Page:Memoirs of a Trait in the Character of George III.djvu/71

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the invalid found himself capable of renewing his attendance the trial should recommence de novo.

At that period, William Harrison, in a letter to his father in law,[1] after apprizing him of the accident, and consequent injury to his arm, continued as follows: "I informed his Majesty of it, who, with his usual goodness, was pleased to order our trial to be put off till my health should be sufficiently re-established."

We may pause here, to ask—Has the united diligence of a Hawkins and a Boswell, aided latterly by the industry and tact of Mr. Croker, elicited any particular in the life of 'our great lexicographer and moralist' of superior, nay, of equal interest to this most creditable TRAIT in George 3rd, totally unknown as it is, and might for ever have

  1. This was Mr. Robert Atkinson, of Hatfield Chace, in Yorkshire, who, from the interest he took in the result of the trial, though not conversant with the subject, desired to know what was going on, and the letters having been preserved in the family, were presented to the Author some years ago.—Mr. Neale entitled his captivating work 'The Romance of History,' (avowedly as such) and there are passages in this narrative which strain belief, and might have brought the writer under the imputation of dabbling in the romance of regal biography, had not the discovery of these letters opportunely relieved him from this undesirable predicament. A caution in point may be recollected. Young Stanhope is advised by his Father to avoid asserting any thing which, though he might himself know it to be perfectly true, was too surprising to be credible without authentic support, and would expose his veracity to be questioned, which no man likes.