f Douglas, eighth duke, of Hamilton; and by her second
husband, of William, sixth duke, and of Henry, seventh duke, of Argyle.
The duchess, though at the time of Lady Coventry's illness supposed to be
in a consumption, survived for thirty years, dying in 1790.

Mason the poet commemorated Lady Coventry's death in a long elegy, which
had some repute in those days, when even Hayley was called a poet. They
are dawdling and dulcified to a deplorable degree.

"Yes, Coventry is dead; attend the strain,
Daughters of Albion, ye that, light as air,
So oft have trips in her fantastic train,
With hearts as gay, and faces half as fair;
For she was fair beyond your highest bloom;
This envy owns, since now her bloom is fled.
&c. &c. &c.

We have then a sketch of a man of considerable celebrity in his day, Lord
Sandwich. Educated at Eton and Cambridge; on leaving college, he made the
then unusual exertion of a voyage round the Mediterranean, of which a
volume was published by his chaplain on his return. Shortly after, taking
his seat in the House of Lords, he came into ministerial employment as a
Lord of the Admiralty. In 1746, he was appointed minister to the States
General. And from that period, for nearly thirty years, he was employed in
high public offices; was twice an ambassador, three times first Lord of
the Admiralty, and twice Secretary of State. Lord Sandwich's personal
character was at least accused of so much profligacy, that, if the charges
be true, we cannot comprehend how he was suffered to retain employments of
such importance for so many years. Wilkes, who had known him intimately,
describes him, in his letters to the electors of Aylesbury, as "the most
abandoned man of the age." He is even said not to have been a man of
business; yet the Admiralty was a place which can scarcely be managed by
an idler, and the Secretaryship of State, in this country, can never be a
sinecure. He had certainly one quality which is remarkable for
conciliation, and without which no minister, let his talents be what they
may, has ever been personally popular; he was a man of great affability,
and of shrewd wit. The latter was exhibited, in peculiarly cutting style,
to Mr Eden, afterwards Lord Auckland. Eden, sagacious in his generation,
had suddenly ratted to Pitt, adding, however, the monstrous absurdity of
sending a circular to his colleagues by way of justification. Obviously,
nothing could be more silly than an attempt