been most reluctantly given, as he considered the peace impolitic, unsafe, and unwise. It has even been asserted, that Lord Hawksbury affixed his signature to the articles, not only without the king's approbation, but without his knowledge. The fact seems scarcely credible; and, perhaps, his known dislike to the treaty may have been exaggerated into this assumption of the regal power on the part of his ministers.

The peace was destined to be of short duration; for, in May 1803, much to the satisfaction of the public, war was again declared against France. The king, on this occasion, absurdly attempted to shield Hanover from danger, by declaring, that although he had proclaimed war against France, as King of Great Britain, he deprecated hostilities being commenced by that power against his electorate; which, however, early in June, was over-run by the French troops under Mortier.

On the 14th of February, 1804, the king became suddenly and alarmingly indisposed. It was said, that his complaint was rheumatic, but an opinion prevailed, to a considerable extent, that his mind, on this occasion, was more affected than his body. The symptoms, however, gradually abated, and a trip to Weymouth completely re-established his majesty's health.

It being quite evident, that the Addington cabinet was incapable of advantageously conducting the affairs of the nation, early in May, Pitt, with his friends and adherents, again went into power.

So great a misunderstanding had existed for a considerable time between the Prince of Wales and his royal father, that they had not met; and the hereditary variance between the sovereign and the heir-apparent was thus perpetuated to the fourth generation. On the 12th of November, however, a reconciliation took place, which appeared to be sincere and cordial on both sides.

On the 26th of February, 1805, an entertainment of unequalled magnificence, the expense of which exceeded £50,000, was given by the king, at Windsor castle. This was followed, on the 23rd of April, by a grand installation of the Knights of the Garter. The king's vivacity, on this occasion, was absolutely boyish. He ran to and

fro between the queen and the Princess of Wales, and rapidly addressed the latter in the following words :-" You must stop the week out at Windsorall, all the week. I'll take no excuse. No! no! you must stay! I have got something for your amusement every day-every day!" Hearing Mr. Windham say something in praise of the spectacle, he turned round suddenly, exclaiming, "Ah, Windham! You are there: I hope you like it, eh?" Shortly afterwards he said to Lord Winchelsea, "Winchelsea! Winchelsea! do you see my horse? I mounted him fresh since I came into the park, as I always do; I have had him twenty years, and he is good now. Do you know the secret? I'll tell you, Winchelsea-I know his worth, and I treat him accordingly. That's the right way, Winchelsea!"

Early in 1806, died the king's favourite minister, Pitt, and the Grenville party, which Fox had joined, went into office.

For some time past the king's sight had been materially affected; but at the beginning of this year, his power of vision was rather improved, and he could clearly distinguish objects at the distance of twenty yards. Of his mode of living, at this period, a late writer has given a very minute account, of which the following are the most interesting particulars. The king was less abstemious than he had formerly been. He slept on the north side of the castle, in a large room, on the ground floor, which had been furnished in a modern style, but without a carpet, under the direction of the Princess Elizabeth. He generally rose about half-past seven, and immediately proceeded to the queen's saloon, where one of the princesses received him. He then attended divine service in the chapel; breakfasted with the queen; and usually rode out on horseback, if the weather were fine, and if otherwise, he played at chess. He dined alone, at two o'clock; but visited, and took a glass of wine and water with the queen and princesses at five. After that hour he frequently attended to public business in his study. The evening was passed at cards, in the queen's drawing-room, with a select party of the neighbouring nobility, &c. When the castle clock struck ten, visitors departed; supper

was then set out, but as a matter of form only, for none of the family partook of it, and their majesties retired to rest at eleven.

In 1807, Lord Grenville, and his colleagues, attempted to change the king's opinions with regard to Catholic emancipation; but his majesty was inflexible, and declared, "That although he had firmness sufficient to quit his throne, and retire to a cottage, or place his neck on a block, if his people required it, yet he had not resolution to break the oath which he had taken, in the most solemn manner, at his coronation!" Shortly afterwards, (on the 24th of March,) Lord Grenville received a note from the king, stating, that his majesty would be ready to receive the resignations of his ministers at noon on the following day. The premier and his colleagues, accordingly, gave up their seals of office the next morning; and the Perceval administration succeeded.

In the summer of 1808, Louis the Eighteenth, his queen, and the Duchess of Angoulême, came to England: they met with a very kind reception from his majesty, but their royal character was not recognized. The Prince of Orange, with his two children, and also above twelve thousand French emigrants, had, long before, sought and found refuge in this country.

On the 25th of October, 1809, the venerable monarch commenced the fiftieth year of his reign, and a jubilee took place on the occasion. London, and all the principal cities in the kingdom, were illuminated; and large sums were raised, by subscription, for the benefit of the poor. The queen gave a grand entertainment at Frogmore, at which however, his majesty did not appear. The rapid decay of his sight, at this period, considerably affected his spirits. He would often shed tears during the performance of Handel's Total Eclipse, a composition to which he was exceedingly partial; and, one morning, the Prince of Wales, on entering his royal father's apartment, found him pathetically reciting the following passage from Milton:

"Oh dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon!
Irrevocably dark : Total eclipse,
Without all hope of day!

Oh! first created beam! and thou great Word,
Let there be light, and light was over all;
Why am I thus depriv'd thy prime decree?"

Of the king's appearance, during his walks on the castle terrace, in the summer of 1810, the following is an abridged account, taken from "An Excursion to Windsor," by the Rev. John Evans;At seven o'clock in the evening, a little door in the castle was thrown open, and two attendants led the venerable

monarch, with great care, down a flight of steps, to the terrace. Two of the princesses then took him by the arms, and paced backwards and forwards with him for an hour. He looked ruddy and full; his voice was sonorous, and he conversed with cheerfulness, though when he attempted to speak quick, it was not without hesitation. His want of sight was apparent, for his hat was drawn over the upper part of his face, and he felt about with his cane. Up to this period the king had not discontinued his rides: he was still able to mount on horseback with considerable agility; but it had now become necessary for him to have the assistance of one of his servants in guiding his horse.

The Princess Amelia, the king's youngest and darling child, had long been in a declining state of health; and towards the close of this year, (1810,) her situation became hopeless. "Nothing," said one of the official attendants, "could be more striking than the sight of the king, aged and nearly blind, bending over her couch, and speaking to her about salvation through Christ, as a matter far more interesting to them both than the highest privileges and most magnificent pomps of royalty!" The prospect of her speedy dissolution, and his daily sorrowful interviews with the princess, at one of which she silently placed a ring on his finger, inscribed with the words, "Remember me," had a powerful effect on the king's mind. On the 25th of October, Mr. Perceval was informed that an alarming alteration had taken place in his majesty's deportment; and, by the 1st of November, he had betrayed such positive indications of mental disease, that it became expedient to make parliament acquainted with the facts. Early in December, it was admitted that the malady had assumed so violent a character that but slight hopes could be entertained of his majesty's restoration; and after much animated discussion, a regency

bill, similar to that proposed by Pitt, in 1788, was passed.

In 1811, the conduct of the king, on several occasions, induced the royal family and the public to entertain a hope that he might ultimately recover. In February, he had an interview of two hours' duration with the Prince Regent, and appeared several times on the terrace, at Windsor. On the 20th of May he was sufficiently well to take an airing on horseback. He afterwards went to the queen's apartments, and congratulated her on the return of her birth-day. But a violent relapse soon followed; and though he sometimes knew those about him, and appeared susceptible of religious consolation, his recovery at length became hopeless.

At intervals he still took a lively interest in politics. His perception was good, though mixed up with a number of erroneous ideas; his memory was tenacious, but his judgment unsettled; and the loss of royal authority seemed constantly to prey on his mind. His malady seemed rather to increase than abate, up to the year 1814; when at the time of the arrival of the allied sovereigns in England, he evinced indications of returning reason, and was made acquainted with the astonishing events which had recently occurred. The restoration of Hanover to the House of Brunswick, it is said, afforded him particular satisfaction. He even expressed a wish to see the royal visitors, which, of course, it was not deemed proper to indulge.

The queen, one day, found the afflicted monarch engaged in singing a hymn, and accompanying himself on the harpsichord. After he had concluded the hymn, he knelt down, prayed for his family and the nation, and earnestly supplicated for the complete restoration of his mental powers. He then burst into tears, and his reason suddenly left him. But he afterwards had occasional lucid moments. One morning hearing a bell toll, he asked who was dead. "Please your majesty," said an attendant, "Mrs. S." "Mrs. S-," rejoined the king," she was a linen-draper, and lived at the corner of

n

-street. Ay, she was a good woman, 1 brought up her family in the fear -she is gone to heaven;-I hope oon follow her!"

At length deafness was added to his other calamities: and his manner and appearance are described as having been pitiable in the extreme. He became firmly impressed with the idea that he was dead; and said to his attendants, "I must have a suit of black, in memory of George the Third, for whom I know there is a general mourning."

In 1817, he appears to have had a faint glimmering of reason again; his sense of hearing also was not only restored, but became so remarkably acute that he could readily distinguish, by their footsteps, those who approached or passed him. He also recollected that he had made a memorandum, many years before, which was found in the precise place he described, to destroy a favourite horse, on a day, when he would attain a certain age, and he requested that the animal might be shot accordingly.

In November, 1817, the queen, whose health had for some time past been declining, visited Bath, for the purpose of drinking the waters; and while there, she received intelligence of the death of the Princess Charlotte, which, it is said, produced a most serious effect on her debilitated frame. On the 23rd of May, 1818, she held her last drawing room; and in the following week attended an examination, at the Mansion-house, of the children educated in the national schools. She never appeared in public again. Her disease was a hopeless anasarcous (dropsical) affection of the whole system; but it does not appear that she was made acquainted with her dangerous state until the day before she died. Up to that time, she had expressed great anxiety to go to Windsor, for the purpose of seeing the king; and on being told that she must resign all hopes of again quitting Kew, which had been her place of residence for some months past, she appeared to be dreadfully shocked; but shortly afterwards dictated and signed her will with great calmness. In a few hours she became lethargic, and expired without a struggle, on the 17th of November, 1818. Her remains were deposited in the royal mausoleum, at Windsor, on the 2nd of the following month.

In her youth, although certainly not beautiful, the queen's person is said to have been very agreeable. She was of

a middling stature, but her form was fine, and her deportment graceful. Her hands and neck were particularly well formed. She had a round face, a light complexion, auburn hair, lively blue eyes, a flat nose turned up at the point, rosy lips, but rather a large mouth. An anonymous writer has thus described her appearance in 1777:-" She has an elegant person, good eyes, good teeth, a Cleopatra nose, and fine hair. The expression of her countenance is pleasing and interesting; it is full of sense and good temper." The writer adds, "She loves domestic pleasures; is fonder of diamonds than the Queen of France, as fond of snuff as the King of Prussia, is extremely affable, and very pious." During the latter part of her life the queen was very thin, and remarkably pale.

The piety and the purity of her morals have never been questioned: as a wife, her conduct was most exemplary; and few women have performed the duties of a mother so admirably. A lady of high rank having, one day, said to her, "My children must be doing well, for they have plenty of servants to attend to them," the queen exclaimed, "What! do you leave them entirely to attendants? I dare not do so; for it is impossible that servants, however good, can have the feelings of a parent!" The lady attempted an excuse, but the queen interrupted her by saying, "There can be no apology for the neglect of our first duties: it is enough that you are a mother and converse with one; and I should be sorry to suppose you indifferent where your sensibilities ought to be most acute."

Under her auspices the British court, which, during the two preceding reigns, had been disgustingly licentious, became completely reformed. She suffered no lady to be presented to her whose character was not above suspicion. It is stated, that a woman of high rank, but whose reputation was questionable, having prevailed on a peeress, who was a favourite at court, to solicit permission to visit the queen's drawingroom; and her majesty having given an unqualified refusal to the request of the fair petitioner; the latter exclaimed, "Alas! what shall I say to her ladyship?" "Tell her," replied the queen, "that you did not dare to ask me."

Although she was inflexible, with regard to the exclusion of improper persons from her court, the queen was, generally speaking, condescending, affable, and kind. One night, a lady, who attended her to the theatre, being far advanced in pregnancy, strove in vain to conceal the dreadful exhaustion, produced by standing, pursuant to etiquette, behind her majesty's chair. The queen perceiving her distress, begged her to be seated; the lady thanked her majesty, but hesitated to take a chair; until her royal mistress said, " Pray be seated, madam, or I too must stand." The conduct of her majesty during one of the royal visits to Weymouth has been thus described :-"She was easy of access, and would not suffer the meanest persons to be excluded from her presence. She was never angry at the most uncourtly approach, nor offended by the most importunate petitioner." In Smith's account of Nollekens it is stated, that the queen was one day unexpectedly announced to Mrs. Garrick, at Hampton, while that lady was engaged in preparing onions for pickling; but she not only prevented Mrs. Garrick from putting them aside, but condescendingly took a seat, and assisted her to peel them.

The queen was generally supposed to have been of a parsimonious disposition; and it must be admitted, that in striving to be laudably economical, she was occasionally guilty of meanness. It is said, but the story is scarcely credible, that at one period, when the popular feeling was unusually strong against negro slavery, she refused sugar to her servants, because she could not conscientiously permit the use of an article which had been cultivated by means so hostile to religion and humanity. "A Miss Jenner, of Gloucestershire," says Dr. Wolcot, "with her mother, viewing the palace of St. James's, and entering the royal dressing-room, where a cushion full of pins lay on the toilette, the young lady expressed a strong desire for having one of the queen's pins to carry into the country, and was reaching out her hand to take one; when the attendant caught her hand, saying it was impossible, as her majesty would certainly find it out. D'ye think I might change a pin?' said the lady. Miss,' replied the attendant, it is