STANHOPE. 



places of worfhip, the lufs their fccret machiaations were to 

 be regarded. He, however, kept a vicrilaiit eye \ipon all 

 their proceedings, but difcouragcd idle fiifpicions and mali- 

 cious informations. A zealous Proteftanc once came, very 

 ofRcioufly, as the noble lord thought, to inform him that 

 one of his coachmen went privately to mafs. " Does 

 he?" faid the lord lieutenant : " I will take care that he 

 never drives me thither." Such, fays his biographer, was 

 lord Chefterfield's conduft in his vice-royalty, that he 

 quitted it with the regret of all parties ; and that, to this 

 day, the fpirit of his adminiftration is regarded as a model 

 fo'- ail who are entrufted with that important ftation. He 

 returned to England in April, 1746, when the rebellion 

 was terminated by the victory gained at the battle of Cul- 

 loden. 



He now accepted the office of fecretary of ft ate, with the 

 duke of Newcallle as his coUeag'ie. Never approving, in 

 his own mind, of the war in which the nation was engaged, 

 and coiiftantly withing for peace upon reafonable terms, he 

 ■was neverthelefs carried away, by a fuperior influence in the 

 cabinet, to concur in the meafures of the court, till their 

 ill ficcff" ind\iced him to draw up a Wrong memorial, 

 whicn bei .g d fregarded, he refigned his place in February, 

 1748, and never afterwards joined iu any adminiftration. 

 From this period till his death he lived as a private noble- 

 man, attaclied to the arts and to letters, and was looked up 

 to throughout Europe as inferior to none of his high rank 

 for biilliancy of wit, and the poHfh of cultivated fociety. 

 Being feized with a deafiiefs in 1752, that incapacitated him, 

 in a meafure, for the pleafures of f.iciety, he led a retired 

 life, amiifing himfelf with his books and his pen. He 

 engaged rather largely as a volunteer in a periodical 

 work, entit'ed " The World," in which his contributions 

 have a diltinguilhtd degree of excellence. His lordfhip 

 maintained a charafter for wit and talents that has few 

 equals. He rendered himfelf illuflrious, as we have feen, 

 by his eloquence in parliament, on many important occa- 

 fions, of viJliich there is a charafteriftic inftance of his own 

 relating. He was an aftive promoter of the bill for altering 

 the ftyle ; on which occafion, as he himfelf relates in one of 

 his letters to his fon, he made fo eloquent a fpecch in the 

 houfe, that every one was pleafed, and faid he had made 

 the whole very clear to them ; " which," fays he, " God 

 knows, I never attempted. I could juft as foon hsve talked 

 Celtic or Sclavonian to them as aftronomy, and they would 

 have underltood me jult as well." The high charafter which 

 lord Chefterlield had fupported through life received no 

 fmall injury, foon after his death, fr»m a full difplay of it 

 by his own hand. He left no iffue by his lady, but had a 

 natural fon, named Philip Stanhope, whofe education was, 

 for many years, a clofe objeft of his attention ; and who 

 was afterwards envoy extraordinary at the court of Drefden, 

 but who died before his father. After the death of the earl 

 of Chefterfield, Mr. Stanhope's widow publirtied a courfe 

 of letters, written by the father to the fon, filled with in- 

 ftruftions fuitable to the different gradations of the young 

 man's lite to whom they were particularly addrefled. Thefe 

 letters have been highly applauded, and as loudly con- 

 demned. They contain many admirable obfervations on 

 mankind, and rules of conduft ; but the author lays a 

 greater ftrefs on exterior accomphihments and addrefs than 

 on intelledtwal qualifications and fincerity, and allows a 

 much greater latitude to fafhionable pleafures than found 

 morality will admit. It has been urged in excufe for the 

 author, that he never intended thefe letters for publication : 

 they contained initruftions for a particular individual, and 

 they do not pretend to touch upon the more weighty points 



of moraU, tl'.efc being left to the inculcation of a felefted 

 tutor: neverthelefs, there is fome occafional advice coming 

 under this liead, contained in the later letters, when the 

 fon was already launched upon the world, which have juitly 

 fubjefted the writer to fevere animadverfioii. Of thefe, 

 fuch as relate to truth in the commerce of fociety, under 

 the diilinftions fimulation and diflimulation, have been de. 

 fended and jultified by politicians, as abfolutely neceffary 

 for one who was to be trained to diplomatic habits. But 

 the fame apology cannot be made for a father's attempts to 

 fafhion his fon to politenefs, by recommendmg connections 

 with married women, which, however lightly regarded in 

 the licentious courts and capitals at which he himfelf had 

 been a vifitor and refident, mult ever be confidered as a 

 moll ferioiis violation, not only of the laws of God, but of 

 private friendlhip, and of the molt facred bond of focial hfe. 

 Thefe obnoxious parts would, in all probability, have been 

 fuppreffed, had the author revifcd and publilhed his own 

 letters. On the other hand, there are, in the courfe of the 

 volumes and the other works of lord Chefterfield, many ex- 

 amples of his ufeful and efficacious endeavours to ferve the 

 caule of morality. His lordfliip died in March, 1773, '" 

 the 79th year of his age. He had for fome time been ex- 

 tremely infirm, and having outlived moft of his friends and 

 contemporaries, he was in faft reduced to a ftate in which 

 he rather patiently endured life than enjoyed it. " It is 

 unncceffary," fays his biographer, " to add any thing to 

 the view already given of his moral charafter : if it was 

 very far from faultlefs, it certainly exhibited many excel- 

 lencies, which enabled him to perform important fervices to 

 his friends and country. In his literary capacity, he pof- 

 fefied wit, good fenfe, and a fine talte, in an uncommon 

 degree. His ftyle is of the pureft Englifli." Of his 

 works, which, befides thofe already referred to, contain 

 papers in fome of the political journals of the day, ipeeches, 

 llate papers, and letters, French and Englifli, a Colleftion, 

 in 2 vols. 4to. with memoirs of his life, by Dr. Maty, was 

 pubhfhed in the year 1777, to which the reader is referred 

 tor more minute information relating to the charafter, ex- 

 ertions, and works of the earl of Chefterfield. 



Staxhoi'e, James, earl, a celebrated Enghth nobleman, 

 flatefman, and general, defcended from a very ancient 

 family in the county of Nottingham, eldeft fon of Alex- 

 ander Stanhope, only fon of Philip, the firll earl of Chefter- 

 field, was born in the year 1673. ^^ entered at a very 

 early period into the army, and ferved under king William 

 in the war againft France, during which, and particularly 

 at the fiege of Namur, he dillinguithed himfelf fo much to 

 the king's fatisfaftion, as to receive from his majefty a 

 company of foot, and foon after a commiffion as colonel 

 of the 33d regiment. In the war which was undertaken 

 for the purpofe of placing Charles II., fon of the emperor 

 Leopold, on the throne of Spain, colonel Stanhope, while 

 commanding a regiment of foot, in 1 704, at Porta I^egra, 

 in Portugal, wa; furroiinded by king Pliilip's army, and 

 he and his whole regiment were made prifoners of war. 

 Being exchanged, he was in the following year promoted 

 to the rank of brigadier-general, and in the next campaign 

 he gained very confiderable reputation at the fiege of Barce- 

 lona, under the command of lord Peterborough. General 

 Stanhope planned and completed the conqueft of the ifland 

 of Minorca. Having landed about ten miles from St. 

 Philip's fort, on tlie 26th of Auguil, with 3000 men, the 

 general caufed batteries to be erefted, and ordered a num- 

 ber of arrows to be fhot into the place, in which papers 

 were ftuck, written in the Spanifti and French languages, 

 containing threats that the whole garrifon (hould be fent to 

 9 the 



