310 
im the month of July, of the. fame year, the 
Marquis of Rockingham, who was coentidered 
as the head of this new Minifry, unfor- 
tunately diéd. This circuimftance occafioned 
a fchifm in the: Party. 
friends ardently contended for the Duke of 
Portland to be their new head. This was 
not approved of by the Court. ‘There are, it 
muft be obferved, always intrigues upon 
thefe great occafions ; not female intrigues, 
as fome ignorant people might precipitately 
imagine from the. word, but political in- 
trigues. His Majefty appointed the Earl 
of Shelburne Firft Lord of the Treafury, 
which was the fituation Lord Rockingham 
had filled; and confequently he was to 
be paatilencd as the head ot the Miniftry.. 
When this appointment was announced, 
Mrs Fox and his friends immediately re- 
fgned. Lord Shelburne found no difficulty 
m filling their fituations with friends of ‘his 
own. He juttified his conduct, affirming, 
“that the office he now held was within 
his grafp when the firft arrangements were 
forming, but he had then given way to the 
noble Marquis; though he had now accepted 
the poft, as that nobleman was no more; 
and, that if the Monarch was divefed of 
the power of appointing his own fervants, 
he would be reduced to the condition of a 
King of the Mahrattas, who had nothing of 
fovereignty but the name.”’—Lord Shel- 
burne’s firft object was to make peace: 
but after the peace was eoncluded, and the 
treaty laid before the Houfe of Commons, 
fuch a coahtion of parties had been iormed 
againft the Minifter, that the treaty met 
with the difapprobation of the Houfe. 
However, it muft now be felt that he had 
the great merit of relieving his country from 
a diftrefiing, oppreflive, and unfuccelsful, 
war; yet, not choofing to ftand againft the 
fenfe of a majority of the Houfe of Com- 
mons, which though in that inftance it was 
not literally, yet was conftitutionally,. the 
fenfe of, the nation, he immediately. re- 
figned; and contrary to all expectation, 
young Mr. Pitt, not then twenty-four years 
of age, was appointed his fucceficr, and: 
prime minifter. His Lordfhip continued for 
fome_ time on good terms with the new 
Miniftry; and received, as a juf reward for 
his fervices, the title of Marquis of Lani- 
down, with the honours of the Garter. 
When the French revolution took place, 
he warmly, wifely, and earneftly deprecated 
our interference ; but all his arguments and 
reafoning, though irrefutable, had no w eight. 
The Court determined that the nation fhould: 
go to war forthe Bourbons. Parliament ac- 
quiefced, The narrative needs not to be 
purfued any further :—the country knows, 
and feels the reft. Befides the artifts al- 
ready mentioned, this magnificent and mu- 
nificent nobleman. was the patron of various 
literary and learned men, Colonel Barre, 
Account of the late Marquis of Lanfdown. 
Mr. Fox and his. 
{June 1, 
Mr. Dunning, Mr. JekyH, and feveral 
others, might alfo be particularly diftin- 
guifhed, whom he patronnaiey and brought 
into Parliament, where they have reflected. 
honour upon his Lordfhip’s choice and pene- 
tration. ‘in likewife favoured. the doctors 
Price and Prieftiey with his kindett. atten- 
tien, particularly the former: yet he was 
himfelf a member of the eftablithed church, 
though a fincere friend to unlimited tolera-, 
tion. He often faid, that the members of the 
Romifh church merited more kindnefs than 
was fhewn to them. After he feparated 
from the Court in. the year, 1763, he con-: 
tinued firm in his political. principles. 
Throvgh life he refited the mereating m- 
fechas of the Crown, and the enormous ad- 
ditions to the public debt: .he fuggetted at: 
various times inquiries into the public ex- 
penditure, propofed the abolition of. ufeiefs 
places, and brought forward motions which 
tended to eftablihh a rigid fyflem of public, 
economy. With foreign politics, ° and . fo- 
reign, courts, it may, with the fridet 
truth, be afarmed, that no ftatefman in. Eu-, 
rope was better acquainted. . Prince Henry. 
of Pruflia, Choileuil, Herzberg, Bernfortf, 
Kaunitz,- and.. their confidants, , were - his 
correfpondents. In. every cabinet on \the 
continent, and in every German chancery, 
he had a friendly: agent. .This extenfive, 
minute, and corre¢t information, added to 
the ftrength of his own judgment, fagacity, 
penetration, and genius, procured for him 
the chara¢ter and reputation of being, what 
he was univerfally admitted to be, rk FresT 
STaTESMAN In Evrope.—-He had deeply, 
ftudied the hittory and laws of his country ; 
and they bad taught him, that the Contitu- 
tion of England is not the grant of princes, 
but an inheritance obtained by the virtue 
and wifdom of Englifhmen. Asa ftatefman, 
his abilities were of the higheft order: His 
was that elevation of mind, which conceives 
the grandeft projects ; and his was that elo; 
quence, which bef enforces- and adorns 
them: Auimo widit ; ingenio complexus efi; elo- 
quentid ornavit. His. elegant fpeeches were 
copious in..information, “abounding | m the 
pure eloquence; and always. containing 
fome feutence, fome felicity of illuftration, 
fome werbum ardcns, that carried the hearer 
away with him, and at once delighted the — 
fancy and convinced .the judgment. Had 
he lived tiil the enfning winter, he had pro- 
jected the publication of fome volumes of 
his Correfpondence, and fome original ftate- 
ments relative to events in which be had © 
been a party. He had particularly promifed 
to fupply a fupplement to Mr. Marfhall’s 
Lite of General Wafhington, in-which, he 
intended to give the fecret hiftory of the 
peace of 1783, which he told the.writer of 
this article was not underftood by tlie public. | 
It is deeply to be lamented that he did nat 
live.to. realize thefe intentions, as no map 
Was 
