will be a source of frequent anxiety. Whenever he is displeased, his anger does not break out into heat and violence; but he becomes sullen and silent, and retires to his closet: not to compose his mind by study or contemplation, but merely to indulge the melancholy enjoyment of his own ill-humour. Even when the fit is ended, unfavourable symptons very frequently return, which indicate that on certain occasions His Royal Highness has too correct a memory. Though I have mentioned his good and bad qualities without flattery and without aggravation, allowances should still be made on account of his youth and his bad education; for though the Bishop of Peterborough [Dr. John Thomas], now Bishop of Salisbury, the preceptor, Mr. Stone, subgovernor, and Mr. Scott the sub-preceptor, were men of sense, men of learning, and worthy, good men, they had but little weight and influence. The mother and the nursery always prevailed. During the course of the last year, there has indeed been some alteration; the authority of the nursery has gradually declined, and the Earl of Bute, by the assistance of the mother, has now the entire confidence. But whether this change will be greatly to his Royal Highness's advantage is a nice question, which cannot hitherto be determined with any certainty.'

The forebodings of Lord Waldegrave were only too soon verified, for, next to his mother, Lord Bute

proved the most mischievous adviser of the Prince. To one placed in the situation in which young George William found himself on the premature death of his father, the guidance and influence of his mother must have been of the greatest importance. The Princess of Wales-Augusta of Saxe-Gothadoes not appear to have made any distinct impression on the minds of her contemporaries till after the death of her husband. For a short time after that event her conduct created a general impression of good sense and, good feeling. She broke up the little Anti-Court which had gathered round Frederick, and seemed to wish to place herself in every respect at the disposal of the King and in accord with his wishes; and George the Second appreciating this behaviour treated her with marked kindness and deference to her wishes. But no sooner did the question of her son's marriage arise, than the Princess dropped the mask, and began to show what her real character was. She was determined that she herself and her favourites alone should rule the future King, and as a first and essential step to this domination she resolved that the choice of his wife should be hers and not the King's, and that the future partner of her son should be one from whose intellect she need fear no rival in the sway over his mind. The old King unluckily gave her a pretext for opposing his choice by endeavouring to make a match for his grandson with another member of the

House of Brunswick, a very charming and accomplished young Princess who fairly captivated old George himself. Had this match been accomplished, the new Court of England would have borne a very different aspect from what it afterwards assumed under the auspices of Queen Charlotte. But the Princess of Wales prevented this, and from that time, with occasional intervals of suspended hostility, there was a revival of the old antagonism of Leicester House to St. James'. In herself, Augusta of Wales -though a mere child, and a very childish child when she became the wife of Frederick, for she brought her great doll with her, to the astonishment and amusement of the courtiers-was a complete embodiment of the narrowest autocratic ideas and prejudices of a very self-important little German Court. With the most absolute ideas of the position and rights of a sovereign prince she combined an overbearing disposition, much selfishness, a sagacity which did not rise above the grade of cunning, and a cold heart. She had just talent enough to tyrannise over her own children when young, and to render their home a far from happy one, but neither the ability nor the tact to maintain her authority when their relative positions became changed. She had formed the lowest estimate of her son George's abilities, and endeavoured to bring him up in the homeliest and least intelligent manner, that she and her favourite, Bute, might all the more easily and

thoroughly rule in his name, whilst implanting in his mind the highest ideas of the dignity and irresponsibility of a King, In this she made a great mistake. Young George, indeed, readily formed the habit of domestic pursuits and homely living thus recommended to him, and from the indolence of mind of which Lord Waldegrave speaks, exhibited no desire to think and act for himself as long as the sweets of supreme power remained untasted by him; he also received into his mind with equal readiness the autocratic lessons of his mother and Bute; but he did so in a spirit that they little anticipated. They had taught him that he ought to reign himself, and not be, as his grandfather and great-grandfather had been, the mere serfs of Parliament, and those great families who ruled in Parliament; but they really meant by this that he was so to reign as their puppet, while he only looked upon them as necessary and convenient teachers in the first steps towards his personal government. With the possession of the title of King his ambition awoke, and as Lord Waldegrave had presaged, with it his indolence disappeared, and he soon began to think and act for himself. He always paid a marked filial respect and deference to his mother, which she rigidly exacted, and with which she was soon obliged to be content, --and naturally he at first looked to Bute as his counsellor and premier. But he soon found out that the favourite was unequal to carrying out the lessons

he had taught, and both Bute and the Princess gradually disappeared from the political arena, though their names long survived their actual influence as popular bugbears. George then and thenceforth acted for himself, and England was astonished to find itself again exposed to what it had imagined was banished with the exiled line of Princes, the personal rule of the King.

Nor was George without some qualifications for the task he had undertaken,-that of making the Throne instead of the Treasury Bench, or the House of Commons, the pivot of government. He had all the courage, resolution, and pertinacity of his family. and the enterprise of his grandfather, without the checks of his self-distrust and good sense. His own prudence and sagacity, though similar in kind, were greater than his mother's. Thus, he spoke and acted as if nothing should induce him to forego a resolution he had once avowed, and as long as it was possible to produce any effect on the minds of his Ministers or the nation by a belief in the inflexibility of his resolution, he seemed as bent on persevering as any Stuart King had ever been. When a change of ministry and the admission of those whose principles were essentially opposed to his autocratic ideas seemed almost inevitable, he wrote in such terms as the following:- Honestly, I would rather lose the crown I now wear, than bear the ignominy of possessing it under their shackles;' and again, ‘I