Page:Memoirs of a Trait in the Character of George III.djvu/102

Rh may be allowed to soften the deformity of the official statement, which has no equivalent salvo, although six learned graduates either were, or might have been, assisting at this edict against all trials not having their sign manual; and—Presto, begone.—

We are at Buckingham House; where, after the King had perused the regular report of proceedings, which he would do first, the Author conjectures that the junior Harrison showed him his own statement, which he would have in his pocket, and it is highly creditable to him as a plain, but conscientious citizen, that he should, by withholding no part of the truth, have lessened the mischief which these thoughtless men, maugre their erudite designations, might have found they were concocting, by having thrown away their historical horn-books. To adhere to the letter of their right, as Commissioners, at such a juncture, without deigning to show common civility to his Majesty, was hazardous enough; for it was provoking one of those trials of strength on which the revolutions of kingdoms have often been known to depend. To make their privileges the vehicle of a deliberate affront to "the fountain of honour," would have been generally resented by the public, in behalf of their Sovereign, had it been bruited; as savouring more of a puritanical contempt for royalty, among these Ecclesiastics, than of that deference which their friend, Tully, who so greatly admired a triune