Page:Memoirs of a Trait in the Character of George III.djvu/142

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
85

ranks, may profit by reflecting on, and reduce to practice, each according to his ability. If the various casualities in life should place oppressed genius, of either sex, within the reach of his sustaining hand, let him carry the ever honoured merits of George 3rd as an amulet, worn in imagination, to refresh and stimulate him to a conduct above all praise in this state of being, and an accredited passport to the mansions of the blessed.

George III. King of these Sister Islands, and their extensive dependencies, differed as much from the common standard of men destined by birth to such paramount rank as history tells us "good Aurelius," or Trajan, did from most of those that assumed the purple in "Imperial Rome." It was not in arms alone, nor yet in the sciences, that these united kingdoms vindicated their superiority, when, by universal admission, "we were the only people that never submitted to the law of the Conqueror, but by steadiness and perseverance, finally overcame him."[1] This cogent acknowledgment sufficed not (the Author would show) to make the name of an Englishman a passport to respect; for even a King, born and bred among us, a genuine British King, has some impressive fea-

  1. After the final surrender and deportation of Buonaparte to St. Helena, in 1815, this sentiment became very common on the Continent; and our countrymen found the benefit of it in travelling, by the respect with which they were treated—of which the writer knew personal instances.