This early intimacy probably brought Lord Chesterfield into the close
friendship which afterwards subsisted between him and Lady Suffolk, to
whom many of his letters are addressed.
His first public capacity was a diplomatic appointment: he afterwards
attained to the rank of an ambassador, whose duty it is, according to a
witticism of Sir Henry Wotton's '_to lie_ abroad for the good of his
country;' and no man was in this respect more competent to fulfil these
requirements than Chesterfield. Hating both wine and tobacco, he had
smoked and drunk at Cambridge, 'to be in the fashion;' he gamed at the
Hague, on the same principle; and, unhappily, gaming became a habit and
a passion. Yet never did he indulge it when acting, afterwards, in a
ministerial capacity. Neither when Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, or as
Under-secretary of State, did he allow a gaming-table in his house. On
the very night that he resigned office he went to _White's_.
The Hague was then a charming residence: among others who, from
political motives, were living there, were John Duke of Marlborough and
Queen Sarah, both of whom paid Chesterfield marked attention. Naturally
industrious, with a ready insight into character--a perfect master in
that art which bids us keep one's thoughts close, and our countenances
open, Chesterfield was admirably fitted for diplomacy.
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