the danger to which they exposed themselves, or the chance of forming a powerful combination. The enterprise was evidently rash and unjustifiable, and the event might easily have been foreseen. The leader of this contemptible party, in the wantonness of riot, or the phrensy of desperation, shot the inmate of a house, because the master refused to surrender the arms which he kept for his lawful defence. This insurrection was quelled by the mere appearance of a few soldiers. The enemies of the government fled with precipitation; but all their endeavours to escape could not prevent the seisure of thirty-five of the offenders. Only four of the number were tried, and three suffered death for their delinquency.

The machinations of daring mal-contents being thus checked, and the times seeming to assume a better aspect, the gloom which had hung over the nation began to disperse; but a cloud, from a different source, overspread for a time the political hemisphere. The princess Charlotte had been married to Leopold prince of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, whom she both loved and esteemed; and a future heir of the crown was eagerly expected by the nation. Her pregnancy was observed with pleasure, and announced with joy; and, when the time of her delivery approached, few apprehended misfortune or disappointment, because her royal highness had almost uniformly enjoyed a good state of health. After a tedious labor, a male child was produced, but no indications of life appeared in its frame; and the mother, although it was declared that she was 'doing extremely well,' expired before the ensuing dawn. Thus the hopes of the public were suddenly frustrated, and the promises of a constitutional reign became visionary and fallacious.

This princess, who had not completed her twentysecond year, was in her person under the middle size,

and rather broad than slim in her form, which, however, was well-proportioned. She had a fair complexion, full and expressive eyes, a pleasing countenance, and fine arms; and her address was graceful and dignified. From nature she derived acuteness and talent: her inquisitive mind had been cultivated with success, and her judgement was matured by study. She mingled, with a fondness for reading, a taste for the elegance of music, and was not only a singer, but a correct instrumental performer. She was not disinclined to society, but wished it to be select rather than merely fashionable. Though conscious of her rank and her exalted pretensions, she had no repulsive pride in her demeanor, no affectation of superiority. She was as courteous in her manners as she was liberal in her ideas; and her morality was as unexceptionable as her piety was rational.

While addresses of condolence from all parts of the kingdom soothed the grief of the prince regent, he did not relax in his attention to public affairs; and, among other objects, he was intent on the restoration of that A.D. personal liberty which had for some time been 1818. partially suspended. He promoted the interest of religion by procuring a parliamentary grant of a million sterling for the erection of new churches; and he also gave his ready sanction to an inquiry into the state of charitable institutions connected with education, as the trustees, in numerous instances, were accused of embezzlement or neglect.

Adverting to foreign concerns, he obtained, from the courts of Madrid and Lisbon, some concessions tending to the eventual abolition of the slave trade; and, as France seemed to be in a tranquil state, he concurred with his imperial and royal friends in the recall of the allied troops from France, when only three-fifths of the stipulated term had elapsed.

A.D. When a new parliament assembled, the call for 1819. an alleviation of the public burthens, and for a redress of other grievances, became loud and general; and, in various public meetings, a radical reform was declared. to be absolutely necessary for the salvation of the state. Alarmed at these assemblages, the prince regent denounced the vengeance of the law against all disturbers of the public peace. Not deterred by this menace, about 50,000 persons assembled near Manchester, and Mr. Hunt addressed them in recommendation of reform: but, when no riot had broken out, a detachment of provincial cavalry rushed through the crowd, using the sabre with wanton violence. Hunt, for having presided at the meeting, was sentenced to a long confinement; and, to check the daring spirit of the advocates of reform, some arbitrary bills were brought forward by the ministry. By these acts, public meetings were subjected to new restrictions, training or drilling was prohibited, fire-arms were required to be surrendered, and the authors and publishers of impious and seditious libels were ordered to be more severely punished.

While the ministers were thus providing for the continuance and augmentation of their power, their royal patron, who had long been estranged from public affairs, yielded to the attacks of age and infirmity. On the death of his respected queen (in 1818), the custody of his person had been consigned to the duke of York, Jan. 29, who witnessed the expiration of his venerable 1820. father, in the eighty-second year of his age.

In imitation of our historic predecessor, who gave two representations of the character of George II., we now exhibit two portraits of the grandson of that monarch.

Of these displays of character, one is marked by the plenitude of panegyric. It is affirmed, that a better king never reigned, either in this or in any other country.

He fully understood the various duties of a sovereign, and practised them with exemplary strictness and undeviating propriety. When he conceived that he was acting rightly, he pursued his course with spirit and vigor, and was not deterred from it by the clamors of faction. When he resisted the demands of his colonial subjects, he was not actuated by ambition, or a thirst of power, but by a desire of maintaining the legitimate authority of the parliament; and, when he attacked the French revolutionists, he considered the case as similar to that of a burning house, where a neighbour interferes with a view of checking the progress of the flames, which otherwise might extend to his own habitation. This, he thought, was both a law of nature and a dictate of policy. His other public measures were equally just and patriotic,-honorable to himself, and beneficial to the community. To religion he was as much devoted as to the concerns of state: he gave to his people an example of piety; and, while he promoted their immediate welfare, he wished them not to neglect their eternal interests. He discountenanced immorality in his court; was virtuous in his own conduct, chaste, and temperate; free from pride and passion; candid, kind, and benevolent.'

It is the opinion of others, that this prince was not formed to give lustre to a throne, or to dignify the annals of a nation. He had originally a narrow mind, and he did not expand it by diligent cultivation. His youthful studies were not properly directed, either when he regulated them by his own judgement, or followed the advice of his ill-chosen preceptors. Some of the early acts of his reign bore a gracious aspect: but, when he looked across the Atlantic, his features assumed the sternness of tyranny. Blinded by passion and prejudice, he did not advert to the injustice, or foresee the mischievous consequences, of the American war. He pursued the ob

noxious colonists with that obstinate animosity, which
certainly was not allied to royal magnanimity; and,
regardless of the benignant precepts of that religion
which he professed, he imprecated the vengeance of
Heaven upon those men, whose free spirit, as a prince of
the house of Brunswick, he might have been expected
to admire. The same zeal of Toryism hurried him into
a war with France, at a time when he had no justifiable
motives for such violence.

'His private character is said to have been exemplary.
He was not, indeed, a tyrant to his family, and was a
good husband, father, and friend; but these are merits
which were shared with him by myriads of his most
obscure subjects. He was occasionally charitable; but,
as his court exhibited no great display of magnificence,
he might easily have been more liberal amidst the am-
plitude of his appropriated revenue.'

*** In page 412, the account of Napoleon's conduct having
inadvertently been re-printed from the former edition, without those
alterations which his intervening death required, the intelligent
reader will convert the present to the past tense, by substituting, in
his mind, enjoyed for enjoys, &c.

INDEX.