HIS lordship's character 89 



be called onerous ; but his lordship's attendance, in 

 rota, on the King naturally occupied time he had 

 previously devoted to other purposes. It is said that 

 the Earl of Bute took a special interest in Lord 

 March, and this may account for his being selected, 

 though his relative the Duke of Queensberry's in- 

 fluence no doubt played some part in the affair. 



This appointment gives me an opportunity to 

 allude to his lordship's character, which neither 

 tradition nor the diurnal writers ^ of this period 

 have spared. This, however, is not prefatory to 

 an attempt to ' whitewash ' his reputation, as, what- 

 ever my record may show him to have been, I have 

 omitted all but substantial facts. 



It is said that a certain ' gentleman ' is not so black 

 as he has been painted, a truism the charitable will 

 admit; therefore, it appears singular that the most 

 well-' subdued ' of the 'Four Georges' should have 

 tolerated for near thirty years (the period his lordship 

 retained his office) close communion with one who, 

 some would have us believe, was all but a fiend in 

 human form. This fact alone, then, tends to qualify 

 much of the common report concerning the Earl of 

 March. 



' Some of these are said to have ' lived ' on the copy they made, 

 or invented, concerning his lordship's doings. 



