Stanhope[1026], Lord Chesterfield's natural son, justly observed, that
it was strange that a man who shewed he had so much affection for his
son as Lord Chesterfield did, by writing so many long and anxious
letters to him, almost all of them when he was Secretary of State[1027],
which certainly was a proof of great goodness of disposition, should
endeavour to make his son a rascal. His Lordship told us, that Foote had
intended to bring on the stage a father who had thus tutored his son,
and to shew the son an honest man to every one else, but practising his
father's maxims upon him, and cheating him[1028]. JOHNSON. 'I am much
pleased with this design; but I think there was no occasion to make the
son honest at all. No; he should be a consummate rogue: the contrast
between honesty and knavery would be the stronger. It should be
contrived so that the father should be the only sufferer by the son's
villainy, and thus there would be poetical justice.'
He put Lord Eliot in mind of Dr. Walter Harte[1029]. 'I know (said he,)
Harte was your Lordship's tutor, and he was also tutor to the
Peterborough family.
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