164 George Keppel, third Earl of Albemarle, one of the Lords of the Bedchamber to William Duke of Cumberland.

165 Frederick Lord North, eldest son of Francis Earl of Guilford.

166 Thomas Walpole, second son of Horatio Lord Walpole, only brother of Sir Robert Walpole, Earl of Orford. Thomas married the eldest daughter of Sir Joshua Vanneck, with whom he dwelt in the City.

167 Augustus Keppel, second son, and William Keppel, Groom of the Bedchamber to William Duke of Cumberland, third son of William Anne second Earl of Albemarle.

168 Humphrey Parsons, formerly Lord Mayor of London, a great brewer. Odunn was an Irishman.

169 Bishop Newton gives an anecdote of this prelate, not much to his credit. When it was proposed to allow monuments to be erected in St. Paul’s Cathedral, he violently opposed the plan, on the ground that, as there had been no monuments in all the time before he was bishop, there should be none in his time. Bishop Newton’s Life, p. 145.—E.

170 Charles Lyttelton, brother of Lord Lyttelton, and President of the Antiquarian Society, died in 1768, aged 54. Warburton sneers at “his antiquarianism,” to which he was more exclusively devoted than strictly became his high position in the Church. On the other hand, he was what Bishop Warburton certainly was not, a very amiable, kind-hearted man. In early life he had been a barrister.—George Selwyn and his Contemporaries, vol. i. p. 71.—E.

171 A greater military critic, General Jomini, was of a different opinion. He pronounces Broglio to be the only French commander of that day whose operations were uniformly skilful. He had fought in more battles than perhaps any of his contemporaries. An authentic account of his life would still be of value, but his fame was eclipsed by the exploits of younger heroes, and he had even ceased to be an object of interest when he died in exile at Munster, in 1804, at the advanced age of 86.—E.

172 The Count de Broglio’s talents were undeniable. It was his misfortune, not less than his fault, that they were seldom well directed. His brilliant defence of Cassel during the Seven years’ war showed that he had no mean capacity for war; but his ambition was, to shine as a statesman, and, unhappily for him, the enmity of Choiseul excluded him from civil employments. Partly, perhaps, out of revenge, and partly from his love of political intrigue, he condescended to take charge of the secret correspondence which Louis the Fifteenth carried on for many years, independently of his ministers, at the principal foreign Courts, a system which made it almost impossible for an honourable man to serve the King with benefit. M. de Broglio eventually fell into disgrace, and died in obscurity in 1781, aged 62.—E.

173 Granville Leveson Gower, Earl Gower, a converted Jacobite.

174 George Walpole, Earl of Orford, grandson of Sir Robert Walpole.

175 Francis Egerton, Duke of Bridgwater, author of the famous Navigation.

176 William Henry, afterwards Duke of Gloucester.

177 Edward Legrand, Esq., Governor to Prince William and Prince Henry.

178 George Montagu Dunk, third and last Earl of Halifax, of that house. He was a nobleman of great elegance of person and manners, and of a cultivated mind, and was quite equal to his post, which did not then, as now, require decided ability as well as rank and good intentions to satisfy the expectations of the country. “He never,” says Cumberland, “could be mistaken for less than he was.” He maintained the magnificence of the Vice-Regal Court, whilst he attended closely to public business.—E.

179 The Court of the Lords-Lieutenant.

180 Wills Hill, Earl of Hilsborough. He had gone over to Ireland professedly on his private affairs; a large estate having recently been bequeathed to him by Sir William Cowper. Letter from Lord Barrington to Sir A. Mitchell.—Ellis’s Original Letters, vol. vii. p. 443.—E.

181 Dr. George Stone, Archbishop of Armagh. See the preceding reign.

182 William Gerard Hamilton, son of a Scotch lawyer, made two good speeches, and only two, in the English House of Commons. One being forgotten (the last being of inferior merit to the other), he was long known by the name of Single-speech. He came into Parliament in 1754; and after sitting silent for somewhat more than a year, at length delivered that single speech upon which his reputation has exclusively rested down to the present day. This speech, which we are told was set and full of antitheses, was in favour of the Ministry, and was speedily rewarded by a place at the Board of Trade.—Edinburgh Review, vol. xv. p. 164. He had a promptitude of thought, and a rapid flow of well-conceived matter, with many other requisites that only seemed waiting for opportunities to establish his reputation as an orator. These were set off by a striking countenance, a graceful carriage, great self-possession, and personal courage.—Cumberland’s Memoirs, i. 225. With all these advantages he did not rise to eminence, nor did he deserve it, for his views were narrow, and he was selfish and cold-hearted. He resumed his silence upon attaining the lucrative and sinecure office of Chancellor of the Exchequer in Ireland, and died in 1796, rich and unmarried. His “Parliamentary Logic” is an insignificant work.—E.

183 Robert Monckton, brother of Lord Galway, a very gallant officer, who signed the reddition of Quebec, and performed other memorable services in that war.

184 Sir George Bridges Rodney, afterwards Lord Rodney, the great naval commander. He died in 1792.—E.

185 Colonel John Burgoyne, natural son of W. Benson, Lord Bingley. He proved a very unfortunate commander in the subsequent American war. He was also an author, and wrote that excellent comedy, “The Heiress.”

186 Infidelity was then no uncommon charge against an unsuccessful commander. The Prince had in 1752 been worsted at Breslau, where he had only twenty-four thousand men to oppose to an army of ninety thousand, under Daun and Prince Charles of Lorraine. In return, he defeated Daun in 1762 at Reichenbad, a victory that decided the fate of Schweidnitz, and thus contributed to the final success of Prince Henry of Prussia at Friedberg.—E.

187 Considering that Lord Tyrawley was in his 72nd year, and had not been employed on active service for a very long period, the Government surely acted discreetly in not appointing him to this command. He died in 1773, in his 83rd year. His life had been singularly licentious, even for the Courts of Russia and Portugal, where, however, he acquired extraordinary influence, for he had a thorough knowledge of the world, a great deal of humour, and an undaunted spirit. See more of him in Walpole’s Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 291; and Lord Chatham’s Correspondence.—E.

188 This remarkable man was Sovereign of Lippe Buckebourgh, a petty state, lying on the confines of Hanover and Westphalia. His mother was daughter of George the First, by the Duchess of Kendal. He received the early part of his education in England, and held a commission in the Guards: at nineteen, he served at the battle of Dettingen; and two years after he showed signal intrepidity as a volunteer under Prince Lobkowitz, in Italy. At the outset of the Seven years’ war he joined the Confederates with his small contingent, and bore a prominent part in the various military operations that ensued. His bravery, in common with his opinions, had a tinge of eccentricity, but the boldness and originality of his mind were not ill directed. He became an enterprising and successful partisan, and an able commander of artillery; in which latter capacity he distinguished himself both at Minden and at Kampen. Being intrusted with a separate corps for the reduction of Munster, he not only captured the place, but defeated General Armentières, who had been sent with a French army to its relief. It was in Portugal, however, that he established his reputation. “He found the army there,” says his biographer, “in a state of thorough disorganization, without either food or pay; even the guards at the Royal Palace implored alms from strangers, with bended knees and outstretched caps. The officers, impelled by want, followed various humble crafts. There were instances of the husband working as a journeyman tailor, whilst his wife earned her subsistence as a washerwoman; and captains might be seen bringing baskets of linen from the wash. Many were servants in the households of generals and governors; indeed servants were sometimes presented with commissions in order that their pay might serve in lieu of wages.” All these abuses the Count, unsupported, if not opposed by the Court and the ministers, succeeded in rectifying. With the assistance of the English, he checked the progress of the Spanish troops, and defeated them in several encounters. He built the citadel of Elvas. He organized a plan for the defence of the kingdom; and at the end of the war he quitted Portugal, followed by the gratitude and attachment of the King and the people. Indeed, the House of Braganza were not under greater obligations to his illustrious predecessor, Marshal Schomberg. His reforms show considerable acuteness and knowledge of character, and were completely successful. One of the most questionable was, that while he punished officers in Germany for accepting a challenge, he punished the Portuguese for refusing, with the view of restoring a martial spirit among the troops. The remainder of his life he passed at Buckebourgh, the chief town of La Lippe, beloved by his subjects, and always employed in promoting their prosperity, though he has been charged with sometimes mistaking himself for a great monarch, while he was only a petty prince. He married in 1765 the Countess of La Lippe Bustafeld, a young lady of great beauty and accomplishments, and had one daughter, whose early death was quickly followed by that of the mother; and the Count, inconsolable under this double affliction, fell into a lingering disorder, of which he died in 1777, at the age of 53. He enjoyed the warm friendship of the King of Prussia, the Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick, and other great commanders. They entertained a high opinion of his military capacity. He inspired a sort of enthusiasm in all around him. Even the Spanish officers, who used to ridicule his reforms, and when they first descried him in the field, with his large hat and little sword, contemptuously asked whether the Portuguese were commanded by Don Quixote, eventually partook of the general feeling of admiration that attached to his generosity—his extreme disinterestedness—his abilities and valour. Biographische Denkmale, von K. Barnhagen von Ense.—E.

189 Doctor Johnson, in the newspapers of the day, published an account of this inquiry. His weakness consisted in so far giving confidence to this flimsy imposture, as to think a solemn inquiry necessary. Croker’s Boswell, vol. i. p. 415, note.—E.

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 500l. and 600l.—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.