Note 15 — Chapter I

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.