421 This house, in which James Earl Waldegrave died, has again become remarkable by a club created there in 1769 by several ladies of first rank; the first public female club ever known, and which gave great offence, though the ladies were almost all of distinguished virtue. Nor, though the age was notorious for divorces, though most of the female members were of the greatest beauty, and though most of the young men of fashion were of the club, did any scandal happen from that society. Even gaming, which at that time raged to so enormous a degree, went to no great lengths there. So that vice and satire, which prevailed so exceedingly, did not always meet where they deserved to meet. The King and Queen marked their disapprobation of the club, while Lord Despenser, Lord Talbot, and Lord Pembroke were in place, while Lady Berkeley was of the bedchamber to the Princess Dowager, though her husband, Lord Clare, had disavowed her last child, and while Miss Chudleigh had remained Maid of Honour to her, though she had owned her marriage with Captain Hervey to her Royal Highness, till she openly married the Duke of Kingston, though Hervey was alive; and was received by all the Royal Family as Duchess, after having been publicly kept by the Duke as his mistress. No wonder the sanctity of the Court passed for hypocrisy.
422 For an account of this debate, see Chatham Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 281.—E.
423 A graphical description of this Debate is given by the author in a letter to Lord Hertford, vol. iv. p. 359, of his Correspondence.—E.
424 For an account of Mr. Grenville’s speech, see James Grenville’s letter to Mr. Pitt. Chatham Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 285.—E.
425 Sir Anthony Abdy, Baronet, of Chobham Place, Surrey, had been brought into Parliament by the Duke of Devonshire, for Knaresborough. He was a King’s Counsel, in great practice, and likewise a country gentleman of considerable estate, having inherited the property of his kinsman Gainsford, the son of Sir Anthony Thomas. He died in 1775.—E.
426 This speech of General Conway’s appears to have made a great impression on the House. See the letter cited supra.—E.
427 The Right Honourable James Oswald, of Dunnikier, already mentioned as the adviser and warm partisan of Lord Bute. This was one of the last questions of great public interest in which he took part, his health being now on the decline; indeed he retired from Parliament at the dissolution. He had been member for Kirkaldy, his native district, for more than twenty years, and possessed considerable weight in the House, as a clear, well-informed, sensible, and effective speaker. His services were rewarded with a large sinecure for his son, and a bishoprick for his brother. It is due to his memory to notice his kindness to men of letters; David Hume’s History and Political Essays were submitted to his revision before they went to press, and Lord Kaimes and Adam Smith lay under similar obligations to him. His criticisms, however, were probably the least valuable fruits of his friendship. His Correspondence was published some years ago, under the title of “Memorials of the Right Honourable James Oswald.” Most of his papers having been burnt, the book contains nothing remarkable.—E.
428 Afterwards Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and a peer of that kingdom by the title of Lord Lifford. He filled that office with great credit. His judgments in the Court of Chancery were reported by Mr. Freeman, and the work is still one of some authority. He died in 1769.—E.
429 Charles Lord Viscount Townshend, minister at the Hague, and afterwards Secretary of State to the Kings George the First and Second. By his eldest son, Charles, he was grandfather of General George Townshend, afterwards Viscount, and of the famous Charles Townshend. His second son, Thomas, was father of another Thomas, often mentioned in these Memoirs. William, third son, was father of another Charles Townshend, called the black or Spanish Charles, from having been Secretary to the Embassy at Madrid.
430 Robert Wood died in September, 1771; he was writing Dissertations on Homer, since published.
431 See what is said of them in the Advertisement prefixed to the first volume of the Anecdotes of Painting.
432 Mr. Bouverie and Mr. Dawkins.
433 Pitt had issued two general warrants during the war.
434 Alluding to the enormous debt contracted by the war.
435 Being dependent on Lord Shelburne, Barré had, under him, connected himself with Mr. Pitt, whom he had so savagely attacked not long before, and had been dismissed from the army.
436 Richard Hussey, Esq., M. P. for East Looe, Attorney-General to the Queen, Counsel to the Admiralty, and Auditor to the Duchy of Cornwall and Greenwich Hospital. He died in 1780. Cavendish’s Debates, vol. i. p. 197, note.—E.
437 Alluding to Mr. Pitt.
438 Wilkes subsequently published a very friendly letter, dated 26th March, 1763, addressed to him by Mr. Legge, inviting him to meet Dr. Hay at dinner. Indeed the intimacy of Wilkes was a reproach shared at that time with Dr. Hay by several of the most eminent persons in the kingdom. And it was not till after the publication of the forty-fifth number of the North Briton, on the 23rd of April, 1763, that their eyes were open to the enormity of his offences.—E.
439 Arthur Onslow, Speaker in the reign of George the Second.
440 Lord Howe was then only an Irish Peer. He had succeeded to his title on the death of his elder brother at Ticonderago in 1758. His great services raised him to the English Peerage in 1782, as Viscount Howe, and as Earl Howe in 1788. He died in 1799.—E.
441 This debate is described in the author’s letters to Lord Hertford.—Correspondence, vol. iv. p. 373.—E.
442 This statement is probably much exaggerated. There is no doubt that Pratt applied to the Court, according to the usual practice, to appoint a day for Hensey’s execution. Lord Mansfield desired him to name the day, and on Hensey’s solicitor asking that it might not be an early day, Pratt said he was ready to give as long a day as might be proper. At last the Court agreed that it might be a month.—Burr. Reports, vol. i. p. 651, R. v. Hensey. The sentimentality imputed to Pratt certainly formed no part of his character; and as the story is without question inaccurate, we may fairly doubt whether Norton was guilty of so curious a piece of brutality. Hensey was respited on the very morning that he was going to execution. On the 5th of Sept. 1759, he appeared in Court and pleaded a full pardon.—E.
443 Hugh Smithson Percy, Earl of Northumberland. His eldest son married a daughter of Lord Bute. Both the Earl and Brecknock afterwards, finding their expectations not answered, turned against the Court. Brecknock was hanged twenty years after in Ireland, for being accessory to an atrocious murder perpetrated by Mr. Fitzgerald, who suffered with him.
444 The compliment was not insincere, for the King probably entertained more enlarged views of constitutional liberty than Lord Marchmont. His Lordship clung to his Jacobite principles to the last, though he changed their object.—E.
445 Lord Holland has justly observed, “that wherever that great magistrate (Lord Hardwicke) is concerned, Lord Orford’s resentments blind his judgment and disfigure his narrative.”—Mem. vol. i. p. 139, note. He certainly has in this instance drawn a caricature, of which there is no merit in the execution to compensate for the faults of the design. Lord Chesterfield, though also a political opponent, has done Lord Hardwicke more justice.—See Miscell. Works, vol. iv. p. 51. Admitting many of his eminent qualities, he elegantly says of his avarice, that though it was his ruling passion, he never was in the least suspected of any kind of corruption; a rare and meritorious instance of virtue and self-denial, under the influence of such a craving, insatiable, and increasing passion.—See also Lord Mahon’s Hist. vol. iii. p. 201. The Editor has only further to observe, that none but a lawyer who has practised in the Court where Lord Hardwicke so long presided, can correctly appreciate his discharge of the duties of that high office. His judgments maintain their authority to the present hour, and furnish the earliest and clearest exposition of the principles of the Equity Jurisdiction of this country. And whoever may have had the opportunity of examining his Lordship’s note-books, will see the patient attention and indefatigable research that distinguished every part of his judicial career.—E.
446 John Perceval, second Earl of Egmont.
447 In America.
448 All the sums mentioned in this speech must be carefully re-examined, for I am not sure they are exact; [nor has the Editor been able to verify them.—E.]
449 A plan, of which the consequences were so little foreseen, that Walpole does not even notice it in a letter to Lord Hertford, written two days afterwards. Corresp. vol. iv. p. 386.—E.
450 Afterwards Sir George Amyand. [He was one of the leading Directors of the East India Company, and an eminent merchant in the City. He died in 1766.—E.]
451 It appears to have been Lord Clive himself who made this observation: “not thinking it strictly honourable to take advantage of this sudden spirit of generosity, and to carry merely by his popularity a case which was depending at law, he rose and requested that they would desist from their liberal intentions: adding, that from being sensible of the impropriety of going abroad while so valuable a part of his property remained in dispute, he would make some proposals to the Court of Directors, which would, he trusted, end in an amicable adjustment of this affair.” Malcolm’s Life of Lord Clive, vol. ii. p. 230.—E.
452 One of the Aldermen, and member for Plympton. He had married one of the coheiresses of Jacob Tonson, the printer.—E.
453 The book displays cleverness rather than “great parts.” D’Eon was an unprincipled coxcomb, bold, ready, and plausible; with a smattering of literature, and more than common powers of writing. At the outset of the dispute he was not much in the wrong, for the difficulties raised to the payment of his disbursements as Minister were ungenerous, if not unjust; and M. Guerchy’s lamentations over the guinea per month lavishly expended in English Gazettes would have put the forbearance of most men to a severe test. In his passion D’Eon forgot the laws of decency as well as of honour, and the publication of his book injured him certainly not less than his enemies. It had an immense circulation, and the attempts to suppress it at Paris, of course, served to make it more sought after. Lord Holland, who happened to be there at that time, used to lend his copy by the hour. A reply to D’Eon was published, under the title of “Examen des Lettres, &c. du Chevalier d’Eon, dans une Lettre à M. N—” and is smart enough. The Critical Review (1764) treats it as a satisfactory refutation of D’Eon’s charges; but the public continued to laugh at the French Ambassador and his Government, and they fell in general estimation fully to the extent stated in the text.—E.
454 Walpole’s hatred of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke may be traced in this portrait of his son. Lord Hardwicke was one of the best informed noblemen of his day. The Athenian Letters which he wrote, in conjunction with his brother, whilst at the University, ranks next to the Travels of Anacharsis among works of its kind. “The Correspondence of Sir Dudley Carleton” is more curious than interesting; and the editor seems to have correctly appreciated it, by restricting his first edition to twenty copies, and his second to fifty. Perhaps there was some ostentation in terming the next impression a third edition. He is entitled to more credit for his State Papers, published in two volumes, quarto,—a work of value, and which still fully maintains its consideration. Lord Hardwicke’s health was very delicate, and he neither liked nor shone in general society, but he did not want decision of character, and had a strong sense of honour. He was firm in his political connections, and exemplary in private life. A biographical account of him is given in Cole’s MSS. in the British Museum, Donation, 5886.—E.
455 Thomas Pitt, of Boconnock, nephew of Mr. William Pitt, but attached to Mr. G. Grenville, and by him made a Lord of the Admiralty.
456 Frederick Montagu, only son of Charles Montagu, of Paplewich in Northamptonshire, Auditor to the late Prince of Wales.
457 The chief of the Whigs in Opposition.
458 Son of Sir Orlando Bridgman, after whose death he became Sir Henry; [and having succeeded to the estates of his cousin Thomas, the last Earl of Bradford, who had died without issue, was in 1794 created Baron Bradford. He died at an advanced age in 1800. He was grandfather of the present Earl.—E.]
459 Younger brother of Henry Vernon, of Hilton in Staffordshire; and married to Lady Evelyn Leveson, Countess Dowager of Ossory. [Mr. Vernon’s later life was more creditable. He became a great traveller, and visited the East; and he served with distinction as a volunteer in the Spanish expedition to Algiers. He was one of the handsomest men of his day.—E.]
460 Charles Sloane Cadogan, only son of Charles Lord Cadogan, [afterwards created Earl Cadogan. His second wife was Miss Churchill, a niece of Horace Walpole. He died in 1807, aged 78.—E.]
461 Dr. Akenside, by some thought a Poet, was of the same principles with, and an intimate friend of, Dyson, who obtained his being named Physician to the Queen. To that mistress and to that friend he made a sacrifice of the word Liberty, in the last edition of his poem on the Pleasures of the Imagination. It was uncourtly, a personification to be invoked by one who felt the pulse of royalty. [The alteration to which Walpole refers is as follows. In the old editions there is the passage—
In the later editions it stands thus—
Akenside’s political tergiversation is an unpleasant commentary on a work so full of elevated thoughts as his poem. Personal attachment to Dyson probably influenced him. He died in 1770, in his forty-ninth year.—E.]
462 Mr. Dyson had changed his politics on the King’s accession, when he became at once a determined Tory, having previously professed the opposite creed. He afterwards formed one of the party that went under the name of the King’s friends, a political section which can hardly be said to have existed in preceding reigns, and which the personal character of George the Third rendered very influential on public measures. A more valuable recruit could not easily have been found. He was certainly a most able parliamentary lawyer, and the exactness and precision that characterised his mind, caused his opinion to be always depended upon. These qualities, added to his discretion, gave him a moral influence over the House which could not be the result of his political conduct. His manners were obliging, and his private life irreproachable. It is highly to his credit that, when Clerk of the House, he departed from the example of his predecessors, by making no profit of his patronage. Nichols’s Literary Anecdotes, vol. viii. p. 523; Hatsell’s Parliamentary Precedents.—E.
463 Catherine and Charlotte Shorter were daughters of John Shorter, of Bybrook in Kent. Catherine was first wife of Sir Robert Walpole, and mother of the author of these Memoirs. Charlotte was third wife of Francis Seymour, Lord Conway, and by him mother of Francis Earl of Hertford, and of General Henry Seymour Conway.
464 I have seen a letter from the King to George Grenville, in which his Majesty pressed him to turn out Conway.
465 John Fane, Earl of Westmoreland.
466 Sir Richard Temple, Lord Viscount Cobham.
467 This does not mean the vote of a single day, but all the votes on general warrants considered as one question.
468 General John Campbell, Groom of the Bedchamber to George the Second, and cousin and successor of John and Archibald Dukes of Argyle when an old man.
469 Caroline, daughter of the latter Duke John, third wife and widow of Charles Bruce, last Earl of Ailesbury, by whom she had an only child, Mary Duchess of Richmond. The Countess of Ailesbury married secondly General Henry Seymour Conway, only brother of Francis first Earl of Hertford of that branch.
470 John Campbell, Marquis of Lorn, married to the famous beauty Elizabeth Gunning, widow of James Duke of Hamilton.
471 Lord Frederick Campbell had been bred to the law, and succeeded well there, but quitted the profession on his father’s attaining the dukedom. [As he was brother in-law to General Conway, Mr. Walpole seems to have expected him to have followed Conway’s politics.—Mr. Croker’s note to the fourth volume of Walpole’s Letters, p. 369. Wraxall says of him, “Devoid of shining talents, he nevertheless wanted not either ability or eloquence in a certain degree, both which were under the control of reason and temper. His figure and deportment were remarkably graceful.” He married the Dowager Countess Ferrers, sister of Sir William Meredith, and died at an advanced age in 1816.—E.]
472 Lord Hertford could not reasonably be expected to court a share in the consequences of an act of which he disapproved: and he was of a temperament that too easily disposed him to shrink from any personal sacrifice. His political principles were very indefinite. His merit was of a different character. Lord Chesterfield was sincere when he said of him, in a letter not intended for publication, “I verily believe he will please as Viceroy, for he is one of the honestest and most religious men in the kingdom, and moreover very much of a gentleman in his behaviour to everybody.”—His administration of Ireland was respectable, and in general approved of, and it passed away in almost uniform tranquillity.—Hardy’s Life of Lord Charlemont, vol. i. p. 224. He filled many high offices, and was very prosperous throughout life. He was created Marquis in 1793, and died in the following year, leaving a large family.—E.
473 Lord Hertford had married Lady Isabella Fitzroy, youngest daughter of Charles Duke of Grafton, who was succeeded in the title by his grandson Augustus Henry, of whom much will be said in some of the following pages.
474 The Duke subsequently gave the best proof of the sincerity of this offer by bequeathing General Conway a legacy of 5000l.—E.
475 Conway conducted himself less well than Wolfe at Rochfort, but far better than the other generals. “Though eminently distinguished for his gallant and indefatigable behaviour,” says Walpole, “he never had the happiness of achieving any action of remarkable éclât, or of performing alone any act of singular utility to his country. However, he had been engaged in six regular battles, besides smaller affairs.”—(Counter Address to the Public on the Dismissal of a late General.) He commanded a division with credit in the Seven years’ war. An ill-natured cotemporary critic charges him with being a “martinet,” and with unnecessarily fatiguing his men, but admits that “he would have made a very good general if he had not been spoilt by his education under the Duke of Cumberland.” Life of Lord Chatham, Ap. vol. iii. p. 262.—E.
476 The Queen’s brother.
477 Lord Pembroke was again made a Lord of the Bedchamber in 1769, without applying; and exactly at a time when he was said to have carried off another woman, a young Venetian bride (he was then at Venice), the very night of her wedding. [Lord Pembroke had served in the Seven years’ war, and was popular with the officers under him, though not much of a soldier. He was dissolute and extravagant, and notwithstanding his large income, left when he died heavy debts, which his only son, the late Earl, a very respectable nobleman, honourably paid.—E.]
478 Dr. Thomas Newton, Bishop of Bristol.
479 Twickenham.
480 Thomas Worseley, Surveyor of the Board of Works.
481 Sir Hugh Smithson, of a very recent family, had married Lady Elizabeth Seymour, only daughter of Algernon Duke of Somerset, whose mother was heiress of the Percies, Earls of Northumberland; on which foundation Hugh and Elizabeth were created Earl and Countess of Northumberland.
482 Dr. Johnson said, in allusion to it, “that his Grace was only fit to succeed himself.” Boswell, vol. ii. p. 210.—E.
483 He had been likewise Secretary to the Earl of Halifax.
484 Charles sixth Earl and first Marquis of Drogheda, K.P.—The Primate had four years before importunately pressed Mr. Pitt to give this nobleman the rank of colonel; and although the application was supported by the Duke of Devonshire and Lord Besborough, Mr. Pitt was firm in resisting it. “Among the very many lieutenant-colonels,” he said, “above Lord Drogheda on the list, there were not a few who could not be postponed without great hardship, and loud complaints in the army. He had publicly pledged himself to that most meritorious class of officers, that he would never contribute, from any considerations of family or parliamentary interest, to their depression.” The Primate’s letter and Mr. Pitt’s reply are given in the Chatham Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 59. The transaction reflects great honour on Mr. Pitt, and furnishes an additional proof of the high sense of public duty entertained by that illustrious statesman, in this, as in many other respects so superior, to most of his cotemporaries, not excepting the Primate of Ireland. Lord Drogheda obtained his rank in 1762, and eventually reached almost the head of the army list, having in his old age been appointed Field-Marshal. He died at Dublin in December 1821, in his ninety-second year. He saw little, if any, foreign service, but he had been constantly employed in his own country, where he was much esteemed. He preserved to the last a remarkable elegance and amiability of deportment.—E.
485 It must be recollected, that Walpole, from some private cause, bore Lord and Lady Northumberland no good will, and frequently sneers at them in his Correspondence. A childish feeling of envy at Lord Northumberland’s brilliant success in life, was probably at the bottom of this, and prevented Walpole’s making due allowance for the temptations attendant on great and unexpected prosperity. His Lordship had the tastes that became the high rank to which he was elevated. He patronized the arts, and was generous to men of letters. His vanity was unaccompanied by arrogance, and his feelings, though not warm, were kind and amiable. Neither his talents nor acquirements were above mediocrity. He died in 1786.—E.
486 The Duchess’s defects are, no doubt, greatly exaggerated by Walpole. M. Dutens says of her Grace, that “she possessed great elevation of mind, natural and easy wit, a good and compassionate heart, and, above all, a strong attachment to her friends, whom she took every opportunity to distinguish and to serve.”—Memoirs of a Traveller, &c., vol. ii. p. 100. She met her death, which was sudden, with great firmness and resignation.—E.
487 The marriage was unfortunate, and dissolved in 1779. Lord Warkworth became Duke of Northumberland in 1786. He served as Lord Percy in the American war. Unlike his father, he was totally devoid of ostentation, and most simple and retiring in his habits. He died in 1817.—E.
488 The house of Andrew Stone, in Privy Garden.
489 George Keppel, third Earl of Albemarle. His youngest sister, Lady Elizabeth, was married to Francis Russell, Marquis of Tavistock, only son of John Duke of Bedford.