(457) This is an ironic letter on the death of Henry Pelham, first lord of the treasury and chancellor of the exchequer, with whom Mr. Walpole was on ill terms.

(458) John Roberts, Esq. secretary to Mr. Pelham.

(459) Companion to the Duchess of Newcastle. [This lady was related to the Rev. Joseph Spence, author of “Polymetis.”  She died in 1764, after being the friend and companion of the Duchess of Newcastle for more than forty-five years.]

(460) William, afterwards fourth Duke of Devonshire.

(461) Companion of Lady Burlington, Lord Hartington’s mother-in-law.

(462) Lady Catherine Pelham, the widow of Mr. Pelham.-E.

(463) Mr. Walpole, when young, loved faction; and Mr. Bentley one day saying, " that he believed certain opinions would make a sect,” Mr. W. said eagerly, “Will they make a party?”

(464) “Constantine,” a tragedy was written by the Rev. Philip Francis, the translator of Horace and Demosthenes, and father of Sir Philip Francis, the reputed author of the Letters of Junius.  He also wrote “Eugenia,” a tragedy; but as a dramatic author he was not very successful.-E.

(465) “Virginia” was written by Henry Crisp, a clerk in the Custom-house.  It was acted at Drury Lane with some success; owing chiefly to the excellence of the performers.-E.

(466) A splendid edition of Lord Bolingbroke’s Works, in five volumes, quarto, having been published on the very day of Mr. Pelham’s death, Garrick wrote an ode on the occasion, which contains the following stanza:-

“The same sad morn, to Church and State
(So for our sins ’twas fix’d by fate)
A double shock was given: 
Black as the regions of the North,
St. John’s fell genius issued forth,
And Pelham’s fled to heaven!”

It was upon the appearance of this edition of Lord Bolingbroke’s works, edited by David Mallet, that Dr. Johnson pronounced this memorable sentence upon both author and editor:—­“Sir, he was a scoundrel and a coward; a scoundrel, for charging a blunderbuss against religion and morality; a coward, because he had no resolution to fire it off himself, but left half-a-crown to a beggarly Scotchman to draw the trigger after his death."-E.

198 Letter 93 To Sir Horace Mann.  Arlington Street, March 7, 1754.

You will little have expected, my dear Sir, the great event that happened yesterday.  Mr. Pelham(467) is dead! all that calm, that supineness, of which I have lately talked to you so much, is at an end! there is no heir to such luck as his.  The whole people of England can never agree a second time upon the same person for the residence of infallibility; and though so many have found their interest in making Mr. Pelham the fermier-general for their Venality, yet almost all have found too, that it lowered their prices to have but one purchaser.  He could not have died at a more critical time:  all the elections