dom at large. In a word, he was considered as the head of the whigs, and he was beloved by the people for his magnificence, affability, and personal disinterestedness. It was therefore a bold undertaking to attempt the overthrow of this old servant, and faithful friend to the royal family but ambition levels all ob

structions.

During a great part of the last reign, the duke, his family and friends, had enjoyed the confidence of the sovereign, and the chief direction of public affairs. But his advanced age, and his situa-" tion, had prevented his having any opportunity to cultivate a personal interest with his present majesty. His continuance at the head of the treasury, after the accession, was therefore extremely precarious, because he did not possess the royal confidence; and the person who had it, considering that department the chief seat of power, contrived to tire the patience of the duke, by repeated mortification, till he was obliged to resign; and lord Bute was appointed first lord of the treasury, who soon cleared every department in the state of the friends of the duke of Neycastle. His animosity, or want of political abilities, however, proved the bane of his own power; and his short lived administration, which lasted. little more than a year, was marked with violence and injustice. Even clerks in office, whose salaries did not exceed £50, per annum, were turned out of their employments, and left destitute of all provision, without so much as the shadow of any charge against them. This conduct, and the popular disapprobation of the peace, forced him to retire from all public business towards the close of the year 1763; and the whigs saw themselves under a necessity to revive the distinction between them and the tories with as much heat as ever, lord Bute having introduced and supported in power many of the avowed enemies to the Hanover family, and to the protestant succession in that illustrious house.

1

In the year 1765, when the Rockingham administration was formed by the late duke of Cumberland, his royal highness advised. them to strengthen their interest, by taking in the duke of Newcastle; his grace was accordingly appointed lord privy-seal, which he resigned the following year to his old colleague in office, the earl of Chatham.

His grace now resolved to quit the court, and all public business; upon which occasion his majesty offered him a pension; but though he had greatly injured his private fortune, by devoting great part of an income of £50,000, per annum, to the establishment of George I. he nobly refused to disgrace his birth and cha racter, and scorned to become a burthen either to the king, or to the nation, by taking a pension. His grace passed the remainder of his days in retirement, enjoying the company of his numerous friends, and the satisfaction of being considered as the most disinterested patriot of the present age.

In the year 1768 his health began visibly to decline, and he was soon thought to be in great danger; as his end approached, his attention to his devotion was constant and fervent, suitable to that unfeigned piety for which he had been distinguished throughout life. On the 17th of November in the morning he desired to receive the sacrament which was administered to him by the bishop of Salisbury, and in a few hours after he paid the debt of na

ture.

His grace dying without issue, the title of the duke of New castle upon Tyne became extinct; but that of Newcastle under line, conferred upon him in 1756, with remainder in the female line, devolved to the present duke, who married Mr. Henry Pelham's eldest daughter.

MEMOIRS OF

PHILIP DORMER STANHOPE,

EARL OF CHESTERFIELD.

[A. D. 1694, to 1773.]

FEW characters, within the memory of the present generation, have been more admired than that of the celebrated nobleman, of whom we are now to give concise memoirs. His lordship was descended from a family of great antiquity, and his father married a daughter of the celebrated marquis of Halifax. He was the

eidest of four sons, and born in London, on the 22d of Septem ber, 1694.

At the age of 18 he was sent to Cambridge, where he remain ed two years. By his lordship's own account in his writings, his, knowledge about this time was chiefly confined to scholastic learning, in which he had made a considerable progress; but in po, lite literature he esteemed himself deficient. "When he talked best, he quoted Horace, when he aimed at being facetious, he quo ted Martial and when he had a mind to be a fine gentleman, he talked Ovid. He was convinced that none but the ancients had common sense, and that the classics contained every thing that was either necessary, useful or ornamental." In the first parliament of George I. lord Stanhope, as he was now styled, was elected burgess for St. Germaine, in Cornwall, and in the next, for Lestwithiel in the same county. He tells us, "That he spoke in par liament the first month he was in it, and from the day he was elected, to the day he spoke, thought and dreamed of nothing but speaking."

By a few months residence at the Hague, in the interval between his leaving the university and the meeting of parliament, he had worn off the rust of college pedantry. Frequenting the court introducing himself into the best company, attentively studying, imitating the free, unaffected air, manners, and conversation of people of the first distinction, and amongst these, of such as were remarkable for their politeness, were the means he made use of to familiarize himself to the great world. To a strong desire of pleas. ing, he added a fund of good humour, and great vivacity. With these qualifications he entered the senate-house; and it was soon discovered that he posssessed talents to render him conspicuous; for his eloquence was masterly, his sentiments patriotic, and his address peculiarly engaging,

On patriotic principles he espoused the cause of George I. and stood foremost in the ranks of those loyal subjects, who tendered their lives and fortunes in support of his person and goverment, against the designs of the Pretender and his adherents. Such conduct, and such talents, could not remain unnoticed by the court; and the first mark of royal favor conferred upon him, sufficiently demonstrated that the king had a most favorable opinion

of his abilities; for he was made one of the lords of the bed-chamber to the prince of Wales, afterwards George II. In this station he continued after a disagreement had arisen between the king and the prince in ths year 1717; and the prince retaining him in his service, after his royal highness had been forbidden the court, lord Stanhope did not receive any further token of the king's esteem till 1723, when he was appointed captain of the yeomen of the guard. In 1726, he succeeded to the title and peerage of earl of Chesterfield, on the demise of his father, and in the course of the following year, soon after the accession of George 11. he was sworn in one of his majesty's privy-council.

In the year 1728, his lordship was appointed ambassador extraordinary to the States General, which high station he supported with the greatest dignity; and being vested with plenipotentiary powers, he carried on and accomplished, important negociations, equally beneficial to his own country, and satisfactory to the States General, who during the two years he resided at their court, held him in the highest esteem, and manifested their regard to his person, as well as his character, by every mark of respect and attention in their power.

Upon his return to England in 1730, he was elected a knight companion of the noble order of the garter, and appointed steward of the household; and the same year he went back to the Hague with his former character. The following winter, in consequence of some misrepresentation of his conduct as lord-steward of the household, soon after his return from the Hague, a misunderstanding arose between his lordship and the king, which ended in his resignation of that office; and he retired to his country-seat in Derbyshire. But when the parliament sat, he constantly attended his duty, and though for the present he gave up all thoughts of further promotion at court, he did not enter into any party nor oppose the measures of administration, except when he was clearly convinced that they militated against the honor and interest of his country.

About the same time, his lordship married lady Melesina de Schulenberg, countess of Walsingham, the natural daughter of George I, by the dutchess of Kendal and Munster.

In the session of parliament in 1733, his lordship distinguished himself by the active part he took in all the important business of that interesting period. In a warm debate, he opposed the reduction of the army; he strenuously opposed the excise bill; he supported the motion for ordering the directors of the South-sea company to deliver in an account of the disposal of the forfeited estates of the infamous directors in 1720; and upon the failure of another motion, to appoint a committee to examine into the management of the affairs of that company ever since the year 1720, he drew up and entered a spirited protest, which was signed by several other lords.

In the spring of the year 1734, the duke of Marlborough brought a bill into the house of peers, to prevent officers of the army being deprived of their commissions otherwise than by sentence of a court martial; at the same time, the duke moved for an address to his majesty, to know who advised him to deprive the duke of Bolton and lord Cobham of their regiments: for having voted in parliament against the measures of the ministry. Lord Chesterfield warmly seconded the motion, and supported the bill; but they were both rejected by a great majority. In the following session, he took the part of the six Scotch noblemen who presented a petition to the house of peers, complaining of an undue election of the sixteen peers to sit in parliament, and maintained their claim with uncommon spirit.

In 1737, lord Chesterfield gave great disgust to the court, by a masterly speech in favor of the motion, to address his majesty to settle £100,000, per annum, on his royal highness Frederick prince of Wales; and upon its failure, he entered his protest. But his most remarkable speech in this session, was against the bill for subjecting plays to the inspection and licence of the lord chamberlain. Upon this occasion his lordship displayed all the powers of oratory, though without success. He justly considered it as a restraint upon the liberty of the press, and a violation of the rights of the subject. The composition of this speech has been highly extolled as the standard of a correct style, and of masterly eloquence; for which reason it has been copied into such memoirs of his life as are extant, and we shall also insert it.