A History Of The Four Georges

CONTENTS OF THE T H I R D VOLUME . CHAPTER PAOF XLI1.- SUPREMEIRONICPROCESSION . ., . . I XLII1.-GEORGE AND THE DRAGONS . ., . . 30 XLIV.-THENORTHBRITON. . . . 63 XLV.-NUMBER FORTY-FIVE . . 7 7 XLVI.--THE AMERICAN COLONIES . . . . . 97 XLVI1.-EDIUNDBURKE . . . . 128 XLVII1.-THE STAMP ACT . . . 141 XL.-WILKES REDIVIVUS . . . 169 L.--THE SPIRIT OF JUNIUS . . . . 177 LI.--CHARLES JAMES FOX . . . . . . . . 194 LII.--ON THE CHARLES RIVER . . . . . . . 201 LIII.--THELVICAROFWAKEFIELD . . . . . . 228 LIV.--YANKEEDOODLE . . . . . . . . . 237 LV.---THEGORDONRIOTS. . . . 261 LVI.--TWO NEW MEN . . . 291 LVII.--FOX AND PITT . I . . . 307 LVII1.-WARREN HASTINGS . . . . 338 L1X.-THEGREATIMPEACHMENT . . . 375 LX.--THE CHANGE OF THINGS . . 400 LXI.-- NINETY-EIGET . . 422 LXII.--NAPOLEON BONAPARTE . . . 456 A I-IISTORY THE FOUR GEORGES CHAPTEE XLII. FOR six and forty years England had been ruled by German princes. One Elector of Hanover nam. ed h George had been succeeded by another Elector of Hanover named George, and George the First and George the Second, George the father and George the son, resembled each other in being by nature German rather than English, and by inclination Electors of Hanover rather than Kings of England. Against each of them a Stuart prince had raised a st, andard and an army. George the First had his . James Francis Edward, who called himself James the Third, a11d whom, his opponents called the Pretender, by a translation which gave an injurious significati n to the French 1170rd prktendant.. George the Second had his Charles Edwarii, the Young Pret, ender who a, generation later led an invading army well into . England before he had to turn and fly for his life, A veryclifferent coi ditioio f things awaited the successor of George the Second. George the Seconds urandson was an English prince and an Englishman. b He was born in England his father was born in England his native tongue was the English tongue and if he was Elector of Hanover, that seemed an accident. The title was as unimportant and trivial to the King of Engla liia s his title of Ring of Frailce was unreal and tIleatrica1. The remnant of the Jczcobites could not with truth call the heir to the throne a fbreigner, and they could not in reason hope to make sue11 a demonstration in arms against him as they had made against his grandfather and liis great-grandfather. The young King came to a much safer throne under much more favourable auspices than either of the two monarchs, his kinsmen and his namesakes, h h o ad gone before him. The young King heard the first formal new of his accession to the throne from the lips of no less stately a personage than the Great Commoner bim self-the foremost Englishman then alive. George the Third, as he then actually was, had received at Kern Palace some messages wliich told him that his grandfather was sinking fast, that he was dying, that be was dead. George resolved to start for London. On his nay, and not far from Kew, lie as met by a coach and six which from the blue and silver liveries he knew to be that of BIr. Fitt. Gearge received the congratulations of his great minister-the weat minister whom, as it was soon to appear, he E understood so little and esteemed so poorly. Then Iitt, turning his horses heads, followed his sovereign illto London. Never perhaps in English history was a young king welcomed on his accession by so great a minister.Among the many auspicious conditions which surrounded the early days of George the Thirds reign not the least xus1 icious was the presence of such a bulwark to the throne and to the realm...