The public career of Dodington was truly contemptible. His abilities and large fortune might have procured him honour and power; but his time-serving policy, his paltry intrigues, and his utter sacrifice of the different principles which he alternately professed, whenever they appeared to impede his advance to that dignity which he so long desired, and never deserved, brought on him the ridicule of his cotemporaries, impeded his rise, and rendered his name infamous with posterity. As a speaker he was able, though affected. His countenance was handsome, and his figure striking: but his appearance was generally absurd, on account of the bad taste which he displayed in his dress. He wore an odd-looking wig, which has been doubly immortalized; Churchill having described it in verse, and Hogarth introduced it among his order of periwigs. Pope frequently amused the town at Dodington's expence; and Sir Charles Hanbury Williams satirized him in a ballad, entitled "A Grub upon Bubb." On the other hand, he was complimented by Thomson, Lyttleton, and Young: the former dedicated the first edition of "Summer" to him, and the two latter printed some of their productions under his patronage. He was an author himself, having, in addition to his Diary, written some mediocre political tracts and common-place poems. His house was frequently crowded with literary men, and he was on intimate terms with Fielding, Glover, Bentley, Voltaire, and Chesterfield.

Dodington is said to have possessed much wit. One day, while walking home from the treasury with his colleagues, Winnington and Sundon, the latter laughed heartily at a remark made by Dodington; and having soon afterwards quitted his brother commis

sioners, Winnington said, "You are very ungrateful, Dodington: you call Sundon stupid and slow; and yet you see how quickly he took what you said." "Oh! no," replied Dodington, "you mistake; depend upon it, he was only laughing just now at something I said last week."

Falling asleep in his chair after dinner one day, in the company of Sir Richard Temple and Lord Cobham, when he awoke, the latter reproached him for the breach of decorum which he had committed. Dodington, however, declared that he had not been asleep, and to prove the truth of his assertion, repeated, with great accuracy, a story which Lord Cobham admitted he had just been telling Sir Richard. "And yet," said Dodington, "I did not hear a word of it: for, to tell the truth, I did go to sleep, because I knew that about this time of day, you would tell that particular story."

His taste was outrageously bad, in his houses and their embellishments, as well as his dress. His great bedchamber at Eastberry was hung with rich red velvet; his crest, an eagle supporting a hunting horn, cut out of gilt leather, was pasted on all the panels; and the bedside carpet was a splendid patchwork of his old embroidered pocket-flaps and cuffs. The turf in front of his mansion at Hammersmith, subsequently called Brandenburghhouse, was ornamented with his crest in pebbles; he had a fire-place decorated with mock icicles; a purple and orange bed crowned by a dome of peacock's feathers; a marble door, supported by columns of lapis lazuli, leading to a gallery (filled with statues), which, although not on the ground floor, was paved with marble; and a large obelisk, in the approach to his house, surmounted by an urn of bronze, containing the heart of his wife.

THOMAS, the eldest son of Thomas Lord Pelham, was born on the 21st of July, 1694. He succeeded to his father's honours in February, 1712;

and subsequently came into possession of the large estates of his uncle, John Holles, Duke of Newcastle. In October, 1714, he was created Viscount Pelham,

and Earl of Clare; and in August, 1715, Duke of Newcastle. In April, 1717, he married Henrietta, eldest daughter of the earl of Godolphin, by whom he had no children.

Although his talents were below mediocrity, yet riches, rank, and parliamentary influence, raised him to the zenith of political power. His ignorance, considering the high station he occupied, was extraordinary. At one time while he was in office, Lord Ligonier having suggested to him the propriety of defending Annapolis, he replied, "To be sure:- -Annapolis ought to be protected.-Oh! yes,Annapolis shall be defended!-Where is Annapolis?"

When young, he attracted much notice for the zeal, rather than the ability, with which he supported the interests of the house of Hanover; in whose favour, as it is stated, he retained a mob to shout and halloo during the latter part of the reign of Queen Anne. With the assistance of his brother, he raised a troop of horse, to assist in putting down the Jacobites; and was, in return for his loyalty, made a knight of the Garter, lord chamberlain, and secretary of state. Sir Robert Walpole expected to have found him a quiet and imbecile coadjutor; but the duke soon began to intrigue against the prime minister, after whose resignation he gradually increased in power, until, at length, without evincing any capacity for so exalted an office, he obtained the premiership.

By the aid of his more talented brother, Henry Pelham, and the vast influence which the distribution of his riches had procured him, he contrived to retain his post almost in spite of George the Second, who was so irritated by his insolence, that he often grossly abused, but could not dismiss, him. The king, on one occasion, complained that he had so many of the Newcastle footmen about him, that he should soon be unable to make even a page of the back stairs. The duke acquired such a victory over his majesty, in 1745, that the monarch, for a considerable period, did not dare to hazard another struggle for his prerogative. During the rebellion, attempts were made, by the king and some of the opposition, to form a new ministry; but, before

the plan was matured, the Pelhams, having received information of the proceeding, threw his majesty into a frightful dilemma, by suddenly resigning their offices. The king, after a vain attempt to extricate himself from the difficulties of his situation, was compelled, within a few days, to invite the deserters to resume their posts. The success of their stratagem secured the whole of the executive power to the Newcastle party; until, eventually, its gigantic influence found so formidable a rival in the genius of Pitt, that the duke was compelled to admit him, first to a share in the government, and finally to the chief direction of public affairs. After having dwindled to a mere cipher compared with his great coadjutor, the duke, at length, retired from office in disgust. He died in July, 1776.

As an

The duke's person, according to Horace Walpole, was not naturally despicable, but his gross incapacity made it ridiculous. He affected an importance of manner; but was, in fact, hurried and insignificant. He had a strong inclination for business, but was ill adapted to execute it. The Earl of Wilmington said of him, "He loses half an hour every morning, and runs after it all the rest of the day without being able to overtake it." orator he was verbose, but not very intelligible. Although feared by all parties, there were few who did not despise and laugh at him. He was extravagant but not generous; prodigal of professions, but slow to execute the long catalogue of his promises; servile to obtain power, and arrogant in its exercise. He had some skill for intrigue, although his plans were generally impolitic, and it is extraordinary that they were so often successful, for he had not even intellect enough to keep them secret. He made some pretensions to candour, without attempting to support them. His great peculiarity consisted in creating enemies for those whom he had previously succeeded in making his friends. Sir Robert Walpole used to say of him, "His name is Perfidy."

He spent immense sums of money, and owed as much as he had dissipated. He employed, and liberally paid, several physicians and apothecaries, without,

apparently, ever having had much need of them. His gold plate appears to have been almost as dear to him as his health. He usually kept it in pawn, except when he wished to display it on great occasions. He ventured to take it with him to Hanover, in 1752; and when he returned, he had it guarded by a party of dragoons, from

the place in Yorkshire where it was landed, the whole way to London. He was so timid, that he would never sleep in a room alone; and when he had determined on accompanying the king to his electorate, he refused to sail in any vessel except a yacht in which Lord Cardigan had previously weathered a terrible storm.

THIS celebrated nobleman, of whom Dr. Johnson once remarked, "that he was a wit among lords, but a lord among wits," was the eldest son of Philip, third Earl of Chesterfield, by Lady Elizabeth Savile, daughter of the Marquis of Halifax. He was born in London, on the 22nd of September, 1694; and prosecuted his studies, under private tutors, until the eighteenth year of his age, when he was sent to Trinity college, Cambridge; where, although he is said to have laboured diligently for the acquirement of knowledge, it does not appear that he obtained any scholastic honours. Prior to attaining his majority, he quitted the university, and made the tour of Europe, without a governor. While abroad he acquired a fondness for gaming, which clung to him during the remainder of his life; but although his conduct in general, at this period, was exceedingly dissolute, he continued to cultivate his talents, and appears to have been resolved on attaining a high degree of celebrity as an orator and a statesman.

In 1715, he became a gentleman of the bedchamber to the Prince of Wales; and about the same time, took his seat in the house of commons as member for St. Germains, in Cornwall. In one of his letters to his son, he states, that from the day of his election, to that on which he delivered his maiden speech, which was a month afterwards, he thought and dreamed of nothing but speaking. His first parliamentary effort, was an oration in support of the proposed impeachment of those who had been concerned in the treaty of Utrecht. Shortly afterwards he discontinued his attendance in parliament, and passed

several months at Paris, in consequence of some notice having been taken of his illegal conduct in taking his seat while yet a minor; for he was still under age. He returned to his senatorial duties some time in the year 1716, and warmly supported the septennial bill. On the rupture taking place between George the First and the heir-apparent, he joined the opposition party, headed by the latter; and rendered himself particularly offensive, for a considerable period, to the king and his administration. In 1723, he was, however, made captain of the yeomen of the guards, but received his dismissal in 1725. In the following year, he succeeded to the titles of his father.

Soon after the accession of George the Second, he was sent out as ambassador to the Hague, where he displayed considerable diplomatic talent; on his return to England, in 1730, he was made a knight of the Garter, and high steward of his majesty's household. He subsequently repaired again to the Hague, and participated in concluding an important treaty between the courts of London and Vienna, and the States General. At the latter end of 1732, he quitted the party of Sir Robert Walpole, whose excise bill he opposed with great vehemence. His dismissal from office immediately followed, and the king treated him with such marked coolness, that he ceased to attend at court. From this time, until the year 1744, he was constantly in opposition, not only to Walpole, but to whatever party happened to be in office: his animosity being, it seems, directed not against men, or their measures, so much as against the government itself, by

dropped repartees, that sparkled with his juvenile fire."

One night, on being asked, in the Haymarket theatre, if he had been to the other house, in Lincoln's-Inn Fields, which, although preferred by their majesties, was not so fashionably attended as its rival, Chesterfield replied in the affirmative; "but," added he, "there was nobody there but the king and queen; and as I thought they might be talking about business, I came away."

His style as a writer was easy, pure, and brilliant; Pope once borrowed his diamond ring, and wrote the following extemporaneous couplet, in compliment to his literary abilities, on the window of an inn :

Accept a miracle instead of wit,

See two dull lines, with Stanhope's pencil writ. His collected works occupy several quarto volumes; but they have lost much of their interest, in consequence of the subjects on which he wrote being for the most part of a temporary nature. He was the author of some elegant verses, in Dodsley's collection; and many poems published during his life, were falsely, but, as it has been insinuated, by his connivance, attributed to his pen. He corresponded constantly with Algarotti, Montesquieu and Voltaire; and most of the literary men in this country accorded him the reputation of being the Mæcenas of his age. Numerous books were dedicated to him; and he was eulogised as being the all-accomplished arbiter of taste, both in literature and the drama. But doubts may be reasonably entertained if his own pretensions, or even a tithe of the applauses conferred on him by his literary adherents, were warranted by facts. At one period he treated Johnson with contempt; but subsequently, when the dictionary was on the eve of publication, in a spirit of true meanness, he courted the lexicographer's favour, in hopes of having his

name immortalized, in a dedication to so important a work. Johnson, however, rejected his advances, in a letter remarkable for its stern sarcasm and dignified rebuke.

His biographer, Dr. Maty, describes him as having been a nobleman unequalled, in his time, for variety of talents, brilliancy of wit, politeness, and elegance of conversation; at once a man of pleasure and business; yet never suffering the former to encroach upon the latter; an able statesman; a first rate orator; in public life upright, conscientious and steady: in private, friendly and affectionate; in both, pleasant, amiable and conciliating.

"Lord Chesterfield's eloquence," says the same author, "though the fruit of study and imitation, was, in a great measure, his own. Equal to most of his cotemporaries in elegance and perspicuity, perhaps surpassed by some in extensiveness and strength, he could have no competitors in choice of imagery, taste, urbanity, and graceful irony. This turn might have originally arisen from the delicacy of his frame; which, as on the one hand, it deprived him of the power of working forcibly upon the passions of his hearers, enabled him, on the other, to affect their finer sensations, by nice touches of raillery and humour. His strokes, however poignant, were always under the control of decency and good sense. He reasoned best when he appeared most witty; and while he gained the affections of his hearers, he turned the laugh on his opposers, and often forced them to join in it."

Although evidently endowed with great talents, his letters to his son prove him to have been a man of despicable principles. No attack of an enemy could have degraded him so much as the publication of these epistles, which, as Johnson says, inculcate the morals of a strumpet with the manners of a dancing-master.

college, Cambridge, where his classical and mathematical attainments are said to have procured him considerable re