fions and embaffies of compliment; as if the King defigned to show the French, (who would be thought the politeft nation) that one of the finest gentlemen in Europe was his fubject; and that we had a prince who understood his worth fo well as not to fuffer him to be long out of his prefence. The fucceeding reign neither relished my Lord's wit nor approved his maxims; fo he retired altogether from Court. But as the irretrievable mistakes of that unhappy government went on to threaten the nation with fomething more terrible than a Dutch war, he thought it became him to refume the courage of his youth, and once more to engage himself in defending the liberty of his country. He entered into the Prince of Orange's intereft, and carried on his part of that great enterprife here in London, and under the eye of the Court, with the fame refolution as his friend and fellow patriot the late Duke of Devonshire did in open arms at Nottingham, till the dangers of thofe times increased to extremity, and just apprehenfions arose for the fafety of the princess, our prefent glorious Queen; then the Earl of Dorfet was thought the propereft guide of her necessary flight, and the perfon under whose courage and direction the nation might moft fafely truft a charge fo precious and important. After the establishment of their late Majesties upon the throne there was room again at Court for men of my Lord's character. He had a part in the councils of thofe princes, a great fhare in their friendship, and all the marks of diftinction with which a good government could reward a patriot. He was made Chamberlain of their Majesties household, a place which he fo eminently adorned by the grace of his perfon, the fine4efs of his breeding, and the knowledge and practice of what what was decent and magnificent, that he could only be rivalled in thefe qualifications by one great man, who has fince held the fame ftaff. The last honours he received from his fovereign (and indeed they were the greatest which a fubject could receive) were, that he was made knight of the garter, and conftituted one of the regents of the kingdom during his Majesty's abfence. But his health, about that time, fenfibly declining, and the public affairs not threatened by any imminent danger, he left the business to those who delighted more in the ftate of it, and appeared only sometimes at council, to show his respect to the commission; giving as much leifure as he could to the relief of those pains with which it pleafed God to afflict him, and indulging the reflections of a mind, that had looked through the world with too piercing an eye, and was grown weary of the profpect. Upon the whole, it may very jufly be faid of this great man, with regard to the public, that through the courfe of his life, he acted like an able pilot in a long voyage; contented to fit quiet in the cabin, when the winds were allayed, and the waters smooth; But vigilent and ready to refume the helm when the form arofe, and the fea grew tumultuous. I ask your pardon, my Lord, if I look yet a little more nearly into the late Lord Dorfet's character: if I examine it not without some intention of finding fault, and (which is an odd way of making a panegyric) fet his blemishes and imperfections in open view. The fire of his youth carried him to fome excesses; but they were accompanied with a most lively invention, and true humour. The little violences and easy mistakes of a night too gaily spent (and that too in the beginning of life) were always fet right the next day, with great humanity, and ample retribution. His faults brought C 2 their their excufe with them; and his very failings hat their beauties. So much fweetness accompanied what he faid, and fo great generofity what he did, that people were always prepossessed in his favour: and it was in fact true, what the late Earl of Rochester faid in jeft to King Charles, that he did not know how it was, but my Lord Dorfet might do any thing, yet was never to blame. He was naturally very fubject to paffion: but the Short guft was foon over, and ferved only to set off the charms of his temper, when more compofed. That every pafion broke out with a force of wit, which made even anger agreeable: while it lafted, he said and forgot a thousand things, which other men would have been glad to have studied and wrote: but the impetuofity was corrected upon a moment's reflection, and the measure altered with fuch grace and delicacy, that you could fcarce perceive where the key was changed. He was very sharp in his reflections; but never in the wrong place. His darts were fure to wound; but they were fure, too, to hit none but those whofe follies gave him very fair aim. And, when he allowed no quarter, he had certainly been provoked by more than common error, by men's tedious and circumftantial recitals of their affairs, or by their multiplied questions about his on; by extreme ignorance and impertinence, or the mixture of thefe, an ill-judged and never-ceafing cr vility, or, laftly, by the two things which were his utter averfion, the infinuation of a flatterer, and the whisper of a tale-bearer. If therefore we fet the piece in its worst pofition, if its faults be most expofed, the shades will still appear very finely joined with their lights, and every imperfection will be diminished by the lufire of fome neighbouring bouring virtue: but if we turn the great drawings and wonderful colourings to their true light, the whole muft appear beautiful, noble, and admirable. He poffeffed all thofe virtues, in the highest degree, upon which the pleasure of fociety, and the happiness of life, depend: and he exercised them with the greatest decency, and best manners. As good-nature is faid, by a great author, to belong more particularly to the English, than any other nation; it may again be faid, that it belonged more particularly to the late Earl of Dorfet, than to any other Englishman. A kind husband he was, without fondness: and an indulgent father, without partiality. So extraordinary good a master, that this quality ought indeed to have been numbered among his defects; for he was often ferved worse than became his ftation, from his un-willingness to affume an authority too fevere. And, during those little transports of passion, to which I just now said he was fubject, I have known his fervants get into his way that they might make a merit of it immediately after; for he that had the good fortune to be chid, was fure of being rewarded for it. His table was one of the last that gave us an example of the old house-keeping of an English nobleman. A freedom reigned at it, which made every one of his guests think himself at home; and an abundance, which Showed that the mafter's hofpitality extended to many more than thofe who had the honour to fit at table with him. In his dealings with others, his care and exactness that every man should have his due, was fuch, that you would think he had never seen a court: the politeness and civility, with which this juftice was administered, would convince you he never had lived out of one. He * Sprat. He was fo frit an observer of his word, that no confideration whatever could make him break it; yet fo cautious, left the merit of his act should arife from that obligation only, that he ufually did the greatest favours, without making any previous promise. So inviolable was he in his friendship, and so kind to the character of those whom he had once honoured with a more intimate acquaintance, that nothing less than a demonftration of fome effential fault could make him break with them; and then too, his good-nature did not confent to it, with out the greatest reluctance and difficulty. Let me give one inftance of this amongst many. When, as Lord Chamberlain, he was obliged to take the King's pension from Mr. Dryden, who had long before put himself out of a poffibility of receiving any favour from the Court; my Lord allowed him an equivalent out of his own eftate. However difpleafed with the conduct of his old acquaintance, he relieved his neceffities; and while he gave him his affiftance in private, in public he extenuated and pitied his error. The foundation indeed of thefe excellent qualities, and the perfection of my Lord Dorfet's character, was that unbounded charity which ran through the whole tenour of his life, and fat as visibly predominant over the other faculties of his foul, as fhe is faid to do in heaven above. her fifter virtues. Crowds of poor daily thronged his gates, expecting thence their bread; and were still lesened by his fending the most proper objects of his bounty to apprenticeships or hofpitals. The lazy and the fick, as he accidentally faw them, were removed from the fireet to the physician; and many of them not only restored to health, but fupplied with what might enable them to refume their former callings, and make their future life happy. The prifoner |