mous, and probably dispersed among the periodical journals, cannot now be ascertained. They drew upon him, however, the wrath of Churchill, who in his "Author" has exhibited a portrait of Mr. Francis, overcharged with spleen and envy. Mr. Francis died at Bath, March 5, 1773.
Sir PHILIP FRANCIS.
This distinguished statesman was the son of the subject of the preceding memoir, and was born in Dublin, on Oct. 22nd, 1740. The first elements of his education he received in the school of Mr. Thomas Ball, in Ship-street, which he quitted in 1750 for England; and in 1753, was placed in St. Paul's school, under the care of Mr. George Thicknesse. In 1756, Mr. Henry Fox, afterwards Lord Holland, gave him a small place in the secretary of state's office; and when Mr. Pitt succeeded Mr. Fox in that office, he was recommended to the former by his secretary, Robert Wood, and by his means appointed, in 1758, secretary to General Bligh, in which capacity he was present at the capture and demolition of Cherbourg. When, in 1760, Lord Kinnoul was appointed ambassador to the court of Lisbon, Mr. Francis accompanied him thither as his secretary, and on his return to England, towards the close of that year, he went back to the secretary of state's office, whence, in 1763, he was removed, by Welbore Ellice, to a station of considerable trust in the War-office, which he resigned in 1772, conceiving himself ill-treated by Lord Barrington. Having spent the greater part of the year 1772 in travelling on the Continent, he returned to England at the commencement of 1778, when Lord Barrington, probably repenting the injustice he had done him, recommended him strongly to Lord North.
The East India Company, although in it's origin a mere association of merchant adventurers, had by degrees acquired such power and ascendancy, that at this time we find them possessed of Bengal, Bahar, and Ouza, three
