William PETTY-FITZMAURICE, third Earl of Shelburne, and first Marquess of Lansdowne, was born in Dublin, in May, 1737. He was the son of John, Earl of Shelburne in the peerage of Ireland, and afterwards Baron Wycombe in the peerage of Great Britain. The Marquess’s father united the possessions of the family founded by Sir William PETTY with those which the Irish wars had left to the ancient line of Fitzmaurice. William, Earl of SHELBURNE, was educated by private tutors, and then sent to Christ Church, Oxford. He left the University early, to take (in or about the year 1756) a commission in the Guards. He was present in the battles of Campen and of Minden. At Minden, in particular, he evinced distinguished bravery. In May, 1760, and again in April, 1761, he was elected by the burgesses of High Wycombe to represent them in the House of Commons. But the death of Earl John, in the middle of 1761, called his son to take his seat in the House of Lords. He soon evinced the possession of powers eminently fitted to shine in Parliament. The impetuosity he had shown on the field of Minden did not desert him in the strife of politics. Those who had listened to the early speeches of PITT might well think that the army had again sent them a ‘terrible cornet of horse.’ So good a judge of political oratory as was Lord CAMDEN thought SHELBURNE to be second only to CHATHAM himself. [Sidenote: BEGINNING OF LORD SHELBURNE’S CAREER IN PARLIAMENT.] Lord SHELBURNE’S first speech in Parliament—the first, at least, that attracted general notice—was made in support of the Court and the Ministry (November 3, 1762). Within less than six months after its delivery he was called to the Privy Council, and placed at the head of the Board of Trade and Plantations. This appointment was made on the 23rd of April, 1763. Just before it he had taken part in that delicate negotiation between Lord BUTE and Henry FOX (afterwards Lord HOLLAND) which has been kept well in memory by a jest of the man who thought himself the loser in it. This early incident is in some sort a key to many later incidents in Lord SHELBURNE’S life. [Sidenote: SHELBURNE AND HENRY FOX.] For, in all the acts and offices of a political career, save only one, Lord SHELBURNE was characteristically a lover of soft words. In debate, he could speak scathingly. In conversation, he was always under temptation to flatter his interlocutor. In this conversation of 1763 with FOX, SHELBURNE’S innate love of smoothing asperities co-operated with his belief that it was really for the common interest that BUTE and FOX should come to an agreement, to make him put the premier’s offer into the most pleasing light. When FOX found he was to get less than he thought to have, he fiercely assailed the negotiator. Lord SHELBURNE’S friends dwelt on his love of peace and good fellowship. At worst, said they, it was but a ‘pious fraud.’ ‘I can see the fraud plainly enough,’ rejoined FOX, ‘but where is the piety?’