March 6th.--The Marquis of Hartington was declared Lord Lieutenant
of Ireland; and the same day, the Earl of Rochford, Minister at
Turin, having been appointed to succeed the late Lord Albemarle,
as Groom of the Stole; Earl Poulet, First Lord of the Bed-chamber,
resenting that a younger Lord had, contrary to custom, been
preferred to him, resigned his employment. He had served the
King twenty years in that station; and yet his disgrace was not
lamentable, but ridiculous. He did not want sense, but that sense
wanted every common requisite. He had dabbled in factions, but
always when they were least creditable; he had lived in a Court,
without learning the very rudiments of mankind; and was formal upon
the topics which of all others least admit solemnity. For about two
months the town was entertained with the episode of his patriotism:
it vented itself in reams of papers without meaning, and of verses
without metre, which were chiefly addressed to the Mayor of
Bridgewater, where the Earl had been dabbling in an opposition.
His fury died in the fright of a measure which I shall mention
presently.