1817.1 



[ 565 ] 



BIOGRAPHIANA: 



Or, Memoirs of celebrated Men, reeentl}/ Dead; with Additions and Corrections^ 



A MEMOIR of the tiFE o/ the right HON. 



CHARLES STANHOPE, F. R. S. F. A. S. « 



Member nf the American Philosophical 

 Society of Philadelphia, Earl Stanhope, 

 Viscount Stanhope, of Mahon, in the 

 Inland of Minorca, and Baron Stanhope 

 of Eirastone, in Kent. 



Exitus Acta Probat. 

 THIS nobleman was, assuredly, one of 

 the most singular and celebrated men of 

 tlie present age; it would, therefore, be 

 unjust to permit the memory of a patriot, 

 a philosopher, and a disinterested bene- 

 factor of mankind, to slip away and be 

 fbr-^otten, among the titled herd of ob- 

 •eiire and vulgar characters, who, ac- 

 tuated by mean and selfish motives, seem 

 to live for themselves alone. 



The Stanhopes are connected with the 

 history of this country by their diplomatic 

 transactions, and their military exploits. 

 No fewer than three of them have been 

 ennobled. That of which we now treat is 

 descended from the Chesterfield branch; 

 and James, first Earl of Stanhope, may be 

 considered as the founder of this house. 

 Having been bred to the career of arms, 

 he served as a volunteer in Flanders, soon 

 after the revolution ; and, havin;; distin- 

 guished himself at the siege of Barcelona, 

 he became commander-iw-rhief of the 

 British forces in Spain. It was he who 

 reduced the island of Minorca, an event 

 which conferred on him the title of Vis- 

 count Stanhope of Port Mahon, in 1777 ; 

 and, in the course of the next year, he was 

 promoted to the dignity of an earldom. 

 But he was also a Whig and a statesman, 

 as well as a soldier ; for he not only sup- 

 ported those principles which placed the 

 illustrions hous(? of Hanover on the tlirone, 

 but acted as tiist Lord of the Treasury 

 and Chancellor of the Exchequer, during 

 critical times, and wili no small degree 

 of reputaiion, in resijcct to himself as 

 well as singular advantage to his native 

 coimtry. 



His sou, (Philip,') the second Earl, while 

 a minor, was confided to the <;iiardi:mship 

 of the celebrated Philip Dormer, Earl of 

 Chesterlield, who wished, of course, to 

 make a fine gentleman of him. Hut he 

 chose rathor to become a jjreat ninthema- 

 tician, and actually disiinguished 'imsilf 

 such, by his sciontitic knowledge. As 

 a politician ami a patriot, he opposed the 

 American war, anil died March 7, 17i!6. 



Philip, the third Earl, and eldest sur- 

 viving son, of the second, by Grizel Ha- 

 milton, grand-danshter of the P.arl of 

 Haddington, of whom we now treat, was 

 born on Anp;iist 3, 17'>J. When only 

 eight years of ago, he was sent to Eton, 

 for his education, where he remained until 

 ]» was tea. An tlvs hvoltU of iiU elder 



brother rendered a change of climate 

 necessary, the whole family repaired to 

 the Continent, and settled tor some years 

 at Geneva. On his death, which followed 

 soon after, Philip became Viscount Ma- 

 hon, and was placed under the tuition of 

 the celebrated Monsieur Le Sage, who 

 kept up a correspondence with several of 

 the foreign academies. 



Like his father, he now devoted himself 

 chiefly to scientitic pursuits, and at the age 

 of eighteen, became a candidate for, antl 

 actually obtained the premium offered by, 

 the Swedish Society of Arts and Saences, 

 foraTreatise on the Structure of the Pen- 

 dulum. On this occasion, his thesis was 

 written in the French language, which 

 argues no small skill in a foreign idiom, 

 at so early a peimd of life, and aU\.r 

 such a short residence on the Continent. 



Returning from the neighbourhood of 

 Switzerland, so celebrated in the annals 

 of freedom, and from a town where he 

 claimed the rights of citizenship, on ac- 

 count of his devotion to the popular party 

 there. Lord Mahon determined to assert 

 those principles with which he was early 

 and deeply embued, in the senate of his 

 native country. Accordingly, in the au- 

 tumn of 1774, he offered himself a candi- 

 date to represent the second city in the 

 kingdom; but having failed in Westminster, 

 where neither his principles nor preten- 

 sions were sufliciently known, he was after- 

 wards returned, or rather nominated, for 

 the Borough of High Wycombe, where the 

 late Marquis of Lausdown, then Earl of Shel- 

 burne, possessed a preponderant influence. 

 Notwithstanding this, Lord Mahon was 

 one of the most strenuous advocates for 

 a parliamentary reform. He always acted 

 in conjunction with his relative, the late 

 Mr. Pitt, while that gentleman chose to 

 adhere to his professions and engagements 

 in respect to this measure. Accordingly, 

 lie not only becanit- chairman of the Ken- 

 tish committee, assembled for tlie purpose 

 of obtaining a more equal representation 

 of the people in the House of Commons, 

 but actually sat in convention with the 

 future Premier, a circumstance which the 

 latter seems to have foruotten on the trial 

 of John Hnt-n^Tooke, when interrogated 

 on oath, until reminded of the fact by the 

 inconvenient recollection of the late Mr, 

 Sheridan. 



But it was to his father-in-law, William 

 Pitt, first Earl of Cliatham, that he looked 

 up with woiulcf and admiration ; it was he 

 whom he viesved as a steady, as well as 

 enlightened patriot, and always deemed 

 him his '• guide, philosopher, and friend." 

 Like him, and his own father, lie opi>oscd 

 the American war, with unvarying, con- 

 Siaacv; ami when Lord North and his 

 iCX coadjut.rs 



