The Duchess, it appears from the Private Correspondence lately published, had lent the government a very considerable sum of money for several years, on which account Sir Robert Walpole was particularly desirous, as he told her grace’s friend, Dr. Hare, to serve and oblige the Duchess.[325] Upon this, and other matters, a variance having arisen between the Duchess and Sir Robert, Dr. Hare, afterwards Bishop of Chichester, who appears to have been really attached to the Duchess, and to have had more influence over her than any one else, perceiving a great degree of bitterness and resentment to have been excited in her grace’s mind, addressed her by letter on the subject. This excellent man availed himself of the best privilege of friendship, that of speaking the truth. He did not disguise from her grace that he perceived and lamented the violence of her passions; but he began his mild and just remonstrances by an appeal to her best feelings. “I hope and believe, madam, that I need not tell your grace that I have the most affectionate esteem for you, and not only esteem, but really admire you for your fine understanding and good sense, and for the just and noble sentiments which you express on all occasions in the best language, and in the most agreeable manner, so that one cannot hear you without the greatest pleasure; but the more I esteem and admire what is excellent in your grace, the more concerned am I to see any blemishes in so great a character.” Dr. Hare understood well the person to whom he addressed his well-meant remarks. “Ill-grounded suspicions,” he observes, “violent passions, and a boundless liberty of expressing resentments without distinction from the prince downwards, and that in the most public manner, and before servants, are certainly blemishes, and not only so, but attended with great inconveniences; they lessen exceedingly the influence and interests persons of your grace’s fortune and endowments would otherwise have, and unavoidably create enemies.”[326] The Duchess’s reply to this admirable advice was worthy of a disposition candid and upright beyond dispute. Far from resenting Dr. Hare’s good counsels, she declared herself of Montaigne’s opinion, that a greater proof of friendship could not be given than in venturing to disoblige a friend in order to serve him. She entreated Dr. Hare to believe that she regarded him the more for his sincerity. “I beg of you,” she added, in her own natural way, “never to have the least scruple in telling me anything you think, for I am not so partial to myself as not to know that I have many imperfections, but a great fault I never will have, that I know to be one.” Having thus premised, she proceeded to explain how affairs stood between herself and Sir Robert Walpole, and to justify herself in Dr. Hare’s opinion.