highness, by accepting a retainer from Paine, on a prosecution being
instituted against the latter for publishing the Rights of Man, that
his immediate resignation was required. But, sometime afterwards,
Erskine was desired to attend at Carlton house, where the prince
received him with great cordiality, and, after avowing his conviction
that, 'in the instance that had separated them, his learned and
eloquent friend had acted from the purest motives, he wished to give
publicity to his present opinion on the subject, by appointing Mr.
Erskine his chancellor.' On one occasion, at the opening of a session
of parliament by George the Third in person, his royal highness, who
was then very much in debt, having gone down to the house of lords
in a superb military uniform with diamond epaulettes, Major Doyle
subsequently remarked to him, that his equipage had been much noticed
by the mob. 'One fellow,' added the major, 'prodigiously admired, what
he termed 'the fine things which the prince had upon his shoulders.'
'Mighty fine, indeed,' replied another; 'but, mind me, they'll soon be
_upon our shoulders_, for all that.' 'Ah, you rogue!' exclaimed the
prince, laughing, 'that's a hit of your own, I am convinced:--but,
come, take some wine.'

"He had some inclination for scientific pursuits, and highly respected
those who were eminent for mechanical inventions. He contributed
largely towards the erection of a monument to the memory of Watt. Of
his medical information, slight as it undoubtedly was, he is said
to have been particularly proud. Carpue had demonstrated to him the
general anatomy of the human body, in his younger days; and for a
number of years, the ingenious Weiss submitted to his inspection all
the new surgical instruments, in one of which the king suggested some
valuable improvements.