COURT LIFE BELOW STAIRS

OR

LONDON UNDER THE LAST GEORGES

1760-1830

BY

J. FITZGERALD MOLLOY

Second Edition.

VOL. III.

LONDON:

HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS,

13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET.

1883.

All rights reserved.

ΤΟ

JOSEPH COWEN, ESQ., M.P.

DEAR SIR,

Few of our public men have facilitated the cause of progress, and the well-being of others, as you have done your career has been full of noble deeds, of manly sympathy, and of fearless utterances in behalf of the weak and oppressed in all Europe.

As a slight tribute of the admiration I personally feel, I dedicate to you these volumes; trusting that my humble efforts may not be unworthy of your distinguished name,

I remain,

Faithfully yours always,

J. FITZGERALD MOLLOY.

PREFACE TO VOLS. III. AND IV.

HE popularity of the first volumes of

THE

this work-practically proved by a demand which sent them into a second edition in three weeks, and out of print in as many months-has induced me to continue the pictures of Court Life under the Georges.

The reigns of George III. and George IV. are no less interesting and instructive, to those who study the social history and manners of courts, than those of George I. and George II.; and, it is mournful to assert, are far more scandalous. George III., it is true, was from the day of his marriage a moral man; but the grossly voluptuous and glaringly corrupt example