his popularity was suddenly obscured, if not extinguished, by the arts of a demagogue, scandalous and criminal in every mode by which the individual can earn exclusion from society.

The

Princes soon become public personages; and it cannot be denied that his royal highness displayed himself at a sufficiently early age; for in 1765 he received a deputation from the Society of Ancient Britons, on St. David's day. prince's answer to their address was certainly not long, for it was simply "He thanked them for this mark of duty to the king, and wished prosperity to the charity." Though probably an carlier specch has been seldom made; for the speaker was not quite three years old. But it was not lost on the courtiers. They declared it to have been delivered with the happiest grace of manner and action; and that the features of future oratory were more than palpable: all which we are bound to believe. In December of the same year he was invested with the order of the garter, along with the Earl of Albemarle and the hereditary Prince of Brunswick.

CHAPTER III.

THE PRINCE'S EDUCATION.

THE prince had now reached a period when it became necessary to commence his education. Lord Holdernesse, a nobleman of considerable attainments, but chiefly recommended by his dignity of manner and knowledge of the court, was appointed governor: Dr. Markham and Cyril Jackson were the preceptor and sub-preceptor.

Markham had attracted the royal notice by his celebrity as a schoolmaster. At the age of thirty he had soared to the height of professional glory; for he was placed at the head of Westminster School, where he taught for fourteen years. The masters of the leading schools are generally cheered by some church dignity, and Markham received the deanery of Christ Church: from this he had been transferred to Chester; and it was while he was in possession of the bishopric, that he was selected for the preceptorship of the Prince of Wales.

But this private plan of education was severely criticised. It was pronounced to be a secluded, solitary, and narrow scheme for court thraldom,

fitter to make the future sovereign a bigot or a despot, than the generous and manly leader of a generous and manly people.

The old controversy on the rival merits of public and private education was now revived; and, to do the controversialists justice, with less of the spirit of rational inquiry than of fierce and prejudiced partisanship.

The great schools were panegyrised, as breeding a noble equality among the sons of men of the various ranks of society; as inspiring those feelings of honour and independence, which in after-life make the man lift up his fearless front in the presence of his superiors in all but knowledge and virtue; and as pre-eminently training the youth of the land to that personal resolution, mental resource, and intellectual dignity, which are essential to every honourable career; and are congenial, above all, to the free spirit and high-minded habits of England.

All those advantages must be conceded, though burlesqued and tarnished by the fantastic and selfish tales of extraordinary facilities furnished to the man by the companions of the boy; of the road to fortune smoothed, the ladder of eminence miraculously placed in his grasp, the coronet, the mitre, the highest and most sparkling honours of statesmanship, held forth to the aspirant by the hand of early association. Hopes, in their conception mean, in their nature infinitely fallacious, and in

their anticipation altogether opposed to the openness and manly self-respect, which it is the first duty of those schools to create in the young mind. Yet the moralist may well tremble at that contamination of morals which so often defies the vigilance of the tutor; the man of limited income is entitled to reprobate the habits of extravagance engendered in the great schools; and the parent who values the affections of his children, may justly dread the reckless and unruly selfwill, the young insolence, and the sullen and heartless disdain of parental authority, which spring up at a distance from the paternal eye. But the question is decided by the fact, that without public education a large portion of the youth of England would receive no education whatever; while some of the more influential would receive, in the feeble indulgences of lent parentage and the adulation of domestics, an education worse than none. The advantages belong to the system, and to no other; while the disadvantages are accidental, and require nothing for their remedy beyond increased activity in the governors, and a more vigorous vigilance in the nation.

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But of the education of a British prince there can be no question. It ought to be in its whole spirit public. Under all circumstances, the heir to a throne will find flatterers; but at Eton, or Westminster, the flattery must be at times sig

nally qualified; and his noble nature will not be the less noble for the home truths which no homage can always restrain among the rapid passions and fearless tongues of boys. The chance of his falling into the snares of early favouritism is trivial. School fondnesses are easily forgotten. But, if adversity be the true teacher of princes, even the secure heir to the luxurious throne of England may not be the worse for that semblance of adversity which is to be found in the straightforward speech, and bold, unhesitating competitorship of a great English school.

Under Lord Holdernesse and the preceptors, the usual routine of classical teaching was carefully inculcated, for Markham and Jackson were practised masters of that routine; and the prince often afterwards, with the gratitude peculiarly graceful in his rank, professed his remembrance of their services. But, though the classics might flourish in the princely establishment, it soon became obvious that peace did not flourish along with them. Rumours of discontent, royal, princely, and preceptorial, rapidly escaped from even the close confines of the palace; and, at length, the public, less surprised than perplexed, heard the formal announcement, that the whole preceptorship of his royal highness had sent in their resignations.

Those disturbances were the first and the inevitable results of the system. Lord Holdernesse