voyage, one of the company remarking that they had hitherto neglected to drink the King's health, notwithstanding there was one of His Majesty's sons on board,-"I know it well," said the Duke, "but we must first get out of this rotten ship, before I can make the health go merrily round.” * They reached Tangier in safety, but the Moors retreating on the first approach of the English army, it was not the fault of the gallant adventurers that they gained but little honour by the expedition.

On the accession of James the Second to the throne, the Duke was almost immediately sworn of the Privy Council, and shortly afterwards was appointed Lord Chamberlain of the Household. He went all lengths with his unfortunate master, and even consented to sit on the illegal and infamous Ecclesiastical Commission. Walpole says,"He ridiculed King James's religion, though he attended him to his chapel;" nevertheless, though he frequented, and knelt to the mass, at the King's desire, he is said by his frequent and urgent remonstrances with his royal master in private, to have latterly declined in his affection and esteem. There seems to have existed an intention, during the latter part of King James's reign, of tampering with the Duke's loyalty, and inviting him to join the cause of the Prince of Orange. King William, after his elevation to the throne, enquired of him, Pray, my Lord, what would you have done, if my agent had acquainted you with the whole

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* Character of the Duke of Buckingham, Works, v. ii. p.328.

business?" The honourable reply was, "I should have discovered it to the master I then served." The King added, "I could not have blamed you."

During that period of the Revolution of 1688, when an infuriated London mob were perpetrating the most wanton acts of mischief and pillage, the Duke distinguished himself by an act of promptitude and kindness which does him much credit. The rabble, (at the period of the King's first flight,) having razed the house of the Spanish ambassador to the ground, the Duke, conceiving, very properly, that the honour of the nation was at stake, took upon himself, notwithstanding the offence which it seemed likely to give to the popular party, to invite the ambassador to Whitehall, and to order a splendid table to be kept for him twice a day; moreover, he directed that the Yeomen of the Guard should attend constantly in the outer chamber, a ceremony which had hitherto only been used towards the King's person. For this generous, though unauthorised stretch of authority, he informs us that he was so far from being blamed, that he was afterwards fortunate enough to receive the thanks both of King James and the Prince of Orange, for the care which he had taken of the ambassador's person and of the national honour.

It was not till the cause of King James appeared to be utterly hopeless, that the Duke offered his services to the Prince of Orange. On the first day that he paid his respects to the invader,-while

waiting in the ante-chamber for his turn of admission,-Bentinck, afterwards Earl of Portland, observing him without his staff of Lord Chamberlain, observed,-" Comment, mi Lord, vous avez quitté vôtre bâton?"—" Il est bien temps,”—was the ready reply. *

A considerable time elapsed after the accession of King William, before the Duke derived any advantage from his adhesion to the government of that monarch. However, on the 10th of May, 1674, he was created Marquis of Normanby, in the county of Lincoln, and, shortly afterwards, was admitted to the Privy Council; besides having a pension conferred on him of three thousand a year.

On the accession of Queen Anne,-to whose hand he had formerly aspired,-he received the reward of his early devotion, and of his former real or pretended regard for her person. Indeed, the numerous favours which she conferred on him, gave strength to the supposition, that she was not altogether insensible to the homage which he had paid to her in her youth. Waiting on her immediately after King William died, the Queen happened to make some remark on the exceeding dulness of the day,-" Madam," he said, with the gallantry which had probably distinguished their early intercourse,-" It is the finest day I have ever seen." Before the close of the year, he not

* Diary of the Earl of Clarendon-Clarendon and Rochester Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 231.

only had the Privy Seal conferred on him, but was appointed Lord Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum of the North Riding of Yorkshire; one of the Commissioners to treat of an Union between England and Scotland; and one of the Governors of the Charter House. On the 9th of March, 1703, he was created Duke of Normanby, and, on the 23rd of the same month, Duke of Buckinghamshire.

The favour, however, which the Whigs generally, and more especially the great Duke of Marlborough, received at the Queen's hands, were sufficient to blot out from Buckingham's mind the memory of all former benefits, and to excite his ill-humour and indignation to a very unreasonable pitch. He petulantly threw up his office of Privy Seal; and, moreover, in the Queen's hearing, is said to have muttered words which accused her of childishness, and of being easily led by those who had designs upon her. Disappointment dipped his pen in malice; and in his " Feast of the Gods," though he spared the character of the Queen, he had the bad feeling and bad taste to attack that of her consort, Prince George of Denmark, in a very unjustifiable manner.

It was during his consequent absence from Court, and cessation from State employments, that the Duke occupied himself in constructing his celebrated house in St. James's Park, on the site of which the present Buckingham Palace now stands. Near it had formerly stood old Arlington House, the residence of the famous Henry

Bennet, Earl of Arlington, of whom Buckingham purchased the property. His mode of living in his new mansion; its advantages and unusual splendour; and his personal habits; the Duke has himself described in a well-known letter, which he addressed to the Duke of Shrewsbury.* That the Duke of Buckingham was a determined gamester is unquestionable: he has even been accused of having played unfairly; but as he appears to have been a loser by the vice, the fact may, perhaps, be doubted. Another of his vices was an inordinate love of women; his addiction to which passion, and his profligate notions in regard to the female sex, are exemplified in more than one passage in his works. The Duke was three times married; and in addition to his legal issue, was the father of at least three natural children, who survived him.†

There are many passages in the works of the Duke of Buckingham which prove him to have been a free-thinker in religion, although, on the other hand, as not unfrequently happens with sceptical persons, he seems to have been singularly open to superstition. In his poem of the Vision," he says,

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* Works, vol. ii. p. 253.

After the death of Edmund Sheffield, second Duke of Buckingham, a greater part of the family estates, by the will of the first Duke, were bequeathed to Charles Herbert, his illegit mate son, by a Mrs. Lambert, on condition that he should adopt the surname of Sheffield. This person was created a baronet in 1755, and married a daughter of General Sabine, by whom he had issue two sons and a daughter.