hearts. I was charmed with an expression of the king's: Many people,' said he, 'would regret they ever had so sweet a child, since they were forced to part with him. That is not my case. I am thankful to God for having graciously allowed me to enjoy such a creature for four years.'" Yet the grief of the king and queen is Isaid to have been excessive.

It used to be related by the late Lady Charlotte Finch, governess to the younger children of George the Third,' that on the occasions when her duty obliged her to call up the king in the night, during the illnesses of any of his children, she had often been surprised at his not immediately noticing her summons. In due time, however, she discovered

'Lady Charlotte Fermor, daughter of Thomas, first Earl of Pomfret, was born February 14, 1725, and married, in 1746, the Hon. William Finch, by whom she became the mother of George, ninth Earl of Winchelsea and fourth Earl of Nottingham. "As soon as the Prince of Wales [George the Fourth] was born," writes her accomplished acquaintance, Miss Cornelia Knight," she took her station by his cradle, on being appointed governess to the royal infant and his future brothers and sisters. She had continued in the exercise of that duty till they were all grown up, and never was any one in a similar employment more sincerely or more justly esteemed and beloved. Her judgment was clear and her manners perfect. I have always thought it equally honourable to her royal pupils and to herself, that, however differing in pursuits and disposition, they were all warmly attached to Lady Charlotte Finch. It might be truly said of her that she was 'formed to make virtue amiable.'" Lady Charlotte died July 11, 1813, in her eighty-ninth year, having been a widow forty-seven years. "She was," writes Walpole, "an accomplished and most estimable person."

the cause. The king, before quitting his apartment, was in the habit of offering up his prayers, not merely for the recovery of his child, but for resignation and support for himself, and for wisdom to guide him so as to act for the best.

On the 7th of August, 1783, the queen gave birth to her fifteenth and last child, the Princess Amelia, who subsequently succeeded Prince Octavius as the darling child of her father.

CHAPTER IX.

State of Public Affairs- Rodney's Naval Victories - Relief of Gibraltar - "Armed Neutrality" of the Great Powers of Europe First Appearance in Parliament of William Pitt, R. B. Sheridan, and William Wilberforce - General Admiration of Pitt's Eloquence - Charles Fox, His Position, and His Associates Naval Operations against the Dutch — Rodney's Capture of the Island of St. Eustatia — Events in America - Surrender of Charleston to the British — Battles of Camden and Catawba Fords - Treasonable Correspondence of the American General Arnold with Major André - Tragical Fate of Major André — Indecisive Military Operations Surrender of the British Forces under Lord Cornwallis to General Washington at Yorktown.

WHEN we last turned from the subject of politics to glance over the personal and domestic history of George the Third, black clouds were threatening the destinies of England. In addition to the contest which she was waging with her North American colonies, she was not only at war both with France and Spain, but hostilities with Holland were also imminent. Ireland was bordering on rebellion. The ancient naval glory of England seemed threatening to take its flight for ever. American privateers rode listlessly at anchor at the mouth of the Frith of Forth. England, as

has usually been her lot at the commencement of a deadly struggle, had shown herself only half armed and half prepared to encounter her foes. Happily, from this state of humiliation she was about to be raised by the genius and valour of an illustrious Englishman, whose story forms an interesting episode in the annals of those times.

Admiral Sir George Brydges Rodney, afterward Lord Rodney, was born on the 19th of February, 1718, and consequently, when, on the Ist of October, 1779, he was appointed naval commander-in-chief on the Leeward Island Station, he was in his sixty-second year. In the war with France which terminated in 1762, he had distinguished himself as a most able and gallant officer, since which period he had devoted much of his time and thoughts in devising projects for destroying or disabling the fleets of the enemies of his country. Unfortunately, the expenses entailed upon him by a numerous family, as well as the exercise of a too generous hospitality, and, it is said, the allurements of the gaming-table, had involved him in pecuniary difficulties, which rendered it much more convenient, if not safer, for him, to reside in France than in England. In Paris, however, where he took up his abode, not only did his striking person, his fascinating manners, and agreeable and enlightened conversation, lead to his society being courted by the most fashionable and most fastidious, but, in the highest

military and naval circles, ample honour was done to his ardent patriotism and great professional talents, by a people whom he had formerly taught to tremble at the mention of his name.

The great object of Rodney's life was to be afforded an opportunity of distinguishing himself in time of war. Bitter, then, had been his disappointment and mortification, when, on the breaking out of hostilities with France in 1778, not only did his repeated and, to use his own word, "humble" applications to the admiralty for employment prove ineffectual, but when one flag officer after another, junior to him in rank, was selected to serve against the enemy in preference to himself. Ardently he longed to repair to London, and to lay his claims personally before his sovereign, but his debts and his creditors prevented his quitting Paris. In his distress, according to Sir Nathaniel Wraxall, he sent over Lady Rodney to England, in the vain hope of her being able to induce his friends there. to open a subscription in his behalf at White's Club. "Delays," he writes to her, "are worse than death, especially at this critical time when every hour teems with momentary expectation of war."

The pecuniary relief, which Rodney was unable to procure from his friends in England, he subsequently owed to the noble generosity of a Frenchman and an enemy to his country. He was still longing for the means of transporting himself from Paris.