houses, if houses they may be called, seemed to be formed with less art and industry than any we had seen, except the wretched hovels at Tierra del Fuego, and in some respects they are inferior even to them. At Botany Bay, where they were best, they were just high enough for a man to sit upright in, but not large enough for him to extend himself in his whole length in any direction. They are built with pliable rods about as thick as a man's finger, in the form of an oven, by sticking the two ends into the ground, and then covering them with palm leaves and broad pieces of bark. The door is nothing but a large hole at one end, opposite to which the fire is made, as we perceived by the ashes. Under these houses, or sheds, they sleep, coiled up with their heels to their head, and in this position one of them will hold three or four persons.

CHAPTER XVIII

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION, AMERICAN REVOLUTION,

FRENCH REVOLUTION, 1763-1815

1. GEORGE III AND THE NEW MINISTRY

The following account of George III was written in 1758, two years before he became king. It is by Lord Waldegrave, an official at the court, who had abundant opportunity for observation.

365. A perThe Prince of Wales is entering into his twenty-first year, sonal descrip- and it would be unfair to decide upon his character in the early George III in stages of life, when there is so much time for improvement.

tion of

1758

His parts, though not excellent, will be found very tolerable, if ever they are properly exercised. He is strictly honest, but wants that frank and open behavior which makes honesty appear amiable. When he had a very scanty allowance, it was one of his favorite maxims that men should be just before they are generous: his income is now very considerably augmented, but his generosity has not increased in equal proportion. His religion is free from hypocrisy, but is not of the most charitable sort; he has rather too much attention to the sins of his neighbor.

He has spirit, but not of the active kind; and does not want resolution, but it is mixed with too much obstinacy. He has great command of his passions, and will seldom do wrong, except when he mistakes wrong for right; but as often as this shall happen, it will be difficult to undeceive him, because he is uncommonly indolent and has strong prejudices.

His want of application and aversion to business would be far less dangerous, was he eager in the pursuit of pleasure;

for the transition from pleasure to business is both shorter and easier than from a state of total inaction.

He has a kind of unhappiness in his temper which, if it be not conquered before it has taken too deep a root, will be a source of frequent anxiety. Whenever he is displeased, his anger does not break out with heat and violence, but he becomes sullen and silent, and retires to his closet; not to compose his mind by study or contemplation, but merely to indulge the melancholy enjoyment of his own ill humor. Even when the fit is ended, unfavorable symptoms very frequently return, which indicate that on certain occasions his royal highness has too correct a memory.

Though I have mentioned his good and bad qualities, without flattery and without aggravation, allowances should still be made, on account of his youth and his bad education. . . . The mother and the nursery always prevailed.

During the course of the last year there has, indeed, been some alteration; the authority of the nursery has gradually declined, and the earl of Bute, by the assistance of the mother, has now the entire confidence. But whether this change will be greatly to his royal highness's advantage is a nice question, which cannot hitherto be determined with any certainty.

Two more of the letters of Horace Walpole may be used to describe the circumstances of the accession of the young king, George III, and the resignation of William Pitt that followed close upon it.

Sir Horace

As I suppose your curiosity about the new reign is not les- 366. Horace sened by being at such a distance, I am, you see, prompt in Walpole to satisfying it, and I can do it in a few words. It set out with great Mann (Noshow of alteration; it soon settled into the old channel. The vember 1, 1760) favorite appeared sole minister for a day or two. The old ministers agreed to continue as they were; and though the duke of Newcastle attempted to pretend to have a mind of Bute added to retiring, he soon recollected that he had no such inclination, the old minMr. Pitt on Thursday acquainted the king that he was content to manage the war, and wished to act in other things as he

istry

367. Horace

Sir Horace

had done under the duke of Newcastle in the late reign; the city have expressed the same advice; the duke signified his acquiescence yesterday; and thus only the superficies of the drawing-room is altered, not the government. The household will probably not be settled till after the burial.

The young king, you may trust me, who am not apt to be enamoured with royalty, gives all the indication imaginable of being amiable. His person. is tall and full of dignity; his countenance florid and good-natured; his manner graceful and obliging; he expresses no warmth nor resentment against anybody; at most, coldness. To the duke of Cumberland he has shown even a delicacy of attention. He told him he intended to introduce a new custom into his family, that of living well with all his family; and he would not permit anybody but the princess to be named in the prayers, because the duke of Cumberland must have been put back for the duke of York. This is a nature that your own is suited to represent; you will now act in character.

I wrote to you but last week. You will conclude I have a Walpole to victory to tell you, by following that letter with another so Mann (Octo- soon. Oh, no! you may bid adieu to victories. It is not that ber 6, 1761) Spain or we have declared war, but Mr. Pitt has resigned. The cabinet council were for temporizing. That is not his style.

Without entering into discussions of which side is in the right, you will easily see how fatal this event must be, even from its creating two sides. What saved us, and then what lifted us so high, but union? What could France, what could your old friend the Empress Queen, desire so ardently as divisions amongst us? They will have their wish to satiety. I foresee nothing but confusion. Nor shall we have a war the less if Spain bullied while Mr. Pitt was minister, I don't believe she will tremble more at his successors. Who they will be I cannot imagine. It required all his daring to retrieve our affairs. Who will dare for him, nay, and against him? Next to pitying our country and ourselves, I feel for the young king. It is hard to have so bright a dawn so soon overcast! I fear he is going to taste as bitter a cup as ever his grandfather

swallowed! This happened but yesterday. It is not an event to lie dormant long without consequences.

Adieu! my dear child; this is an unpleasant letter, and I don't care how soon I finish it. Squabbles of ministers are entertaining in time of peace; they are a little too serious now. Adieu !

One of the last of Lord Chesterfield's characterizations of his contemporaries, written in 1762, is devoted to William Pitt, who had just then resigned from office, after reaching his highest point of glory and success.

characteriza

Mr. Pitt owed his rise to the most considerable posts and 368. A conpower in this kingdom singly to his own abilities. In him they temporary supplied the want of birth and fortune, which latter in others tion of Mr. too often supply the want of the former. He was a younger Pitt brother of a very new family, and his fortune only an annuity of one hundred pounds a year. His constitution refused him the usual pleasures, and his genius forbade him the idle dissipations of youth; for so early as at the age of sixteen he was the martyr of an hereditary gout. He therefore employed the leisure which that tedious and painful distemper either produced or allowed him, in acquiring a great fund of premature and useful knowledge. His ruling passion was an unbounded ambition, which, when supported by great abilities, and crowned with great success, make what the world calls " great man." He was haughty, imperious, impatient of contradiction, and over-bearing: qualities which too often accompany, but always clog, great ones. . .

...

a

He came young into parliament, and upon that great theater soon equaled the oldest and ablest actors. His eloquence was of every kind, and he excelled in the argumentative as well as in the declamatory way. But his invectives were terrible, and uttered with such energy of diction, and stern dignity of action and countenance, that he intimidated those who were the most willing and the best able to encounter him. Their arms fell out of their hands, and they shrunk under the ascendant which his genius gained over theirs. . .