Page:Memoirs of a Trait in the Character of George III.djvu/289

234 cloy the stomachs of the guest,—If George 3rd had some frugal habits in private life, analogous to those of Pope (a point we leave to those better informed) he needed no prompter, if any occasion like an installation of the knights of the Garter elect, at Windsor Castle, in which his seven Sons walked before him, called for a splendor and sumptuousness accordant with the ceremonial, and every way worthy of the Monarch and his noble guests.—Notwithstanding these pointed considerations, Junius, who perfectly concurs with Wolcot in finding this Prince insatiably fond of flattery, would have been equally ready to impute to his Sovereign the meanest parsimony, had the hint been started when he wrote: which from Wolcot's career being of later chronology, happened not to be the case.

Such was the paucity of his resources,—the want of substance for the lash of a professed satirist, whom the Aonian Maids would have tossed in a blanket (if they had such an article.) He counted on being read at any rate, if he levelled his shafts at the throne, though they might be pointed with lead, as in the notable hit just quoted, and evidently caters for the depraved taste of the many, who desire to see those above them, in every sense, reduced to their own level. Though neither Junius, nor his understrapper were philosophers, they bring to mind a just observation on Rochefoucault, given by Dr. Hawksworth in the Adventurer, who calls hime "the great philosopher for administering consolation to the idle, the envious and the worthless part of mankind."

Respecting the tamed political Incognito, the Author, who adopts the original and at present the prevailing opinion, that he was Viscount Sackville, thinks the interview he sought with Lord Mansfield, a short time before his death, to beg his lordship's forgiveness for injuries which no one could divine, unless they had been inflicted under the mask of Junius, not a little corroborative of his identity. But the compunction he felt towards that Nobleman, leaves an enormous hiatus, when it is asked why no expedient of any kind was adopted for his submission in a higher quarter—to expiate, if possible, his