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,

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,

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 2000l. 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 familyb in this new persecution; Lord Bute intending at the same time to reserve 600l. 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.

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

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 40l. 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.