BOOKS.
WALPOLE'S REIGN OF GEORGE THE THIRD.* Fox some reason or other the sections of Walpole's Historical Memoirs of the reign of George the Third have successively declined in character and attraction. The first part, published in 1844,f and containing the first seven years of the reign, 1760-1767, was superior in historical weight and interest to the next ; as this second which appeared in 1845t and continued the narrative till 1771, excelled the present "Journal." Perhaps the nature of the story and of the writer may have had something to do with the decline. From the time when the King had fairly broken the strength of the great Whig families, till the accession of Pitt to office gave purpose and power to Government, the history is indeed worthy of the closest attention. The period we think was the most disgraceful, and if measured by loss of territory and prestige it certainly was the most disastrous in our annals, ex- cept perhaps the reign of Charles the Second. Yet there were men of ability and of patriotism in Parliament, while freedom of the press and. of speech verged upon licentiousness. The solu- tion of this problem is worthy of more attention than it has yet received, but obviously the Honourable Horace Walpole was not the man for the task. He was more at home in recounting the political and courtly intrigues that attended the King's early struggles with what after all was an oligarchy, and describing some of the really striking scenes that took place in Parliament, than in analyzing the results that followed government by the king himself. Then, as the time rolled on, Walpole got older, and be- came of less consequence, as well as less active, till during the period of this third section he had withdrawn as it were from public life ; and though he tells us he kept open channels of in- formation, they rather referred to priority, than peculiarity. An inkling of an intended dissolution, before it was generally known, gave him an advantage in that intriguing for a seat which he took to be politics ; but it was not the information of moment to an after historian. Perhaps he had got somewhat soured, as he had a touch of the laudator temporis acti. He is in these vo- lumes more bitterly censorious than in the former sections of the "Memoirs," and more prone we think to credit any scandalous story however improbable. Something of all this was perhaps felt by the author himself if he made choice of the title of "Journal "; for that word is more appropriate to the present work than his previous term of Memoirs. This book is in reality a species of diary, kept day by day, though not including every day ; and varies in its matter from such a common oecurenoe as a death or a fashionable "ar- rival" which struck him, or an account of family affairs, up to a • Journal of the Reign of King George the Third, from the year 1771 to 1783. By Homer Walpole. Now first published from the original MSS. Edited. with Notes by Dr. Doran, Author of " History of the Queens of England of the House of Hanover," Sze. In two volumes. Published by Bentley.
+ Spectator for 1899, page 1236. Spertator for 1845, page 806.
story of public events, as represented at the moment ; a condensed description of debates in Parliament with gossip or anecdotes about royal, courtly, political, or fashionable people. There are too politi- cal movements in which he himself engaged, mostly to serve his friend Conway, together with various patriotic diatribes, in the form of reflections or jeremiads, wherein an appearance of Ro- man virtue mingles strangely enough with the substance of a modern fine gentleman and sinecurist.
Of course some of these records are commonplace, while many of them are exaggerated or untrue. He hears a report of the decease of the second Lord Lyttelton, (whose name was memorable for the ghostly warning said to have preceded his actual death); and though there was no truth in the report, Walpole never takes the trouble to strike it out, and the refiexions which follow it. An exaggerated account is spread of Graves's unsuccessful action with De Grasse off the mouth of the Chesapeake ; and down it goes without any subsequent correction. In fact his statements about public affairs are often inferior in accuracy to those of the current news- papers; and he himself occasionally refers his future readers to some daily journal. His wonted skill and almost felicity attend him in his descriptive account of the debates. The points of the argument, the characteristics of the speaker, and all the latent niceties that conduce to impression, are indicated by brief touches, and with a spirit that gives life to criticism.
The marriage of the King's younger brother, the Duke of Gloucester, to Walpole's illegitimate niece, the widowed Lady Waldegrave, connected him with the Royal family ; and he was doubtless vain of it ; though his profession of philosophy, his real good sense, and his knowledge of the world prevented its display. The King was greatly offended at the match, another brother, of a less respectable character, the Duke of Cumberland, having mar- ried Mrs. Horton, a daughter of Lord Irnhara, and sister of the celebrated Colonel Luttrell, both commemorated by Junius. In- deed, the marriage of the Duke of Cumberland, and the reported marriage of the Duke of Gloucester, were the cause of the Royal Marriage Act. The ceremony between Lady, Waldegrave and the Duke had taken place without witnesses and the clergyman was dead. This fact, coupled with the King's displeasure and the Duke's pecuniary difficulties, rendered the whole question delicate and embarrassing in the last degree. After much negotiation, a formal record of the marriage took place before certain great officers ; but the King, though finally reconciled to his brother, was long cold and dissatisfied. The story is very curious ; but told at a fatiguing extent and fulness : it is in reality the single subject of the book. The marriage bringing Walpole into close connection with the King's brother, furnished him with some Royal Family anecdotes, especially relating to the King's eldest son though the following batch of scandal relating to the future "first gentleman in Europe" ere he was quite out of his teens, is not wholly of a secret kind. The tales, if true, are a strange picture of manners in 1781. "The conduct of the Prince of Wales began already to make the greatest noise, and proved how very bad his education had been or rather that he had had little or none, but had only been locked up and suffered to keep company with the lowest domestics; while the Duke of Montague, and Hurd, ,Bishop of Lichfield, had thought of nothing but paying court to the King and Queen, and her German women. The Prince drank more publicly in the Drawingroom; and talked there irreligiously and indecently in the epenest manner (both which were the style of the Duchess of Cumberland). He passed the nights in the lowest debaucheries, at the same time bragging of intrigues with women of quality, whom he named publicly. Both the Prince and the Duke [of Cumberland] talked of the King in the grossest terms even in his hearing, as he told the Duke of Gloucester, who asked him why he did not forbid his son seeing his brother. The King replied that he feared the Prince would not obey him. The Duke of Cumberland dropped that he meant by this outrageous behaviour to force the King to yield to terms in favour of his Duchess, having gotten entire command over the Prince. The latter, however, had something of the duplicity of his grand- father, Prince Frederick, and, after drawing in persons to abuse the King, would betray them to the King. Nor in other respects did his heart turn to good. In his letteis to Mrs. Robinson, his mistress, he called his sister, the Princess Royal, a poor child, that bandy-legged b—h, my sister ; ' and, while he was talking of Lord Chesterfield [the successor of the Chesterfield] in the most opprobrious terms, he was sending courier after courier to fetch him to town. That Lord's return produced a scene that divulged all that till now had been only whispered. Onenight, as soon as the King was gone to bed, the Prince with St. Leger and Charles Windham, his cluef favour- ites, and some of his younger servants, the Duke of Cumberland, and George Pitt, son of Lord Rivers, went to Blackheath to sup with Lord Chesterfield, who being married, would not consent to send for the company the Prince required. They all got immediately drunk, and the Prince was forced to lie down on a bed for some time. On his return, one of the company }wo- rmed as a toast, 'A short reign to the King.' The Prince' probably a little come to himself, was offended, rose and drank a bumper to Long live the King.' The next exploit was to let loose a large fierce house-dog, and George Pitt, of remarkable strength, attempted to tear out his tongue. The dog broke from him, wounded Windham's arm, and tore a servant's leg. At six in the morning, when the Prince was to return, Lord Chesterfield took up a candle to light him, but was so drunk that he fell down the steps into the area, and, it was thought, had fractured his skull. That accident spread the whole history of the debauch, and the King was so shocked that he fell ill on it, and told the Duke of Gloucester that he had not slept for ten nights, and that whenever he fretted the bile fell on his breast. As he was not ill on any of the disgraces of the war, he showed how little he had taken them to heart."
The following is of a more confidential kind ; and forms a stranger picture of royal-family affection, than does the previous extract of princely and fashionable manners. It relates to the same year, but some six months later.
"The Duke of Gloucester had come to town, as usual, on the opening of Parliament, and stayed five days, in which he was three times with the King, who, sail he had not used the Duke ill, opened his mind to him on his son the Prince of Wales, and his own brother the Duke of Cumberland, the latter of whom ho said was governed by Charles Fox and Fitzpatrick, and governed the Prince of Wales, whom they wanted to drive into Opposi- tion. When we hunt together,' said the King, 'neither my son nor my brother speak to me ; and lately, when the chace ended at a little village where there was but a single post-chaise to be hired, my son and brother got into it and drove to London, leaving me to go home in a cart if I could find one.' He added, that when at Windsor, where he always dined at three, and in town at four, if he asked the Prince to dine with him, he al- ways came at four at Windsor and in town at five, and all the servants saw the father waiting an hour for the son. That since the Court was come to town the Duke of Cumberland carried the Prince to the lowest places of de- bauchery, where they got dead drunk, and were often carried home in that
condition. I wonder,' said the Duke, 'that your Majesty bears all this.'
What would you have me do,' said the Xing, in my present distress? If I did not bear it, it would only drive my son into Opposition, which would increase my distresses.' The Duke said to me, I know the King's faults; I do not forget his treatment of me ; but I must pity him for being so ill- used by a son.'" Three months afterwards the interest of uncle Cumberland was on the wane.
"But it was not long before the folly and vulgarity of the Duke of Cum- berland disgusted the Prince. His style was so low, that, alluding to the principality of Wales, the Duke called his nephew Taffy. The Prince was offended at such indecent familiarity, and begged it might not be repeated : but in vain. Soon after, Mr. Legge, one of the Prince's gentlemen and seeond son of the Earl of Dartmouth, growing a favourite, inflamed the Prince's disgusts ; and the coolness increasing, the Duke of Cumberland endeavoured to counteract the prejudice by calling Legge to the Prince Your Governor' ; but as the Governor had sense and the uncle none, Legge's arrows took place, the others did not. Yet though the Prince had too much pride to be treated vulgarly, he had not enough to disuse the same style. Nothing was coarser than his conversation and phrases ; and it made men smile to find that in the palace of piety and pride his Royal Highness had learnt nothing bat the dialect of footmen and grooms. Still, if he tor- mented his father, the latter had the comfort of finding that, with so de- praved and licentious a life, his son was not likely to acquire popularity."
It will have been seen by allusions in these extracts that Wal- pole 'ascribes the conduct of the Prince of Wales to a bad and neglected education ; and rather exults over the ill-success of the " pious " plan. That the king's rigid and seclusive system failed is beyond all doubt; but it is scarcely a subject for chuckling over. George the Third had many faults ; but neglect of parental duties was not among them. He conscientiously fulfilled them according to has lights, though he was mistaken in the way.
The journal has small pretension to an historical character. It does not furnish much original information on public affairs ; it is not trustworthy in what it does record, unless the affair fell within the author's own knowledge, and even then he is liable to the suspicion of bias ; neither is there any successive or connected nar- rative. It will not raise the reputation of Walpole ; still it is by Walpole, with his peculiar qualities and the advantages of his fa- vourable position. It is, moreover, the work of a contemporary, animated by the passions of an actor or close looker on ; familiar with the persons, manners, and opinions of his time ; and if moved by their prejudices (and his own) yet partaking of their living feelings. This gives a sense of reality to the Journal trifling or exaggerated as much of it is ; positively untrue as we suspect some of it to be. The same cause brings out two historical features, that may indeed be met elsewhere, but not so vividly. The total want of forethought and plan, not only as regards America, but everything else, on the part of Lord North and the Ministry: the home notion that the attack upon America was only part of a despotic scheme, which beginning by arbitrary taxation, abroga- tion of charters, and military rule across the Atlantic, contem- plated, when successful there, a transfer of the same sort of go- vernment to England. A far-fetched idea perhaps ; but one whose belief contributed, to render the American cause popular among those English who entertained it.
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