It was at her death, in 1723, that these estates came to Mrs. Robinson. I know that the generality of readers despise these dull relations of a family; and what they call the dry detail of the inheritance of dirty acres, But to these, perhaps, in the present case, may be traced back that habit of acute investigation, and of bold and original opinions, which so much distinguished the late Lord Rokeby; and that pre-eminence in elegant literature which rendered his sister, Mrs. Montagu, so justly celebrated. Dr. Middleton, a man of profound thinking, of various and extensive know ledge, and a most accomplished writer, whose Life of Cicero, composed "in the most correct and elegant style, and abounding with every thing that can instruct and entertain, that can inform the understanding and polish the taste," is celebrated all over Europe, held forth a model of intellectual exertion to the young family connected with him, which was not likely to fail in effect on abilities naturally searching and vigorous. What ever injuries Mr. Robinson's family might owe to him in pecuniary matters, his house at Cambridge was always open to them; and his manners, enriched by learning, and polished by travel, afforded no common advantages of conversa"You tion and instruction to them. have doubtless beard," writes Mr. Gray the pact, on Aug. 9, 1750, "of the loss I have had in Dr. Middleton, whose house was the only easy place one could find to converse in at Cambridge. For -my part, I find a friend so uncommon a thing, that I cannot help regretting even an old acquaintance, which is an indiffe, rent likeness of it; and though I do not approve of the spirit of his books, methinks 'tis pity the world should lose so rare a thing as a good writer." Mr. Mathew Robinson was yet a child when he became, by the death of his uncle, Drake Morris, next in succession, not only to the paternal estates in Yorkshire, but those of his mother in Kent and Cambridgeshire. Ile was about this time at the public school of Westminster, and thence removed to Tri nity-hall, in Cambridge, of a lay-college, of which in due time he became fellow, His and so remained till his death. companions were men not only of rank and fortune, but of minds energetic like his own, who afterwards made a conspicuous figure on the theatre of public life. In his 32d year (1715), his mother, for whom he had the warmest affection, died, and he came immediately, by the will of his great grandfather, Morris, into possession of the maternal part of his inheritance. With a taste totally dissimilar to that of his father, who, though of polished manners, and highly accomplished, possessed the elegant rather than the strong qualities of the mind, and was never happy out of the clubs of Bond-street, and the gaieties of a London life, he instantly took complete possession of the country mansion, and enbraced with enthusiasm all the manly pleasures of an enlightened country gentleman. But he was soon called away from this peaceful character, to add to it another, which crowns it with its highest ornament, but which now, from the gradual operation of the national debt, of the increase of commercial wealth, and the corruption of manners, is too The neighbourseldom united with it. ing city of Canterbury invited him in 1747 to be a candidate to represent them in Parliament. In this election he was completely successful. The happy pliancy of his popular manners, adapted to all the various ranks of society, has been well expressed by the writer of his Me. Early moir in the Monthly Magazine. as he had freed his mind from all the trammels of authority and custom, he, at a period when form and ceremony kept the different orders, perhaps as much too distant from each other as the total removal of those barriers bas lately mingled them too indiscriminately toge ther, was in the constant habit of displaying that frankness of sentiment and ease of manners, which at once removed diffidence, tranquillized awkwardness, flattered low pride, and delighted humble worth. And his spirit, his penetration, and the quickness of his powers of retort, accompanied by the same frankness, enabled him to repress in a moment the occasional encroachments of ill-judged familiarity, and at once to obtain respect and love. In 1754, he was re-elected for Canterbury, and continued to represent it during the remainder of that parliament which outlived the king. At the next election, being nearly fifty years old, and in precarious health, he retired from a public station, and passed the remainder of his days principally at Horton. A letter of Mrs. Montagu to her brother, may here perhaps be worth transcribing: Sandleford, Sandleford, June 9, 1777. DEAR BROTHER, "It would be with much greater pleasure I should take up my peu to tell you I am at Sandleford, if I could flatter myself with the hope of alluring you to it. You would find me in the character of a farmeress. The meagre condition of the soil forbids me to live in the state of a shepherdess queen, which I look upon to be the highest human dignity. The plough, the harrow, and the spade, re. mind us that the golden age is past, and subsistence depends on labour; prosperity on industrious application. A little of the clay of which you complain would do us a great deal of good. I should be glad to take my dominions here from the goddess Ceres to give them to the god Pan; and I think you will agree with me in that taste; for wherever he presides, there Nature's republic is established; the ox in his pasture is as free and as much at his ease, as the proprietor of the soil; and the days of the first are not more shortened to feed the intemperance of others, than the rich landlord's by the indulgence of his own. I look upon the goddess Ceres as a much less impartial and kind deity. The ancients thought they did her honour by ascribing to her the invention of laws; we must consider her also as the mother of law-suits; and indeed of all the divisions and dissensions and distinctions among mankind. Naturalists tell us, all the oaks that have ever been were contained in the first acorn: I believe we may affirm, by the same mode of reasoning, that all arts and sciences were contained in the first ear of corn. To possess lasting treasure and exclusive property, has been the great business and aim of man. At Sandleford you will find us busy in the care of arable land. By two little purchases Mr. Montagu made here, my farm contains -acres. As I now consider it as Amazonian land, I affect to consider the women as capable of assisting in agriculture as much as the men; they weed my corn, hoe my turnips, and set my potatoes; and by these means promote the prosperity of their families. A landlord, where le droit du Seigneur prevailed, would not expose the complexion of his female vassals to the sun. I must confess my Amazons hardly deserve to be accounted of the fair sex; and they have not the resources of pearl, powder, and rouge, when the natural lilies and roses are faded. "You are very polite in supposing my looks not so homely as I described them; 1 but though my health is good, the faded roses do not revive; and I assure you, I am always of the colour of la feuille morte; my complexion has long fallen into the sere and yellow leaf; and I assure you, one is as much warned against using art by seeing the ladies of laris, as the Spartan youths by observing the effect of intoxicating liquors on the Helots. The vast quantity of rouge worn there by the fine ladies makes them hideous. As I always imagine one is less looked at by wearing the uniform of the society one lives in, I allowed my frizeur to put on whatever rouge was usually worn; but a few years ago I believe my vanity would not have submitted to such a disfigura. tion. As soon as I got to Dover, I re turned to my former complexion. Iowa I think I would make that complexion a little better by putting on a little rouge; but at my age any appearance of solici tude about complexion is absurd; and therefore I remain where age and former ill health has brought me; and rejoice however that I enjoy the comforts of health, though deprived of its pleasing locks. "It has given me great pleasure to hear, by many opportunities, that your health is pretty good; but if St. Antho ny's fire should menace a return, remember that his distemper as well as his temptation, is most dangerous in a desert or wilderness, and repair to the city of Bath. Though I say this, I was never more sensible of the charms of rural life and the blessing of tranquillity; but at the same time I am sensible my relish for them is much quickened by having been, for above a twelvemonth past, in a very different mode of life. "I regret very much that the emperor did not come to Paris last summer, though I suppose amongst the French nobility I met with men as polite; amongst the academicians with men more learned, ingenious, and witty, yet as I am a vir tuoso in what relates to the human character, and love to see how it appears in various situations, I should have seen an emperor, as an emperor is an unique in human society at present; and the Austrian family has also had a strongly. marked personal character. "All my French correspondents assuré me that his imperial majesty veils his dignity on all occasions under the character of Count de Falkenstein. sleeps at his ambassador's, but dines with the two noblemen of his court, who aitend him at an hotel garni. When he goes to Versailles to visit his sister, he refuses to lodge in the palace, and lies at a Lagniq. a bagnio. He goes sometimes to Versailles in his coach, at others in a fiacre, or walks. The French, who are much struck with every thing that is new, are full of wonder and respect, and at the public spectacles they give a thunder of applause whenever he appears. grant and consent of those who pay it, unless he does it by tyranny and violence.'-Phil. de Commines, ch. 108. It is dated April, 1774, and the Appendix, in the following November. This memoir is not intended as a fulsome and indiscriminate panegyric, and therefore I have no hesitation in owning that the language is unequal, often un deficient in vigour; and, however unskilled in the graces of style the writer might be, for powers of thinking, for sagacity and extent of information, he deserves much praise. "In private society his majesty is easy and affable, and by what I can understand, glad to shew he is more conver-couth, and seldom elegant; but it is not sant in the common affairs of human life, than princes usually are. The objects of his curiosity, and the subjects of his discourse, are such as seem to indicate he is a man of sense; whether he bas talents for empire, time must shew. Without understanding the doctrine of chances as well as De Moivre, one may pronounce the chances are nearly infinite that he has not. I am glad however ⚫ princes begin to travel; one has a chance of meeting these itinerant monarchs somewhere, and they amuse us at least as well as stuffed eagles or lions in a museum. "I was in great hopes that you would have had the curiosity to have come to town, to have heard lord Chatham in support of his motion the other day, and when you had got so far towards Bath you might have proceeded, and I should have had the happiness of seeing you here. The primate of Ireland, and sir William Robinson, were so good as to call on me in their way to London; they staid only three days. I believe the primate will go to Tunbridge before he returns to Ireland.. "I believe I shall not remove from hence till the middle of next month, when I propose to make a visit at Mount Edgecumbe. I am ashamed of this long letter. I have an opportunity of sending it to London this moment. I am, dear brother, with most affectionate esteem, E. MONTAGU." In the dispute with America, Mr. Robinson, though long retired from parlia ment, was a most strenuous and able opponent of the ministerial plans. In the progress of that unhappy affair, he wrote several pamphlets, which were received with great attention. The earliest I have met with is entitled, Considerations on the Measures carrying on with respect to the British Colonies in North America. The second edition, with additions; and an Appendix relative to the present State of Affairs on that Continent," with the following motto: There is neither king or sovereign lord on earth who has, beyond his own domain, power to lay one farthing on his subjects, without the The Appendix commences in the following words: "The foregoing sheets were first published in April, and we are now in the next November. Time and events have, in the short intervening space of seven months, but too plainly and too strongly confirmed the opinions respecting our American measures and their consequences, which were then presumed by the author to be laid before the public. It is in the preceding pages explained, that the plan proposed and confided in by the administration on that occasion appeared to be, that the removal of the Custom-house, and the suspension of the commerce of Boston, would soon bring on their knees, and subject to our commands, the inhabitants of that town and of its colony, who were, by that means to become, besides their own obedience, an example and a terror to the rest of their brethren on that continent; but the policy and the probability of this fine-spun scheme are there doubted of, questioned, and discussed. It is repre sented that the harsh and violent measures then carrying on in America be received no otherwise than as a declaration of war, and depend upon the same. issue; that it could only be by force or by conquest, if they were submitted to; that we must expect to have to do with an union of that continent; that it would among them be made a common cause not to be taxed by us; and that they would certainly join, combine, and associate together, for their general and mutual assistance and defence. Is there any occa sion to say whether these things have proved true? "We were at the same time warned, that if it was intended to use force and violence, the decision might not be so very soon, or so very sure; that these being a truly free people, and their governments democratical, they would be able to arm every man in their country; that that necessity would, besides their committees of correspondence then subsisting, teach them other means of moving and of acting together; that they would probably have at their head some of the wisest and of the ablest of their country; that the influence of our governors and of our other civil officers would shrink to nothing; nor our own authority pro bably extend further than where it was enforced by our own troops; that our very soldiery would desire and endeavour to leave us, and go over to the Americans. Has one word of all this fallen to the ground? Or is there almost a single sentence of it, which is not now become a matter of fact? "It was further set forth, that no immediate impression upon the town of Boston, or possession taken of it by a flect or an army, would carry the command of all that continent, or force them to submit to measures so universally against their bent and inclinations; but that on the contrary the most strenuous and most vigorous exertions were from that whole people to be expected, in support of their common liberties and properties. May I call on our ministers, and demand whether they are not themselves sensible by this time of all these things?" "The writer concludes with the following emphatic paragraph. "It is not owing to a want of information, to a want of understanding, to a want of sense, and a knowledge of the importance or the imprudence of our American measures, if some people of property, of capacity, of independence, seem to sleep supinely while a rock is ready to fall and to crush their country. There is in public concerns an abjectness which obtains and daily increases among us, and that in a rank of men where it ought least to pre vail, and to whom others are entitled to look up in a time of danger or of difficulty. The rise and the beginning of this might readily be pointed out; it was not first of this reign: but these men may truly be told, that there is no support for themselves but in the stability of all; that their private fortunes and possessions will, in the common destruction, most inevitably go to wreck and to ruin with the rest: the cloud from the Atlantic threatens them as well as the merchant and the manufacturer, the farmer, and the labourer. But we seem not to remember that we are born Britons; that governments are instituted for the good of the governed, and for that only; that we have in our immediate personal and collective capacity, an inherent right to signify our sentiments of the national measures, to those who contrive, govern, and direct them; that the concern therein of many is upon the comparison much as considerable, one for one, as their own; but that of all united and taken together, almost as the ocean to a drop of water; that we are men, and not a flock of sheep forced to follow our fellow, because he happens to bear a bell about his neck. The writer has thrown out these things from a sincere and an earnest desire of the general safety and welfare; he heartily hopes that the seed is sown in good ground, and that it will bear fut for the benefit of the whole! But if, after all, the hand of fate is upon thes nation; if the period approaches in which we are doomed to perish; if there is at once an incurable madness in our coun cils, and a boundless obsequiousness in our proper guardians and protectors; if the constitution is forgotten, and men of weight and of effect abandon their country, I must say that His will be done, who governs both individuals and communities! I trust, nevertheless, that these words will not be so lost, but that they shall at least preserve one private person from the charge and the consciousness of having scrupled to speak freely and plainly his opinion of the dan gers, and the but too probable ruin im pending over the country." In 1776, Mr. R. published, "A further Examination of our American Measures, and of the Reasons and Principles on which they are founded." 8vo. In the next year also, he brought forth another pamphlet, entitled, "Peace the best Policy; or, Reflections on the Appearance of a Foreign War, the present State of Affairs at Home, and the Commission for granting Pardons in America." 8vo. In 1778, when he had completed his 65th year, he was still an eldest son only; but in the spring of that year his father died, at his house in the neighbourhood of Bond-street, at the age of 84; and he came into possession of the paternal estates in the northern parts of Yorkshire, and on the confines of Dur ham. It was only in the preceding February, that Mrs. Montagu mentioned her father in the following words: "I suppose you know there was a report of my father's death. I had promised to introduce the dowager Duchess of Beau fort to the French ambassadress on Wednesday night; so, though the weather was terrible, ble, I went out; and such was the report of poor papa, that I was stared at as a ghost when I entered the room, and the servants below were very busy questioning my footmen. To-day I had a message from lady Ann and lady Betty Finch, with an apology, that not having heard of that melancholy event till today, they had not sent enquiries. All this while the old gentleman is in as good health as he has been for this twelvemonth." The accession of fortune, by his father's death, made no difference in Mr. R.'s mode of living. It was in the preceding year that he received a visit from his cousin, the Primate of Ireland. Mrs. Montagu, in a letter of that date, says, "The primate and sir William Robinson were much pleased with my brother's kind reception of them. Indeed I do not know any one who makes his house so agreeable to his friends. His parts and knowledge make him an excellent companion, and his apparent benevolence, integrity, virtues, endear his talents." and In 1780, his popularity and strenuous exertions contributed to obtain for his younger brother, Charles, who was Recorder of Canterbury, that seat in parliament, from which himself had retired nearly twenty years before; and the same exertions co-operated again to reinstate him in 1784. In 1786, Mr. R. published, "An Address to the Landed, Trading, and Funded, Interests of England, on the present State of Public Affairs. In 1794, when eighty-one years old, Mr. R. became, by the death of his cousin, the primate, who was little older than himself, a peer of Ireland. Richard Robinson, the primate, was sixth son of William Robinson, esq. of Rokeby, in Yorkshire, who was grandson of William Robinson, esq. of the same place, whose younger brother sir Leonard Robinson, (who died in 1696) was great grandfather of the subject of this article, so that he was only third cousin to his predecessor. This magnificent prelate had gone over to Ireland as chaplain to the duke of Dorset in 1751, and was the same year promoted to the bishopric of Killala; in 1759 he was translated to the sees of Leighlin and Ferns; and in 1761, to the see of Kildare: and at length, in 1765, His elder to the primacy of Ireland. brother, sir Thomas, who was a vain and eccentric character, had been created a baronet in March 1730, with MONTHLY MAG. No. 200. remainder, after his brothers, to the Kentish branch of his family. He spent his family fortune, and sold the beautiful seat of Rokeby Park, which now belongs to I. B. S. Morritt, esq.: he died, 1777. The primate was created au Irish peer by the title of lord Rokeby, on 26th February, 1777, with the same collateral remainder as the baronetage. Of this respected nobleman, it has been truly said, that "the many magnificent buildings and institutions erected and endowed by him, for public benefit and private conveniency, both in England and Ireland, will always preserve a grateful recollection of a man, who near thirty years filled the first sta tion in the sister kingdom, with so much credit to himself, and advantage to the nation,” Mr. R., now become lord Rokeby, neither varied his style of living, his manners, his habits, nor his dress. The independence and whiggism of his politics were not in the smallest degree abated in their ardour. In April 1797, when he had attained the age of eightyfour, he sent forth his last pamphlet, entitled, “An Address to the County of Kent, on their Petition to the King for removing from the Councils of his Majesty his present Ministers, and for adopting proper Means to procure a speedy and an happy Peace," &c. The following are the concluding words I will now take my of this address: leave. There are, I trust, no excuses or apologies necessary to be made on this occasion by one who did, from his early days, adopt the principles of an old and true whig, the principles of Mr. Sydney, Mr. Locke, Lord Molesworth, Mr. Trenchard, and such men, from which he has to the best of his knowledge, throughout his life, in no single action or circumstance ever once varied or swerved, and which he will certainly now relinquish only at his grave." Years still rolled on, and lord R. possessed all his faculties, and all his spirits; he could not walk, as he had formedy done, but he yet could use exercise, and pass much of his time in In short, the powers of the open air. life seemed so vigorous in him, that he appeared destined to reach the age of 100; when, in 1800, a weakness fell into one of his ancles, which he himself attri buted to a strain. On this occasion, he resorted to one of his sovereign remedies, the bathing it in cold water; and he persevered so long in this method, in the 4 C severost |