nor beloved; for notwithstanding his great interest at court, it is certain he has none in either house of parliament, or in the country.  He is of a middle stature, of a brown complexion, with a sour lofty look.”  Swift sanctioned this severe character, by writing on the margin of his copy of Macky’s book, “This character is the truest of any.” To so bitter a censure, let us contrast the panegyric of Pope: 

     Muse, ’tis enough; at length thy labour ends,
     And thou shalt live, for Buckingham commends;
     Let crowds of critics now my verse assail,
     Let Dennis write, and nameless numbers rail,
     This more than pays whole years of thankless pain—­
     Time, health, and fortune, are not lost in vain. 
     Sheffield approves; consenting Phoebus bends,
     And I and Malice from this hour are friends.

It may be worth the attention of the great to consider the value of that genius, which can hand them down to posterity in an interesting and amiable point of view, in spite of their own imbecilities, errors, and vices.  While the personal character of Mulgrave has nothing to recommend it, and his poetical effusions are sunk into oblivion, we still venerate the friend of Pope, and the protector of Dryden.

   Sheffield, duke of Buckingham, marquis of Normanby, and earl of
   Mulgrave, was born in 1649, and died in 1720.  He was therefore
   twenty-seven years old when he received this dedication.

2.  On perusing such ill applied flattery, I know not whether we ought
   to feel most for Charles II. or for Dryden.

3.  The earl of Mulgrave, in the Dutch war of 1672, served as a
   volunteer on board the Victory, commanded by the earl of Ossory.  He
   behaved with distinguished courage himself, and has borne witness
   to that of his unfortunate admiral, James Duke of York.  His
   intrepid coolness appears from a passage in his Memoirs, containing
   the observations he made during the action, on the motion of cannon
   bullets in the recoil, and their effect when passing near the human
   body.  His bravery was rewarded by his promotion to command the
   Katharine, the second best ship in the fleet.  This vessel had been
   captured by the Dutch during the action, but was retaken by the
   English crew before she could be carried into harbour.  Lord
   Mulgrave had a picture of the Katherine at his house in St James’s
   Park.—­See CARLETON’S Memoirs, p. 5.

4.  In 1548-9, there were insurrections in several counties of England,
   having for their object the restoration of the Catholic religion,
   and the redress of grievances.  The insurgents in Northamptonshire
   were 20,000 strong, headed by one Ket, a tanner, who possessed
   himself of Norwich.  The earl of Northampton, marching rashly and
   hastily against him, at the head