Left this fhould not be quite ftrong enough, we may add a little of the author's pepper to it:

• Unfortunately for the war, but more unfortunately for Great Britain, on the 25th of October 1760, the venerable George the Se rond died. The circumftances of his death are too well known to be repeated here. As to the Succeffor, the effects of the wickednefs of his advisers have been, and are ftill, too deeply felt, to be defcribed in any terms adequate to the injuries committed. Poftefettled in the timely overthrow of Queen Anne's laft Miniftry, it cannot but alarm all true Whigs, to hear of school-masters of very contrary principles, being thought of for preceptors; and to fee none but the friends and pupils of the late Lord Bolingbroke entrufted with the education of a Prince, whofe family that Lord endeavoured, by his meafures, to exclude, and by his writings to expel, from the throne of thefe kingdoms: That there being great reafon to believe, that a noble Lord has accufed one of the Preceptors of Jacobitifm, it is aftonishing that no notice has been taken of a complaint of fo high a nature; on the contrary, the accufed perfon continues in the fame truft, without any enquiry into the grounds of the charge, or any flep taken by the accufed, to purge himself of a crime of fo black a die: That no fatisfaction being given to the Governor and Preceptor, one of whom, though a Nobleman of the moft unblemished honour, and the other a Prelate of the most unbiaffed virtue, who have both been treated in the groffeft terms of abuse, by a menial fervant of the family; it is derogatory to his Majesty's authority, under which they acted; is an affront to the Peerage; and an outrage to the dignity of the Church. That whoever advifed the refufal of an audience to the Bishop of Norwich, who was fo juftly alarmed at the wrong methods which he saw taken in the education of the Prince of Wales, is an enemy to this country, and can only mean, at leaft, to govern by a faction, or is himself influenced by a more dangerous faction, which intends to overthrow the Government, and restore that of the exiled and arbitrary House of Stuart. That to have a Scotchman [Murray] of a molt difaffected family, and allied in the nearest manner, to the Pretender's first Minifter, confulted in the education of the Prince of Wales, and intrufted with the most important fecrets of Government, must tend to alarm and difguft the friends of the prefent Royal Family, and to encourage the hopes and attempts of the Jacobites. Laftly, the Memorialifts cannot help remarking, that the three or four low, dark, fufpected perfons, are the only men whofe ftation is fixed and permanent; but that all the great offices and officers, are fo conftantly varied and fhuffled about, to the difgrace of this country, that the best affected perfons apprehend, that there is a fettled defign in these low and fufpected people, to infufe fuch jealoufies, caprices, and fickleness, into the two Minifters, whofe confidence they engrofs, as may render this Government ridiculous and contemptible, and facilitate the revolution, which the Memorialifts think they have but too much reason to fear is meditating.

God preferve the King.'

ity, in a fubfequent age, when truth may be spoken, and the motives of men laid open, will be astonished at the conduct of their ancestors at this period.

Two days after the King's acceffion, the Earl of Bute was introduced into the Privy Council; and at the fame time, the name of the Duke of Cumberland was ftruck out of the Liturgy. Another circumftance not lefs remarkable immediately fucceeded; this was, Lord Bute was made Ranger of Richmond park, in the room of the Princess Amelia, who was turned out.

It was the fixed defign of the party, which the new King brought with him from Leicester house, to remove the Minifters and conclude the war *; but the tide of popularity ran fo ftrong in favour of both, they were obliged to poftpone the execution of their design, until they had prepared the nation to receive it. For this purpose a great number of writers were employed, to calumniate the late King, the Duke of Cumberland, Mr. Pitt, and all the Whigs.

The late King was reviled for the affection he had fhewn to his native country, for his love of female fociety †, and for his attachment to the Whigs.

The Duke was charged with inhumanity; he was ftiled " Prince that delighteth in blood;" because the Princess of Wales had fometime ago conceived a jealoufy of his popularity. Nothing could be more unjust than this fufpicion there was not a perfon in the kingdom more firmly attached to the rights of her fon.

The Whigs were called Republicans, although many of them had exhaufted their fortunes in fupport of the Monarchy.

But Mr. Pitt was the principal object of their calumny. He was affailed in pamphlets, in newfpaper effays, and in every other channel of conveyance to the public. The war upon the continent, was called his German war; his former oppofition to German meafores, was contrafted with his prefent conduct; the expences of former wars, were compared with the prefent war. The ruin of the country, the annihilation of all public credit, were predicted, and deplored, as the inevitable confequences of the prefent unjust, impolitic, and impracticable war; for although it was fuccefsful, yet they affirmed, that every victory, and every conqueft, was a fresh wound to the kingdom. Mr. Pitt's thirst for war, they faid, was infatiable; his ambition knew no bounds. He was madly ruining the kingdom with conquefts.

By the conqueft of Canada, they affirmed, that all had been obtained, that juftice gave us a right to demand; every fubfequent conqueft, they affirmed, was not only fuperfluous, but unjust; that it was now perfect fuicide to go on conquering what must be furrendered; they wept over our victories. The nation, they faid,

The King is made to acknowledge in November 1763, in his fpeech to Parliament, "The re-establishment of the public tranquillity, was the first great object of my reign."

After the death of Queen Caroline, he was fond of a game at cards in an evening, with the Counteffes of Pembroke, Albemarle, and other ladies.'

was deftroying itself. At the fame time, they held out flattering and falle pictures, of the enemy's ftrength and refources.

Smollet, Mallet, Francis, Home, Murphy, Mauduit, and many others were the inftruments employed upon this occafion. It has been faid, that the fum paid to thefe, and other hired writers, during the first three years of the reign of George the Third, exceeded thirty thousand pounds. And the printing charges amounted to more than twice that fum. In facilitating the views of the party, the money was well laid out; for the nation was completely duped. And as to the few, who might attempt to undeceive the public, there was a political Judge ready to punish their temerity.

A perfon at this time, (thirty years fubfequent,) may very rationally afk, if there were any Englishmen weak enough to give credit to thefe bafe affertions. The quellion indeed is natural. And if the answer correfponds with truth, it must be confeffed, that fuch was the industry ufed in writing and circulating thefe doctrines, that the new King's faction, in a fhort time, had their defenders in every town and village in the kingdom.

The war indeed went on; and though the conquefts and vic. tories were not lefs brilliant than heretofore, the expence was continually urged as a matter of more importance than the advantage.

The unanimity of Parliament was not yet difturbed. As the enfuing feffion was the laft feffion of the prefent Parliament, the King's party thought it most prudent to postpone any attacks, in either Houfe, until the new Parliament was elected. The feffion commenced on the 18th of November, 1760, and closed on the 19th of March, 1761.

The Parliament was immediately diffolved.

And on the fame day, Mr. Legge was difmiffed.

Upon the difmiffion of Mr. Legge, the whole Miniftry ought immediately to have refigned. A measure of fuch union and fpirit, must have had the happieft effects. The new King's Favourite would have been checked in his defign of feizing upon the kingdom; and the K-- himself would have been convinced, that the tory principles inculcated at Leicester-houfe, though amusing in theory, were mischievous in practice.

Two days after the difmiflion of Mr. Legge, Lord Holderneffe refigned, upon condition of having a large penfion fecured to him, and the reversion of the Cinque Ports. Lord Bute, in whofe favour this refignation was purchased, was inftantly appointed Secretary of State in his room and he made Mr. Charles Jenkinson his confidential commis.

It was now obvious to every understanding, that there was an end of that unanimity which had for fome years fo happily and fo honourably prevailed in Council, and in Parliament. The refolution of the new King's faction, to change the Miniftry, was now perceptible to every man, who had not loft his penetration in that torrent of popularity, which was artfully managed to abforb all confiderations, in the moft extravagant eulogies on the found wisdom of the King, and the immaculate virtues of his mother.

• The

The faction further contrived to amufe the people, with two other circumstances this year. One was the King's marriage; the other, his coronation; which gave them opportunity to proceed in their measures, unobferved by the nation.' (P. 174, &c.)

Correfponding with all this, is the following character of George II.

This Prince, though not born in this country, was educated in thofe principles by which the nation role to power and happiness, and gloried in being the king of a free people. He carried the power and commerce of the nation to a degree to which they had never till then attained. Abroad, he established the importance, the honour, and dignity of his crown, upon a footing not known before his time to a king of this country, and made the name of Englishman refpectable in every corner of the world. No foreign power trifled with his refentment, or defpoiled his people with impunity. It hath been faid that he had prejudices; and the affertion, from the mouths of Tories and Jacobites, fhould not surprise us. The nation was benefited by the prejudices of this prince. Abroad, they operated against the natural enemies of the kingdom; at home, against the enemies of the national freedom, and of the proteftant establishment made at the revolution: against those who preferred the odious tyrannical government of the accurfed race of Stuart, to the mild and legal government of the House of Hanover; against those who held to the divine, indefeafible, hereditary right of princes, and to the flavish doctrines of paffive obedience and nonrefiftance; thofe men who, when in poffeffion of power, in every inftance, have driven hard to the deftruction of England, and from whose pernicious projects this country hath been more than once faved by almoft miraculous interpofition. If he headed a party, it was the most glorious of all parties-the national freedom; if he encouraged and fupported a particular fet of men, it was thofe who diftinguished them felves most in their attachment to that cause; if he were averfe to another fet, he was only averfe to them as public men; averfe to their being in the firft departments of the state, because their maxims of government were incompatible with the happinefs of his people; and when he did employ them, which he did more frequently than they deferved to have been, he took care to put it out of their power to practife their mischievous principles, by diftributing them chiefly among the fubaltern officers of the ftate, and by keeping a fufficient number of whigs in the higher departments so watch and over-rule their pernicious projects. If he loved war, he made not his own fubjects the devoted objects of his vengeance. Foreign, national, natural, manly war, upon British principles, in defence of British rights, he indeed entered into, profecuted with ardour, and reaped the most glorious confequences from, for this country. He was honeft, wife, brave, and liberal. Capable of opening his heart to new connections, he did not contract and give it up to one man; but when the voice of his people demanded it, he yielded up the object of his choice, and received the object of theirs to his bofom. The greatest of his favourites, if he ever had

any

any in the criminal fenfe of that term, were made to yield. Sir Robert Walpole and the Duke of Newcastle, who, by long lives of ufeful fervice, had well earned the favour of this monarch, had each their favourite measures, and at different periods were compelled to facrifice an excife fcheme, and a Jew bill, and finally their places, to the demands of his people. He received Mr. Pitt from the people, as the gift of the people; and when the public good required a facrifice of that refentment which had been excited in his mind by the parliamentary conduct of that perfon, who had opposed his best and moft favoured fervants with unüfual violence, he made it with manlinefs and dignity.' (Vol. II. App. p. 12.)

It is poffible that the writer may be fincere in this eulogium; the style of which fo little agrees with any language used toward the late King during his life: but fome may be apt to furmife, that this panegyric is not drawn up so much from a veneration for the Prince defcribed, as for fome fancied contrast in the author's mind; and that the time may come, when some writer may be as liberal of praise to our present worthy fovereign; and with equal fincerity.

Thus much for the fpirit that pervades the whole of these volumes; as to the anecdotes refpecting Mr. Pitt, we have a pregnant inftance of the extent of his minifterial influence on his fecond promotion to the adminiftration in 1757:

:

Mr. Pitt's first propofition, was the exclufion of Lord Anfon from the Cabinet. The Duke of Newcastle pleaded earnestly to have Lord Hardwicke in the Cabinet. He faid it was the King's request. Mr. Pitt confented, on condition that Sir Robert Henley had the Great Seal this ftipulation was defired by Leicester-house. Lord Temple to be Privy Seal. Himself Secretary of State, as before. The Duke of Newcastle offered Lord Temple the Treasury. Mr. Pitt interpofed, and faid, "that could not be; his Grace muft go there himself *. But, if at any time hereafter, he should think proper to retire, Lord Temple should fucceed him." Having gone

* There were two reafons for this. The first was, the House of Commons had been chofen by Mr. Pelham; at whofe death, his pocket lift (as it is called) was given to the Duke of Newcastle, and this circumftance made another ftipulation in the arrangement; which was, that the Duke should transfer his majority to Mr. Pitt. Mr. Pitt himself defcribed this fact, on a fubfequent occafion, in thefe words, "I borrowed the Duke of Newcastle's majority to carry on the Public bufinefs."

The other was-Lord Temple would have had his brother, Mr. George Grenville, for his Chancellor of the Exchequer; and in that cafe what could have been done with Mr. Legge? the public would not at that time have approved of any other perfon in that fituation. Mr. Pitt also knew, that there had been a private understanding between the Duke of Newcastle and Mr. Legge, for fome time paft.'

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