ABSTRACT
Mr. Elwes, as one of the commons of England, in three successive parliaments, maintained a conduct which purer times might have been glad to boast, and which later times may be proud to follow. He obeyed no mandate, but his opinion. He gave that opinion as he held it to be right. In private life, he was chiefly an enemy to himself. To others he lent much to himself he denied everything. Every circumstance of memoirs here written proves the fallacy of this hope. For if it should add one circumstance consolatory to poverty-while it enforces the extreme and perfect vanity of wealth-then has such a life, as that of Mr. Elwes, not been in vain. Lord Abingdon, who was slightly known to Mr. Elwes in Berkshire, had made a match for seven thousand pounds, which it was supposed he would be olliged to forfeit, from an inability to produce the sum, though the odds were greatly in his favour.
