orrupted by association with young people, and kept him
in the strictest seclusion. He had no friend except his brother Edward.
Her jealousy extended to her children's nearest relations. They had
little intercourse with the court, and William, Duke of Cumberland,
whose upright character and soldierly qualities might well have endeared
him to his nephews, complained that as children they were taught to
regard him with the most unworthy suspicion.

Brought up among bed-chamber women and pages, in an unwholesome
atmosphere of petty intrigue, and carefully kept from contact with the
world, George had the failings which such a system might be expected to
produce. His mother certainly succeeded in implanting in his heart
religious principles which he preserved through life, and she turned him
out a pure-minded and well-bred young man; but the faults in his
character were confirmed. He was uncharitable in his judgments of others
and harsh in his condemnation of conduct which he did not approve. His
prejudices were strengthened; he put too high a value on his own
opinions and was extremely stubborn. In dealing with men, he thought too
much of what was due to himself and too little of what was due to
others. As a lad he lacked frankness, and in later life was disingenuous
and intriguing. When he was displeased his temper was sullen and
resentful. He was always overcareful about money, and in old age this
tendency developed into parsimony. His education was deficient; it had
not been carried on steadily, and he had been allowed to indulge a
constitutional inertness. Though he overcame this habit, the time which
he had lost could not be made up for, and ideas which might have been
corrected or enlarged by a more thorough education, remained firmly
fixed in his mind.

[Sidenote: _THE EARL OF BUTE._]

Among these ideas were an exaggerated conception of the royal
prerogative and the belief that it was his duty as king to govern as
well as to reign. His mother's constant exhortation to him, "George, be
a king," fell upon willing ears, and appears to have been enforced by
his tutors. A more powerful influence on the mind of the young prince
than that of any of his tutors was exercised by John Stuart, Earl of
Bute, his mother's chief friend and adviser. He was a fine showy man,
vain of his handsome person, theatrical in his manners, pompous, slow
and sententious in his speech. His private life was respectable; he had
literary and sci