to receive her eldest son to grace.

"I have had the worst character of you from home," his lordship said.
"Little birds whisper to me, Sir George, that you are a man of the
most dangerous principles. You are a friend of Mr. Wilkes and Alderman
Beckford. I am not sure you have not been at Medmenham Abbey. You have
lived with players, poets, and all sorts of wild people. I have been
warned against you, sir, and I find you----"

"Not so black as I have been painted," I interrupted his lordship, with
a smile.

"Faith," says my lord, "if I tell Sir George Warrington that he seems to
me a very harmless, quiet gentleman, and that 'tis a great relief to me
to talk to him amidst these loud politicians; these lawyers with their
perpetual noise about Greece and Rome; these Virginian squires who are
for ever professing their loyalty and respect, whilst they are shaking
their fists in my face--I hope nobody overhears us," says my lord, with
an arch smile, "and nobody will carry my opinions home."

His lordship's ill opinion having been removed by a better knowledge of
me, our acquaintance daily grew more intimate; and, especially between
the ladies of his family and my own, a close friendship arose--between
them and my wife at least. Hal's wife, received kindly at the little
provincial court, as all ladies were, made herself by no means popular
there by the hot and eager political tone which she adopted. She
assailed all the Government measures with indiscriminating acrimony.
Were they lenient? She said the perfidious British Government was only
preparing a snare, and biding its time until it could forge heavier
chains for unhappy America. Were they angry? Why did not every American
citizen rise, assert his rights as a freeman, and serve every British
governor, officer, soldier, as they had treated the East India Company's
tea? My mother, on the other hand, was pleased to express her opinions
with equal frankness, and, indeed, to press her advice upon his
Excellency with a volubility which may have fatigued that representative
of the Sovereign. Call out the militia; send for fresh troops from New
York, from home, from anywhere; lock up the Capitol! (this advice
was followed, it must be owned) and send every one of the ringleaders
amongst those wicked burgesses to prison! was Madam Esmond's daily
counsel to the Governor by word and letter. And if not only the
burgesses, but the burgesses' wives could have been led off to
punishm