Sheridan! Why, they were going to take the bed from under him whilst he was dying; and there was Mrs. Sheridan pushing the bailiffs out of the room. That amiable woman, too, I believe, died of grief at the misery to which she was reduced. The Prince had not one good quality. How many fell victims to him! Not so much those who were most intimate with him—for they swallowed the poison and took the antidote—they knew him well: but those were the greatest sufferers who imitated his vices, who were poisoned by the contagion, without knowing what a
studiously concealed the good qualities which he possessed. Sir Walter Scott, who read men’s characters if any body could, has left upon record a very different opinion of him; and, unless we suppose that Sir Walter had motives of his own for eulogizing him, we must place his testimony in the balance against Lady Hester’s spite. In a letter, he describes George IV. as—"A sovereign, whose gentle and generous disposition, and singular manners, and captivating conversation, rendered him as much the darling of private society, as his heart felt interest in the general welfare of the country: and the constant and steady course of wise measures, by which he raised his reign to such a state of triumphal prosperity, made him justly delighted in by his subjects."—Letter from Sir W. Scott, p. 65, vol. ii., Mem. of Sir Wm. Knighton, Bart.—Paris edit. Sir Walter could not have written worse prose if he had tried. It shows how difficult it is to string words together on a subject where perhaps the convictions of the heart were not altogether in unison with the sentiments expressed.
