Thus ended the political life of the Earl of Sunderland; and, from his own experience of its miseries and discomforts, his estimate of a statesman's life was not probably very different from that of the Duke of Shrewsbury, who says, in a letter to Lord Somers, written from Rome in 1701—"Had I a son, I would sooner breed him a cobbler than a courtier, and a hangman than a statesman."[1]
Convinced at last that it was quite impossible to conquer the suspicion and dislike of all parties, the consequence of his previous conduct. Lord Sunderland submitted without further effort; and the following passage, in a letter from his friend the secretary Vernon, written in 1700, about two years before his death, shows the melancholy condition to which he was reduced in his latter days, and the state of public feeling towards him.
"I don't know what my Lord Sunderland will do upon my summons for his coining to town; but by what he writ to me yesterday, of the 13th instant, I perceive he had then no thoughts of leaving the country. His expressions are, that he had resolved a great while against coming to town; of late he had met with many things to confirm those thoughts and nothing to change them; that a man
- ↑ Shrewsbury Correspondence.
