State. It was only till the 18th of December that they held their power; when Fox's East India Bill, opposed by the mighty eloquence of Pitt, produced their dismissal. From this period this amiable minister returned no more to power; and took no very active part in politics. In 1790 he succeeded his father in the Earldom; but survived him only two years: having latterly lost his sight; and passed his last days in the calmness and endearments of domestic privacy, to which his chearful and benign temper was particularly adapted. Dr. Bisset views his administration in the same light as Adolphus. "Thus ended (says Dr. Bisset) the administration of Lord North, of which the greater part teemed with calamitous events, beyond any of the same duration to be found in the annals of British history. A war with so great, productive, and important part of our community, lost thirteen flourishing and powerful colonies, the promoters of private and public wealth, and the nourishers of national force. Hostilities, whence soever they arose, not only subtracted from us such constituents of strength, but added them to our inveterate enemies. Year after year, our blood and treasure were expended to no purpose: myriads of men were killed; hundreds of millions were lavished without obtaining any valuable object. Temporary gleams of partial success were followed by the permanent gloom of general disaster. Were we to judge from result solely, and to draw a conclusion from the broad principle, that an uniform series of miscarriages, in the natural course of human affairs, implies a great portion of misconduct, our estimate of this administration might be easily formed; but general rules, applied to the appreciation of conduct, often require to be nicely modified according to the circumstances. I trust it has appeared to the impartial reader, that the chief minister possessed very considerable talents and fair intentions, though min. gled with defects, and acting in such emergencies as precluded beneficial exertions and consequences. But however erroneous and hurtful the series of measures was during this administration, far is the blame from being confined to ministers. It indeed belongs chiefly to parliament, which by its approbation sanctioned their acts, and to the people themselves, of whom the greater part was eager for commencing and continuing the war. When the nation censures his burdensome and disastrous war, they must remember that it originated in themselves." A i Bisset's George III. Vol. III. p. 331. The following compliment by the elegant pen of Gibbon, is in the Preface to his seventh volume, 8vo. of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: "Were I ambitious (says he), of any other patron than the public, I would inscribe this work to a statesman, who, in a long, a stormy, and at length an unfortunate administration, had many political opponents, almost without a personal enemy; who has retained, in his fall from power, many faithful and disinterested friends; and who, under the pressure of severe infirmity, enjoys the lively vigour of his mind, and the felicity of his incomparable temper. Lord North will permit me to express the feelings of friendship in the language of truth: but even truth and friendship should be silent, if he still dispensed the favours of the crown." This amiable minister has also had the happiness to be thus recorded in the beautiful language of his great opponent, Burke himself. "He was a man of admirable parts; of general knowledge; of a versatile understanding fitted for every sort of business; of infinite wit and pleasantry; of a delightful temper, and with a mind most disinterested. But it would be only to degrade myself by a weak adulation, and not to honour the memory of a great man, to deny that he wanted something of the vigilance and spirit of command that the time required."k His Lordship died August 5th, 1792. On March 10, 1756, his Lordship was married to Anne, daughter and coheir of George Speke, of White Lackington, in the county of Somerset, Esq. by whom he had issue. 1. George-Augustus, the third Earl. 2. Francis, the present Earl. 3. Catharine-Anne, born February 16th, 1760; married September 27th, 1789, to the Right Hon. Sylvester Douglas, Lord Glenbervie. 4. Anne, born January 8th, 1764; married January 22d, 1798, John, Lord Sheffield. 5. Frederick, born February 7th, 1766, late Governor of the island of Ceylon. 6. Charlotte, born December 1770; married, April 1800, the Hon. Lieutenant-colonel John Lindsay, brother to Alexander Earl of Balcarras. 7. Dudley, born May 31st, 1777, died June 18th, 1779. His Lordship was succeeded by his son, GEORGE-Augustus, Letter to a Noble Lord on the Duke of Bedford's Attack. the THIRD EARL, born September 11th, 1757; married, September 30th, 1785, Maria, daughter of George, third Earl of Buckinghamshire, by whom (who died April 23d, 1794), he had Lady Maria,' born December 26th, 1793. The Earl married, secondly, Susan, daughter of Thomas Coutts, Esq. and sister to the Marchioness of Bute, and Lady Burdett, and has issue, Lady Susan and Lady Georgiana.' Dying April 20th, 1802, he was succeeded by his brother, His Lordship was born December 25th, 1761, and is a Lieutenant-colonel in the army; High Steward of Banbury; and Patent Comptroller of the Customs. Titles. Francis North, Earl of Guilford, Lord North and Guilford. Creations. Baron of Guilford, by letters-patent, September 27th, 1683, 35 Car. II.; and Earl of Guilford, by letters-patent, April 8th, 1752, 25 George II. Arms. Azure, a lion passant, Or, between, three Fleurs-de-lis, Argent. Crest. On a wreath, a dragon's head erased, Sable, ducally gorged and chained, Or. Or. Supporters. Two dragons, Sable, ducally gorged and chained, Motto. ANIMO ET FIDE. Chief Seat. At Wroxton-Abbey, in the county of Oxford (the old seat at Catlage, in Cambridgeshire, being pulled down); and at Waldershare, in Kent, 1 Between these daughters the Barony of North, being a barony in fee, is in abevance. Ir is well known, that this family, now flourishing in honours and estates, owe their elevation to the great talents and integrity of Lord Chancellor Hardwicke, one of the most illustrious ornaments that ever sat on the bench of British Justice. His own merit justly stands in the place of an host of ancestors. It has hitherto therefore been deemed sufficient to begin the pedigree with this great man. But it seems something like defrauding the dead of their rights, to withhold from them the honour of having produced so eminent a descendant. This false delicacy has had a different effect from that which was intended. It has seemed to sanction silly rumours, which perhaps it was designed to suppress by a contemptuous silence. The family of this celebrated nobleman, if of no particular lustre, either from titles or estates, was neither mean, insignificant in point of property, nor unrespectable in alliances. From them therefore, if he borrowed no splendour, from them he derived no disgrace. SIMON Yorke, of Dover, in Kent, merchant, who had a good landed property, died February 3d, 1682, aged seventy-six years, and was buried in the church of St. James, Dover. By Alice his wife, he had five sons, and one daughter. One of these sons was the father of Simon Yorke, Esq. who settled at Erthig, in Denbighshire; and dying July 28th, 1767, left issue the late Philip Yorke, of Erthig, Esq. F. A. S. a man not unknown to a He is said to have been born at Calne, in Wiltshire, in 1606, and supposed to have come from the North of England; and to have been a branch of the Yorkes of Richmond, in Yorkshire. b Gent. Mag. Vol. LIX. p. 700. literature, who died February 19th, 1804, æt. 61, having married July 2d, 1770, Elizabeth, sister to the late Lord Brownlow, by whom he had issue Simon Yorke, late M. P. for Grantham, &c. PHILIP Yorke, one of the sons of Simon, was born about 1651, and practised the law with good reputation at Dover. He married a lady of a family of ancient extraction in that county, and at that time well allied, and of very considerable property. This was Elizabeth, daughter and heir of Richard Gibbon, of Dover, Gent. who died August 2d, 1679, aged fifty-two. She was widow of her cousin, Edward Gibbon, Esq. eldest son (by the second wife), of Thomas Gibbon, Esq. of Westcliffe, near Dover. She survived till October 17th, 1727, æt. 69, leaving issue by him, who died June 18th, 1721, æt. 70, one son and two daughters; viz. 3. Mary, wife of Charles Valence Jones, Esq. She died Oc < His wife was Deborah Stratfold, who survived till July 2d, 1719, aged eighty-one; so that she lived to see her grandson rising into fame, he having been appointed Solicitor General on the 29th of March following. It cannot be exactly ascertained in what degree of relationship this Richard Gibbon stood to the Gibbons of Westcliffe, with which family his daughter first married; though it is known in that family that they were nearly allied. Probably Richard was a son, either of Matthew Gibbon, the elder, or Matthew Gibbon, the younger, of Soulton, in Westcliffe. The Lord Chancellor always quartered the Gibbon arms; as may be seen in the Middle Temple Hall, and under his prints. d She had been second wife of Edward Gibbon, whose first wife was Martha, daughter of Sir John Roberts, Knt. by whom he had Jane, wife of John Brydges of Wootton, Esq. Barrister at Law. Mrs. Yorke had by her first husband a son, who dieth a youth. As from this family of Gibbon descended another person, whose talents and literature have rendered his name conspicuous over all the polished nations of Europe, it may be proper to mention a few genealogical particulars of them. Thomas Gibbon, of Westcliffe, near Dover, Esq. born 1590, was grandson of another Thomas, who purchased the manor of Westcliffe of Thomas Lord Borough, early in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and died in 1596. Thomas, the grandson, was buried at Westcliffe, November 19th, 1671, at the age of eighty-one. He had three wives; Alice, the second, was sister to Dame Jane Maynard, wife of the celebrated lawyer, Sir John Maynard, who afterwards, at the Revolution, was appointed one of the Lords Commissioners of the Great Seal. Matthew Gibbon, born 1642, one of the younger sons by this second wife, was father of Edward Gibbon, Esq. a South-Sea Director, &c. who died 1736, leaving issue Edward Gibbon, of Buriton, in Hants, Esq. who died November 10th, 1770, æt. 64, leaving an only son, the late celebrated Edward Gibbon, Esq. the Historian of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, who died January 16th, |