Note 20 — Chapter I

Dr. Johnson, a violent political opponent, observed of him, “that he was not a man of superior abilities, but he was a man strictly faithful to his word. If, for instance, he had promised you an acorn, and none had grown that year in his woods, he would not have contented himself with that excuse. He would have sent to Denmark for it. So unconditional was he in keeping his word—so high as to the point of honour.”—Boswell’s Life of Johnson, vol. iii. p. 167. The same lofty feelings characterised his public life, and caused him to be implicitly trusted by the great party of which, without his own seeking, he was the undisputed head. Lord Waldegrave seems to have entertained no mean opinion of his talents.—Memoirs, p. 86. He was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1737, and afterwards remained for a time in the Cabinet; but he accepted office with reluctance, and quitted it with disgust, for he loved his ease and scorned all the arts of intrigue. He died in 1755, aged fifty-seven.—E.