l his resources, and was obliged to run in
debt himself for the jewels of the rest of his mistresses; but he did
his best for the young peer, as became an affectionate father or a
fond lover. His majesty made him when he arrived at man's estate
the hereditary keeper of a palace which he possessed in the north of
England; and this secured his grace a castle and a park. He could wave
his flag and kill his deer; and if he had only possessed an estate, he
would have been as well off as if he had helped conquer the realm with
King William, or plundered the church for King Harry. A revenue must
however be found for the Duke of Fitz-Aquitaine, and it was furnished
without the interference of Parliament, but with a financial dexterity
worthy of that assembly--to whom and not to our sovereigns we are
obliged for the public debt. The king granted the duke and his heirs for
ever, a pension on the post-office, a light tax upon coals shipped to
London, and a tithe of all the shrimps caught on the southern coast.
This last source of revenue became in time, with the development of
watering-places, extremely prolific. And so, what with the foreign
courts and colonies for the younger sons, it was thus contrived very
respectably to maintain the hereditary dignity of this great peer.

The present Duke of Fitz-Aquitaine had supported the Reform Bill, but
had been shocked by the Appropriation clause; very much admired Lord
Stanley, and was apt to observe, that if that nobleman had been the
leader of the conservative party, he hardly knew what he might not have
done himself. But the duke was an old whig, had lived with old whigs all
his life, feared revolution, but still more the necessity of taking his
name out of Brookes', where he had looked in every day or night since he
came of age. So, not approving of what was going on, yet not caring to
desert his friends, he withdrew, as the phrase runs, from public
life; that is to say, was rarely in his seat; did not continue to Lord
Melbourne the proxy that had been entrusted to Lord Grey; and made tory
magistrates in his county though a whig lord lieutenant.

When forces were numbered, and speculations on the future indulged in
by the Tadpoles and Tapers, the name of the Duke of Fitz-Aquitaine was
mentioned with a knowing look and in a mysterious tone. Nothing more
was necessary between Tadpole and Taper; but, if some hack in statu
pupillari happened to be present at the conference, and the gent