Line 17.—[JAS. HARE was M.P. for Knaresborough, and one of the most brilliant wits of the Whig Party. At Eton his verses were hung up as specimens of excellence. Great expectations were raised as to his eloquence in the House of Commons. But his timidity was so great that he broke down in his first speech, and this failure, joined with delicate health, prevented a second attempt. Horace Walpole speaks of his “brilliancy and fire,” and of his own inferiority to him. His _bons mots_ were innumerable. He died in 1804. The following is Lord Ossory’s opinion of the social talents of some of the best talkers of his day:—“Horace Walpole was an agreeable, lively man, very affected, always aiming at wit, in which he fell very short of his old friend, GEORGE SELWYN, who possessed it in the most genuine but indescribable degree. HARE’S conversation abounded with wit, and perhaps of a more lively kind; so did BURKE’S, though with much alloy of bad taste; but, upon the whole, my brother the General [FITZPATRICK] was the most agreeable man in society of any of them.”—MS., R. Vernon Smith.—ED.] Footnote 50: Line 19.—[General FITZPATRICK was one of Fox’s most attached friends and political supporters. BOSWELL, speaking of a dinner at BEAUCLERK’S, 24th April, 1779, says, on a celebrated wit being mentioned (believed to be Fitzpatrick), “JOHNSON replied, ‘I have been several times in company with him, but never perceived any strong power of wit. He produces a general effect by various means; he has a cheerful countenance and a gay voice. Besides his trade is wit. It would be as wild in him to come into company without merriment, as for a highwayman to take the road without his pistols.’” WALPOLE (in his _Journal of the Reign of George III._, i. 167, and ii. 560) describes him as “an agreeable young man of parts,” and mentions his “genteel irony and badinage”. He was Lord Shelburne’s brother-in-law, at whose house Johnson might have met him, as well as in Fox’s company. Rogers (_Table Talk_, p. 104) said that Fitzpatrick was at one time nearly as famous for his wit as Hare. He possessed no mean poetic talents, particularly for compositions of wit, fancy, and satire. To the _Rolliad_ he contributed “Extract from the Dedication”; Nos. v., ix. and xii., in Part I.; and No. v. in Part II. In the _Political Eclogues_, he wrote “The Liars”; and “Pindaric Ode” (No. xv.)—also, “Incantation for raising a Phantom, imitated from Macbeth,” in the _Political Miscellanies_. GENERAL RICHARD FITZPATRICK’S EPITAPH ON HIMSELF. “MY OWN EPITAPH.