It was well known to be the habit of Geo. III. to write in various
folios, for an hour after he rose in the morning. This practice was
not obviously consistent with his want of facility and taste in any
sort of composition; but his manuscripts were only registers of names,
with notes annexed of the services, the offences, and the characters,
as he judged them, of the respective persons. "In addition," says a
publication of 1779 "_to the numerous private registers always kept by
the king_, and written with his own hand, he has lately kept another,
of all those Americans who have either left the country voluntarily
rather than submit to the rebels, and also of such as have been driven
out by force; with an account of their losses and services." It is
somewhat cruel to lay bare "the bosomed secrets" of any man, even after
the grave has closed upon his passions and weaknesses; but if these
registers of George III. still exist, and should ever come to light,
they will be as curious private memoirs as have ever appeared: they
doubtless promoted the remembrance and compensation of losses and
services; but they also produced his petty long-cherished resentments,
less hurtful to their objects than injurious to his own character and
torturing to his breast.--_Ibid_.
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