The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-12-19 00:00:00

TIIACKERAY'S LECTURES.

Lest night Mr. Thackeray delivered his third lecture, in
the Philharmonic Hall. The attendance was as numerous
—if not more so—than at the two preceding lectures, and
the distinguished lecturer was received with equal warmth.
The subject of last night's lecture was—" The Reign of
the Third George." Mr. Thackeray commenced by taking
a rapid view of the changes or revolutions in thought,
government, and society, which took place during the
eventful period over which the life and reign of George
111. extended. England, the lecturer said, had to undergo
the revolt of the American colonies ; to submit to defeat ;
to shake under the volcano of the French revolution ; to
grapple and fight for the life with her gigantic enemy
Napoleon ; to gasp and rally after that tremendous
struggle ; the old society, with its courtly splendour, had
to pass away ; generations of statesmen to rase and
disappear; Pitt to follow Chatham to the tomb ; the
mentor e of Rodney and Wolf to be succeeded by Nelson
and Wellington's glory; the old poets who unite us to
Queen Anne's time to sink into their graves; Johnson to
tile and Scott and Byron to arise ; Garrick to delight
the world with his dazzling dramatic genius, and Kean
to leap on the stage and take possession of the astonished
theatre. Steam has to be invented, kings to be beheaded,
depoaed, restored, Napoleon to be an episode, and
George the Third is to be alive through all these varied
changes, to accompany his people through those revolu-
tions of thought, Government, society, and survive out of
the old world into ours. When I first saw England she
was in mourning for the young Princess Charlotte—the
hope of the empire. I came from India as a child, and
our ship touched at an island on the way home, where
my black servant took me a walk over rocks and hills till
we passed a garden where we saw a man walking. That
is he, said the black man, that is Bonaparte ; he eats
three sheep every day, and all the children on whom he
can lay hands. There were people in the British domi-
nions besides that poor Calcutta serving man who had an
equal terror and horror of the Corsican ogre. (Applause.)
Throughout all these changes, George 111. lived nothing
wiser by what ho saw, though changed within himself:
He inherited his mother's bigotry and hatred, and added
to them the obstinacy of his race ; but, unlike his father
and grandfather, he was a firm believer in the truths of
religion, and faithfully supported the church, of which he
was by law the head. Having touched on the dulness and
ignorance of George lll.—an ignorance for which the
King himself frequently expressed regret—his reputed
marriage to Hannah Lightfoot, the actress, Mr.
Thackeray described his marriage with Prince Charlotte
of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, whose portrait was sketched,
and the happy simple life they led for many years after
their union. In the evening, they would have a country
dance, at which George would dance for hours together to
one tune ; and music and the theatre was always his
delight—at the latter place, uproariously laughing at the
smallest joke or tricks of the clown. Simple, but stuborn,
affectionate but bigoted, though earnestly striving to
learn as far as his small wits would allow him, Mr.
Thackeray asked if, with such a man to rule and lead the
people, to declare war, and to decide who his millions of
subjects were to slay, and who they were to be friends
with, we could wonder at humiliation and failure being
the result ? It was he, supported by the people, who
carried on the American war, denied justice to his Roman
Catholic subjects, and on these questions opposed and
beat the aristocracy. Ile beat Lord North and Fox, and
even bowed the stately neck of the younger Pitt, by
his indomitable determination, and he so succeeded
because he was perfectly honest, for it was by persons
thoroughly believing that they were right that nine-
tenths of the tyranny of the world had been perpetrated.
In his letter to Lord Bute, George declared that as he desired
nothing but the good of his people, he regarded all who
opposed him as bad men and bad subjects. Mr. Thackeray
drew from the correspondence of George Selwyn a lively
picture of the life of a fine gentleman, which he contrasted
in some noble and affecting passages, with the lives of those
men in whom goodness and greatness were joined ;
that circle of which Johnson, and Burke, and
Reynolds, 'were central figures. Alluding to Johnson's
visit to the stage, behind the scenes, where the actresses
courtseyed to him, the lecturer suggested a graceful picture
of youth, and gaiety, and folly, beneath wisdom's pure and
kindly smile. Passing on again to the court circle, he
described the routine of the Windsor life, and the gossiping
visits of farmer George among the houses of the peasantry
around. Having exquisitely touched off the portrait of
Amelia, the most loved daugnter, and described her death
and her father's anguish, Mr Thackeray passed on to the
closing scenes of the old King's life. He said history
presents no sadder picture than that old man, blind and
deprived of reason, wandering through his palace, harangu-
ing imaginary Parliaments and reviewing ghostly troops.
He became utterly deaf too. All sight, all reason, all
sound of human voices, all the pleasures of this world, of
God, were taken from him. Same slight lucid moments
he had, in one of which the Queen desiring to see him,
entered the room and found him singing a hymn and ac-
companying himself on the harpisehord ; when finished, he
kneeled down and prayed aloud for her and his family, and
then for the nation, concluding with a prayer for himself
that God would avert his heavy calamity from him, but if
not, that he would give him resignation to submit to it.—
He then burst into tears, and his reason amain fled.—
What preacher need moralise on this story ? What words,
save the simplest, are requisite to tell it ? It is too terrible
for tears. The thought of such misery smites me down in
submission before the Ruler of kings and men—the Mon-
arch supreme over empires and republics, the inscrutable
Dispenser of life, death, happiness, victory. Oh ! brothers,
I said to those who heard me first in America—Oh ! bro-
thers, speaking the same dear mother-tongue— Oh ! corn.
reties, enemies no more, let ns take a mournful hand
together as we stand by this royal corpse, and call a truce
to battle. Low he lies to whom the proudest used to kneel
once, and who was cast lower than the poorest, whom
millions prayed over in vain. Driven off his throne,
buffetted by rude hands, with his children in revolt,
the darling of his old age killed before him, old Lear
hangs over her breathless lips, and calls—Cordelia, Cordelia
stay a little.
Vex not his ghost, 0 ! let him pass, he hates him
That would upon the rack of this rough world
Stretch him out longer.
Hush strife and quarrel over the solemn grave ! Sound
trumpets a mournful march! Fall dark curtain upon his
pageant, his pride, his griefs, his awful tragedy ! The close
of the lecture which Mr. Thackeray delivered in a manner
the most affecting and impressive, and amid the profoundest
silence throughout the house, was followed by a burst of
enthusiastic and irrepressible applause. The concluding
lecture on the life and reign of George the Fourth, will
take place at half-past two on Saturday.