LETTER LVII.
TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF GRAFTON.
28. Sept. 1771.
- MY LORD,
THE people of England are not apprised of the full extent of their obligations to you. They have yet no adequate idea of the endless variety of your character. They have seen you distinguished and successful in the continued violation of those moral and political duties, by which the little as well as the great societies of life are connected and held together. Every colour, every character became you. With a rate of abilities which Lord Weymouth very justly looks down upon with contempt, you have done as much mischief to the community as Cromwell would have done, if Cromwell had been a coward; and as much as Machiavel, if Machiavel had not known that an appearance of morals and religion is useful in society.—To a thinking man, the influence of the crown will, in no view, appear so formidable, as when he observes to
