DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70302#0424
380
ACCOUNT OF LORD BOKBBY.
tunities of cultivating an intimacy with its principal in-
habitants, who, charmed with the integrity, ability and
independent principles he manifested, chose him to re-
present them in Parliament. A better choice the electors
could not have made: he continued for a long series
of years most faithfully to discharge all the important
duties annexed to his situation. During the American
war, he remonstrated with peculiar energy against the
measures pursued by the mother-country. Not content
with opposing administration in the senate, he likewise
exerted the powers of his pen, and produced a pamphlet
on the subject, pregnant with sound sense, manly argument,
and liberal sentiment.
About the conclusion of that unhappy conflict, Mr.
Robinson resigned his parliamentary duties. His bodily
infirmities probably contributed to this step. He had
from his youth been subject to much severe illness, and
his hearing and sight were considerably affected. Im-
pressed with the sense of the impropriety of any longer
occupying a seat in Parliament, when he could neither
discharge its duties with fidelity to his constituents, nor
with satisfaction to himself, he addressed a letter to the
inhabitants of Canterbury, in which he took an affec-
tionate leave of them ; and he is reported to have said to
one of the principal citizens, “ that they ought to choose
as his successor, a younger and more vigorous man ; one
who had eyes to see, ears to hear, and lungs to oppose the
tricks of future ministers.”
From this period he led the life of a private gentle-
man, and indulged himself in the gratification of those
eccentric whims for which he was afterwards so distin-
guished. He constantly resided at his seat at Mount-
Morris, where he lived without ostentation, and without
meanness. He planted, improved, and embellished.
His house was open to respectable strangers, and he
was
ACCOUNT OF LORD BOKBBY.
tunities of cultivating an intimacy with its principal in-
habitants, who, charmed with the integrity, ability and
independent principles he manifested, chose him to re-
present them in Parliament. A better choice the electors
could not have made: he continued for a long series
of years most faithfully to discharge all the important
duties annexed to his situation. During the American
war, he remonstrated with peculiar energy against the
measures pursued by the mother-country. Not content
with opposing administration in the senate, he likewise
exerted the powers of his pen, and produced a pamphlet
on the subject, pregnant with sound sense, manly argument,
and liberal sentiment.
About the conclusion of that unhappy conflict, Mr.
Robinson resigned his parliamentary duties. His bodily
infirmities probably contributed to this step. He had
from his youth been subject to much severe illness, and
his hearing and sight were considerably affected. Im-
pressed with the sense of the impropriety of any longer
occupying a seat in Parliament, when he could neither
discharge its duties with fidelity to his constituents, nor
with satisfaction to himself, he addressed a letter to the
inhabitants of Canterbury, in which he took an affec-
tionate leave of them ; and he is reported to have said to
one of the principal citizens, “ that they ought to choose
as his successor, a younger and more vigorous man ; one
who had eyes to see, ears to hear, and lungs to oppose the
tricks of future ministers.”
From this period he led the life of a private gentle-
man, and indulged himself in the gratification of those
eccentric whims for which he was afterwards so distin-
guished. He constantly resided at his seat at Mount-
Morris, where he lived without ostentation, and without
meanness. He planted, improved, and embellished.
His house was open to respectable strangers, and he
was