'
All, however, of Chesterfield's time was not passed in this serene
dissipation. He began to compose 'The History of the Reign of George
II.' at this period. About only half a dozen chapters were written. The
intention was not confined to Chesterfield: Carteret and Bolingbroke
entertained a similar design, which was completed by neither. When the
subject was broached before George II., he thus expressed himself; and
his remarks are the more amusing as they were addressed to Lord Hervey,
who was, at that very moment, making his notes for that bitter chronicle
of his majesty's reign, which has been ushered into the world by the
late Wilson Croker--'They will all three,' said King George II., 'have
about as much truth in them as the _Mille et Une Nuits_. Not but I shall
like to read Bolingbroke's, who of all those rascals and knaves that
have been lying against me these ten years has certainly the best parts,
and the most knowledge. He is a scoundrel, but he is a scoundrel of a
higher class than Chesterfield. Chesterfield is a little, tea-table
scoundrel, that tells little womanish lies to make quarrels in families:
and tries to make women lose their reputations, and make their husbands
beat them, without any object but to give himself airs; as if anybody
could believe a woman could like a dwarf baboon.
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