follower of Bute in the first great effort of George the Third
to rescue the sovereignty from what Lord Chatham called "the
Great Revolution families." He became in time a member of
Lord Chatham's last administration: one of the strangest and
most unsuccessful efforts to aid the grandson of George the
Second in his struggle for political emancipation. Lord
Shelburne adopted from the first the Bolingbroke system: a
real royalty, in lieu of the chief magistracy; a permanent
alliance with France, instead of the whig scheme of viewing in
that power the natural enemy of England: and, above all, a
plan of commercial freedom, the germ of which may be found in
the long-maligned negotiations of Utrecht, but which in the
instance of Lord Shelburne were soon in time matured by all
the economical science of Europe, in which he was a
proficient. Lord Shelburne seems to have been of a reserved
and somewhat astute disposition: deep and adroit, he was
however brave and firm. His knowledge was extensive and even
profound. He was a great linguist; he pursued both literary
and scientific investigations; his house was frequented by men
of letters, especially those distinguished by their political
abilities or economical attainments. He maintained the most
extensive private correspondence of any public man of his
time. The earliest and most authentic information reached him
from all courts and quarters of Europe: and it was a common
phrase, that the minister of the day sent to him often for the
important information which the cabinet could not itself
command. Lord Shelburne was the first great minister who
comprehended the rising importance of the middle class; and
foresaw in its future power a bulwark for the throne against
"the Great Revolution families." Of his qualities in council