! 1769. NOTE ON JOHN DUKE OF BEDFORD. li Chevening, as the seat of your family, more than what it costs. I have the pleasure to confirm, what your Ladyship has heard, that a way is found through the valley by the park-farm, which will gain the ascent so imperceptibly, that all the hill, in effect, vanishes; this road would, I dare say, be made perfectly good for coaches for thirty pounds. I have examined very attentively the course it should run, and I will venture to pronounce, that the approach from the London side to Chevening, from the point where you would leave the Sundridge road, is (at the same time that the descent is so soft, one may trot up and down) the most beautiful approach to any place in England. Mr. Brampton, who is very intelligent and an excellent servant, will have given your Ladyship some particulars relating to this matter. I confess, I cannot help warmly recommending the immediate execution of this essential work; if I can be of any use, in conjunction with Mr. Brampton, I shall think myself honoured, if you will appoint me joint overseer of the way; almost the only office an old cripple is fit for. I carry my ambition to be remembered at Chevening so far, that I wish it may be said hereafter, if ever this plan for the road should go into execution, He, the overseer, who made this way, did not make the peace of Paris! I am, ever, &c. CHATHAM. NOTE ON JOHN, FOURTH DUKE OF BEDFORD. In the spring of 1843, I had the honour to receive two letters from the present Duke of Bedford, complaining, though in terms of the most perfect courtesy and even personal kindness, that a passage of my history, which describes the character of the fourth Duke, and his change of office in 1748, had, for want of the information which the first volume of his published correspondence had since supplied, been unjust to his memory. In the preface to the second volume of that correspondence, published in July, 1843, Lord John Russell has in like manner controverted my statement, also in a tone, as I am glad thus publicly to acknowledge, of much candour and moderation. It would in any case have been my duty, on the appearance of these further documents, to review with care my former impressions on the fourth Duke of Bedford, and to confess with frankness any errors of which I might become aware. The passage complained of stood as follows in my first and second editions (vol. III. p. 512.) : : "It was Newcastle's desire that the vacant post (of "Secretary of State) might be filled by Lord Sandwich, "but a superior cabal in the Cabinet bestowed it upon "the Duke of Bedford, a cold-hearted, hot-headed man, more distinguished by rank and fortune than by either "talent or virtue. Sandwich, however, succeeded Bed"ford as head of the Admiralty, and was likewise "despatched as plenipotentiary to Aix-la-Chapelle." 66 On this passage Lord John Russell raises two questions: First, as to the nature of the official changes in 1748. Secondly, as to the general character that I have drawn of his ancestor. 1. My statement rested mainly on what appeared to ine very strong authority. -a letter from a statesman in high office to a confidential friend, and written, moreover, at the very time of the event. This letter is from Mr. Fox, then Secretary at War and afterwards the first Lord Holland, to Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, then British Minister at Dresden; it is dated February_17. 1748, O. S., and will be found at length in "Coxe's Pel"ham Administration " (vol. i. p. 389.). "The Duke of "Grafton," says Mr. Fox, "the Duke of Devonshire, Mr. "Pelham, and all who either disliked Lord Sandwich, or "had declared a contrary opinion to his, though they "did not openly give him the exclusion, yet virtually "obstructed his promotion, to which His Majesty was by 66 no means inclined; rather, I should say, very averse. "Lord Sandwich was the man the Duke (of Cumberland) "and his Grace of Newcastle intended. You know how "it has ended This, in other words, is precisely the same statement as mine. The Bedford letters do not disprove this statement, 1769. NOTE ON JOHN, DUKE OF BEDFORD. liii but add to it some further particulars and a different colouring. They show that the Duke was never personally the rival, but rather the patron, of Lord Sandwich; that he was satisfied with his post at the Board of Admiralty, and that he preferred his friend's promotion to his own. Bedford writes to Sandwich (February 12. 1748), "Nothing could have prevailed upon me to have accepted of this employment, had I not found it at "present impracticable for your being appointed to it." And Sandwich replies (March 5.), "I am sure no one "before me ever met with such a friend as I have in "you." My narrative, however, as it stands, neither implies, nor was intended to imply, any blame on the Duke of Bedford for his share in this transaction. Whether as the rival or the patron of Lord Sandwich, he had a perfectly good right to accept the Seals, if the majority of the Cabinet wished it, and if he approved of them. 2. As to the Duke of Bedford's general character, I acknowledge that the perusal of his letters, as also of his diary (published at the close of the first volume of the Cavendish Debates in 1841), has materially altered my impressions, and that I should no longer apply to him the word "cold-hearted." He appears, on the contrary, throughout his correspondence, and the private entries of his journal (whatever aspect he might bear to the world at large), affectionate and warm-hearted to his family and his friends. Whether those friends were in general wisely chosen-whether they were in many cases other than flatterers and boon companions, is another question; a question which Lord John Russell himself, in the preface to his second volume, seems disposed to answer in the negative. January, 1844. M. END OF THE FOURTH VOLUME. CABINET EDITIONS OF STANDARD WORKS. BYRON'S (LORD) POETICAL WORKS. Small 8vo. 30s. Illustrations. 10 vols. BYRON'S (LORD) LETTERS AND JOURNALS. With Notices of his Life. By THOMAS MOORE. Illustrations. 6 vols. Small 8vo. 18s. DERBY'S (LORD) ILIAD OF HOMER. Rendered into ENGLISH BLANK VERSE. Portrait. 2 vols. Post 8vo. 10s. GROTE'S HISTORY OF GREECE. From the EARLIEST PERIOD to the close of the Generation contemporary with ALEXANDER THE GREAT. Portrait and Plans. 12 vols. Post 8vo. 4s, each. HALLAM'S HISTORICAL WORKS. Portrait. 10 vols. Post 8vo. MOTLEY'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED NETHERLANDS: from the Death of WILLIAM THE SILENT to the TWELVE YEARS' TRUCE, 1584-1609. Portraits. 4 vols. Post 8vo. 24s. MOTLEY'S LIFE AND DEATH OF JOHN OF BARNEVELD. With a View of the PRIMARY CAUSES of 'THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR.' Illustrations. 2 vols. Post 8vo. 12s. NAPIER'S ENGLISH BATTLES AND SIEGES OF THE PENINSULAR WAR. Portrait. Crown 8vo. 9s. ROBERTSON'S HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. From the APOSTOLIC AGE to the REFORMATION, 1547. 8 vols. Post 8vo. 6s. each. SMILES'S LIVES OF THE ENGINEERS. From the EARLIEST TIMES to the DEATH of the STEPHENSONS. Portraits and Woodcuts. 5 vols. Crown 8vo. 7s. 6d. each. VERMUYDEN, MYDDLETON, PERRY, BRINDLEY. SMEATON AND RENNIE. METCALFE AND TELFORD. BOULTON AND WATT. GEORGE AND ROBERT STEPHENSON. STANHOPE'S (EARL) HISTORY OF ENGLAND, FROM THE REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE TO THE PEACE OF VERSAILLES, 1701-83. Portrait. 9 vols. Post 8vo. 5s. each. STANLEY'S (DEAN) HISTORICAL WORKS. With Maps and Por traits. Crown 8vo. 6s. each vol. THE EASTERN CHURCH. 1 vol. CANTERBURY MEMORIALS. 1 vol. ESSAYS ON CHURCH AND STATE. 1 vol. JOHN MURRAY, Albemarle Street. |