own
lifetime, Great Britain might very possibly have entered upon other
ways than those which opened to her after the downfall of Napoleon.

The real center of fashionable England, however, was not George III.,
but rather his son, subsequently George IV., who was made Prince of
Wales three days after his birth, and who became prince regent during
the insanity of the king. He was the leader of the social world, the
fit companion of Beau Brummel and of a choice circle of rakes and
fox-hunters who drank pottle-deep. Some called him "the first gentleman
of Europe." Others, who knew him better, described him as one who never
kept his word to man or woman and who lacked the most elementary
virtues.

Yet it was his good luck during the first years of his regency to be
popular as few English kings have ever been. To his people he typified
old England against revolutionary France; and his youth and gaiety made
many like him. He drank and gambled; he kept packs of hounds and
strings of horses; he ran deeply into debt that he might patronize the
sports of that uproarious day. He was a gallant "Corinthian," a haunter
of dens where there were prize-fights and cock-fights, and there was
hardly a doubtful resort in London where his face was not familiar.

He was much given to gallantry--not so much, as it seemed, for
wantonness, but from sheer love of mirth and chivalry. For a time, with
his chosen friends, such as Fox and Sheridan, he ventured into reckless
intrigues that recalled the amours of his predecessor, Charles II. He
had by no means the wit and courage of Charles; and, indeed, the house
of Hanover lacked the outward show of chivalry which made the Stuarts
shine with external splendor. But he was good-looking and stalwart, and
when he had half a dozen robust comrades by his side he could assume a
very manly appearance. Such was George IV. in his regency and in his
prime. He made that period famous for its card-playing, its deep
drinking, and for the dissolute conduct of its courtiers and noblemen
no less than for the gallantry of its soldiers and its momentous
victories on sea and land. It came, however, to be seen that his true
achievements were in reality only escapades, that his wit was only
folly, and his so-called "sensibility" was but sham. He invented
buckles, striped waistcoats, and flamboyant collars, but he knew
nothing of the principles of kingship or the laws by which a state is
governed.

The fact that he h