and even in the magnitude of his crimes, finds a refcue from contempt..Your Grace is every way unfortunate. Yet I will not look back to those ridiculous. fcenes, by which in your earlier days, you thought it an honour to be diftinguished; the recorded ftripes, the public infamy, your own fufferings, or Mr. Rigby's fortitude. Thefe events undoubtedly left an impreffion, though not upon your mind. To fuch a mind, it may perhaps be a pleasure to reflect, that there is hardly a corner of any of his Majefty's kingdoms, except France, in which, at one time or other, your valuable life. has not been in danger. Amiable man! we fee and acknowledge the protection of Providence, by which you have so often escaped the perfonal detestation of your fellow fubjects, and are still referved for the public juftice of your country.

Your history begins to be important at that aufpicious period, at which you were deputed to reprefent the Earl of Bute, at the court of Verfailles. It was an honourable office, and executed with the fame fpirit with which it was accepted. Your patrons wanted an ambaffador, who would fubmit to make conceffions, without daring to infift upon any honourable condition for his Sovereign. Their business required a man who had as little feeling for his own dignity as for the welfare of his country; and they found him in the first rank of the nobility. Belleifle,

I

B

Belleifle, Goree, Guadaloupe, St. Lucia, Mart nique, the Fishery, and the Havanna, are glorious monuments of your Grace's talents for negotiation. My lord, we are too well acquainted with your pecuniary character, to think it poffible that fo many public facrifices fhould have been made, without fome private compenfations. Your conduct carries with it an interior evidence, beyond all the legal proof of a court of juftice.

pride of Lord Egremont was

Even the callous alarmed. He faw

and felt his own difhonour in correfponding with you; and there certainly was a moment, at which he meant to have refifted, had not a fatal lethargy prevailed over his faculties, and carried all fenfe and memory away with it.

I will not pretend to specify the secret terms on which you were invited to fupport an adminiftrati on on which Lord Bute pretended to leave in full poffeffion of their minifterial authority, and perfectly masters of themselves. He was not of a temper to relinquish power, tho' he retired from employment. Stipulations were certainly made between your Grace and him, and certainly violated. After two years fubmiffion, you thought you had collected a strength fufficient to control his influence, and that it was your turn to be a tyrant, becaufe you had been a flave. When you found yourfelf miftaken in your opinion of your gracious

Mafter's

Mafter's firmness, difappointment got the better of all your humble difcretion, and carried you to an excess of outrage to his perfon, as diftant from true fpirit, as from all decency and refpect. After robbing him of the rights of a King, you would not permit him to preferve the honour of a Gentleman. It was then Lord Weymouth was nominated to Ireland, and dispatched (we well remember with what indecent hurry) to plunder the treasury of the first fruits of an employment which you well knew he was never to execute.

This fudden declaration of war against the Favourite might have given you a momentary merit with the public, if it had either been adopted upon principle, or maintained with resolution. Without looking back to all your former fervility, we need only obferve your subsequent conduct, to see upon what motives you acted. Apparently united with Mr. Grenville, you waited until Lord Rockingham's feeble adminiftration fhould diffolve in its own weakness.-The moment their difmiffion was fufpected, the moment you perceived that another fyftem was adopted in the clofet, you thought it no disgrace to return to your former dependance, and folicit once more the friendship of Lord Bute. You begged an interview, at which he had fpirit enough to treat you with contempt.

It would now be of little ufe to point out, by what a train of weak, injudicious measures, it be came neceffary, or was thought fo, to call you back to a fhare in the adminiftration. The Friends, whom you did not in the leaft inftance defert, were not of a character to add strength or credit to Government; and at that time your alliance with the Duke of Grafton was, I prefume, hardly foreseen. We must look for other ftipulations, to account for that fudden refolution of the clofet, by which three of your dependants (whofe characters, I think, cannot be less refpected than they are) were advanced to offices, through which you might again control the minifter, and probably engrofs the whole direction of affairs.

The poffeffion of abfolute power is now once more within your reach. The meafures you have taken to obtain and confirm it, are too grofs to efcape the eyes of a difcerning judicious prince. His palace is befieged; the lines of circumvallation are drawing round him; and unlefs he finds a refource in his own activity, or in the attachment of the real friends of his family, the beft of princes muft fubmit to the confinement of a ftate prifoner, until your Grace's death, or fome lefs fortunate event, fhall raife the fiege. For the prefent, you may fafely refume that ftile of infult and menace, which even a private gentleman cannot fubmit to

hear

hear without being contemptible. Mr. Mackenzie's hiftory is not yet forgotten, and you may find precedents enough of the mode in which an imperious fubject may fignify his pleasure to his fovereign. Where will this gracious monarch look for affiftance, when the wretched Grafton could forget his obligations to his mafter, and defert him for a hollow alliance with fuch a man as the Duke of Bedford.

Let us confider you then as arrived at the fummit of worldly greatnefs: let us fuppofe, that all your plans of avarice and ambition are accomplifhed, and your most fanguine wifes gratified in the fear, as well as the hatred of the people: Can age itself forget that you are now in the last act of life? Can grey hairs make folly venerable ? and is there no period to be referved for meditation. and. retirement? For fhame! my Lord: Let it not be recorded of you, that the latest moments of your life were dedicated to the fame unworthy pursuits, the fame bufy agitations, in which your youth and manhood were exhaufted. Confider, that, although you cannot difgrace your former life, you are violating the character of age, and expofing the impotent imbecility, after you have loft the vigour of the paffions.

Your friends will afk, perhaps, Whither fhall this unhappy old man retire? Can he remain in

the