LETTER

XIX.

Y

TO HIS GRACE THE D OF B

MY LORD,

ou are fo little accustomed to receive any marks of refpect or efteen from the public, that if, in the following lines, a compliment or expreffion of applaufe fhouuld efcape me, I fear you would confider it as a mockery of your established character, and perhaps an infult to your understanding. You have nice feelings, my Lord, if we may judge from your refentments. Cautious therefore of giving offence, where you have fo little deferved it, I fhall leave the illuftration of your virtues to other hands. Your friends have a privilege to play upon the eafinefs of your temper, or poffibly they are better acquainted with your good qualities than I am. You have done good by fealth. The rest is upon record. You have fill left ample room for fpeculation, when panegyric is exhausted.

The

You are indeed a very confiderable man. highest rank;-a fplendid fortune; and a name, glorious till it was yours, were fufficient to have fupported you with meaner abilities than I think you poffefs. From the firft, you derived a con

ftitutional claim to refpect; from the fecond, a natural extensive authority; the last created a partial expectation of hereditary virtues. The ufe you have made of these uncommon advantages might have been more honourable to yourself, but could not be more instructive to mankind. We may trace it in the veneration of your country, the choice of your friends, and in the accomplishment of every fanguine hope, which the public might have conceived from the illuftrious name of RI.

The eminence of your ftation gave you a com. manding profpect of your duty. The road which led to honour, was open to your view. You could not lofe it by mistake, and you had no temptation to depart from it by defign. Compare the natural dignity and importance of the richest peer of England; the noble independance, which he might have maintained in parliament; and the real intereft and respect, which he might have required, not only in parliament, but through the whole kingdom; compare thefe glorious diftictions with the ambition of holding a fhare in government, the emoluments of a place, the fale of a borough, or the purchase of a corporation; and though you may not regret the virtues, which create respect, you may fee with anguish how much real importance and authority you have loft. Confider

the

the character of an independent virtuous Duke of

-; imagine what he might be in this coun try, then reflect one moment upon what you are, If it be poffible for me to withdraw my attention from the fact, I will tell you in theory what fuch a man might be.

Confcious of his own weight and importance, his conduct in parliament would be directed by nothing but the conftitutional duty of a peer. He would confider himself as a guardian of the laws. Willing to fupport the juft measures of government, but determined to observe the conduct of the minifter with fufpicion, he would oppose the violence of faction with as much firmness, as the encroachments of prerogative. He would be as little capable of bargaining with the minifter for places for himself or his dependants, as of defcending to mix himself in the intrigues of oppofition. Whenever an important queftion called for his opinion in parliament, he would be heard by the moft profligate minifter, with deference and refpect. His authority would either fanctify or difgrace the measures of government. The people would look up to him as to their protector, and a virtuous prince would have one honest man in his dominions in whofe integerity and judgment he might fafely confide. If it should be the will of providence to affli&t him with a domestic misfor

tune, he would fubmit to the ftroke, with feeling, but not without dignity. He would confider the people as his children, and receive a generous heart-felt confolation, in the fympathifing tears, and bleffings of his country.

Your Grace may probably difcover fomething more intelligible in the nagative part of this illuftrious character. The man I have defcribed would never prostitute his dignity in parliament by an indecent violence either in oppofing or defending a minifter. He would not at one moment rancorously perfecute, at another bafely cringe to the favourite of his Sn. After outraging the royal dignity with peromptory conditions, little fhort of menace and hoftillity, he would never defcend to the humility of foliciting an interview with the Favourite, and of offering to recover, at any price, the honour of his friendship. Though deceived perhaps in his youth, he would not, through the courfe of a long life, have invariably chofen his friends from among the most profligate of mankind. His own honour would have forbidden him from mixing his private pleasures or conversation with jockeys, gamefters, blafphemers, gladiators, or buffoons. He would then have never felt, much lefs would he have fubmitted to the difhoneft necceffity of engaging in the interefts and intrigues of his dependants, of fupplying their vices, or

relieving

as

relieving their beggary, at the expence of his country. He would not have betrayed fuch ignorance, or fuch contempt of the constitution, openly to avow, in a court of juftice, the purchafe and fale of a borough. He would not have thought it confiftent with his rank in the state, or even with his personal importance, to be the little tyrant of a little corporation. He would never have been infulted with virtues which he had laboured to extinguish, nor fuffered the disgrace of a mortifying defeat, which has made him ridiculous and contemptible, even to the few by whom he was not detefted. I reverence the afflictions of a good man-his forrows are facred. But how can we take part in the diftreffes of a man, whom we can neither love nor esteem; or feel for a calamity of which he himself is infenfible? Where was the father's heart, when he could look for, o find an immediate confolation for the lofs of in only fon, in confultations and bargains for a place at court, and even in the mifery of balloting at the India Houfe!

Admitting then that you have mistaken or deferted thofe honourable principles, which ought to have directed your conduct; admitting that you have as little claim to private affection as to public esteem, let us fee with what abilities, with what degree of judgment you have carried your own