47a ANNUAL REGISTER, 1758.
to diftinguifh between the reafon- able demands of the king, and the infolenceof his miniller; and there- fore played off this farce again ft him in the houfe of commons. Nor was this done perhaps with a view of mortifying the cardinal, but it might be alfo probably to let his majerty fee, by this contu- melious ufage, that the perfon of his minifter was not acceptable to the parliament. But be this as it might. The fpeaker in a few days after, being in Wolfey's gallery at Whitehall, his eminence complain- ed to him of this ill treatment with great vehemence ; and re- proaching him for his ingratitude, laid, * Would to God you had
- been at Rome, Mr. More, when
- I made you fpeaker,' To this
Sir Thomas replied, * Your grace
- not offended, fo would I too,
- my lord.' And then to divert
him from his ill humour, which vould probably have vented itfelf in fome indecent language, he be- gan to commend the cardinal's gal- lery, and faid that he liked it bet- ter than his other gallery at Hamp- ton-court."
There are feveral inftances of his difinterefted conduit, and of the ferc- nlty and good humourwith which he refigned the greateft employments.
" About the time of his refig- nation, died in extreme old age his father Sir John More ; whom he often vifited and comforted in his illnefs, and to whom he expreiTed the utmoll tendernefs and affec- tion of filial piety in his expir- ing moments. This was an event, however, which brought him a very inconfiderable increafe of for- tune; becaufe the greateft part of his father's eftate, with his feat at Gubbins in Hertford Ihi re, was fettled upon his fecond wife^ who
outlived Sir Thomas many years j and therefore he enjoyed but little inheritance from his father. When he had delivered up the feal, he wrote an apology for himfelf ; in which he declares to the public,
- that all the revenues and pen-
' fions which he had, by his father,
- by his wife, or by his own pur-
- chafe, except the manors given
- him by the king of his mere li-
- berality'. — which from a king to
fuch a fervant are not worth the naming—' did not amount to the
- value of fifty pounds a year.' — .
Strange indeed it will appearin this age, that a privy counfellor, who had gone through fo many great offices, as we have feen, for above twenty years, and who had been all his life an abftemious man, fhould not have been able to purchafe an hundred pounds a year. But fuch was his gre^t charity, and fuch his greater contempt of money !
The day after he had refigned the feal, which his own family knew nothing of, he went as ufual, it being an holy-day, to Chelfea church with his wife and daugh- ters: and after mafs was over — it being cuftomary for one of thegen- tlemen to goto his lady to tell her the chancellor was gone out of church — he went himfelf to the pew door; and making her a low bow, faid, * Madam, my lord is
- gone.* But fhe knowing his
pleafantry, and apprehending this to be fome joke, took little notice of it. However, as they were walking home, he afTured her very ferioufly, that what he had faid, was true; having refigned his of- fice of lord-chancellor to the king the day before. When fhe found that he was in earneft, and as fhe was a worldly-minded wo- man, being much chagrined at
