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 and it was approved by the king. Sunderland has been generally regarded as mainly responsible for it, but Stanhope must at all events share the responsibility. It was dropped on 14 April, but was reintroduced in November, and passed the lords with hardly any opposition. In the commons it was rejected by a large majority on 8 Dec. This was mainly due to Walpole, who saw how good an opportunity of harassing the government was afforded by a bill which extinguished the hopes of many of its usual supporters. Stanhope's correspondence with the Abbe Vertot about the method of admission to the Roman senate (published in 1721) was no doubt prompted by this question.

In spite of the failure of the Peerage Bill, the government was strong, and it had been rejoined by Townshend and Walpole when Stanhope accompanied the king to Hanover in the summer of 1720. But the South Sea Bill had been passed in April, and the collapse of the South Sea company in the autumn brought a storm upon the ministers who had helped to inflate it. Stanhope's personal character for disinterestedness stood very high, and he had held none of the stock. But as chief minister he had to meet his share of the attacks which were made as soon as parliament met in December. On 4 Feb. 1721, in the discussion in the lords on the examination of one of the directors, Wharton compared the ministers to Sejanus. Stanhope replied, and 'with so great a vehemence that, finding himself taken suddenly with a violent headache, he went home and was cupped, which eased him a little' (Parl. History}. He died at 6 P.M. next day at his house in Whitehall, and was buried with military honours at Chevening on the 17th.

Stanhope was 'a handsome, dark-complexioned man,' as may be seen in Kneller's picture in the National Portrait Gallery. High-minded, liberal, and well skilled in the higher functions of statecraft, he lacked parliamentary ability, and he was 'wholly unfit to manage the finances of the country.' In debate he was impetuous and apt to lose his temper; but as a diplomatist St. Simon contrasts him with Craggs, and says that he 'ne perdait point de sang-froid, rarement la politesse, avait beaucoup d'esprit, de génie et de ressources' (xviii. 129). He was naturally frank and open, and he used to say that he always imposed on the foreign ministers by telling them the naked truth (cf., Letters, iii. 54; and , i. 320, quoting a similar saying of Lord Palmerston).

Stanhope married, on 24 Feb. 1713, Lucy, younger daughter of Thomas Pitt [q. v.], governor of Madras, and grandfather of Chatham. His widow died on 24 Feb. 1723, having made provision for the stately monument to her husband which is on the south side of the west entrance to the choir in Westminster Abbey. It was designed by Kent, and executed by Rysbrack. In the inscription the year of his death is given as 1720, according to the old style. Of his three sons and two daughters, the eldest son Philip, second earl Stanhope (1717-1786), was father of Charles Stanhope, third earl Stanhope [q. v.]

[Lord Mahon's (afterwards Earl Stanhope) War of the Succession in Spain, with an appendix of 120 pp. of extracts from Stanhope's letters in 1706-11, Histories of England, Spain under Charles II, from the correspondence of A. Stanhope, Letters from Peterborough to Stanhope in Spain (privately printed); Memoirs of the Life and Actions of James, Earl of Stanhope, published in 1721; Parnell's War of the Succession in Spain; Foreign Office Papers, Spain, 1707-10, in Public Record Office; Marlborough Despatches; Coxe's Life of Marlborough, House of Bourbon in Spain, Memoirs of Walpole (with several of Stanhope's letters in the appendix); Boyer's Annals of Queen Anne's Reign; Noble's Continuation of Granger, iii. 212; Doyle's Official Baronage.]

 STANHOPE, JOHN, first (1545?–1621), born probably about 1545, was third son of Sir Michael Stanhope [q. v.] by his wife Anne, daughter of Nicholas Rawson of Aveley-Bellhouse, Essex. His father's attainder in 1552 did not affect his estates, and John was brought up at Shelford, Nottinghamshire, where his mother's household was noted for hospitality and piety. He is probably the John Stanhope who was returned to parliament for Marlborough on 22 April 1572, for Truro in October 1586, and for Rochester on 14 Oct. 1588; but he is confused in Foster's 'Alumni Oxonienses' (1500–1714, iv. 1408) with his nephew John (1560–1611), father of Philip, first earl of Chesterfield [q. v.] On 20 June 1590 he was appointed master of the posts in succession to Thomas Randolph [q. v.] He was also a member of the council of the north and master of the posts (see Border Papers, 1595-1603, passim), and in 1596 he was appointed treasurer of the chamber and knighted. He appears to have had some influence at court, which Bacon sought to enlist in his favour (, Letters and Life of Bacon, ii. 50). On 16 Oct. 1597 he was elected member of parliament for Preston, and in 1600 was granted the constableship of Colchester. In