eceived what seemed to be a thoroughly
national welcome, for it was fully believed all through the country
that his visit was {24} to open a new era of peace, prosperity, and
well-merited loyalty to Ireland. King George threw himself thoroughly
into the spirit of the occasion. He acted his part with admirable
effect. He was sympathetic, he was convivial, he was pathetic, he was
boisterous, exactly as the theatrical effect of the moment seemed to
call for the display of this or that emotion. In truth, the character
of George the Fourth never can be thoroughly understood unless we are
able to see how much of the artistic, in a certain sense, there was in
his temperament. He had that peculiar gift which has lately come to be
called "artistic"--sincerely by some critics, satirically by
others--the gift which enables a man to throw his whole soul and spirit
into any part which the occasion calls on him to act. George was
almost always playing a part, but it was his artistic temperament which
enabled him to believe that he actually felt at the moment the very
emotions which he tried to express. The favorite dramatic type of the
conscious hypocrite and the deliberate self-recognized deceiver is much
less common in real life than it was believed to be at one period of
our literary history. We may take it for granted that George fully
believed himself to be acting with perfect sincerity on most of the
occasions in his life when he had to utter eloquent sentiments
appropriate to the scene and the hour, or to fling himself into the
different humors of those whom, at different times, he was anxious to
please.

[Sidenote: 1821--The King's reception in Ireland]

During his public performances--for thus they may properly be
called--in Ireland, George was sometimes grave, sometimes gay; shed
tears in some places, indulged in touches of buffoonery in others; and
wherever he went seemed to be giving to those around him only the most
sincere outpouring of his own humor and of his own heart. He appears
thoroughly to have enjoyed his popularity, and to have regarded
himself, for the hour, as the justly idolized hero of the land which he
had come to redeem and to bless. The harbor where he first landed in
Ireland, which was called Dunleary then, has been called Kingstown ever
since, for its name was changed in honor of the monarch's {25} visit to
his Irish subjects. The tourist who has just arrived at Kingstown by
the steamer fr