Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 2.djvu/210

501 of Sir Robert Walpole, his grace was, by the new ministry, once more restored to all his places. The ministry, however, were unable to maintain their popularity, and Argyle finally quitted the stage of public life. From this time forward he affected privacy, and admitted none to his conversation but particular friends.

The Jacobites were now preparing to make a last effort to destroy that spirit of freedom which was so rapidly annihilating their hopes. They had all along believed that Argyle, could he have reconciled them with his own, was not unfriendly to their interests, and now that he was old, idle, and disgusted, hoping to work upon his avarice and his ambition at the same time, they prevailed upon the Chevalier, now also approaching to dotage, to write him a friendly letter. The time, however, had been allowed to go by. Argyle had acquired a high reputation for patriotism he was now old and paralytic, utterly unfit for going through those scenes of peril that had been the pride of his youth; and he was too expert a politician not to know, that from the progress of public opinion, as well as from the state of property and private rights, the cause of the Stuarts was utterly hopeless. The letter was certainly beneath his notice; but to gratify his vanity, and to show that he was still of some little consequence in the world, he sent it to his majesty's ministers. The Jacobites, enraged at his conduct, and probably ashamed of their own, gave out, that the whole was a trick intended to expose the weakness of the ministry, and to put an affront upon the duke of Argyle. The loss to either party was not considerable, as his grace's disorder now began rapidly to increase. He fell by degrees into a state of deep melancholy, and departed this life on the 3d day of September, 1743, in the sixty-fifth year of his age.

His grace was twice married—first to Mary, daughter of John Brown, Esq., and niece to Sir Charles Buncombe, lord mayor of London, by whom he had no issue. Secondly, to Jane, daughter of Thomas Warburton of Winnington, in Cheshire, by whom he had four daughters. He was succeeded in his Scottish titles and estates by his brother lord Ilay, but wanting male issue his English titles became extinct

From the brief sketch we have given of his life, the reader, we apprehend, will be at no loss to appreciate the character of John duke of Argyle. Few men have enjoyed such a large share of popularity—fewer still have, through a long life, threaded the mazes of political intrigue with the same uniform good fortune. The latter, however, illustrates the former. He who has had for life the sole patronage of a kingdom, must have had many a succession of humble servants ready to give him credit for any or for all perfections, and he must have exercised that patronage with singular infelicity, if he has riot benefited many individuals who will think it a duty they owe to themselves, if not to extenuate his faults, to magnify his virtues. Such a man can never want popularity, especially if he has an assistant upon whom he can impose the drudgery, and the less dignified duties of his place, reserving to himself more especially the performance of those that flatter public opinion, and conciliate public affection. Such a man was Argyle, and such an assistant he had in his brother, lord Hay, who, supported by his influence, had the reputation, for upwards of thirty years, of being the king of Scotland. In early life he acquired considerable military reputation under the duke of Marlborough, and when he was paying court to the tories had the temerity, on a military question, to setup his opinion in the house of lords, in opposition to that most accomplished of all generals. How justly, let Sheriffmuir and the hill of Kippendavie say! Happily for his grace there was no lord George Murray with the rebels on that occasion. If there had, Sir John Cope might at this day have been reputed a brave ma;i, and a