OF KING GEORGE THE THIRD WITH LORD NORTH FROM 1768 TO 1783. EDITED FROM THE ORIGINALS AT WINDSOR, WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES, INTRODUCTION. EXTRACTS from the following Letters from George III. to Lord North have been published by Lord Stanhope in his History of England from the Peace of Utrecht;' by Earl Russell in his 'Life' and in his Memorials and Correspondence' of Charles James Fox; and by Mr. Bancroft in his History of the United States.' But the samples of the King's Letters given in these works imperfectly represent the originals. The noble historian gives the following account of his acquaintance with the correspondence: "The original Letters from King George III. to Lord North "as his Prime Minister were laid before Sir James Mackintosh, "who, extracting the most important passages, transcribed them "in a manuscript volume. This afterwards passed into the "hands of Lord North's surviving daughter, Lady Charlotte Lindsay, and from her into those of Lord Brougham. Through "the friendly regard of Lady Charlotte, and in the year 1847, I obtained the communication of that volume; Lady Charlotte "at the same time giving me full permission to make any use "of it I might deem proper." a This manuscript volume" is the common source of the extracts hitherto printed. But Sir James Mackintosh, although he had the whole correspondence before him, selected from it such portions only as may have seemed to him most important, or as best suited to a particular purpose-perhaps the history of a period or a reign. In many instances he has taken only a single sentence from a Letter, in others he has combined |