Page images
PDF
EPUB

into the country with him. Of the great personal regard, which his Majesty entertained for him, the following letter may be adduced as a proof:

[blocks in formation]

66

Jay este extremement marri d'apprendre par la lettre, que vous avez escrit au Secret. Vernon, que vous avez trouvé si peu de soulagement en vostre santé au bains, que vous estes obligé de songer d'aller chez vous en esperance d'y trouver plus de soulagement, ce que je vous souhaité de tout mon cœur, et suis très content que vous y alliez, quoy que j'aurois extrêmement souhaité de vous avoir aupres de moy en cette conjuncture; ou j'ay plus besoin que jamais des personnes en qui je me fie autant qu'a vous, et pour qui j'ay autant d'estime. J'espere que le bon Dieu vous rendra bientost vostre santé, et que vous reviendrez le plus tost qu'il vous sera possible. Cependant vous pourez faire avec les prevy seaux comme vous avez fait l'anne passé, quands vous esties absens, ou de telle autre maniere que vous trouverez convenable. Mais j'espere que vous ne songez pas à quitter mon service; sur tout à present, que j'en ay plus besoin que jamais, et que je n'y pourez point consenti, ayent autant d'estime et et d'amitie que j'ay pour

vous, dont je seres tres aise de vous donner des marques en toutte sorte d'occasions.

66

Signed,

"WILLIAM R.”

"For the Lord Privy Seal."

In the month of July 1700, he was appointed one of the Lords Justices to govern the kingdom, during the King's absence in Holland. But on the tenth day of that month, he departed this life, at the age of forty-five years: so short was the time allotted to him by Providence. Short, however, as that time was, he employed it in the practice of virtue, in the pursuit of every thing good and praise-worthy. Hence he was esteemed and beloved by the King whom he faithfully served, endeared to his family, and respected by all good men. He enjoyed as great a portion of happiness as can fall to the lot of humanity. He has acknowledged this in the conclusion of his advice to his son. The language of exalted piety and humble gratitude, in which he expresses his sentiments upon this occasion, cannot be sufficiently admired. "It is not to be imagined, that perfect uninterrupted happiness can be the portion of this life; that is reserved for another, for those on whom it shall please the Almighty Lord God to bestow it but he may arrive at

[ocr errors]

that which, praised be that great God, is my condition; that is, to know that I am more happy than I deserve, and as entirely so as I can be in this life, or desire to be, which blessing I pray also for you." Whence arose this perception of his felicity, but from the consciousness of his own best endeavours to excel in goodness? He frequently declared, that he made the Scripture the rule of his conduct, and reason the expositor of Scripture.' Here he found a plain and natural order of faith and manners, easy and intelligible to the meanest capacities, and agreed to by all mankind; and, where any thing occurred difficult and mysterious, he left it to the decision of the Supreme Being at the last day.

It would be difficult to enumerate his many acts of benignity and munificence toward others. Yet they did not always meet with an adequate return. He was treated with great ingratitude for favours, which he had conferred with the most unbounded generosity. But he forbore to name the persons from whom he had received such usage, that he might not leave his children with an ill impression of any, but only teach them to be wise by his own experience.

The parish-church of Lowther, a neat and elegant structure, was almost entirely rebuilt by him. He caused a school, also, to be erected in the

* Manuscript.

village of Lowther, and liberally endowed it, from a conviction that it was the duty of every good citizen to promote the welfare of his country. He intended it for learning not barely languages, but virtue; for the purpose of instilling early principles of reverence to the name of God, and of obedience to his divine pleasure.

He left issue by his wife Catharine, the daughter of Sir Henry Frederick Thynne, three sons and five daughters. She survived him many years. All his daughters were honourably and happily married, except Jane, the third, who died unmarried in 1752.

1. Richard, his eldest son, died on the first day of December, 1713; an early victim to that cruel disease, the small-pox, which at that time so frequently and so fatally blasted the happiness, and destroyed the hopes, of families. To this amiable youth Mr. Tickell, a native of Cumberland, and the friend and biographer of Mr. Addison, inscribed his elegant poem, entitled OXFORD, beginning with these lines:

Whilst you, my Lord, adorn that stately seat,
Where shining Beauty makes her soft retreat;
Enjoying all those graces uncontroll❜d,
Which noblest youths would die but to behold:
Whilst you inhabit Lowther's aweful pile,
A structure worthy of the founder's toil,

Amazed we see the former Lonsdale shine,
In each descendent of his noble line:

But most transported and surprised we view
His ancient glories all revived in you,

Where charms and virtues join their equal race,

Your father's god-like soul, your mother's lovely face.

2. Henry, the third Viscount Lonsdale, succeeded his brother Richard, and was in 1715 appointed Custos Rotulorum, and afterward Lord Lieutenant, of the counties of Westmoreland and Cumberland. In 1717, he was made one of the Lords of the Bedchamber. On the accession of George I., he was appointed Constable of the Tower of London, and Lord Lieutenant of the Hamlets thereof, and was afterward Lord Privy Seal. His character is thus portrayed by one of his contemporaries :

« PreviousContinue »