on many subjects, and mentioned the kindness of the Duchess of Roxburgh supplying her with quantities of fine grapes, which she thought it selfish in her to monopolize, and insisted upon my taking some of them. I took leave of her in the evening, little thinking it would be for the last time, to return home, and the latest words I heard uttered by that affectionate voice, as I pressed her cheek with my lips, were 'My dear, dear son.'

"That night, the breathing, that was quick and embarrassed, became fainter and fainter, and just as the clock struck twelve, the features settled into the stillness of death, and that tender, benevolent spirit was recalled from earth by the God who gave it. . . . In passing the end of the lane leading to Milfield Hill, the funeral was joined by six of my oldest servants, married men, on horseback, who fell in behind the chaises, and acted as under-bearers to carry the body from the hearse to the church, and then to the grave. The passage of the funeral through the village of Milfield was very affecting to my feelings. It was the scene in former times of my dear mother's active exertions; the place where for many years she was the person of the greatest importance; where she had borne and brought up her family, and where she had spent many happy and many toilsome days. She was still known, after an absence of many years, to most of its inhabitants, and remembered by some as their old and kind mistress. No one seemed left within doors; all were assembled to gaze on the mournful procession, and one might distinguish from the general crowd some groups of elderly women, decently attired in deep mourning, who walked for some distance by the side of the hearse, and wept as they went. These were the servants

and contemporaries of her early days, now declining in the vale of life, and thinking, perhaps, that they too must shortly follow in the way of the kind mistress to whose remains they were now anxious to pay the last sad testimony of respect."

CHAPTER IV.

". . . If we did not fight
Exactly, we fired muskets up the void,

To show that victory was ours of right."

BETWEEN the year 1820 and the dissolution of Parlia

ment in 1826 some progress was made in public affairs, and some good accomplished for the country. Catholic Emancipation was debated, and had the powerful advocacy of Canning. In the midst of the divergence of opinion on financial matters between "Prosperity Robinson" and "Adversity Hume," taxation was being gradually reduced. The repeal of the Corn Laws, longed for as much by an enlightened minority of country gentlemen as by any one in Parliament or in commercial life, seemed as yet very far off, and almost insurmountable obstacles appeared to stand in the way of the great Parliamentary reform; yet there was a gradual growth and ripening for the achievements of later years. In all these questions my father took a deep interest. Occasional evenings spent at Lord Jeffrey's in Edinburgh, and visits to London, brought him into contact with some of the leaders of public affairs. 1825, during a visit to Lord Althorp, in London, he heard some of the exciting battles in the Commons over the Catholic question.

In

CHAPTER IV.

. . . If we did not fight

Exactly, we fired muskets up the void,

To show that victory was ours of right."

BETWEEN the year 1820 and the dissolution of Parlia

ment in 1826 some progress was made in public

affairs, and some good accomplished for the country. Catholic Emancipation was debated, and had the powerful advocacy of Canning. In the midst of the divergence of opinion on financial matters between "Prosperity Robinson" and "Adversity Hume," taxation was being gradually reduced. The repeal of the Corn Laws, longed for as much by an enlightened minority of country gentlemen as by any one in Parliament or in commercial life, seemed as yet very far off, and almost insurmountable obstacles appeared to stand in the way of the great Parliamentary reform; yet there was a gradual growth and ripening for the achievements of later years. In all these questions my father took a deep interest. Occasional evenings spent at Lord Jeffrey's in Edinburgh, and visits to London, brought him into contact with some of the leaders of public affairs. 1825, during a visit to Lord Althorp, in London, he heard some of the exciting battles in the Commons over the Catholic question.

In