EARLY POPULARITY

done everything that was necessary to give his Government quiet and unanimity in this difficult crisis. I have been told of some great and extraordinary marks of royal virtues in his nature, and royal wisdom in his mind, by those who do not flatter. There will be no changes in the Ministry, and I believe few at Court. The Duke of Newcastle hesitated some time whether he should undertake his arduous office in a new reign, but he has yielded at last to the earnest desire of the King himself, of the Duke of Cumberland, and of the heads of all parties and factions, even those who formerly were most hostile to him. His friend and mine, my Lord Hardwicke, has been most graciously talked to by the King in two or three audiences, and will, I doubt not, continue in the Cabinet Council, with the weight and influence he ought to have there."

George's first appearance amongst his subjects at large was on the very day this letter was written, when he laid the first stone of Blackfriars Bridge. His figure and carriage, we are told, charmed the people.

Walpole, who examined public characters as a connoisseur examines a picture or a medal, feels himself impelled to declare: "The new reign dates with great propriety and decency; the civilest letter to Princess Amelia; the greatest kindness to the Duke; the utmost respect to the dead body. No changes to be made but those absolutely necessary, as the household, &c.-and what some will think the most unnecessary, in the representative of power.

The young King has all the appearance of being amiable. There is great grace and temper, much dignity and good-nature, which breaks out on all

occasions."

Walpole had been amongst the first to kiss hands on the King's accession. The King, he says, is "good and amiable in everything, having no view but that of contenting the world." To Horace Mann he also writes on the 1st November 1760: "His person is tall and full of dignity, his countenance florid and good-natured, his manner graceful and obliging. He expresses no warmth of resentment against anybody-at most, coldness. To the Duke of Cumberland he has shown even a delicacy of attention." Again, twelve days afterwards, Walpole writes to the same correspondent: "For the King himself, he seems all good-nature and wishing to satisfy everybody. All his speeches are obliging. I saw him yesterday, and was surprised to find the levée room had lost so entirely the air of the lion's den. The sovereign does not stand in one spot with his eyes fixed royally on the ground, and dropping bits of German news. He walks about and speaks freely to everybody. I saw him afterwards on the throne, where he is graceful and genteel, sits with dignity, and reads his answer to addresses well." The King's voice and delivery are described by others as having been remarkably full and fine.

Among other persons who have borne pleasing testimony to the virtues of the young King is Mrs. Montagu herself: "There is a decency and dignity

A CHAPLAIN REBUKED

in his character," she writes to Mrs. Carter, "that could not be expected at his years; mildness and firmness mixed; religious sentiments, and a moral conduct unblemished; application to business; affability to every one; no bias to any particular party or faction; sound and serious good sense in conversation, and an elevation of thought and tenderness of sentiment. There hardly passes a day in which one does not hear of something he has said or done which raises one's opinion of his understanding and heart."

At his first Sunday in church-at the Chapel Royal-one of his chaplains, Dr. Wilson, ventured to eulogise the young King from the pulpit. George at once took steps to prevent a recurrence of such illtimed flatteries. He caused the worthy doctor to be informed that he went to church to hear the praises of God, not his own. "Thank Heaven!" writes Mrs. Montagu, "that our King is not like his brother of Prussia, a hero, a wit, and a freethinker, for in the disposition of the present times we should soon have seen the whole nation roaring blasphemy, firing cannon, and jesting away all that is serious, good, and great. Religious as this young monarch is, we have reason to hope that God will protect him from the dangers of his situation, and make him the means of bringing back that sense of religion and virtue, which has been wearing off for some generations."

George's reign was still only numbered by days when he issued a proclamation for the encouragement of piety and for the prevention and punishment of

"vice, profaneness, and immorality" throughout his dominions. Addresses of loyalty poured in from all quarters of the kingdom in the course of the three weeks which elapsed before the meeting of Parliament. George showed, in spite of the scant sympathy which had subsisted between them, the deepest respect for his grandfather's memory. He carried out his wishes with great fidelity; even those regarding George II.'s mistress, the Countess of Yarmouth. A sum of money, amounting to £8000 in bank notes, having been found in the late King's private cabinet marked "Lady Yarmouth," was at his grandson's request immediately handed to her.

66

He sent for his uncle, the Duke of Cumberland, and expressed to him his earnest hope that they might thereafter associate on the best of terms. • He was aware," he said, "that unanimity had not been hitherto a characteristic of the royal family, but he intended to inaugurate a new régime. If there were any future discord, it should not be his fault." It is a pity Cumberland did not cordially repay this frankness sooner than he did. He would thereby have saved his nephew much tribulation of spirit. But Cumberland disliked Bute: he, the victor of Culloden, would not stoop to have any dealings with a Scotsman.

CHAPTER III

CHATHAM RETIRES FROM THE HELM

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FEW historians of this period can forbear to relate that a favourite saying of the Princess Dowager to her son was, 66 George, be a king!" The quotation has been made with a malicious zest, as if in this wholesome maternal injunction there lurked aspiration towards tyranny, the abuse of power, and a total deviation from constitutional principles. But if the widow of the highest judicial functionary in the realm should charge her son, "My son, be a Lord Chancellor," the adjuration would only provoke a benevolent applause. Were to descend in the social scale the relict of a grocer, or a tailor, or a tinker ardently to counsel her eldest born not only to follow in his father's footsteps, but to resolve upon being a good grocer, or tailor, or tinker, such counsel would have the approbation of every critic. Now, in the nice arrangement of the political machine in Britain, if not yet in its Empire, kingship is something more than a redundant, ornamental wheel; it is, and long may it continue to be, at once the tireless mainspring and the indispensable balance.

What, briefly, are the functions of a constitutional monarch. He is entitled to complete know