t, who disliked this
marriage for the heiress of the Percys, but there was no power of
depriving her of the property, and Smithson succeeded to the title
in 1750; from this time they both figured prominently in society and
politics, and the Duchess's entertainments, where the best musicians
performed, were famous.

(70) William Beckford (1709-1770). Alderman and Lord Mayor of
London, and Member of Parliament for the City of London. The friend
and supporter of Wilkes, he was an upholder of popular rights at a
time when men of wealth were usually supporters of the King.

(71) John George Montagu, fourth Earl of Sandwich (1718-1792); was a
party politician whose term of office as First Lord of the Admiralty
brought him into general opprobrium; in private life he was even
more severely condemned. With the Earl of March, Sir Francis
Dashwood, and others, he was associated with Wilkes in the infamous
brotherhood of Medmenham, and later, when they made public the
secrets of the club against Wilkes, popular feeling rose high
against Sandwich, and he was characterised as Jemmy Twitcher, from a
play then running; the theatre rose to the words "That Jemmy
Twitcher should peach me I own surprised me."

(72) Sir George, afterward Lord Macartney (1737-1800). An ambitious
young Irishman; a tutor and friend of Charles James Fox, he had been
assisted in his career by Lord Holland. In 1764 he had been
appointed Envoy Extraordinary to Russia, and later held appointments
as Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, President of Madras,
Governor of the Cape of Good Hope, and Ambassador to China. He
married Lord Bute's second and favourite daughter, Lady Jane.

(73) Marie de Vichy Chamroud, Marquise du Deffand (1697-1780). She
married, in 1718, the Marquis du Deffand, from whom she soon
separated, and lived the life of pleasure so common in the period.
At the age of sixty-two she became totally blind. This misfortune
but made her the more celebrated and sought after. In 1764 occurred
the quarrel with Mlle. Lespinasse, which divided her salon and left
her quite alone with her faithful secretary, Wiart. With the
exception of her correspondence with the Duchesse de Choiseul, she
bequeathed all her letters to Horace Walpole. She was seventy and
Walpole fifty when they met and their famous attachment and
correspondence began.

(74) President Henault (1685-1770). He was President of the
Parliament, a member of the Academy, and author of