n him. His father was a
man of considerable ability, and was to the past generation what
Rowland Hill is in the present day--the great benefactor of
correspondents. He first proposed and carried out the mail-coach
system; and letters, instead of being at the mercy of postboys, and a
private speculation in many instances, became the care of Government,
and were transmitted under its immediate direction.

During the lifetime of Mr. Palmer, the reward due to him for his
suggestions and his practical knowledge was denied; and he accordingly
went to Bath, and became the manager and proprietor of the theatre,
occasionally treading the boards himself, for which his elegant
deportment and good taste eminently qualified him. He has often been
mistaken for Gentleman Palmer, whose portrait is well drawn in the
Memoir of Sheridan by Dr. Sigmond, prefixed to Bohn's edition of
Sheridan's plays. Mr. Palmer was successful in his undertaking, and at
his death, his son found himself the inheritor of a handsome fortune,
and became a universal favourite in Bath.

The corporation of that city, consisting of thirty apothecaries, were,
in those borough-mongering days, the sole electors to the House of
Commons, and finding young Palmer hospitable, and intimate with the
Marquis of Bath and Lord Camden, and likewise desiring for themselves
and their families free access to the most agreeable theatre in
England, returned him to Parliament. He entered the army and became a
conspicuous officer in the 10th Hussars, which, being commanded by the
Prince Regent, led him at once into Carlton House, the Pavilion at
Brighton, and consequently into the highest society of the country; for
which his agreeable manners, his amiable disposition, and his
attainments, admirably qualified him. His fortune was sufficiently
large for all his wants; but, unfortunately, as it turned out, the
House of Commons voted to him, as the representative of his father,
100,000L., which he was desirous of laying out to advantage.

A fine opportunity, as he imagined, had presented itself to him; for,
in travelling in the diligence from Lyons to Paris, a journey then
requiring three days, he met a charming widow, who told a tale that had
not only a wonderful effect upon his susceptible heart, but upon his
amply-filled purse. She said her husband, who had been the proprietor
of one of the finest estates in the neighbourhood of Bordeaux, was just
dead, and that she was on her