was a member; and if there was any negligence or error, any want of proper dispatch and exertion, any corruption, ignorance, or abuse, within his particular department, for all such (if any there were) he is singly answerable; hitherto we have heard little but the language of prejudice; a short time will bring the question fairly into judgment, and when the heat of passion has subsided, truth will state, and reason will decide.

“There are other unfortunate events in his life, which must be referred to the same distant test and examination. They, who have served with him in the war preceding the last, are best able to speak of his military anecdotes; he served with great reputation under the Dukes of Cumberland and Marlborough, in Germany, Scotland, and France; there are passages enough in his campaigns, which put his courage out of all dispute; I think it is unnecessary to produce them merely for the object of confuting a slanderous insinuation, which none but vulgar minds could adopt, and which was never echoed for any purposes but of temporary defamation. He was shot in the breast at the head of Barrel's regiment in the memorable battle of Fontenoy, and saw that brave regiment almost totally cut to pieces; if I am rightly informed, only three officers marched unwounded off the field: at the battle of Minden, he was marked by implication in the public orders of Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick; he appealed to a court-martial, was tried, sentenced, and disgraced. I have no further concern with this or any other event of his life, but as it may involve some good or evil quality of his mind, and affect his private character; in this light I presume it is not improper to compare his situation in the two actions above-mentioned, especially where a crime has been suggested against him, very foreign from his nature, and very different from the reasons upon which he suffered sentence; this, and this only, is the point to which I address myself; not to his rightful judges, for that would be the height of indecency, but to those who, without right to judge, condemned without reason; and to such I may be allowed to say, that the situation of Lord Sackville, commanding a single regiment at Fontenoy, under an English prince and general, was very different from his situation at Minden, commanding the British forces under a foreign prince and general in the former case his duty was only that of an officer; it was simply to fight, and to obey, and that duty he performed; in the latter his duty was that of a general, accountable to his country for something more than his conduct in the hour of battle, for his counsels and opinions, and many other complicated

:

and delicate affairs, in all which a man, whose zeal for the peculiar interests of his own country exceeded any considerations that respected himself only, must be subjected to dangers that need not be pointed out; in such circumstances a subordinate general, though of the same nation with his superior, has not always thought in harmony with him, and I believe the consequences have generally proved fatal to one party or the other.

"I have seen him in moments of imminent danger, both personal and political, and never had occasion to doubt of the firmness of his mind; I know not how else he could have supported himself against such continued persecution; I think this circumstance alone would mark his fortitude to the conviction of every considerate man, for his deportment was exactly such as innocence and a clear conscience will inspire; there was no insolence, no ferocity in it, such as detected characters can assume, when they have cast away shame, and hardened themselves against infamy; his serenity, on the contrary, accompanied him through life, and was particularly conspicuous at the close of it.

"He underwent an irksome opposition, when the favour of his sovereign promoted him to a seat in the house of peers: it was one of the last and most painful trials of his life: the transaction is so recent, that I may be excused from any further mention of it. He did not long enjoy his hard-earned honours. He supported the King's ministers in all public measures, except those relative to the Irish propositions, in which he took a part, not of purposed opposition, but of fair and deliberate opinion; he had given his best and fullest attention to the subject in all its branches, and expected its issue with the utmost anxiety. Some time before the conclusion of the session he was seized with the symptons of his last illness, in which stage of his complaint, if he could have been persuaded to retire from his duty in parliament, he might probably have found a remedy in the air and retirement of the country; but he persisted so long in his attendance upon this important business, that his complaint gathered upon him, and his pains grew so troublesome, that when he came at last into the country, he did not experience that relief which was hoped for; notwithstanding this, although repose was so necessary for his condition, his zeal carried him again to town in a very unfit state for the undertaking: he spoke upon the question with greater agitation of mind, and more at length, than was common with him, and the house being hot and crowded, he found himself so exhausted at the conclusion of his speech, that it was with diffi

.

culty he was saved from fainting on the spot: the sitting was very long, and he returned to his family very materially altered in his health for the worse.

"From this period he considered his case as without cure, feeling those symptoms of internal decay which he was satisfied were beyond the reach of medicine; in this persuasion, he even apologized to his physician for the fruitless trouble he was giving him he endured a succession of wearisome pains with singular serenity and composure of mind; his senses were firm and unimpaired to the last; and he was occupied almost without intermission in fulfilling the duties of a father, a friend, and a Christian: it should seem as if all the preceding sorrows of his life were repaid to him by that extraordinary support and comfort which Providence vouchsafed to him in his last days. It is not in my remembrance, through the course of my acquaintance with him, ever to have heard a word from his lips that could give offence to decency or religion; but in this latter period, of which I am speaking, and throughout which I constantly attended him, his sentiments were of that exalted and superior kind, as to render the spectacle of his death one of the most edifying contemplations of my life.

"I have now the pleasing satisfaction to know, that it was not without reason I thought well of one, whom too many conspired to traduce. Having survived my friend, I now enjoy the only reward which a disinterested attachment can look to the reward of finding the opinion I had conceived of his virtues justified to my own conviction; and of being conscious that I am strictly fulfilling the duties of an honest man, when I lay before the public this small but sincere tribute to his memory."c

"I was present whilst the Holy Sacrament was administered to him, two days before his death: he caused his windows and bed-curtains to be thrown open, and exerted himself to the utmost on that awful occasion; he received the elements with a devotion and fervor, expressive of such inward peace and even gladness of heart, as are the strongest of all human evidences of an easy conscience and a well-prepared mind His last words to me are a further indication of this, and, as nearly as I can repeat them, were as follow: "You see me now in those moments, when no disguise will serve, and when the spirit of a man must be proved; I have a mind perfectly resigned, and at peace within itself: I have no more to do with this world, and what I have done in it, I have done for the best; I hope and trust I am prepared for the next. Tell not me of all that passes in health and pride of heart, these are the moments in which a man must be searched; and remember, that I die, as you see me, happy and content."

• See farther anecdotes of this Peer in Cumberland's memoirs of himself.

In September 1754, his Lordship was married to Diana, second daughter and coheir of John Sambroke, Esq. only brother of Sir Jeremy Sambroke, of Gubbins in Hertfordshire, Bart. which Lady died, January 15th, 1778, aged seventy-four, leaving issue two sons and three daughters.

First, Diana, born July 8th, 1756, and married November 26, 1777, to John, Viscount Crosbie, who on the death of his father became Earl of Glandore.

Second, Elizabeth, born July 4th, 1762, and married October 28th, 1781, to Henry Arthur Herbert, of Mucras in Ireland, Esq. Third, Caroline, born June 28th, 1764, died September 10th, 1789.

Fourth, Charles, present peer.

Fifth, George, born December 7th, 1770.

His Lordship was succeeded by his eldest son

CHARLES, present and SECOND VISCOUNT SACKVILLE, who was born August 27th, 1767.

Titles. Charles Germain Viscount Sackville and Baron Bolebroke.

Creation. Viscount Sackville and Baron Bolebroke, Feb. 11,

1782.

Arms. Quarterly, Or and Gules, a bend vaire.

Crest. Out of a coronet adorned with fleurs-de-lis Or, an estoil of twelve points Argent.

vair.

Supporters. Two leopards, Argent, spotted Sable, collared

Motto. AUT NUNQUAM TENTES, AUT PERFICE.

Chief Seats. At Stoneland Lodge, in the county of Sussex, and at Drayton in the county of Northampton.

r Coffin Plate.

s Formerly the seat of the Earls of Peterborough.

THOMAS Townshend, second son of Charles, second Viscount Townshend, by Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Lord Pelham, (by his first wife Elizabeth, daughter and heir of Sir William Jones, attorney-general to King Charles II.) half-sister to Thomas, Duke of Newcastle, (see vol. ii. p. 470), was born June 2d, 1701, and educated first at Eton school, and afterwards at King's college, Cambridge. At the age of twenty-one, he was returned member of parliament for Winchelsea, and at the subsequent general election, for the University of Cambridge as well as for Hastings. Having made his election for the former, he continued to represent that learned body in six successive parliaments, during which time he applied with the most unremitted attention to the interests of the University, as well as to those of the individuals who composed it. Mr. Townshend, with his colleague, the Hon. Edward Finch, first instituted the annual prizes for the senior and middle bachelors, which continue to be given to this day by the members for the University.

Very early in life he entered into the Secretary of State's office under his father, whom he accompanied in his journies to Germany with George I. and George II. in which situation he acquired a most accurate and comprehensive knowledge of the in. terests of his country with respect to foroign powers.

In 1726-7 at the death of George I. he succeeded to one of the Tellerships of the Exchequer, of which he had a reversionary grant to take place on the determination of the patent to Mr. Treby, whose term expired with the King.

In 1739, he was appointed chief secretary to the Duke of De