lish nation, chose to interfere in every political transaction, and not only jostled and thwarted the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, whenever an opportunity offered, but, on more than one occasion, treated him with insufferable insolence.

Among the persons who constituted the foreign Court of George the First, there were two individuals who must not be passed over in silence. These two were Turks, known by the names of Mustapha and Mahomet, who had been taken prisoners at the period when the King was serving in the Imperial army, and, for some reason, were admitted by him into his service. They had since served him with so much fidelity, that they were selected to accompany him from Hanover, on his accession to the English throne, and had since received the appointments of Pages of the Back-stairs. Apparently, the insignificance of these individuals renders any notice of them unnecessary; but even the King's Turkish menials were not without their share of influence under the new rule. Instead of confining themselves to the duties of their situations, and contenting themselves with their legitimate perquisites, they closely imitated the example set them by the rapacious Germans, and not only derived large sums by the sale of minor offices, but in a letter from Count Broglio to the King of France, they are mentioned as exercising considerable political influence over their royal master.

It is to one of these individuals that Pope alludes in his " Essay on Women."

"From peer or bishop 'tis no easy thing,

To draw the man who loves his God or King;
Alas! I copy, or my draught would fail,
From honest Mahomet or plain parson Hale."

Altogether, the rapacity of the German adventurers; the ridiculous airs which they gave themselves; and their unwarrantable interference in state affairs, excited the just indignation of the English. The King, on his part, so far from attempting to check the scandalous venality of his countrymen, appears to have encouraged them in their iniquitous robberies. On one occasion, a favourite cook having requested his permission to return to Hanover; and giving, as his reason for desiring his discharge, the profligate expenditure of all articles of food in the royal kitchen, so different from the frugal economy which he had been accustomed to see practised in the Hanoverian palaces ;—" Never mind," said the King, "my present revenues will bear the expense: do you steal like the rest:" and he added, with a hearty laugh,-" be sure you take enough."

The King, indeed, appears to have utterly discredited the existence of such a virtue as honesty. Ridiculing the creditable scruples of the more conscientious of his servants, he seems to have been impressed with the conviction that venality was equally the foible of his first minister, and

of the humblest denizen of his kitchen. When Sir Robert Walpole remonstrated with him on the rapaciousness of his German dependants, and their practice of disposing of places and honours

high price, the King merely replied with a smile," I suppose you also are paid for your recommendations."

George the First appears to have been as averse to England and the English, as he was prejudiced in favour of Hanover and his own countrymen. Count Broglio writes to the King of France on the 6th of July, 1724,-"The King has no predilection for the English nation, and never receives in private any English of either sex; none even of his principal officers are admitted to his chamber of a morning to dress him, nor in the evening to undress him. These offices are performed by the Turks, who are his valets-de-chambre, and who give him everything he wants in private. He rather considers England as a temporary possession, to be made the most of while it lasts, than as a perpetual inheritance to himself and family. He will have no disputes with the Parliament, but commits the entire transaction of that business to Walpole; choosing rather that the responsibility should fall on his minister's head than on his own." The interests of this great country were almost entirely lost sight of in his attachment to his native dominions. Whenever he signed a treaty, or declared war, it was the aggrandizement of Hanover, and not of England, which dictated the policy of the moment; and

the English had the mortification of seeing that the treasures which were lavished, and the blood which was spilt, were expended in gratifying the vanity of an ungrateful foreigner, and adding to the consequence of his paltry Electorate.

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It has already been remarked, that George the First was entirely ignorant of the English language; and as his prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole, knew as little of the French, there remained no other means of communicating with each other except in Latin. George the First," says Horace Walpole, " did not understand English: my father brushed up his old Latin, to use a phrase of Queen Elizabeth, in order to converse with the first Hanoverian sovereign, and ruled him in spite even of his mistresses." A biting sarcasm, uttered by William Shippen, the celebrated Tory leader in the reign of George the First, gave great offence to the Court; and as he refused to soften the expression, it led to his being sent to the Tower. "It was the only infelicity," he said, " of his Majesty's reign, that he was unacquainted with the English language and the English constitution."

As a proof of the justice of one of Count Broglio's remarks, that the King merely regarded England as a temporary possession, "to be made the most of while it lasts,"-it may be observed that though George the First had carefully husbanded the revenues of the Electorate, in England he launched forth into the most profligate excesses. According to a contemporary

writer, Toland, he had been accustomed, when in Hanover, to defray his household expenses every Saturday night. The case, however, was now altered; and the nation was equally amazed and exasperated, when, in 1725, the Parliament was called upon to defray the debts of the civil list, amounting to the enormous sum of £500,000.