TILE PRESS.

CHARACTERS OF KING GEORGE THE FOURTH.

IlfonxiNo CIIRONICLE—In a government like ours, in which the powers of the Sovereign are limited, the personal character of a ruler is, no doubt, of less importance than in a pure monarchy. Still, how- ever, the share of power possessed by the King in this country is far from inconsiderable, and the reign of George the Third affords ample proof that the proceedings of the Government may be very materially

influenced by the character of the Sovereign. It is now understood that we owe to that monarch the loss of our North American Colonies, and that his ministers, long before the conclusion of the American war, yielded to his desires for its continuance, against their better judgment. So eager was the King for the continuance of the war, that it is even gated on good authority, that he threatened Lord North, if he refused to remain Minister, he would have to answer to the country for having one on so long. The same,Blonarch defeated the Aristocracy in 1784, when Mr. Pitt became Minister. And it is well known that Mr. Pitt resisted for some time the wish of the King for a war with France, till the great Whig families declared in favour of hostilities, which enabled the Monarch to overcome the reluctance of the Minister. Thus it may

be said, that we owe toethe inclinations of our King George the Third

the two wars which hare entailed on this country nearly the whole of the heavy debt which now presses so heavily on us. The obstinate pre- judices of George the ,Third prevailed also in the case of the concessions to the Catholics. In short, the share power allotted by the Constitution to the King is so great, that a Sovereign possessed of ambition, energy, and talents, aught in most cases, by a little management, prevail in the policy which he has most at heart. We are induced to make these re- marks on the share of power allotted by the Constitution to the Mo-

narch, from a belief that the influence of the personal character of George the Fourth on the character of his reign is not so well under- stood as it ought to be. The world is apt to suppose that what is, could not have been otherwise. If George the Fourth had, in 1811, possessed the ambition and the love of business of his father, the struggle between the Monarch and the Aristocracy for asrendancy, the peculiar character of the events xvitich agitated Europe long after the peace, and the disaf- fection of large classes of the poled:ghee especially in the maettfactering, districts, Might altogether have given a very different complexion to the times from that which they have actually borne. But George the Fourth, from his first accession to power to the close of his reign, seems to have Leen seldom actuated by a wish to interfere with the measures which his Ministers fig the ti toe recommended. During the greater part Of his father's reign, the Illinisters for the time often cumplaitted of the intrigues (tithe friends of the King, and the nation was familiar- ised with the terms of back-steirs infinence, Of a power Iwhind the Throne greater titan the Throne itself, &c. The King's party in Par- liament used not nofrequently to vote against the Ministers, whose situation was, in consequence, anything rather than a bed of roses. But George the 1( 011th, with natural abilities of a far higher character than tie se (ff. his father, had from his early years abantheted himself to pleasure. and had he been so inclined, when verging (0i fifty, he rot Lid not easily hare acquired habits of application to busitless. The wish nearest his heart seems to have hoer been the enjoyment Of domestic quiet and private friendship; and his friends and confidants were not chosen with a liew to pctlitical influence or intrigue. With such a Sove- reign . an sidministration has little to fear in the tray of unnecessary interference. * The late King is allowed to have been of a kind and benevolent dispesition, and to have taken notell th.light in promoting the happiness of all who approached him. We consider the events syhich grew out of his unfiutunate marriage to form no exeeption to this, because here he resented an attempt to abridge his own happiness, and he acted throughout under the influence of strong excitement. But he took no delight in abridging the happiness or pleasure of those who did not come in collision with himself. He was born the heir to a throne, and taught to believe that he was entitled to every indulgence. Hence the defects in his character, witielt became the source of so notch misery to him ift after life. But, though spoiled by indulgenee in early life, and ill quelitied to brook opposition to his wishes, the kind substra- tum of his disposition relic: it Inwhanged ; and though when in power he might not pesess a prcdhund knowledge of the means by which the happiness and prosperity of a station are best promoted, the well-ktetwn benevol.snce of his disposition afforded a security, that at least he would not easily consent to any measures of a harsh and violent nature. Ile might be reluctant to accede to measures of a decided charaeter in critical times, front ina- bility to estimate the degree in which the good would prevail over the evil in the temsequences ; hitt as this delete was cunnertel with the wish that his subjects should share the tranquillity he himself loved, great allowance was 711;lde for it. ft was believed, and not with flit reason, that though averse to interfere with the course of the Administration, yet that this weil•Isnmen love of muderatiou was not wirhont its effirt on his public servants. To the love of repose. therefore, in t Se late King, coupled with his moderation and I:envy:iv:Ice. we OWL' tlIC Si II II lilt and straight-forward mend I Of the (C.:Imminent. the absence of' Ceirt intrigue, the toleration whin allottes1 public opinien to attain coefidenee and strength, and many other blessings.

Tores—There is a moral iii less titan a political h.laeuce which a :Monarch seldom fitils to exercise twee his people. A part from preroga- tives and political hist itutions. Kings reign over eeriety in their persons and their habits, as they do by thsir Ministate:: over the state itself. The qualities of individuals concern chiefly themselves and their connexions. An ordinary gentleman 111;1V ];;;Ve private virtues or vices, end he anti they find refuge and.ohliVion in the grave. • But a Niles lea no private character ; he is all " matter of record ;" he tees incoser :fly on the manners or morals of his subjeets ; all his pm:credit:es anc-rt the tastes or principles of the cmtnnunity, in a cieeree or which the peeedents esta- blished by other men are aleteether he:apt:him Of a lc Mg. therefore, there is nothing saertel hit it his person ; for we have a rya to speak of those things of which we feel and trace the results tipcfn (Kir OW11 best interests. A El n. in the truest sense, " belongs to history ;" and his name and reputation. fall within her stern grasp from the hi ur at which the tomb receives his ashes. George III. was an Englieltman, and was a part, and no mean part, of the nation. He made an early and liMmy marriage with avirtuous woman, and his Court and family weremoulded, as nearly fus circumstances would admit of, upon the model of a private but noble house. The decorum mid graces of domestic life 'surrounded this whole establishment. Husband and wife were seen every where togethert and, attended by their children, were seen frequently and famili arly,withou, churlishness, or insolence, or airs of exclusion, by the poorest subjects of George III.; while the good-humoured ease and simplicity of the King's deportment,—his regular habits, and punctual attention to ordinary du- ties,—his love of rural scenes, and sports, and business,—his affable and kindly manners,—his unostentatious, but well-judged and extensive, charities,—his manifest consciousness that he and his countrymen be- longed to each other, and were governed by common tastes and feelings,—

obtained for George IIL an universal access to the hearts of the people, and reciprocally influenced the farmer's fireside and the royal palace. But we turn to his successor, now deceased. We have recorded, front the autho- rity of an individual familiar with the subject on which he bore witness, the assertion—the disgraceful and provoking assertion—although un- doubtedly it was meant as a screen to something, if possible, still worse

—that neither the hue Prince of Wales low the Duke of York could ever be made to comprehend the value 0 f MOM' y —the difference, as it was

insinuated, between pounds, shillings, and pence ! It' so, both brothers must have been deli-bait in the most ordinary powers of intellect, which, as to one of them at least, is known to be alt egregious error. It was intended to est:MU:ill the fact, that neither of these Princes had ever been

made conversant Willi the means through which money is lawfully pro- cured, or with the uses to which it ought to be directed, d defect is, 1111.

happily, too common to he incredible, in relation to peceants Of it rank so

elevated that they need not lebour for their bread. Let this cause, how- ever, have been what it may. the Prince of Weles soon acquired, if not an appetite for wasting money, att habit of prodigality till' 1111)st reckless, unceasing., and unbounded t lets the countrv ceased to feel, to this hour, the effeets of all indifference to the sufferings I of tellers, little credit- able in hitn who so frequently aggravated or produced them. To the last years of his existences this Nroful spirit of waste and pneligality has possessed the subject of us ii' memoir. As Prince of Wales, in the tawdry

childishness of Carlton House, fuel in tile mountebank Pavilion, or cluster

of' pagodas, at Brighton, his Royal Highness afforded an infallible earnest of what might one day be expecte:I from his Mejesty, when the appetite for profusion, and the contempt for all that deserves the name of architecture, sleelld have reached their full matucity anti perfeetion. If the Court of George III. had a powerful influence in maintaining the

decencies of social intertanirse throughout I•ineland,—if his virtutaiS

Queen, by her le-solute contempt of vice, and rigorous exclusion of female profligates from her preSiM(Y, did ectually cover thts cause of the :Laub.

tress with authorised atel merite.1 ssern—therehy awarding to female chastity that worldly honour which, next to religion and her hushaad's and children's love, is the surest guard of' the neat ln's virtlw,--if such were the respective meeds tact:tiled at the Ccetrt of I ncorge I I I. to worth and to impurity, it grieves us to speak of the opposite system which pre- vailed notoriously. during the reign of Itis suecessor. 1Ve Mt to It com- plain with a too morose rigidity, that tile gaming table, which exhausts the most immeasurable resources, and which creates and feeds the vilest and most hateful passions, was familiar to t he y,it t thful Prince. His Royal Highness could throw off, and did, successively, all the I .ompa- nions Of his earlier years; except, perhaps, those habits if life which are the sole, but brief and precarimis bond of such immoral intercourse. Nor would it, but for what follows after, be our duty to bring forward the mortifying fact, that not one, but a series of licentious fiivourites, are understood to haye presided tow the Royal Household of George IV., and to have affixed upon hie court a character the El`VerAt of that by which his father's reign was distinguished. The divorced of both sexes, and of all ages, were not afraid of meeting a suitable reception from congenial spirits near the British Throne. The late King had

many generations cif intimates, with whom he tel a course of life, the

character of which rose little hieher than that of' animal ;Aldo/ewe.

The Royal taste in the chit die of it companions usually exhihittel its changes at the same periods which marked the transfer of his more par- ticular attentions from one fair favourite to a rival. But never, we lament to say, except in the instance of Lord Moira, with whom the friendship was of the holyday kind—showy, not solid,—aud in that of

Sheridan, where the alliance was a traffic of dexterous and familiar ser- vice against the hopes of patron:mots—never have we seen reeorded, among the Prince's intimates, the name of one man distimetished in the melted for any intellectual attributes (we say nothing of the newel) which it would not have been charity to forgot. If George IV. encoutsseed utud professed that species of Philosophy, which take, its name, thotteh not its doctrines, or real qualities, from Epieurns,—or if, ie tile practice. I if th e late King and his companions, it degenerated intik sone thing far mitre gross

than Epicureewould have Mewled to te.kaowledge,—we are hound to state

that Leiden is a rich school of voluptuoustiess ; and that of all the pupils in such a school, :at lair apparent will probably be among

the most conspicuous and docile. It is, however, a ground nf something deeper than regret, that the gentle mei noble families of England shoeld have no access to the Sovereign, or to the fitnetles itf CI:. Itoyel Douse,

but through the den off iirce. it is shocking that foul estamples should emanate from so high a s:etree—that the very mane of modesty should be so obliterated frem the walls of den edill iii Wil,/Stt lord is the "Artis- te/a fl honour," for all Englishmen told their children.

Cot: RI EiL^A1(1101101 thi 11:thitS, pt`i'lliir,, the artirmial India/ iu the manners of King (Merge the Fourth, prevented hint from

ever becoming an object of enthusiestie attogionent to his people, still the:'e was much in his elmsarter which gra! Med the national pride. He was magnificent, generous, and above all the Princes cif his house, great and prosperons. Tint annels of the island contain no period superior in glory to his Itegletess, arui few Si) distinguished for liberality as his reign. England may boast of Eines more renowned for personal achievements;

but the United Throne of the tilr.'e Eine:cif/111S has teeser been occepied

by so splendid a Prince. He wes great ly fortunate beyond the ordinary lot of man. The domestic policy Of the kingdom did tun allow him to take a part in public affeirs, ceett elide osjoying the reputetion for eloquence and ability, moil, hy the renew of circumstances, he could no longer be denied. While in that forhideen condition, he naturally asso- ciated himself with those of the nohility met gentry, who, dunigh also

possessed of personal influence, were yet excluded front office; and it is

no inconsiderable proof of his intellectual acumen, that his companions consisted of men eminent by tlieir gills and acquirements. That he occa- sionally mingled with individuals more famed for genius than for wisdom, cannot be denied ; but he lived to show that his relaxations in their society were not dictated by congeniality of disposition. It has been re-

marked, that the Princes of the House of Brunswick have rarely been distinguished for enterprise or curiosity, and this enlightened Monarch partook of the defect. His life was spent within a narrow circle, and the journeys, after his coronation, to Ireland, Scotland, and Hanover,

were rather of the nature of state progresses, than tours of information. With a disposition which found its chief enjoyments in a small number of chosen associates, he had a passion for pageantry, hi the indulgence of which he delighted to exhibit his invention and taste. It has been

universally admitted, that for the fine arts he possessed a refilled and correct eye; and although the two great monuments of his patronage—

Windsor Castle amd Buckingham Palace—are left unfinished, still they

are so far advanced towards completion, that their respective merits may, with the help of the plans, be justly appreciated. But it was chiefly in the details of I is household, and the completeness of every thing relating to his personal comfort and dignity, that the elegance of his predilections was most apparent. In puldie affairs he divides, of necessity, the renown of the measures of Ilk Government uith his Ministers; but still it nmst be acknowledged that be performed the duties of his great office with judgment inuf wisdom, especially in the selection of his counsellors, and the interest with which ht. took a part in their undertakings. For this it may be said that history, which ascribes the glories of a splendid reign to the Monarch in tvhose time they were accomplished, will, when lie speaks of those of George the Fourth, have less occasion to employ her 4.01111(.0ns ellipses, than in recording the achievements of any Sovereign which has tilled the British throne since the days of Queen Elizabeth.

Onsu It vEn-1: eared up with well-ietentioned but most cielpahle strict- ness, a natnrally sanguine temperament carried hint into the most un- bridled excess tvlien released from the fetters whiell hound his boyhood ; and the :11.senee of all ordimiry exeit, molts to honourable exertion, preserved him, until late in life, in a course xvilich every Englishman most deplore. It C011tiLliIMICCS WITC7 degrMlifig entharrasS/OVIlt:i in the commencement or his car«.r, dennstic miseries in its centinuance, and nittell that was to he pitied, although not extenuated, at its close. Rash and violent, but hind-hearted and fin-giving in temper ; generous and but intliscriminotely profuse in disposition. Although tickle, he never wantonly abandoned ; although offended. Ile never maliciously persecuted ; titul if Providence had blessed hint with a pfever gnu:li- e:abut a litflt more limited, with a rank a little le..s elevated, he might Lave passed through lift. si 1:11ont a tithe of the miseries la. was com- pelled to endure, and have :ell behind hint it mom. unstained by much of that obloquy which circumstances, and not inclination, forced him to provoke. Mulch, however, its wi may be to rl,eak, with pain Or with respert, of the qualities of his Majcsly in privet,. life, it is with regret ire most admit that we can find linkt in his public or political to satisfy our feeling of wl.at was demanded from him, to justify an opinion that, he was It wise S4)ver1•i■ii, or to induce us to point out his course as worthy of the imitation of a :.:urcessor. We allude not to his abandon- ment of his early.deelared party pre.judiees,—We..eolliplain Oat of his ad. Lerenee to a Ections Opposition at one moment, or to his adoption of the

principles of an un-English 31inisti another—we care not for these

flings. Whig and Tiny have proved themselves, at times, equally s..hish, equally unworthy of regard. We speak of the man xvlio is called by Providence to direct the destinies of a mighty empire—to hit Iii in his lands the uncolit rolled power of advancing or retarding the happiness and the fortunes el cute hundred and twenty millions of his fellow-creatures. No disguise or cant can conceal the truth, that all of tints, and all meritorious ptddle exertions, were forced on hint 11: the prifgress of the age, not adopted filen an ardent wish to signalize his reign ; and that, althougll a scholar, a gentleman, mid a patron of zirts I III r Sovereig-n, loweeve worthy of boil ,g reg rctu.al, was neither a great King, an en-

lightened statesman, nor a national Inalefactor. .

A tiu-1n his vouth lie raked, as almost all men possessed of the means in early life are sure to do. His intrigues and his dissipation Nvcre a course, milt account of hi,: high station, more known to the world, and thereby exposed to the mono ire of that easy school of moralists, who are rvadiest to blame when they ran at the same tittle insult persons in superior rank. Nit it may he jnstly asked if, with all tli influence of his power and rank—all the graces of his person and conversation—all the fascinations which lie possessed—he ran In, accused of playing the part of the seducer, for introding upon tie rights of any husband by whom those rights were vonsidered of any value ? Those who look over the list which history or scandal has drawn up of the ladies in whose

good graces la. has shared, even has been supposed to have shared, will answer this question in the negative.

MAGA.. IX tf—llf` 01. nothing but personal ea.m.

Ile story ! r.dte, but be dismissed his mistrus• es and his rchci: without any re4ard to their future good or ill I..; tune, lic sine]: to tbe Whigs as long as they served his pur- pose, an 1 t!I;lo..1 thin off AllAcit 111(111 tro?ilde.onir. Ile indulged tin' follies and its of his companions till indulging them longer /4...tose troWdemone. Ile supported tit' principles of his nimily, till supportio:!: Clem any more ConSeil:t ii to the l'opkli bill on tile same 'wHide that lie litul shaken poor Mrs. Robinson. Protestantism and lb rdita were voted bores ; they disturbed Ins itttttee. lie hated public exhihition because it annoyed him ; be had a morbid dislike of the panegyrical mention of namy, pri.sided over die COW,' rt• III the day, Of its in war, tool 1011 governc,1 it in a period of rare of tinu.,ual duration—he had no re- markabie vice and no trace of cruelty about hint—lit, was never mean or avaricions—his manners were Wand and gontleman•like—and yet he is forgotten already. Ni doily woiald have remembered the eNistence of Sardanapalits, if, after having lived in luxurious seclusion, he had died quietly in his bed at it good old age of a dropsy.