(Edward), lord Lyttelton, keeper of the great seal in the reign of Charles I. was eminent for his probity and his moderation at the commencement of that monarch's disputes with his subjects. Without forfeiting his fidelity to the king, he preserved the esteem of the parliament till 1644, when he was made colonel of a regiment in the king's army at York. He died in 1645. Besides several of his speeches which have been printed, he wrote reports in the common pleas and exchequer printed at London in 1683, in folio; several arguments and discourses, &c.

(George lord) eldest son of Sir Thomas Lyttelton, bart. descended from the great judge Lyttelton, was born in 1700, at seven months; and the midwife supposing him to be dead, threw him carelessly into the cradle; where, had not some signs of life been taken notice of by one of the attendants, he might never have recovered. He received the elements of his education at Eaton-school, where he showed an early inclination to poetry. His pastorals and some other light pieces were originally written in that seminary of learning; from whence he was removed to the university of Oxford, where he pursued his classical studies with uncommon avidity, and sketched the plan of his Persian Letters, a work which afterwards procured him great reputation, not only from the elegance of the language in which they were composed, but from the excellent observations they contained on the manners of mankind.

In the year 1728, he set out on the tour of Europe; and, on his arrival at Paris, accidentally became acquainted with the honourable Mr Poynz, then our minister at the court of Versailles; who was so struck with the extraordinary capacity of our young traveller, that he invited him to his house, and employed him in many political negotiations, which he executed with great judgment and fidelity.

Mr Lyttelton's conduct, while on his travels, was a lesson of instruction to the rest of his countrymen. Instead of lounging away his hours at the coffee-houses frequented by the English, and adopting the fashionable follies and vices of France and Italy, his time was passed alternately in his library and in the society of men of rank and literature. In this early part of his life, he wrote a poetical epistle to Dr Aylcough, and another to Mr Pope, which show singular taste and correctness.

After continuing a considerable time at Paris with Mr Poynz, who, to use his own words, behaved like a second father to him, he proceeded to Lyons and Geneva; and from thence to Turin, where he was honoured with great marks of friendship by his Sardinian majesty. He then visited Milan, Venice, Genoa, and Rome, where he applied himself closely to the study of the fine arts; and was, even in that celebrated metropolis, allowed a perfect judge of painting, sculpture, and architecture.

During his continuance abroad, he constantly corresponded with Sir Thomas, his father. Several of his letters are yet remaining, and place his filial affection in a very distinguished light. He soon after returned to his native country, and was elected representative for the borough of Okehampton in Devonshire; and behaved so much to the satisfaction of his constituents, that they several times re-elected him for the same place without putting him to the least expense.

About this period, he received great marks of friendship from Frederic prince of Wales, father of his present majesty; and was, in the year 1737, appointed principal secretary to his royal highness, and continued in the strictest intimacy with him till the time of his death. His attention to public business did not, however, prevent him from exercising his poetical talent. A most amiable young lady, Miss Porteuse, inspired him with a passion, which produced a number of little pieces, remarkable for their tenderness and elegance; and he had a happy facility of striking out an extempore compliment, which obtained him no small share of reputation. One evening being in company with lord Cobham and several of the nobility at Stowe, his lordship mentioned his design of putting up a bust of lady Suffolk in his beautiful gardens; and, turning to Mr Lyttelton, said, "George, you must furnish me with a motto for it." "I will, my lord," answered Mr Lyttelton; and directly produced the following couplet:

Her wit and beauty for a court were made, But truth and goodness fit her for a shade.

When Mr Pitt, the late earl of Chatham, lost his commission in the guards, in consequence of his spirited behaviour in parliament, Mr Lyttelton was in waiting at Leicester-house, and, on hearing the circumstance, immediately wrote these lines:

Long had thy virtue mark'd thee out for fame, Far, far superior to a cornet's name; This generous Walpole saw, and griev'd to find. So mean a post disgrace that noble mind; The fervile standard from thy free-born hand He took, and bade thee lead the patriot-band.

In the year 1742, he married Lucy, the daughter of Hugh Porteuse, Esq; of Filleigh in the county of Devon, the lady abovementioned, whose exemplary conduct, and uniform practice of religion and virtue, established his conjugal happiness upon the most solid basis.

In 1744, he was appointed one of the lords commissioners of the treasury; and, during his continuance in that station, constantly exerted his influence in rewarding merit and ability. He was the friend and patron of the late Henry Fielding, James Thomson author of the Seasons, Mr Mallet, Dr Young, Mr Hammond, Mr Weft, Mr Pope, and Voltaire. On the death of Thomson, who left his affairs in a very embarrassed condition, Mr Lyttelton took that poet's sister under his protection. He revised the tragedy of Coriolanus, which that writer had not put the last hand Lyttelton, hand to; and brought it out at the theatre-royal, Covent-garden, with a prologue of his own writing, in which he so affectingly lamented the loss of that delightful bard, that not only Mr Quin, who spoke the lines, but almost the whole audience, spontaneously burst into tears.

In the beginning of the year 1746, his felicity was interrupted by the loss of his wife, who died in the 29th year of her age; leaving him one son, Thomas, the late lord Lyttelton; and a daughter, Lucy, who some time since married lord viscount Valentia. The remains of his amiable lady were deposited at Over-Arley in Worcestershire; and an elegant monument was erected to her memory in the church of Hagley, which contains the following inscription written by her husband:

Made to engage all hearts, and charm all eyes: Tho' meek, magnanimous; tho' witty, wife; Polite, as all her life in courts had been; Yet good, as she the world had never seen: The noble fire of an exalted mind, With gentlest female tenderness combin'd. Her speech was the melodious voice of love, Her song the warbling of the vernal grove; Her eloquence was sweeter than her song, Soft as her heart, and as her reason strong. Her form each beauty of her mind express'd, Her mind was virtue by the graces dress'd.

Besides these beautiful lines, Mr Lyttelton wrote a monody on the death of his lady, which will be remembered while conjugal affection and a taste for poetry exist in this country.

His masterly observations on the conversion and apostleship of St Paul, were written at the desire of Gilbert Welt, Esq.; in consequence of Mr Lyttelton's asserting, that, beside all the proofs of the Christian religion, which might be drawn from the prophecies of the Old Testament, from the necessary connection it has with the whole system of the Jewish religion, from the miracles of Christ, and from the evidence given of his resurrection by all the other apostles, he thought the conversion of St Paul alone, duly considered, was of itself a demonstration sufficient to prove Christianity to be a divine revelation. Mr Welt was struck with the thought; and assured his friend, that so compendious a proof would be of great use to convince those unbelievers that will not attend to a longer series of arguments; and time has shown he was not out in his conjecture, as the tract is esteemed one of the best defences of Christianity which has hitherto been published.

In 1754, he resigned his office of lord of the treasury, and was made cofferer to his majesty's household, and sworn of the privy-council: previous to which, he married, a second time, Elizabeth, daughter of field-marshal Sir Robert Rich, whose indiscruct conduct gave him great uneasiness, and from whom he was separated by mutual consent, a few years after his marriage.

After being appointed chancellor and under-treasurer of the court of exchequer, he was, by letters-patent dated the 19th of November 1757, 31 Geo. II., created a peer of Great Britain, by the style and title of Lord Lyttelton, baron of Frankley, in the county of Worcestershire. His speeches on the Scotch and mutiny bills in the year 1747, on the Jew bill in 1753, and on the privilege of parliament in 1763, showed sound judgment, powerful eloquence, and inflexible integrity. During the last ten years he lived chiefly in retirement, in the continual exercise of all the virtues which can ennoble private life. His last work was Dialogues of the Dead, in which the morality of Cambrey and the spirit of Fontenelle are happily united.

He was suddenly seized with an inflammation of the bowels, in the middle of July 1773, at his seat at Hagley; which terminated in his death, on the 22d of that month. His last moments were attended with unimpaired understanding, unaffected greatness of mind, calm resignation, and humble but confident hopes in the mercy of God. As he had lived universally esteemed, he died lamented by all parties. A complete collection of his works has been published since his decease, by his nephew George Alycough, Esq.

M, a liquid consonant, and the twelfth letter in the alphabet.

It has one unvaried sound, and is pronounced by striking the upper lip against the lower; in which the pronunciation of this letter agrees with that of b; the only difference between the two consisting in a little motion made in the nose in pronouncing m, and not in b: whence it happens that those who have taken cold, for m ordinarily pronounce b; the nose in that case being disabled from making the necessary motion.

All consonants are formed with the aid of vowels; in em the vowel precedes, in be it follows; and m is never mute.

Quintilian observes, that the m sometimes ends Latin words, but never Greek ones; the Greeks always changing it in that case into n, for the sake of the better sound.

M is also a numeral letter, and among the ancients was used for a thousand; according to the verse,

M caput est numeri, quem scimus mille teneri.

When a dash is added to the top of it, as M; it signifies a thousand times a thousand.

Y y 2 M,