and not without a good deal of deliberation. She assured him it was, and mentioned as a confirmation of it, that Sir John at his death left Sir Matthew 200l. to be disposed of among his poor countrymen in London, having the greatest confidence in his honest execution of the trust, as he had already given the world such a proof of his piety in having written St. Matthew’s Gospel. Sir John’s gross ignorance in this respect, though almost incredible, is confirmed by what happened at his death. Lady Betty, being a very pious woman, proposed to him to receive the Sacrament. He asked would it do him any good? She said she had no doubt it would. Accordingly it was administered to him. Shortly afterwards he called his wife to his bedside, and said, with a sigh, “That thing you gave me has done me no good.” He, poor man, took it for a medicine.—(From Lord Orford; who had the last particular from General Fitzwilliam. )
When Mr. Dowdeswell was made Chancellor of the Exchequer about 1765, in the room of Lord Lyttleton, who had possessed the office for a short time, Bishop Warburton observed to Mr. Hawkins Browne, that there was a curious contrast between these Ministers. “The one just turned out, Lord Lyttleton, never in his life could learn that two and two made four; while the other knew nothing else.” This bon-mot has been given to others; but Bishop Douglas assured us he knew it was said by Warburton. Lord Lyttleton, though the accounts were all written down in words instead of figures, made such a miserable figure when he attempted, on the usual
