under the same masters. After an absence of three years, they happened to meet at Venice, where Antonio had the good fortune to render them essential service, in extricating them from difficulties into which the impetuosity of the best conditioned young men will sometimes involve them, especially in a foreign country. They returned together to Britain. Their father, who knew their former connexion with Antonio, and had heard of their recent obligation to him, expressed his sense of it in very flattering terms, and earnestly wished for an opportunity to reward it.

I have seen few men who were proof against the attention of ministers. Though it does always gratify, it seldom fails to excite three of the most powerful passions, vanity, ambition, and avarice. Antonio, I am afraid, did not form an exception to the rule. Though naturally an economist, his mode of life had considerably impaired his fortune. He knew this ; but he knew not exactly to what extent. He received gentle remonstrances on the subject from some of his relations in Scotland, who remembered his virtues. In the letters of his sister Leonora (who still retained that affection and attachment to her brother which his attention to her, both before and after her father's death, had impressed upon her mind), he perceived an anxiety, for which he could not otherwise account than from her apprehensions about the situation of his affairs. The patronage of the Earl of w-presented itself

W

as a remedy. To him, therefore, he determined to apply. The intimacy in which he lived with his sons, the friendly manner in which the Earl himself always behaved to him, made this appear an easy matter to Antonio; but he was unaccustomed to ask favours even from the great. His spirit rose at the consciousness of their having become necessary; and he sunk in his own esteem in being reduced to use the language of solicitations for something like a pecuniary favour. After several fruitless attempts, he could bring himself no farther than to give a distant hint to his companions, the sons of the Earl. It was sufficient to them; and, at the next interview with their father, Antonio received the most friendly assurances of being soon provided for in some way suited to his taste and disposition.

Elated with these hopes, he returned, after a ten years' absence, to visit his friends in Scotland, and to examine into the situation of his affairs. Of the 20,0001. left by his father, there was little more than 10,0001. remaining; and the half of that sum belonged to his sister Leonora. The knowledge of this made no great impression on his mind, as he was certain of being amply provided for: meanwhile, he thought it his duty to put his sister's fortune in safety; and, by his whole behaviour to her during anine months' residence in Scotland, he confirmed that love and affection which his more early conduct had justly merited.-U.

N° 71. TUESDAY, JANUARY 11, 1780.

Antonio returned to London about the breaking out of the Spanish war in 1739. The parties in the state ran high ; the minister was attacked on all sides, in a language somewhat more decent than what is in use among the patriots of the present day, though it was not, on that account, the less poignant and severe. Antonio's patron, the Earl of W---, took part with the minister, and both he and his sons, who were by this time in parliament,

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seemed so much occupied with the affairs of the public, that Antonio was unwilling to disturb them with any private application for himself, until the ferment was somewhat subsided. In the mean time, he continued his usual mode of life ; and, though he could not help observing, that many of the great men with whom he had been accustomed to converse on the most easy and familiar terms began to treat him with a forbidding ceremony, more disgusting to a mind of sensibility than downright insolence; still the consciousness of his situation prevented him from renouncing a society in which the secret admonitions of his heart frequently told him he could not continue, without forfeiting the strongest support of virtue and honour, a proper respect for himself.

Sir Robert Walpole was at last obliged to resign, and along with him a few of his friends who were most obnoxious to the leaders of the successful party. The Earl of W- was not of the number; he still preserved his place in the cabinet; and the new and the old ministers having adjusted their different pretensions, a calm tranquillity succeeded, as the less powerful and disappointed patriots, rendered suspicious by the defection of their principal leaders, could not at once connect themselves into a formidable opposition.

Antonio thought this a proper time to renew his application. That delicacy which made him formerly shrink at the idea of asking a pecuniary favour was now no more ; his growing necessities, and the habits of submission they produced, had blunted the fine feelings of independence, and he could now, though unnoticed, dance attendance at the levees of the great, like one who had never felt himself their equal. Fortunately there soon happened a vacancy in an office in the department of the Earl of Wwhich was every way suited to Antonio. He mo

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destly reminded the Earl of his former promises ; and, having made the first application, his request was instantly granted. At that moment Lord Cwho was supposed to be prime minister, arrived, to ask the office for the son of a butcher in Kent, who was returning officer in a borough where there was a contested election. The Earl of W. told the minister, that he had just now promised it to that gentleman, pointing to Antonio. The minister had frequently seen Antonio, and was not unacquainted with his character ; congratulated him with much seeming cordiality; and, turning to the Earl of W- paid him many compliments on his bestowing the office upon one of so distinguished merit: “ That consideration,' added he, pensate for the disappointment I feel in not having obtained it for the person I mentioned to your lordship.' Antonio was too well acquainted with the language of the court not to understand the tendency of all this. The Earl of W- -immediately observed, that, to oblige his lordship, he had no doubt Antonio would readily give up the promise. This was instantly done; and these two noble persons vied with each other in their offers -of service: he was given to understand, that the first opportunity should be taken to provide for him in a manner exceeding his wishes.

Though Antonio was not, upon the whole, very well pleased with this incident, he endeavoured to comfort himself with reflecting, that he had now acquired a right of going directly to the minister, which was so much the more agreeable, as he plainly perceived that the sons of the Earl of W. though they still behaved to him with more ease and attention than many others of his former companions, would, like the rest, soon be estranged from him. At school, at college, on their travels, and even for

same.

some time after their return, their pursuits were the

Whether it was instruction or entertainment, they were mutually assisting to each other, and they found Antonio to be in every thing their equal, perhaps in some things their superior. The scene was now changed. In the midst of their family and relations, possessed of the adventitious, though dazzling qualities of rank and fortune, the real merit of Antonio was hardly perceived. They now found him to be in some things their inferior. This alone would bave, in time, put an end to their intimacy, unless, like many

others, he would have contented himself with acting the part of an humble attendant. Having once opened to their views the career of ambition, and the prospect of rising in the state, they estimated their friendships by the extent of their political inAuence. Virtue and merit were now out of the question, or were at best but secondary considerations. Former services, compared to the objects in which they were now engaged, sunk to nothing; at the same time, a consciousness of duty led them to behave civilly to a man they had once esteemed, and who had done nothing to forfeit their good opinion. Perhaps, even if applied to in a fortunate moment, when impelled by a sudden emanation of half-extinguished virtue, they might have exerted themselves to serve him; but these exertions would not have been of long continuance; they would soon have been smothered by cold political prudence.

After two years' solicitation, during which his patrons sometimes cajoled him with promises, and, at others, hardly deigned to take notice of his request, Antonio gave up all hopes of success. His fortune was now totally gone. His friends in Scotland had frequently informed him of this ; but he continued to solicit and to receive small sums of money from time to time, which he was in hopes of being soon