"
The youth did his duty by his mother. She directed his tastes and
studies, and when he was at college incited him to try for high
honors, and urged, again and yet again, application to study; and
through her persuasion he became a reading man. He entered Parliament
when of age, in 1803. During the Fox and Grenville administration he
held office as a lord of the treasury. When his mother was
congratulated on his appointment, she said: "Jack was always skilful
in figures, and his work is so much to his taste that I am sure he
will do himself credit." He did himself great credit. His career was
consistently courageous, honorable, and beneficent. He had character!
This is his mother's best eulogy. She died in 1831, shortly after her
son had become Chancellor of the Exchequer, in which office he earned
his greatest repute as a statesman.
[Illustration: ELIZABETH, DUCHESS OF HAMILTON by READ]
ELIZABETH GUNNING
The story of the Gunnings is as romantic as any ever wrought into
imaginative narrative or incorporated in epic poem. The notorious
damsels were daughters of John Gunning of Castle Coote, County
Roscommon, Ireland, by the Hon. Bridget Bourke, daughter of Theobald,
sixth Viscount Bourke of Mayo, whom he married in 1731. The family was
wofully impecunious; so when the daughters, Maria and Elizabeth, grew
into marvellously comely maidens, their mother urged their going on
the stage to augment the faulty fortune.
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