JOHN CARTERET, VISCOUNT CARTERET, AND EARL GRANVILLE, THE son of George, lord Carteret, by Grace, daughter of John, the last earl of Bath of the line of Granville, was born in 1690, educated at Westminster, and thence removed to Christ Church, Oxford, where he became noted for classical erudition and polite literature. His father having died when he was only four years old, he took his seat in the house of peers on coming of age in 1711: and distinguished himself by his ardent zeal for the succession of George the first, to whom he became a lord of the bed-chamber. In 1719 he was appointed embassador extraordinary to the queen of Sweden, and afterwards acted as plenipotentiary at the congress of Cambray. In 1721 he succeeded Mr. Craggs as principal secretary of state, and in 1723 was appointed one of the 2 At the time of this appointment Dr. Sewell addressed a poetical epistle to his lordship, which bemoans the loss of Craggs, and greets his successor with considerable address. "Nor thou, O CARTERET! with a frown disdain lords justices. In 1724 he was constituted lord lieutenant of Ireland, which he held the usual time. In 1742 he was re-appointed principal secretary of state. In 1743, he attended his royal master through that campaign in which the battle of Dettingen was fought. In 1749 he was elected a knight of the garter. On June 17, 1751, he was sworn in president of the council, which honourable office he retained till his death, on the 2d of Jan. 1763.4 Such, CARTERET, in thy breast the monarch saw, A full article is assigned to lord Carteret in Biog. Brit. vol. iii. 9 Ambrose Philips addressed a well-wishing ode to lord Carteret on his departing from Dublin in 1726, and with pastoral prettiness exclaimed "GO, CARTERET, go; and bear my joys away! So speaks the muse that fain would bid thee stay: So spoke the virgin to the youth unkind, Who gave his vows and canvas to the wind, And promis'd to return; but never more Did he return to the Threician shore." 4 Lord Orford drew a portrait of earl Granville immediately after his death, which is so forcibly featured, that part of it might serve as an epitaph. Commanding beauty, smooth'd by cheerful grace, Sat on each open feature of his face. Bold was his language, rapid, glowing, strong; From his lordship's acknowledged attainments in literature, it might be expected that he should patronize learned men and literary undertakings: and this he did, in the persons and projects of Mr. Lye, Dean Swift, Dr. Taylor, and Dr. Bentley. In S. Buckley's third letter to Dr. Mead, concerning a new edition of Thuanus's History, printed in 1730, the writer says, he has the "pleasure to acknowledge that lord Carteret, from time to time, had favoured him with his directions and informations concerning Thuanus, and among other things, had the goodness to put into his hands "a character of that historian," which is inserted at page 21 of the above publication, and entitles his lordship to a place in the present work. The following is a specimen : "Thuanus is an historian of the first rank with respect to the extensiveness and dignity of his subject, which he has related in the most proper and ornamental style, No writer ever did more honour Ambition dealt her flambeau to his hand, Works, vol. i. p. 31. Maittaire dedicated to lord Carteret, Osborne's Harleian Catalogue. In the 'Characters of eminent persons' drawn by lord Chesterfield, earl Granville's is given at some length, but summed up in a political point of view, as consisting of "nice precision, quick decision, and unbounded presumption." The duke of Newcastle used to say, that "he was a man who never doubted." Mr. Speaker Onslow's character of him may be seen in Coxe's Mem. of Sir R. Walpole, vol. ii. to his country. He always vindicated the just rights of France, and has furnished his countrymen with solid arguments to maintain them. The rights of the house of Bourbon are by him set in the clearest light. Yet such were the times in which he lived, that the courtiers of Paris were not ashamed to sacrifice him to the resentments of the court of Rome; with this aggravation, that his own hero, Henry the fourth, was unsteady in his defence, and suffer'd this most learned, candid, and free-spirited Frenchman, his most faithful subject and useful friend, to be insulted by priests and bigots, who would if they could have suppressed this immortal work: and this is an instance in which Henry did not shew his usual grandeur of mind, but was wanting to himself, in not supporting a man he loved and esteemed, and was obliged to, against the iniquity of persons he despis'd. Tho' the work is long, collectively consider'd, yet it is not long in its respective parts; he leads the reader through the whole world, is very entertaining in whatever he writes, and for the most part is very instructive."] CHARLES WYNDHAM, EARL OF EGREMONT, Is only mentioned here, as a copy of verses called "The fair Thief," was printed in the European Magazine for January 1785, and ascribed to his lordship: but I much question if on any authority. [Charles, son of sir William Wyndham, minister to queen Anne, succeeded to the titles of baron of Cockermouth and earl of Egremont, by the death of Algernon, duke of Somerset. In 1761 he was nominated the first of three plenipotentiaries on the part of Great Britain to the congress at Augsburg, for procuring a general pacification between the belligerent powers; and in the same year was constituted one of the principal secretaries of state. In 1762 he was made lord-lieutenant of Sussex; in June 1763 was elected a governor of the Charterhouse; and died of an apoplectic fit, in the following August. 2 • Collins's Peerage, vol. vi. p. 23. |