friends, and had an air of probity which prejudiced the world in his
favour.

"The King's character may be comprised in very few words. In private
life he would have been called an honest blockhead; and Fortune that
made him a king, added nothing to his happiness, only prejudiced his
honesty, and shortened his days. No man was ever more free from
ambition; he loved money, but loved to keep his own, without being
rapacious of other men's. He would have grown rich by saving, but was
incapable of laying schemes for getting; he was more properly dull than
lazy, and would have been so well contented to have remained in his
little town of Hanover, that if the ambition of those about him had not
been greater than his own, we should never have seen him in England; and
the natural honesty of his temper, joined with the narrow notions of a
low education, made him look upon his acceptance of the crown as an act
of usurpation, which was always uneasy to him. But he was carried by the
stream of the people about him, in that, as in every action of his life.
He could speak no English, and was past the age of learning it. Our
customs and laws were all mysteries to him, which he neither tried to
understand, nor was capable of understanding if he had endeavoured it.
He was passively good-natured, and wished all mankind enjoyed quiet, if
they would let him do so.

"The mistress that followed him hither was so much of his own temper,
that I do not wonder at the engagement between them. She was duller than
himself, and consequently did not find out that he was so; and had lived
in that figure at Hanover almost forty years (for she came hither at
three score) without meddling in any affairs of the Electorate, content
with the small pension he allowed her, and the honour of his visits when
he had nothing else to do, which happened very often. She even refused