try would soon have been
no more; but oil and water might almost as soon have commingled, as the
Tories and the Radicals agree.

ILLNESS AND DEATH OF THE KING--REMARKS ON HIS CHARACTER.

Ever since his accession to the throne, the king's health had in general
been good. In the course of the present spring, however, symptoms of
decline began to show themselves; and they increased so rapidly, that by
the beginning of June his situation became one of serious alarm to his
family. His majesty continued to transact business, but it was under
such oppressive weakness, that it was clear to his medical attendants
that his end was approaching. There was no active disease, indeed, but
a general languor and weakness, which foretokened dissolution. His last
days were spent in preparing for eternity; nothing seemed to give him
greater pleasure than the presence of the Archbishop of Canterbury,
who attended him, and from whose hands he received the sacrament. His
deportment at this solemn ceremony, as related by a church dignitary,
was fully edifying. He says:--"His majesty had already experienced the
blessed consolations of religion, and removed the doubts his anxious
attendants were entertaining, by eagerly desiring the queen to send for
the archbishop, seeming, as it were, anxious to ratify the discharge
of his earthly by the performance of his spiritual duties. His grace
promptly attended, attired in his robes, and at a quarter to eleven
administered the sacrament to his majesty and the queen, Lady Mary Fox
communicating at the same time. The king was very calm and collected;
his faculties were quite clear, and he paid the greatest attention to
the service, following it in the prayer-book, which lay on the table
before him. His voice indeed failed, but his humble demeanour and
uplifted eyes gave expression to the feeling of devotion and of
gratitude to the Almighty which his faltering lips refused to utter. The
performance of this act of religion, and this public attestation of his
communion with that church, for the welfare and prosperity of which
he had more than once during his illness ejaculated short but fervent
prayers, was the source of great and manifest comfort to his majesty.
Though the shorter form had been adopted by the archbishop, his majesty
was nevertheless rather exhausted by the duration and solemnity of the
ceremony; but as his grace retired, the king said, with that peculiar
kindness of manner by which h