[8] In his eighty-third year. His old age was lonely and unattractive, being passed in the society of a few obsequious bishops and blue-stocking ladies, with whom he kept up a sickly commerce of flattery. His zenith had been bright: his decline was not mild. Avarice tormented even his last hours, and it is painful to witness, in his correspondence, how entirely he was subjected to that baleful passion. It degraded his nature, and almost disturbed his reason, for on no other ground can some of his acts be explained. His character as a politician was too severely censured by his cotemporaries, but in private life he was mean, selfish, and sordid, to an extent almost commensurate with his great abilities and attainments.—E.
[9] When the first part of these Memoirs was written there had not transpired the smallest idea of D’Eon being a woman, nor when that secret was first broached did it gain credit. Some years also elapsed before the fact was allowed, and it was some time before the dubious person assumed the female habit, and then only by command of the Court of France. I have not chosen to correct my narrative, not only because the change of sex did not happen till the personage had ceased to figure in an historic light, but because, having no notion of that doubtful gender at the time of her eccentric behaviour, my account will remain more natural, and does paint the general sensation produced by her exploits. The Government here acted as I have written, totally in the dark as to a false assumption of sex. [In 1777 an action was brought by a surgeon named Hayes against Jacques, a baker, who had received fifteen guineas to return one hundred guineas if it should be proved that the Chevalier was a woman; and the evidence of that fact was so strong that the jury decided in favour of Hayes. There were other actions on the same point, but they were disposed of by the Court, very properly, declaring these wagers to be illegal. Da Costa v. Jones, Cowper’s Reports, 729.—The Annual Register, p. 167, evidently copying some newspaper, says, “by this decision no less a sum than 75,000l. will remain in this country, which would otherwise have been transmitted to Paris.” The same authority says, “Aug. 16th, the Chevalier left England, declaring that she had no interest whatever in the policies opened on her sex.” From that time till the death of the Chevalier he was always believed to be a woman, and dressed as such. The post mortem examination, which is stated in the Gent. Mag. vol. lxxx. p. 588, proved him to be a perfect male. He was never employed after his disgrace; but having been long a spy of Louis the Fifteenth, it was not deemed prudent to drive him to despair, and a handsome pension was granted to him, which he enjoyed till the Revolution. He then took refuge in England, and was afterwards reduced to great poverty. He died in London, at a very advanced age, in 1810. There is an interesting note on Chev. d’Eon by Mr. Croker in Walpole’s collected Correspondence, vol. iv. p. 323. See also the article, a very partial one, in the Biographie Universelle.—E.]
[10] The Count d’Estaign had broken his parole in India, and, having been again taken prisoner, was kept in close confinement at Portsmouth—a treatment of which he very unreasonably complained as harsh and unjustifiable. His name often occurs in the history of the American war, in which he commanded the French fleet with some reputation. He claimed a victory over Admiral Byron. During the French Revolution he acted a very vacillating, if not dishonest, part; and, having given offence both to Royalists and Republicans, he was brought to the scaffold in 1794, aged 65.—E.
[11] Mr. Legge did not write the narrative mentioned in the text. It is the composition of the Bishop of Hereford, his intimate friend, to whom he committed on his death-bed “the publication of the papers that explained his case;” or, in other words, his correspondence with Lord Bute respecting the Hampshire election. (Some account of the Life of the Right Hon. Bilson Legge.) His object being, not, as Walpole supposes, to fix on Lord Bute the charge of meddling with elections, but to clear his own character from various insinuations, by showing, from the correspondence, that his refusal to yield to Lord Bute’s dictation in the Hampshire election, was the real cause of his disgrace, and that he might have remained in office if he had chosen to disgrace himself by taking the opposite course. The Bishop’s observations explanatory of the transaction are in the spirit that might be expected from a prelate not indisposed to translation, when treating of the conduct of those who dispense ecclesiastical patronage. To make up, however, for his courtesy towards his patron’s adversaries, he heaps unmeasured eulogy upon his patron’s memory. It is now, indeed, pretty well understood that Mr. Legge had no title to a tithe of the merits ascribed to him by his right reverend biographer. He was a very useful statesman. (See supra, p. 39.) His head, as Sir Robert Walpole said of him, had very little rubbish in it. He was good-natured, and easy in social intercourse. To exalted patriotism he never raised any pretensions; and whatever may be the Bishop’s opinion, the friend and boon companion of Wilkes could be no pattern of religion or morality.—E.
[12] William Howe, brother of Richard Lord Viscount Howe, an Admiral, and one of the Lords of the Admiralty. [Afterwards a Lieutenant-general and K.B. He served in the American war, and was generally unfortunate. On the death of the Admiral he became Viscount Howe. The title expired on his death without issue, in 1814.—E.]
[13] Sir William Boothby, Bart., a Major-general and Colonel of the 6th Regiment of Foot, died, unmarried, in 1797.—E.
[14] Prince Edward, next brother to the King.
[15] The Duke died on the 2nd of October, at the early age of forty-four. The scanty praise awarded him in the text is far below his due. He had been Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1755, and First Lord of the Treasury in the following year. “In the ordinary business of his office,” says Lord Waldegrave, “he shewed great punctuality and diligence, and no want of capacity.”—Memoirs, p. 141. A strong sense of responsibility, and a natural diffidence in his own talents, accompanied by a dislike for business, and an indifference to ministerial employments, gave him, at times, an air of indecision rather ungraceful; but he could be firm on great occasions, and his public no less than his private life was distinguished by unsullied uprightness and honour.—E.
[16] Edmund Boyle, Earl of Corke and Orrery, married —— Courteney, daughter of Lady Frances Courteney, only sister of John Earl of Sandwich. [The marriage being afterwards dissolved, he married the Hon. Mary Monckton, who long survived him. He died in 1798.—E.]
[17] William Duke of Devonshire married Lady Charlotte Boyle, second daughter and co-heiress of Richard Boyle, last Earl of Burlington, Lord Treasurer of Ireland.