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CHESTERFIELD, PHILIP DORMER STANHOPE,...

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 111 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CHESTERFIELD, See also:PHILIP See also:DORMER See also:STANHOPE, 4TH See also:EARL, OF (1694–1773) , son of Philip Stanhope, third earl (1673–1726), and See also:Elizabeth See also:Savile, daughter of See also:George Savile, See also:marquess of See also:Halifax, was See also:born in See also:London on the 22nd of See also:September 1694; Philip, the first earl (1584–1656), son of See also:Sir See also:John Stanhope of Shelford, was a royalist who in 1616 was created See also:Baron Stanhope of Shelford, and in 1628 earl of Chesterfield; and his See also:grandson the 2nd earl (1633–1714) was grandfather of the 4th earl. Deprived at an See also:early See also:age of his See also:mother, the care of the boy devolved upon his grandmother, the marchioness of Halifax, a See also:lady of culture and connexion, whose See also:house was frequented by the most distinguished Whigs of the See also:epoch. He soon began to prove himself possessed of that systematic spirit of conduct and effort which appeared so much in] his See also:life and See also:character. His See also:education, begun under a private See also:tutor, was continued (1712) at Trinity See also:Hall, See also:Cambridge; here he remained little more than a See also:year and seems to have read hard, and to have acquired a considerable knowledge of See also:ancient and See also:modern See also:languages. The See also:great orators of all times were a See also:special See also:object of study with him, and he describes his boyish pedantry pleasantly enough, but by no means without a See also:touch of self-See also:satisfaction in the memory. His university training was supplemented (1714) by a See also:continental tour, untrammelled by a See also:governor; at the See also:Hague his ambition for the See also:applause awarded to See also:adventure made a gamester of him, and at See also:Paris he began, from tha same See also:motive, that See also:worship of the conventional See also:Venus, the serious inculcation of which has earned for him the largest and most unenviable See also:part of his reputation. The See also:death of See also:Anne and the See also:accession of George I. opened up a career for him and brought him back to See also:England, His relative See also:James Stanhope (afterwards first Earl Stanhope), the See also:king's favourite See also:minister, procured for him the See also:place of See also:gentleman of the bedchamber to the See also:prince of See also:Wales. In 1 715 he entered the House of See also:Commons as See also:Lord Stanhope of Shelford and member for St Germans, and when the See also:impeachment of James, See also:duke of See also:Ormonde, came before the House, he used the occasion (5th of See also:August 1715) to put to See also:proof his old rhetorical studies. His See also:maiden speech was youthfully fluent and dogmatic; but on its conclusion the orator was reminded with many compliments, by an See also:honourable member, that he wanted six See also:weeks of his See also:majority, and consequently that he was amenable to a See also:fine of £500 for speaking in the House. Lord Stanhope quitted the Commons with a See also:low See also:bow and started for the See also:continent. From Paris he rendered the See also:government important service by gathering and transmitting See also:information respecting the 'Jacobite See also:plot; and in 1716 he returned to England, resumed his seat, and took frequent part in the debates. In that year came the See also:quarrel between the king and the See also:heir apparent.

Stanhope, whose politic See also:

instinct obliged him to worship the rising rather than the setting See also:sun, remained faithful to the prince, though he was too cautious to break entirely with the king's party. He was on friendly terms with the prince's See also:mistress,Hearietta See also:Howard, after-wards countess of See also:Suffolk. He maintained a See also:correspondence with this lady which won for him the hatred of the princess of Wales (afterwards See also:Queen See also:Caroline). In 1723 a See also:vote for the government got him the place of See also:captain of the Gentlemen Pensioners. In See also:January 1725, on the revival of the See also:Bath, the red riband was offered to him, but was declined. In 1726 his See also:father died, and Lord Stanhope became earl of Chesterfield. He took his seat in the Upper House, and his See also:oratory, never effective in the Commons by See also:reason of its want of force and excess of finish, at once became a See also:power. In 1728 Chesterfield was sent to the Hague as See also:ambassador. In this place his tact and See also:temper, his dexterity and discrimination, enabled him to do See also:good service, and he was rewarded with See also:Walpole's friendship, a Garter and the place of lord high steward. In 1732 there was born to him, by a certain Mlle du Bouchet, the son, Philip Stanhope, for whose See also:advice and instruction were after-wards written the famous Letters. He negotiated the second treaty of See also:Vienna in 1731, and in the next year, being somewhat broken in See also:health and See also:fortune, he resigned his See also:embassy and re-turned to England. A few months' See also:rest enabled him to resume his seat in the Lords, of which he was one of the acknowledged leaders.

He supported the See also:

ministry, but his See also:allegiance was not the See also:blind fealty Walpole exacted of his followers. The See also:Excise See also:Bill, the great premier's favourite measure, was vehemently opposed by him in the Lords, and by his three See also:brothers in the Commons. Walpole See also:bent before the See also:storm and abandoned the measure; but Chesterfield was summarily dismissed from his stewardship. For the next two years he led the opposition in the Upper House, leaving no See also:stone unturned to effect Walpole's downfall. In 1741 he signed the protest for Walpole's dismissal and went abroad on See also:account of his health. He visited See also:Voltaire at See also:Brussels and spent some See also:time in Paris, where he associated with the younger See also:Crebillon, See also:Fontenelle and See also:Montesquieu. In 1%42 Walpole See also:fell, and See also:Carteret was his real, though not his nominal successor. Although Walpole's See also:administration had been overthrown largely by Chesterfield's efforts the new ministry did not See also:count Chesterfield either in its ranks or among its supporters. He remained in' opposition, distinguishing himself by the courtly bitterness of his attacks on George II., who learned to hate him violently. In 1743 a new See also:journal, Old England; or, the Constitutional Journal appeared. For this See also:paper Chesterfield wrote under the name of " See also:Jeffrey Broadbottom." A number of See also:pamphlets, in some of which Chesterfield had the help of See also:Edmund See also:Waller, followed. His energetic See also:campaign against George II. and his government won the gratitude of the See also:dowager duchess of See also:Marlborough, who See also:left him £20,000 as a See also:mark of her appreciation.

In 1744 the king was compelled to abandon Carteret, and the See also:

coalition or" Broad Bottom" party, led by Chesterfield and See also:Pitt, came into See also:office. In the troublous See also:state of See also:European politics the earl's conduct and experience were more useful abroad than at See also:home, and he was sent to the Hague as ambassador a second time. The object of his See also:mission was to persuade the Dutch to join in the See also:War of the See also:Austrian See also:Succession and to arrange the details of their assistance. The success of his mission was See also:complete; and on his return a few weeks afterwards he received the lord-lieutenancy of See also:Ireland —a place he had See also:long coveted. See also:Short as it was, Chesterfield's Irish administration was of great service to his See also:country, and is unquestionably that part of his See also:political life which does him most See also:honour. To have conceived and carried out a policy which, with certain reservations, See also:Burke himself might have originated and owned, is indeed no small See also:title to regard. The earl showed himself finely capable in practice as in theory, vigorous and tolerant, a See also:man to be feared and a See also:leader to be followed; he took the government entirely into his own hands, repressed the jobbery traditional to the office, established See also:schools and manufactures, and at once conciliated and kept in check the See also:Orange and See also:Roman See also:Catholic factions. In 1746, however, he had to See also:exchange the lord-lieutenancy for the place of secretary of state. With a curious respect for those theories his familiarity with the See also:secret social See also:history of See also:France had caused him to entertain, he hoped and attempted to retain a hold over the king through the See also:influence of Lady See also:Yarmouth, though the futility of such means had already been demonstrated to him by his relations with Queen Caroline's "ma bonne Howard." The influence of See also:Newcastle and See also:Sandwich, however, was too strong for him; he was thwarted and over-reached; and in 1748 he resigned the See also:seals, and returned to See also:cards and his books with the admirable composure which was one of his most striking characteristics. He declined any knowledge of the See also:Apology for a See also:late Resignation, in a See also:Letter from an. See also:English Gentleman to his Friend at The Hague, which ran through four See also:editions in 1748, but there is little doubt that he was, at least in part, the author. The dukedom offered him by George II., whose See also:ill-will his fine tact had overcome, was refused.

He continued for some years to attend the Upper House, and to take part in its proceedings. In 1751, seconded by Lord See also:

Macclesfield, See also:president of the Royal 'Society, and See also:Bradley, the eminent mathematician, he distinguished himself greatly in the debates on the See also:calendar, and succeeded in making the new See also:style a fact. Deafness, however, was gradually affecting him, and he withdrew little by little from society and the practice of politics. In 1755 occurred the. famous dispute with See also:Johnson over the See also:dedication to the English See also:Dictionary. In 1747 Johnson sent Chesterfield, who was then secretary of state, a See also:prospectus of his Dictionary, which was acknowledged by a subscription of £ro. Chesterfield apparently took no further See also:interest in the enterprise, and the See also:book was about to appear, when he wrote two papers in the See also:World in praise of it. It was said that Johnson was kept waiting in the anteroom when he called while See also:Cibber was admitted. In any See also:case the See also:doctor had expected more help from a professed See also:patron of literature, and wrote the earl the famous letter in See also:defence of men of letters. Chesterfield's " respectable Hottentot," now identified with George, Lord See also:Lyttelton, was long supposed, though on slender grounds, to be a portrait of Johnson. During the twenty years of life that followed this See also:episode, Chesterfield wrote and read a great See also:deal, but went little into society. In 1768 died Philip Stanhope, the See also:child of so many hopes. The See also:constant care bestowed by his father on his education resulted in an honourable but not particularly distinguished career for See also:young Stanhope.

His death was an overwhelming grief to Chesterfield, and the See also:

discovery that he had long been married to a lady of humble origin must have been galling in the extreme to his father after his careful instruction in worldly See also:wisdom. Chesterfield, who had no See also:children by his wife, Melusina von Schulemberg, illegitimate daughter of George I., whom he married in 1733, adopted his godson, a distant See also:cousin, named Philip Stanhope (1755-1815), as heir to the title and estates. His famous jest (which even Johnson allowed to have merit)— " Tyrawley and I have been dead these two years, but we See also:don't choose to have it known "--is the best description possible of his See also:humour and See also:condition during the latter part of this See also:period of decline. To the deafness was added See also:blindness, but his memory and his fine See also:manners only left him with life; his last words (" Give Dayrolles a See also:chair ") prove that he had neither forgotten his friend nor the way to receive him. He died on the 24th of See also:March 1773. Chesterfield was selfish, calculating and contemptuous; he was not naturally generous, and he practised dissimulation till it became part of his nature. In spite of his brilliant talents and of the admirable training he received, his life, on the whole, cannot be pronounced a success. His anxiety and the pains he took to become an orator have been already noticed, and See also:Horace Walpole, who had heard all the great orators, preferred a speech of Chesterfield's to any other; yet the earl's eloquence is not to be compared with that of Pitt. See also:Samuel Johnson, who was not perhaps the best See also:judge in the world, pronounced his manners to have been " exquisitely elegant "; yet as a courtier he was utterly worsted by See also:Robert Walpole, whose manners were anything but refined, and even by Newcastle. He desired to be known as a See also:protector of letters and See also:literary men; and his want of See also:heart or See also:head over the Dictionary dedication, though explained See also:acid excused by See also:Croker, none the less inspired the famous See also:change in a famous line—" Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the jail. " His published writings have had with posterity a very indifferent success; his literary reputation rests on a See also:volume of letters never designed to appear in See also:print. The son for whom he worked so hard and thought so deeply failed especially where his father had most desired he should succeed.

As a politician and statesman, Chesterfield's fame rests on his short but brilliant administration of Ireiaand. As an author he was a See also:

clever essayist and epigrammatist. But he stands or fails by the Letters to his Son, first published by Stanhope's widow in 1774, and the Letters to his Godson (r8go). The Letters are brilliantly written—full of elegant wisdom, of keen wit, of admirable portrait-See also:painting, of exquisite observation and See also:deduction. Against the See also:charge of an undue insistence on the See also:external See also:graces of manner Chesterfield has been adequately defended by Lord Stanhope (History, iii. 34). Against the often iterated See also:accusation of immorality, it should be remembered that the Letters reflected the morality of the age, and that their author only systematized and reduced to See also:writing the principles of conduct by which, deliberately or unconsciously, the best and the worst of his contemporaries were governed. The earldom of Chesterfield passed at his death to his godson, already mentioned, as 5th earl, and so to the latter's son and grandson. On the death of the latter unmarried in 1871, it passed in succession to two See also:collateral heirs, the 8th and 0th earls, and so in 1887 to the latter's son as loth earl. See Chesterfield's See also:Miscellaneous See also:Works (London, 1777, 2 vols. 4to) ; Letters to his Son, &c., edited by Lord Mahon (London, 1845-1853, 5 vols.); and Letters to his Godson (1890) (edited by the earl of See also:Carnarvon). There are also editions of the first See also:series of letters by J.

See also:

Bradshaw (3 vols., 1892) and Mr C. See also:Strachey (2 vols., 1901). In 1893 a See also:biography, including numerous letters first published from the Newcastle Papers, was issued by Mr W. See also:Ernst; and in 1907 appeared an elaborate Life by W. H. See also:Craig. (A.

End of Article: CHESTERFIELD, PHILIP DORMER STANHOPE, 4TH EARL, OF (1694–1773)

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