signed; for what have we to do in this world but to suffer and perform the will of the Almighty*?”

But nothing was so remarkable in his Majesty's religious character as the gravity, reverence, and devotion with which he attended on religious worship, whether in his younger years in the chapel royal at St. James's, or latterly in his closet at Windsor Palace, when sometimes not more than a dozen persons were present. A Dissenting minister who was present on one of these occasions was "extremely interested by the earnest and solemn manner in which his Majesty repeated the responses, and particularly the Te Deum, which exceeded in pathos and solemnity, every thing which he had ever heardt."

Another gentleman describes the scene thus :"As soon as the clock struck eight, the gates of the Castle were thrown open; shortly after came the chaplain, he looked out the lessons, &c., then sat down a few minutes, when a pair of folding doors opened, and his Majesty, led by two attendants, came in, followed by two of the Princesses and Lady Albinia Cumberland. After his Ma

*Redford's Sermon.

+ Evan. Mag. March, 1820, p. 118.

jesty had been conducted to his chair, service began, when his Majesty acted as clerk, by repeating the responses in the most audible manner. After the petition, Give peace in our time, O Lord his Majesty with uplifted hands articulated, Because there is none other that fighteth for us he then added, with the strongest emphasis, But only thou, O God!' His Majesty followed the chaplain through the psalms nearly as correctly as if he had possessed his eye-sight, and had a book before him."

Y

SECTION IV.

"OVER the last nine years of his Majesty's life has been drawn an awful veil. The bulletins of the physicians, are the only authentic records of his retirement from the concerns of the world. From these it will be seen, that, though in the earlier stages of his malady he was subject to paroxysms which excited the most alarming apprehensions, his life, during the last six or seven years, has been one of tranquillity, though of mental aberration. In the solitude of his apartments in Windsor-castle, and in the still deeper solitude of his blindness,

"Presented with a universal blank
"Of nature's works,"

he was surrounded only by kind and faithful attendants, who administered every comfort to his situation, whilst they exercised that unvaried reserve upon all important subjects, which was

necessary to preserve their afflicted monarch's repose. If the late partner of his throne visited him in his affliction, (and the mournful duty of those visits was never neglected,) it was not to speak the language of affectionate kindness, but to

gaze in silence upon his sorrows, and to see that,

as far as the skill and care of man could relieve them, they were soothed and mitigated. In the hour of national foreboding, when the success of military ambition seemed almost complete, the steadfast heart of the patriot King was aroused not by the people's fears; in the glorious day of triumph, when every foe lay prostrate at the feet of England, and the struggles of 20 years were at length repaid, the pious King, whose prayer had ever been uplifted for his people's safety, joined not in the hymn of thanksgiving. In the periods of domestic happiness, or domestic misery, his mind was equally unconscious. The blooming heiress of the British Crown received not his blessings on her union; nor did her untimely removal draw from his eye the most sacred tear that would have been shed for her loss. His spirit fled without the consciousness that the beloved partner of his throne had gone before him to

'the house of all living;' he was finally spared the pang which a father feels when his son, in the vigour of youth and health, precedes him to the grave.

"But if his late Majesty were thus insensible to subjects which were never mentioned to him, because they would have excited the most acute sympathies in his feeling mind, the habits of his former life ever retained their influence over him. Those whose duties have placed them around him, during this long night of his mind, now weep for a monarch and a man who always retained the strong features of the virtues of his ordinary life. He never lost the consciousness of that dignity with which he was invested; he never forgot to unite with it the kindest consideration for those by whom he was surrounded. His Majesty always retained, till the infirmities of age began to weigh him down, the same taste for music which he had displayed during his active life. In his retirement he performed with skill upon the harpsichord*."

The following instance which is well authen

* Eton and Windsor Express.