[108] The Duke of Clarence used these quotations in a speech in the House of Lords on the Divorce Bill. The sermon referred to was delivered in 1795 by Samuel Horsley, Bishop of Rochester. The reason for the Duke’s reference was to oppose the arguments which the Bishop used on that occasion to his statements made on the Bill. Samuel Horsley (1733–1806) was appointed Bishop of St. David’s in 1788, was transferred to the see of Rochester in 1793, and to that of St. Asaph in 1802.
[109] Georgina Elizabeth, second daughter of George, fourth Viscount Torrington, who married Lord John Russell (afterwards sixth Duke of Bedford) in 1786, and died in 1801, leaving three sons, one of whom was the celebrated statesman, Lord John Russell. Her husband succeeded his brother in the dukedom in 1802. He was born in 1766, and married, secondly, in 1803, Georgina, daughter of Alexander, fourth Duke of Gordon. He held the post of Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, 1806–7, and died in 1839.
[110] Lady Georgina Dorothy Cavendish, eldest daughter of William, fifth Duke of Devonshire, and Georgina, daughter of John, Earl Spencer. She married Lord Morpeth in 1801, and died in 1858.
[111] Sir William Scott (1745–1836), created Lord Stowell in 1821. He practised in the Admiralty and Ecclesiastical Courts, and was appointed Judge of the Consistory Court in 1788, Master of the Faculties in 1790, and Judge of the High Court of Admiralty in 1798.
[112] Grey married, in 1794, Mary Elizabeth, only daughter of William Brabazon, first Baron Ponsonby, of Imokilly. She died in 1861. His eldest sister, Elizabeth, married Samuel Whitbread in 1789. The latter (1758–1815) was only son of Samuel Whitbread, of Southill, Beds. He was elected as member for Bedford in 1790, and sat in Parliament until his death by his own hand in 1815.
[113] Magistrate at Bow Street. He retired on a pension the following year.
[114] Charles Abbot (1757–1829). He first entered Parliament in 1795, and was made Speaker in 1802. He retired in 1816, and was then created Baron Colchester.
The Bill was the result of a Committee appointed by Pitt in 1797, with Abbot as chairman. It was designed to put an end to the habit, prevalent in the preceding century, of persons in high office placing the public moneys to their own account and appropriating to their own use the interest which thus accrued. It was not even considered necessary to refund the capital sum at the expiration of their term of office, when the accounts were closed, and the matter was allowed to drag on, as in the Hollands’ case, until it was found convenient to pay off the whole.
The monies were outstanding from Lord Holland’s grandfather’s (Henry Fox, first Lord Holland) Paymastership. The practice was looked on as a right, though certain statesmen of the time—the Pitts and others—refused to benefit by it, and thereby obtained the praise and increased confidence of the public. The retrospective clauses were not finally included in the Bill.
[115] George O’Brien, third Earl of Egremont (1751–1837), the well-known connoisseur and patron of the fine arts, who succeeded to the title in 1763.