Keats wrote, while George iii. was living: "each of the moderns, like an Elector of Hanover, governs his petty state, and knows how many straws are swept daily from the causeways in all his dominions, and has a continual itching that all the housewives should have their coppers well scoured."[1] It is manifest, too, that Herschel had no desire to return to his Hanover home, or even to the mother who aided him to escape in 1757, and was the foolish cause of many perplexities and troubles. In fifteen years his visits were few, only three apparently, and his stay was brief. There was something in the air of the place that disagreed with him. It may therefore be that the King required to consult his ministers in Hanover before he could overlook the offence of a young guardsman, who had now become an astronomer, with whose fame all Europe was ringing. For two months the uncertainty about William Herschel's future continued. Communication with Hanover on business of state in those days was conducted by a "quarterly messenger," who was sometimes delayed, even in George iv.'s reign, forty years after this time. Delay was thus perhaps unavoidable.[2] Clearly, the King or his advisers could not make up their minds what to do. At last they came to a decision in the way people do when in doubt. They split the difference, and made a bargain with Herschel unworthy of the King and the country. It looks as if Britain incurred odium for the sake of Hanover.
That the bargain included a pardon under the King's
