‘A crown, Golden in show, is but a wreath of thorns; Brings dangers, troubles, cares, and sleepless nights, To him who wears the regal diadem.’ · · · · · ‘O polish’d perturbation! golden care! That keep’st the ports of slumber open wide To many a watchful night!’— _Henry IV_, Part 2, iv, 4. _Notices of the Literary Tastes and Acquirements of King_ GEORGE THE THIRD.—_His Conversations with Men of Letters.—History of his Library and of its Transfer to the British Nation by_ GEORGE THE FOURTH. The strong antagonisms in mind, in disposition, and in tastes, which existed between GEORGE THE THIRD and GEORGE THE FOURTH, may be seen in the small and incidental acts of their respective lives, almost as distinctly, and as sharply defined, as they are seen in their private lives, or in their characteristic modes of transacting the public business. [Sidenote: THE CONTRASTS BETWEEN GEORGE III AND GEORGE IV.] GEORGE THE THIRD regretted the giving away of the old ‘Royal Library’ of the Kings his ancestors, not because he grudged a liberal use of royal books by private scholars, but because he thought a fine Library was the necessary appendage of a palace. He occasionally stinted himself of some of his personal enjoyments in life, in order to have the more means to amass books. He formed, during his own lifetime, a Library which is probably both larger and finer than any like Collection ever made by any one man, even under the advantageous conditions of royalty. When he had collected his books, he made them liberally accessible. To himself, as we all know, Nature had not given any very conspicuous faculty for turning either books or men to good account; nor had education done much to improve the parts he possessed. GEORGE THE FOURTH, as it seems, regretted the formation of the new Royal Library by the King his father, because, when he inherited it, he found that its decent maintenance and upkeeping would demand every year a sum of money which he could spend in ways far more to his taste. He had been far better educated than his father had been. And to him Nature had given good abilities; but study was about the last and least likely use to which, at any time, he was inclined to apply them. If he saw any good at all in having, on his accession, the ownership of a large Library, it lay, not in the power it afforded him of benefiting literature, and the labourers in literature, but in the possibility he saw that so fine a collection of books might be made to produce a round sum of money. One of his first thoughts about the matter was, that it would be a good thing to offer his father’s beloved Library for sale—to the Emperor of Russia. By what influences that shrewd scheme of turning a penny was diverted will be seen in the sequel.