The Press.
London, England, 1855-02-03 00:00:00

112

yittratart.

A History of England during the Reign of
George the Third. By W. Massey, MP.
Vol. I. 170-1770. Loudon : J. W. Parker

and Son.
Tirouort on the titlepage it is intimated that
this volume embraces the period from 1745 to
1770, it in reality relates the events only of
the first ten years of the reign of George 111.—
from 1760 to 1770. The brief notice of the
last fifteen years of George 11. is purely of an
introductory character.
It is truly stated by Mr. Massey that by the
recent publication of authentic documents we
are placed in possession of a great mass of
information illustrative of the reign of George
111. But it is to be observed that those pub-
lications relate chiefly to the events comprised
in this volume—the first ten years of his
reign. The political personages who figured
most prominently in that period were Mr.
Grenville, Lord Bute, Lord Chatham, Lord
Rockingham, the Duke of Bedford, and Lord
Temple. The Grenville, Chatham, Rocking-
ham, and Bedford papers have lately been
given to the world, and those papers reveal, as
far as confidential correspondence, journals,
and private memoranda can, the inner thoughts
and motives of the statesmen whose papers
they comprise, and of their most intimate
friends and adherents. The Bute papers itre
yet required to complete the series ; and it is
to be hoped that they will soon see the light
that the nature and extent of the connection
between George 111. and Lord Bute, to this day
partially in dispute, may be precisely known.
The correspondence between George 111. and
Lord North, though relating to a somewhat
later date, is extremely valuable as throwing
light upon the character and policy of the
monarch.
Mr. Massey holds liberal views, we presume,
yet it is evident from his manner of speaking
of George 111. that the revelations of the
papers we have mentioned have not been
without effect on his mind. He speaks
harshly in some passages of the King, yet on
the whole he gives him credit for shrewdness,
good sense, honesty, and resolution. We do
not require to be told that his faculties were
not of a high order; the want of such faculties
can never be imputed as a reproach to any
man. In the ordinary transactions of life
they are not required, and we have no more
right to look for them in a king than in a
peasant. The greatest or most successful
sovereigns have not usually been distinguished
by high intellectual endowments. Those who
are called on to rule their fellows must lack
or ninst conquer those weaknesses which are
attendant on an imaginative intellect. Great
rulers have owed their superiority as much to
their defects as their virtues. Had they pos-
sessed greater sensibility they could no more
have achieved what they did, than had they
possessed less intellect.
George 111. has had his worshippers, and
some of them have been ready to sign his cer-
tificate for every endowment and virtue which
humanity can possess. But to speak in his
case of mental superiority would be absurd.
His intellect was limited, but was quite pow-
erful enough to enable him to attain any
object npon which he had set his 'lliad. He had
great resolution ; his moral perceptions were
clear, and he always acted up to them. The
idea of duty is familiar to us now as the one
great object of social life, but it was George
111. who, by his example, mainly helped to
impress this idea on the mind of the nation.
Duty was his one great rule of action; and it
may truly be said that he never suffered diffi-
culty or temptation to warp him in the
slightest degree from the standard of what he
believed to be right.
A personal history of George 111., for which
ample materials exist, remains to bo written,
and a complete collection of his correspon-
dence, if the copyright could be arranged,
would be acceptable, as of itself furnishing a
complete picture of the man. But Mr. Mae-
Sq.B history is chiefly parliamentary. It is
evenly written, but is destitute of original
views, and pretends to no more than to relate
occurrences in their order of succession.