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for his first speech to parliament, he on his own au-
thority added the words, ‘Born and educated in this country, I glory in the name of Briton:’ thus putting himself with just complacency rather than invidiously in contrast with his predecessors, who were Hanoverians by birth and by affection.
A greater concourse of ‘the beauty and gentility’ of the kingdom attended him at parliament than had ever graced that assembly.
‘His manner,’ said
Ingersoll, of
Connecticut, who was present, ‘has the beauty of an accomplished speaker.
He is not only, as a king, disposed to do all in his power to make his subjects happy, but is undoubtedly of a disposition truly religious.’
Horace Walpole echoed the praises of his grace, dignity, and good-nature; expressed his admiration in courtly verses, and began a friendly correspondence with
Bute.
‘All his dispositions are good,’ said
Secker, the archbishop; ‘he is a regular, worthy, and pious young man, and hath the interest of religion sincerely at heart.’
1 The poet
Churchil did but echo the voice of the nation, when he wrote:
Stripped of her gaudy plumes and vain disguise,
See where Ambition, mean and loathsome, lies!
Reflection with relentless hand pulls down
The tyrant's bloody wreath and ravished crown.
In vain he tells of battles bravely won,
Of nations conquered, and of worlds undone.
But if, in searching round the world, we find
Some generous youth, the friend of all mankind,
Whose anger, like the bolt of Jove, is sped
In terrors only at the guilty head,
Whose mercies, like heaven's dew, refreshing fall
In general love and charity to all,
Pleased we behold such worth on any throne,
And doubly pleased, we find it on our own.
