DIGITISED MANUSCRIPTS

ey oe) ‘T am told, Mr. Ramsden, that you are the least punctual of any man in England, and yet I find you have kept your appointment to the very day ; the only difference is, that you have mistaken the year.’ George the Third’s qualities, however, were more those of a good than of a great king. Though he ever applied an almost exaggerated solicitude to the affairs of the realm, though conversing and writing with fluency and facility, and delighting in mechanics and music, he never entirely mastered the difficulties of grammar and spelling ; and whilst being tolerably well instructed in modern languages, remained but little conversant with history or literature. Indeed, he was always consistently averse to sedentary occu- pations. A newspaper constituted the ordinary extent of his literary application, and however interesting it might be, generally sent him to sleep in half an hour; and while ruling his household with a kindly hand, he wielded in the affairs of the State an injudicious, an unscrupulous, and even a tyrannical authority. The reason of this inconsistency may be traced partly to the natural obstinacy which he had inherited from his race, but chiefly to the unwise education he had received. Having lost his father, Frederick, Prince of Wales, in his youth, he was brought up