of an only son, in consultations and bargains for a place at court, and even in the misery of balloting at the India House!
Admitting, then, that you have mistaken or deserted those honourable principles which ought to have directed your conduct; admitting that you have as little claim to private affection as to public esteem, let us see with what abilities, with what degree of judgment, you have carried your own system into execution. A great man, in the success, and even in the magnitude, of his crimes, finds a rescue from contempt. Your Grace is every way unfortunate. Yet I will not look back to those ridiculous scenes, by which, in your earlier days, you thought it an honour to be distinguished[1];—the recorded stripes, the public infamy, your own sufferings, or Mr.
- ↑ Mr. Heston Humphrey, a country attorney, horsewhipped the Duke, with equal justice, severity, and perseverance, on the course, at Litchfield. Rigby and Lord Trentham were also cudgeled in a most exemplary manner. This gave rise to the following story: "When the late King heard that Sir Edward Hawke had given the French a drubbing, his Majesty, who had never received that kind of chastisement, was pleased to ask Lord Chesterfield the meaning of the word.—"Sir," says Lord Chesterfield," the meaning of the word—but here comes the Duke of Bedford, who is better able to explain it to your Majesty than I am."
