was, of an insignificant and pestilent island! In spite of all opposition and reproach the treaty was approved by both houses, with large majorities; having been vindicated with great skill and power by Henry Fox, afterwards lord Holland, in the house of commons, and by lord Bute himself, with a proud self-approving eloquence, of which he was thought incapable, in the house of lords. "I wish," said he, "no other epitaph to be inscribed on my tomb, than that I was the author of the peace on the merits of which your lordships are now called to decide."

In spite of opposition, unpopularity, and clamour, lord Bute seemed secure with his parliamentary majorities, and the king's entire confidence, when, to the astonishment of all, he suddenly resigned in April, 1763; " and thus," says Horace Walpole,

a fortnight's opposition has destroyed that scandalous but vast majority which a fortnight had purchased; and, after five months, a plan of absolute power has been demolished by a panic."

Lord Bute proclaimed with ridiculous pomp, that having given peace to his country, and organised an effective ministry in the hands of his sovereign, his mission was fulfilled, and he sought that literary retirement which he loved. But he had no real taste for either retirement or literature. The eager ambition with which he rushed to the head of affairs proves the one, and the express testimony of those who knew him leaves no doubt that his pretensions to literature were equally shallow. "There is," says lord Waldegrave," an extraordinary appearance of wisdom both in his look and manner

*

of speaking; for whether the subject be serious or trifling, he is equally pompous, slow, and sententious. Not content with being wise, he would be thought a polite scholar, and a man of great erudition, but has the misfortune never to succeed, except with those who are exceedingly ignorant." His sudden retreat was the effect of a panic, as Walpole has described it. He had to face in parliament a minority, weak on a division, but terrible in debate ; out of parliament, the humorous ribaldry of the populace, and the attacks of the press. A boot and petticoat were paraded through the streets, shortly before his resignation; and the celebrated Wilkes, already arrived at the forty-third number of his weekly North Briton, had just addressed to him a mock dedication of Ben Jonson's "Fall of Mortimer," rivalling the letters of Junius in bitterness, with the advantage of a more simple style. Wilkes, happening soon after its appearance to meet Dyson, asked him if he was going to the treasury;- "because," said he, "a friend of mine has just dedicated a play to lord Bute; and as it is usual to give dedicators something on those occasions, I wish you would put his lordship in mind of it." Whether lord Bute had or had not the same influence and intimacy with the princess-dowager, which Mortimer had with queen Isabella, were now a very idle

*The following epigram on his blue riband appeared in one of the newspapers: ----

Oh! Bute, if instead of contempt and of odium,
You wish to obtain a whole nation's eulogium,
From your neck to your gullet transfer the blue string,
And our hearts are all yours from the very first swing.

enquiry.

The satirical malice of the populace, and of Wilkes, proves only that such an imputation was public: but Horace Walpole charges the princess confidently and coarsely; and lord Waldegrave is little less explicit, though he insinuates rather than asserts. "The last prince of Wales," says lord Waldegrave, "used to say that lord Bute was a fine showy man, who would make an excellent ambassador in a court where there was no business * * * * *; but the sagacity of the princess-dowager has discovered other accomplishments, of which the prince her husband may not, perhaps, have been the most competent judge."

If the ascendancy of lord Bute rendered the king's government unpopular, the royal habits and mode of life rendered his court by no means agreeable. The king and queen lived in great privacy, especially after the birth of a second prince: courts were rarely held; and the few evening parties are described as dull, economical, and thinly attended. Horace Walpole, the chief chronicler of anecdotes of the period, in high life and politics, says, in 1763, "There has been a very private ball at court: they danced till one, and then parted without a supper."

The royal taste for privacy was represented as arising from avarice; and the queen's parsimony was injuriously contrasted with her supposed accumulation of wealth, already begun, and the passion which she showed for the possession and display of diamonds. She would appear resplendent with precious stones on a court-day, and live in a style of degrading economy at Richmond for the next three months.

"The recluse life led here” (at Richmond), says the same chronicler, "which is carried to such an excess of privacy and economy that the queen's friseur waits on them at table, and that four pounds of beef only are allowed for their soup, disgusts all sorts of people. The drawing-rooms are abandoned."

These sordid details may have been overcharged, but were certainly not unfounded. Other circumstances tended to lessen the popularity of the queen. She kept English women of rank at a royal distance, and admitted her German attendants and friends to her familiarity. This offensive distinction recoiled, in one instance, upon herself. One of her German followers, a countess de Gertzen, distinguished for having returned the gallantries of Frederick the great with a box on the ear, thought she might indulge at St. James's the same freedom which was allowed her in private, and left the circle, to converse on equal terms with the queen, in the presence of a crowded court. The queen, humiliated and enraged, said to those immediately near her, loud enough to be heard by others, "I assure you this woman is as ridiculous at Mecklenburg as she is here — like your duchess of Queensbery;" intimating by the similitude, that there were in England, as well as in Germany, ridiculous court ladies.

FIRST ROCKINGHAM MINISTRY. LAST MINISTRY OF LORD CHATHAM.

THE heir-apparent proved a new link between the crown and the nation at a moment when both the court and government had become thus unpopular. His birth seemed to revive, for a moment, some portion of the public joy which beamed round George III. on his accession, and down to his marriage. This was so strongly felt, that no occasion was lost of presenting the infant prince to the public view. The birth of a second prince, the late duke of York, took place on the 16th of August, 1763; and by way of doing honour to the occasion, the prince of Wales was exhibited frequently at the palace windows, to the crowds which succeeded each other during the day.

He had scarcely completed his second year, when courtiers made their way to his presence by the back stairs. The most remarkable of these was Pulteney earl of Bath, in his 80th year. "You see," says Horace Walpole, in a letter dated 1764, "lord Bath does not hobble up the back stairs for nothing. Oh! he is an excellent courtier. The prince of Wales shoots him with plaything arrows;