SHEFFIELD,

DUKE OF

BUCKINGHAMSHIRE.

JOHN SHEFFIELD, descended from a long

feries of illuftrious ancestors, was born in 1649, the fon of Edmund earl of Mulgrave, who died in 1658. The young lord was put into the hands of a tutor, with whom he was fo little fatisfied, that he got rid of him in a fhort time, and at an age not exceeding twelve years refolved to educate himself. Such a purpose, formed at fuch an age, and fuccessfully profecuted, delights as it is strange, and inftructs as it is real.

His literary acquifitions are more wonderful, as those years in which they are commonly made were spent by him in the tumult of a military life, or the gaiety of a court. When war was declared against the Dutch, he went at seventeen on-board the ship

in which prince Rupert and the duke of Albemarle failed, with the command of the fleet; but by contrariety of winds they were reftrained from action. His zeal for the king's fervice was recompenfed by the command of one of the independent troops of horse, then raised to protect the coaft.

Next year he received a fummons to Parliament, which, as he was then but eighteen years old, the earl of Northumberland cenfured as at least indecent, and his objection was allowed. He had a quarrel with the earl of Rochefter, which he has perhaps too oftentatiously related, as Rochefter's furviving fifter, the lady Sandwich, is faid to have told him with very fharp reproaches.

When another Dutch war (1672) broke out, he went again a volunteer in the fhip which the celebrated lord Offory commanded; and there made, as he relates, two curious remarks:

"I have obferved two things, which I dare affirm, "though not generally believed. One was, that the "wind of a cannon bullet, though flying never fo

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near, is incapable of doing the leaft harm; and "indeed, were it otherwife, no man above deck "would escape. The other was, that a great fhot

may be fometimes avoided, even as it flies, by "changing one's ground a little; for, when the "wind fometimes blew away the fmoke, it was fo "clear a fun-fhiny day, that we could eafily perceive "the bullets (that were half-fpent) fall into the wa"ter, and from thence bound up again among us, "which gives fufficient time for making a ftep or two "on any fide; though, in fo fwift a motion, 'tis hard to judge well in what line the bullet comes,

"which, if mistaken, may by removing coft a man "his life, inftead of faving it."

His behaviour was fo favourably represented by lord Offory, that he was advanced to the command of the Catharine, the beft fecond-rate ship in the navy.

He afterwards raised a regiment of foot, and commanded it as colonel. The land-forces were fent afhore by prince Rupert: and he lived in the camp very familiarly with Schomberg. He was then appointed colonel of the old Holland regiment, together with his own, and had the promise of a garter, which he obtained in his twenty-fifth year. He was likewife made gentleman of the bed-chamber. He afterwards went into the French fervice, to learn the art of war under Turenne, but ftaid only a short time. Being by the duke of Monmouth opposed in his pretenfions to the first troop of horse-guards, he, in return, made Monmouth fufpected by the duke of York. He was not long after, when the unlucky Monmouth fell into difgrace, recompenfed with the lieutenancy of Yorkshire, and the government of Hull.

Tlus rapidly did he make his way both to military and civil honours and employments; yet, busy as he was, he did not neglect his ftudies, but at leaft cultivated poetry; in which he must have been early confidered as uncommonly fkilful, if it be true which is reported, that, when he was yet not twenty years old, his recommendation advanced Dryden to the laurel.

The Moors having befieged Tangier, he was fent (1680) with two thousand men to its relief. A ftrange

ftrange ftory is told of the danger to which he was intentionally exposed in a leaky fhip, to gratify fome resentful jealousy of the king, whofe health he therefore would never permit at his table till he faw himfelf in a safer placè. His voyage was profperously performed in three weeks; and the Moors without a conteft retired before him.

In this voyage he compofed the Vifion; a licentious poem, fuch as was fashionable in thofe times, with little power of invention or propriety of fenti

ment.

At his return he found the king kind, who perhaps had never been angry; and he continued a wit and a courtier as before.

At the fucceffion of king James, to whom he was intimately known, and by whom he thought himself beloved, he naturally expected ftill brighter funfhine; but all know how foon that reign began to gather clouds. His expectations were not disappointed; he was immediately admitted into the privycouncil, and made lord chamberlain. He accepted a place in the high commiffion, without knowledge, as he declared after the Revolution, of its illegality. Having few religious fcruples, he attended the king to mass, and kneeled with the reft; but had no difpofition to receive the Romish Faith, or to force it upon others; for when the priests, encouraged by his appearances of compliance, attempted to convert him, he told them, as Burnet has recorded, that he was willing to receive inftruction, and that he had taken much pains to believe in God who had made the world and all men in it; but that he should not be eafily perfuaded that man was quits, and made God again. A pointed

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A pointed fentence is beftowed by fucceffive tranfmiffion to the laft whom it will fit; this cenfure of transubstantiation, whatever be its value, was uttered long ago by Anne Afkew, one of the firft fufferers for the Proteftant Religion, who, in the time of Henry VIII. was tortured in the Tower; concerning which there is reafon to wonder that it was not known to the Hiftorian of the Reformation.

In the Revolution he acquiefced, though he did not promote it. There was once a defign of affociating him in the invitation of the prince of Orange; but the earl of Shrewsbury difcouraged the attempt, by declaring that Mulgrave would never concur. This king William afterwards told him; and afked what he would have done if the propofal had been made?"Sir," faid he, "I would have discovered it "to the king whom I then ferved." To which king William replied, "I cannot blame you."

Finding king James irremediably excluded, he voted for the conjunctive fovereignty, upon this principle, that he thought the title of the prince and his confort equal, and it would please the prince their protector to have a fhare in the fovereignty. This vote gratified king William; yet, either by the king's diftruft, or his own difcontent, he lived fome years without employment. He looked on the king with malevolence, and, if his verfes or his profe may be credited, with contempt. He was, notwithstanding this averfion or indifference, made marquis of Normanby (1694), but ftill oppofed the court on fome important queftions; yet at last he was received into the cabinet council, with a penfion of three thousand ..pounds.

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