seldom played anything but the music of his favourite, Handel. His dissolution took place on the 29th January, 1820, in the eighty-second year of his age. Wade's Chronology, p. 753.

PERSON AND CHARACTER.

He was tall, well formed, his features were bold, and his presence commanding. His first entrance into public life, being then but in his twenty-third year, made a great impression; he had a great advantage over his predecessors in greater affability of manner, and in being acquainted with the language, habits, and institutions of the English. "Born and educated in this country," said his majesty, in his opening speech to the parliament, "I glory in the name of Briton, and I hold the civil and religious rights of my people equally dear with the most valuable prerogatives of my crown.' And never throughout the course of a long and arduous reign of nearly sixty years, did his actions as man or a prince contradict the boast. Profoundly yet unaffectedly religious, pure in his own morals, and careful to set an example to those around him, George III. was the best husband and father in his own dominions; while, as a king, no man knew better than he the principles of the British constitution; and whether he be regarded in his public or in his private capacity, whether he be tried as a prince or as a man, a more upright character never moved in any circle of society.

Lord Orford, vol. vi., p. 222; and Gleig's History, p. 601.

CHRONICLE.

1760, October 26. George the Third proclaimed king. Being born June 4th, 1738, he had completed his twenty-second year, and was grandson of the late king, and son of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and of Augusta, Princess of Saxe Gotha. Sept. 8. Marriage of the king to the Princess Charlotte of MecklenburgStrelitz, second daughter of the late duke. Sept. 22. Coronation of their majesties. Oct. 5. Mr. Pitt resigned the foreign_secretaryship, and was succeeded by Lord Egremont. 1762, Jan. 4. War declared against Spain. Aug. 12. Prince of Wales born; 21st, Died, aged 72, the celebrated Lady Mary Wortley Montague. Nov. 3. PEACE OF FONTAINBLEAU. Dec. 1. Coals 55s. per chaldron. The king's state coach was finished this year; it cost seven thousand five hundred and sixty-two pounds four shillings and threepence. April 8. Retirement of Lord Bute; 16th, Mr. Fox made a peer by the title of Lord Holland; 30th, John Wilkes committed to the Tower. 1764. At Monmouth assizes a girl, about 18, was burnt, for murdering her mistress. 1765, Feb. 9. The peruke makers being in great distress from the employment of foreigners, and many people wearing their own hair, petition the king for relief; several of the peruke makers who attended' gave such offence by their inconsistency in wearing their own hair, that they had it cut off by the populace. May 3. Lord Clive arrived at Calcutta with full power to act as commander-in

chief, president, and governor of Bengal. June 4. The Crown Inn, at Ware, the oldest in Hertfordshire, began to be pulled down, in order to erect a gentleman's seat. In this inn was the famous large bed in which twenty-six butchers and their wives slept on the night William III. came to the crown. 1768, March 19. Died in his 55th year, of pulmonary consumption, Laurence Sterne, the author of "Tristam Shandy," and the "Sentimental Journey." 1774, April 4. Oliver Goldsmith died, in his 43rd year. 1775, June 17. The battle of Bunker's Hill, in which the king's troops sustained a loss of 1,054 men, of whom 226 were killed. 1780, June 2. Lord George Gordon riots. Oct. 2. Major Andre hanged as a spy by the Americans. Sept. 13. General Elliott's gallant defence of Gibraltar against the united French and Spanish forces. Not a vestige was left on the following day of all the formidable preparations which were collected for the carrying on this celebrated siege. It had now lasted five years, and during that time the enemy had vainly tried all the expedients of warfare. 1784, Dec. 1. Dr. Samuel Johnson died, in his 76th year. 1786. Aug. 2. Margaret Nicholson attempts to assassinate the king. 1788, Feb. 13. Trial of Warren Hastings in Westminster Hall began. 1789, April 28. Mutiny of the Bounty. 1790, January. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 1791, Dec. 21. The buckle makers of Birmingham sent a deputation to the Prince of Wales to represent their distressed situation, in consequence of the prevailing fashion of wearing shoe strings instead of buckles. 1792. A gang of thieves having clandestinely introduced themselves into the drawing room at St. James's, in dress clothes, tried to hustle and rob the Prince of Wales. Feb. 23. Sir Joshua Reynolds, the celebrated painter, died in his 60th year. Aug. 10. Storming of the Tuilleries. 1793, Jan. 21. Louis XVI. beheaded. Oct. 26. The late Queen of France, after a mock trial before the revolutionary tribunal, was beheaded, and her body interred in the same manner with that of her husband, in a grave filled with quick lime. Maria Antoinette possessed both talents and virtues; but proud, indiscreet, vindictive, rash, and petulant, she had exercised a political influence that hastened the fall of the monarchy. It is related of her that when laid on the fatal block she turned her head aside to take a last look at the Tuilleries. This accomplished woman, a model of grace and beauty, was in her 38th year. Nov. 8. The celebrated Madame Roland was guillotined. This able and accomplished woman died with Roman fortitude, exclaiming on the scaffold, "O, Liberty! how many crimes are committed in thy name!" Dec. 19. Evacuation of Toulon. 1795, April 8. Marriage of the Prince of Wales with the Princess Caroline, daughter of the Duke of Brunswick; 23rd, Acquittal of Warren Hastings. In this year General Buonaparte first attracted the attention of Europe. 1798, Aug. 1. THE BATTLE OF THE NILE. 1799, Dec. 14. Death of General Washington. 1802. Peace of Amiens. Dec., 1804. Napoleon's pretended invasion from Boulogne. 1805, Oct. 21. VICTORY OF TRAFALGAR,

AND DEATH OF NELSON. 1814. The Restoration of the Bourbons. 1815. Return of Napoleon from Elba. June 18. THE BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 1817, Nov. 6. The Princess Charlotte died, to the great grief of the whole nation. 1820, Jan. 29. George the Third died, in the 82nd year of his age, and was interred at Windsor.

REIGN OF GEORGE IV.

FROM 1820 TO 1830-10 YEARS, 4 MONTHS, 28 DAYS.

CORONATION OF GEORGE IV.

This ancient solemnity was performed on the 19th June, 1821, in a style of unexampled splendour, and is thus commemorated by that great master of description, Sir Walter Scott:

"It is, indeed, impossible to conceive a ceremony more august, and imposing in all its parts, and more calculated to make the deepest impression both on the eye and on the feelings. The most minute attention must have been bestowed, to arrange all the subordinate parts in harmony with the rest; so that amongst so much antiquated ceremonial, imposing singular dresses, duties, and characters, upon persons accustomed to move in the ordinary routine of society, nothing occurred either awkward or ludicrous, which could mar the general effect of the solemnity.

"The effect of the scene in the Abbey was beyond measure magnificent. Imagine long galleries stretched among the aisles of that venerable and august pile, those which rise above the altar pealing back their echoes to a full and magnificent choir of music; those which occupied the sides filled even to crowding with all that Britain has of beautiful and distinguished; and the cross gallery most appropriately occupied by the Westminster school-boys, in their white surplices, many of whom might on that day receive impressions never to be lost during the rest of their lives; imagine this, I say, and then add the spectacle upon the floor-the altars surrounded by the fathers of the church; the king encircled by the nobility of the land, and the councillors of his throne, and by warriors wearing the honoured marks of distinction, bought by many a glorious danger; add to this the rich spectacle of the aisles, crowded with waving plumage, and coronets, and caps of honour, and the sun, which brightened and saddened as if on purpose, now beaming in full lustre on the rich and varied assemblage, and now darting a solitary ray, which catched, as it passed, the glittering folds of a banner, or the edge of a group of battle-axes or partisans, and then rested full on some fair form, the cynosure of neighbouring eyes,' whose circlet of diamonds glistened under its influence. Imagine all this, and then tell me if I have made my journey of four hundred miles to little purpose.

"But there were better things to reward my pilgrimage than

the mere pleasures of the eye and the ear; for it was impossible, without the deepest veneration, to behold the voluntary and solemn interchange of vows betwixt the king and his assembled people, while he, on the one hand, called God Almighty to witness his resolution to maintain their laws and privileges; and while they called, at the same moment, on the Divine Being, to bear witness that they accepted him for their liege sovereign, and pledged to him their love and duty. I cannot describe to you the effect produced by the solemn yet strange mixture of the words of scripture with the shouts and acclamations of the assembled multitude, as they answered to the voice of the prelate, who demanded of them whether they acknowledged as their monarch the prince who claimed the sovereignty in their presence.

"It was peculiarly delightful to see the king receive from the royal brethren, but in particular from the Duke of York, the fraternal kiss, in which they acknowledged their sovereign. There was an honest tenderness, an affectionate and sincere reverence in the embrace interchanged between the Duke of York and his majesty, that approached almost to a caress, and impressed: all present with the electrical conviction that the nearest to the throne in blood was the nearest also in affection. I never heard plaudits given more from the heart than those that were thun-dered upon the royal brethren when they were thus pressed to each other's bosoms; it was the emotion of natural kindness, which, bursting out amidst ceremonial grandeur, found an answer in every British bosom. The king seemed much affected at this and one or two other parts of the ceremonial, even so much so as to excite some alarm among those who saw him as nearly as I did. He completely recovered himself, however, and bore, generally speaking, the fatigue of the day very well. When presiding at the banquet, amid the long line of his nobles, he looked "every inch a king;" and nothing could exceed the grace with which he accepted and returned the various acts of homage rendered to him in the course of that long day.

"If you ask me to distinguish who bore him best, and appeared most to sustain the character we annex to the assistants of such a solemnity, I have no hesitation to name Lord Londonderry, who, in the magnificent robes of the Garter, with the cap and high plume of the order, walked alone, and, by his fine face and majestic person, formed an adequate representative of the order. of Edward III., the costume of which was worn by his lordship only. The Duke of Wellington, with all his laurels, moved and looked deserving the baton, which was never grasped by so worthy a hand. The Marquess of Anglesea showed the most exquisite grace in managing his horse, notwithstanding the want of his limb, which he left at Waterloo. I never saw so fine a bridle-hand in my life, and I am rather a judge of noble horsemanship' Lord Howard's horse was worse bitted than those of the two former noble nen, but not so much so as to derange the ceremony of retiring back out of the hall.

"The champion was performed (as of right) by young Dymoke, a fine looking youth, but bearing, perhaps, a little too much the appearance of a maiden knight to be the challenger of the world in a king's behalf. He threw down his gauntlet, however, with becoming manhood, and showed as much horsemanship as the crowds of knights and squires around him would permit to be exhibited. On the whole this striking part of the exhibition somewhat disappointed me, for I would have had the champion less embarrassed by his assistants, and at liberty to put his horse on the grand pas; and yet the young Lord of Scrivelsbaye looked and behaved extremely well. I could not but admire what I had previously been disposed much to criticise-I mean the fancy dress of the privy councillors, which was of white and blue satin, with trunk hose and mantles, after the fashion of Queen Elizabeth's time. Separately so gay a garb had an odd effect on the persons of elderly or ill-made men; but when the whole was thrown into one general body all these discrepancies disappeared, and you no more observed the particular manner or appearance of an individual than you do that of a soldier in the battalion which marches past you. The whole was so completely harmonised in actual colouring, as well as in association with the general mass of gay, and gorgeous, and antique dress, which floated before the eye that it was next to impossible to attend to the effect of individua figures. Yet a Scotsman will detect a Scotsman amongst the most crowded assemblage; and I must say that the Lord Justice Clerk of Scotland showed to as great advantage in his robes of privy councillor as any by whom that splendid dress was worn on this great occasion. The common court dress, used by the privy councillors at the last coronation, must have had a poor effect in comparison of the present, which formed a gradation on the scale of gorgeous ornament, from the unwieldy splendour of the heralds, who glowed like huge masses of cloth of gold and silver, to the more chastened robes and ermine of the peers. I must not forget the effect produced by the peer's placing their coronets on their heads, which was really august.

"The box assigned to the foreign ambassadors presented a most brilliant effect, and was perfectly in a blaze of diamonds. When the sunshine lighted on Prince Esterhazy, in particular, he glimmered like a galaxy. I cannot learn positively if he had on that renowned coat which has visited all the courts of Europe save ours, and is said to be worth £100,000, or some such trifle, and which costs the prince £100 or £200 every time he puts it on, as he is sure to lose pearls to that amount. This was a hussar dress, but splendid in the last degree; perhaps too fine for good taste, at least it would have appeared so anywhere else. Beside the prince sat a good-humoured lass, who seemed all eyes and ears (his daughter-in-law, I believe), who wore as many diamonds as if they had been Bristol stones.

"An honest Persian was also a remarkable figure, from the dogged and imperturbable gravity with which he looked on the whole