We have given the whole of this letter, because it is a remarkable production from the pen of so young a girl. So thought the king to whom it was addressed, for he instructed his soldiers to be more humane; and so thought George III., who was charmed with the eloquence and kind heart of the writer. We say George III., because by this time the young prince had ascended the throne.
On the morning after the death of his grandfather, who had said of him, "The boy is good for nothing but to read the Bible to his mother," George proceeded from Kew to St. James's Palace, accompanied by Lord Bute. On his arrival there, he was presented by Mr. Pitt, the secretary of state, with a paper, on which were written a few sentences that the minister had prepared as a basis of the new king's speech to the privy council. George thanked Mr. Pitt, but said that he had already prepared himself; and he soon proved that he had done so, for the councillors were astonished at the grace and dignity of his address.
Although in ordinary conversation George III. spoke so rapidly that it was almost impossible to comprehend him, in public he was perfectly intelligible, and moderated his voice as well as any man in his dominions. He was exceedingly popular on his accession. In his opening speech before parliament, he—who, it must be remembered, was the first English George,—said: "Born and educated in this country, I glory in the name of Briton; and the peculiar happiness of my life will ever consist in promoting the welfare of a people whose loyalty and warm affection for me I consider as the greatest and most permanent security of my throne; and I doubt not but their steadiness in those principles will equal the firmness of my invariable resolution to adhere to and strengthen this excellent constitution in church and state, and to maintain toleration inviolable." Mr. Pitt could have prepared no speech for the king that would have been more satisfactory than this, and he made several others that were equally so.
On July 8, 1761, the king announced to his council that he had, after mature reflection, come to the resolution to demand in marriage Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburgh-Strelitz, a lady distinguished by every virtue and amiable quality. On the fifteenth of the next month the treaty was concluded, and preparations were immediately made to conduct the bride to England. The Earl of Harcourt and the Duchesses of Ancaster and Hamilton, the two finest women of the British court, were selected to escort her; and the royal yacht in which she and her suite were to embark was ordered to be convoyed by a fleet under the command of Lord Anson.
A.D. 1761. Lord Harcourt wrote to a friend that the bride was "the most amiable young princess he ever saw;" and was very enthusiastic over the reception he had met with at the little German court, saying, "The great honor the king has done this family is seen in its proper light."
[Original]
His task was an easy and pleasant one, and his testimony regarding the bride runs thus: "Our queen that is to be has seen very little of the world; but her good sense, vivacity, and cheerfulness, I dare say, will recommend her to the king, and make her the darling of the British nation. She is no regular beauty; but she is of a very pretty size, has a charming complexion, very pretty eyes, and is, in short, a very fine girl." The two duchesses who were sent to conduct the bride to England were such splendid-looking women that they excited the greatest amount of admiration in Germany, and Charlotte began to have some misgivings as to her own personal appearance when compared with them. "Are all the women in England as beautiful as you are?" she asked when first she saw them.