4279. KINGS, Vulgarity.—
The memoirs
of Mrs. Clarke and of her darling prince, and
the book, emphatically so called, because it is
the Biblia Sacra Deorum et Diarum subc
œlestium, the Prince Regent, his Princess and
the minor deities of his sphere, form a worthy
sequel to the memoirs of Bayreuth; instead
of the vulgarity of the court of Berlin, giving
us the vulgarity and profusion of that of
London, and the gross stupidity and profligacy
of the latter, in lieu of the genius and misanthropism
of the former. The whole might
be published as a supplement to M. de Buffon,
under the title of the “Natural History of
Kings and Princes”, or as a separate work
and called “Medicine for Monarchists”.
The “Intercepted Letters”, a later English
publication of great wit and humor, has put
them to their proper use by holding them up
as butts for the ridicule and contempt of
mankind. Yet by such worthless beings is a
great nation to be governed and even made to
deify their old king because he is only a fool
and a maniac, and to forgive and forget his
having lost to them a great and flourishing
empire, added nine hundred millions sterling
to their debt, for which the fee simple of the
whole island would not sell, if offered farm
by farm at public auction, and increased
their annual taxes from eight to seventy
millions sterling, more than the whole rentroll
of the island. What must be the dreary
prospect from the son when such a father is
deplored as a national loss? But let us drop
these odious beings and pass to those of an
higher order, the plants of the field.—
To Madame de Tesse. Washington ed. vi, 271.
Ford ed., ix, 437.
(M.
1813)
