trusting herself solely to a German page who had some medical knowledge; and going out to take the air long after it was expected that she would die in her coach." Almost up to the hour of her dissolution, not one of her children not even her eldest daughter, the Duchess of Brunswick, who was constantly with her could perceive that she entertained any apprehension of her danger. Yet she could scarcely have been in ignorance of her real condition. "She had existed," writes Walpole, "on cordials alone for ten days, from the time she had received the fatal news from Denmark, and died before she could hear again from her daughter." The king appears to have been unremitting in his attentions to his mother during her last illness; attending her every evening with the queen at eight o'clock; and, on the night before she died, when her end was evidently drawing near, anticipating his visit by an hour, on pretence that he had mistaken the time. Feeble, however, as she was, and excruciating as was her disorder, a cancer in the breast; notwithstanding, moreover, that she had been seized with convulsions in the course of the day, she not only arose and dressed herself to receive the king and queen, but detained them in conversation with her for four hours. On parting with them, she even expressed an opinion that she、 should pass a tranquil night. Before morning, however, it became evident, not only to her attendants but to herself, that her end was rapidly

approaching. A short time before she expired, she inquired of her physician how long he considered she might live. Perceiving that he hesitated to answer the question, "It is no matter," she added, "for I have nothing to say, nothing to do, and nothing to leave." At six o'clock in the morning she expired without a groan. "The calmness and composure of her death," writes Bishop Newton, "were further proofs and attestations of the goodness of her life; and she died, as she had lived, beloved and lamented most by those who knew her best."

Detested as the princess was by the English nation, on account of her political conduct, and blamable as were the narrow-minded principles on which she educated her children, there can be little doubt that the praise of Bishop Newton was not undeserved. It was much to her credit that, after the death of her husband, Prince Frederick, the large debts which he left were discharged by her out of her annual income, without any application for aid to Parliament, or even to the king, her son. Still more creditable to her were her munificent acts of private charity. No less a sum than ten thousand a year was expended by her, in pensions to meritorious individuals and in the support of indigent families, few of whom, it is said, were made aware, till after her death, of the name of their benefactress. It may be mentioned, as a pleasing instance of her kindness of heart, that

she rented a house on Kew Green, for the express purpose of sheltering such aged and infirm servants as had served her long and faithfully. Thus munificently did she expend the liberal income bestowed upon her by the people of England! Thus, too, is explained the expression, which she made use of in her dying moments, that she had "nothing to leave;" a statement which would seem to have been literally true.

On the 1st of July, 1774, died at Holland House, Kensington, in the sixty-ninth year of his age, Henry Fox, Lord Holland. "Lord Holland," writes Walpole to Mann, on the 15th of May,

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drags on a wretched life, and Lady Holland is dying of a cancer." Yet, though labouring under many afflictions, his genial humour sparkled to the last. He was on his death-bed, it is said, when he was told that George Selwyn - "whose passion," to use the words of his friend Walpole, was "to see coffins, and corpses, and executions" - had called to inquire after his health. "The next time," he said, "that Mr. Selwyn calls, show him up: if I am alive, I shall be delighted to see him; if I am dead, he will be glad to see me." Lady Holland survived her husband only twenty-three days.

CHAPTER XI.

Children of George III. - Domestic Life of the Royal Family at Kew - The King's Habits of Business - Temperance - Personal Courage Moral Qualities - Mistakes in Political Policy - Pleasantry of His Manner-Sense of His Religious Obligations - Respect for Dissenters The Primate Rebuked-Lancaster and Popular Education - The King's Protection of Agriculture and Literature - His Intercourse with Eminent Literary Men - Wilkes and Franklin on the Character of George III.

IN the affections of his queen, and in the society of his young and rapidly increasing family, the king found no slight compensation for the loss of his remaining parent and the misconduct of his brothers and sister. Before the spring of 1774, Queen Charlotte, though only in her thirtieth year, had given birth to no fewer than ten children; including, in addition to those whose births have already been recorded, Augustus Frederick, afterward Duke of Sussex, born on the 27th of January, 1773, and Adolphus Frederick, afterward Duke of Cambridge, born on the 24th of February, 1774. The children whom, subsequently to that date, she bore her husband were the Princess Mary, afterward Duchess of Gloucester, born 25th April, 1776; the Princess Sophia, born 3d November,

1777; Prince Octavius, born 23d February, 1779; Prince Alfred, born 22d September, 1780; and the Princess Amelia, born 7th August, 1783.

From the pen of one who was professedly connected with the court, we have an interesting picture, sketched in the summer of 1775, of the domestic life and habits of George the Third and his queen, when resident at Kew. "Their majesties rise at six in the morning, and enjoy the two succeeding hours in a manner which they call their own. At eight, the Prince of Wales, the Bishop of Osnaburg, the Princess Royal, and the Princes William and Edward, are brought from their respective apartments, to breakfast with their illustrious parents. At nine, the younger children attend, to lisp or smile their good morrows; and whilst the five eldest are closely applying to their tasks, the little ones and their nurses pass the whole morning in Richmond gardens. The king and queen frequently amuse themselves with sitting in the room while the children dine, and, once a week, attended by the whole offspring in pairs, make the little delightful tour of Richmond gardens. In the afternoon, while the queen works, the king reads to her. In the evening all the children again pay their duty at Kew House before

'The king's second son, Frederick, had not yet been created Duke of York. He was therefore called after his title of Bishop of Osnaburg, to which see he had been elected on the 27th February, 1764, when only six months old.