I mean not to undervalue him for this; on the contrary, if he had borne his good fortune meekly, I could have rejoiced with him. What I observe is, how little there was in him, from his fortune alone, his three courses and champagne, that should my attention or interest me one moment longer, or more intensely, than if he were still glad of a luncheon with a glass of porter in an oyster shop, as is said was formerly the case.

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Now take me to one of the real nobles of the land—I mean not merely the titled, but the highlygifted and politely-educated as well as highly-descended, men, and women too, who have passed their lives and cultivated their manners in an undeviating intercourse with persons like themselves, the genuine great as well as rich. I do not say I respect their gold merely as such, more than that of the ostentatious parvenu; for, for gold alone there is no respect; but there is something in their magnificence, which, in consequence of the attributes of the owners, creates different sensations. I have heard of a tailor, who, joining usury to tailoring, together, made £500,000, and had cut velvet beds of £300 apiece. Who could forbear laughing at his chamber thus furnished? while the same costliness in a royal palace would only call forth part of the respect naturally due to royalty.

I enter the house of a great statesman or noble, imbued with the fair consciousness of his dignity

(dignity, not pride); I feel not the same indifference which I did at the mansion of the mushroom Shanks. In respect to the one, my associations call up an interest and deference towards the person I come to visit; to the other, respect, if you please, for his character, if he deserve it, but none at all from association.

But let me not fall into the injustice of censuring a whole class on account of examples which form only exceptions. Shanks was contemptible, because he knew not the true use of riches, and employed them only to shew he never could be what he affected—the true man of quality. Others, content with being what they are, produce and spread their advantages before the world, to the world's benefit, and their own credit. My situation made me known to other millionaires, very different from the bourgeois gentilhomme I have been speaking of. Nor can I forget an Easter which with Granville I once passed with Mr. Fitzosbourne at his mansion in Hampshire. Like Shanks, he was not born to his wealth, but had obtained it by a happy concurrence of circumstances; but (not like Shanks) he avoided ostentation for the very reason for which the other practised it.

"I am not ashamed," said he, "of having been the author of my own fortune; but if I were, the readiest mode of proclaiming it would be to shew myself vain of it.”

Accordingly, he lived handsomely, but not prodigally; had every comfort, and many luxuries, but without waste. His chief employment of the overplus of his wealth was in patronizing the arts, the improvement of the soil, and the employment and reward of his dependent poor. Of this his house, plantations, farms, and villages, gave ample and delightful proof; and the devotion of a numerous and accomplished family who adored him, and the blessings and prayers of an extensive neighbourhood, made up to his heart all that it wanted; for he sought not acquaintance merely because they were titled, or such as those who paid Shanks for the banquets he gave them, by undervaluing his taste, laughing at his extravagance, and cutting him at court.

It was really beautiful to see the modest meekness with which Mr. Fitzosbourne bore his prosperity; and with what little ostentation he displayed all the advantages of his immense fortune. All that riches demanded of him-elegance, and even magnificence—was gratified, but without selfsufficiency. To crown all, he lived in patriarchal happiness, amidst a numerous progeny, of whom the daughters, though all beautiful and accomplished, shewed no vanity, and the sons, though highly educated, no presumption. All of them seemed to emulate their father's good sense and plain simplicity of manners.

But to return to my general story. My object being now to know the world, in this greater university of it, the metropolis, after having been preparing for it in the perhaps more sacred, but less stirring or diversified scene of Alma Mater, I took every opportunity to study the many acquaintances to which my situation led, and also to increase them at all proper opportunities.

For this purpose, by Granville's advice and interest, and Lord Castleton's countenance, I procured myself to be nominated a member of more than one fashionable and political club; and very curious it was to study, in their respective precincts, the public virtue of Whiggism; the loyalty of Toryism; the modesty of Dandyism; and last, and not least, the sober, but not less consequential, bearing of the country gentlemen.

These, however, were at least approachable; but, like the devils in Milton

"Others, apart, sat on a hill retired,

In thought more elevate ;"

for they looked down upon everybody else as tabood from their society and conversation, and, like the Spectator, were remarkable chiefly for never opening their lips except in their own club. These were the Exclusives, a class to be enrolled among whom the qualifications were totally undefinable; for neither rank, fortune, parts, or virtue, gave a right to their privileges, which, though for the

most part originally usurped, yet when like other usurpations they were confirmed by consent, were defended with vigour against all pretenders. One only accomplishment I observed to be indispensable for success among them-that cool and impenetrable assurance which Fothergill had talked of as belonging to them, and without which no Exclusive could flourish.

In regard, however, to all these classes, the first observation I made was, that as a class they were all aristocrats; and, what I thought strange, the Whigs, with the cause of the people for ever in their mouths in public, were the proudest and most exclusive of them all in private.

I asked Lord Castleton the reason of this, and he said he supposed that to think and hold themselves far higher in society than all other men or women (for this exclusiveness was most largely shared by the sex), was the only consolation they had for being so long out of office.

Be this as it may, I cultivated them all in their turn, with more or less success, and my daily advance in knowledge of my fellow-men was not less rapid than amusing. It was, however, still not so universal as I could have wished. The three learned professions, as they are called (though I should have thought them better styled the three pedantries), law, physic, and divinity, were sui generis. They kept by themselves, and were un