greater justice to the memory of a statesman, who, whatever might have been his public or private defects, maintained his country in tranquillity for a longer period than had been experienced since the reign of James the first 4." Mr. Burke has drawn an estimate of his character little less favourable, in An Appeal from the New to the Old Whigs. Mr. Coxe has added to lord Orford's list of his father's publications, "Some Considerations concerning the public Revenues, and the annual Supplies granted by Parliament, occasioned by a late Pamphlet entitled, An Enquiry into the Conduct of our domestic Affairs, from the Year 1721 to Christmas 1733." Printed in 17355. Mr. Reed has supplied me with the following title from Anthony Collins's Catalogue 6: "A Letter to the Examiner." since that, he has been to the full as well banged about because it did rise too high. So experience has taught me how wrong, unjust, and senseless party factions are, therefore I am determined never wholly to believe any side or party against the other." 4 Ut sup. p. 753. 5 Memoir of Sir Robert Walpole, p. 752. See also Bibl. West. No. 1313. 6 Anthony Collins, says Mr. Nichols, was particularly curious in adding the name of the author to every anonymous book in his collection: and when we add that the catalogue of his library was drawn by Dr. Sykes, whose skill and accuracy is well known; it will be deemed in many cases no inconsiderable voucher. Supp. to Swift, vol. iii. p. 40. Perhaps the following may convey as genuine an impression as could be shown of the mind of a public minister, withdrawn from the tumult of political exertion, and sinking into the supineness of uncongenial seclusion. It has been regarded, it seems, as indicating a love of retirement, and contempt of grandeur; but I conceive, with sir Robert's biographer, that it denotes the writer was weary of a repose which he affected to praise; and did not, as much as he professed, taste the charms of cultivated nature, or the beauties of pictorial art, "Earl of Orford to General Churchill, "Dear Charles, "Houghton, June 24, 1743 "This place affords no news, no subject of entertainment or amusement; for fine men of wit and pleasure about town understand not the language, and taste not the pleasure of the inanimate world. My flatterers here are all mutes. The oaks, the beeches, the chesnuts, seem to contend which best shall please the lord of the manor. They cannot deceive, they will not lie. I in sincerity admire them, and have as many beauties about me as fill up all my hours of dangling, and no disgrace attends me from sixty-seven years of age. Within doors we come a little nearer to real life, and admire upon the almost speaking canvass, all the airs and graces which the proudest ladies can boast. With these I am satisfied, as they gratify me with all I wish, and all I want, and expect nothing in return which I cannot give. "If these, dear Charles, are any temptations, I heartily invite you to come and partake of them. Shifting the scene has sometimes its recommendation; and from country fare you may possibly return with a better appetite to the more delicate entertainments of a court life. "Since I wrote the above we have been surprised with the good news from abroad. Too much cannot be said of it. It is truly matter of infinite joy, because of infinite consequence. "I am, dear Charles, "Yours, most affectionately, Welsted in 1727 addressed a discourse to sir Robert Walpole, and annexed proposals for translating the whole works of Horace, toward which he endeavoured to attract the minister's notice, and for the furtherance of which he earnestly solicited his protection: but we learn from Mr. Coxe's Memoir that a liberal patronage of men of letters was one of the desiderata in the character of that premier; and this is confirmed by Dr. Johnson's report, that he rewarded Savage with twenty guineas only for his excellent panegyrical epistle.] The battle of Dettingen. Correspondence, &c. of Sir Robert Walpole, vol. i. p. 762. BAPTIST NOEL, EARL OF GAINSBOROUGH, [WAS born in 1708; succeeded his father, the third earl, in 1714; married Miss Elizabeth Chapman, by whom he left a numerous issue; and died March 21, 1751. His character was drawn by the pen of lavish encomium in a funeral sermon preached by the Rev. John Skynner, public orator at Cambridge; and may be perused in Collins 2. According to the orator's report, his virtues and graces appear to have approached perfection; while his skill in music, painting, and poetry; his knowledge in the arts and embellishments of elegant life; and his acquaintance with history and the sciences, rendered him at all times capable of furnishing a polite entertainment both for himself and others, of the same improved and cultivated taste. "To speak of him in the more extensive relations of society," adds his lordship's encomiast," he was a true Briton, zealously devoted to the interest of his country, and consequently most inviolable in his attachments to the present royal family. Accordingly, he contributed to the support of those principles when they were in so much danger of being subverted in 1745; and the services he then performed in mainte • See Peerage, vol. iii. p. 491. |