250 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS
for example, and learned geography with no small care and industry
He knew all about the family histories and genealogies of his gentry
and pretty histories he must have known. He knew the whole
Army List, and all the facings and the exact number of the buttons
all the tags and laces, and the cut of all the cocked-hats, pigtails, and
gaiters in his army. . . »
Yet there is something grand about his courage. The battle of the
king with his aristocracy remains yet to be told by the historian who
shall view the reign of George more justly than the trumpery pane-
gyrists who wrote immediately after his decease. It was he, with the
people to back him, who made the war with America ; it was he and
the people who refused justice to the Roman Catholics ; and on both
questions he beat the patricians.
His courage was never to be beaten. It trampled North under
foot; it bent the stiff neck of the younger Pitt; even his illness never
conquered that indomitable spirit. As soon as his brain was clear
it resumed the scheme, only laid aside when his reason left him ; as
soon as his hands were out of the strait-waistcoat they took up
the pen and the plan which had engaged him up to the moment of
his malady.
Even Americans, whom he hated and who conquered him, may
give him credit for having quite honest reasons for oppressing them.
Remember that he believed himself anointed by a Divine com-
mission ; remember that he was a man of slow parts and imperfect
education ; that the same awful will of Heaven which placed a crown
upon his head, which made him tender to his family, pure in his life,
courageous and honest, made him dull of comprehension, obstinate of
will, and at many times deprived him of reason. He was the father
of his people; his rebellious children must be flogged into obedience.
Wars and revolutions are, however, the politician's province; let
us return to our Court gossip. Yonder sits our little queen, sur-
rounded by many stout sons and fair daughters. The history of the
daughters, as little Miss Burney has painted them to us, is delightful.
They were handsome : she calls them beautiful; they were most kind,
loving, and ladylike ; they were gracious to every person, high and
low, who served them. They had many little accomplishments of
their own. This one drew : that one played the piano ; they all
worked most prodigiously, and fitted up whole suites of rooms
with their needles.
A quieter household, a more prosaic life, cannot be imagined.
Rain or shine, the king rode every day for hours, poked his red face
into hundreds of cottages round about, and showed that shovel hat
and Windsor uniform to farmers, to pig-boys, to old women making
apple-dumplings ; to all sorts of people, gentle and simple, about
whom countless stories are told. Nothing can be more undignified
than, these stories. He used to give a guinea sometimes; sometimes