When the late celebrated Dr. Richard Watson, Bishop of Llandaff, in the year 1793, published his excellent sermon entitled "The wisdom and goodness of God in making both rich and poor;" with an appendix respecting the then circumstances of Great Britain and France, a strong spirit of insubordination and discontent was prevalent in these islands. The common people were in every village talking about liberty and equality, like many of their superiors, without understanding the terms. The King, at his Levee, says the venerable prelate, complimented me in the warmest terms, in the hearing of Lord Dartmouth, on, he was pleased to say, the conciseness, clearness, and utility of this little publication; and the then Archbishop of Canterbury afterwards informed me, that His Majesty had spoken to him of the publication in the same terms, two months before. "On this occasion, (continues the bishop,) when the King was praising what I had written, I said to him, I love to come forward in a moment of danger.' His Majesty's reply was so quick and proper, that I will put it down:-"I see you do, and it is a mark of a man of high spirit!"

66

His Majesty one day observed to the late Col. Price, that he had an intention of ordering a certain tree to be cut down, asking at the same time the Colonel's advice, but evidently expecting an entire acquiescence in the idea. Colonel Price respectfully ventured to say that he was of a different opinion. Aye," observed the King, somewhat hastily, "that's your way; you continually contradict me." If your Majesty,' replied the Colonel, will not condescend to hear the lionest sentiments of your faithful servants, you' never can come at the truth.' After a short pause, the monarch, laying his hand very kindly upon the Colonel's shoulder, said, "You are right, Price, the tree shall stand!"

The attempt of the maniac Hadfield, in the year 1800, to assassinate the King, afforded a remarkable instance of that high and generous spirit which was the peculiar characteristic of the Princess Charlotte. It is well known, that attempts had been previously made to dissuade His Majesty from attending the theatre; but the King fearlessly declined to follow that advice. He had scarcely entered the royal box, when Hadfield, who was in the pit, cocked his pistol, which he levelled at the King, and was in the act of firing; when a gentleman, sitting next to him, perceiving his murderous intention, attempted to seize the arm of the lunatic, and, in so doing, considerably raised it, which caused the ball to enter the ceiling of the royal box; after which, Hadfield was immediately seized, examined, and found to be a lunatic. The Princess Charlotte, then very young, was informed of these circumstances, and at first shewed great indignation at the assassin, but relented into tears of pity when informed that the unhappy man was insane.

It is well known that the first attack of His Majesty's distressing malady occurred suddenly in 1788, and the unhappy relapse in 1810: the Jubilee, or joyful celebration of His Majesty's entrance into the fiftieth year of his reign, which preceded it in 1809, are circumstances familiar to almost every reader. As many particulars may escape us inadvertently, it is our intention, at the close of the volume, to add whatever may be interesting.

Every anecdote which relates to our revered and afflicted Monarch, is highly interesting, and worthy of preservation: the following are subjoined, from respectable authorities.

In the summer of 1814, the King had lucid intervals; the Queen desired to be informed when that was the case:-she was so; and, on entering the room, she found him singing a hymn, and accompanying it on the harpsichord. When he had

finished it, he knelt down, and prayed aloud for Her Majesty, then for his Family, and the Nation, concluding with a prayer for Himself, that it might please God to remove his heavy calamity from him, but, if not, to give him resignation to submit to it: he then burst into tears, and his reason again fled.

One morning, when the passing-bell was tolling at Windsor, His Majesty inquired who was dead: his attendants did not at first answer him; but on his repeating the question, they answered,'Please your Majesty, Mrs. S"Mrs. S (rejoined the King,) she was a linen-draper, and lived at the corner of street, (naming the street): aye, she was a good woman, and brought up her family in the fear of God-she's gone to HeavenI hope I shall soon follow her."

About two years ago, the King said, "I must have a new suit of clothes, I will have them in black, in Memory of George the Third !"

His Majesty lately expressed a wish to have a chair made of a peculiar shape, from an idea of feeling more ease when sitting. The upholsterer was directed to make a model agreeable to the King's instructions: the model was produced, and explained to His Majesty; who gave his approval, and the chair was made. In December last, this piece of furniture was sent to Windsor, placed in the royal apartment, and the King expressed himself highly pleased with its construction, from the ease and comfort he experienced it to afford.

From the above circumstance, it appears that our venerable Sovereign sometimes has lucid intervals: in one of these, not quite three weeks since, he mentioned the name of Bonaparte. The gentleman in attendance ventured to tell His Majesty, that Napoleon was confined; when the King, with a look of great indignation, immediately replied, “No such thing; I should have known it, if he had; no such thing, no such thing."

The Inscription on the Pedestal of the Statue of His Majesty, erected in the Council Chamber of the Guildhall of the city of London, is as follows: GEORGE THE THIRD,

born and bred a Briton,

endeared to a brave, free, and loyal People
by his public virtues,

by his pre-eminent example

of private worth in all the relations of domestic life,
by his uniform course of unaffected piety,
and entire submission to the will of Heaven.
The wisdom and firmness

of his character and councils

enabled him so to apply the resources of his Empire, so to direct the native energies of his subjects, that he maintained the dignity of his Crown, preserved inviolate the Constitution in Church and State, and secured the commerce and prosperity of his dominions, during a long period of unexampled difficulty; in which the deadly contagion of French principles and the domineering aggressions of French power, had nearly dissolved the frame,

and destroyed the independence,

of every other government and nation in Europe. The Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Commons, of the City of London, have erected this Statue, in testimony

of their undeviating loyalty, and grateful attachment
to the best of kings,

in the fifty-fifth year of his reign,,

A. D. 1815.

The celebrated Dr. Beattie, who received a pension of £200 a year from the privy purse, as the author of the Essay on Truth, in which the infidel notions of Gibbon and Hume are controverted, gives the following account of the interview with the King and Queen, with which he and his friend Dr. Majendie were honoured in the year 1773. "We were

received in the most gracious manner possible by both their Majesties. I had the honour of a conversation with them, nobody else being present but Dr. Majendie, for upwards of an hour, on a great variety of topics; in which both the King and Queen joined, with a degree of cheerfulness, affability, and ease, that was to me surprising, and soon dissipated the embarrassment which I felt at the beginning of the conference. They both complimented me in the highest terms on my Essay, which, they said, was a book they always kept by them; and the King said he had one copy of it in Kew, and another in Town; and immediately went and took it down from a shelf. I found it was the second edition. 'I never stole a book but one,' said his Majesty, speaking to me, and that was yours, which I stole from the Queen, for Lord Hertford to read.' After many questions concerning my works, we had much conversation on moral subjects; from which, both their Majesties let it appear that they were warm friends to Christianity; and so little inclined to infidelity, that they could hardly believe that any thinking man could really be an atheist, unless he could bring himself to believe that he had made himself; a thought which pleased the King exceedingly, and he repeated it several times to the Queen. He asked, if any thing had been written against me? I spoke of a late pamphlet, telling him, that I had never met with any man that had read it, except one Quaker. This brought on some discourse about the Quakers, whose moderation and mild behaviour the King and Queen commended. I was asked many questions about the Scotch Universities; the revenues of the Scotch clergy, their mode of praying and preaching; the Medical College of Edinburgh; Dr. Gregory, and Dr. Cullen; the length of our vacation at Aberdeen, and the closeness of our attendance during winter; the number of students that attend my lectures; my mode of lecturing, whether