[134] His aunt, Miss Hester Gibbon.
[135] It may be mentioned that Lord Sheffield married, in January, 1798, as his third wife, Lady Anne North, daughter of the Earl of Guilford, and sister of Lady Catherine Douglas.
[136] Alluding to Sheffield Place.
[137] Sir S. Porten died June 7, 1789.
[138] The Comte d'Artois (1757-1836), brother of Louis XVI., and afterwards Charles X., was one of the earliest émigrés.
[139] Yolande Martine Gabrielle de Polastron, Duchesse de Polignac (1749-1793), was the most intimate friend of Marie Antoinette. To her and her royal mistress public opinion attributed many of the worst evils of the monarchy. When the daughter of the duchess married the Duc de Guiche (afterwards Duc de Grammont), the king gave the bride a dower of 800,000 livres. "Mille écus," said Mirabeau, "à la famille d'Assas pour avoir sauvé l'État, un million à la famille de Polignac pour l'avoir perdu." (The Chevalier d'Assas lost his life in an heroic action at Klostercamp, October 15-16, 1760. The Government of Louis XV. allowed him to go unrewarded. Louis XVI., at the instigation of Marie Antoinette, conferred on his family a perpetual pension of 1000 livres.) The duchess emigrated with her husband shortly after the taking of the Bastille. She died at Vienna in December, 1793, her death being, it is said, hastened by the murder of Marie Antoinette. Her second son, afterwards Prince de Polignac, was the favourite minister of Charles X.
[140] Necker was dismissed July 11, 1789, and ordered to quit the kingdom.
[141] Richard Price, D.D. (1723-1791), the celebrated mathematician and economic writer (Observations on Reversionary Payments, Annuities, etc., 1769; Appeal on the Subject of the National Debt, 1772), the opponent of Dr. Priestley (A Free Discussion of the Doctrine of Materialism and Philosophical Necessity, 1778), was also a voluminous political writer, a champion of the cause of American Independence, and an advocate of principles then regarded as revolutionary. His Observations on the Nature of Civil Liberty (1776) procured him an invitation from Congress to come and reside in America. In 1789 he published his Discourse on the Love of our Country, severely criticized by Burke in his Reflections on the Revolution in France. His last work, Britain's Happiness, was published in 1791, the year of his death.
[142] The Marquis de Castries (1727-1801), Marshal of France (1783), had served in the Seven Years' War, was Ministre de la Marine 1780-87, and in 1792 held a command in the Prussian army of invasion. He died at Wolfenbuttel in 1801.
[143] Adrien Louis de Bonnières, Comte, afterwards Duc, de Guines (1735-1806), had been ambassador in England, 1770-76. As ambassador at Berlin he had been a favourite with Frederick the Great, with whom he played the flute. He emigrated at the beginning of the Revolution.