[169] “They [the Spanish Ministers] also report that we have given a _verbal_ assurance to evacuate the Falkland Islands in the space of two months.”--(Letter from Mr. Harris to Lord Rochford, 14th February, in Malmesbury Correspondence, vol. i. p. 77.)--This was probably the origin of the report so generally credited at the time, and which the Spaniards circulated as much as possible in order to save their honour. The English Ministers, however, may have stated that the Islands might soon be given up as not worth keeping, which indeed speedily happened.--E. [170] Three millions, it was said, but undoubtedly half the number, were lost by that execrable monopoly. [Mill states that a third of the population perished.--History of British India, vol. iii. p. 431.--E.] [171] Sir John Wrottesley, of Wrottesley, M.P. for the county of Stafford, afterwards a Major-General and Colonel of the 45th regiment. He was nephew of the Duchess of Bedford, and brother-in-law of the Duke of Grafton. He died in 1787. Lord Wrottesley is his grandson.--E. [172] Son of James Grenville, younger brother of Lord Temple. [173] They got his hat, and sold small pieces of it as relics and monuments of their fury. [174] He gave a good living to Sir William Meredith’s brother, for this service. [175] Eldest son of the Earl of Sandwich. [176] He was a shrewd clever man, and seems to have succeeded in all he undertook. His popularity during his mayoralty obtained him a second rich widow. He died very opulent in 1793, aged sixty-five. A detailed account of him is given in the “Gentleman’s Magazine,” vol. lxiii. p. 188; and this was afterwards enlarged and printed in a 4to volume, at the expense of his widow, for private circulation. Thus he procured a place in the _Biographie Universelle_, a work which, with singular want of discrimination, leaves unnoticed some of his most distinguished contemporaries, particularly Wedderburne and De Grey.--E. [177] Dr. Scott, Rector of Simonburn in Northumberland. Like too many divines of his day he dabbled much in political writing. He died in 1814.--E. [178] The estimation in which Dr. Markham was held, both as Master of Westminster and as a scholar, is alone sufficient to justify his appointment. He was a personal friend of Lord Mansfield, like whom he professed Tory principles; but he was far too honest and of too high a spirit to be guilty of any unworthiness as a courtier. He owes his place in the Rolliad mainly to his friendship for Hastings, whom he loved and admired, as he also did Edmund Burke. It would be unjust to his memory to overlook that he lived on terms of affectionate regard with General Wolfe. He was by no means an exaggerated politician. He afterwards became Archbishop of York, and held that preferment for near thirty years, having died in 1807.--E.