So

then they polled a tally of the same number for Mr. J.
Lloyd, and then they polled for Sir Tho" Mostyn.
Upon this I spoke to Mr. Bennion, and he seemed to
think that our business was done, and did not poll a
second tally, tho' there was more to poll. Upon which,
the other party polled on for a majority for J. Lloyd;
and, lastly, they polled a majority beyond J. Lloyd
for Sir Thos Mostyn; upon which the Sheriff declared
Sir Tho" Mostyn duly elected, and returned him.
you see they have John Lloyd ahead of your son, in
case there is a petition against Sir Thos. Mostyn. The
party all seemed very flat and serious, and behaved
very differently from what they did at the nomination,
saving a few strictures from the Dean upon your son's
mode of addressing the freeholders, which he said was
so much of a Republican form, "having omitted the
usual method of the gentlemen, clergy, &c.," that it at
once struck at the levelling all distinctions, which he
said he could not believe came from Gredington, the
house of the Chief Justice of England, but that it must
certainly be an abominable and impudent forgery; and
that tho' the name of Lloyd Kenyon was subscribed to
it, he did not believe he wrote it, and so on and on a
deal of nonsense, not worth your lordship's notice. I
think they are very much ashamed of being driven to
the distress of taking the Philosopher, as we call him,
J. Lloyd, for a Deputy; and I suppose Mr. Davies
will write you fully about it, and acquaint you that
it is our wish that a petition should be presented
against the return; which, I think, will mortify them.
very much; and whoever the man may be that sits
at last, it will show that we have power to prevent

CHAP.

XI.

1796.

CHAP.
XI.

1796.

Sir Thos Mostyn from sitting this time, which in some degree will answer our end. I am just returned, and have not been at Gredington to acquaint them, and

Peter Whitehall Davies to Lord Kenyon.

'Broughton, Dec. 21st, 1796.

My Lord,-I have had the satisfaction of being informed that the petition of the independent freeholders of the county of Flint has been presented to the House by the Master of the Rolls Notwithstanding the integrity of the petition, I am told that every mode which can be produced by evasive art will be brought forward to render it of none effect. In the first place, they say that we cannot make his minority appear to the satisfaction of the House. In the next place, that they will procrastinate the final determination of the House upon the petition, until Sir Thos. Mostyn is legally qualified to take his seat in the House.

In 1796, Lord Kenyon was made Lord Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum of the county of Flint, a distinction which was at first very gratifying to him.

The extra work, however, which it entailed, pressed too much on his spare time. He writes to his neighbour, Sir Thomas Hanmer, that he is sick of Militia business, and in 1798 he resigned the Lord

1 The writer of this letter was the grandfather of the present Lord Hanmer, and through life one of the most esteemed friends of Lord Kenyon. He died in 1828.

Lieutenancy, though he retained the office of Custos
Rotulorum until his death.

'Thomas Pennant, Esq., to Lord Kenyon.

'Downing, June the 3rd, 1798.

'My dear Lord,-I lament your retreat from your provincial office, which you have so fully discharged; yet when it contributes so greatly to your lordship's (comfort) amidst the important duties which oppress you, I must acknowledge my concern to be selfish. You could not have had in all the kingdom so respectable, so amiable a successor.'1

In the autumn of this year Lady Kenyon's health became seriously affected, and the Chief Justice, in consequence, resided with her for some months at Bath. Here they made the acquaintance of the talented Hannah More. The circumstance is alluded to in her Diary, where she expresses the pleasure it gave her to converse with so excellent a man.

'Your lordship,' she writes, is such a known advocate for religion and virtue that I presume to break in for a moment upon your very important time to recommend to your patronage the enclosed little plan, undertaken with a view to instruct the poor, which at this alarming period seems to be no less an object of political than moral importance.' 2

The object was a plan for establishing a repository of cheap publications on religious and moral subjects,' a step towards popular education, the importance of which the writer was one of the first to recognise.

1 Lord Belgrave.

2 Hannah More to Lord Kenyon. Dated Bath, January 28.

CHAP.

XI.

1796.

СНАР.

XII.

1797.

CHAPTER XII.

Office of Custos Brevium—Mr. Cambridge-Earl of Oxford's Protest-Trial of Thomas Williams-Mr. Erskine-Loyalty Loan— Trials of Cuthill and Wakefield.

(1797-1798.)

IN 1797 Lord Kenyon was able to bestow upon his eldest son, who had attained his majority the previous year, the reversion of a valuable sinecure, the Custos Brevium of the Court of King's Bench: and when later in the year his second son came of age, he was appointed Filazer of the Court.

The former office was held for life by Mr. Way, under a deed executed by Lord Mansfield when Chief Justice. Lord Thurlow thus writes to his friend on the subject in 1795:

Lord Thurlow to Lord Kenyon.

'Brighton, Sept. 13, 1795.

'My dear Lord,-In walking upon our Steen here I met Mr. Way, whom you know. He was very communicative, and as our conversation turned a little towards the places which the late Lord Mansfield held in the King's Bench, I think it right you should know what passed, tho' probably it will not be new to you; for tho' he talked very freely upon the rest of the late Earl's affairs, he seemed to be more reserved

XII.

on the subject of the places to me than he used to be CHAP. with you, if I remember right the turn of your conversations with him.

'Lord M. has left the whole of his fortune, with small abatement, to the present Earl; but I forgot to ask how limited. To his wife he has given 1,500l. a year during her widowhood, in addition to her original jointure, which is on the Scottish estate, and supposed not to exceed 1,000l. p' ann. He leaves her the use of Kenwood and of the house in town till the present Earl comes of age; and after that time gives her 3501. p' ann. during her widowhood to find herself a house. To his four younger children he has given 30,000l. a piece, in lieu of anything they can claim under his settlement; so that the whole interest in all he has left vests in his eldest son.

'I find from Way that the places in the B. R. are on this and the late Earl's life, and consequently that nothing falls in. Thinking that no chatter we fell into would incumber or affect you, I made no scruple of putting cases to him about opening the Patent, with or without the concurrence of the infant, or the executors. It was upon this occasion that he seemed somewhat to draw up, and to intimate that was a thing for further consideration; upon which I thought it necessary to make him observe that I had not the least idea of making any proposition to him, or of conveying any to you, but had been led into that idle sort of talk merely by the way in which he had talked of the matter, or perhaps by the malaria of a listless place, and the rest of the conversation went on with his commonplace observations on his great friends and his own health.

1797.