thofe decifive methods of detection to which recourfe would at once be had in defpotic Governments, would not here be endured; and partly because mistaken conceptions of honour, refulting from a general consciousness of freedom, have attached an unmerited degree of odium to the character of an informer, even if he should have been wholly actuated by the pureft motives. But if once the lively example, the filent but marked dislike, the calm but pointed animadverfions of the Monarch shall have branded a vicious practice as scandalous and contemptible in the royal estimation; it will speedily become difreputable in that of the public. Numbers, whom inadvertence or fashion had engaged in it, will abandon it; and those who are too hardened or too infatuated to be reclaimed, will shrink from notice, and strive to bury the infamy of guilt in scenes remote from general inspection, instead of corrupting fociety by fhamelessly obtruding their vices, and braving the laws of God and their Country in open day. But to render the influence of the Sovereign in promoting religion and morality widely and permanently efficacious, it is indifpenfably requifite that it be be exerted with prudence, with perfeverance, with impartiality. The world must be convinced that the practice has drawn down difapprobation on the man, not the man on the practice. It is almoft needless to add, that evils the most alarming will spread with rapidity to an indefinite extent, if the prevailing vices of the times be fanctioned by the conduct or tolerated by the indifference of the King, and thus tacitly at least recommended to universal imitation. There are various methods in addition to those already mentioned, by which the Sove reign has it in his power to contribute moft effectually to the true welfare of his subjects. The fuccefs of the most useful inftitutions for the administration of relief to the poor and comfort to the afflicted; the establishment of the most promifing plans for the advancement of morals, for the improvement of the police, for the encouragement of industry, will frequently depend on the aid which they derive partly from his perfonal munificence, and still more from the general favour and credit which his protection will enfure to them. The fimple intimation of his fentiments will often prove fufficient to enfure those reforms in corporations, in fchools, in universities, and other public establishments, neceffary to remove the defects which the lapse of time invariably discovers or produces; and which the fincere friends of the refpective institutions may have long beheld with fruitless anxiety. The diftribution of titles, and of orders of merit, regulated by the dictates of reafon and confcience, will have a vifible effect on the conduct of the numerous candidates who afpire to obtain them. And the nation at large will receive a deep and most desirable impresfion, when it fhall fee honours applied to their proper use, the reward of virtue and public defert. Sentiments of an oppofite nature, equally unfavourable to public virtue and to the perfonal eftimation of the Sovereign, will be no lefs deeply impreffed on all ranks of fociety; if they shall behold him lavishing marks of diftinction on men who are devoid of private worth, and undiftinguished by patriotic exertions. Though 1 Though the beneficial effects of the wife and upright conduct of the King in the cafes which have been specified will principally be felt by the people over whom he reigns; yet it may materially conduce to the happiness of other nations, partly by fetting before their eyes a pattern of what they are entitled to expect from their own Governors, and partly by exciting those Governors to emulate so glorious an example. And as advances in science, and discoveries in arts, are much more speedily borrowed and more easily domesticated than the improvement of laws and the reformation. of manners; the efforts of a King of Great Britain in the encouragement of genius and learning are fcarcely lefs interefting, in fome inftances they may even be more interesting, to foreigners than to his own fubjects. It falls within his immediate province to patronize focieties inftituted for the cultivation of natural and experimental philofophy; to encourage inventions which may facilitate the progrefs or increase the excellence of manufactures; to countenance the profeffors of manly and liberal arts; to animate every department of literature; to excite by perfonal favour, by incidental F 4 dental rewards, and perhaps by the institution of honorary and pecuniary prizes, the exertions of all who have diftinguished or are capable of distinguishing themselves by meritorious studies and pursuits; and occafionally to direct their labours into those channels, in which they appear most likely to promote the public welfare. And it is peculiarly his office to avail himself of the opportunities which refult from his fupreme direction of the British Navy, to explore untraversed oceans, to bring unknown regions to light; and, while he is laying the foundations of a commercial intercourse which may enrich the distant pofterity of his fubjects, to introduce among favage tribes the immediate bleffings of civilization and christianity. It does not fall within the plan of the prefent work to recite at greater length, and purfue to a more minute detail, the effects which a King may produce on the manners and condition of the people committed to his care. To the hiftorian belongs the cheering cffice of diftinctly tracing the progrefs of those streams of happiness which a Sovereign difpenfes throughout |