STANHOPE (Philip Dormer, earl of Chesterfield), was born in 1695, and educated in Trinity-hall, Cambridge; which place he left in 1714, when, by his own account, he was an absolute pedant. In this character he went abroad, where a familiarity with good company soon convinced him he was totally mistaken in almost all his notions: and an attentive study of the air, manner, and address of people of fashion, soon polished a man whose predominant desire was to please; and who, as it afterward appeared, valued exterior accomplishments beyond any other human acquirement. While lord Stanhope, he got an early seat in parliament; and in 1722, succeeded to his father's estate and titles. In 1728, and in 1745, he was appointed ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Holland, which high character he supported with the greatest dignity; serving his own country, and gaining the esteem of the states-general. Upon his return from Holland, he was sent lord-lieutenant of Ireland; and during his administration there, gave general satisfaction to all parties. He left Dublin in 1746, and in October succeeded the earl of Harrington as secretary of state, in which post he officiated until Feb. 6th 1748. Being seized with a deafness in 1752 that incapacitated him for the pleasures of society, he from that time led a private and retired life, amusing himself with books and his pen; in particular, he engaged largely as a volunteer in a periodical miscellaneous paper called The World, in which his contributions have a distinguished degree of excellence. He died in 1773, leaving a character for wit and abilities that had few equals. He distinguished himself by his eloquence in parliament on many important occasions; of which we have a characteristic instance, of his own relating. He was an active promoter of the bill for altering the style; on which occasion, as he himself writes in one of his letters to his son, he made so eloquent a speech in the house, that every one was pleased, and said he had made the whole very clear to them; "when (says he), God knows, I had not even attempted it. "I could just as soon have talked Celtic or Sclavonian to them, as astronomy; and they would have understood me full as well." Lord Macclesfield, one of the greatest mathematicians in Europe, and who had a principal hand in framing the bill, spoke afterward, with all the clearness that thorough knowledge of the subject could dictate; but not having a flow of words equal to lord Chesterfield, the latter gained the applause from the former, to the equal credit of the speaker and the auditors. The high character lord Chesterfield supported during life, received no small injury soon after his death, from a fuller display of it by his own hand. He left no issue by his lady, but had a natural son, Philip Stanhope, Esq; whose education was for many years a close object of his attention, and who was afterward envoy extraordinary at the court of Dresden, but died before him. When lord Chesterfield died, Mr Stanhope's widow published a course of letters, written by the father to the son, filled with instructions suitable to the different gradations of the young man's life to whom they were addressed. These letters contain many fine observations on mankind, and rules of conduct: but it is observable
that he lays a greater stress on exterior accomplishments and address, than on intellectual qualifications and sincerity; and allows greater latitude to fashionable pleasures than good morals will justify, especially in paternal instructions. Hence it is that a celebrated writer †, of manners somewhat different from those of † Dr John the polite earl of Chesterfield, is said to have observed, "of these Letters, that "they inculcate only the morals of a whore, with the manners of a dancing-master."