STANHOPE* 
627 
joined the opposition. To this assembly his talents were bet¬ 
ter adapted than to the House of Commons. His eloquence, 
the fruit of much study, was less characterized by force and 
compass than by elegance and perspicuity, and especially 
by good taste, and a vein of delicate irony, which, while 
it sometimes inflicted severe strokes, never passed the limits 
of decency and propriety. “It was that of a man, who, 
in the union of wit and good sense with politeness, had 
not a competitor.’ 1 These qualities were matured by the 
advantage of a familiar acquaintance with almost all the 
eminent wits and writers of his time; many of whom had 
been the ornaments of the preceding age of literature, while 
others were destined to become those of a later period. He 
knew how to appreciate genius and talents, and was the 
friend of Pope, and received him in almost all his select 
parties at Twickenham, where he met the first nobility in 
association with the most distinguished votaries of the muses. 
Soon after the accession of George II. lord Chesterfield 
was nominated ambassador at the Hague. Scarcely was any 
man ever better adapted than his lordship to fill a diplomatic 
situation, as well on account of his natural acuteness, and of 
his conciliating manners, as his familiarity with the modes 
and usages of general society. He was, however, at this 
feme but little acquainted with public business; but pos¬ 
sessing the laudable ambition of rendering himself fully mas¬ 
ter of whatever he undertook, he spared no pains to acquire 
the knowledge for the post in which he was placed, and 
which at that time was a very important one; the Hague 
being, in fact, the centre of the principal political negocia- 
tions carrying on throughout Europe. In the year 1730 
he was appointed high steward of the household, and he was, 
at the same time, decorated with the order of the garter. 
He now returned to Holland, and was instrumental in form¬ 
ing an important treaty between the courts of London and 
Vienna, and the States-general. In 1732 he obtained his 
recall; and on his return, he supported the plans of the 
prime minister, though there does not appear to have been 
any cordiality between them ; and when Sir Robert Walpole 
introduced his famous excise measure, the earl spoke against 
him with all his force, and thereby gave so much offence 
that he was deprived of his offices, and he again joined the 
party in opposition. He married, in 1733, the countess of 
Walsingham, niece or probably daughter to the duchess of 
Kendal, who had been mistress to George I. She was a 
lady of great merit and accomplishments, and by her pru¬ 
dence contributed very much to retrieve the deranged affairs 
oi her lord. The noble earl did not neglect to pay his 
court to the prince of Wales, who attached himself to the 
opposers of his father’s government. Of his oratorical ex¬ 
ertions, none was more generally admired than his speech 
against the bill for granting to the lord chamberlain the 
power of licensing dramatic performances. In 1741, his 
health being much impaired, he was advised to make the 
tour of the continent. In his way to the Spa, he saw, at 
Brussels, Voltaire, with whom he had contracted a friend¬ 
ship in England. At Spa his reputation, and the urbanity 
of his manners, drew upon him much flattering notice from 
ersons of distinction ; and a short stay at Paris introduced 
im to the most distinguished of both sexes for rank and 
talents in that capital, where he was equally gratified and 
admired. 
His stay in the south of France was shortened by the state 
of political affairs at home. The attempts of France to 
ruin the house of Austria were threatening destruction to 
what was denominated the balance of power in Europe; 
and the miscarriages of the English ministers in their poli¬ 
tical measures spread discontent through the nation. This 
at length produced the fall of that statesman (Walpole), 
who had so long ruled the public councils; and a new 
administration was formed, in which lord Chesterfield had 
no place. This omission was probably owing, in great part, 
to the personal dislike of the king, who could not forget the 
severe things he had said with respect to the royal partiality 
to the interests of Hanover, and the sacrifices made of the 
interests of Great Britain to those of the electorate. He 
took an active and most decided part in opposition to the 
measures of the ministry, and was said to be particularly 
happy in his speech against the gin-licence bill, and against 
that for continuing attainders upon the posterity of persons 
convicted of high treason. This last bill was introduced in 
consequence of the prospect of a new rebellion, promoted 
by France, and which soon after took place. This event 
produced a change in the ministry, and lord Chesterfield 
was sent out as ambassador to the United Provinces; a 
station which he had before occupied with much reputation. 
He effected the purpose for which he was sent, viz., that of 
engaging the Dutch to concur in earnest in the war against 
France; and returned in 1745, at the time of the breaking 
out of the rebellion in Scotland. He was immediately 
nominated to the high station of lord lieutenant of Ireland; 
an office of great importance at this period, when there was 
cause of apprehension from the prevalence of the Roman 
Catholic religion in that island. He set off for his govern¬ 
ment in the end of August, and by vigour on the one hand, 
and conciliation on the other, by strict integrity, and a frank 
undisguised system of policy, he kept every thing quiet in 
that kingdom, while the sister island was over-run with terror 
and commotion. Instead of abridging the catholics of their 
religious liberty, he favoured and augmented it; wisely 
judging, that the more openly they shewed themselves in 
attendance at their own places of worship, the less their 
secret machinations were to be regarded. He, however, 
kept a vigilant eye upon all their proceedings, but dis¬ 
couraged idle suspicions and malicious informations. A 
zealous Protestant once came, very officiously, as the noble 
lord thought, to inform hipi that one of his coachmen went 
privately to mass. “ Does he ?” said the lord lieutenant: 
“ I will take care that he never drives me thither.” 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 secretary of state, with the 
duke of Newcastle as his colleague. Never approving, in 
his own mind, of the war in which the nation was engaged, 
and constantly wishing for peace upon reasonable terms, he 
was nevertheless carried away, by a superior influence in the 
cabinet, to concur in the measures of the court, till their 
ill success induced him to draw up a strong memorial, 
which being disregarded, he resigned his place in February, 
1748, and never afterwards joined in any administration. 
From this period till his death he lived as a private noble¬ 
man, attached to the arts and to letters, and was looked up 
to throughout Europe as inferior to none of his high rank 
for brilliancy of wit, and the polish of cultivated society. 
Being seized with a deafness in 1752, that incapacitated him, 
in a measure, for the pleasures of society, he led a retired 
life, amusing himself with his books and his pen. He 
engaged rather largely as a volunteer in a periodical work, 
entitled “ The World,” in which his contributions have a 
distinguished degree of excellence. His lordship maintained 
a character for wit and talents that had few equals. He 
rendered himself illustrious, as we have seen, by his eloquence 
in parliament, on many important occasions, of which there 
is a characteristic instance of his own relating. He was an 
active promoter of the bill for altering the style; on which 
occasion, as he himself relates in one of his letters to his son, 
he made so eloquent a speech in the house, that every one 
was pleased, and said he had made the whole very clear to 
them ; “ which,” says he, “ God knows, I never attempted. 
I could just as soon have talked Celtic or Sclavonian to them 
as astronomy, and they would have understood me just as 
well.” The high character which lord Chesterfield had 
supported through life received no small injury, soon after 
his death, from a full display of it by his own hand. He 
left no issue by his lady, but had a natural son, named 
Philip Stanhope, whose education was, for many years, a 
close object of his attention; and who was.afterwards envoy 
extraordinary at the court of Dresden, but who died before 
his father. After the death of the earl of Chesterfield, Mr. 
Stanhope’s widow published a course of letters, written by 
the 
