11 APRIL 1908, Page 13

THE LATE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE.

LT0 THE EDITOR OP TER "SPROTATOR:1 SIR,—The character of the late Duke of Devonshire is curiously forecast in that of his ancestor, who died, being the third Duke, in 1758, and is thus described by Johnson : "He was not a man of superior abilities, but he was a man strictly faithful to his word. If, for instance, he had promised you an acorn, and none had grown that year in his woods, he would not have contented himself with that excuse : he would have sent to Denmark for it. So unconditional was he in keeping his word; so high as to the point of honour." "This," adds Boswell, "was a liberal testimony from the Tory Johnson to the virtue of a great Whig nobleman."