_John Ross Mackay_ (No. 8. p. 125.).--In reply to the Query of your
correspondent "D.," I beg to forward the following quotation from
Sir N.W. Wraxall's _Historical Memoirs of his Own Time_, 3rd edition.
Speaking of the peace of Fontainbleau, he says,--
"John Ross Mackay, who had been private secretary to the Earl
of Bute, and afterwards during seventeen years was treasurer
of the ordnance, a man with whom I was personally acquainted,
frequently avowed the fact. He lived to a very advanced age,
sat in several parliaments, and only died, I believe in 1796.
A gentleman of high professional rank, and of unimpeached
veracity, who is still alive, told me, that dining at the late
Earl of Besborough's, in Cavendish Square, in the year 1790,
where only four persons were present, including himself, Ross
Mackay, who was one of the number, gave them the most ample
information upon the subject. Lord Besborough having called
after dinner for a bottle of champagne, a wine to which Mackay
was partial, and the conversation turning on the means of
governing the House of Commons, Mackay said, that, 'money
formed, after all, the only effectual and certain method.'
'The peace of 1763,' continued he, 'was carried through and
approved by a pecuniary distribution. Nothing else could have
surmounted the difficulty. I was myself the channel through
which the money passed. With my own hand I secured above one
hundred and twenty votes on that most important question
to ministers. Eighty thousand pounds were set apart for the
purpose. Forty members of the House of Commons received from
me a thousand pounds each. To eighty others, I paid five
hundred pounds apiece.'"