of public spirit; and that it was your country you worshiped, in the person of your king? Had you made it to be understood that, in the delusion of this amiable error, you had gone further than your wise ancestors, - that you were resolved to resume your ancient privileges, whilst you preserved the spirit of your ancient and your recent loyalty and honor; or, Or copied if diffident of yourselves, and not clearly discerning the almost those of England obliterated constitution of your ancestors, you had looked to your neighbors in this land, who had kept alive the ancient principles and models of the old common law of Europe, meliorated and adapted to its present state, by following wise examples you would have given new examples of wisdom to the world.

that the

You would have rendered the cause of liberty venerable in The possibilthe eyes of every worthy mind in every nation. You would ities of reform have shamed despotism from the earth by showing that free- French have dom was not only reconcilable but, as when well disciplined disregarded it is, auxiliary to law. You would have had an unoppressive but a productive revenue. You would have had a flourishing commerce to feed it. You would have had a free constitution, a potent monarchy, a disciplined army, a reformed and venerated clergy, a mitigated but spirited nobility, to lead your virtue, not to overlay it; you would have had a liberal order of commons to emulate and recruit that nobility; you would have had a protected, satisfied, laborious, and obedient people, taught to seek and to recognize the happiness that is to be found by virtue in all conditions, in which consists the true moral equality of mankind, and not in that monstrous fiction which, by inspiring false ideas and vain expectations into men destined to travel in the obscure walk of laborious life, serves only to aggravate and embitter that real inequality which it never can remove, and which the order of civil life establishes as much for the benefit of those whom it must leave in an humble state as those whom it is able to exalt to a condition more splendid but not more happy. . . .

It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen A poetic of France, then the dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely never picture of the queen of lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more France

A lament

delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like the morning star, full of life and splendor and joy. Oh! what a revolution! And what an heart I must have, to contemplate without emotion that elevation and that fall! Little did I dream, when she added titles of veneration to those of enthusiastic, distant, respectful love, that she should ever be obliged to carry the sharp antidote against disgrace concealed in that bosom! Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fallen upon her in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers ! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even a look that threatened her with insult.

But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, econofor chivalry mists, and calculators has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever. Never, never more shall we behold that generous loyalty to rank and sex, that proud submission, that dignified obedience, that subordination of the heart, which kept alive, even in servitude itself, the spirit of an exalted freedom! The unbought grace of life, the cheap defense of nations, the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise, is gone! It is gone, that sensibility of principle, that chastity of honor, which felt a stain like a wound, which inspired courage whilst it mitigated ferocity, which ennobled whatever it touched, and under which vice itself lost half its evil by losing all its grossness!

The acts which were passed in 1800 in the parliaments of Great Britain and Ireland respectively, providing for a legislative union of the two countries, were quite similar to the acts which had united England and Scotland about a hundred years before. The following are the most important sections of the British act.

Article I. That it be the first article of the union of the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, that the said kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland shall, upon the first day of January which shall be in the year of our Lord one thousand eight

tween Great

hundred and one, and forever after, be united into one king- 396. Act of dom, by the name of The United Kingdom of Great Britain Union beand Ireland; and that the royal title and titles appertaining Britain and to the imperial crown of the said united kingdom and its de- Ireland pendencies, and also the ensigns, armorial flags, and banners (July 21, 1800) thereof, shall be such as his Majesty, by his royal proclamations under the great seal of the united kingdom, shall be pleased to appoint.

Article II. That it be the second article of union, that the succession to the imperial crown of the said united kingdom, and of the dominions thereunto belonging, shall continue limited and settled in the same manner as the succession to the imperial crown of the said kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland now stands limited and settled, according to the existing laws, and to the terms of union between England and Scotland.

Article III. That it be the third article of union, that the One parliasaid united kingdom be represented in one and the same par- ment liament, to be styled The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

and one hun

to sit in the

Article IV. That it be the fourth article of union, that four Thirty-two lords spiritual of Ireland by rotation of sessions, and twenty- Irish lords eight lords temporal of Ireland elected by the peers of Ireland, dred Irish shall be the number to sit and vote on the part of Ireland in commoners the House of Lords of the parliament of the united kingdom; united parand one hundred commoners (two for each county of Ireland, liament two for the city of Dublin, two for the city of Cork, one for the university of Trinity College, and one for each of the thirty-one most considerable cities, towns, and boroughs) be the number to sit and vote on the part of Ireland in the House of Commons of the parliament of the united kingdom.

The English government had encouraged the slave trade for more than two hundred years. It was therefore only after a long agitation that the following law for its abolition was carried.

Be it therefore enacted by the king's most excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and

397. Act

the slave

temporal and commons, in this present parliament assembled, abolishing and by the authority of the same, that from and after the first trade (1806) day of May one thousand eight hundred and seven, the African slave trade, and all and all manner of dealing and trading in the purchase, sale, barter, or transfer of slaves, or of persons intended to be sold, transferred, used, or dealt with as slaves, practiced or carried on, in, at, to, or from any part of the coast or countries of Africa, shall be, and the same is hereby utterly abolished, prohibited, and declared to be unlawful; and also that all and all manner of dealing, either by way of purchase, sale, barter, or transfer, or by means of any other contract or agreement whatever, relating to any slaves, or to any persons intended to be used or dealt with as slaves, for the purpose of such slaves or persons being removed or transported either immediately or by transshipment at sea or otherwise, directly or indirectly from Africa, or from any island, country, territory or any place whatever, in the West Indies, or in any other part of America, not being in the dominion, possession, or occupation of his Majesty, to any other island, country, territory, or place whatever, is hereby in like manner utterly abolished, prohibited, and declared to be unlawful. . . .

398. The insanity of George III

Miss Burney, who was engaged at the court of George III, describes in her diary the first attack of insanity from which the king suffered.

The king at dinner had broken forth into positive delirium, which long had been menacing all who saw him most closely, and the queen was so overpowered as to fall into violent hysterics.

Mr. Fairly. . . came boldly up to him, and took him by the arm, and begged him to go to bed, and then drew him along, and said he must go. Then he said he would not, and cried, "Who are you?" "I am Mr. Fairly, sir," he answered; "and your Majesty has been very good to me often, and now I am going to be very good to you, for you must come to bed, sir it is necessary to your life." And then he was so surprised that he let himself be drawn along just like a child; and so they got him to bed...

What an adventure had I this morning! one that has occa- February 2 sioned me the severest personal terror I ever experienced in my life. . . . I strolled into the gardens. I had proceeded, in my quick way, nearly half the round, when I suddenly perceived, through some trees, two or three figures. Relying on the instructions of Dr. John, I concluded them to be workmen and gardeners; yet tried to look sharp, and in so doing, as they were less shaded, I thought it was the person of his Majesty.

king to sanity

Alarmed past all possible expression, I waited not to know A momentary more, but, turning back, ran off with all my might. But what return of the was my terror to hear myself pursued! — to hear the voice of the king himself loudly and hoarsely calling after me, "Miss Burney! Miss Burney!" I protest I was ready to die. I knew not in what state he might be at the time; I only knew the orders to keep out of his way were universal. . . . The steps still pursued me, and still the poor hoarse and altered voice rang in my ears, more and more footsteps resounded frightfully behind me, the attendants all running to catch their eager master, and the voices of the two Dr. Willises loudly exhorting him not to heat himself so unmercifully.

Heavens, how I ran! I do not think I should have felt the hot lava from Vesuvius- at least not the hot cinders had I so run during its eruption. My feet were not sensible that they even touched the ground. Soon after, I heard other voices, shriller, though less nervous, call out "Stop! stop! stop!"... I fairly believe no one of the whole party could have overtaken me, if these words from one of the attendants had not reached me, "Dr. Willis begs you to stop!"

"I cannot! I cannot!" I answered, still flying on, when he called out, "You must, ma'am; it hurts the king to run." Then indeed I stopped in a state of fear really amounting to agony. I turned round; I saw the two doctors had got the king between them, and three attendants of Dr. Willis were hovering about. . . . When they were within a few yards of me, the king called out, "Why did you run away?" Shocked at a question impossible to answer, yet a little assured by the mild tone of his voice, I instantly forced myself forward, to