scendants of those who were
forced into fighting their own race, through the maladministration of
the King and his guilty Government, at the head of which was the
genial but ultra-reactionary Lord North, who was a special favourite
of George because he was accommodating; and indeed, all the King's
friends were reactionary and dangerous to the real interests of the
State when in power. The King's terrific responsibility for the great
calamities that befell the country during his reign can only be
absolved by the knowledge that he was subject to fits of prolonged
lunacy; in fact, it may be said that even in his saner periods his
acts were frequently those of an idiot. Though he cannot be accused of
lacking in integrity, he disliked men who were possessed of that
virtue, coupled with enlightened views, having anything to do with the
government of the State. In short, he was totally unsuited to govern
at any time, but especially when the atmosphere was charged with
violent human convulsions. He loved lick-spittles, because they did
his will for value received in various sordid forms, and, as I have
said, he loathed the incorruptible and brilliant Charles James Fox,
because he refused to support his fatal policies and that of the
cocksparrow members of his Government, who from time to time
threatened the very foundations of our national existence.

The more George persisted, the louder became Fox's protests. Posterity
can never accurately estimate how much it owes to statesmen who acted
with Fox, but the influences the King had behind him were too
formidable for Fox to grapple with. He would have saved us from the
fratricidal war with America, and from the unpardonable wickedness of
involving the country in the wars with France, who was fighting out
her own prodigious destiny on the Continent, which was no concern of
ours, except that the sane policy of the King and his Government
should have been to encourage the democratizing of the Continental
States. It was no love of liberty, or for the people, or for reforms
of any kind, that led George III and his satellites to wage war
against the man of the French Revolution. It was the fear of placing
more power in the hands of the people and allowing less to remain in
his own. But the main fear of the King and his autocratic subjects was
lest Napoleon would become so powerful that he would destroy the whole
monarchy of Europe! It was the view of small-minded men. Even Napoleon
ha