One particular object also has been kept in view. For many years past there have appeared innumerable volumes of Memoirs and Recollections, in which are given many dramatic scenes and sketches connected with eminent personages. These often make but a small portion of the volumes in question, and, buried in a mass of less interesting matter, are soon forgotten. It is certainly a gain to have such little sketches rescued from oblivion, and it is with this view that the reader will find here most of what is amusing and interesting in the books of Lords Brougham, Campbell, Broughton, of Raikes, Greville, and a vast number of other works of less pretentious writers. This plan, which I have followed in other works, may not be one that comes up to the high standard required by critics, but it at least helps to make a readable, agreeable book. As an instance, I would point to the passages taken from Lord Brougham's "Autobiography" and Lord Campbell's "Life of Lord Brougham," and which illustrate in an odd way the vendetta of these remarkable but acrimonious men.

I have taken particular pains to collect all the royal letters that are available. In various parts of these volumes I have called attention to the curious

changes in manners and social life which were then setting in, and which were the beginning of the "order of things" which has prevailed during the last fifty

years.

I may add that these volumes complete the series of Memoirs of the Royal Family of George III., and which include "The Life of George IV." and "Lives of the Royal Dukes and Princesses."

THE LIFE AND TIMES

OF

WILLIAM IV.

CHAPTER I.

THE third son of George III. was born on August 21st, 1765, between three and four o'clock in the morning, at Buckingham Palace, in the presence of the Princess Dowager of Wales, of the Lord Chancellor, and other functionaries. He was christened William Henry, after his uncle, the Duke of Gloucester, Archbishop Secker performing the ceremony, porter being lavishly distributed to the crowd on the occasion. The usual addresses and felicitations were freely presented to their Majesties on the auspicious event, that of the Corporation of London exciting some surprise from the significant and guarded tone of its congratulations :

"Permit us therefore, Royal Sir," it ran, "to assure your Majesty that your faithful citizens of London, from their zealous attachment to your Royal House, and the true honour and dignity of your crown, whenever a happy establishment of public measures shall present a favourable occasion, will be ready to exert their utmost abilities in support of such wise counsels as apparently tend to render your Majesty's reign happy and glorious."

VOL. I.

B

To which the King answered :

"I thank you for this dutiful address. Your congratulations on the further increase of my family, and your assurances of zealous attachment to it, cannot but be very agreeable to me. I have nothing so much at heart as the welfare and happiness of my people; and have the greatest satisfaction in every event that may be an additional security to those civil and religious liberties, upon which the prosperity of these kingdoms depends."

In due course, preceptors were appointed-the Messrs. Arnold and Majendie; but these soon gave place to a Swiss colonel, one Budé, recommended to the King by another Swiss, De Salzes. This officer had been page to the Prince of Orange, and had served in the Sardinian army. "His religion," says one of his biographers, "was founded on the firm base of unadulterated Christianity." He was also appointed commander of the Hanoverian troops, though not obliged to be with his corps.* He afterwards became private secretary to the Duke of York. Bishop Butler paid a visit to Windsor in 1778, when Prince William was only thirteen, and Mrs. Chapone records the favourable impression made upon the visitor.

"I was pleased," she says, "with all the princes,

"When I returned here," writes Miss Burney, in 1786, "to the conclusion of the tea-drinking, I found a new gentleman, dressed in the King's Windsor uniform-which is blue and gold, turned up with red, and worn by all the men who belong to His Majesty, and come into his presence at Windsor. It was General Budé: what his post may be I have not yet learned, but he is continually, I am told, at Windsor, and always resides in this lodge, and eats with the equerries. I do not quite know what to say of General Budé, except that his person is tall and showy, and his manners and appearance are fashionable. But he has a sneer in his smile that looks sarcastic, and a distance in his manner that seems haughty."