points frequently
precipitated painful embarrassments of a personal nature, entailed much
disagreeable correspondence, and sometimes produced misunderstandings
and alienations of far greater moment than the paltry considerations in
which they originated. Amongst the numerous instances in which His
Majesty insisted on the preservation of patronage in his own hands, one
of the most conspicuous was his stipulation with the Marquis of
Rockingham for unconditional power over the nomination of the household,
at a moment when the exigency of public affairs compelled him to
surrender other points of infinitely greater importance. We shall find
in the course of the following letters that His Majesty's desire to
advance the interests of particular individuals interfered seriously, on
some occasions, with the convenience of the public service.

The same spirit guided His Majesty's conduct, as far as the forms of the
Constitution would permit, in his choice of Ministers. He had strong
personal likings and antipathies, and rather than consent to have a
Ministry imposed upon him consisting of men he disapproved, he would
have suffered any amount of difficulty or inconvenience. He prevailed
upon Lord North to remain in office three years in the face of sinking
majorities, and against his Lordship's own wishes, for the sole purpose
of keeping out the Whigs, whom he regarded with a feeling of the
bitterest aversion. Good reasons, no doubt, might be suggested for this
passionate abhorrence of the Whigs, who, independently of party
antecedents, had given His Majesty much cause of uneasiness, by their
strenuous opposition to the measures of his favourite Ministers, and by
their alliance with his son. So deeply was this feeling rooted in His
Majesty's mind, that when a junction with that party seemed to be all
but inevitable in March, 1778, he threatened to abdicate rather than be
"trampled on by his enemies." Four years afterwards he explicitly
repeated the same threat under the excitement of an adverse division;
and it was supposed by those who were best acquainted with the firmness
of his resolution that, had he been forced to extremities, he would have
carried his menace into execution.

His conduct to his Ministers was equally steadfast where he bestowed his
confidence, and stubborn where he withheld it. There were certain
questions upon which he was known to be inexorable, and upon which it
was useless to attempt to move him. Of thes