Chapter XXVIII (3)

[190] Though so notorious at the time, we have been able to find only one pamphlet on the subject in the British Museum, and the papers seem to have been very reluctant to give the names of the parties. July 10, 1762, William Parsons, Elizabeth his wife, Mary Fraser, the Ghost’s interpreter, a clergyman, and a respectable tradesman, were tried at Guildhall, and convicted of a conspiracy to defame a Mr. Kent. In the Annual Register it is said, “The Court chusing that Mr. Kent, who had been so much injured on the occasion, should receive some reparation by punishment of the offenders, deferred giving judgment for seven or eight months, _in hopes that the parties might make it up in the meantime_. Accordingly, the clergyman and tradesman agreed to pay Mr. Kent a round sum--some say between 500_l._ and 600_l._--to purchase their pardon, and were, therefore, dismissed with a severe reprimand. The father was ordered to be set in the pillory three times in one month--once at the end of Cock Lane; Elizabeth his wife to be imprisoned one year; and Mary Fraser six months in Bridewell, with hard labour. The father appearing to be out of his mind at the time he was first to stand in the pillory, the execution of that part of his sentence was deferred to another day, when, as well as the other day of his standing there, the populace took so much compassion on him, that instead of using him ill, they made a handsome subscription for him.”--_v._ Annual Register, vol. cxlii. and Gentleman’s Magazine, 1762, pp. 43 and 339. The liberty to speak to the prosecutor, described above as sanctioned by Lord Mansfield, would not now be so openly permitted, even by a bench of Middlesex Magistrates. Churchill’s poem mentions “the Ghost,” only as a peg to hang a satire upon. It has much vigour, but a key is wanted, and probably nobody can supply one to the allusions, or even the regularly drawn characters of the greater part: Johnson, Warburton, Mansfield, and one or two more are apparent. “The Ghost” has also furnished the very clever scene of the trial of Fanny the Phantom, in Foote’s farce of “The Orators.”--E.

[191] Dr. Thomas Secker.

[192] Prospero Lambertini, one of the most learned, enlightened, and virtuous prelates that ever filled the Papal chair. Protestants have vied with Catholics in doing honour to his memory. He died in 1758, at a very advanced age.--E.

[193] Lady Selina Shirley, Countess Dowager of Huntingdon. Her “Life and Times,” published a few years ago in 2 vols. 8vo., contains a graphical and interesting account of the sect which she originated and supported. Notwithstanding Walpole’s sneers, she appears to have been a woman of genuine piety; and her zeal, though sometimes misdirected, did, on the whole, essential service to the cause of religion.--E.

[194] Frederick the Third, King of Prussia.

[195] Count Schouvalow afterwards passed some time in England, and was a frequent guest at Strawberry Hill.--E.

[196] Francis Seymour Conway, Earl of Hertford, appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1765, while he was Ambassador in France.

[197] Nevertheless, the French were at the time suspected of promoting, if not of originating, the insurrection. Lord Drogheda, who was employed with his regiment against the insurgents, told Sir Richard Musgrave that French money was found in the pockets of some of those killed, by the soldiers. Musgrave’s History of the Rebellion in Ireland, p. 35.--E.

[198] Gilbert Elliot and James Oswald, Scots, and Commissioners of the Treasury.--See _infra_.

[199] It appears by a letter from the Duke to Lord Hardwicke, of the 7th May, that the Duke’s earnestness to prosecute the German war, in opposition to the wishes of Lord Bute, caused a final breach between them. Adolphus, vol. i. p. 68.--E.

[200] Thomas Duke of Newcastle, and Henry Pelham, his only brother.

[201] Henry Clinton, Earl of Lincoln, nephew of the Pelhams, and afterwards Duke of Newcastle.

[202] Thomas Pelham of Stanmore, afterwards Lord Pelham.

[203] This subtle, insinuating Italian had paid his Court to Lord Bute in the preceding reign, and obtained a great ascendancy over him. Though a man of quality, he had been a monk, and the world and the cloister had united to make him an accomplished statesman. He eventually rose to be first minister of Sardinia. His main fault was that he used too much finesse and precaution, and attached too great importance to trifles. Some amusing anecdotes of him are told in Memoirs of a Traveller now in Retirement, vol. ii. p. 63.--E.

[204] The Bailli de Solar had been the Sardinian Ambassador at Rome, at the same time that the Duc de Choiseul was the French Ambassador there, and a warm friendship had existed between them from that period.--E.

[205] The communication made by Lord Bute to the Court of Vienna, appears to have originated in the belief that the Austrians were, on national grounds, more inclined to peace than any of the other powers. Considering the close connection existing between the Courts of Vienna and Paris, and the certainty that such a step would be viewed in the worst light by the King of Prussia, it must be regarded as a blunder. The correspondence that passed on the occasion is printed in the Appendix to Adolphus, vol. i. p. 578. There is an able Essay on the subject in the Appendix to the 1st vol. of Belsham.--E.

[206] Sir Edward Noel, Bart., Baron Wentworth of Nettleshead, created Viscount Wentworth of Welsborough, county of Leicester.

[207] Sir William Courtenay, Bart., chief of the great house of Courtenay. He had, like his father, represented the county of Devon for many years. He survived his creation only ten days. The title became extinct on the decease of his grandson, the late Earl of Devon.--E.

[208] John Percival, Earl of Egmont.--An amusing account of the importunities and intrigues by which he wrung his title from Lord Bute, is given by his friend Dodington, in the Diary of the latter.--E.

[209] Joseph Damer, Lord Milton, created Baron Milton of Milton Abbey, county Dorset: married Caroline, third daughter of Lionel Duke of Dorset. Sat in several Parliaments, from 1741 to 1754. He claimed a descent from the ancient Barons d’Amorie; but his wife’s genealogy, and his own wealth, of which the origin had certainly nothing distinguished in it, were the more probable causes of his elevation.--Banks, vol. iii. p. 516. He died in 1798. The title became extinct upon the death of his son George second Lord, unmarried, in 1808.--E.

[210] Created Baron Beaulieu, of Beaulieu, county Southampton, 11th May, 1762, to hold to him and the heirs male of his body by Isabella Duchess Dowager of Manchester, eldest daughter of John late Duke of Montagu, deceased, his then wife. In 1743, on the death of his father-in-law, the Duke of Montagu, he had taken the name and arms of that noble family, by Act of Parliament. Installed a K.B. 1753. In 1784 advanced to the dignity of Earl Beaulieu, and died 1803, when his honours became extinct. He was a comely, athletic, and spirited Irishman, and his marriage with the Duchess disappointed many aspirants to that honour. One of them, Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, revenged himself by a well-known lampoon.--E.

[211] Francis Vernon, (some time M. P. for Ipswich,) created Baron Orwell, of Newry, county Down, in the kingdom of Ireland, 7th April, 1762. He was second son of James Vernon, of Great Thurlow, county Suffolk, Esq., by Arethusa, daughter of Charles Lord Clifford, only son of Richard first Earl of Burlington, which James was younger brother of the well-known Admiral Vernon.--E.

[212] George Fox Lane, created Lord Bingley--he had married the only daughter and heiress of the last Lord of the same name. He died in 1773, S.P.--E.

[213] George Venables Vernon, Lord Vernon of Kinderton. He was the son of Henry Vernon, Esq., M. P., and therefore grand-nephew of Peter Venables, last Baron of Kinderton. He died in 1780.--E.

[214] John Olmius, many years director of the Bank. In 1737, M. P. for the Weymouth boroughs. Created 8th May, 1762, Baron Waltham of Philipstown, and died in September following.--E.

[215] Charles Lewis Frederick, Prince of Mecklenburg, brother of the Duke of Mecklenburg and of Queen Charlotte. Born 1741.--E.

[216] Buckingham House, in St. James’s Park, built by John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, was purchased of his natural son, Sir Charles Sheffield, and named the Queen’s Palace. The mob called it in derision, Holyrood House.

[217] James Stuart Mackenzie, only brother of the Earl of Bute. He had been Minister at Turin from 1758 to 1762, when he was appointed to Venice; but, before he could leave Turin, the death of the Duke of Argyle caused Lord Bute to bring him home abruptly to take the direction of the Government in Scotland; an exercise of the Favourite’s power, which proved him to be virtually at the head of the Administration. From the same feelings of exclusiveness, Lord Bute subsequently selected Mr. Mackenzie, in preference to any of his colleagues in the Cabinet, to assist him in the early part of the negotiations for peace. Whatever points were settled by his Lordship with the King, were then communicated, through Mr. Mackenzie, to the Count de Virri, by whom they were transmitted, through the Bailli de Solar, to the Duke of Choiseul, and it was only after an article had been actually agreed upon that it came officially under the cognizance of the Foreign Department; so that these two foreigners appear to have possessed more of Lord Bute’s confidence, as well as more influence over the negotiation, than the Secretary of State, Lord Egremont; a circumstance which rather explains the jealousy shown by the Cabinet, when the preliminaries had been settled, of any independent authority being given to the Duke of Bedford. These duties Mr. Mackenzie discharged irreproachably, and, far from sharing his brother’s unpopularity, was much esteemed by all parties. He is described by his secretary, M. Dutens, as having been most amiable, remarkably cheerful and pleasant in society, with very simple tastes, and no ambition; “well versed in the sciences, particularly in mathematics, algebra, and astronomy.” He took little part in public affairs after Lord Bute’s resignation, and died in 1800, at the age of 81 years, only a few months after the death of his wife, the daughter of John Duke of Argyle. Memoirs of a Traveller now in Retirement, vol. i. p. 159; vol. iv. p. 229.--E.

[218] Meaning Lord Bute, who was introducing the Tories in the place of the Whigs.

[219] Nicholson Calvert, of Hunsdon House, Hertfordshire, member for Tewkesbury, and sheriff for Hertfordshire in 1749. He was the second son of Felix Calvert of Furneaux Pelham Hall, but succeeded to the family property by the death of his elder brother. It is a pity that his madness was not catching, for he was one of the most honest and independent members in the House, an eminent agriculturist, and an active county magistrate. In politics he was “a Whig, and something more.” He died without issue in 1793.--E.

[220] This speech “is said to have silenced all future attacks by the poet either on Mr. Pitt or his administration, and was well received on all sides.”--Hansard’s Par. Hist. xv., p. 1227, note.--E.

[221] Of Newcastle.

[222] George Prince of Wales, afterwards King George the Second.

[223] Frederick Prince of Wales, against whom the Duke of Newcastle carried the chancellorship of Cambridge.

[224] Lord Bute had the ill-natured arrogance to compliment him on his retirement: the Duke replied with a spirit that marked his lasting ambition, “Yes, yes, my Lord, I am an old man; but yesterday was my birth-day, and I recollected that Cardinal Fleury _began_ to be prime minister of France just at my age.”

[225] Frederick, brother of Earl Cornwallis, and afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury. Young, of Norwich, was out of town, but adhered faithfully to Newcastle.

[226] Sir Francis Dashwood’s want of knowledge of finance opened a fine field for the wits of the day, and was of course greatly exaggerated. One of them describes him as “a man to whom a sum of five figures was an impenetrable secret.” His vocation, certainly, was not to the Exchequer; and he was unfortunate in having Mr. Legge for his predecessor. There were other high offices of the Government which he would have filled with credit, for he had respectable talents, was “spirited, frank, and manly,” and had gained the consideration of the House. (Smollet.) He was the only son of Sir Francis Dashwood, Baronet, M.P. for Winchelsea, by Lady Mary Fane, sister of the Earl of Westmoreland, often mentioned in these Memoirs. In his youth he had travelled much, especially in Italy, and passed some time at Rome, where he was long recollected from the following anecdote, which made a great noise at the time. “It was on Good Friday, when each person who attends the service in the Sistine Chapel, as he enters, takes a small scourge from an attendant at the door. The chapel is dimly lighted, and there are three candles which are extinguished by the priest, one by one: at the putting out of the first, the penitents take off one part of their dress; at the next still more; and, in the darkness which follows the extinguishing of the third candle, lay on their own shoulders, with groans and lamentations. Sir Francis Dashwood, thinking this mere stage effect, entered with others, dressed in a large watchman’s coat; demurely took his scourge from the priest, and advanced to the end of the chapel; where, on the darkness ensuing, he drew from beneath his coat an English horsewhip and flogged right and left quite down the chapel and made his escape, the congregation exclaiming ‘Il diavolo! il diavolo!’ and thinking the Evil one was upon them with a vengeance! The consequence of this frolic might have been serious to him, had he not immediately fled the Papal dominions.”--(Private Information.) His political life was by no means discreditable; and, in the unfortunate affair of Admiral Byng, he exhibited kindness of feeling not less than tact and decision, which Walpole has elsewhere handsomely noticed.--Memoirs, ii. p. 145. He had a taste for the arts, and brought sculptors and painters from Italy to decorate his country-seat at West Wycombe, in Buckinghamshire, where he laid out an extensive park with skill and effect, and built a church and mausoleum. His private life was reported to be very licentious. He married the widow of Sir Richard Ellys, Baronet, by whom he had no children, and died in 1781. The peerage, to which his claim is mentioned in a following page, descended to the Stapylton family.--E.

[227] They called themselves the Dilettanti. In the year 1770, they published a pompous volume on some rubbish remaining of two or three temples in Ionia.

[228] William Henry, third son of Frederick Prince of Wales; afterwards Duke of Gloucester.

[229] Lord Bute held his levées at the Cockpit, Whitehall, as did afterwards the Duke of Grafton and Lord North. Till then, each minister saw company at his own house; but Lord Bute, who lived in a small house in Audley Street, Grosvenor Square, had not room enough.

[230] Mr., afterwards Sir Gilbert, Elliot, father of the late Earl of Minto. His connection with Lord Bute does credit to that nobleman’s discernment, for he was a most useful coadjutor; and Professor Stewart says of him, that he “seems to have united with his other well-known talents and accomplishments, a taste for abstract disquisitions which rarely occurs in men of the world, accompanied with that soundness and temperance of judgment which in such researches are so indispensably necessary to guard the mind against the illusions engendered by its own subtility.”--Philosophy of the Human Mind, vol. ii. p. 530.--E.

[231] Dr. Smollet, originally a ship-surgeon, was an abusive Jacobite writer, author of a compilation of the History of England, in which he had spoken most scurrilously of the Duke of Cumberland for suppressing the Rebellion, and had been punished by the King’s Bench for slandering Admiral Knowles. [His “genius,” however, to use the words of Walter Scott, “has raised an imperishable monument to his memory,” in the poems and novels which Walpole does not deign to notice in this allusion to his works. Nor is the criticism just in other respects. Smollet’s tracts are not more virulent than most publications of a similar character of that day. His censure of the Duke of Cumberland has been confirmed by subsequent historians, and his punishment for the libel on Admiral Knowles reflects discredit on the Admiral rather than on himself.--See Walter Scott’s Lives of the Novelists, vol. i. p. 143.--E.]

[232] Murphy, once an actor, was turned hackney writer, and had engaged in a paper called _the Contest_, in behalf of Lord Holland. He stole many plays from the French, and published other things long since forgotten. [“The Way to keep Him,” and “All in the Wrong,” are alone a sufficient refutation of the above harsh criticism on Murphy. He was a person of considerable accomplishments, and wanted only a better temper and more independence of character to have risen to eminence. He died at an advanced age in 1805.--E.]

Smollet and Murphy, with Dr. Shebbeare, who was in Newgate for abusing King George the First, King George the Second, King William, and the Revolution, and Dr. Johnson, another known Jacobite, who even in a Dictionary had vented his Jacobite principles, were selected by Lord Bute to defend his cause, and pensioned by him as a patron of learned men. Johnson’s acceptance of a pension was the more ridiculous, as in his Dictionary he had lashed the infamy of pensioners. [Neither Smollet nor Murphy were pensioned by Lord Bute. The bounty of the Crown was never more inexcusably exercised than in favour of Dr. Shebbeare--a pamphleteer who was a disgrace to his party, and had not long before been concerned in some fraudulent practices at Oxford, when employed by the University to arrange the Clarendon papers. He died in 1788, at a very advanced age. Dr. Johnson’s pension was not subjected to any conditions.--Boswell, vol. i. p. 292.--E.]

[233] His father was a distiller.

[234] Mr. Southey, opposed as he was to the political creed of Churchill, thought more favourably of him. He praises the generosity and straightforwardness of his character, and says of his poems that “manly sense is their characteristic, deriving strength from indignation, and that they contain passages of sound morality and permanent truth.” Cowper had a higher opinion of him than of any other contemporary writer, and even goes so far as to style him “the great Churchill.”--Southey’s Cowper, p. 87.--E.

[235] Groom of the Bedchamber to William Duke of Cumberland, and Commander in America. He was afterwards Knight of the Bath, and called Sir Joseph Amherst. He was subsequently made a Peer and Commander-in-Chief, [and lastly Field-Marshal. He had been the favourite aide-de-camp of Lord Ligonier during the German wars, and bore through life the reputation of a very able and zealous officer. He distinguished himself particularly in America. He died in 1797, in his eighty-first year.--E.]

[236] Alluding to the defeat of the French near Giessau, by Prince Ferdinand, on the 26th September, when he drove them from all their posts, and obliged them to fly with precipitation behind the Nahn.--Annual Register, 1762, p. 49.--E.

[237] This narrative of the dethronement of Peter the Third has been confirmed in many essential points by later writers.--Tooke’s Catherine the Second.--Castera.--Levesque, Hist. de Russie, vol. v. 298. The precise extent of the guilt of the Empress is still a subject of dispute. The dethronement of her husband might be an act of self-defence, for he seems to have contemplated raising his mistress to the throne. His murder certainly had her ready forgiveness, if not her acquiescence, and there is nothing in her character to controvert its having been committed at her instigation. The attempt to exculpate her in the recently published Memoirs of the Princess Dashkau is very far from satisfactory, though it in some degree elevates the character of the authoress above the level of her contemporaries at the Court of St. Petersburgh, a court in those days without a parallel for the prevalence of the crimes and vices of a semi-barbarous age.--E.

[238] George third Earl, Augustus, and William, sons of William Anne second Earl of Albemarle. Frederick, the fourth son, was on this occasion promoted to the Bishoprick of Exeter. Of Augustus (afterwards Lord Keppel) see more in the preceding reign, under the History of Admiral Byng.--Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 174. [A very interesting account of his life was lately published by his kinsman, the Honourable and Reverend Thomas Augustus Keppel.--E.]

[239] Madame Geoffrin was proprietor of a great manufacture of glass; yet by her wit, parts, riches, and cabals, and by patronizing authors, and the modern philosophers and painters, statuaries and architects, and by keeping an open house for foreigners of all nations, she was much considered, and had great respect paid to her by persons of the first rank in France. [Marmontel draws a spirited portrait of her in his Memoirs.--E.]

[240] This is a very one-sided view of the character of the Duc de Nivernois. He had no pretensions to the character of a soldier, having been obliged to quit the army from ill-health at an early age. As a diplomatist, he certainly failed at Berlin--as all other diplomatists did, who brought proposals that did not suit the views of the King of Prussia. In England he gave great satisfaction to all parties. His popularity is noticed by Lord Chesterfield. He was a generous, though not perhaps a very discriminating, patron of letters, and a respectable writer for one who made literature only an amusement. His private life was exemplary; and he showed no common strength of mind in the firmness with which he bore the loss of his rank and property, and, above all, his heavy domestic misfortunes. His second wife, to whom he was tenderly attached, died a few days after marriage. Of his two sons-in-law, the Count de Gisors, his destined heir, an élève of Marmontel, fell at the battle of Crevelt: the remaining one, the Duc de Brissac, was torn to pieces by the mob at Paris, at the beginning of the Revolution. The Duke of Nivernois died in 1798, at a very advanced age.--E.

[241] Besides his crime of being the favourite of the Duke of Cumberland, Fox had deeply offended the Princess by advising Mr. Pelham, the very day after the death of her husband, to take her son, the present King, from her, that she might not get an ascendant over him. I one day mentioned this fact to Lord Mansfield: he said, “It was very true, and he believed the measure was not followed, _only_ because Mr. Fox had advised it”--so jealous was Mr. Pelham of Fox!

[242] James Earl Waldegrave, Governor to George the Third when Prince.

[243] William Cavendish, fourth Duke of Devonshire, Lord Chamberlain.

[244] Many causes might be assigned for the Duke’s dissatisfaction. It is not improbable that a generous Prince might resent the indignity offered to his country. He might, too, resent the unrelenting hatred of the Princess, and his total exclusion from power. He might feel for Germany, his other country, which he saw neglected: or he might have hoped that the aversion of the Princess to the House of Brunswick would not cease without disgusting Prince Ferdinand; and that then, if the war had continued, the command would have once more devolved on himself.

[245] Samuel Martin, a West Indian, had been in the service of the late Prince of Wales. See more of him hereafter, and in Churchill’s “Duellist.” [He had been brought into the Treasury by Mr. Legge when the latter was made Chancellor of the Exchequer. Sir George Colebrooke’s MS. Memoirs represent him as a plain-spoken, honest man, and more to be depended upon than his joint secretary Mr. West.--E.]

[246] Richard Aldworth Neville, of Billingbere, Berkshire, [son of Mr. Aldworth of Stanlake, by Catherine sister of Mr. Henry Neville Grey of Billingbere, whose estate he subsequently inherited. He filled for some years the office of Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, which occasioned his being employed at Paris; and he represented Wallingford, Reading, and Tavistock in different Parliaments. The Barony of Braybrooke descended on his only son (the late Lord) by a special limitation in the patent obtained by his relative, Sir John Griffin, Lord Howard de Walden, whose large estates he also inherited.--History of Audley End, p. 54.--E.]

[247] This statement rests on Walpole’s unsupported testimony. The facts that I have been able to collect on the subject, in the quarters likely to be the best informed, are these:--On the 7th of September Lord Egremont wrote to the Duke of Bedford, informing him of the King’s commands that he should not sign the preliminaries without first sending them over for his Majesty’s approbation. On the 18th the Duke wrote to M. de Choiseul that he was ready to sign, and that he only _waits his answer to send his messenger to London_. On the 28th or 29th Lord Egremont wrote by the French courier of M. de Nivernois that the Havannah was taken. On the 30th he repeats the news, and promises fresh instructions. The Duke never pretended to sign against the King’s orders, though he complained of their tenor. Thus Walpole’s story becomes very improbable.--E.

[248] William Ponsonby, Earl of Besborough, one of the Postmasters-General, had married Lady Caroline Cavendish, eldest sister of the Duke of Devonshire.

[249] Mr. Fox did _not_ go to Devonshire House to “protest his utter ignorance of any such design.” He wrote to the Duke at Chatsworth on the 2nd of November, to express his sorrow at what had happened; and in a subsequent letter of the 9th assured his Grace that “he neither knew nor had the least suspicion” of the intention to strike his Grace’s name out of the Privy Council.--_Note by the late Mr. Allen_, on the manuscript copy of these Memoirs.

[250] Turned out for his opposition to the Excise Scheme in 1733.

[251] Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, Prime Minister to Queen Anne.

[252] William Keith, Earl Marichal, engaged in the rebellion of 1715. When he came out of the King’s closet, and was asked what the King had said, he replied in the words of the old ballad,

“The King looked over his left shoulder,
And a grim look looked he,
And cried ‘Earl Marshal, but for my oath,
Or hanged thou should’st be.’”

Lord Marichal was afterwards in the service of the King of Prussia, and Governor of Neufchatel. He was pardoned by King George the Third. He is one of the few persons whom Frederick appears to have really loved. He was a philosopher after the fashion of that monarch, but a more practical and amiable one; for he bore the loss of rank and wealth, and the various discomforts of a long and almost hopeless exile, with unostentatious cheerfulness, conducting himself all the while so prudently, that amidst his many political opponents he had not a single personal enemy. The general esteem that followed him through life afterwards attached to his memory; and his name is rarely to be found mentioned in the works of his contemporaries without some expressions showing an earnest desire to represent him in the fairest colours. D’Alembert wrote an _éloge_ in his honour. His brother, Marshal Keith, was a man of far superior ability, and his exile was a serious loss to the British army. Lord Marichal died at Potsdam in 1778, in his eighty-sixth year.--Wood’s Peerage of Scotland.--E.

[253] The disgrace of the Duke of Devonshire.

[254] John Montagu, Earl of Sandwich. See more of him in the preceding reign, and in the subsequent part of this work.

[255] George Montagu, fourth Duke of Manchester.

[256] George Spencer, third Duke of Marlborough.

[257] Hugh Smithson Percy, Earl of Northumberland, afterwards Duke of Northumberland, and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

[258] John second Earl of Ashburnham, Lord of the Bedchamber, and Ranger of the Parks, died on the 8th of April, 1802, in his eighty-eighth year, and was succeeded by George the third Earl, K.G., the agreeable biographer of John Ashburnham.--E.

[259] Thomas Hay, Earl of Kinnoul, better known as Lord Dupplin. He had, in the preceding reign, held with credit, at different times, the offices of a Lord of the Treasury, of Paymaster, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, &c., and was a frequent and useful speaker in the House of Commons, “where,” says Walpole, “he aimed at nothing but understanding business and explaining it.” The Duke of Newcastle chiefly relied upon him in the distribution of the secret service-money and the Government patronage among the members. His embassy to Lisbon is remembered by the satirical verse of Pope,

“Kinnoul’s lewd cargo and Tyrawley’s crew.”

He took very little part in public affairs afterwards; residing usually on his estates in Scotland, and devoting himself to rural improvements and matters of local interest. He died in 1787, aged 77, without issue, and was succeeded by his nephew.--E.

[260] Henry Clinton, Earl of Lincoln, Knight of the Garter, and one of the Lords of the Bedchamber, was son of Henry Earl of Lincoln and Lucy Pelham, sister of the Duke of Newcastle and Henry Pelham, First Lord of the Treasury; and having married his first-cousin, Catherine, eldest daughter and co-heiress of Mr. Pelham, the Duke’s estate, and a new creation of the Duchy of Newcastle in reversion, were settled on him. (He died in 1794, and was the grandfather of the present Duke.)--E.

[261] “This honest old General,” as he is called by Lord Chesterfield, owed his high rank entirely to his own merit, being a French Huguenot, of not distinguished parentage, and without connections in this country. He was a very brave, zealous, and intelligent officer. He had served with Marlborough in the German wars, and his conduct afterwards at Dettingen attracted the particular notice of George the Second, who invested him with the insignia of the Bath on the field, in front of the whole army. As an additional mark of the King’s favour, he was also raised to a high command in Flanders, from which time all the skill shown in the Duke of Cumberland’s military operations,--which at Fontenoy was not inconsiderable, for the battle was only lost by the misconduct of General Ingoldsby,--the army ascribed exclusively to him, his Royal Highness being believed to act in a great measure under his guidance: and, indeed, he was usually called the Duke’s military tutor. In the Duke’s absence during the Scotch rebellion of 1745, he succeeded to the command of the British troops in Flanders, and was present with ten battalions in the unfortunate battle of Raucoux, where he almost retrieved the errors of Prince Charles of Lorraine, and is admitted to have saved the army from total destruction. The brilliant charges of cavalry by which he protected the retreat of the allies have obtained the praise even of the French historians. (Coxe’s Pelham, vol. i. p. 322; Lacratelle, vol. ii. p. 350.) The Duke returned in the following year, as if only to lose the battle of Lafeldt; on which occasion Sir John Ligonier reaped the same melancholy glory that had attended him at Raucoux. At seventy years of age, he led a charge of cavalry that broke the enemy’s line, and had he not been taken prisoner, might have turned the fortune of the day. Louis the Fifteenth received him with distinction; and, though a rebellious subject, made him the bearer of the overtures of the peace, which, on the following year, was concluded at Aix-la-Chapelle. The remainder of his life was passed in less active service, and in the enjoyment of the rank and honours he had so well earned. In 1757 he was made Commander-in-chief; in 1759, Field-Marshal; in 1766, after passing through the subordinate steps in the peerage, he was created Earl Ligonier. He retained to the last the gaiety and amiability which had made him the favourite both of the army and the Court. His tastes were simple; one of his chief amusements being the embellishment of his country-seat in Surrey, of which his gardens were the admiration of the neighbourhood. He died in 1770, aged 92; and was succeeded in his title by his nephew, an estimable and popular nobleman, who had been Aide-de-camp to Prince Ferdinand at the battle of Minden, and on whose death, without issue, the title became extinct.--E.

[262] Welbore Ellis. See his character in the preceding reign.--Memoirs, vol. i. p. 484.

[263] Charles second Duke of Richmond, and Sarah Cadogan his Duchess. Fox had stolen their eldest daughter, Lady Caroline Lenox.

[264] For the borough of Lynn, in Norfolk.

[265] On the contested election for the borough of St. Michael, in Cornwall, Lord Orford, my nephew, had quarrelled with me for taking part with Fox. I offered to resign my seat, but would not give up the liberty of voting as I pleased.

[266] As Usher of the Exchequer, I advanced a very large sum of money every year to furnish the Treasury with paper, stationery wares, &c., and to pay the workmen; so that, if the payments are kept back, I am a considerable sufferer.

[267] The Rangership of St. James’s and Hyde Parks. This post was not worth two thousand two hundred pounds a year by itself, but with the Bedchamber; as Lord Ashburnham had held it. Lord Orford was already Lord of the Bedchamber; so, though I did not know it at that time, the offer was grossly fallacious. Fox, however, might be ignorant too of this circumstance.

[268] George Walpole, third Earl of Orford, grandson of Sir Robert Walpole. Not only his grandfather and father had left great debts, but his own dissipation had involved him in many more.

[269] He scarce ever had any thoughts about politics, but lived almost always in the country and at Newmarket, wasting his time and fortune by carelessness, rather than in pleasures and expenses. With a most engaging figure and address, he profited of no one advantage to which he was born; and, without any view of advantage to himself, disgusted every friend he had by insensibility, and every friend he might have had by insincerity.

[270] Charles Boone, brought into Parliament by Lord Orford for Castlerising. Fox _had already_ sounded Lord Orford through Mr. Boone, but without receiving any answer.

[271] This alludes to my having projected a match for Lord Orford with Miss Nicholl, an heiress worth one hundred and fifty thousand pounds, whom Lord Orford would not marry; and in the course of which negotiation I had a great quarrel with my uncle, old Horace Walpole, who endeavoured, though trusted with her by me, to marry her to one of his own younger sons. This quarrel had made very great noise, and many persons were engaged in it. The young lady afterwards married the Marquis of Caernarvon.

[272] Mr. Fox had supported Mr. Sullivan at a borough in the West against Mr. T. Walpole; I forget whether it was Callington or Ashburton. Lord Orford was heir to estates in both by his mother.

[273] Mr. Boone had acquainted me with this, and Mr. Fox thought I did not know it, but I chose to let him see I did.

[274] Thomas Thynne, Viscount Weymouth, afterwards one of the Secretaries of State.

[275] Sir John Probyn, K.B., Lord Carysfort of Ireland. His son and successor was ambassador at St. Petersburgh at the beginning of the present century.--E.

[276] George Fermor, second Earl of Pomfret, brother-in-law to Earl Granville. He was clever, and a ready speaker; but so hot, headstrong, and injudicious, that his support was of very questionable benefit to his political friends. Vide an amusing anecdote of him in George Selwyn’s Correspondence, vol. i. p. 352.--E.

[277] Mr. Harris did not enter Parliament until he had passed his fiftieth year, or he would probably have better supported in the House the reputation he had acquired in society and literature. He was an accomplished and truly amiable man. He did not rise beyond subordinate offices in the Government, having been made Lord of the Admiralty in 1762, Lord of the Treasury in 1763. The change of administration in 1765 displaced him, but he was appointed Controller to the Queen in 1774. He died in 1780, in his seventy-second year. An elegant account of his life is prefixed to the edition of his works by his son, the first Earl of Malmesbury.--E.

[278] Son of the Marquis of Lothian. He had been aide-de-camp of the Duke at Fontenoy, where he was severely wounded, and commanded the cavalry at Culloden. He died in 1775, aged sixty-five.--E.

[279] John Fitzwilliam, brother of the Viscount of that name.

[280] If there was any hardship in this step, it consisted in these gentlemen not having received previous notice from Mr. Fox that he should regard opposition to the vote in the light of such direct hostility to the Government as would be incompatible with the tenure of office under it. Previously, there appears to have been no settled rule as to the claims of the Government on the support of members in office. Mr. Pitt, when Paymaster, not only voted but frequently spoke against the Government. It would now be considered very extraordinary in any member of the administration, however subordinate, to vote against a Government measure without a previous intimation to the premier of his readiness to resign.--E.

[281] Fourth daughter of John Leveson, first Earl Gower, wife of General John Waldegrave, who succeeded his brother in the Earldom of Waldegrave.

[282] Giles Earle.

[283] Eldest son of Thomas, one of the Tellers of the Exchequer, second son of Charles Viscount Townshend, Secretary of State to George I. and II.

[284] Younger son of the Earl of Granard.

[285] A sufficient reason against his original appointment, but a bad one for his dismissal. Mr. Schutz was very rich, having succeeded by bequest to a large estate in Essex, from Sir J. Tyrrel.--E.

[286] This certainly was a very harsh proceeding. No Lord Lieutenant has since been dismissed without far more decided provocation.--E.

[287] This character of Lord Granville is not one of the author’s happiest efforts. He has, however, hit off some of the more salient traits of that nobleman’s character with great cleverness in his “Correspondence.” Lord Mahon and Mr. Macaulay have subsequently gone over the same ground with brilliant success, but the following sketch by Lord Chesterfield, to which they are both indebted, is so full of life and spirit, that the editor cannot refrain from inserting it.

“He had great parts and a most uncommon share of learning for a man of quality. He was one of the best speakers in the House of Lords, both in the declamatory and the argumentative way. He had a wonderful quickness and precision in seizing the stress of a question, which no art, no sophistry, could disguise in him. In business he was bold, enterprising, and overbearing. He had been bred up in high monarchical, that is, tyrannical principles of government, which his ardent and imperious temper made him think were the only rational and practical ones. He would have been a great first Minister in France, little inferior, perhaps, to Richelieu; in this government, which is yet free, he was neither ill-natured nor vindictive, and had a great contempt for money--his ideas were all above it. In social life he was an agreeable, good-humoured, and instructive companion, a great but interesting talker.

“He degraded himself by the vice of drinking, which, together with a great stock of Greek and Latin, he had brought from Oxford, and practised ever afterwards. By his own industry he had made himself master of all the modern languages, and had acquired great knowledge of the law. His political knowledge of the interests of princes and of commerce was extensive, and his notions were just and great. His character may be summed up in nice precision, great decision, and overbearing presumption.”--Chesterfield’s Miscell. Works, vol. iv. p. 49.--E.

[288] This persecution is inexcusable, and very unlike Mr. Fox, who was a very good-humoured man.--E.

[289] Son of Heneage Legge, one of the Barons of the Exchequer.

[290] I shall give two instances of my assertions. Sir William Milner held a place of about 2000_l._ a year in the Custom-house, the greater portion of which had been allotted to his wife’s aunt, Mrs. Poyntz,[a] as a jointure on the death of her husband, who had been governor to the Duke of Cumberland. This was now taken away, and bestowed by Lord Bute on Mr. Poole, to make him amends for the ravage made on his family[b] in this new persecution; Lord Bute intending at the same time to reserve 600_l._ a year out of it for Mrs. Poyntz. Lord Spencer, who had married her daughter, wrote to the King representing the case, and begging his protection for Mrs. Poyntz. The petition concluded with telling the King that this application was made to _him_, because probably his Majesty would hear of the grievance no other way. On this the whole was stopped; but that Fox might bear all the odium, and Lord Bute have all the merit, the latter sent a message by Lord Ancram to the Duke of Cumberland,[c] to say, that if his Royal Highness would take it as a favour, the King would continue the pension to Mrs. Poyntz; and it was accepted.

The other was the case of Mrs. Cavendish, widow of an Admiral of that name. She had for many years enjoyed a housekeeper’s place in one of the offices, in lieu of a pension as an Admiral’s widow. Fox, hunting after employments for his dependents and objects of vengeance for himself, lighting on the name of a Cavendish, took away her place. The lady, of a respectable family, and sister of Mrs. Cartwright, Maid of Honour to the late Queen, sent the latter to Lady Suffolk,[d] from whom I heard this account, immediately to entreat by her means an audience of Lady Elizabeth Mackenzie.[e] Mrs. Cavendish herself, living in devotion and unknown _to_, proved to be a relation _of_ Lady Bute; to whom Lady E. Mackenzie had instantly applied. Lady Bute, no less surprised, sent for her lord up stairs. He said the story could not be true: it was one Mrs. Greening that was displaced, to make room for Mrs. Goldsworthy, a companion of the late Duchess of Richmond.[f] It proved that Fox had thus imposed on Lord Bute, to whom the name of Mrs. Cavendish had never been mentioned, and who gave her immediate redress.

[a] Anna Maria Mordaunt, Maid of Honour to Queen Caroline, and widow
of Stephen Poyntz. She had been a great beauty; the poem of “The
Fair Circassian” was written by a gentleman who was in love with
her.

[b] Sir Francis Poole, related to the Duke of Newcastle, had been
turned out, with others of the same connection.

[c] Eldest son of the Marquis of Lothian, and groom of the bedchamber
to the duke.

[d] Henrietta Hobart, Countess of Suffolk, Mistress of the Robes to
Queen Caroline.

[e] Wife of James Stuart Mackenzie, brother of the Earl of Bute.

[f] Sarah Cadogan, Duchess of Richmond, mother of Lady Caroline Fox.

[291] The same charge is brought against Sir Fletcher Norton by Junius (Letter 39), who applies to him the lines of Ben Jonson, describing the lawyer who

Gives forked counsel; takes provoking gold
_On either hand_, and puts it up;
So wise, so grave, of so perplexed a tongue,
And _loud_ withal, that would not wag, nor scarce
Lie still, _without a fee_.

Though Norton had the character at the bar of being the reverse of a liberal practitioner, it is very improbable that Walpole’s assertion, “that he took money from both parties” in a suit, should be literally correct. He had too many rivals as well as enemies in the profession, to admit of such conduct remaining unpunished; but it is not uncommon for a counsel to feel himself bound _in honour_ to refuse a brief which he could not accept without using knowledge acquired while employed by parties who had a different interest, until he has given those parties the option of employing him again; and Norton’s eagerness for gain made him take a very narrow view of such questions.--E.

[292] Only son of the Earl of Derby, and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.

[293] William Aislabie, auditor of the imprest, son of Mr. Aislabie, who was concerned in the South-Sea scheme in the reign of George I.

[294] The Report of the Committee is given in the Parliamentary Debates, vol. xv. 1286. It is a very interesting document, but the only fruit of it was a Resolution, “That it is the opinion of the House that the present state of the mad-houses in this kingdom requires the interposition of the Legislature.”--E.

[295] This does not include those who died of their wounds.

[296] George Onslow, only son of the late Speaker.

[297] Sir Henry Liddel, Lord Ravensworth, father of the Duchess of Grafton, a connection to which he probably owed the favourable notice of him in the author’s Memoirs of George II., vol. i. p. 265.--E.

[298] One of the Duke of Devonshire’s brothers, and Lord of the Bedchamber to the Duke. A very gallant officer, who had frequently distinguished himself during the war.--E.

[299] Maria, second daughter of Sir Edward Walpole.

[300] Sir Francis Dashwood.

[301] Hugh Hume, Earl of Marchmont; called in his father’s time Lord Polwarth, and a great friend of Pope. He generally succeeded best in reply, for he could then best employ the fire and acrimony which formerly made him shine in opposition.--E.

[302] George Lord Lyttelton, Chancellor of the Exchequer in the late reign; another friend of Pope, and Author of Dialogues of the Dead, Life of King Henry II., &c. [Vide Walpole’s Memoirs of Geo. II., vol. i. p. 175, for his character, and many particulars of his public life, written in no friendly spirit.--E.]

[303] William Legge, Earl of Dartmouth, nephew of Henry Legge; and much attached to the Methodist sect; but of an excellent character. [Richardson is reported to have said of him, when asked if he knew an original answerable to his portrait of Sir Charles Grandison, that he might apply it to him if he were not a Methodist. (Southey’s Life of Cowper, vol. i. p. 234.) He was afterwards Secretary of State.--E.]

[304] Charles Paulet, Duke of Bolton, K.B. He died without issue in 1765.--E.

[305] The best defence of his resignation is given by Mr. Adolphus, vol. i. p. 115, from private information. It by no means exculpates him from the charges in the text, and is also at variance with the statement of a writer who lived on terms of the closest intimacy with the Bute family. M. Dutens says, “That he resigned, because he was disgusted with the bustle of business, indignant at the behaviour of those who endeavoured to obtain his favour, at the baseness of some, and the duplicity of others.”--Memoirs of a Traveller now in Retirement, vol. iv. p. 181. This corresponds with all that has transpired of Lord Bute’s character.--E.

[306] Thomas Orby Hunter.

[307] Henry Lord Digby, nephew of Mr. Fox.

[308] Richard Viscount Howe.

[309] Thomas Pitt, of Boconnock, nephew of Mr. William Pitt, with whom he was at variance. [To this gentleman, when a student at the University, Mr. Pitt addressed the beautiful letters subsequently published by Lord Grenville.--E.]

[310] General George Townshend, afterwards Viscount.

[311] Simon Lord Harcourt, who had been Governor to the King.

[312] Charles Douglas, Duke of Queensberry; he had been Lord of the Bedchamber to the late Prince of Wales.

[313] James Duke of Athol.

[314] A friend of Mr. William Pitt.

[315] He had been Groom of the Bedchamber to the late Prince.

[316] James Douglas, Earl of March and Ruglin [afterwards Duke of Queensberry].

[317] Charles Shaw, Lord Cathcart, had been one of the hostages to France, and Lords of the Bedchamber to William Duke of Cumberland; he was afterwards Ambassador in Russia. [Died July 21, 1776.--E.]

[318] Gertrude Leveson Duchess of Bedford.

[319] George Spencer, Duke of Marlborough.

[320] John Manners, Duke of Rutland, father of Lord Granby.

[321] Granville Leveson Gower, Earl Gower, brother of the Duchess of Bedford.

[322] John Calcraft began with being clerk in the War Office at 40_l._ a year. [He was a very shrewd, intelligent man, and gained great popularity with the army by his liberal conduct and hospitality to the officers.--E.]

[323] This charge is entirely unfounded. Had there been any truth in it, the connection between Mr. Fox and Mr. Calcraft would not have been so easily dissolved.--E.

[324] It is in reference to Mr. Rigby’s conduct that Lord Holland probably alludes to the following passage of a letter to Mr. Selwyn of October 5, 1763: “I drop all politics that may not go by the post, till I see you, when I will tell you all I know of them, with the _trait_ I mentioned. Had it been from a political friend only, I should be ashamed to be hurt by it. No politics will or can mortify me; I thought this man’s friendship had not been only political. I loved him; and whether to feel or not to feel, to despise or grieve, on such an occasion, be most worthy of a man, I won’t dispute; but the fact is that I have been, and still am, whenever I think of it, very unhappy.” Selwyn Correspondence, vol. i. p. 267.--E.

[325] Lady Isabella Fitzroy, second daughter of Charles Duke of Grafton.

[326] Then held by Mr. Aislabie for life.

[327] Secretary to the Treasury. [He derived no benefit from this appointment, having died some years before Walpole.--E.]

[328] Collector of the Customs. Sir Robert Walpole held it for his own life, and for the lives of his two eldest sons, with power of bequeathing it for their lives to any child he pleased.

[329] Charles Jenkinson, private secretary to Lord Bute [afterwards Earl of Liverpool.--E.]

[330] It was again offered to me afterwards, and I again refused it.

[331] This was not the only favour that the count owed to the English Government, for they prevented his recall soon after the king’s accession; and it was entirely at their instance that he obtained permission to give up his embassy to his son. He had also received a portrait set in diamonds, and a suite of Gobelin hangings from the King of France. Upon his resignation he retired to his estates in Savoy, where he intrigued until he succeeded in replacing the Count de St. Germaine as first Minister of Savoy.--Mem. of a Traveller, vol. ii. p. 70.--E.

[332] The negotiation was conducted by Count Virri (Duke?) Envoy in England, and by the Bailli de Solar, the Sardinian Minister at Paris, the intimate friend of the Duchess de Choiseul; and that convenience was probably a reason why Lord Bute yielded to the treaty being settled at Paris, though the King of France had offered to treat here _vis-à-vis du Roi de la Grande Brétagne_. [_Vide_ notes in p. 157 and 160, _supra_, for more details respecting the part taken by these Sardinian Ministers in the negotiation.--E.]

[333] These Memoirs were published in 1821, with a very able introduction by the late Lord Holland. A critic, who cannot be suspected of partiality (Quarterly Review, vol. xxv. p. 413), pronounces them “a model of this species of writing.” It is to be regretted that they embrace only four years, and those not the most interesting, of the reign of George II. Lord Waldegrave possessed sound sense and respectable abilities. He was highly esteemed by his contemporaries, and few men have passed through life, and, above all, public life, with a character so entirely unblemished.--A masterly critique of Lord Waldegrave’s Memoirs is given in the seventy-third number of the Edinburgh Review, from the pen of the late Mr. John Allen.--E.

[334] George Grenville, next brother of Richard Earl Temple. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Windham, and sister of Charles Earl of Egremont, and of Percy Windham Obrien, Earl of Thomond.

[335] Treasurer of the Navy.

[336] Sir Charles Windham, Earl of Egremont, eldest son of the celebrated orator, Sir William Windham, Chancellor of the Exchequer in the four last years of Queen Anne, and of Lady Catherine Seymour, daughter of Charles Duke of Somerset, the proudest man of his age.