deeply does His Majesty [George III.] lament a determination by which the sufferings of Europe must be aggravated and prolonged.

But not to His Majesty is to be attributed the continuance of the calamities of war, by the disappointment of all hope of such a peace as would be compatible with justice and honour."[205] No open-minded person can peruse the correspondence on this subject without concluding that British policy, if lacking the breadth, grip and _finesse_ that marked that of France and Russia, yet possessed the sterling merits of manly truthfulness and staunch fidelity.

The words quoted above were the words of Canning, but the spirit that animated them was that of George III.

His storm-tossed life was now verging towards the dread bourne of insanity; but it was given to him to make this stern yet half-pleading appeal to the Czar's better nature.

And who shall say that the example of constancy which the aged King displayed amidst the gathering gloom of his public and private life did not ultimately bear fruit in the later and grander phase of Alexander's character and career?
Meanwhile Napoleon was bursting through the Spanish defence.