calumny, he deserved and earned dislike by his haughty deportment. The manners which custom might have sanctioned from an imperious chieftain to his servile retainers in a remote corner of the island, did not suit the independent spirit of
the English metropolis. The respectable mediocrity of his talents, with the suitable attainments, and his decent moral character, deserved an esteem which iiis manners precluded. Since he could not, like Pitt, command by superior
genius, he ought, like the duke of Newcastle, to have conciliated by affable demeanour. His partizans have praised the tenacity of lord Bute in his purposes; a quality which, guided by wisdom in the pursuit of right, and combined
with the power to render success ultimately probable, is magnanimous firmness,
but, without these requisites, is stubborn obstinacy. No charge has been more
frequently made against lord Bute, than that he was a promoter of arbitrary
principles and measures. This is an accusation for which its supporters can find
no grounds in his particular acts; they endeavoured therefore to establish their
assertion by circuitous arguments. Lord Bute had been the means of dispossessing the Whig connection of power, and had given Scotsmen appointments,
which were formerly held by the friends of the duke of Newcastle. To an impartial investigation, however, it appears evident, that lord Bute merely
preferred himself as minister to the duke of Newcastle. If we examine his particular nominations, we shall find that he neither exalted the friends of liberty
nor despotism, but his own friends. It would probably have been better for
the country if lord Bute had never been minister; but all the evils that may
be traced to that period did not necessarily proceed from his measures, as many
of them flowed from circumstances over which he had no control. Candour
must allow that the comprehensive principle on which his majesty resolved to
govern was liberal and meritorious, though patriotism may regret that he was
not more successful in his first choice. The administration of Bute teaches an
instructive lesson, that no man can be long an effectual minister of this country,
who will not occasionally attend, not only to the well-founded judgment, but also to the prejudices, of Englishmen."[1]
The earl of Bute spent the most of the remainder of his life in retirement, at his seat of Luton in Bedfordshire, but not without the suspicion of still maintaining a secret influence over the royal counsels. "The spirit of the Favourite," says Junius, "had some apparent influence over every administration; and every set of ministers preserved an appearance of duration, as long as they submitted to that influence." The chief employment, however, of the ex-minister was the cultivation of literature and science. He was more fond of books of information than of imagination. His favourite study was botany, with which he acquainted himself to such an extent, that the first botanists in Europe were in the habit of consulting his lordship. He composed a work on English plants, in nine quarto volumes, of which only sixteen copies were thrown off; the text as well as the figures of the plants being engraved on copper-plates, and these plates, it is said, immediately cancelled, though the work cost upwards of one thousand pounds. He presented to the Winchester college a bronze statue of their founder, William of Wykham, supposed to have been the work of some great artist in the fourteenth century. It is a full length figure in the episcopal habit, sixteen inches high, and executed with remarkable elegance. His lordship was elected one of the trustees of the British Museum in 1765, held the office of chancellor of the Marischal college of Aberdeen, and, on the institution of the Society of Antiquaries in Scotland (1780,) was elected president. He was an honorary fellow of the Royal College of
- ↑ Bisset's Reign of George III. apud Brydges' Peerage.
