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LA BELLE ASSEMBLÉE;

For JANUARY, 1812.

A New and Improved Series.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF ILLUSTRIOUS LADIES.

The Twenty-eight Number.

THE MOST NOBLE THE MARCHIONESS OF BUCKINGHAM.

tions that irradiate a British court; but there are few who, under the semblance of royalty herself, have opportunities of emulating the virtues and affability of their ex. alted original. Yet brightly as she shone as Vice-Queen of our sister island, that brilliancy was still tinted by those social shades which soften the irradiated outline into the mild glow of muru, or the softer repose of evening landscape.

It is not often that it falls to our lot, in sketching the biography of our fair countrywomen, to have an opportunity of recounting both their public and private virtues. The lustre of female excellence shines brightest in the domestic circles; it is for that they are formed and fashioned; and there they find the true scene of their most active benevolence. Yet there are seasons when the most retired dispositions are drawn forward from the still haunts of This distinguished feniale is descended private virtue to exert themselves in more from a family which has long enjoyed preprominent situations; it is then that supe-eminence in our sister kingdom, and boasts rior merit must and will display itself; it is then that the softer feelings of the female heart are warmed into general philanthropy; and it is then that the true dignity of the modest yet energetic female mind rises to the situation in which its latent powers are called forth.

Well might we indeed apply to the subject of our present biography the words of

the Poet:

a long line of ancient Irish blood by intermarriages. The first ancestor particularly on record is Sir Thomas Nugent, Knt. who possessed extensive property in the county of Westmeath, and resided at Car lanstown; he married a grand-daughter of the Lord Slane, of the ancient family of Fleming, a title unfortunately attainted at the Revolution, and now extinct. His grandson married a Cusack, and died in 1599, leaving a son, who by his wife, the daughter of Kedagh Geohegan, of Syonau, in Westmeath, Esq. left Edward Nugent, who also resided at Carlaustown, and had For in courts she has shone with a degree three grants of land under the acts of settle of splendour which it falls to the lot of few ment. In the troublesome times about the ladies to have an opportunity of exhibiting. Revolution, he was a member of the parAs stars of different magnitudes, there are liament called by King James; but was many who glitter in the various coustella-friendly to the change, and married a

-fitted or to shine in Courts, "With unaffected grace, or walk the plain "With innocence and meditation joined "In soft assemblage."

daughter of the Cusack family of Rathgare. [] the high and arduous office of Viceroy of ̈ His second son, Michael, by a daughter of || Ireland, as successor to the late Duke of Baruwall, Lord Trimlestown, left Robert Nugent, who in early life came into the British Parliament in 1741. He mixed much in the politics of those days, and held the confidential office of Comptroller of the Household of the Prince of Wales, father of his present Majesty. He was afterwards Vice-Treasurer of Ireland in the early part of the present reign, first Lord of Trade and Plantations, and a Privy Counsellor in both kingdoms.

Portland, he commenced his important duties with the most serious attention to the true interests of that country; and though his patriotism and philanthropy were undoubted, yet the world were rather surprised at such an early display of judgment, and penetration into the deep mysteries of the politics of that day. His duty was an arduous one; for he had to conciliate parties, and to correct abuses; both of which he executed in such a man. ner as to gain the applause and esteem of those he was sent to govern.

Thus favoured by royal notice and political connection, we soon see him raised to the honours of the Peerage; which took In these occupations it was necessary to place in 1767, when he was created Baron display much elegant hospitality at the Nugent of Carlanstown, and Viscount Castle, in which he was aided by the taste Clare. At that period, however, or soon and good sense of his Vice-Queen, who after, his only child was a daughter, Mary, || well knew how to unite the reserve beby his second wife, Anne, daughter of coming her station, with that affability of James Craggs, Esq. Postmaster-General, manner necessary to conciliate all parties and who, as heiress to her brother, enjoyed without appearing to give a preference to the estates of the Craggs family to a con- any. She was hailed as the arbitress of siderable amount; she was also possessed fashion-but what was more, she made of the estate of Gosfield Hall, in Essex (now charity and benevolence fashionable; and occupied by Louis XVIII.), being the the hospitals, for the relief more particularly widow of Robert Knight, Esq. Secretary of her own sex, owed much both to her for the Leeward Islands. munificence and example. Nor was it here alone that her example was of use. When the weavers of the metropolis were suffering the greatest distress, in 1783, from the almost total disuse of Irish manufactures, a deputation waited Temple to state their sufferings. His Excellency, immediately began a subscription with a handsome sum, which was soon patriotically followed up; he even prevailed upon the merchants to promise to give a preference to the fabric of their own country in preference to foreign articles. But the honour of overcoming the greatest difficulty was reserved for the Countess; and she did overcome it, not only by her own example in wearing nothing but Irish manufacture, but also by public notice and private intimation, that those only would be welcome at the Castle who should evince their patriotism in like manner. By this, and her general attention to the interests of the country wherever female influence or example could be of any avail, she acquired as great a degree of popularity as her noble

Mary, this sole heiress, was married on the 12th of April, 1775, to George Grenville Temple, of Wotton, in the county of Bucks, Esq. now Marquis of Buckingham, and at that time heir apparent to his uncle, Richard Earl Temple. On this marriage Mr. Temple added the name of Nugent to his family appellatives; and immediately after, Lord Clare received a patent as Earl Nugent, with remainder to his son-in-law, now Marquis of Buckingham and Earl of Nugent, having succeeded as Earl Temple in 1779, as Earl Nugent in 1788, and having been raised to the dignity of a Marquis four years previous.

To draw a political sketch of the Marquis is here beyond our plan; yet so closely were the virtues of his amiable consort connected with, and so frequently did they spring from the events of his public life, that in recording the one we must notice the other.

When Earl Temple, at the early age of twenty-eight (in 1782), was nominated to

upon Lord

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