[186] The Dauphin said exultingly to the Prince of Conti, “Papa Roi est bien le maître pourtant.” The Prince replied, “Oui, Monseigneur, si fort le maître, qu’il ne tient qu’à lui de donner sa couronne à M. le Comte d’Artois, votre cadet.”
[189] Arthur Annesley had married Lucy, only daughter of Lord Lyttelton. His claim to the Earldom of Anglesea, was rejected by the House of Lords in England, but the Irish House of Lords recognised him as Viscount Valentia. The proceedings on his claim possess considerable interest, but still more is to be found in the contest between his father and his cousin, which suggested to Sir Walter Scott some of the incidents in Guy Mannering.--E.
[190] See the proceedings in Cavendish, vol. ii. p. 307. The gross corruption of the borough, and the improbability of any improvement, furnished a strong ground for the disfranchisement.--E.
[191] Personal abuse was carried so far in the public papers at this time, that Monsieur Francés, the French resident, received an anonymous letter, threatening him with defamation unless he should send 50_l._ to the writer. He despised the menace, and heard no more of it.
[192] See particularly Memoirs of George the Second, vol. i. p. 93.--E.
[193] The Duke of Grafton was immediately attacked by his bitter enemy, Junius; but the same paper contained a more terrible invective on the King, whom it inhumanly taxed with the murder of Mr. Yorke, for having forced him to accept the Great Seal, which occasioned his death.--[Junius, Letter l. See the Duke of Grafton’s Memoirs in the Appendix.--E.]
[194] Dr. North subsequently was preferred to the see of Winchester, which he held until his death at a very advanced age in 1820. His son, who is also in holy orders, has succeeded to the Earldom of Guilford.--E.
[195] The title of it was “The Adventures of Humphrey Clinker.” [Walpole here yields to the miserable party prejudices of his day, which pursued poor Smollett even beyond the tomb. Humphrey Clinker, as Sir Walter Scott elegantly and justly observes, “was the last, and, like music sweetest at the close, the sweetest of his compositions. It is not worth defending so excellent a work against so weak an objection.”--(Prose Works, vol. iii. p. 162.)--E.]