[324] It is in reference to Mr. Rigby’s conduct that Lord Holland probably alludes to the following passage of a letter to Mr. Selwyn of October 5, 1763: “I drop all politics that may not go by the post, till I see you, when I will tell you all I know of them, with the _trait_ I mentioned. Had it been from a political friend only, I should be ashamed to be hurt by it. No politics will or can mortify me; I thought this man’s friendship had not been only political. I loved him; and whether to feel or not to feel, to despise or grieve, on such an occasion, be most worthy of a man, I won’t dispute; but the fact is that I have been, and still am, whenever I think of it, very unhappy.” Selwyn Correspondence, vol. i. p. 267.--E. [325] Lady Isabella Fitzroy, second daughter of Charles Duke of Grafton. [326] Then held by Mr. Aislabie for life. [327] Secretary to the Treasury. [He derived no benefit from this appointment, having died some years before Walpole.--E.] [328] Collector of the Customs. Sir Robert Walpole held it for his own life, and for the lives of his two eldest sons, with power of bequeathing it for their lives to any child he pleased. [329] Charles Jenkinson, private secretary to Lord Bute [afterwards Earl of Liverpool.--E.] [330] It was again offered to me afterwards, and I again refused it. [331] This was not the only favour that the count owed to the English Government, for they prevented his recall soon after the king’s accession; and it was entirely at their instance that he obtained permission to give up his embassy to his son. He had also received a portrait set in diamonds, and a suite of Gobelin hangings from the King of France. Upon his resignation he retired to his estates in Savoy, where he intrigued until he succeeded in replacing the Count de St. Germaine as first Minister of Savoy.--Mem. of a Traveller, vol. ii. p. 70.--E. [332] The negotiation was conducted by Count Virri (Duke?) Envoy in England, and by the Bailli de Solar, the Sardinian Minister at Paris, the intimate friend of the Duchess de Choiseul; and that convenience was probably a reason why Lord Bute yielded to the treaty being settled at Paris, though the King of France had offered to treat here _vis-à-vis du Roi de la Grande Brétagne_. [_Vide_ notes in p. 157 and 160, _supra_, for more details respecting the part taken by these Sardinian Ministers in the negotiation.--E.]