soon foresaw the consequences of the French revolution, saying, that if a stop was not put to French principles, in a few years there would not be a king left in Europe.

The mental state of the King at this period will be best illustrated by a most interesting detail recorded in a work which is undoubtedly the best collection of literary anecdote that has ever been launched upon the stream of time. To abridge it would be injudicious, we therefore give it entire, from Mr. Nicholls's delightful production.

The late G. Hardinge, Esq. Chief Justice of Brecon, &c. was honoured with an interview with their majesties at Windsor, in 1789, after the King's recovery, and the following are the very interesting notes of the conversation.

"I arrived at the Queen's Lodge at twelve; and was carried to the equerries' room. Colonel Digby came to me civil and gentlemanlike. He chatted with me for half an hour: and when he left me, said, he would let the King know, through General Harcourt, that I was there.' In a few minutes I was gallanted up stairs into Madame Schwellenbergen's dining apartment. There I found General Harcourt, who is a very agreeable man. He told me, that when the King (who was going to the Castle to receive the address of the clergy) should come out of his apartment, he would let him know, and receive his commands.

"In a quarter of an hour two royal coaches came to the door, and an equerry handed the Queen into the first. The King followed her without a thought apparently of poor me. Princess Royal and Augusta followed. This filled the first coach.

"No. 2 had Princess Elizabeth and a bedchamber woman. Then, a-foot, my friends Digby and Harcourt. When they were flown, the porter came to me, and said, General Harcourt had named me to the King: but that His Majesty, being in a great hurry, had said nothing. That, if I pleased, I might wait till His Majesty's return; which, the porter said, would be in an hour and a half. This I thought was as much as to say, 'If you go, you will not be missed.' In half an hour Mrs. Schwellenbergen's German footman came to lay the cloth, and produced the dining apparatus. For want of occupation, I formed an acquaintance with him, and learned that Madame Schwellenbergen sat at the head of the table; the Misses (Burney and Planta) right and left of her, and any visitor at bottom. The room is pretty enough, and clean; but furnished with a cheap kind of paper, and linen curtains. Observing a large piece of German bread, I fell to, and ate a pound of it. The hour and a half having expired, the regals returned, and then I heard the Queen most condescendingly say, 'Do find out Mr. Hardinge, and beg of him to come and see us. "Her butler out of livery came in to me, and de

sired me to follow him. I went through a very handsome apartment into another, most beautifully fitted up, with a ceiling of the modern work, ' done,' as the King told me, in a week.' Into this room ' I was shut, and found in it, standing by the fire, without any form, the King, Queen, three princesses, and this bed-chamber woman, whoever she was, for I have not made her out, but liked her very much, because she seemed to like me. It is impossible for words to express the kind and companionable good-humour of the whole party: I almost forgot that any one of them was my superior. The King looked fifteen years younger, and much better in the face, though as red as ever. He said a number of excellent things, and in the most natural way. The Queen, with amazing address and cleverness, gave a turn to the conversation, and mixed in it just at the right places. You will not believe me when I tell you that I passed half an hour, at least, in the room.

"The princesses looked, as they always do, the pink of good-humour. The Princess Royal had a very fine colour; the two others were pale. The King did a very odd thing by the Princess Royal; but I loved him for it. He said, ' he would ask me, as a man of taste, what I thought of the ceiling? and then called upon the Princess Royal to explain the allegorical figures on the ceiling; which she did, blushing a little at first, in the sweetest manner, with

a distinct voice, and great propriety in her emphasis. This one trait would of itself demonstrate how very kind they were. The King began by asking me ' how I could run away from London, and give up my fees?'—I told him,' that I never minded fees, but less when they interfered with my sense of duty to him.' The Queen then came up to me, and said,' you have less merit in the visit, because a little bird has told me, that you are on your way to your circuit.' This produced the topic of my circuit; and the King said that he understood Moysey to be a good man in domestic life."

"We then went slapdash into politics, Queen and all. The King laughed heartily at the Rats, by that name; and said, they were the boldest rats he ever knew, for that all the calculation was against them. Even ****** said it was probable I should recover: not that I am recovered, according to some of them and yet I have read the last report of the physicians, which is a tolerably good proof that I am well. By the way, your uncle (Lord Camden) is considerably better; and I flatter myself that my getting well has done him good.' I then said, that I had left him in some alarm, how he was to wear the Windsor uniform with a tie-wig over it, from the fear that he should be mistaken for an old general who had fought at the battle of Dettingen. The Queen said, 'Oh, I plead guilty to that, and I see you enjoy it. I said Hardinge will enjoy it;

for, though he is good-natured, he loves a little innocent mischief.' The King then told me the whole story of the conference with Pitt, commended the House of Commons, and said his illness had in the end been a perfect bliss only to him, as proving to him how nobly the people would support him when he was confined. This tempted me to say, that it was no political debate, but the contest between generous humanity and mean cruelty, and it interested human nature. The King seemed very much pleased with this idea, and worked upon it. I commended the conduct of the bishops, and it made them laugh. Said the King, You mean to commend it as a wonder.' He talked over Lord North and the Duke of Portland. He talked of the chancellor, of Loughborough, and even Mr. Baron Hotham. He said, 'you are almost the only man who love the land for its own sake.' Then we talked of Mrs. Siddons, Jordan, &c. and the Queen said, 'Siddons was going to Germany, to make the English find out by her absence that she was good for something.' Then we flew to Handel: after which the King made me a most gracious bow, and said, I am going to my dinner.' I was near the door, made a low bow to the females, and departed."

To perfect His Majesty's recovery, a jaunt to Weymouth was determined on early in the summer, and preparations were made accordingly.