"Have you many there now?" inquired my companion, as if the answer would save her a dollar at least.

"No," said the nun confusedly, for she was trying in vain to open the last of the chests. "There is no one in it, nobody needs penance in our convent; but this is the wrong key – wait a minute."

And she ran up the stairs, while the German lady turned her wonder on the chest — "Why it was so large, and why there were lion's heads carved on it?"

terms we were to make our offerings, at the charge, to demand the purpose of that gratsame time pointing to a black marble table be-ing. Twice our guide seemed too much ocneath the picture of the patron Saint, very cupied to hear or heed, but the third time sour looking, and rather dirty. I suppose she said with some sharpness, "Madame, it the said offerings were satisfactory, for after serves to light our penitentiary." we deposited them our guide became less reserved; and at length discovering, I forget how, that my companion came from the borders of her native Courland, the nun grew positively good-humored. She showed us all the splendors of the chapel, pictures and relies, tombs and gifts. The latter formed as large a display of gold and silver as I ever saw, and conspicuous among them stood the seven-branched candlestick, of which I had heard so often at Petersburg. From the vestry, another arched passage, secured by strong doors at either end, led us to a winding stair, on descending which we were conducted through a sort of gallery to the storeroom of sacred needle-work. This door was fastened with three massive padlocks, which our guide said were as old as the convent. There was a skylight of thick glass, with iron stanchions, in its vaulted roof; and all around the bare gray walls stood ponderous but richly-carved chests, which the nun proceeded to open one after another. Never did I see such varied and splendid embroidery, nor such a quantity of rich material for clothing the human form, in all my searches after finery. There were robes stiff with flowers, made of minute gems. There were robes wrought like tapestry in scripture scenes, with thread of gold on white velvet. There were lace trimmings, that would have made the heart of a Jew dealer leap for joy, and marvellous muslins and cambrics, in every form of surplice. Indeed the variety of the vestments seemed endless; but the Greek Church gives large employment to the needle, and the convent of Saint Sophia deserved its fame, for many of the chests contained garments wrought three hundred years before. Our guide was eloquent on their cost and history; she told us how many hands had labored upon them, how some had descended as heir-looms, through three or four generations; and I might have remembered her discourse better, but for the inquiring mind of the German lady, which had fixed itself not on the celebrated robes, but an iron grating, set high in the wall of the store-room. Three times she interrupted the nun, when most deeply engaged with the beauties or peculiarities of her

I cannot say what it was that made me look at the grating, as the nun disappeared and my companion turned away. There seemed to be a slight noise somewhere in that direction, and at the same moment there was thrust through the bars the broad bony hand, which none who had ever seen it could mistake, for on the back was the key-like scar, and I think its blue had grown deeper. My presence of mind was, I am thankful to say, sufficient to keep me from uttering a word; I turned to see if the nun was coming, and when I looked again the hand was gone. My inquiring friend remained at the chest, and our guide came back with the right key. She opened and showed us silks and velvets, and cloths of gold and silver, which had been woven in the looms of Constantinople when Greek emperors reigned there; but the sight I had observed at the grating shut out their splendors from my mind, and I do not remember ever feeling so anxious to leave any building as that convent. Of course I told Mr. Lin extreme confidence, and for a considerable time he maintained I had been dreaming, but he agreed to say nothing about it on the journey; and after our return to Petersburg, a French gentleman, who had been a tutor in several noble families, and was our particular friend, advised us to keep the same resolution while we lived in Russia. I never attended any more of the Khranskoffs' parties; but when the war came on, and we thought it better to move, they were getting into very good society; and it is probable nobody but themselves will ever know the explanation of my adventure in that Russian convent.

From the Athenæum.

a

Letters of George the Third to Lord North. Appendix to "Historical Sketches." By Henry Lord Brougham. Griffin & Co. OUR opinion of the "Historical Sketches" was given long since, and we only refer to this new edition that we may notice a curious Appendix," containing the letters, or abstracts of the letters, of George the Third to his Minister Lord North, written between February, 1768, and October, 1783; momentous period, in which great constitutional principles were brought under discussion, great constitutional principles established, when general warrants were formally and legally condemned,-the right of a jury to judge both of the law and the fact in cases of libel asserted, the right to report the debates and the proceedings in Parliament practically established,—and in which we lost America.

of Govt, that he thot himself obliged, as well
in conscience as in wisdom, to desire an imme-
diate dismissal from his employment, that he
had no connection with any of the members of
the Opposition, which he thought as wicked as
the Administration is weak, that noths can
afford the least hope but a Coalition, and he is
afraid even that remedy may be too late, — that
he feels the greatest gratitude for the many marks
of royal goodness which he has received, but that
he does not think it the duty of a faithful
servt to endeavor to preserve a system which
must end in the ruin of H. M. and of the coun-
He is determined never again to take
try.
Office, but to support Govt in his private capa-
city. Ld N. thinks that La Gower's resignation
at the present moment must be the ruin of the
Administration. In Ld N.'s Argts wh Ld G.,
La N. owns that he had certainly one disad-
vantage, which is, that he holds in his heart,
and has held for these three years, just the same
opinion with Lord Gower."

an

Lord Brougham, of course, condemns the With the more important of these Letters conduct of Lord North, which, he says, was -those relating to the American War some of our readers are already acquainted. those kindly feelings of a personal kind which "offence only palliated by considering It is just twenty years since they were, in " and he urges, in mitigation, copies submitted by Lord Holland to Mr. Ministers. We cannot see the force of this substance, published in this journal, from governed him; we believe, the like delinquencies of other Jared Sparks, and by Mr. Jared Sparks trans-palliation; nor does the judgment answer to

mitted to the Athenæum.

the conditions laid down by Lord Brougham It is not often that critics, or even his- himself, that those "who would forge fetters torians, get a peep into a king's cabinet. In for their fellow-creatures or squander their this instance the letters, or fragments, or substance or their blood" should be "exhibitcondensations, are so bald that the reader ed to the scorn and hatred of after ages.' must find the light by which to read and There was a good deal of squandering both interpret them. So read, they often raise of substance and blood during the American questions of great general interest. They War. But assume its force, what then is prove, for instance, that Lord North, the the worth of the Revolution of 1688, and of Minister, for years carried on the war against all the precautionary measures subsequently America in support of those impolitic and taken? Up to 1688 the powers and prerogunjust measures which first drove the Amer-atives of the Crown were undefined, and the icans to remonstrance, and then to resistance, - that for years Lord North carried King was held to be, and more than one was on this war against the liberties of a free Revolution it was generally understood that made, personally responsible; after that people, and defended the policy of doing so, day by day, or night by night, in the House responsibility attached to the Minister. But of Commons, contrary to his own judgment, War was Lord Brougham tells us that the American and with a firm conviction that the issue of that warthe waste of millions and the sacrifice of the lives of thousands-must be disastrous, and therefore disgraceful, and was hopeless as to other issues. The correspondence for mary years proves this, but one letter to the King under his own hand-Fictions of the Constitution! Then Charles is conclusive. The date is uncertain, but is the First, we suppose, lost his head, and assumed to have been either October, 1779 James the Second his crown, and the British or 1780. people went through two Revolutions, and suffered a Restoration, all for want of a

"driven on by the tyrannical bigotry which presided over our councils, and for which the King was really answerable, although by the fictions of the constitution his servants only could be blamed."

fiction!

"Lord Gower came to Ld North to inform him that he had long felt the utmost uneasiness at the situation of H. M.'s affairs, - that nothing Lord Brougham describes George the Third can be so weak as the Govt,that nothing is as a tyrannical and obstinate bigot, and Lord done, that there was no discipline in the state, North as a "well-natured person," on whom the army or the navy, and that impending Ruin the King's importunity easily produced "its must be the consequence of the present system intended effect." Be it so: then, assuming

66

responsibility to be "a fiction of the Con- mother; and Lord Brougham countenances stitution," the value of what are called the this opinion: liberties of Englishmen is just the chance of Although much of the character now pora "tyrannical bigot" meeting with "a wellnatured" gentleman. Be this chance what of it in a mind tinged with disease, yet they trayed had its origin in natural defect, and part it may, we say the bigot had, in this instance, who had the care of his youth are deeply answeran honorable superiority over the "well-able for the neglect which both added to it many natured person." No one can doubt that defects, and prevented those of nature from being George the Third was sincere in his belief eradicated or counteracted." that it was his duty to persevere in the war, and never to submit; as he declared over and over again to Lord North, he never would submit to the dismemberment of the Empire. In our opinion, all the consequences of the wilfulness, ignorance, and obstinacy which Lord Brougham charges against the King ought to be weighed against the character of Lord North, and with enormous increase of the criminality, for he acted in opposition to his convictions and against his

conscience.

66

We are not at all inclined to overrate George the Third- we never fell into the fashion of calling him " George the Good" -but justice, we say, for the King as for the humblest of his subjects; and certainly all the later revelations show that he was conscientious according to his limited understanding; and that is more than can be said of his well-natured" Minister. George the Third was a man of an iron will and of inflexible obstinacy, which he mistook, and others have mistaken, for intelligence and integrity. George, be a King," says Wraxall, was the advice dinned into his boyish ears by his mother, -just the highprerogative nonsense which, according to old Sarah of Marlborough, was eternally whispered to Queen Anne; and, of course, in proof that you are a King, act on your own opinion, trust in your own judgment or no-judgment. So he did- so did Queen Anne; and both resented all remonstrance as hard usage and personal offence. George the Third, uninformed as to all great principles of government-ignorant as to all great questions- often took, and was more frequently led, unconsciously, to take, narrow, partial, and personal views of questions that affected the interest of the nation; and, once resolved, his dogged nature knew no change. He was born in an age of transition, when old forms, usages, and opinions were fast passing away; they were gone before his weary head was laid in the grave; yet he kept his eye ever on the past, until it became a feeling, and a principle of duty and conscience to cling to it, to resist all change, to obstruct all progress.

It is usual to attribute many of his errors to want of education, or to the mis-direction of his education, intended to perpetuate a state of pupilage and dependence on his VOL. XI. 43

DCIII. LIVING AGE.

It is difficult, perhaps impossible-at least we have found it so- to discover what are the facts as to the education of the King, for party spirit and party misrepresentation then raged like an epidemic, and the friends of Leicester House to-day were its enemies to-morrow. Of course good Whig authority can be adduced in support of Lord Brougham's charges against those who had the care of his youth. Here, for example, is the strong condemnation of Archbishop Herring, in a confidental letter to Lord Chancellor Hardwicke:

"As to the sentiment of the old Whigs, of great account in the kingdom, I know it goes to the heart of them, that the education of the young princes should be at all trusted to men who were brought up in the school of Bolingbroke, for that is certainly the case with Scot and Cresset; and I have some reason to say that one of that bad man's principles is already stirring in the R. Family, -viz., that a king of Engl. is a king of his people, not of Whigs and Tories. This is a noble principle, it must be owned, and I would to God it took effect truly, but what must be the consequence when it is only made the vehicle of Jacobitism, and tends be supported upon Whig principles." — Life of to overturn a governmt wch began, and can only Hardwicke, Vol. II., p. 473.

Who can doubt after this? One of that bad man's principles was, it appears, a noble principle, but the noble principle was a bad principle, because it tended to shake that Whig monopoly of power and place which the old Whigs held to be the only true principles on which government could be supported. After this- the logic of an Archbishop-"that bad man may be excused for hinting in his letter to Wyndham, that there is no length of assertion or action which men will not go, "to secure to themselves the enjoyment of all the places in the kingdom."

There is no doubt on our minds that the King had been educated in that bad man's bad principle, that "a king of England is a king of his people, not of Whigs and Tories," -and, as we said long since, he could only, like a Whig Archbishop, misread or misinterpret such "a noble principle." To be a king was, with him, to break down the power and ascendancy of the great families

and great parties; not by winning their free nority (on Division in the Comee). That wd be support by the wisdom of his councils and a rule for my conduct in the Drawing-Room tothe broad national policy of his government, morrow.' but by so using and abusing the power and influence of the Crown, the honors and his royal will-and Bill. The following He never forgave Charles Fox for opposing offices at its disposal, as to divide and weak- denunciation is curious; for Fox, be it oben, to make the acts of public men contradict their principles, and thus to shake faith in them, and establish his own personal influence and the ascendancy of the Crown. George the Third was a great lover of and talker about the Constitution: the Constitution triumphed where he succeeded, the Constitution was overthrown if he failed; but he interpreted it after the fashion of Louis the Fourteenth the Constitution, "c'est moi!"

Lord Brougham says the King hated the Whigs. The Whigs were by accident, and a mistake on their part, in opposition during the early part of his reign; and he hated all opposition, and never forgave it, unless the offender would "atone for his fault" by such a compromise of his principles that his public influence would be gone forever. This he avowed, when a change of Ministry was proposed in 1780:

"On all constitutional Points the Opposition have run so wild, that it is absolutely necessary for those who come into Office to give assurances that they do not mean to be hampered by the Tenets they have held during their Opposi

tion. * * *

"Persons must atone for their faults before I can attempt to forgive them."

served, is condemned, not because he was
wrong, but because he was right, and so
obviously right, that the Ministers were
obliged to vote with him in the minority,
although the Minister's "friends"
made to vote in the majority:

were

"16 Feb. 1774.

"I am greatly incensed at the presumption of Charles Fox in forcing you to vote with him last night, but approvement of your making yr Friends vote in ye majy. Indeed that young man has so thoroughly cast off every Principle of common honor and honesty that he must become as contemptible as he is odious. I hope you will let him know you are not insensible of his conduct towards you.”

The Minister, we suppose, acted on this hint, for the King, in a note of the following day, seems to allude to the consequences :

"17 Feb. 1774.

"It is surprising that Mr. Fox has been decent and submissive."

Mr. Fox's submission, however, did not hold for more than a week:

"23d Feb. 1774.

"I think Mr. C. Fox wd have acted more becomingly to you and himself if he had absented

This was no momentary feeling. Twelve himself from the House, for his conduct is not months before, he thus wrote: to be attributed to conscience, but to his aversion to all restraint."

"15 Jan. 1775.

Charles Fox was bred a Tory, and, at "Grants permission to the Duke of Glouer to starting, was as thorough-going a Tory as go abroad. Persists in refusing to make a prohis father. He came early into office, and vision for his Family. I cannot deny that on supported the most arbitrary measures; but the subject of this D. my heart is wounded. I he doubted as to the policy and principles of have ever loved him with the fondness one bears the Royal Marriage Bill. To have a con- to a child.' His highly disgraceful step,' &c. science, and to act on its dictates, was incom-'His wife, whom I never can think of placing in prehensible to his Majesty, who thus wrote a situation to answer her extreme Pride and to the Minister respecting the immoral Bill: Vanity. Should any accident befal the D. I shall certainly take care of his children." "29th Nov. 1777.

"26 Feb. 1772.

"I expect every nerve to be strained to carry "I should have thought the handsome propothe Bill (Boyl Marr.) It is not a question that sal delivered by you to the D. of Gloucester wd relates to Administration, but personally to my-have deserved at least the Civility of not applyself, therefore, I have a right to expect a hearty ing for a public provision for a Person who must support from evy one in my Service, and I shall always be odious to me. Your answer was

remember Defaulters."

"14 March, 1772.

"I wish a List cd be prepared of those that went away and of those that deserted to the Mi

highly proper, and confirms my opinion of your being the fittest messenger for matters of delicacy; as you stick to your instructions, which you do not mutilate by chusing to explain."

"From my Son's (Pr. of W.) love of expense, "Handsome majy. I wish a List of the DeI have already grounds to judge that the extra-faulters. Ld Howe may now be ranked in opordinaries will be great."

There is a refined distinction in the letter of the 5th of March, between turning out "My eldest son got last year into an improp- the general officers who through Parliament er connexion wh an actress and woman of in- have got governments" professedly held for difft character, through the friendly assistance of Ld Malden. He sent her letters and very fool-military services, and "removing them from "-a distinction ish promises, which undoubtedly by her conduct their military commissions," she has cancelled. Col. Hotham has settled to which the King had been taught by the pay the enormous sum of £5,000 for the letters, public condemnation of his conduct for re&c., being returned. You will therefore settle moving General Conway for his vote in wh him." Parliament. But we know, by the publi