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exercised to his death, with great care, integrity, and ability : and by his regula- 

 tion of the National accounts, his service to the public remains after his death. 

 Yet, assiduity in Civil employments neither lessened his attention to religion, nor 

 interrupted his daily course of devotion. The discharge of his duty as a Christian 

 was the source and centre of all his desires. His hospitality was great, his 

 liberality greater, his charity private and without ostentation, nor ever made 

 known but where it could not be concealed. He augmented several small livings 

 in this county and in Monmouthshire ; he maintained several charity schools in 

 both, and endowed one for ever at Brampton Brian, the place of his birth. From 

 his known zeal to promote Christian knowledge, and particularly the instruction 

 of youth, in the year 1725 he was chosen Chairman of the Trustees for the Chanty 

 Schools in London. The whole tenour of his life was strictly moral, without 

 dissimulation, pride, or envy, his deportment affable and humble, his conversation 

 cheerful and instructive. He was faithful and constant to his friends, charitable 

 and forgiving to his enemies, just and beneficent to all, and the great example of 

 piety and religion which shone through his life, and was most conspicuous on his 

 death-bed, is the greatest consolation and blessing he has transmitted to his 

 posterity. He was born on the 7th day of June, 1664, and died on the 20th Ajjril, 

 1735." 



The Auditor, as well as his brother Robert, the first Earl of Oxford, incurred 

 the animosity of their neighbour, the eccentric, and somewhat hot-headed, though 

 " upright, courageous, and high principled " Earl of Conyngsby, who in 1715 

 attended by 250 members of the House of Commons impeached the latter at the 

 bar of the House of Lords of high treason, on which charge the Earl was 

 committed to the Tower where he was confined for two years until his trial in 1717, 

 when he was honourably acquitted by his fellow peers. Disappointed in his 

 attempts to destroy the Earl, Lord Conyngsby turned his enmity on the brother 

 who had undauntedly stood forward in his defence in the Lower House, and 

 caused a charge to be brought against him of having embezzled the funds of the 

 State ; but like the more serious impeachment this charge also failed, the auditor, 

 —through whose hands passed in one year thirty-six millions of public money — 

 coming unscathed from the accusation, his accounts being correct within 3s. 4d. 

 which had been mischarged through an error of a clerk. Robert, Earl of Oxford, 

 the trusted and faithful Minister of Queen Anne, of whom Pope said — 



" A Soul Supreme, in each hard instance tryd 

 Above all P.ain, all Passion, and all Pride ; 

 The rage of Power, the blast of publick Breath, 

 The lust of Lucre, and the dread of Death," 



died 21st May, 1724, in his 64th year, and was succeeded by his only son, Edward, 

 2nd Earl, who married Lady Henrietta Cavendish Holies, only daughter of the 

 Duke of Newcastle. Following in the steps of his noble father, who during his 

 life made an extensive collection of manuscripts illustrating the history and 

 antiquities of the country, the second Earl formed a library of the 

 choicest and most magnificent works that had ever been collected in the 

 kingdom, known as the Harleian Library. Both the Earl and his lady 



