be on the terms expressed in the writings which we mutually signed when it was formed, in consequence of which I should be entitled to an annuity of an hundred and fifty pounds, and then I would provide for myself, and to this he readily acceded. He told Dr. Price that he wished our separation to be amicable, and I assured him that nothing should be wanting on my part to make it truly so. When I left him, I asked him whether he had any fault to find with my conduct, and he said none. His Lordship's enemies have insinuated that he was not punctual in the payment of my annuity; but the contrary is true."[1]
It is probable that the marks of dissatisfaction which Priestley thought he could detect were not personal, and that the real reason of their separation was that already stated. This view finds confirmation in Shelburne in 1783 having wished Priestley to resume his position at Bowood, in order probably to superintend the education of Lord Henry Petty.[2]
In 1789 Lady Lansdowne died. During her last illness Benjamin Vaughan and Bentham were the only persons permitted to see her. "I write to you," says Lord Lansdowne, shortly after the event, in a letter to Lord Cornwallis, "in the midst of affliction for the loss of Lady Lansdowne. Though I was taught to expect it, long before it happened, I cannot help being excessively stunned by it. I am fighting up against the effects of it, as well as I can, by riding and quiet with a mixture of society which Miss Vernon and Miss Fox, who are so good as to continue the same habits as when Lady Lansdowne was living, are so good as to afford me."[3] Lady Lansdowne left one son, the Lord Henry Petty, whom, as a child, Bentham drew out in his coach, and in after years prided himself on having prevented being sent to Oxford, a place, he said, "where perjury was daily
- ↑ Rutt's Life of Priestley, i. 207. Priestley to Shelburne, May 11th, 1779.
- ↑ See Rutt's Life of Priestley, i. 207. Talleyrand in his Memoirs mentions having met Priestley at Lansdowne House in 1793-1794 (Mémoires, ii. 226), after the destruction of his house and property at Birmingham. See infra, p. 385.
- ↑ Cornwallis Correspondence, ii. ch. vi.
