(756) Byng, Viscount Torrington.

(757) Lord Blakeney.

(758) It is now generally believed that Byng was brave but incapable.  He might have done more than he did; but this was occasioned not by his want of courage, but by his want of ability.  He was cruelly sacrificed to the fury of the people, and to the popularity of the ministry.-D.

(759) Fontenelle died on the 9th of January, having nearly completed his hundredth year.  M. le Cat, in his `eloge of him, gives the following account of his dying words!—­“he reflected upon his own situation, just as he would upon that of another man, and seemed to be observing a phenomenon.  Drawing very near his end, he said, ’This is the first death I have ever seen;’ and his physicians having asked him, whether be was in pain, or what he felt, his answer was, ’I feel nothing but a difficulty of existing.’"-E.

(760) The following is Lord Chesterfield’s account of Sir Charles’s mental alienation, in a letter of the 4th, to his son:  “He was let blood four times on board the ship, and has been let blood four times since his arrival here; but still the inflammation continues very high.  He is now under the care of his brothers.  They have written to the same Mademoiselle John, to prevent, if they can, her coming to England; which, when she hears, she must be as mad as he is, if she takes the journey.  By the way, she must be une dame aventuri`ere, to receive a note for ten thousand roubles, from a man whom she had known only three days; to take a contract of marriage, knowing he was married already; and to engage herself to follow him to England.”  Again, on the 22d, he writes, “Sir C. W. is still in confinement, and, I fear, will always be so, for he seems cum ratione sanire:  the physicians have collected all he has said and done, that indicated an alienation of mind, and have laid it before him in writing; he has answered it in writing too, and justifies himself by the most plausible argument that can possibly be urged.  I conclude this subject With pitying him, and poor human nature, which holds its reason by so precarious a tenure.  The lady, who you tell me is set out, en sera pour la peine et les frais du voyage, for her note is worth no more than her contract."-E.

(761) The Pope’s seal with a ring, which is called the Fisherman’s ring.  Mr. Chute, who was unmarried, meant that his cousin was fishing for his estate.

(762) Brother of George the Third; afterwards created Duke of York.  He died in 1767, at the early age of twenty-eight.-E.

(763) Sir Charles Williams was a particular friend of Mr. Fox.

363 Letter 211 To Sir Horace Mann.  Strawberry Hill, Feb. 13, 1757.