Lord. See Wyndham, Right Hon. William.

Richard, Earl Temple, the most distinguished of a family of English politicians, was the eldest son of a country gentleman of the same name, who possessed the estate of Wotton, in Buckinghamshire. This Richard Grenville of Wotton was married to Hester Temple, a lady who succeeded to the title and estates of Lord Cobham, to whom Pope inscribed one of his epistles. Their son, the future Lord Temple, was born in 1711; and he partly owed his introduction to public life to the circumstance that his sister, Hester Grenville, was married to the celebrated William Pitt, afterwards Lord Chatham. When Pitt was, in 1755, dismissed from his office of paymaster of the forces, Lord Temple generously made him a present of L1000. In the following year Pitt was secretary, and Temple was made first lord of the admiralty. In 1757 Grenville, he was lord privy seal. He had various differences with his illustrious relative, and was latterly a sort of leader in opposition; but he ultimately retired from politics, and devoted himself to the embellishment of his seat of Stowe, so famed for its magnificence. He died in 1777. Mr Macaulay characterizes Temple as possessing no high talents for administration or debate, but as being formidable on account of his great possessions, his turbulent and unscrupulous character, his restless activity, and his skill in the most ignoble tactics of faction. Since Mr Macaulay wrote, the "tactics" of Earl Temple have received a new and interesting illustration. In 1832 were published The Grenville Papers; being the correspondence of Earl Temple and his brother, George Grenville, their friends and contemporaries. This correspondence—long known and mentioned as the "Stowe Papers"—commences in 1742, and terminates in 1777. It is important as explaining many of the political movements of the day, and exhibiting the sovereign, George III., in private communication with his ministers. The papers were believed to contain a solution of the mystery connected with the authorship of Junius' Letters, but this they failed to accomplish, though containing many interesting particulars relative to that curious and well-kept secret. Mr W. J. Smith, editor of the Grenville Papers, endeavours to establish the claim of Earl Temple to be Junius. The necessary information Earl Temple undoubtedly possessed, and Mr Smith assumes that Lady Temple was his amanuensis and assistant: "She had talent enough to assist him in the composition of his writings, and her praise was sufficient to support his vanity." The handwriting of this lady, it appears, bears a striking resemblance to that of Junius. Now, it is certain that the statements of Junius, made in his private communications to Woodfall, printer of the Public Advertiser, are not always consistent. He declared that he was the sole depositary of his secret, and that it should die with him; yet he writes to Woodfall—"The truth is, there are people about me whom I would wish not to contradict, and who would rather see Junius in the papers, ever so improperly, than not at all." On another occasion he speaks of the gentleman who manages the conveying department of the letters between himself and Woodfall. Junius also boasts of being above a common bribe, and asserts that he is a man of rank and fortune—assertions which seem to countenance the supposition that Earl Temple might be the author. But, militating against this theory, and against Junius' own assumption of superiority of position, is the information contained in three letters first published in this very work, the Grenville Papers. In 1768, before the writer had adopted the signature of Junius, he addressed private communications to Earl Temple, professing the warmest respect for his character and public spirit, and offering hints on political questions. The first relates to a report that Lord North was to introduce into his budget a tax of threepence in the pound on all articles sold by auction. In this letter, "C," or Junius, says—"It is not necessary or proper to make myself known to you at present; hereafter I may, perhaps, claim that honour." In the second letter he avows himself to be the author of papers signed "Lucius," but assures Earl Temple that he (the writer) "is a man quite unknown and unconnected," who had attached himself to the earl's cause, and to him alone, upon motives which, if he were of consequence enough to give weight to his judgment, would be thought honourable, &c. He adds, that at a proper time he would solicit the honour of being known, but that he had then important reasons for wishing to be concealed. The third letter is to the same effect. The writer states that a satire on the ministry, entitled "The Grand Council" (published in Woodfall's Junius) proceeded from his pen, as had "almost everything that, for two years past, attracted the attention of the public." He adds—"Until you are minister I must not permit myself to think of the honour of being known to you; when that happens, you will not find me a needy or a troublesome dependant." He further expresses the great desire he has to be honoured with Earl Temple's notice. Such is the substance of the three letters; they are by the same writer who afterwards used the signature of Junius, and they seem to prove that their author looked for patronage from Lord Temple, to whom he virtually offers his services as a political writer. Mr Smith supposes that hints and materials were forwarded to Lord Temple by his mysterious ally; and that from these, aided by his own knowledge of events and parties, his lordship wrote the letters signed Junius, Lady Temple acting as assistant and amanuensis. Exactly the reverse we take to have been the case. Lord Temple, and subsequently his brother, George Grenville (who became prime minister after the resignation of Lord Bute in 1762, and held office until dismissed to make way for the Rockingham administration in 1765), saw the importance of this brilliant and unscrupulous political writer, and supplied him with facts and scandal for his polished invectives and unmeasured vituperation. Lord Temple apparently had no talents as a writer, however active he may have been as a politician; and though Junius was of the Temple school, he assuredly was not Temple.

(G.R.S.)