DANIEL FINCH, EARL OF NOTTINGHAM, WAS much aspersed during his life; but this was in times in which posterity will judge better than we who live so near them. Besides his speeches, many of which are printed in a book, entitled, An exact Collection of the Debates of the House of Commons, held at Westminster, October 21. 1680, his Lordship wrote "Observations upon the State of the Nation, in January 1712-13." 2 "A Letter to Dr. Waterland;" printed at the end of Dr. Newton's Treatise on Pluralities. "The Answer of the Earl of Nottingham to Mr. Whiston's Letter to him, concerning the Eternity of the Son of God, and of the Holy Ghost." 1721. The university of Oxford, in full convocation, returned his lordship "solemn thanks" for his most noble defence of the Christian faith, &c. Mr. Whiston published a reply, which ended the controversy. This piece, which is always ascribed to his lordship, I have been assured, from very good authority, was not written by him. 3 Vide Peerage in Winchelsea. [Daniel, the son of Heneage Finch, earl of Nottingham, was born in 1647, and succeeded his father in his honours and possessions. On the death of Charles the second he was one of the privy-counsellors who signed the order for proclaiming the duke of York, but kept at a distance from the court that whole reign. When the convention met on king James's abdication, he was the principal manager of the debates in favour of a regent, against setting up another king: yet he observed, that if one was made, he would be more faithful to him than those who made him could be according to their own principles. When William and Mary were advanced to the throne, though he declined the office of lord chancellor, he accepted that of secretary of state 5, in which station he continued after the accession of queen Anne, when both lords and commons voted him highly deserving the great trust her majesty reposed in him: yet he went out of office in 1704, and accepted no other till George the first came to the crown, when he was made president of the council; but in 1716 he finally retired from all business to a studious course of life, and died in 1730. "All the Finches," says Dunton", "have been 4 See vol. iii. p. 263. 5 Macky says he was made secretary of state to oblige the church, of which he set up for a mighty champion. Char. p. 25. 6 Idea of a new Life, p. 425. famous for their wit and learning; and this noble earl is a master of eloquence: yet his speeches in parliament were never known to falter with the secret glosses of double or reserved senses: and when his name is traduced (as has been the fate of the best favourites), his innocency bears him out with courage. He is a peer of strict and remarkable justice, an excellent paymaster, and a most accomplished gentleman." Macky represents him in his habit and manners as very formal, with an exterior air of business, and application enough to make him very capable. His lordship's polemic compositions are unpropitious to selection.] PHILIP, DUKE OF WHARTON, LIKE Buckingham and Rochester, comforted all the grave and dull, by throwing away the brightest profusion of parts on witty fooleries, debaucheries, and scrapes, which may mix graces with a great character, but never can compose one. If Julius Cæsar had only rioted with Catiline, he had never been emperor of the world. Indeed the duke of Wharton was not made for conquest; he was not equally formed for a round-house and Pharsalia. In one of his ballads he has bantered his own want of heroism; it was in a song he made on being seized by the guard in St. James's Park, for singing the Jacobite air, The King shall have his own again:' "The duke he drew out half his sword, the guard drew out the rest." His levities, wit, and want of principles; his eloquence and adventures, are too well known to be recapitulated. With attachment to no 2 [Mr. Seward remarks, that the character of Lovelace in Clarissa has been supposed to be that of this nobleman; and what |