[128] The famous John Wilkes, member for Aylesbury, and author of “The North Briton.”
[129] George Dempster, an East India Director, and for nearly thirty years member for the Perth district of Boroughs. He was the friend of Dr. Johnson, and the patron of Robert Burns; and is described by Mr. Croker as a man of talents and very agreeable manners. He took an active part in all the debates of the House on East India questions; and was one of the few who, after defending Warren Hastings, gave a zealous support to Fox’s India Bill. He died about the year 1790, at a very advanced age. Croker’s Boswell, vol. i. p. 418. Annual Necrology, vol. iii. p. 141.--E.
[130] Peregrine Cust. He is mentioned in Churchill’s Satires.
[131] Eliab Harvey, brother of William Harvey of Chigwell, in Essex, died in 1769.
[132] During the administration of Sir Robert Walpole the Opposition propagated a report, which was universally believed, that the Spaniards, though at peace with us, had taken one of our ships, and cut off the captain’s ears.
[133] This was the famous sentence so often quoted, and so often ridiculed, in the pamphlets of that time.
[134] The Spanish Ambassador. See _infra_.
[135] Percy Windham Obrien, Earl of Thomond, second son of Sir William Windham, and brother of the Earl of Egremont. Their sister was married to Mr. George Grenville.
[136] Henry Arthur Herbert, Earl of Powis, having become male heir of this illustrious family by the death of the last peer, Henry Lord Herbert, of Cherbury, in 1738, he was created Lord Herbert in 1743, and Earl of Powis in 1748. His Lordship married Barbara, sole daughter and heiress of Lord Edward Herbert, brother of the last Marquis of Powis, and died in 1772, leaving a son, on whose death in 1801 the earldom became extinct.--E.
[137] Next brother of the Duke of Devonshire.
[138] Second son of Charles Lord Viscount Townshend.
[139] Thomas Charles Bunbury, called, after his father’s death, Sir Charles Bunbury. [He represented the county of Suffolk for forty-five years, and died in March 1821, in his 81st year. He forsook politics for horse-racing, which he found a more congenial pursuit, and was long considered as the father of the turf. See more of him in Selwyn’s Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 180.--E.]