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# ftcn found in courts , conferred on Mr . Gray , without any soli ci tation , the professorship of Modern His - tovy . " The Poet adorned the Installation with an Ode , too well known to require any quotations . Nor did the new Chancellor
dishonour the choice of his Alma Mater . He filled the station with dignity , and communicated to his University much of his own liberality of sentiment * It must , however , be admitted that the choice of the DukeofGrafton , in 1768 ,
displayed the preponderance of politicalwer moral considerations in such elections . The Duke had indeed , already , performed what a
moralist calls one of the greatest acts of tirtue ; he had cc stopped short in the down- hill path of perdition /* His wanderings in that path amidst the snares of rank and fortune ,
it would be equally foolish and malignant to detail * He had the magnanimity , as we shall soon find , to become on this subject his own
censor . Jn 176 $ , the Duke of Grafton was dignified with the order of the Garter . The same year being divorced from his first Duchess , he married the Lady who has
surged him , and by whom he had a large family . He resigned the post of first Lord of the Treasury to Lord North in 1 770 , but returned jto of . fice , the next year , as Leid Privy Seaynfluencedas Rtr . Belsham
re-, % * 7 lates , ( Fun . Sernu ) on good authority * by the hope that he might prevent the quarrel with America from being carried to extremities . ** ut when he discovered that in
• Pposition to his earnest remon . Frances , government resisted all ^ ° nciliation , were determined upon ^ rcive measures , arid would pay H regard to the petition brought
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over by Mr . Penn , in 1775 > whic was emphatically called the Oliv Branch , he finally withdrew from that administration , and having , in a private audience , explained to the monarch his views of the state and dangers of the country , if tlic
present measures were pursued , lie became a temperate , but firm opponent of the ministry which lost America . In the year 1782 , the Duke of Grafton accepted the of . fice of Privy Seal , under the administration of Lord Rockingharn , and retained his situation after tLe
death of that truly patriotic nobLeman , and the resignation of Mn Fox . Upon the accession of the coalition ministry in 1783 , he resigned his office , and never afterwards
resumed his seat in the cabinet /* Mr . Belsham considers this period of retirement from public life as probably the time when this venerable nobleman began to consecrate his leisure hours to the
study of the scriptures . " An earlier period may perhaps be assign * ed . It is said , on the authority of another of the late Duke ' s friends , that he declined the degrte of Doctor of Laws , customarily offered to a Chancellor , bnhis
election , becauseheeven then scrupled the required subscription . However that may be , his inquiries , prompted by what he had observed in the nominally Christian world , led him to the solemn and
deliberate conclusion , that the Father only is God ; and that he alone fs the proper object of religious wor ship / ' Mr . Beldam , to whom we have been , and shall be further
indebted on this subject ^ goes on to describe the consistency witfc which the Duke now followed ! lii * convictions . He corresponded with the v ^ wrable Lindiey , an *
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Obituary . — Duke of Grafton . Wkf .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1811, page 247, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2415/page/55/
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