subjects in general, and from the city of London in particular, is an enemy to your majesty's person and family, a violator of the public peace, and a betrayer of our happy constitution, as it was established at our glorious and necessary revolution." "The lord mayor," says the Annual Register, "waited near a minute for a reply, but none was given." The fact was, that the king stood mute with anger; and the whole court with astonishment. Beckford's address was applauded to enthusiasm in the city, and is inscribed on the statue erected to him in Guildhall. The king's implacable resentment towards Wilkes was equally unfortunate. A pardon, when that person meanly crouched for it, would have annihilated him-contempt, when he returned, would soon have reduced him to his level. The king's personal enmity invested him with factitious importance and a false public interest. It was perfectly known and acted on by the common people. "A fellow," says one of the publications of the day, "who stood near his majesty (at Epsom races), cried out Wilkes and liberty!' on which some of the light horse drew their swords, but the fellow escaped." It would appear from this paragraph that the military thought they were licensed to draw their swords upon the populace on the slightest provocation. The knowledge of the king's weakness was said to have found its way even into the royal nursery. The prince of Wales, having undergone some punishment or privation, avenged himself, with a child's malice and humour, by crying "Wilkes and liberty!" at the door of the king's cabinet. CHAP. III. 1770-1780. EDUCATION OF THE PRINCE OF WALES AND BISHOP OF ROYAL MARRIAGE ACT. WAR WITH OSNABURGH. AMERICA.-DEATH OF LORD CHATHAM. VARIOUS and minute accounts have appeared in print of the king's domestic life, and parental character, as his family increased. They are now too trite and otherwise worthless to be reproduced. He rose early, lived temperately, was methodical and laborious; but his cares were sometimes trifling, and his labours ignoble. He was not negligent of public business, but it only took its turn with pursuits ridiculously beneath him, the simplest and lowest processes of mechanics, and reducing to practice the humble literature of "The Farmer's Calendar." The sovereign of a great empire, who cultivates cabbages, mistakes his mission, unless, like Diocletian, he has already resigned it. Yet were these details of the private life and character of George III. put forward, with vain sycophancy, as a reply to the imputed vices of his government. - But the performance of his duties as a parent, at this earlier period, merits great praise. Sickness, with the exception of the small-pox and the hoopingcough, was unknown among his children, now (1770) four princes and three princesses. The king's system of physical education, if it may be so termed, was of a manly and almost Spartan cast; light and plain clothing, simple diet, rude exercise, and exposure in the open air. The prince of Wales and bishop of Osnaburgh, now respectively eight and seven years old, were alone capable of receiving the rudiments of instruction, and they had already made some progress. Dr. Majendie, English teacher and reader to the queen, gave them lessons in English and Latin; and a Swiss gentleman, named de Salzes, in French and German. Their education also occupied a certain daily portion of the time of the king, who was not an incompetent preceptor at their early age. He had the qualification of reading, it has been said, with propriety and grace, notwithstanding the inelegance of his common enunciation. The queen, too, who spoke tolerable French, performed her part in teaching them that language, German, and even English, which she is said to have spoken and pronounced with ease and correctness, when she was yet but four years in England. She even proved her command of the language by making English verses, some of which were given to the world as the productions of " a very great lady." They are very literal and somewhat foolish effusions of conjugal endearment, which it would be uncharitable to reproduce. The prince of Wales, having completed his ninth year, was placed with his brother, the bishop of Osnaburgh, under a more regular system of government and education. Lord Holdernesse was appointed governor, Mr. Smelt sub-governor, Dr. Markham (bishop of Chester) preceptor, and Dr. (then Mr.) Cyril Jackson, sub-preceptor to the princes. These appointments took place in April, 1771. Early in May the prince of Wales's household was formed, and a separate table ordered for the gentlemen composing it. Orders were given at the same time from the lord chamberlain's office, that a chaplain in waiting should regularly read prayers at the queen's house to the prince in the absence of the king and queen, under the direction of the bishop of Chester. A Dr. Markham had been master of Westminster school, Dr. Jackson a tutor at Oxford. Both joined a competent degree of scholarship with the advantage of experience as teachers. strict system of eight hours' daily application was imposed on the princes, and on the preceptors, by the king. A system less severe might have been more successful, especially with the prince of Wales, whose liveliness of capacity and character had already shown itself. The bishop of Osnaburgh was invested in April with the order of the garter, vacant by the death of lord Halifax; and in the following July, the prince of Wales, the bishop of Osnaburgh, the duke of Mecklenburgh, brother of the queen, and the prince of Brunswick, father of the late queen Caroline, were installed knights of that order, with the usual ceremonies, at Windsor. An incident in the royal family this year led to a most important act of the legislature, and may be regarded as exercising incalculable influence on the life of George IV. This was the public announcement of two royal marriages, the marriage of the duke of Cumberland, the king's second brother, with Mrs. Horton, sister of lord Carhampton, and that of the duke of Gloucester, the king's next brother, with the dowager-countess of Waldegrave. The duke of Cumberland proclaimed his marriage immediately on its taking place; and the duke of Gloucester soon after publicly avowed his with lady Waldegrave, which had been privately solemnised some years before. Both princes were placed under the ban of the court; and the duke of Cumberland received notice from the lord chamberlain that he should not appear at St. James's. It was signified by authority to the ministers, and other servants of the crown, that they must not, under pain of disgrace, visit the duke or duchess of Cumberland. A royal message early in the next year (1772), containing certain recommendations with reference to marriages in the royal family, was communicated to both houses of parliament, and the royal marriage bill was introduced. This bill, as ultimately passed and now in force, renders the royal family-that is, the descendants of George II. - incapable of contracting marriage without the previous consent of the king for the time being; declares null and void all marriages contracted without such consent; and all persons solemnising or assisting at them to have incurred thereby the pains and penalties of the statute of præmunire. The descendants of princesses married abroad are excepted; and the other descendants of George II. being above the age of twenty-five years, having given twelve months' notice, may contract marriage, unless parliament shall, in |