Memoirs of the Reign of King George the Third, Volume 2 (of 4)

1 This tract is printed in the second volume of Walpole’s works. It is written with temper, and in an agreeable style, though with less spirit than might have been expected from the warmth of the author’s feelings on the occasion.—E.

2 “Dr. Lloyd was a man of very polite manners, extraordinary composure of mind, and resignation to the Divine will. He died in 1790, aged 64.” Nichols’s Illustrations of Literary History.—E.

3 The title is, “The Budget; inscribed to the man who thinks himself Minister.

It is a quarto of only twenty-two pages, slovenly written, and with little vivacity of expression.—E.

4 Mr. Hartley was a frequent writer of pamphlets on the side of the Opposition, chiefly on the Revenue. He was attached both to Lord Rockingham and Mr. Pitt, and was the son of a physician, [who was also the most eminent metaphysician of his day. Mr. Hartley had the honour of negotiating and signing the preliminaries of Peace with America in 1783, and of moving the first resolution in the House of Commons against the Slave Trade. He was much respected by all parties, but his speeches seldom found a willing audience. Tickell has parodied him with most ludicrous effect in the “Anticipation;” and he is thus described by another cotemporary—

He was a Fellow of Merton College, Oxford, until his death in 1813, at a very advanced age. Flattering obituaries appear of him in the Annual Register and the Gentleman’s Magazine of that year. A clergyman of his College, now deceased, described him to a friend of the Editor “as an honest, high-principled man, but a dull talker, and a prosy speaker.”—E.]

5 Mr. Grenville was concerned afterwards in several abusive pamphlets against Lord Rockingham and his friends. Some were drawn up by Whately, his secretary; others he penned himself, or gave the materials.

6 This tract (an octavo of thirty-eight pages) is agreeably and temperately written, and unquestionably deserves to rank among the popular pamphlets of the day. The reply, though preferred by Walpole, is now a far less readable performance.—E.

7 He was in the Duke of Cumberland’s family, and much attached to him.

8 In his eighty-third year. His old age was lonely and unattractive, being passed in the society of a few obsequious bishops and blue-stocking ladies, with whom he kept up a sickly commerce of flattery. His zenith had been bright: his decline was not mild. Avarice tormented even his last hours, and it is painful to witness, in his correspondence, how entirely he was subjected to that baleful passion. It degraded his nature, and almost disturbed his reason, for on no other ground can some of his acts be explained. His character as a politician was too severely censured by his cotemporaries, but in private life he was mean, selfish, and sordid, to an extent almost commensurate with his great abilities and attainments.—E.

9 When the first part of these Memoirs was written there had not transpired the smallest idea of D’Eon being a woman, nor when that secret was first broached did it gain credit. Some years also elapsed before the fact was allowed, and it was some time before the dubious person assumed the female habit, and then only by command of the Court of France. I have not chosen to correct my narrative, not only because the change of sex did not happen till the personage had ceased to figure in an historic light, but because, having no notion of that doubtful gender at the time of her eccentric behaviour, my account will remain more natural, and does paint the general sensation produced by her exploits. The Government here acted as I have written, totally in the dark as to a false assumption of sex. [In 1777 an action was brought by a surgeon named Hayes against Jacques, a baker, who had received fifteen guineas to return one hundred guineas if it should be proved that the Chevalier was a woman; and the evidence of that fact was so strong that the jury decided in favour of Hayes. There were other actions on the same point, but they were disposed of by the Court, very properly, declaring these wagers to be illegal. Da Costa v. Jones, Cowper’s Reports, 729.—The Annual Register, p. 167, evidently copying some newspaper, says, “by this decision no less a sum than 75,000l. will remain in this country, which would otherwise have been transmitted to Paris.” The same authority says, “Aug. 16th, the Chevalier left England, declaring that she had no interest whatever in the policies opened on her sex.” From that time till the death of the Chevalier he was always believed to be a woman, and dressed as such. The post mortem examination, which is stated in the Gent. Mag. vol. lxxx. p. 588, proved him to be a perfect male. He was never employed after his disgrace; but having been long a spy of Louis the Fifteenth, it was not deemed prudent to drive him to despair, and a handsome pension was granted to him, which he enjoyed till the Revolution. He then took refuge in England, and was afterwards reduced to great poverty. He died in London, at a very advanced age, in 1810. There is an interesting note on Chev. d’Eon by Mr. Croker in Walpole’s collected Correspondence, vol. iv. p. 323. See also the article, a very partial one, in the Biographie Universelle.—E.]

10 The Count d’Estaign had broken his parole in India, and, having been again taken prisoner, was kept in close confinement at Portsmouth—a treatment of which he very unreasonably complained as harsh and unjustifiable. His name often occurs in the history of the American war, in which he commanded the French fleet with some reputation. He claimed a victory over Admiral Byron. During the French Revolution he acted a very vacillating, if not dishonest, part; and, having given offence both to Royalists and Republicans, he was brought to the scaffold in 1794, aged 65.—E.

11 Mr. Legge did not write the narrative mentioned in the text. It is the composition of the Bishop of Hereford, his intimate friend, to whom he committed on his death-bed “the publication of the papers that explained his case;” or, in other words, his correspondence with Lord Bute respecting the Hampshire election. (Some account of the Life of the Right Hon. Bilson Legge.) His object being, not, as Walpole supposes, to fix on Lord Bute the charge of meddling with elections, but to clear his own character from various insinuations, by showing, from the correspondence, that his refusal to yield to Lord Bute’s dictation in the Hampshire election, was the real cause of his disgrace, and that he might have remained in office if he had chosen to disgrace himself by taking the opposite course. The Bishop’s observations explanatory of the transaction are in the spirit that might be expected from a prelate not indisposed to translation, when treating of the conduct of those who dispense ecclesiastical patronage. To make up, however, for his courtesy towards his patron’s adversaries, he heaps unmeasured eulogy upon his patron’s memory. It is now, indeed, pretty well understood that Mr. Legge had no title to a tithe of the merits ascribed to him by his right reverend biographer. He was a very useful statesman. (See supra, p. 39.) His head, as Sir Robert Walpole said of him, had very little rubbish in it. He was good-natured, and easy in social intercourse. To exalted patriotism he never raised any pretensions; and whatever may be the Bishop’s opinion, the friend and boon companion of Wilkes could be no pattern of religion or morality.—E.

12 William Howe, brother of Richard Lord Viscount Howe, an Admiral, and one of the Lords of the Admiralty. [Afterwards a Lieutenant-general and K.B. He served in the American war, and was generally unfortunate. On the death of the Admiral he became Viscount Howe. The title expired on his death without issue, in 1814.—E.]

13 Sir William Boothby, Bart., a Major-general and Colonel of the 6th Regiment of Foot, died, unmarried, in 1797.—E.

14 Prince Edward, next brother to the King.

15 The Duke died on the 2nd of October, at the early age of forty-four. The scanty praise awarded him in the text is far below his due. He had been Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1755, and First Lord of the Treasury in the following year. “In the ordinary business of his office,” says Lord Waldegrave, “he shewed great punctuality and diligence, and no want of capacity.”—Memoirs, p. 141. A strong sense of responsibility, and a natural diffidence in his own talents, accompanied by a dislike for business, and an indifference to ministerial employments, gave him, at times, an air of indecision rather ungraceful; but he could be firm on great occasions, and his public no less than his private life was distinguished by unsullied uprightness and honour.—E.

16 Edmund Boyle, Earl of Corke and Orrery, married —— Courteney, daughter of Lady Frances Courteney, only sister of John Earl of Sandwich. [The marriage being afterwards dissolved, he married the Hon. Mary Monckton, who long survived him. He died in 1798.—E.]

17 William Duke of Devonshire married Lady Charlotte Boyle, second daughter and co-heiress of Richard Boyle, last Earl of Burlington, Lord Treasurer of Ireland.

18 William Ponsonby, Earl of Besborough, married Lady Caroline Cavendish, eldest daughter of William third Duke of Devonshire. Lord Besborough had been at Constantinople with Lord Sandwich. [He died in 1793, and was the grandfather of the present Earl.—E.]

19 What authority Walpole had for this assertion does not appear. The Duke was without ambition, and content to live as an English nobleman on his splendid domain. He died in 1729.—E.

20 Dr. Johnson, a violent political opponent, observed of him, “that he was not a man of superior abilities, but he was a man strictly faithful to his word. If, for instance, he had promised you an acorn, and none had grown that year in his woods, he would not have contented himself with that excuse. He would have sent to Denmark for it. So unconditional was he in keeping his word—so high as to the point of honour.”—Boswell’s Life of Johnson, vol. iii. p. 167. The same lofty feelings characterised his public life, and caused him to be implicitly trusted by the great party of which, without his own seeking, he was the undisputed head. Lord Waldegrave seems to have entertained no mean opinion of his talents.—Memoirs, p. 86. He was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1737, and afterwards remained for a time in the Cabinet; but he accepted office with reluctance, and quitted it with disgust, for he loved his ease and scorned all the arts of intrigue. He died in 1755, aged fifty-seven.—E.

21 Lord George Cavendish filled the place of Comptroller of the Household in 1762, and for some years represented Derbyshire. He had sufficient sense to speak respectably in Parliament. He died unmarried in 1794.—E.

22 Lord Frederick Cavendish had frequently distinguished himself during the Seven years’ war as an excellent cavalry officer. In one of the last affairs of the campaign of 1762, he gained great credit by his spirited behaviour on the 6th of July, when, under the command of Lord Granby, he defeated a considerable body of the French stationed at Horn in order to preserve the communication of the main body with Frankfort, the result of which defeat was the evacuation of Gottingen. He attained the rank of Field-Marshal, and died unmarried at an advanced age in 1803.—E.

23 The sarcastic tone of these remarks on the Cavendish family may be ascribed to a family quarrel, in which the Duke of Devonshire had sided with Horace Walpole the uncle, against Horace Walpole the nephew, the author of these Memoirs.—Mem. i. 170, note by Lord Holland. Lord John Cavendish had also displeased Walpole by often thwarting his plans for the management of the Opposition, and particularly by prevailing on General Conway to act contrary to his advice. On these occasions, however, Lord John was actuated by the purest motives, and no statesman of that day shewed a nicer sense of honour, or more strict notions of public duty. His influence with the Liberal party was considerable, and raised him afterwards to a higher post than his talents could alone justly claim. At the time to which the text refers he was about thirty-two years old.—E.

24 There was shown about that time, and by that title, a Canary-bird that performed several tricks, by pointing to cards and numbers at command.

25 The accomplishments of Lord Lyttelton were undeniable. Unfortunately they were overshadowed by an infirmity of judgment, that materially lessened the dignity of his character. He seems to have been the easy dupe of Archibald Bower. There was often much misplaced sentiment in his conversation. His letters teem with foolish conceits, and the extravagant notions he entertained of parental authority made him so severe and injudicious a father as to afford some excuse for the gross misconduct of his son, a young nobleman whose brilliant abilities he was almost the only person unwilling or unable to appreciate. Lord Lyttelton died in 1773, at the age of sixty four. His public and private life had been irreproachable.—E.

26 Wilkes had attacked me in the North Briton, for a panegyric on the sense of the Scots, in my catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors: a censure I regarded so little, that when Lord Holland was engaged in his bitter persecution of the Whigs under Lord Bute, I sent an anonymous letter to Wilkes, pointing out a very advantageous character of Lord Holland that I had formerly written in the paper called The World, and inciting the North Briton to take notice both of the author and the subject of the character. Wilkes caught at the notice, said but little of me, and fell severely on Lord Holland, as I had foreseen he would.

27 A similar story is related in Tacitus, of the visit paid by Augustus to his unfortunate grandson Agrippa, in the island of Planasia, having excited suspicions in the mind of Tiberius that caused him to hasten the Emperor’s death.—1 Annal. v.—E.

28 The account given in the Princess Dashkau’s Memoirs of this transaction, presents strong internal evidence of the guilt of Mirowitz. The Princess otherwise would not have taken such pains to exculpate herself from the charge of having been his accomplice. He appears to have been virtually insane.—E.

29 Translator of Horace and Demosthenes.

30 Robert Henley, Earl of Northington.

31 There was another reason given, and probably a more efficacious one. This was the number of suits commenced against the General Warrants, with which he did not care to meddle.

32 The patent of precedence could not be over the Solicitor-General, whose official rank necessarily placed him next to the Attorney, and above all other members of the bar. The elevation of Mr. Yorke was of greater advantage to the senior barristers than to himself, for otherwise they could not have held briefs with him; though the Government cared, in those days, too little for the bar to have attached much weight to that consideration, unless they had desired to please Mr. Yorke.—E.

33 Philip Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, the famous man of wit.

34 Mr. Cumberland says elegantly of the Primate, “No man faced difficulties with greater courage, none overcame them with more address: he was formed to hold command over turbulent spirits in tempestuous seasons, for if he could not absolutely rule the passions of men, he could artfully rule men by the medium of their passions. He had great suavity of manners when points were to be carried by insinuation and finesse; but if authority was necessary to be enforced, none could hold it with a higher hand: he was an elegant scholar, a consummate politician, a very fine gentleman, and in every character seen to more advantage than in that, which, according to his sacred function, should have been his chief and only object to sustain.” Cumberland’s Mem. vol. i. p. 229.—E.

35 Henry Boyle, a grandson of Roger, first Earl of Orrery. His hypocrisy could not be very deep, if the saying ascribed to him be true—“that he would not accept an honour whilst there was a shilling in the Treasury.” He has been described as “a warm, sincere friend, and undisguised enemy.” His peculiar sphere was the House of Commons, not as an orator, but as manager; and few country gentlemen, we are told, would continue a canvass in their respective counties without a certainty of Mr. Boyle’s support, if petitioned against.—Hardy’s Life of Lord Charlemont, vol. i. p. 88. He would have made an admirable Secretary of the Treasury in corrupt or turbulent times.—E.

36 Sir George Yonge, Bart., was the only surviving son of Sir William Yonge, the eloquent and well-known supporter of Sir Robert Walpole. He was appointed Secretary at War in Lord Shelburne’s Administration, and subsequently became Master of the Mint. His last office was that of Governor of the Cape of Good Hope. He had many of his father’s parts as well as failings, being kind, persuasive, industrious, reckless, scheming, and dissipated. His last years were embittered by the failure of a speculation into which he had entered in the neighbourhood of Honiton, which borough he had long represented in Parliament. He died at an advanced age at the beginning of the present century, and, having no children, the baronetcy became extinct.—E.

37 The Duke of Newcastle’s letter and Mr. Pitt’s reply are printed in the Chatham Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 293–8.—E.

38 Dr. John Ewer, of King’s College, Cambridge, Canon of Windsor, and successively Bishop of Llandaff and Bangor. He published some single sermons on public occasions, and died in October, 1774. His library was sold by auction in 1776.—E.

39 Dr. Carmichael was brother to the Earl of Hyndford. He had not long to wait for preferment, nor did he long enjoy it, for he was appointed Archbishop of Dublin in June, and died in the November following.—E.

40 Primate Robinson, without being eminent either as a divine or a politician, filled his high office creditably. He had sound sense, and a turn for business, was not ignorant of the world, and his deportment admirably suited a great ecclesiastic. In these respects he bore a strong resemblance to Archbishop Sutton. He exerted himself laudably in building churches and parsonage-houses, and in maintaining the character of the clergy. Like many of the Irish Archbishops of former days, he brought nobility into his family, by obtaining the barony of Rokeby, with remainder to a distant cousin; for although one of many brothers, he had no nearer descendants. He died unmarried in 1794, having survived his brother, Sir Thomas Robinson, whose baronetcy eventually devolved upon him.—E.

41 “The original contains an imputation against Sir W. Pynsent, which, if true, would induce us to suspect him of a disordered mind.”—Mr. Croker’s note in vol. iv. of Walpole’s Letters, p. 484, to a letter to Lord Hertford, giving more particulars of this bequest.

42 Frederick Lord North, son of the Earl of Guildford, married Miss Speke, an heiress.

43 This is very improbable, for Lord North was notoriously indifferent to money, and careless of his personal interests.—E.

44 Yet a clergyman of the name of Pynsent went to law afterwards with Mr. Pitt for the inheritance, but lost his cause.

45 An interesting account of this debate is given by Walpole, in a letter to Lord Hertford, of the 27th January, vol. iv. p. 488, of his Correspondence.—E.

46 Mr. Calvert’s speech is reported in the xvi^th vol. of Parliamentary Debates, p. 44, and is the only portion of the debate that has been preserved. It is erroneously stated to have been made on a motion respecting the dismissal of these officers. See also the note giving an extract from the History of the Minority, p. 291.—E.

47 Second son of Harry, and brother of Charles, Duke of Bolton, the latter of whom he afterwards succeeded in the title. He was in the sea-service, [and is said to be the “Captain Whiffle” of Smollet’s “Roderick Random.” He attained the rank of Admiral of the White, and died in 1794. He was twice married, but left no male issue, and the dukedom expired with him.—E.]

48 He had had his regiment taken from him by Sir Robert Walpole.

49 As on the Bill “for Liberty of Conscience.”—Clarendon’s Life, continuation, p. 248. The noble historian, however, observes, that from that time he never had the same credit with His Majesty he had before.—E.

50 The trial is reported in vol. xix. of the State Trials, p. 1178: of 123 peers present, 119 voted him guilty of manslaughter; the remaining four voted him not guilty generally.—E.

51 An abstract of the arguments in this debate is given in the Parliamentary History, vol. xvi. p. 8.—E.

52 So in the original MS.

53 George Simon Viscount Nuneham, eldest son of the Earl of Harcourt, was a sincere republican, and retired from Parliament because he could not continue to vote according to his principles without offending his father. [He became wiser afterwards, and accepted the post of Master of the Horse to the Queen, and his wife that of Lady of the Bedchamber. Wraxall describes him as a nobleman of high breeding, well informed, and of a most correct deportment, though of manners somewhat constrained and formal. He died without issue in 1809, aged 63, and was succeeded by his brother, the late Field-Marshal Lord Harcourt, on whose death the title became extinct.—E.]

54 Lord Sandwich and Lord Halifax.

55 He was a favourite of the King, who made him Commander-in-chief in Lord Shelburne’s Administration, and he was afterwards a Field-Marshal.—E.

56 Henry, second Viscount Palmerston, the grandson of the first Viscount. He was a very accomplished nobleman. At this time he was only 26 years old.—E.

57 Almon was a bookseller and political writer, as well as a printer, in all which capacities he received frequent employment from the extreme section of the Liberal party. He was a bustling, self-important personage, whose zeal and fidelity brought him into a certain degree of intimacy with several of the leading men of his day, and he was thus enabled to collect the information which occasionally presents itself in his works. His life of Lord Chatham, though not to be generally depended upon as an authentic narration, contains some curious anecdotes illustrative of the political disputes of that period, and is in every respect superior to his life and letters of Wilkes—an insipid, tedious, and disgusting book, particularly discreditable to its author, as he was in possession of materials that might have yielded both interest and instruction. Almon, in his latter days, was unfortunate in business, and died very poor at an advanced age in 1805.—E.

58 Sir Thomas Denison died in the autumn of this year. His memory was honoured by an epitaph from the pen of his friend Lord Mansfield, very long and very dull. It is said of him “that besides being conversant with the different branches of the profession, he was in an eminent degree master of the learning of a special pleader.” Memoirs of Lord Chief Justice Wilmot, p. 13.—E.

59 This enlightened judge and most amiable man was the second son of Robert Wilmot, of Osmaston, Derbyshire, and brother of Sir Robert Wilmot, for some years the Chief Secretary in Ireland. He subsequently became Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, but with great reluctance, for he says in one of his letters, “The acting junior in the commission is a spectre I started at; but the sustaining the office alone, I must refuse at all events. I will not give up the peace of my mind to any earthly consideration whatever. Bread and water are nectar and ambrosia, compared with the supremacy of a court of justice.” He retired from the Bench in 1771, and died in 1792, aged 82, leaving one of the most spotless characters to be found on the roll of British judges. A selection of his judgments and opinions was published by his son. They are remarkable for elegance and perspicuity, and their learning and acuteness cause them to be still highly prized. The memoir of him already cited is a pleasing tribute to the memory of a good father by a good son.—E.

60 The resolutions were not 35 in number, but 55.—E.

61 The late Lord Essex informed the Editor that one of the Under-secretaries of that day had often said to him, “Mr. Grenville lost America because he read the American despatches, which none of his predecessors ever did.” There is no doubt that the business of the colonies was despatched in a very slovenly manner—or, to use Mr. Burke’s words, it was treated “with a salutary neglect;” and the many volumes of Minutes of Colonial Affairs still preserved at the Board of Trade, relate generally to such insignificant transactions as to be almost ludicrous.

62 Colonel Martin Bladen, M. P. He had in earlier life shown his industry by a translation of Cæsar, which he dedicated to the Duke of Marlborough, under whom he served in the German wars. He was made Sub-comptroller of the Mint in 1714, and one of the Board of Trade in 1717, and might have risen higher if he had chosen. He died at an advanced age in 1746. See more of him in Warton’s notes to the Dunciad.—E.

63 I say acknowledged, because they thought it prudent, in their quarrel with the Parliament, to shelter themselves under the banner of the Crown, and because they founded themselves on their charters, which were grants from the Crown. At the same time there were some men amongst them of a more democratic spirit. It was much talked of at this era, that a wealthy merchant in one of the provinces had said, “They say King George is a very honest fellow; I should like to smoke a pipe with him,” so little conception had they in that part of the world, of the majesty of an European monarch! The Crown could not take advantage of the Americans throwing themselves into the arms of prerogative, because the Americans did it to shun paying taxes, which the Parliament was inclined to grant.

64 In January, 1769.

65 Colonel Barré’s eloquent invective is the only portion of the debate that has been preserved. It is directed chiefly against an observation of Mr. Grenville, that the Americans were “children planted by our care and nourished by our indulgence.” It has been often reprinted. Parliamentary History, vol. xvi. p. 38. Mr. Adolphus, in a note to vol. i. p. 171, throws doubts on the authenticity of the report, and there is nothing in Colonel Barré’s character to make it improbable that he may have been his own reporter, and not a very faithful one.—E.

66 Barbarossa and Athelstan.

67 This tract of Dr. Browne’s, entitled “Thoughts on Civil Liberty, Licentiousness, and Faction,” hardly deserves notice except from the success of the author’s other works, of which it has all the faults and none of the merits. Its failure was complete. The author committed suicide in the following year, being then only in his 51st year. His fame rests entirely on his tragedies, which are still favourites with the public; but his treatises display an ingenuity and extent of information, and occasionally a power of expression, at least equally commendable; and it is to be regretted that those qualities were so wasted on ephemeral publications, and directed by a mind always verging on insanity. A long and very dull life of Dr. Browne is to be found in the Biographia Britannica.—E.

68 The Duchess had inherited the island from the Earls of Derby, from whom she was descended. [Her ancestor John, the first Marquis of Athol, having married Lady Amelia Stanley, daughter of James seventh Earl of Derby and his celebrated Countess. The Duchess was daughter and heiress of James, second Duke of Athol, and had married her cousin John, the third Duke, by whom she left a large family.—E.]

69 Afterwards Sir Grey Cooper, Baronet, Secretary of the Treasury, and a Privy Councillor. He was generally a dull speaker, but had considerable abilities, and was much esteemed in his department. He died in 1801. His speech is reported in the Parliamentary History, vol. xvi. p. 21.—E.

70 Mr. Adolphus, in the new edition of his History, says, “The malady with which his Majesty was afflicted, exhibited symptoms similar to those which, in 1788, and during the last years of his life, gave so much unhappiness to the nation. I did not mention the fact in former editions of this work, because I knew that the King and all who loved him were desirous that it should not be brought into notice. So anxious were they on this point, that Smollet having intimated it in his complete History of England, the text was revised in the general impression—a very few copies in the original form were disposed of, and they are now rare.” Adolphus, vol. i. p. 175.—E.

71 Afterwards Sir William Duncan, Bart., a Scot; he married Lady Mary Tufton, sister of the Earl of Thanet.

72 Mr. Nicholson Calvert’s speech is given in the Parliamentary History, vol. xvi. p. 42, where it is said that he was very inefficiently supported by Serjeant Hewet.—E.

73 Bishop of Gloucester. Voltaire always calls him by mistake Bishop of Worcester.

74 This sermon is noticed by Gray in a letter written at the time.—Works, vol. iv. p. 49. Warburton did not carry his imprudence so far as to print it. He had been a candidate for the see of London in 1761, and was not a little disappointed by the preference given to Bishop Hayter, to which he thus modestly alludes in a letter to Hurd. “You and your poet say true, ‘I will bet at any time on a fool or a knave against the field.’ Though the master of the course be changed, yet the field is the same, where the race is not to the swift.” (Letters from a Late Eminent Prelate, &c., p. 328.) His hopes must have been rekindled by the early death of Bishop Hayter, only to be again dashed by the appointment of Bishop Osbaldiston; and his ambition received a deathblow by the elevation of Terrick. His contempt of his successful competitors appears to have been expressed in every way calculated to be most offensive to them: even at a dinner at Archbishop Secker’s, about this period, he taunted the Bench with leaving the defence of the Church against its various assailants to their chaplains, and not performing the task themselves, as Ridley and Jewel had done of old; and quoted, at the same time, the saying of Jewel: “Why are we distinguished from the rest of our brethren with superior titles and riches, but that we may out-do them in the service of the public, so that when men see our great achievements, they may say these men deserve their superior titles and riches who perform them thus nobly.” The prelates wisely indulged him in this freedom. He never rose beyond the see of Gloucester, which it may be remarked he owed not to his learning and theological reputation, but to Mr. Pitt’s regard for Allen. Perhaps Mr. Pitt was the only statesman who would have had the courage to place him on the Bench. Notwithstanding his friendship with Mr. Yorke, he was neglected by Lord Hardwicke, who, he says, “amidst all his acquaintance, chose the most barren and sapless, on which dry plants to shower down his most refreshing rain.”—Letters, p. 433. The violence of his temper, his overbearing disposition, and the vagueness of his political creed, gave Ministers some excuse, yet it shows an imperfection in the system of ecclesiastical patronage, that a man of his genius and attainments should have been so often set aside for the obscure and now long forgotten individuals whom Court or Ministerial favour continually placed in the higher offices of the Church. He resented this treatment to the last. It embittered a lot which ought to have been happy, for he had wealth, rank, reputation, and domestic prosperity; but his letters breathe an air of discontent unworthy of a great man. He died at an advanced age in 1776.—E.

75 At the end of 1768. It was triumphantly answered by Burke.—E.

76 Thomas Gilbert, Esq., M. P. for Newcastle-under-Line, and Controller of the King’s Wardrobe. See Walpole’s Letters, vol. v. p. 15.—E.

77 The bill proposed to divide every county into large districts, comprising a whole hundred, or at least a great number of parishes, in order to remedy the evils caused by the distresses of the poor, and the misapplication of the money raised for their relief. It has the merit of being one of the earliest efforts made in Parliament for the amendment of the Poor-laws. In 1782 Mr. Gilbert succeeded in carrying a bill containing the main features by his plan for the incorporation of parishes, so well known as the Gilbert Act. An account of these and other bills, prepared by Mr. Gilbert, of the same tendency, is given in Eden’s History of the Poor, vol. i. p. 362.—E.