BOOK by calling "for the concurrence and support of

XXI.

1781.

Character of the KING.

parliament, and a VIGOROUS, ANIMATED, and
UNITED EXERTION of the FACULTIES and RE-
SOURCES of his PEOPLE." Upon the whole, this
speech was plainly indicatory of a fixed and reso-
lute determination to prosecute a war, of which it
might well be supposed that "fools as gross as ig-
norance made drunk" might by this time have seen
the hopelessness and the absurdity.

The monarch had now swayed the sceptre of
these kingdoms more than twenty years, and, in
the course of a long and variegated series of events,
his character both personal and political was com-
pletely matured and developed. The province of
history is sacred; and in the delineation of the dif-
ferent personages whom she exhibits on the grand
theatre of human action, she equally disdains injus-
tice to the meanest and adulation to the highest in-
dividual. The capacity of this prince-whose reign.
will be memorable to all succeeding ages-little
cultivated by education, and unimproved in early
youth by a liberal intercourse with men of genius.
and discernment, was by universal acknowledgment.
of a class which had no pretensions to native su-
periority. In his conduct upon all occasions an
invincible pertinacity was discoverable, which it
would be easy for the flatterers of a court to dignify
with the appellation of firmness. His acknowledged
rectitude of intention was clouded by the absence

XXI.

1781.

of the nobler sensibilities of humanity. Never was BOOK it suspected that the contest by which an empire was rent asunder, by which every political, civil and social tie was dissolved that can unite and endear nation to nation, or man to man, cost this monarch a sigh or a tear.

Attached to the forms of the church with a degree of zeal more nearly allied to bigotry and superstition than to an enlarged and enlightened morality, he regarded all the sects which diverged from it in different directions, with a fixed suspicion and dislike, leading by easy and imperceptible gradations to dread and detestation. The reverse of the medal will indeed discover a life passed without any remarkable deviation from the rules of decorum, and much less any direct violation of the higher and more serious obligations of morality and religion. Grave, temperate, devout-from the contamination of those vices which are usually considered as more peculiarly characteristic of courts, he was wholly free. But the virtues of the man, were they such as to entitle him to the honors of canonization, afforded a very inadequate compensation for the errors and imperfections of the monarch; under whose reign it may be justly affirmed, that from the almost perpetual predominance of evil councils, the people suffered all that could be inflicted under the restraints of a constitution radi. cally excellent.

BOOK
XXI.

The speech from the throne underwent, as may well be imagined, the severest animadversion. Mr. Memorable Fox said he had expected, and he knew it had been the address expected by many others, to hear on this occasion

1781.

debate on

his majesty declare from the throne that he had been
deceived and imposed upon by misinformation and
misrepresentation; that, in consequence of his de-
lusion, the parliament had been deluded, but that
now the deception was at an end; and requesting of
his parliament to devise the most speedy and effi-
cacious means of putting an end to the public cala-
mities:-instead of which they had heard a speech
breathing little else than vengeance, misery, and
blood. Those who were ignorant of the personal
character of the sovereign, and who imagined this
speech to originate with him, might be led to sup-
pose that he was an unfeeling despot, rejoicing in
the horrid sacrifice of the liberty and lives of his
subjects, who, when all hope of victory was va-
nished, still thirsted for revenge. The ministers
who advised this speech he affirmed to be a CURSE
to the country over the affairs of which they
too long been suffered to preside. From th
rivalled pre-eminence which we so lately 1
they had made us the object of ridicul
to the surrounding nations. The

blue ribband had indeed tho

American war and all its

speeches of opposi

XXI.

-1781.

pable minister, whose measures are framed with so BOOK little foresight, and executed with so little firmness, that, because a rash or intemperate invective is uttered against them in the house of commons, they shall instantly crumble in pieces, and bring down ruin upon the country!-Miserable statesman! to allow for no contingences of fortune, no ebullition of passion, no collision of sentiment! Could he expect the concurrence of every individual in that house? and was he so weak or wicked as to contrive plans of government of such a texture that the intervention of circumstances obvious and unavoidable would occasion their total failure, and hazard the existence of the empire? Ministers must expect to hear of the calamities in which they had involved the empire, again and again-not merely in that house, but, as he trusted, at the tribunal of justice for (said he) the time will surely come, when an oppressed and irritated people will firmly call for SIGNAL PUNISHMENT on those whose counsels have brought the nation so near to the brink of destruction. An indignant nation will surely in the end compel them to make some faint atonement for the magnitude of their offences, on a PUBLIC SCAFFOLD." He concluded with moving, "That of the address proposed the whole be omitted excepting the first paragraph, and the following words inserted: And we will without delay apply our

BOOK selves with united hearts to propose and digest such

XXI.

1781,

counsels as may in this crisis excite the efforts, point
the arms, and, by a total change of system, com-
mand the confidence, of all his majesty's sub-
jects.'

This amendment was vigorously supported by
Mr. Pitt, who declared, "That the duty he owed
his sovereign and his country compelled him to ex-
ert every effort to prevent the house from precipi-
tately voting an address which pledged them to the
support of that fatal system which had led this coun-
try, step by step, to the most calamitous and dis
graceful situation to which a once flourishing and
glorious empire could be reduced.-Was it becom-
ing the parliament of a free people to echo back
the words which a minister, long practised in the
arts of delusion, had dared to put into the royal
mouth? He implored the house not to vote for an
address fraught with treachery and falsehood, which
could not have been framed by any who felt for the
honor of the king, the dignity of parliament, or
the interest of the nation."

Mr. Burke drew a most striking picture of the losses and disasters which had been sustained through the egregious folly and misconduct of the present administration. "Under such circumstances the language held by the noble lord was (he said) audacious; it was insulting." Mr. Burke declared