I was indebted to Lord Huntingdon's generofity, and which was intended for another purpose, to this.

A discovery soon enfued; fot his Lordfhip meeting Counsellor Wedderburne some short time after, very kindly enquired whether there were any hopes of fuccefs for me in the profecution 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 fhould 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 answers.

Lord Huntingdon, justly incensed at my apparent duplicity, wrote me a letter full of the most fevere reproaches; faying every thing in it that a generous heart muft feel, when it fuppofes itfelf 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 fhocked at the contents of the epistle,

that

that I could scarcely fummon fortitude fufficient to do it. Duplicity being a crime of the first magnitude in my estimation, and with which it has ever been my boaft that I have been totally unacquainted, 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 Imother 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 said, 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 upon him by the late Lord Chesterfield, who pronounced him "one of the brightest ornaments of the English nobility." This, I continued, caufed the pain produced by his difpleasure to be the more fenfibly felt.

From the fervent manner in which I expreffed myfelf upon this occafion, (for, as I have faid before, I know not a medium when my fenfibility

is awakened,) my visitor threw out fomething of an inuendo of his Lordship's having formerly been a gallant of mine. I affured him that he was mistaken; which impreffed his Lordship's bounty the deeper on my heart. The moment I had uttered these 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, it alters the cafe." And muttering fome words to himself, which I could not diftinguish the purport of, he haftily took his leave.

I wrote foon after to Mr. Wedderburne, to defire permiffion to wait on him at his firft leisure, but was not honoured with an answer; which I fuppofe was owing to the multiplicity of business he was engaged in. I was therefore obliged to content myself with the hopes, that if ever I fhould get the fuit, it would afford me an opportunity of explaining the affair to Lord Hunting don. The only mode of atoning for a real error, or excufing a fuppofed one, is by an open and unreferved explanation. This is the metbod I have now purfued; and I hope it will tend to imprint on his Lordship's mind, if my "Apology" fhould fall into his hands, a more favourable idea of the tranfaction

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 must 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.

LETTER XCIII.

Jan. 4, 17

I THINK I informed you, that upon my leaving Parliament-street, 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 Lordship was particularly fond of the boy, whom he. feemed 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 C 3 board

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 me at the time it happened, as his Lordfhip's faculties had been fo much impaired for a long while before he departed this life, that his diffolution 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 unhappiness to furvive their mental qualities. And in every confiderate mind it muft give rife to the moft humiliating sensations, to behold those we look up to as the phænomena of the age, reduced again to a state of childhood. A circumstance which fully confirms the truth of Solomon's affertion, "that all is vanity and vexation of fpirit. Or, as Shakfpere finely defcribes it*,

"Laft fcene of all,

"That ends this strange eventful history,

"Is fecond childishness, and mere oblivion

"Sans teeth, fans eyes, fans tafte, fans every thing."

As you Like it, Act II. Scene 9.

Mifs