Philip Dormer, the fourth Earl of Chesterfield, was born at London, on the 22nd of September 1694. He was the son of Philip, the third earl, by his wife, Lady Elizabeth Savile, daughter of George, marquis of Halifax. At the age of eighteen he was sent to Trinity Hall, Cambridge, where he studied assiduously, and according to his own account, became an absolute pedant. In 1714 he quitted the university, and travelled on the continent, 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 prominent desire was to please, and who, as it afterwards appeared, valued exterior accomplishments beyond any other human acquirement. While Lord Stanhope, he obtained 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. This 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 as 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 February 6, 1748. In 1752, being seized with a deafness which 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 on the 24th of March 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; and on this 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 Slavonian to them, as astronomy; and they would have understood me full as well."

Lord Macclesfield, who was considered as a great mathematician, and who had a principal hand in framing the bill, spoke afterwards, with all the clearness that a thorough knowledge of the subject could dictate; but not having a flow of words equal to Lord Chesterfield, the latter gained the applause which was more justly due to the former. The high character which 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, Melosina de Schulenburg, countess of Walsingham; but he 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. After Lord Chesterfield's death, Mr. Stanhope's widow published a series 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 a much greater latitude to fashionable pleasures than good morals will justify. These Letters to his Son, so discreditable to the memory of the writer, appeared in 1774, in 2 vols. 4to. This publication was followed by a collection of his Miscellaneous Works, 1777, 2 vols. 4to. A third volume was added in 1778; but his lordship's works do not appear to have attracted much attention.

CHARLES, Earl Stanhope, born in 1753, was the eldest son of Philip, the second earl, a man equally remarkable for his mathematical talents, and his liberal political opinions. The subject of this notice succeeded to the peerage in 1786, and died in 1816. By his first marriage he became the brother-in-law of Pitt; and on the mother's side he was closely allied to the Scottish earls of Haddington. This eccentric but public-spirited and most inventive man, while he divided his attention among a variety of inquiries, sufficient to have prevented excellence in any, had the rare merit of excelling in several most important pursuits, while in more than one he has bequeathed to the world discoveries that have proved most extensively useful. In politics he was a decided Whig, an assertor of religious toleration, and of non-intervention in the internal affairs of foreign states. Sometimes, however, he carried out the principles of his party with a boldness which other minds scrupled to follow; and in the latter years of his parliamentary life, Earl Stanhope used to be called "the minority of one." His political works were a refutation of Price's scheme of the sinking fund, an answer to one of Burke's invectives on the French Revolution, and an essay on juries. But his inventions in mechanical science are those by which he has secured the gratitude of posterity. They are too many to be here so much as completely enumerated. The principal of them, the Stanhope press, has been described in our article PRINTING, where notice has also been taken of his exertions for improving the process of stereotype. He was an early student of Franklin's theory of electricity, to which he contributed several valuable observations. Another of his most useful inventions was one for improving the locks of canals; and more curious ones were his two calculating machines, one of which performed addition and subtraction, the other multiplication and division.

GEORGE, an eminent divine, was born at Hertshorn in Derbyshire, in the year 1660. His father was rector of that parish, vicar of St. Margaret's at Leicester, and chaplain to the earls of Chesterfield and Clare. His grandfather, Dr. George Stanhope, was chaplain to James I. and Charles I.; had the chancellorship of York, where he was also a canon residentiary, held a prebend, and was rector of Weldrake in that county. For his loyalty he was driven from his home with eleven children, and died in 1664. The son was sent to school, first at Uppingham in Rutland, then at Leicester; he was afterwards removed to Eton, and thence chosen to King's College in Cambridge, in the place of W. Cleaver. He took the degree of A.B. in 1681, and of A.M. in 1685; was elected one of the syndics for the university of Cambridge, in the business of Alban Francis, 1687; minister of Quoi near Cambridge, and vice-proctor, 1688. He was that year preferred to the rectory of Tring in Hertfordshire, which after some time he quitted. In 1689 he was presented to the vicarage of Lewisham in Kent by Lord Dartmouth, to whom he had been chaplain, as well as tutor to his son. He was also appointed chaplain to King William and Queen Mary, and continued to enjoy that honour under Queen Anne. He commenced D.D. July 5, 1697, performing all the exercises required to that degree publicly and with great applause. He was made vicar of Deptford in 1703; succeeded Dr. Hooper as dean of Canterbury the same year; and was thrice chosen prolocutor of the lower house of convocation. His uncommon diligence and industry, assisted by his excellent parts, enriched him with a large stock of polite, solid, and useful learning. His discourses from the pulpit were equally pleasing and profitable; a beautiful intermixture of the clearest reasoning with the purest diction, attended with all the graces of a just elocution. In him were happily united the good Christian, the solid divine, and the fine gentleman. His conversation was polite and delicate, grave without preciseness, facetious without levity. His piety was real and rational, his charity great and universal, fruitful in acts of mercy and in all good works. He died March 18, 1728, aged sixty-eight years; and was buried in the chancel of the church at Lewisham. The dean was twice married; first to Olivia Cotton, by whom he had one son and four daughters. His second lady, who was sister to Sir Charles Wager, survived him, dying October 1, 1738, aged about fifty-four. One of the dean's daughters was married to a son of Bishop Burnet. Dr. Moore, bishop of Ely, died the day before Queen Anne; who, it has been said, designed the dean for that see when it should become vacant. "The late Dean of Canterbury," says Dr. Felton, "is excellent in the whole. His thoughts and reasoning are bright and solid. His style is just, both for the purity of the language and for the strength and beauty of expression; but the periods are formed in so peculiar an order of the words, that it was an observation, nobody could pronounce them with the same grace and advantage as himself." His writings, which are considered as a treasure of piety and devotion, are: A Paraphrase and Comment upon the Epistles and Gospels: 1705, 4 vols. 8vo. Sermons at Boyle's Lectures: 1706, 4to. Fifteen Sermons: 1700, 8vo. Twelve Sermons on Several Occasions: 1727, 8vo. A Translation of Thomas à Kempis: 1696, 8vo. Epictetus's Morals, with Simplicius's Comment, and the Life of Epictetus: 1700, 8vo. Parson's Christian Directory: 1716, 8vo. Rochefoucault's Maxims: 1706, 8vo. A Funeral Sermon on Mr. Richard Sare, bookseller, 1724; two editions 4to. Twenty Sermons, published singly between the years 1692 and 1724. Private Prayers for every Day in the Week, and for the several Parts of each Day; translated from the Greek Devotions of Bishop Andrews, with Additions, 1730. In his translations, it is well known, Dr. Stanhope did not confine himself to a strict and literal version; he took the liberty of paraphrasing, explaining, and improving upon his author, as will evidently appear (not to mention any other work) by the slightest perusal of St. Augustin's Meditations, and the Devotions of Bishop Andrews.