Page:Memoirs of a Trait in the Character of George III.djvu/140

Rh case of which none could have quoted the counterpart in a crowned head—a which not only vindicated that love of justice befitting his exalted station, but evinces a cultivated intellect in this Prince; not engaged in difficulties that concern only the metaphysician, but anxious on a question of vital importance, as connected with that art pre-eminently conducive to the prosperity of his subjects.—His public life has been duly recorded by political communicants of various creeds, but his private worth (that in which he must have desired to reign in the hearts of his people) though attempted by literary artists of skill and industry, it may now be seen is much injured by the loss of those materials which there was no retainer, of whatever rank, about the court, of sufficient abilities and sagacity to preserve; and thence our knowledge of George 3rd on points of the most lively interest, is proportionably defective.

The accomplished Fenelon in his description of Elysium and Tartarus, as Addison observes, lays a stress on the misery of bad, and the happiness of good kings, because his work was designed principally for the instruction of his royal pupil;—a purpose which, under a parity of circumstances, will be supposed to be the object of the present writer, if any distinguished preceptor honours him by taking the same view of that portion of the work in which "George the good" is brought forward. For although