Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 34.djvu/382

 even Mrs. Montagu thought his paintings combined the excellences of Claude with those of Salvator Rosa. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, where he matriculated on 7 Nov. 1761, but did not graduate. While at Oxford he engaged himself to a daughter of General Warburton, but was sent abroad in the summer of 1763, pending arrangements for the settlement. He travelled for two years in France and Italy, and indulged freely in the fashionable vices, in consequence of which the engagement was broken off. On his return to England in the summer of 1765 he took part in a masque at Stowe, contributing some complimentary verses presented to Earl Temple by a little girl dressed as Queen Mab. Returned to parliament for Bewdley, Worcestershire, 21 March 1768, he made a favourable impression by a maiden speech on the Wilkes case (18 April), but was unseated on petition, 25 Jan. 1769. He then made a second tour in Italy, where his loose and prodigal habits occasioned a complete rupture with his family. He returned, however, apparently penitent, towards the end of 1771, was reconciled to his father, and was married with his approval in Halesowen Church on 26 June 1772 to Apphia, second daughter of Broome Witts of Chipping Norton, and widow of Joseph Peach, formerly governor of Calcutta. He published some extremely moral and insipid verses in his wife's honour in the ‘Westminster Magazine,’ i. 276, in the following April, and soon after deserted her for a barmaid, whom he carried with him to Paris (The Vauxhall Affray; or the Macaronies Defeated, London, 1773, 8vo, pp. 99, 110, and The Rape of Pomona, London, 1773, 4to, attributed to John Courtenay [q. v.]). Recalled to England by the death of his father, he took his seat in the House of Lords on 13 Jan. 1774, and made his maiden speech on 22 Feb. in the great debate on literary property. The question at issue was whether copyright in published works existed at common law, a question on which the judges were divided, but which was eventually determined in the negative. Lyttelton broke a lance with Lord Camden in defence of the rights of authors, but his speech seems to have been rather a rhetorical flourish than a sober argument. He also supported the Booksellers' Copyright Bill on the motion for its second reading, 2 June following. In politics he was a whig, but on American affairs he played at first the part of candid friend to the ministry, and ably defended the measure for settling the government of Quebec (17 June 1774 and 17 May 1775).

On the outbreak of hostilities, however, he severely censured the vacillation which had led to it, and denounced the employment of German mercenaries without consent of parliament as unconstitutional (1 Nov. 1775.). At the same time he inveighed against the opposition as little better than traitors, on 17 Nov. 1775 was sworn of the privy council, and next day was appointed chief justice in eyre of the counties north of Trent. In subsequent debates he supported the Prohibitory Bill, which laid an embargo upon the commerce of the rebellious colonies (15 Dec. 1775); opposed the Duke of Grafton's proposition for conciliation (14 March 1776); and made a powerful reply to Lord Chatham's speech in favour of peace on 30 May 1777; nor was his tone materially modified by the news of Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga. After Chatham's death he pronounced an eloquent eulogium upon him, 2 June 1778. On 23 April 1779 he denounced in unsparing terms the mismanagement which had sent Keppel to Brest with an inadequate fleet, and avowed his total distrust of the ministry. In the debate on the address on 25 Nov. following he made a vigorous speech on the condition of Ireland, which he had recently visited, enlarging on the strength of the volunteer association, and the propriety of at once conceding free trade. The previous night, at his house in Hill Street, Berkeley Square, Lyttelton dreamed that a bird flew into the room and changed into a woman, who warned him that he had not three days to live (cf., Autobiography, ed. Hayward, ii. 94). He told the dream, and the story at once became the talk of the town. Though he affected to make light of it, the occurrence weighed on his mind, but on the morning of the third day he said he felt very well and believed he should ‘bilk the ghost.’ Passing a graveyard with his cousin, Hugh Fortescue, afterwards Lord Fortescue, he remarked on the numbers of ‘vulgar fellows’ who died at five-and-thirty (his own age), adding, ‘But you and I, who are gentlemen, shall live to a good old age.’ The same day, accompanied by Fortescue, Captain (afterwards Admiral) Wolseley, and some ladies, he drove down to Pitt Place, Epsom, where he dined, and passed a cheerful evening in apparently good health. He died the same night (Saturday 27 Nov.), shortly after getting into bed at a quarter past eleven. The death, of which the sole witness was a manservant, was instantaneous, and is attributed to a fit in the subsequent issue of the ‘St. James's Chronicle.’ If, as is elsewhere stated, he suffered from heart disease, and was addicted to the free use of drugs, his death is easily explained. There was no post-mortem ex-