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THE PETTYS.

1. THE MARQUIS OF LANSDOWNE.

ENGLAND is indebted for all its vaunted prosperity to a middle class in society, unknown to any other country in Europe, and which even Scotland and Ireland, notwithstanding their intimate union with, and immediate proximity to us, cannot as yet boast of.

A celebrated historian,* while treating of the ancient nobility, observes that there was but one of the immediate descendants of the Baron's, who accompanied William Duke of Normandy into England, in existence in his time; and it is not a little remarkable that the title has since become extinct. The ranks of the peerage have been filled up by fresh accessions from the great land-owners, the men of the law, the men of the sword, and of late, from the most opulent of our merchants and bankers.

The noble family, the head of which constitutes the subject of the present memoir, is descended, by the male line, from the opulent and powerful family of the Fitzgeralds, Earls of Kerry, and by the female branch from a man of genius and ability, which latter circumstance possesses a far better claim to our

* Hume.

+ The family of D'Arcy.

The last of the male line, we believe, ended in the late Earl of Holdernesse, which title became extinct, upon his demise, in 1778.

respect. Sir William Petty,* whose name is become another term for science, was the architect of his

Sir William Petty "was son of Anthony Petty, a clothier, at Rumsey, in Hampshire, and born May 26, 1623. He took great delight, while a boy, in spending his time among carpenters, smiths, and other artificers, whose trades (says one of his biographers) he so well understood, that at twelve years of age he could work at them. His education was at the grammar school there (Rumsey); but he made so great a progress in his learning, that when he was fifteen, he had made himself master of Latin, Greek, and French, understood dialling, and so much of geometry and astronomy as was useful to navigation."

After this he went to Caen in Normandy, according to our authority, "with a little stock of merchandize, which he there improved; from thence to Paris, where he studied anatomy, and came there acquainted with Mr. Hobbes, who had a great affection for him, and assisted him in his studies. Upon his return to England, he had a place given him in the royal navy."

In 1643 he again visited France and the Netherlands, and returned to Rumsey at the expiration of three years, with "so small a stock as only about seventy pounds in cash, but with an inexhaustible treasure of useful learning."

In 1647 he obtained a patent from the parliament for seventeen years," to teach the art of double writing." Having sided with this body against the cause of royalty, he repaired to Oxford, and in March 1649, was created a doctor in physic, and was soon after made fellow of Brazen Nose.

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Being now master of 5001. he went to Ireland, where he was made physician to the army by the parliament, with an allowance of twenty shillings per day, in which post he continued till June, 1659, gaining by his practice 4000l. per annum."

In December, 1654, he entered into a contract for remeasuring the grants to the soldiers in Ireland, in consequence of their suppressing the rebellion, "by which he gained 9000l. and improved his money greatly, by purchasing soldiers' debentures.“

own fortune, and he left an ample succession to his descendants, some of whom have been ennobled, while others have illustrated themselves by their talents.

The late Marquis of Lansdowne, during the life of his father, the Earl of Shelburne, being then styled Viscount Fitzmaurice, obtained a commission in the guards, and made choice of the army for a profession. After serving as a volunteer, at the battle of Campen, under the Duke of Brunswick, he returned to England: and although he rose in due gradation to the rank of a Lieutenantgeneral, yet he afterwards directed his attention to a far different object. Having cultivated an acquaintance with William Pitt, afterwards Earl of

In January, 1658, he was elected member for West Looe, in Cornwall, in the parliament called by Richard Cromwell, and after the Restoration, he was introduced to, and knighted by Charles II.

In 1663, he invented "a double-bottomed ship," which sailed from Dublin in July, " and turned into the narrow harbour of Holyhead, among the rocks and ships, with such dexterity, that many experienced seamen did confess they had never seen the like."

He died at his house in Piccadilly, on the 16th of December, 1687, of a gangrene in his foot, occasioned by the gout, in his 63d year, and was buried at his native town of Rumsey.

It appears by his last will, that he estimated his real estate at 6,500l. per annum; his personal estate at about 45,000l. and the "demonstrable improvements of his Irish estates at 4000l. per annum." In all, he may be reckoned to have left behind him to the amount of 15,000l. per annum.

Chatham, he formed part of the same administration, and while the one retired on account of the inauspicious influence of the Earl of Bute, the other threw up his office of Secretary of State for the Foreign Department, when he found the British cabinet disposed to connive at the conquest of Corsica.*

From that period, the annals of his public life may be best learned from those of his country; and in this point of view, perhaps, no nobleman of the present age was so uniformly consistent. He reprobated the conduct of the House of Commons, in respect to Mr. Wilkes, the records of which, so far as regards that transaction, have been since expunged from their Journals; he opposed the power asserted by both Houses to punish the printers without a previous trial by their peers; he supported the bill for the repeal of the test and corporation acts; he objected to the folly as well as the injustice of the American war; he exclaimed against the increasing influence of the crown, which

* "See Corsic's hardy sons + betray'd,
Whilst abject Britain shrinks, afraid,

And drops her conquering lance;
No more the suppliant states she saves,
But yields each gen'rous people ‡ slaves

To tyranny-and France."

Lord Chatham's Prophecy, an Ode,

written about 1776.

"Lord Shelburne's dignified and manly conduct, in the progress of

that disgraceful negotiation, will always be remembered to his honour. Corsica, Poland, Dantzig.

was connected with the enormous additions to the public debt; and notwithstanding his own influence might have thereby been considerably lessened, he was uniformly an advocate for the reform of parliament.

It was the boast, the pride, and added not a little to the consequence of this nobleman, to be surrounded, and supported by persons celebrated for their talents. Accordingly, while men of letters had free admission to his house, he had an opportunity, by means of the boroughs of Wycombe and Calne, to return a Barré, à Dunning, a Townshend, a Jekyl, and a Baring, some of whom have distinguished themselves by their eloquence, others by their talents for business: all by their integrity.

Lord Shelburne (for so he became on the demise of his father in 1761), profuse in his private expences, was at the same time economical in those of the nation, for during an administration of only a few months continuance, he made an annual saving in the civil list to the amount of 116,000l. per annum. On the other hand, the sums distributed out of his own purse, for that foreign political intelligence, which is said to have rendered him the best informed man in Europe, are reported to have been immense. Bowood, like Versailles, was formed out of a bog; his town-house was too magnificent for the Earl of Bute, notwithstanding the lustre of royal patronage, while his library, unique in its kind, and original in respect to this country, con