[240] Lord Chatham, Lord Temple, and Mr. Grenville. A petition from Ailesbury being soon after agreed on, the members of the meeting drank a health to the union of the three brothers. How little union there really was amongst them appeared afterwards, for Mr. Grenville had before his death made his peace with the Court without any consideration of Lord Chatham, and so did Lord Temple in like manner in 1777. All the latter part of Lord Temple’s life was one continued scene of quarrels and reconciliations with his family and friends, according as his passions or restless ambition dictated.—(See the MS. Memoirs of the Duke of Grafton, Appendix, on the subject of these petitions.)
[241] Letter to the Duke of Bedford, 19th September. Twenty-third Letter.—E.
[242] Sir William Draper’s Letter to Junius, 7th October 1769. Junius’s Twenty-sixth Letter.—E.
[243] The proceedings in the House of Commons on Dr. Musgrave’s charge are given in Parliamentary History, vol. xvi. p. 763. Lord Mahon notices the charge as being utterly unfounded.—(History, vol. iv. p. 410.) Dr. Musgrave had published an excellent edition of Euripides, but in his latter years his reason was believed to be clouded. He died in 1780.—E.
[244] This does not agree with the authenticated accounts of the war in Corsica. So far from it, Paoli at first succeeded in repelling the attacks of the French, notwithstanding their superiority of numbers. They were worsted in an engagement near Loreto, with great loss, several companies having been drowned in the Golo in the attempt to make their escape. On the 29th of October the corps sent to attack Murato received a signal defeat, their commander being among the slain.—(Sismondi’s Histoire de France, vol. xxix. p. 380.)—The overwhelming force brought over by the Count de Vaux early in 1769 soon dispersed the Corsican levies, and rendered all further resistance on the part of Paoli perfectly vain. Paoli was much respected in England by men of all parties. At the commencement of the Revolution he was invited to France, and after an enthusiastic reception by the National Assembly, placed in the command of Corsica, with the rank of Lieutenant-General of the Island. The troubles that followed led him to offer the Crown to England in 1793; but the English rule proved unfortunate both to the Corsicans and to himself. He soon returned to England, and died in the neighbourhood of London, in his eightieth year. He left a considerable fortune, part of which eventually fell under the administration of the Court of Chancery, and the Lord Chancellor issued a commission to Corsica to ascertain his heirs.—See more of him in Capefigue Diplomates Européens, pp. 123–133—E.
[245] According to the Duke’s own account in his Memoirs he was at this time on uneasy terms with his colleagues, of whose general policy he disapproved, and by whom he was generally outvoted in the Cabinet. Nothing but the absence of an adequate excuse for resignation kept him in office. It may be observed, also, that his marriage (to Miss Jane Wrottesly), which took place on the 24th of June, had been followed by his installation at Cambridge, where his presence was indispensable.—E.
[246] Mr. Thomas Pitt, nephew of Lord Chatham, was on some occasions a man of probity and generosity. He gave five thousand pounds a-piece to his two sisters, left destitute by their father; and himself marrying Miss Wilkinson, whose elder sister had disobliged their father by marrying against his consent, both Mr. Pitt and his wife would not conclude their marriage without disclaiming all advantage to the prejudice of the elder sister. [See vol. i. p. 339. His nominees were Mr. Gerard Hamilton, and Mr. Crawford, Chamberlain for the County of Fife.—E.]
[247] He was on that day aged forty-five, the date of his famous number and device.
[248] The knowledge of this fact is said to have been the reason why the jury did not give higher damages.—E.
[249] James Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare, first Duke of Leinster. [An amiable nobleman, always zealous to promote the welfare of his country. He died in 1773.—E.]