In different parts of these Memoirs I am well aware that I have given very different characters of some of the principal actors. The reason is, that, having observed them well for a long series of years, I have seen cause to change my opinions--perhaps the persons themselves altered, for who is consistent? I choose to leave the portraits with their variations; I think they were just at each period in which they were drawn--the reader must judge from the conduct of the persons; for he will observe, that, if I vary my accounts, I produce the instances in which the actors appear different from themselves. Lord Chatham I have described in all the lights in which he appeared--sometimes a capital statesman, and sometimes an empiric. The Duke of Cumberland I have shown to have become a most wise, philosophic, and respectable, from a haughty and insolent Prince. Lord George Sackville I have spoken of with admiration of his parts, with great indecision on his spirit, with scorn of his want of judgment, and of his want of abilities in the latter part of his time. Lord Amherst was allowed for many years to have deserved the encomiums I have given to his conduct in America. The contempt conceived for him afterwards was so general, that, even while he retained his power, he had not an advocate.--A. The author’s notes were generally written many years after the text. The above unfavourable portrait of Lord Amherst was probably annexed to the MS. at the close of the American war, when political animosities obscured every impartial view of living characters. The panegyric in text was composed in 1763, Horace Walpole being then more than ever disposed to magnify the events and extol the tactics of the seven-years’ war. Allowance must be made for these circumstances. We may abate something of the warmth of encomium in the text, but we must also mitigate the bitterness which forms so large an ingredient in the note.--E. [112] Henry Pleydell Dawney, Viscount Downe of Ireland. [113] Dr. Stephen Hales, parson of Teddington, Chaplain to Augusta, Princess of Wales, author of several most humane and philosophic works. [114] The Minister for Hanover in England. [115] Then ambassador in France. [116] It was believed that George the First had bequeathed a large sum to his daughter, the Queen of Prussia, and another to his mistress, or rather left-handed wife, the Duchess of Kendal. Frederic the Second, King of Prussia, was said to have often claimed his mother’s legacy; and the Earl of Chesterfield, who married the Countess of Walsingham, niece and heiress of the Duchess of Kendal, commenced or threatened a suit for the Duchess’s legacy, and was supposed to be quieted by a sum of twenty thousand pounds. Lady Walsingham was believed to be the King’s daughter by the Duchess of Kendal. [117] (_Vide_ Appendix.) APPENDIX. APPENDIX. (_Vide page 309._)