WILLIAM HENRY CAVENDISH, third Duke of Portland, was born in 1738. During the American war he joined the Opposition; and on the resignation of Lord North he was appointed lord-lieutenant of Ireland, but held that office little more than three months, being recalled when Lord Shelburne came into power. He held the situation of prime minister when the coalition came into power, and went out of office with them. In 1792 he was elected chancellor of the University of Oxford, and shortly afterwards joined Mr Pitt's party. He was home secretary from 1794 till 1801; and in 1807 he succeeded Lord Grenville as first lord of the treasury. He continued in this office till within a short time of his death, October 30, 1809.

The abilities of his Grace were certainly both moderate, and altogether inadequate for the authorship of *Juvenius's Letters*, of which, absurdly enough, some have endeavoured to prove him the writer; but his understanding was good, and his political integrity has never been questioned.

Lord William George Frederic Cavendish, better known as Lord George Bentinck, second son of the fourth Duke of Portland, by Henrietta, sister to the Viscountess Canning, was born February 27, 1802. He was educated at Eton, and at Christ Church, Oxford; after which he entered the army, and served for several years in the Guards. On retiring from the army, he acted for some time as a private secretary to his uncle Mr Canning, then prime minister; in which capacity he gave proofs of high ability for the conduct of public business. In 1828 he succeeded his uncle Lord William Bentinck as member for Lynn-Regis, and continued to represent that constituency during the remaining twenty years of his life. Till within three years of his death, Lord George Bentinck was little known out of the sporting world. His early attempts at Bentinck, public speaking afforded no indication of the abilities which the subsequent course of political events served to develop so conspicuously. His failures in the House of Commons seem to have discouraged him from the attempt to acquire reputation as a politician. The natural energy of his character, however, found scope in another arena. As one of the leaders on "the turf," he was there distinguished by that integrity, judgment, and indomitable determination, which, when brought to bear upon matters of weightier importance, placed him, with a rapidity almost unexampled, in the foremost rank of British senators. On his first entrance into parliament he belonged to what may be called the moderate Whig party, and voted in favour of Catholic emancipation, as also for the Reform Bill, though he opposed some of its principal details. Soon after, however, he joined the ranks of the Opposition, with whom he sided up to the important era of 1846. When, in that year, Sir Robert Peel openly declared in favour of free trade, the advocates of the corn-laws, then without a leader, after several ineffectual attempts at organization, discovered that Lord George Bentinck was the only man around whom the several sections of the Opposition could be brought to rally. His sudden elevation to so prominent a position took the public mind by surprise; but he soon gave convincing evidence of powers so formidable, that the position of the Protectionist party at once assumed an imposing aspect. Towards Sir Robert Peel, in particular, his hostility was marked and uncompromising. Believing, as he himself expressed it, that that statesman and his political colleagues had "hounded to the death his illustrious relative" Mr Canning, he combined with his opposition as a political leader a degree of personal animosity that gave additional force to the poignancy of his invectives. On entering on his new position, he at once abandoned his favourite pursuits, disposed of his magnificent stud, forsook all connection with the turf, and devoted his whole time and energies to the laborious and trying duties of a parliamentary leader. Apart from the question of the corn-laws, his politics were strictly independent. In opposition to the rest of his party, he supported the bill for removing the Jewish disabilities, and was favourable to the scheme for the payment of the Roman Catholic clergy in Ireland by the landowners. Having held no high office under government, his qualifications as a statesman never found scope beyond the negative achievements of a leader of Opposition; but it may be safely affirmed that nothing but his untimely death could have debarred him from acquiring a distinguished position among the statesmen of Britain. This sudden and melancholy event, caused by the rupture of a vessel in the heart, took place on the 21st September 1848, while his lordship was proceeding on foot to visit a friend in the country. His biography has been written by his friend the Right Hon. B. Disraeli.