Political Windfalls: The bequest by Scottish lady of a small fortune to the brothers Redmond and Mr. Keir Hardie is by no means unprecedented, says the “Observer.” More than one young politician at the outset his career has had his way made easier by a legacy of this kind. It was such windfall, probably, that gave us William Pitt the Elder. With a very exiguous income he seemed to have attracted little of Fortune’s favour, and might have turned from politics but for the receipt under the will of that old termagant Sarah Duchess of Marlborough of £10,000 “for the noble defence be made for the support of the laws of England.” The windfall was lucky, but one would ever have suspected “Sarah Duchess” of an attachment to the laws of England or any other laws. Another public man who benefited under her will was Lord Chesterfield, who owed his good luck to the fact that he had been among the foremost of Walpole’s assailants, and Walpole was not the least of that virago’s antipathies. But fortune had not yet done with Pitt at a later stage in his career there died an old Somerset Whig, Sir William Pynsent. He had been a member of Parliament in the days of the Whig ascendency and was driven out when the Tories came back towards the end of Queen Anne’s reign. He retired into private life and for 50 years brooded over the events of his youth. Then he began to take interest Pitt’s career, though the two never met and never corresponded. When Pitt fell from power Pynsent thought he recognised an analogy to the fall of Marlborough, and compared the rise of Bute with the rise of Harley. From that tithe he decided to leave his property to Pitt, and Pitt found himself at Pynsent’s death master of some £3,000. Macaulay owed much of the leisure which enabled him to write his “History” undisturbed a quite unexpected legacy of £10,000 from an uncle who had spent all his life in India. … …
[see similar Aberdeen Journal: Wednesday 28th January 1914]
Transcribed in whole or part from scanned originals: Presented with or without modified text and punctuation. For absolute accuracy refer to the original newspapers. Source: The British Newspaper Archive.
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