"The character of the reputed ancestors of some men, has made it possible for their descendants to be vicious in the extreme, without being degenerate. Those of your Grace, for instance, left no distressing examples of virtue, even to their legitimate posterity, and you may look back with pleasure to an illustrious pedigree, in which heraldry has not left a single good quality upon record to insult or upbraid you. You have better proofs of your descent, my Lord, than the register of a marriage, or any troublesome inheritance of reputation. There are some hereditary strokes of character, by which a family may be as clearly distinguished as by the blackest features of the human face. Charles the First lived and died a hypocrite. Charles the Second was a hypocrite of another sort, and should have died upon the same scaffold. At the distance of a century, we see their different characters happily revived and blended in your Grace. Sullen and severe without religion, profligate without gaiety, you live like Charles the Second, without being an amiable companion, and, for aught I know, may die as his father did, without the reputation of a martyr."
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Prime Ministers of the United KingdomPoliticians from EnglandAcademics from EnglandUniversity of Cambridge alumniSecretaries of State for the Northern Department (Great Britain)
Original Language: English
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Junius, Letter XII (30 May 1769), quoted in The Letters of Junius, ed. John Cannon (1978), p. 69
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Augustus_FitzRoy%2C_3rd_Duke_of_Grafton
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Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton
Augustus Henry FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton KG PC (28 September 173514 March 1811), styled Earl of Euston between 1747 and 1757, was a British Whig statesman of the Georgian era. He is one of a handful of dukes who have served as prime minister, an office he held from 14 October 1768 until 28 January 1770.
13 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Augustus FitzRoy, 3rd Duke of Grafton →
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