APPENDIX TO CHRONICLE. 



375 



lord Shelburne having resigned 

 before Mr. W.'s return from the 

 continent, without making any 

 provision for him, he was obliged 

 to prefer his claim to the conlition 

 administration, by which it was 

 rejected ; nor was it till seven 

 years after, that a small pension 

 was granted to him by his majesty, 

 on the recommendation of those 

 in power. Mr. W., rather late in 

 life, married a lady of the name of 

 Sidney, by whom he has left four 

 children. The character of this 

 gentleman is ably delineated by 

 Dr. Goldsmith, in his well-known 

 poem entitled Retaliation : 



" Here Whitefoord reclines, and deny 

 it who can, 



Though he merrily liv'd, he is now ' a 

 grave man.' 



Rare compound of oddity, frolic, and fun, 



Who relisU'd a joke, and rejoic'd in a 

 pun ; 



Whose temper was generous, open, sin- 

 cere, 



A strang-er to flatt'ry, a stranger to fear ; 



Who scatter'd around wit and humour 

 at will, 



AVhose daily bon mots half a column 

 might fill ; 



A Scotchman, from pride and from pre- 

 judice free, 



A scholar, but surely no pedant, was he. 



What a pity, alas ! that so lib'ral a mind 



Should so long be to newspaper essays 

 confin'd ; 



Who perhaps to the summit of science 

 could soar, 



Y€t content if the tahle he ' set in a 

 roar;' 



Whose talents to fill any station were fit, 



Yet happy if Woodfall confess'd him a 

 wit. 



Ye newspa;ier witlings ! ye pert scrib- 

 bling folks. 



Who copied his squibs and re-echoed 

 his jokes ; 



Yetame imitators! ye servile herd, come, 



Still follow your master, and visit his 

 tomb ; 



To deck it bring with you festoons of 

 the vine. 



And copious libations bestow on his 

 shrine ; 



Then strew all around it, you can do no 

 less, 



Cross-readings, ship-news, and mistakes 

 of the press. 



Merry Whitefoord, farewell! for thy 

 sake I admit, 



That a Scot may have humour, I had al- 

 most said wit : 



This debt to thy mem'ry I cannot refuse, 



Thou best-humour'd man, with the 

 worst-humour'd muse." 



At Clapham Common, the hon- 

 curable Henry Cavendish, cousin 

 of lord George C. and of the duke 

 of Devonshire, and one of the 

 most eminent chemists and natural 

 philosophers of the age. He left 

 iunded property to the amount of 

 one million two hundred thousand 

 pounds ; seven hundred thousand 

 of which are bequeathed to lord 

 G. Cavendish, two hundred thou- 

 sand to the earl of Besborough, 

 and the remainder in legacies to 

 other branches of the Devonshire 

 family. This gentleman was the 

 son of the late lord Charles Caven- 

 dish, great uncle to the present 

 duke of Devonshire, and although 

 not much heard of in the common 

 paths of life, was well known and 

 highly distinguished in the scien- 

 tific world. He had studied and 

 rendered himself familiarly conver- 

 sant with every part of sir Isaac 

 Newton's philosophy ; the princi- 

 ples of which he applied, near forty 

 years ago, to an investigation of 

 the laws on which the phaenomena 

 ofelectricity depend. Pursuing the 

 same science, on the occasion of 

 Mr. Walsh's experiments with the 

 torpedo, he gave a satisfactory ex- 

 planation of the remarkable powers 

 of electrical fishes ; pointing out 

 that distinction between common 

 and animal electricity, which has 

 since been amply confirmed by the 

 brilliant discoveries in galvanism. 

 Having turned his attention very 



