hope was to have been able to make a pretty long stay at once whenever I reach Burton; but even if that should not be the case, I can do it at twice, and I am pretty sure of a good deal of leisure in the course of the interval before Parliament meets.

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'To-day brings no news from Paris of a fresh change. The Archbishop has resigned, and Necker is made Minister of Finance, which is probably the best thing that could happen for that country, and in the manner of it very glorious for him; but he will have no easy task to go through with.

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"I think my brother is now really at the eve of being able to move again. I shall probably see him established at Wimbledon before I leave this neighbourhood, and with no other confinement but that of business, which will be a luxury after the other. My kindest love to Eliot, and most affectionate compliments to Mrs. Stapleton, not forgetting good Mrs. Sparry.

"Ever, my dear Mother, &c.,

"W. PITT."

Early next month, however, the visit to Somersetshire was duly made, and Pitt returned from it fully expecting to divide the remainder of a long Recess between Downing Street and Holwood.

"Nescia mens hominum fati sortisque futuræ."

Never was any Prime Minister of England deemed more secure or solidly established than Mr. Pitt in the autumn of 1788. Never did the political horizon seem more clear, more bright, more wholly free from clouds. The members of the Opposition could only look on office as a fond remembrance, and in the future as a distant dream; and their chief, Mr. Fox, despairing of

all present effect in England, set out with his mistress, Mrs. Armistead, for a tour in Italy. Yet at this very period was impending an event wholly without parallel in our Constitutional history, which appeared as an utter blight to the exaltation of Pitt, and as placing Fox within view, nay, almost within grasp, of the highest power. That event, so wholly unforeseen, was the mental alienation of the King.

The constitution of George the Third was by nature hardy and robust, but with a constant tendency to corpulence. To counteract this the King had from an early period adopted a system of abstemious diet and of active exercise. While his meals were of the simplest and plainest kind, the Equerries in attendance upon him might often complain of the great distances which he rode in hunting, or of his walks of three hours before breakfast. That system carried to excess, combined with never failing and anxious attention to affairs of State, was the cause of the mental malady in 1788. Such at least was the opinion of the case expressed by Dr. Willis, the ablest by far of his physicians, when examined by the Committees of the House of Lords and House of Commons.

Early in the summer of 1788 the King's health suffered from repeated bilious attacks. In a letter to Mr. Pitt he says of himself that he is certainly "a cup too low." His physicians prescribed the waters of Cheltenham, and on the 12th of July, the day after the Prorogation, he set out with the Queen for that place. A sojourn of several weeks failed, however, to yield him the expected benefit. When he returned, first to Kew,

and afterwards to Windsor, he seemed weaker in body than before. His attendants were surprised and grieved at seeing him, so lately the most athletic of pedestrians, require the support of a stick. "I could not," he said, "get on without it: my strength seems diminishing hourly." "My dear Effy "—thus he accosted one of the Queen's ladies, the Dowager Countess of Effingham"you see me all at once an old man!”3

Yet still in some points, at least, the King's active habits were maintained. Mr. Rose reports that “Mr. Pitt saw him at Kew, and was with him three hours and forty minutes, both on their legs the whole time." And this brings us to a peculiarity in the reign of George the Third. It was the invariable, or almost invariable, custom of that Monarch to confer with his Ministers standing, neither himself to sit down nor ask them to be seated. This rule, so highly inconvenient to both parties, was no doubt derived from some of the Continental Courts.

At this period of October, 1788, the only physician in attendance on the King was Sir George Baker. He states in his evidence before the subsequent Committees that the first time when he conceived any suspicion of a mental malady in the King was in the evening of the 22nd of October. Next morning the unfavourable symptoms which led to that suspicion had wholly disappeared. On the 24th, however, the King made an effort beyond

3 Diary of Miss Burney (Madame | p. 86, ed. 1860. See also the Edind'Arblay), vol. iv. p. 275. burgh Review for April, 1856, p. 354.

• Diaries and Correspondence of the Right Hon. George Rose, vol. i.

his strength in going to hold a Levee at St. James's. He made that effort, as he wrote to Mr. Pitt, "to stop further lies and any fall of the Stocks." But at the Levee his manner and conversation were such as to cause the most painful uneasiness in several at least of those to whom he spoke. Mr. Pitt, in particular, could not entirely suppress his emotion when he attended the King in his closet after the Levee, which His Majesty observed and noticed with kindness in writing next day to his Minister from Kew. Probably conscious himself, at least in some degree, of his coming malady, he directed Mr. Pitt in the same letter not to allow any political papers to be sent to him before the next ensuing Levee.

On the 25th the King removed to Windsor Castle. His state appears to have fluctuated from day to day, but there was no lasting improvement in his health. His letters to Mr. Pitt, which I shall give at length in my appendix, bear no tokens of an incoherent mind. They merely manifest some reluctance and anxiety as to the measures which Pitt desired to pursue with regard to the Northern Powers. The last letter of the King before his malady is dated on the 3rd of November. In this His Majesty states that he can now sign warrants in any number without inconvenience. He adds that he attempts reading the despatches daily, but as yet without success.

Of the King's real condition at this time by far the best, and indeed, so far as published, the only good account is to be found in the private journal of Miss Frances Burney, the accomplished author of 'Evelina.' That

VOL. I.

S

lady was now a member of the Royal Household, and in daily attendance on the Queen as, under Mrs. Schwellenberg, Deputy Keeper of the Robes. Dull and trifling as the earlier volumes of her 'Diary,' I must confess, appear to me, the entries in it now become of lively interest and of sterling value, and are marked by not merely dutiful but warm and affectionate attachment to her Royal Mistress.

By some extracts from her journal my narrative may be best continued:

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Sunday, November 3.-We are all here in a most uneasy state. The King is better and worse so frequently, and changes so daily backward and forward, that everything is to be apprehended if his nerves are not some way quieted. I dreadfully fear he is on the eve of some severe fever. The Queen is almost overpowered with some secret terror. I am affected beyond all expression in her presence to see what struggles she makes to support serenity. To-day she gave up the conflict when I was alone with her, and burst into a violent fit of tears. It was very, very terrible to see!” Wednesday, November 5.-I found my poor Royal Mistress in the morning sad and sadder still; something horrible seemed impending; and I saw her whole resource was in religion. We had talked lately much upon solemn subjects; and she appeared already preparing herself to be resigned for whatever might happen.

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"At noon the King went out in his chaise with the Princess Royal for an airing. I looked from my window to see him; he was all smiling benignity, but gave so many orders to the postilions, and got in and out of the carriage twice with such agitation, that