Page:Life of William Shelburne (vol 1).djvu/122

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96
WILLIAM, EARL OF SHELBURNE
CH. II

either by silence or by speaking as he finds it prudent according to the occasion, do his best to forward what your Lordship wishes, and will enter no sort of engagement with any one else whatever. He will endeavour likewise to see your Lordship once a week. The rest depends upon yourself, and I trust will not be neglected. A certain cultivation and cordiality will yet change what is now prudence and good sense with regard to the public, into particular attachment and an honourable zeal, which is ever to be wished for in cases of this nature; and on this occasion I have great reason to assure myself you'll find it can entangle you with fewer demands than might be reasonably expected. You will forgive me, however, if I say this is necessary,

Yours ever,
Shelburne.

Another recruit at this moment joined the peace party, in the person of Isaac Barré, the successor of Lord Fitzmaurice in the representation of Chipping Wycombe. The Barré family originally belonged to Rochefort in France. Peter Barré, the father of Isaac, came to Dublin in 1720, and the future orator was born in 1726. His father was a merchant, and became Sheriff of Dublin in 1756, Alderman in 1758, and was one of the Governors of the Royal Dublin Society. His son was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, of which he became a scholar in 1744, graduating in 1745. In his early days, according to Walpole, he acted plays with so much applause, that Garrick offered him a thousand pounds a year to come upon the stage.[1] Rejecting this offer he entered the army and served with distinction under Wolfe on the coast of France, where he became acquainted with Lord Fitzmaurice. He also fought at Louisburg, and was at the side of Wolfe[2] when the latter fell at Quebec; but, notwithstanding his services, being devoid of powerful friends, he saw himself passed over in military promotion for the benefit of less distin-

  1. Walpole, Memoirs of the Reign of George III., i. no.
  2. Barré is one of the figures in West's picture of the death of Wolfe.