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    jmons by the casting voice of the Speaker , Mr . Cornwall , an almost singular instance © f defeat , till the recent case of Lord Melville .

    The Duke of Richmond ' s political notions were very liberal indeed , which if , like Pitt , when in administration he ceased to profess , he never "ventured like him openly to retract ; still less to persecute those among whom he had imbibed

    them . In 1780 , the Duke became a member of the " Society for Constitutional Information , " as he was also of the < c Revolution Society . " In 1783 , he addressed a letter to Colonel

    Sharman , Chairman of the Delegates from the Volunteers of Ireland , in which he says , " I am more and more convinced , that the restoring the right of voting universally to every man not incapacitated by nature , for want of reason , or by law , for the commission of crimes

    together with annual election .-, is the only reform that can be effectual and permanent . ' * With such a constitution of the House of Commons , he judged that the Peers should have a voice in money bills , but as to 4 C the negative of the Crown , " he deems it

    " preposterous that the will of one man should for ever obstruct every regulation which all the rest of the nation may think necessary . ' * He adds , " I object to it , as I would to any other prerogative of the Crown , or privilege of the lords or people , that is not founded in reason . " This letter to Colonel

    Sharman , the Duke was called upon to acknowledge in 1794 , on the trial of Mr . Hardy , when he conducted himself with great propriety , and gave not the least hint of any change in his opinions . As to literature or science the Duke of Richmond does not appear to have been distinguished above his contemporaries . Of " The Society for the Encouragement of Arts , Manufactures , and Commerce . "

    he was one of the first promoters . To him Dr . Kippis dedicated the third volume of his Biog . Britan . describing him as u an early patron of the Fine Arts , a zealous encourager of historical and constitutional knowledge , and a steady and ardent supporter of civil and religious liberty . '

    His attachment to religious liberty the Bake had discovered in 1772 and 1773 , by supporting in the House of Lords a bill which in each of those years had passed the Commons for the relief of Protestant Dissenting Ministers and

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    Schoolmasters , from the obligation to subscribe 36 ^ of the 39 articles . In both cases he was unsuccessfu l though he had the honour to join the Lords Camden , Mansfield , Shclburn , and Lyttleton , who introduced the bill .

    The bishops were on the side where they are always looked for on such occasions , and almost always found . Even Dr . Law , then Bishop of Carlisle , neglected to support this claim of mere justice ; and it is mortifying to observe , that the Duke of Grafton ; then Lord Privy Seal , a nobleman , who has * since

    discovered such enlightened attachment to religion and religious freedom , was an opposer of this bill , though he is reported to have ' - ' made great concessions in its favour . " It is well known , that in 1779 , after indulgences had been very properly granted to the Roman Catholics , it was considered but decent to listen to the Protestant Dissenters . A bill

    easily passed to relieve their " Ministers and Schoolmasters" from an obiigarion to subscribe the article-, yet reserving the main point , the magistrate ' s right of interference in reli gious concerns , by obliging them to subscribe , at his conimand , the truth of the scriDtures .

    The Duke of Richmond was thus happily free from that spirit of intolerance which is so often generated by honest superstition , but which Court-craft and Priest-craft have so well agreed in accommodating to their designs . His own faith was probably that common to statesmen , in a country where we are all

    nationally christians , and not long ago were even fighting for our relig ion . We are aware that the pride of family distinction and the resources of opulence may present temptations to human imperfection , from which a mediocrity of station so favourable to domestic virtue , is far more secure . Yet it would be

    vain to enquire after the practical chris-* tianity of one who in Ins latter years , the season of sober thought , could rather fi . < upon an innocent offspring the indelible brand of bastardy , than be so unfashionable as to become the husband of a person of inferior rank , with whom he chose to form the most

    intimate union . So opposite , however , are the laws of the Gospel , and the maxims of the world , ' -ailed Christian , upon this point especially , that the r < : ;» oi r . . irciliated just before 1 he Duke ' s death , of the mother of his three daughters being rcalj y his wife , was presently contra .-

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    Obituan / . 43

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1807, page 43, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2376/page/43/