[4] The Annual Register, January, 1748.
Moreover, he instilled in the minds of his children the loftiest sentiments of patriotism. In view of the German predilections of his father and grandfather the training which Frederick gave his children, especially his eldest son, had much to do in after years with reconciling the Tory and Jacobite malcontents to the established dynasty. The wounds occasioned by the rising of 1745 were still bleeding, but the battle of Culloden had extinguished for ever the hopes of the Stuarts, and many of their adherents were casting about for a pretext of acquiescing in the inevitable. These Frederick met more than half way. He was not born in England (neither was Charles Edward), but his children were, and he taught them to consider themselves Englishmen and not Germans, and to love the land of their birth. His English sentiments appear again and again in his letters and speeches. They crop up in some verses which he wrote for his children to recite at their dramatic performances. On one occasion the piece selected for representation was Addison’s play of Cato, in which Prince George, Prince Edward, and the Princesses Augusta and Elizabeth took part. Frederick wrote a prologue and an epilogue; the prologue was spoken by Prince George. After a panegyric on liberty the future King went on to say:—
Should this superior to my years be thought,
Know—’tis the first great lesson I was taught.
What! though a boy! it may with pride be said
A boy—in England born, in England bred;
Where freedom well becomes the earliest state,
For there the laws of liberty innate—etc., etc.
There came an echo of this early teaching years later when George III. wrote into the text of his first speech to parliament the memorable words: “Born and educated in this country, I glory in the name of Briton”.
In the epilogue spoken by Prince Edward similar sentiments were expressed:—