From a Painting in the Fosefsion of the Earl of Stamford

Anecdotes of His Excellency the Duke of Portland, Lord Lieutenant of the Kingdom of Ireland, embellished with a beautiful Engraving taken from a Painting of Sir Joshua Reynolds, in the Poffeffion of the Right Hon. the Earl of Stamford.

port to that board (though no lawyer) a pofitive opinion on a very intricate point of law, and of himself declared (if we can poffibly believe that this officer could hazard fuch a declaration, without previous confultation with, and private directions from fuperior authority) that the premifes were not comprized in the grant from King William to the Duke of Portland, but were still invested in the crown; and recommended to their lordships to grant the lease demanded, at a very inconfider able referved rent. The Duke's agents were refufed permiffion to examine the rolls and authorities on which the Surveyor had founded his report: On application to the Treafury, however, for an or der to the Surveyor for fuch permission, the Duke received a promise of fuch or der, be even paid the ufual fees for draw ing it up, yet he could never obtain.it: at the Treafury, he was told it had been fent to the Surveyor's Office at the Surveyor's Office the receipt of it was denied; yet the Surveyor had before that time ac tually received it, and in answer to it, had remonftrated to the Treafury againtt allowing the inspection of any writings, which related to any difpute of the rights of the crown. But thefe circumftances were not known to the Duke till fome time afterwards. The report of the Surveyor, and every step of the Treafury, was enveloped in that dark and filent fecrecy which generally accompanies the confcious perpetration of deliberate injuftice. In the interim, the Duke's agents, in obedience to a letter from the Treasury received in October, by which he was directed to prepare his title, and which contained a promife that nothing thould be decided concerning it, till fuch title had been flated, and maturely confidered; were bufily employed in their researches through a train of grants, precedents, and other records, and were in daily expectation of the promised permiflion to infpect the Surveyor's papers, in order to complete it; but while they were deeply en gaged in this laborious investigation, and expecting the above-mentioned order, the Duke, to his infinite furprife, received another letter from the Treafury, dated the 22d of December, informing him, that the grants avere paffed and the lenfes figned. This was precifely ten days after Lord North had taken his feat at the Treafury Board. A cavent had before been entered at the Exchequer, to ftop the progrefs of the grant; and when, in confequence of this caveat, the fame Lord North, (aliufque et idem) was prayed to withhold affixing the Exchequer Seal, the

ceremonial wanting to give it validi

ty, he replied, that he had received directions to affix the Seal inftantaneously, and that as Chancellor of the Exchequer, he was ex officio compelled to obey all orders from the Treafury. The Treafury had before declared themselves compelled to pro, ceed according to the Surveyor's report, and the Surveyor's report was in all probability the refult of private instruction. Thus in a matter of property, which in its confequences might affect the rights of the whole kingdom, a frivolous pretence of official compulfion was now firit made, in defiance of the fettled rules of equity and justice, and in violation of all the fa cred ties of faith and confidence amongst mankind.

On the 26th of November, 1771, this great cause was tried before the Barons of the Exchequer in Weftminster-hall, whether the grant to Sir James Lowther, of the foreft of Inglewood, was legal? Mr. Wedderburne, (now Lord Loughborough) was principal council for the miniftry, and Mr. Thurlow, (now Lord Chancellor) was principal council for the Duke of Portland.. When, after a long trial, the grant was found invalid, upon the ftatute of the first. of Anne, which fays, "That upon every grant, &e. there fail be referved a rent, not less than the third part of the clear yearly value of fuch manor, &c. as shall be contained in fuch grant." The quit rent referved in this grant was only 138. 40. for the whole forest of Inglewood, which was adjudged by the court, to be inadequate to the third proportion.

The Duke continued, with his ufual ar-1 dour, confiftency and spirit, to oppose the minifters upon every meafure which tended to abridge the liberties of the people, or diminish the limits of the empire. This conduct has fecured to him great popula rity of character, the esteem of every friend to the conftitution, and the applaufe of every admirer of public virtue.

Upon the change of the minifters in 1782, his Grace was made Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. The critical fituation of the affairs of that kingdom, required a perfon of his Grace's character. The author of a pamphlet juft published, entitled The Revolutions of 1782, impartially confidered, written on occafion of this lait change of minifters, fays in page 32, "Ireland will treat with the prefent minifters. The amiable mannera, whig principles, and hereditary purity of the duke of Portland, feem like the former William of the Houfe of Orange, to be destined to reflore the happiness and luftte of Ireland."

His Grace married, in Nov. 1766, lady Dorothy, fifter to the prefent duke of Devonshire, and has iffue feveral children.

The

The marquis of Titchfield, his Grace's eldeft fon, was born in June, 1768. Lord Edward Bentinck, his Grace's brother, is member for the county of Nottingham. His Grace has two fifters, viz. lady Elizabeth, married to lord Weymouth, and lady Henrietta to the earl of Stamford. The Hiftory of Kitty Wells. A true Story.

THE

(Concluded from p. 202.)

HE difafter of Robin, which at firit was the jeft of the whole family, became feriously affecting; the phyfician pronounced him to be dangerouffy ill, and while in this melancholy ftate he lay with the horrors of an unexpected diffolution before him, at times delirious, and at times tortured with the recollection of his prefumptuous behaviour in regard to Mrs. Wells, he was exceedingly anxious to confefs the deception of which he had been guilty, and thereby remove, at leaft, one fting from his bofom. The unhappy woman was alfo in a fever, but of another fort. Her's was a fever of the brain-Ro. bin's of the blood. Her's was the effect of that hereditary maggot which we have defcribed, cruelly irritated by the wanton impofition which had been practifed on her; while Robin's flowed from the fhock of an apprehenfion, in which confcience had a fhare. Robin's bore all the fymptoms of fatality, while the poor woman's was lively and fpirited. They both deferved the compaffion of the fpectator, but they were not likely to receive it in an equal degree; for that the foft and tender emotion of pity may be engendered in the heart, it is neceffary that the object under affliction fhould appear fen fible of his fufferings. When we fee mad Tom decorated with his crown of ftraw, iffuing his fovereign mandates from his aerial throne-do we pity the misery of a man who himself feels no mifery? It is the melancholy lunatic-it is the fenfible, the afflicted Maria only-that can move the heart, and infpire the foft and fympa. thetic affection which Yorick fo ftrongly felt, and fo elegantly defcribed. The man, who from the wheel, the rack, or, to bring it clofer to our feelings by a more familiar allution, who under the torture of the lafh preferves the ferenity of manhood, and looks around him with the compofed dignity of a foul fuperior to the weakness of lamentation, he calls upon us to admire rather than to pity him.

The flesh will quiver where the pincers tear,

And the blood must follow where the ponfard fiabs.

But there are men who exalt their fpe

cies by fhewing, amidst the agonies of death, that their flesh and blood are the only mortal parts which they poffefs. The trembling, miferable wretch, whofe clamour is proportioned to his fuffering, affects the tender ftrings of the heart; we bleed at every ftroke; we pity, but we cannot admire.

Mrs. Wells's fever bore her on the pini-. ons of fancy into the regions of romance; and while the indulged herself in all the phantafies of a bewildered brain, there was too much rapture in her eye, to fuffer those around her to compaffion te her cafe. But Robin lay gafping under the misery of his madness. His paroxyfms of delirium were filled with ravings of difordered guilt; and his intervals with reproaches more excruciating for being ineffectual. In one of thefe fhort ceffations, however, he procured Mrs. Wells to his bed-fide, and there, with confiderable difficulty, and many interruptions, he explained to her the poor ftratagem that he had practifed on her eafy mind: but, what was the unhappy confequence? A perfon whofe extafies are the refult of infatuation, will not easily be brought to reafon. To undeceive Mrs. Wells was to rob her of her tranfports. Inftead, therefore, of returning to the quiet tenor which conviction ought to have infpired, the flew into a violent phrenzy ; and loaded the miferable author of all her unhappiness with every epithet that rage could dictate. It became a feene, which those who are fond of fporting with human weakness ought to have feen. It would have been a leffon to them for life; by which they would have been inftructed not to inflame the diforders of their fellow-creatures, for cruel muft be the pleasure which concludes fo fatally. They tore her away--but they could not overcome her passion. She went into her room, and spent the remainder of the day in a perturbation of mind which may be imagined, but cannot be described. At night he went out again by the fame this he has never been heard of nor feen. door as formerly, and from that inftant to Where the went, or what was her fate, the worthy and humane gentleman with whom she had refided as housekeeper, was never able to difcover. In the morning the fervants were fent to traverse the fields and parks in every direction; nay, the ponds and rivers were dragged-but all to no purpose. Her departure in this firange manner foon became the topic of general converfation; and, as is ufual in a country place, there were a thousand ftories of her being feen wandering to and fro, and appearing firft in one place, and then in another. These stories, the bafty invention Ff2

of

of wonder or weakness, it is not neceffary From hence, which is furely a fcandalous to relate, fince they were at once ridiculous and untrue. Robin flowly recovered to exhibit to the affected family, of which he had formerly been the foul, the wafted and melancholy picture of a man, who having wantonly provoked the diftemper of an unhappy creature, was now labouring under the mental punishment of being her deftroyer. A confcious criminal rendered grave by penitence in his feventeenth year, incapable of fharing in the joys or the pleafares of youth.