Foote had long been at variance, but Mr. W. 
contrived to bring them to one of those conci- 
liatory dinners; and Mr. Garrick (who had 
much good-nature, and more generosity than 
the world gave him credit for, } actually lent 
Foote five hundred pounds to repair his thea- 
tre in the Haymarket. Mr. W.’s intimacy 
with Dr. Franklin and Mr. Osw 4, rendered 
hinrpeculiarly el:gible for the purpose of as-+ 
sisting Im treating for the restoration of peace 
with Amcrica. He was zccordingly appointed 
secretary tothe latter, who, having bailed Mr. 
Laurens from his confinement in the Tower, 
and become his surety to the amount of fifty 
thousand pounds, was also judiciously selected 
a8 a man acceptable to the American com- 
missioners, with whom, oa the 30th of Now 
vember, 1782, they concluded and signed pre. 
liminary a:ticles, declaratory of the independ- 
ance of the United States; this being under- 
stood by the belligerent powers as an indis- 
pensable basis, previously to their treating 
with England on the subject of a general pa- _ 
cification. The articles were approved by 
the people; and the nation hailed the return 
ef tranquillity with general gratulation. 
diferences being thus happily settled with the 
United States of America, Mr. Oswald re- 
turned to London, but Mr. Whitefoord re- 
mained at Paris several months longer with 
lord St. Helen’s, (then Mr. Fitzherbert,) 
who was the minister charged to negotiate 
treaties of peace with France, Spain, and 
Holland; and it is a curious circumstances 
that three of the treaties above alluded to 
ate inthe hand-writing of Mr. Whitefoord. 
These services were such as intitled him to 
some recompence trom government ; but Jord 
Shelburne having resigned before Mr. W.’s 
return from the continent, without making 
any provision for him, he was obliged to 
proter his claim \to the coalition administra- 
tion, by which ict was rejected; nor was it 
till seven years after, that a small] pension was 
granced to him by his majesty, on the re- 
commendation of those in power. "We can- 
not pass over this transaction, without ob- 
serving that calumny, which on that occasion 
had been busy with other characters, never 
even insinuated a charge of malversation against 
she persons employed at Paris, in the great 
work of restoring tranquillity to Europe and 
America. Mr. W. rather late in life married 
a lady of the name of Sidney, by whom he 
has left four children. - We cannot conclude 
without giving the character of this gentle- 
man, as delineated by Dr. Goldsmith, in his 
weil-known poem entitled Retaliation: 
© Here Whitefoord reclines, and deny it who 
canny : 
Tho’ he merrily liv’d, he is now *¢ a grave 
man.” 
Rare compound of oddity, frolic, and fun, 
Who relished a joke, and rejoic’d in a pun; 
Whose temper was generovs, open, sincere, 
A stranger fo flatt’ry, a stranger to feat. 
All” 
Account of the late Henry Cavendish. f [May f, 
Who scatter’d around wit and humour at 
will, = i 
Whose daily bon mors half a column might fill 
A Scotchman from pride and from prejudice 
free, 
A scholar, but surely no pedant, was he. 
What a pity, alas! that so lib’rala mind 
Shou’d so long be to newspaper essays con- 
fin'’d 5 
Who perhaps to the summit of science could 
soar, © 
Yet content if the table he *‘ set in a roar 5’” 
Whose talents to fill any station were fit, 
Yet happy if Woodfall confess’d him a wit. 
Ye newspaper witlings! ye pert scribbling 
folks, 
Who copied his squibs and re-echoed his 
yokes 5 
Ye tame 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 5 
Then strew all around it, you can do no less, 
Cross-readings, ship-news, and mistakes of 
the press. 5 
Merry Whitefoord, farewell! for thy sake I 
admit, , 
That a Scot may have humour, I had almost 
said wit : 
This debt to thy mem’ry I cannot refuse, 
Thou best humour’d man, with the worst 
mour’d muse.” } 
[Further particulars of Henry Cavendish, esge 
cubose death is mentioned at p. 287, of our last 
number. ‘This gentleman was the son of the 
late LordCharles Cavendish, preat 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 scientific world. He had studied and 
rendered himself familiarly conversant ith 
every part of sir Isaac Newton's philas» 9 ¢ 
the principles of which he applied, near forty 
years ago, to an investigation of the laws on 
which the phznomena of electricity depend. 
Pursuing the same science, on thé occasion of 
Mr. Walsh’s experiments with the torpede, 
he gave a satisfactory explanation of the re-_ 
markable 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 
vety early to pneumatic chemistry, he ascer= 
tained, in 1766, the extreme levity of iné 
flammable air, now called hydrogen gas. On 
this discovery many curious experiments, and 
particularly that of aerial navigation, have 
been founded. In the same paths of sciences 
he made the important discovery of the come 
position of water by the union of two airs 5 
and that laid the foundation of the modern 
system of chemistry, which rests principally 
on chis fact; and that of the decomposition 
of water, anucunced soon afterwards by Mz 
~ Lavoisier. 
