K. GEORGE III. N tracing the long feries of royal defcents which IN has taken place in this Ifland fince the foundation of the English Monarchy, it will be difficult, perhaps impoffible, to name any Prince, who has fucceeded to the Crown under circumftances of greater and more fignal advantage than the present Sovereign. At the head of a firm, vigilant, and popular Adminiftration was placed a Minifter illuftrious by the fplendor of his talents and the magnanimity of his conduct; under whofe fuperior afcendent, party spirit and parliamentary oppofition feemed extinguished. Great Britain, in conjunction with her numerous colonies and dependencies, exhibited to the world a grand political Affociation, actuated by one common intereft, and united, amidst a thousand subordinate diversities of opinion, in the facred bonds of duty and affection. That fatal predilection for the claims of the exiled Houfe of Stuart, formerly fo prevalent, and which VOL. I. B had had rendered the task of Government fo difficult in the preceding reigns, was now no more. Not withstanding the long continuance of a foreign war, the most complicated and extenfive in which Great Britain had ever been engaged, the internal state of the Kingdom was not only perfectly tranquil, but in the highest degree flourishing and profperous. The vaft incrcase of commerce and manufactures enabled her to fupport the immenfe expence incurred in the prosecution of it, with a facility, and even an alacrity, altogether unprecedented and astonishing; and her more recent operations had in every part of the globe been attended with the most brilliant and fascinating fuccefs. As to the new Monarch himself, though. his character was far from being as yet perfectly developed, a very ftrong and apparently just partiality predominated in his favor. During the late reign he had uniformly abftained from all public interference in the affairs of Government. manners were in the highest degree decorous, his morals unblemished, and his perfonal accomplishments correfponded with the elevation of his rank and ftation. All appearances feemed to augur a reign of uninterrupted glory and felicity; and the regret, which the Nation for a moment felt at the fudden demife of the good old King, was immediately abforbed in the transports of joy excited by the aufpicious commencement of the reign of the His young young Monarch, who had very lately attained the age of complete majority; being born June 4, 1738. It must however, be acknowledged that certain circumftances exifted, which in the minds of perfons of deeper reflection occafioned fufpicions and apprehenfions not perfectly according with the feelings of the national enthufiafm. Throughout almost the whole course of the late reign, the Prince of Wales, father of the present King, from various caufes of jealousy and discontent too easily arifing from the doubtful and difficult fituation of an Heir apparent, had been in direct and avowed oppofition to the Court. So far as the means of judging are afforded us, the Prince in his general fyftem of policy feems to have been diftinguished by the rectitude of his intention, the generosity and ingenuousness of his conduct. He was defirous to govern the English Nation upon maxims truly English, and was fired with the noble ambition of realizing in his own person that grand and perfect model of A PATRIOT KING, delineated by the hap pieft effort of a tranfcendent genius. In confequence however of the coalition of the Whigs, which took place after the refignation of Sir Robert Walpole, the Prince, whose reconciliation with the Court proved of tranfient duration, was left entirely in the hands of the Tories, now affecting to ftyle themselves the "Country Party;" or, if the ancient nominal diftinction was ever retained B 2 |