LYTTELTON, GEORGE LORD, born in January 1708.9, the eldest son of Sir Thomas Lyttelton, Bart., of Hagley in Worcester shire, was educated at Eton and Christchurch, Oxford, at both of which his scholastic acquirements and promising talents gained him much credit. After travelling ou the Continent for some time, he entered parliament in 1730, connected himself with the leaders of the opposition to Sir Robert Walpole, and acquired eminence and weight as a parliamentary speaker. He was a favourite of Frederic, prince of Wales, at whose court he filled the office of secretary. After Wal pole's retirement Lyttelton was made a Lord of the Treasury in 1744. He was raised in 1756 to be Chancellor of the Exchequer, a place for which his qualifications were but limited, if the story be true that he never could comprehend the simplest rule of arithmetic. He resigned that office to Mr. Legge in less than a year, and went out of office altogether on the dissolution of the ministry in 1759; at which time (his father bsiog dead) he was raised to the peerage by the title of Baron Lyttelton of Frankley. The rest of his life was chiefly devoted to literature. He died in 1773.
Lord Lyttelton's literary talents in early life won the affection of Pope. His poetry, though elegant and tasteful, does not rise above mediocrity ; it has however gained for him a place in Johnson's ' Lives.' Of his prose works, the chief are, Observations on the Conversion and Apostleship of St. Paul,' 1747, the result of those studies by which, in middle life, he was converted from scepticism into a sincere and zealous believer in Christianity. This work has enjoyed a high reputation. 'Dialogues of the Dead,' 1760, a popular and amusing work. 'History of Henry II.,' to which is prefixed an
account of the Revolutions of England, from the death of Edward the Confessor to the birth of Henry II., 1764-67. Thls is a laborious and respectable work, the fruit of twenty years research. ' Miscellaneous Works,' 1774. 'Poetical Works,' 1785. Lord Lyttelton took a leading part, by his 'Account of a Journey in Wales,' in opening the eyes of the English to the beauties of their own country; and by the tasteful and expensive improvements in his celebrated park at Hagley in intro ducing the modern practice of landscape gardeniog.
Lord Lyttelton's private character was exemplary; his acquirements were extensive; his judgment as a politician and man of the world penetrating. But his indolence prevented him from doiug justice to his own powers, exposed him to imposition, and led him into some embarrassments. His son, THOMAS LORD Lrratzolv, who died early in 1779, also possessed great abilities, but wasted and debased them in a profligate and unhappy life. Some attention was drawn to him a few years back by an article in the Quarterly Review' (No. 179, January 1852), in which the author laboured with some ingenuity to show that Thomas lord Lyttelton was the author of the Letters of Junius ;' but the hypothesis found few adherents even at first, and is now uni versally abandoned. The reader who may wish to'look a little further on this claim, and on what is known of Thomas Lyttelton, will do well to refer to a valuable paper by Sir F. Madden, in 'Notes and Queries,' vol. viii. p. 31 (July 1853); and further, in vol. xi. p. 198 of the same work.