Note 133 — Chapter VIII

Walpole had invariably entertained a mean opinion of Lord Rochford. In a letter as early as 1746, just after the battle of Culloden, he writes, “Is it news that Lord Rochford is an oaf? He has got a set of plate buttons for the birthday, with the Duke’s (of Cumberland) head on every one. Sure my good lady carries her art too far to make him so great a dupe!”—(Collected Letters, vol. ii. p. 165.) The plate buttons, however, were not thrown away, for Lord Rochford was within three years appointed Minister at Turin, and in 1755 he obtained the lucrative office of Groom of the Stole. The new reign obliged him to give way to Lord Bute, which he did with so good a grace, as to preserve the favour of the Court. Not satisfied with a large pension, he aspired to political eminence, and in 1763 accepted the embassy at Madrid. He discharged its duties respectably—was attentive to business—vigilant, and, when occasion called for it, spirited—and his dispatches present a more faithful and interesting account of the Court of Spain than is to be found in any cotemporary work. The credit he thus acquired was the cause of his being appointed Ambassador at Paris, where he conducted himself unexceptionably. It cannot, however, be said that he left a name of any distinction in diplomacy. The same mediocrity characterized his career as Secretary of State. He made a poor figure in the House of Lords, and if he had no enemies, he had as few friends. His colleagues shuffled him from one department to the other, and at last parted with him with an indifference that was fully shared by the public. Not, however, that he was unrewarded. He received for seven years the high salary, and enjoyed the patronage of the Secretary of State. He was Lord-Lieutenant of Essex, and a Privy Councillor. In 1778 he became a Knight of the Garter. His pecuniary circumstances, indeed, appear to have been embarrassed; but he is not to be pitied, if, as was reported, this arose from his speculations in the funds on the prospect of a Spanish war (Chatham Correspondence, vol. iv. p. 80). It has been observed that he is the only statesman whom Junius has noticed in terms of unqualified praise; but it should be remembered that this was only when writing under another signature,—no such praise is to be found in “the Letters of Junius.” Being succeeded by Lord Weymouth in 1775, he retired to St. Osyths, his seat in Essex—the ancient inheritance of the Rivers’s, from whom he was maternally descended. He died in 1781 without issue, and the title became extinct on the decease of his nephew.—(Coxe’s Kings of Spain, vol. iii.)—E.