Chatham made an intolerable labour of it, as will be seen by his despatches, which will be found to be more of speeches. Besides writing the Duke had a vast dexterity in distributing places, promising and afterwards keeping or breaking his word as he found it convenient. Lord Holland (Mr. Fox) told me that he had occasion to reprove him about his not keeping a promise he had made of some piece of preferment; the Duke of Newcastle acknowledged the truth of what Mr. Fox said, but alleged that he had resigned since, which put an end to all previous promises: he had been out only a few days. He was in truth governed in all matters of judgment by a set of intriguers, the principal of which were Mr. Murray the present Lord Mansfield, Mr. Stone his secretary, Dr. Stone, Dr. Markham, the present Archbishop of York, and some others of the same stamp. Stone, Primate of Ireland, was brother to Mr. Stone, the Under-Secretary, but of a very different character. He affected to be a sort of Cardinal de Retz, deeply read in French memoirs, calculated like his great original to do a great deal of mischief, and no good. Markham was a darker character: a strong-boned Irishman, of six foot height, a bold manly man, liberal in private life, calculated to stick at nothing in publick; a classical scholar rather better than ordinary. They took advantage of his good nature, his love of bustle, &c., and left the detail of business to him, which he mistook, as many men are apt to do, for real business, while they were taken up in adapting all the great interests of the kingdom to their own little interests, and to keeping the power of everything and the government within their own circle.
"Out of this school came the famous or rather infamous Lord George Sackville,[1] who begun a career, every step of which was marked with infamy, by embroiling Ireland, where, in conjunction with Dr. Stone, the Primate, he begun plans, which neither of them had courage or sense to carry through, and laid the foundation of all that has since happened in that country. It is easy to conceive
- ↑ See infra, page 236, for the character of Lord George Sackville by Lord Shelburne. The Duke of Dorset was twice Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and on the second occasion took Lord George Sackville with him as Secretary.
