sadors should for once see that he was King of England.' 'He
has no idea,' said the Duke, 'of what a King of England ought to
do, or he would have known that he ought to have made Aberdeen go
and receive them, instead of keeping him there.' He said the King
was very clever and amusing, but that with a surprising memory he
was very inaccurate, and constantly told stories the details of
which all his auditors must know to be false. One day he was
talking of the late King, and asserted that George III. had said
to himself, 'Of all the men I have ever known you are the one on
whom I have the greatest dependence, and you are the most perfect
gentleman.' Another day he said 'that he recollected the old Lord
Chesterfield, who once said to him, "Sir, you are the fourth
Prince of Wales I have known, and I must give your Royal Highness
one piece of advice: stick to your father; as long as you adhere
to your father you will be a great and a happy man, but if you
separate yourself from him you will be nothing and an unhappy
one;" and, by God (added the King), I never forgot that advice,
and acted upon it all my life.' 'We all,' said the Duke, 'looked
at one another with astonishment.' He is extremely clever and
particularly ingenious in turning the conversation from any
subject he does not like to discuss.

'I,' added the Duke of Wellington, 'remember calling upon him the
day he received the news of the battle of Navarino. I was not a
Minister, but Commander-in-Chief, and after having told me the
news he asked me what I thought of it. I said that I knew nothing
about it, was ignorant of the instructions that had been given to
the admiral, and could not give any opinion; but "one thing is
clear to me, that your Majesty's ships have suffered very much,
and that you ought to reinforce your fleet directly, for whenever
you have a maritime force yours ought to be superior to all
others." This advice he did not like; I saw this, and he said,
"Oh, the Emperor of Russia is a man of honour," and then he began
talking, and went on to Venice, Toulon, St. Petersburg, all over
the Continent, and from one place and one subject to another,
till he brought me to Windsor Castle. I make it a rule never to
interrupt him, and when in this way he tries to get rid of a
subject in the way of business which he does not like, I let him
talk himself out, and then quietly put before him the matter in
question, so that he cannot escape from it. I remember w