WILLIAM THE FOURTH has closed his earthly career, and, ere many days shall have elapsed, his mortal remains will be in the company of the illustrious dead belonging to the house of Hanover. His reign has now become matter of history; and it will not be an unprofitable labour to review the events which have most distinguished it, and from the retrospect of the past to draw some conclusions on the prospects of the future,

Very few English monarchs have enjoyed during life such great popularity, or have been so generally lamented, when dead, as the late king. As a MAN, he was beloved by persons of all political opinions; for he had a simplicity of heart and benevolence of dispo sition that conciliated the love of all whom business or pleasure brought into personal communication with him and as a KING, he was so popular that he may be said to have lived in the hearts of his subjects. That he enjoyed great advantages from his succession to a throne just vacated by a man, whose almost innumerable failings and vices, not only as a private man, but also as a monarch, were feebly opposed by the single redeeming quality of perfect gentility and a thorough knowledge of all the laws of etiquette, cannot be doubted. William the Fourth had much less talent than his elder brother; but his intellectual inferiority was more than compensated by the vast superiority in honour and principle observable throughout his behaviour. That the late king's character, as a private man, was wholly without blot or stain, we cannot say; but it may be safely asserted that his moral failings, as compared with those of our " precedent lord," were but as moats in the sunbeam by the side of a darkened sun. The preceding reign had been marked by an obstinate opposition to every measure of reform; and it was only by extortion from a most unwilling hand, that Catholic emancipation was at length obtained to relieve the suffering people of Ireland. Every measure, in fact, during this decennial period, had one object in view, the preservation of aristocratic influence to the exclusion of the great and overwhelming interests of the nation at large. The nobles revelled in luxury, and JULY, 1837.

A

the people were mulcted, nay, cheated for their extravagance. England called aloud for a change of the supreme magistrate; and we are happy to be able to say, that the change was most favourable to the interests of the country.

William the Fourth has been charged by some parties with being a reformer by necessity and not by principle. That the great body of the people were united as one man for the business of reforming the representation of their own body in Parliament, no one can doubt: -abuses had reached too great a height to be further tolerated; and obstruction only could have been offered to a measure, which the spirit of the times and the progress of education imperatively required. This obstruction, so obstinately maintained by George IV., his younger brother honourably refused to offer; for his good sense showed to him the futility of such a measure, and his excellence of heart revolted from the idea of vexatious opposition to his people's wishes. He may, perhaps, have been swayed by " a power behind the throne," to keep in power his brother's servants for a decent period, and to give them a chance of establishing a character with the nation; but when he found that they had become universally unpopular, and objects of contempt and animadversion, he first yielded to the general call for more liberal measures,, and then gave himself heart and hand, truly and sincerely, " to promote the amelioration of the laws and institutions of his country." With a very excusable bias in favour of those warlike professions, which in his father's reign were the all-in-all to the exclusion of more peaceful professions, he bestowed more of his attention and greater favours on military and naval men than on civilians :--he forgot the mighty changes which had taken place in the few last years of his life,-changes which had raised the civilian to the highest station in society, while they had banished the military and naval man to an useless but pensioned retirement. England, once the paymaster of the great allied armies warring against France, is now the advocate of all peaceful measures, and is trying to recover, by a well-judged economy, from the ruinous embarrassments into which we were plunged by one of the most warlike and sanguinary monarchs that ever sat on the English throne. Thus the army and navy are now become formal adjuncts and perhaps necessary evils to the country; but the influence of the higher members of these professions has been most absurdly maintained to the injury of the more useful classes of the community even of a rank equal to their own. This weakness of William IV. was excusable, we have said; but it will not be excused in one, who has had his example whereby to form just conclusions concerning the comparative value, at the present time, of military and civil services. To the failing above mentioned in the character of the late king we must add another, namely, that of allowing himself to be swayed and driven from his purpose by irresponsible advisers, whose counsels were dictated by self-interest rather than by sober reason; to this failing we may attribute any unfavourable opinion that may have been entertained of him by the body of the people. To counterbalance these weaknesses, the late king possessed a great number of the most excellent qualities, to which his different ministers-both Liberal and

Conservative-have borne ample and most honourable testimony. The first Minister of the Crown, who was honoured with the Royal confidence during five-sixths of the late reign, expressed himself most warmly in his place among the Peers.

"I will appeal to any one," said Lord Melbourne, "who ever approached his Majesty upon those subjects, whether his practical acquaintance with the principles and details of public business were not very extensive and very accurate, and whether his Majesty did not display the greatest zeal, and the most unremitting assiduity, and the most anxious desire to do in every thing that was submitted to him the most strict justice. Upon another matter let me say—perhaps, my lords, I express myself in too humble a manner for the occasion but I must say (as it was necessary in the situation that I held to be in frequent communication with his Majesty) that I think that so fair a man, or so just a man, I have not ever yet known in the course of my experience-most perfect, most fair, most candid, most impartial, most willing to hear, to weigh, and to consider what was urged even in opposition to his most favourite opinions:-qualities that are great and sterling-truly so in any man, but more particularly great and sterling in a sovereign."

But the praises of our lamented Monarch were not sounded only by those whom he had lately favoured with his support and countenance: they were uttered by those also whom the necessities of the times had banished from the council-board, by those whom the king had repeatedly tried and as often found wanting.

The Duke of Wellington (than whom, in spite of his Tory prejudices, we know no better diplomatist) speaks no less strongly in favour of his late Majesty's qualifications for the exalted station which he occupied.

"It has fallen to my lot to serve his Majesty at different periods, and in different situations, and while I had the happiness of doing so, upon all those occasions I have witnessed not only all the virtues ascribed to him by the noble viscount (Melbourne), but likewise a firmness, a discretion, a candour, a justice, and a spirit of conciliation towards others-a respect for all. Probably there never was a sovereign who in such circumstances, and enompassed by so many difficulties, more successfully met them than he did upon every occasion that he had to engage them."

The most important and most elegantly expressed testimony, however, is that given bySir Robert Peel,to whose qualifications as a scholar and a man of exalted talent we have ever cheerfully borne witness, in spite of our difference of opinion. His words were as follow:

"It is to me a melancholy consolation-to me, whose duty it was to express to his Majesty those anticipations of his reign, and of the attachment of his people, to be now permitted to second that tribute of sincere national respect which we are now about to place on this table. The becoming reserve which secludes a sovereign from ordinary intercourse with society is not sufficient to conceal from his people the real nature and dispositions of him who rules over them; and I do believe it is the universal feeling of this country that the reins of government were never committed to the hands of one who bore himself as a sovereign with more affability, and yet with more true dignity, or who was more compassionate for the sufferings of others, or whose nature was more utterly free from all selfishness. I do not believe that in the most exalted, or in the most humble station, could be found a man the whole pleasure of whose life consisted so much in witnessing and promoting the happiness of others. Having had the good fortune to stand in the situation which the noble lord (Lord J. Russell) now does, I can with truth confirm all that

he has stated with respect to his Majesty's forgetfulness of all amusements and of all private considerations that could for a single moment interfere with the discharge of his public duties. Never had public servants a more kind, generous and indulgent master. Never was there a man who, whatever might be his own political opinions, or with whatever frankness they might be stated, acted with such perfect fidelity towards those who were responsible for the advice they tendered. There was not only a total absence of all indirect means by which their free action could be impeded, but there was a sincere confidence and support which was perfectly compatible with the maintenance even of opposite opinions-opinions never pressed beyond the proper limits which a sovereign ought to adopt when he differs from the advice of those who are his responsible advisers."

All men of all parties, in short, seem disposed to award to our late Sovereign very high praise, and to justify the appellation that popular enthusiasm has given him of the PATRIOT KING.

Before we close these remarks,however, we must make some few observations on the recent progress of moderate measures of reform and of their future prospects. It is maintained by many of the more zealous and sanguine reformers that his late Majesty's ministers did not pursue with sufficient boldness and independence the course to which they were pledged before the country, and some of the Journalists have gone so far as to attribute this apparent want of promptitude and decision in the King's advisers to a weakness and unwillingness on the part of the Sovereign. Those who make the latter charge know little of the difficulties with which William the Fourth had to cope, surrounded as he was almost entirely by those, whose paramount interest it was to retard the progress of every measure calculated to lessen Court influence and increase the power of the People. To disabuse one's self of prejudices deeply rooted by birth, education, and society, is a great and noble work for those even, who move in a private station; but on a king of advanced years, under all the opposing influences, it reflects the very highest honour, and for this alone his name will meet with well deserved eulogies from the pens of future historians. Away, then, with the groundless idea that he, whom we now so justly lament, was forced and dragged to acquiesce in measures, which he desired, but was not able to prevent or retard! But why, then, continue the objectors, did not the Melbourne administration act more vigorously and make more rapid progress in the business which the wants of the nation called on them to accomplish? We must acknowledge, that some months ago we felt and expressed disappointment at the slowness with which the work went forward; but we are disposed now to modify and, in a measure, to retract the opinion which we formerly advanced, because we are convinced that the cause is not attributable to any want of zeal or judicious conduct on the part of Ministers, but to the difficulties with which they have had to struggle owing to strong and unrelenting opposition from the Tory aristocracy. It is very easy for those, who have never experienced the troubles and responsibilities of office, and who look at the broad and general principles without examining the various details and numerous indirect consequences of measures, to blame those on whom no blame rests, and to attribute improper motives where they have no existence.