(796) In a letter to his son, of the 22d of April, Chesterfield says:—­“Apropos of a minority:  the King is to come to the House tomorrow, to recommend a bill to settle a regency, in case of his demise while his successor is a minor.  Upon his late illness, which was no trifling one, the whole nation cried out aloud for such a bill, for reasons which will readily occur to you, who know situations, persons, and characters here.  I do not know the provisions of this intended bill; but I wish it may b(@ copied exactly from that which was passed in the late King’s reign, when the present King was a minor.  I am sure there cannot be a better."-E.

(797) As to his dismissal.-C.

(798) Sir Francis Dashwood, lately confirmed in this barony, as the heir of the Fanes by his mother.  He had been chancellor of the exchequer in Lord Bute’s administration.-E.

(799) George, third Earl of Orford, Mr. Walpole’s nephew; on whose death, in 1791, he succeeded to the title.-E.

(800) George, second Earl of Pomfret, while Lord Lempster, had the misfortune to kill Captain Grey, of the Guards, in a duel:  he was tried at the Old Bailey in April 1752, and found guilty of manslaughter only.  See vol. ii. p. 124, letter 54.-E.

(801) The son, it is supposed, of the Duc de Praslin.-C.

(802) Louis L`eon de Brancas, the eldest son of the Duc de Villars Brancas:  he was, during his father’s life, known as the Comte, and afterwards Duc, de Lauragais, and was a very singular and eccentric person.  He was a great Anglomane, and was the first introducer into France of horseraces `a l’Anglaise; it was to him that Louis xv.—­not pleased at his insolent Anglomanie—­ made so excellent a retort.  The King had asked him after one of his journeys, what he had learned in England?  Lauragais answered, with a kind of republican dignity, “A panser” (penser).—­“Les chavaux?” inquired the King.  On the other hand, he was one of the first promoters of the practice of inoculation. stories about him, both in England and France, are endless:  “He was,” says M. de Segur, who knew him well, “one of the most singular men of the long period in which he lived; he united in his person a combination of great qualities and great faults, the smallest portion of which would have marked any other man with a striking originality.”  He died in 1823, at the age of ninety-one—­his youthful name and follies forgotten in the respectable old age of the Duc de Brancas.-C.

(803) Philip, second Earl Stanhope; for a character of whom, by his great-grandson, Lord Mahon, see vol. i. p. 308, letter 96, note 771.-E.

(804) Afterwards fifth Earl of sandwich.  The match with lady Eliza Savile took place on the 1st of march 1766.-E.

Letter 249 To Sir David Dalrymple.(805) Strawberry Hill, April 21, 1765. (page 391)