improbable, that their truth could not be established even by the highest authority, “I would not believe it, though it were told me by Cato.”  And in an age much more dissipated than that of Cato, the integrity and honour of the noble lord I have mentioned, has become equally proverbial.  Not bonds, nor deeds, nor all the shackles of law, are half so much to be depended upon as is his lightest word.  He is deaf to all the prejudices of blood or private friendship, and has no feelings but for his country.

Of the duke of Portland, I can say the less, as not having had an opportunity of knowing much respecting him.  His candour and his honour have never been questioned.  And I remember, in the debate upon the celebrated secession of the Rockingham party, upon the death of their leader, to have heard his abilities particularly vouched in very strong terms, by Mr. chancellor Pitt, and the present lord Sidney.  The latter in particular, though one of my lord Shelburne’s secretaries of state, fairly avowed in so many words, that he should have been better satisfied with the appointment of his grace, to the office he now holds, than he was, with the noble lord, under whom he acted.

The character of lord Keppel, with persons not attached to any party, has usually been that of a man of much honesty and simplicity, without any remarkable abilities.  It is a little extraordinary however, that, though forced by a combination of unfavourable circumstances into a public speaker, he is yet, even in that line, very far from contempt.  His speeches are manly, regular, and to the purpose.  His defence upon his trial at Portsmouth, in which he must naturally be supposed to have had at least a principal share, has, in my opinion, much beauty of composition.  The adversaries of this party, though unwilling to admit that the navy was so much improved under his auspices as was asserted, have yet, I believe, universally acknowledged his particular activity and diligence.

But I come to the great beast of his own party, and the principal object of attack to their enemies, the celebrated Mr. Fox.  Men of formality and sanctity have complained of him as dissipated.  They do not pretend however to aggravate their accusation, by laying to his charge any of the greater vices.  His contempt of money, and his unbounded generosity, are universally confessed.  Let such then know, that dissipation, so qualified, is a very slight accusation against a public man, if indeed it deserves a serious consideration.  In all expansive minds, in minds formed for an extensive stage, to embrace the welfare and the interest of nations, there is a certain incessant activity, a principle that must be employed.  Debar them from their proper field, and it will most inevitably run out into excesses, which perhaps had better have been avoided.  But do these excrescences, which only proceed from the richness and fertility of the soil, disqualify a man for public business?