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been a footman, because an actor is so well known, that there is no smuggling him in among gentlefolk. "Il ne sera pas milord tout comme un autre." The worst of it was, that Horace had not only been loud in praise of the young lady's theatricals, but had eulogised this very O'Brien as a better representative of men of fashion than Garrick himself.

Perhaps it was his eulogy that made the lady fall in love. And O'Brien was really a distinguished actor, and probably as much of a gentleman off the stage as on it. Nay, to say nothing of the doubt which has been thrown upon the legitimacy of Horace himself (who is suspected to have been the son of Carr, Lord Hervey), the player may even have come of a better house than a Walpole; for the Walpoles, though of an ancient, were

but of a country-gentleman stock; whereas the name of O'Brien is held to be a voucher for a man's coming of race royal.

We do not mean by these remarks to advocate intermarriages between different ranks. There is well-founded objection to them in the difference of education and manners, and the discord which is likely to ensue on all sides. But their general unadvisedness must not render us unjust to exceptions. An Earl of Derby some time afterwards, was thought to have married good breeding itself in the person of Miss Farren the actress; and though Mr. O'Brien, instead of being smuggled in among the gentlefolk whom he so well represented, was got off with his wife to America, their after-lives are recorded as having been equally happy and respectable. So Lady Susan, after all,

made a better match of it with her actor, than Lady Sarah with the baronet.

So much for the plays in Holland House, and the vicissitudes in the marriages of the Foxes.

CHAPTER II.

HOLLAND HOUSE CONCLUDED-STEPHEN,

SECOND LORD

HOLLAND-CHARLES JAMES FOX, THE STATESMAN-HIS

CAREER AND

LORD

CHARACTER-HENRY RICHARD, THIRD

HOLLAND-HIS ELEGANT LITERATURE, HOSPITALITY, PROTESTS IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS, &c.

STEPHEN, Second Lord Holland, though by no means destitute of natural abilities or vivacity, appears to have had in his composition too great a predominance of the animal nature over the spiritual. He was good-natured, but whimsical; and as he had

been allowed to have his way, his way probably lay chiefly in the eating and drinking line; for his face is sleepy and sensual, with very thick lips. Hence an apoplectic tendency, which took him off at the age of nineand-twenty.

But Stephen had a brother, afterwards the celebrated Charles James Fox, the "man of the people," who, however he may have indulged himself in the same way, had life enough in him to keep him wide awake (and others too) for nearly twice the time. Indeed, he may be said, during his youth, to have had too much life; more animal vitality in him, and robustness of body to bear it out, than he well knew what to do with. And his father is said to have encouraged it by never thwarting his will in anything. Thus the boy expressing a desire one day to "smash a watch," the father, after ascer

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