811.) 
nisters are before you who brought you 
hither. Some of your lordships may 
have given your support from laudable 
motives ; Lut this confidence has proved 
fatal, and all support given to the same 
ministers, from this moment, the public 
‘will consider as afforded with open eyes, 
and therefore calculated to: involvesthem 
equally with the administration, in the 
‘guilt of every future fatal project. 
‘© As for myself, I solemnly protest, 
‘that no consideration the world can offer 
‘would stand in competition with the 
comfort 1 feel, that so far from having 
abetted the pernicious counsels which 
‘have brought on the downfall of the em- 
pire, I have, to the best of my little abi- 
lity, endeavoured by every constitutional 
means to prevent them.” 4 
The following werethe concluding words 
of the last speech delivered by him in 
parliament:  ‘* Before I retire to fortify 
‘my own mind against the calamities which 
‘are fast approaching, and to prepare my 
family for those which they will have 
probably to undergo, I shall think ita 
duty incumbent on me to lay before my 
‘sovereign the reasons for my conduct ; 
flattering myself that I shall be allowed 
that gracioustearing which His Majesty 
has so ihaeitavives to one, from whose 
‘tongue he never heard but the dictates 
of the heart a8 sincercly as they are now 
‘delivered.co your lordships. I shall then 
with raw: mMY Country-seat, to instruct 
my chien, and await in awful silence 
the eventfiperiod which I sce approach- 
ing {7 ’ 
Having thus viewed the duke of Graf- 
‘ton both as.a father and a politician, we 
shall next survey him in another point of 
view, Of late years, the subject of this 
memoir has been very assiduous in cols 
Jecting books, and the library left be- 
hind him contains the three grand desi- 
derata, being copious, splendid, and se- 
Ject. He obtained possession of many 
of the searcest, best, and most esteemed, 
copies of the classics; these were not 
locked up with a narrow spirit, and ren- 
dered accessible to the noble owner, his 
family, and his friends alone; buc they 
might have been viewed and consulted 
by any student, or man of letters, to 
whom they were likely to prove service- 
able. His Grace also reprinted an edition 
of Griesbach’s Greek ‘Testament, under 
the inspection of the editor, to accom- 
modate whom, paper for this purpose 
was sent abroad to the continent, at the 
duke’s expense. When the work was 
completed, he distrivuted a great number 
* 
Memoirs of the late Duke of Grafton. 
245 
of the copies, in the most liberal manner; 
and, to render the circulation still more 
extensive, consented tu sell the remainder 
ata low price. He himself also appears 
to have been an author; atleast two well. 
written pamphlets have been attributed 
to him, which assuredly had his assent, 
and perhaps his corrections, as well as 
his approbation. The first of these, pub- 
lished about twenty years ago, is intitled 
‘*Hints submitted to the serious Attention 
of the Clergy, Nobility, and Gentry, newly 
associated; by a Layman.” The sub 
Ject includes the church liturgy, and sub- 
scription ; and, as His Grace frequented 
the Unitarian Chapel in Essex-street, 
during the ministry of Mr. Lindsey, as 
well as of Dr. Disney, and Mr. Belsham, 
his opinions on this subject may be 
easily guessed at, The second is entitled 
Apeleutherus,* The dedication is in- 
scribed D. O. M. and the preface is an 
eloquent and able address, -in praise of 
the desire of knowledge, when cherished 
witha view to the improvement of moral 
practice, and the increase of human fe- 
licity. No doctrine we are told must be 
so unquestionable, nu authority so sacred, 
as to bar inquiry. He who is persuaded 
that every upright man must be happy 
In every stage of his existence, is no fur- 
ther desirous of the prevalence of any 
Opinion, than as it appears calculated to 
affect moral practice ; and, as to the libe- 
ral enquirer, he cannot persuade himself 
to indulge any deep distress about the 
faith of any man, who knows what it is 
“© to fear God, and depart froin evil.” 
As an apology for withholding his name, 
the author observes, that he honours the 
bold spirit of a Luther and a Wakefield ; 
the fearless integrity of a Price and a 
Priestley: but he confesses himself un- 
equal to the imitation of these illustrious 
characters,—he is uoambitious of repu- 
tation—he courts obscurity—he is de- 
sirous alone of exhibiting a faithful sketch 
of genuine christianity. 
Part 1. is occupied on the subject of 
public worship, and here he begins by 
observing, that prayer naturally follows 
the belief of a God; and to suppose a 
finite creature living under a sense of di- 
vine providence, and yet abstaining 
wholly from any sort of address to him, 
seems contrary to all experience, and 
absurd ‘in itself... ‘* But beyond this, 
beyond the secret, silent, aspiration of the 
heart towards the source of all good, a 
A II 
* amcdevdegos—libertuseea freed man. 
practice 
