ow, and unmanly propensity, with selfishness,
avarice, and a life of petty intrigue and mystery."[98] George the
Fourth as king and regent was recklessly extravagant, but his
expenditure was always upon self or the gratification of self. A hundred
examples of his selfish nature might be given, but _cui bono_?
Everything he could get hold of, which could minister to his own
personal gratification, he _grasped_ with avidity. In this spirit he
appropriated the jewels and spent on himself the whole of the money
belonging to his late father's estate, amounting to L120,000. His
ministers did not dare to oppose his greed, or tell him that this money
belonged to the Crown, and not to himself as an individual. He acted
precisely in the same manner with regard to his mother's jewels, of
which she possessed a large quantity. Those she received from George
III. she left by will to the king; the rest she gave to her daughters;
in spite of which bequest, her selfish son appropriated the whole to
himself as his own personal private property.

PORTRAIT OF THE KING.

An admirable likeness of this most selfish of royal or private
personages has been drawn by a master hand. "To make a portrait of him,"
says Thackeray, "at first seemed a matter of small difficulty. There is
his coat, his star, his wig, his countenance simpering under it: with a
slate and a piece of chalk, I could at this very desk perform a
recognisable likeness of him. And yet after reading of him in scores of
volumes, hunting him through old magazines and newspapers, having him
here at a ball, there at a public dinner, there at races, and so forth,
you find you have nothing--nothing but a coat and wig, and a mask
smiling below it--nothing but a great simulacrum. His sire and
grandsires were men. One knew what they were like: what they would do in
given circumstances: that on occasion they fought and demeaned
themselves like tough, good soldiers. They had friends whom they liked
according to their natures; enemies whom they hated firmly; passions and
actions and individualities of their own. The sailor king who came after
George was a man; the Duke of York was a man, big, burly, loud, jolly,
cursing, courageous. But this George, what was he? I look through all
his life, and recognise but a bow and a grin. I try and take him to
pieces, and find silk stockings, padding, stays, a coat with frogs and a
fur collar, a star and blue ribbon, a pocket-handkerchief prodigiousl