Hunt, Henry, 1773-1835; Social reformers -- Great Britain -- Biography
George the Third was the only King I ever saw, and I never wish to see
another King. The last time I saw him was when he was getting out of his
carriage at the Star, at Andover, on his return from Weymouth; which
place he never after visited. His eyesight was then nearly gone, and his
attendants were obliged to guide his feet, and to lead him like a child
into the Inn. I had known him in his prime, and had frequently hunted
with him. At the time when I saw him at Andover, he had indeed sadly
fallen off, and his signature to all documents was effected by a stamp,
some one directing his hand. All Acts of Parliament, all Commissions,
all Death-warrants, and all Pardons, were for a long time signed in this
manner. He who had signed more death-warrants than any mortal that ever
breathed, and who could spare or kill human beings by the mere dash of
his pen; alas! alas! he, once so powerful, could not now even save the
life of a poor mouse. He who, as a mere matter of course, and perhaps
without giving the subject a thought, had put his fiat on the black
scrolls which ordered hundreds upon hundreds of his fellow creatures to
be sent to their long homes, and executed in cold blood; he now grieved
and lamented, and cried like a child, at the death of a mouse. I would
have had the Emperor Alexander, the King of Prussia, and all the Royal
Visitors, go down to Windsor, to be eye-witnesses of the "ills that
(_Royal_) flesh is heir to:" they should have been reminded, by a
personal interview with this poor old maniac, to what a wretched state
it was possible even for the greatest monarch to be reduced, by the hand
of Providence. That all-wise and just Providence, the same Power that
permitted the Emperor NAPOLEON to be sent a prisoner to St. Helena; the
same Power that permitted HENRY HUNT to remain a captive in Ilchester
Bastile, for TWO YEARS AND SIX MONTHS, commanded also that GEORGE THE
THIRD should, after having LOST HIS SIGHT, and been DEPRIVED OF HIS
REASON, be confined as a solitary prisoner in his own palace, for many
of the latter years of his existence. The Lord's will be done!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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