undoubtedly the adminiftrator ought to have paid, was given against me; and, if not immediately fettled, I fhould be fued to execution. In addition to this, as misfortunes feldom come alone, I was ferved at the fame moment with copies of writs for the notes I had put into Cohan's hands. And, to crown all, a draft drawn upon me from my fon Harry, who was abroad, was prefented to me for payment.

Such an interruption to the pleafing reflections I was indulging, threw once more a gloom over my mind, which put it out of my power to wait upon Mr.Wedderburne as I had intended; I therefore wrote a line to Mr.Woodward, requesting that he would do it for me. That gentleman being abroad when my note came, he was obliged to poftpone going till the next day; by which time the term being ended, he was not able to meet with him. By fuch a train of untoward incidents, was my cafe prevented from coming to the knowledge of that great lawyer. And thus by intervening circumftances, which counteract the best intentions, are the most important defigns oftentimes fruftrated.

The demand for the expences of my mother's funeral being fo very urgent, and amounting, through the additional law-charges, to near double the original bill, I thought my perfonal fafety required that it should be first discharged. I accordingly appropriated the money for which I was indebted to Lord Huntingdon's generofity,

generofity, and which was intended for another purpose, to this.

A difcovery foon enfued; for his Lordship meeting Counsellor Wedderburne some short time after, very kindly enquired whether there were any hopes of fuccefs for me in the profe cution of my fuit; when the Counsellor anfwered, to his Lordship's great furprize, that he knew nothing of fuch a fuit. Nor, indeed, was it poffible that he should know any thing of a fuit in my name; for, as I afterwards found, it was indifcreetly carried on then in the name of the claimants, Mr. Davy's executors, who had even made me a party against my own cause, by joining me, in their application to the court, with Mr. Calcraft's executors; and this occafioned the latter's fending to me when they filed their answer.

Lord Huntingdon, justly incensed at my apparent duplicity, wrote me a letter full of the most severe reproaches; faying every thing in it that a generous heart muft feel, when it fupposes itself the dupe of deception. This letter his Lordship fent by his relation before-mentioned, to whom I explained the whole affair; notwithstanding I was fo greatly shocked at the contents of the epiftle, that I could scarcely fummon fortitude fufficient to do it. Duplicity being a crime of the firft magnitude in my eftimation, and with which it has ever been my boaft that I have been totally unaquaint

ed,

ed, a charge of this nature, confequently, could not fail of giving me uncommon pain.

Yet my anxiety of clearing myself from fo cutting an impeachment, gave me courage to fmother my feelings, in order to exonerate myfelf. In doing this, I dwelt much upon the happiness I had flattered myself with receiving from his Lordship's promised vifits; which, I faid, must reflect infinite credit upon those he honoured with his acquaintance; as the brilliancy of his talents, his acknowledged fenfe, wit, and good-breeding, not only rendered him confpicuous in all the foreign Courts, but justly entitled his Lordship to the encomium paffed on him by the late Lord Chesterfield, who pronounced him "one of the brightest ornaments of the English Nobility." This, I continued, caused the pain produced by his displeasure to be the more fenfibly felt.

From the fervent manner in which I expreffed myself upon this occafion, (for, as I have faid before, I know not a medium when my fenfibility is awakened,) my vifitorthrew out fomething of an inuendo of his Lordship's having formerly been a gallant of mine. I affured him that he was miftaken; which impreffed his Lordship's bounty the deeper on my heart. The moment I had uttered thefe words, the round face of the gentleman loft its rotundity, and lengthened into an extreme oblong. He immediately arofe from his feat, faying, "Then,

indeed,

indeed, it alters the cafe." And muttering fome words to himself, which I could not diftinguifh the purport of, he haftily took his leave.

I wrote foon after to Mr. Wedderburne, to defire permiffion to wait on him at his first leifure, but was not honoured with an anfwer ; which I fuppofe was owing to the multiplicity of bufinefs he was engaged in. I was therefore obliged to content myself with the hopes, that if ever I should get the fuit, it would afford me an opportunity of explaining the affair to Lord Huntingdon.The only mode of atoning for a real error, or excufing a fuppofed one, is by an open and unreferved explanation. This is the method I have now purfued; and I hope it will tend to imprint on his Lordfhip's mind, if my Apology" fhould fall into his hands, a more favourable idea of the tranfaction than he has hitherto entertained of it. He has, till now, been able to judge only from appearances; and thefe, I acknowledge, have been against me. But the foregoing elucidation having now placed every circumftance in its true light, I flatter myself it will reftore me to his Lordship's good opinion, on which I fet no common value.-I muft just be permitted to repeat, that there is no one living, who can hold even the appearance of duplicity in greater deteftation than myself.

G. A. B.

VOL. V.

C

LE T

LETTER XCIII.

I

Jan. 4, 17

Think I informed you, that upon my leaving Parliament-ftreet, Lord Tyrawley had taken my fon Harry Calcraft, and placed him at an academy near Greenwich, in order to be near him when at Blackheath, where he moftly refided. His Lordfhip was particularly fond of the boy, whom he seemed to think a nonpareil; and was greatly concerned at finding him bent upon going to fea. But as my young gentleman was not to be contradicted, he was fent out as a midfhipman on board a man of war. When he heard of his father's death, he refolved to quit his nautical employment, which he was now tired of, and turn fine gentleman; a profeffion he was, indeed, much better qualified for than the former.

About this period Lord Tyrawley died. An incident that did not much affect nie at the time it happened, as his Lordship's faculties had been fo much impaired for a long while before he departed this life, that his diffolu tion was rather to be wifhed for than dreaded. It is very fingular (but I think I have made a fimilar remark before) that those who are endowed with talents fuperior to the generality of their fellow-creatures, have moft commonly the unhappinefs to furvive their mental

3