existed whether persons riotously collected together and committing outrages and infractions of the peace, however great, might legally be fired on by the military power, without staying previously to read the Riot Act. Lord Bathurst, President of the Council, and Sir Fletcher Norton, Speaker of the House of Commons, who were both present, on being appealed to for their opinions declared that a soldier was not less a citizen because he was a soldier, and consequently that he might repel force by force' but no Minister would sign the order for the purpose. In this emergency, when every moment was precious, Mr. Wedderburn, since successively raised to the dignity of a Baron, and of an Earl of Great Britain, who was then Attorney General, having been called in to the Council table, and ordered by the King to deliver his official opinion on the point, stated in the most precise terms that any such assemblage might be dispersed by military force without waiting for forms, or reading the Act in question. Is that your declaration of the law, as Attorney General? said the King. Wedderburn answering decidedly in the affirmative, Then so let it be done,' rejoined his Majesty. The Attorney General drew up the order immediately, which the King himself signed, and on which Lord Amherst acted the same evening: the complete suppression of the riots followed in the course of a few hours. Never had any people a greater obligation to the judicious. intrepidity of their Sovereign!'

The second William Pitt came into power in 1783. This was, without doubt, the most important æra of the King's life. Never was an English Minister invested with such unbounded power as this great statesman; and never did a servant of the Crown better deserve the confidence that was placed in him. The gloom which the unsuccessful termination of the American war had occasioned became soon dispelled. The high principles of the King's public character, and the virtues of his domestic life, established for him a popularity of the most enviable kind—a popularity originating in the discriminating and firm affection of a moral and thoughtful people. It was about this period that the poet Cowper, whose opinions may be supposed to. have reflected those of the best portion of society, and whose disinterested integrity sufficiently screened him from any imputation of flattery, wrote the following description of his Sovereign :

O! bright occasions of dispensing good,
How seldom used, how little understood!
To pour in virtue's lap her just reward;
Keep vice restrained behind a double guard;
To quell the faction that affronts the throne
By silent magnanimity alone;

To nurse with tender care the thriving arts,
Watch every beam philosophy imparts;
To give religion her unbridled scope,
Nor judge by statute a believer's hope;
With close fidelity and love unfeign'd,
T'o keep the matrimonial bond unstain'd:
Covetous only of a virtuous praise,
His life a lesson to the land he sways;

Te touch the sword with conscientions awe,
Nor draw it but when duty bids him draw;
To sheath it in the peace-restoring close
With joy beyond what victory bestows;
Blest country, where these kingly glories shine!
Blest England, if this happiness be thine!

In 1788, his late Majesty was attacked by that malady, whose renewed assault has, for the last ten years, deprived his family and his people of the guidance of his once active and benevolent mind. It is believed, that soon after his accession to the throne, the King had a slight attack of a similar indisposition. The national gloom produced by this severe visitation in 1788, and the universal joy manifested on the sudden recovery of the Monarch, are well known events. The following extraordinary circumstance was first made public in a recent number of the Windsor Newspaper:

On the 23d February 1789, Mr. Pitt and Lord Melville were dining with Lord Chesterfield, when a letter was brought to the former, which he read, and sitting next to Lord M. gave it to him under the table, and whispered when he had looked at it, it would be better for them to talk it over in Lord Chesterfield's dressing room. This proved to be a letter in the King's own hand, announcing his recovery to Mr. Pitt, in terms somewhat as follows:

The King renews, with great satisfaction, his communication with Mr, Pitt, after the long suspension of their intercourse, owing to his very tedious and painful illness. He is fearful that during this interval, the public interests have suffered great inconvenience and difficulty.

'It is most desirable that immediate measures should be taken for restoring the functions of his government, and Mr. Pitt will consult with the Lord Chancellor to-morrow morning, upon the most expedient means for that purpose. And the King will receive Mr. Pitt at Kew afterwards, about 1 o'clock.'

There could be no hesitation on the part of Mr. Pitt; and having held the necessary conference with the Chancellor, he, accompanied by his Lordship, waited upon the King at the appointed time. His Majesty received them in the gracious manner so peculiar to him, and especially to Mr. Pitt expressed himself with the warmest regard, After these mutual expressions of satisfaction, his Majesty declared the first thing necessary to be done, was to give them some assurance of his recovery. and prove to them that the Almighty had mercifully restored his reason. He said he had considered of the best mode of affording them this proof, and should give them a summary detail of the state of public affairs previous to the period of his unhappy malady, His Majesty then proceeded with his usual distinctness to give a masterly sketch of the political interests of the Continental Powers, and especially those of the internal affairs of Great Britain ; and having brought up his narrative to the date of his illness, he concluded by saying 'all beyond this is a blank-you must complete the statement by giving me an exact account of all which has happened during this long and distressing period.'

Mr. Pitt having fully informed his Majesty of all the particulars necessary for his immediate information, took leave with feelings of admiration and delight; and when the House of Commons met for

the second reading of the Regency Bill, which was then in progress through the House, he had the gratification of communicating to the astonished Members of opposition, that by the blessing of Divine Providence his Majesty's reason was perfectly restored, and that he had resumed the functions of Government. The King wrote the letter in question at a little table of the Queen's which stood in his apartment, without the knowledge of any person, and having finished, rang his bell, and gave it to his valet-de-chambre, directing it to be carried immediately to Mr. Pitt.

The Revolution of France exposed this country to a greater danger than any with which she had been ever assailed. It was something beyond the danger of a foreign enemy or a sanguinary war—it was the danger of moral contagion. At that period, when there was a frenzied hatred of all ancient institutions, and a wilful and passionate longing for an impossible equality boiling up in the minds of a very large portion of the British people;—when an open sanction of the disorders of France, and an intimate communication with the agents of those disorders, was not thought a disgrace; when the evils of Monarchical Government had become the theme of declamation, and its overthrow in France the signal for revolt in England,-at this trying period there sate upon the Throne of these realms, a Monarch whose character furnished a distinct reply to every assault of evil tongues. If it were urged that all Kings were tyrants, George III, furnished the living evidence of a merciful and just protector of all legal rights;-if it were said that the babits of Kings were depraved, there was a bright example of a Sovereign casting aside all the tempta tions of his rank, to be the kindest husband, the best father, the most benevolent master, in his dominions;-if it were affirmed that Kings lived but for themselves and their sensual gratifications, our late Monarch might not only be heard of, but seen, leading a life of greater temperance and simplicity, than probably any country gentleman in his land. George ill. was perhaps, in this period of terror, the saviour of his country. There was a beauty in his life which disarmed faction of its malevolence; there was a brightness in his example, which called upon all of power or influence, to assert the greater dignity of virtue, and prove their title to eminence, by superior goodDess. George III. saw the danger by which the Throne was surrounded. He did not compromise with his enemies. He did not betray alarm in the hour of peril. Even when his own life was assailed by a desperate multitude, he showed no fear; those who rushed forward to insult the Kingly office returned awed and abashed at the personal intrepidity of the King.

But the period of the French Revolution was one in which the Religion of Society was as much menaced as its political condition. The King was a Christian. When the infidel scoffed at the restraints of our Faith, or vilified the scope and tendency of its doctrines, there was an example of its power to dignify and illustrate even the highest dignity. The King, in the daily devotions of his own palace, mixed with his subjects. If an enemy of Christianity had

walked into the private Chapel at Windsor, and there beheld the fervency and the simplicity with which his Sovereign prostrated himself before the King of Kings;-and when he perceived the lessons of Christianity reflected in the smallest actions of this Monarch's life, he must have abated much of the intolerance of infidelity, and have owned that the Religion which could make the first man of a mighty Empire one of the best also, was not to be lightly cast away, adapted as it must have then appeared to the wants of the most exalted and the most lowly.

We are deeply impressed with the belief, that if it can be said

of any man, it may be said pre-eminently of George III. that amidst

6

the alarms of the French Revolution, he stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stayed.'

During the excesses which grew out of the spirit of anarchy called into action by the French Revolution, the King was repeatedly exposed to the insults and attacks of a licentious mob. On each of these occasions he manifested the utmost fortitude and calmness.

During the long contest against the military spirit of France, his late Majesty uniformly sanctioned and warmly supported the struggles of Great Britain, when almost every other country was at the feet of the conqueror. Although most desirous for an honourable peace, he would never listen to any attempt to compromise the honour of his country, by propitiating the favour of the ambitious Napoleon. The preliminaries of the peace of Amiens were concluded without his knowledge or concurrence. On reading the letter communicating this important intelligence, he said to those about him, I have received surprising news, but it is no secret. Preliminaries of peace are signed with France. I knew nothing of it whatever; but since it is made, I sincerely wish it may prove a lasting peace.

We are approaching that period when the independence of the European states appeared ready to be entirely swallowed up in the military preponderance of France. The King's heart expanded to witness the glorious rallying-ery of his whole people on the prospect of invasion; and he saw, in the mighty victory of Trafalgar, the total destruction of the Naval Power of our enemy. But, like his great minister, it was not permitted to him to witness that succession of triumphs, which finally placed this country in the most commanding attitude of her history; and broke down, for generations, the once called invincible power which aimed at universal empire. The glories of Spain had just commenced, when, in November 1810, the King was visited by that malady whose continuance has been so long deplored, and from which he has only been released by the hand of death.

Having thus briefly recapitulated the principal events of the King's public life, it may not be uninteresting or unimproving, at this termination of his reign, to look back upon some of those circumstances of society, in which the influence of his private character may be directly or indirectly traced.· ́

The late King came to the throne at a time when the duty and necessity of religious toleration began to be distinctly perceived and acknowledged. During the whole of his reign the claims of Dissenters to civil rights have gradually acquired greater weight;-and concessions have been progressively made to every denomination of Christians, which in almost each instance have had the effect of securing to the Government that willing allegiance, which a system of liberality will always command. At the commencement of the late King's reign it was a capital crime for a Romish priest to celebrate mass. It is recorded of his late Majesty, that on the conviction of a Mr. Malowny for this offence against the then existing laws, he addressed Lord Mansfield (who reported the case to him) in the following words: God forbid, my Lord, that religious differences in opinion should sanction persecution, or admit of one man within my realms suffering unjustly: issue a pardon immediately for Mr. Malowny, and see that he is set at liberty? The severe and unjust enactments against Roman Catholics were successively abolished; and they were admitted to all, except the very highest offices in the state. Beyond this point it is well known that the King would make no concession. The nation may be divided in opinion as to the policy of his late Majesty's inflexibility; but all must agree in admiring the purity of his motives, and the firmness with which he adhered to his own conscientious decisions.

The latter period of his late Majesty's reign has been distinguished for the extraordinary spread of National Education. However clear it may be that no human efforts could retard, for any length of time, the progress of knowledge, it is certain that the prompt, decisive, and zealous patronage of the King most effectually facilitated that progress. It has been repeated over and over again, but it will bear repetition, that his late Majesty, at the commencement of his reign, hoped to see the day when every child in his dominions should be able to read the Bible. Some sovereigns have acquired with posterity a splendid reputation, for sentiments neither so liberal in policy, nor so elevated in feeling. With the late King the sentiment did not remain unsupported by his practice. He patronized the first buddings of the great system of instructing the Poor, in a manner which could not be mistaken. He almost stood alone in the cordiality, we had nearly said the daring of his zeal; he laid the foundations of that superstructure which all men are now agreed in the necessity of building up.

During the late King's reign a system of philanthropy has been carried on upon a wider principle, than in any age of the world. The evidence of the magnitude of these honourable exertions to diminish the weight of suffering, and to dispel the clouds of ignorance, may be traced, not only in our magnificent public institutions, but in the whole tone and temper of society. It is enough to im mortalize the reign of George III. to say that it witnessed the abolition of the Slave Trade.

During the last sixty years the bounds of knowledge, and of com