young gentlemen go, 'tis possible he may make a good figure among them."
Than which it would be unkind to say anything more cutting. Of course,
honours came to him. He was created Knight of the Garter in 1741, in
which year he was appointed a Lord of the Bedchamber. He rose to the
rank of colonel in the army in 1745, and twenty-seven years later was
promoted General; but it does not appear that he saw any service. The
second Duke of Kingston will, however, always be remembered for his
marriage in 1769 with the beautiful and notorious Elizabeth Chudleigh,
who was nine years his junior. She had in 1744 married secretly Augustus
John Hervey, afterwards sixth Earl of Bristol, who survived until
December, 1779. She had long been living with the Duke, but in 1769 she
obtained a divorce _a mensa et thoro_, which she believed erroneously
annulled the marriage. The Duke died in 1773, when all his titles became
extinct. His Duchess was in the following year tried before the House of
Lords for bigamy, found guilty, but, pleading benefit of peerage, was
discharged. Thus, she carried out the prognostication of Lord Chief
Justice Mansfield, who had opposed the prosecution. "The arguments about
the place of trial suggest to my mind the question about the propriety
of any trial at all," he said in a debate in the House of Lords. "_Cui
bono_? What utility is to be obtained? Suppose a conviction to be the
result?--the lady makes your lordships a courtesy, and you return a
bow." She survived, living on the continent, until 1788. As an epitaph
for her there can be nothing better than a remark of Horace Walpole: "I
can tell you nothing more extraordinary, nor would any history figure
near hers. It shows genius to strike anything so new as her
achievements. Though we have many uncommon personages, it is not easy
for them to be so superiorly particular."

More generally interesting than these domestic matters was the political
situation. Queen Anne's life had for some time been hanging in the