[Then follow the signatures of 127 peers and commoners, "Lords and Gentlemen who signed the Proclamation," including Lords Buckingham, Shrewsbury, Oxford, Bolingbroke, and Sir Christopher Wren.]
CHARACTER AND PERSON OF GEORGE I. (1660-1727).
A. By Lord Chesterfield.
Source.—Lord Chesterfield (1694-1774), Characters of Eminent Persons of His own Time, 1777. P. 9.
George the First was an honest and dull German gentleman, as unfit as unwilling to act the part of a King, which is, to shine and oppress. Lazy and inactive even in his pleasures; which were therefore lowly and sensual: He was coolly intrepid, and indolently benevolent. He was diffident of his own parts, which made him speak little in public[1] and prefer in his social, which were his favourite, hours, the company of waggs and buffoons.... His views and affections were singly confined to the narrow compass of his electorate.—England was too big for him.—If he had nothing great as a King, he had nothing bad as a Man—and if he does not adorn, at least he will not stain the annals of this country. In private life, he would have been loved and esteemed as a good citizen, a good friend, and a good neighbour.—Happy were it for Europe, happy for the world, if there were not greater Kings in it!
B. By Horace Walpole.
Source.—Reminiscences, in Works of Horace Walpole, Earl of Oxford, 1798. Vol. iv., p. 275; Letter to Sir Horace Mann, Feb. 25, 1782.
"At ten years old [i.e., in 1727] I had set my heart on seeing George I., and being a favourite child, my mother asked leave for me to be presented to him; which to the First Minister's wife was granted, and I was carried by the late Lady Chesterfield to kiss his hand as he went to supper in the Duchess of Kendal's apartment. This was the night but one before he left England the last time."
"The person of the King is as perfect in my memory as if I saw him but yesterday. It was that of an elderly man, rather pale, and exactly like his pictures and coins, not tall, of an aspect rather good than august, with a dark tie wig, a plain coat, waistcoat and breeches of snuff-coloured cloth, with stockings of the same colour and a blue riband over all."
[1] Lord Chesterfield does not mention that George I. spoke no English.—Ed.