reward your pious labours, and grant that I may be
found worthy, through the merits of Jesus Christ, to be an eye-witness
of that happiness which I don't doubt he will bountifully bestow upon
you. In the meantime I shall never cease glorifying God for having
endowed you with such useful talents, and giving me so good a son.

"Your affectionate father,
"THOMAS LYTTELTON."

A few years afterwards (1751), by the death of his father, he inherited
a baronet's title, with a large estate, which, though perhaps he did
not augment, he was careful to adorn by a house of great elegance and
expense, and by much attention to the decoration of his park. As he
continued his activity in Parliament, he was gradually advancing his
claim to profit and preferment; and accordingly was made in time (1754)
Cofferer and Privy Councillor: this place he exchanged next year for the
great office of Chancellor of the Exchequer--an office, however, that
required some qualifications which he soon perceived himself to want.
The year after, his curiosity led him into Wales; of which he has given
an account, perhaps rather with too much affectation of delight,
to Archibald Bower, a man of whom he has conceived an opinion more
favourable than he seems to have deserved, and whom, having once
espoused his interest and fame he was never persuaded to disown. Bower,
whatever was his moral character, did not want abilities. Attacked as
he was by a universal outcry, and that outcry, as it seems, the echo of
truth, he kept his ground; at last, when his defences began to fail him,
he sallied out upon his adversaries, and his adversaries retreated.

About this time Lyttelton published his "Dialogues of the Dead," which
were very eagerly read, though the production rather, as it seems, of
leisure than of study--rather effusions than compositions. The names
of his persons too often enable the reader to anticipate their
conversation; and when they have met, they too often part without any
conclusion. He has copied Fenelon more than Fontenelle. When they were
first published they were kindly commended by the "Critical Reviewers;"
and poor Lyttelton, with humble gratitude, returned, in a note which I
have read, acknowledgments which can never be proper, since they must be
paid either for flattery or for justice.

When, in the latter part of the last reign, the inauspicious
commencement of the war made the di