he parish of high culture--which seems to be akin to the
Latin for a knife, though a fork expels nature more forcibly--as well
as many others of locality less favoured, joined in this muster of good
people and good things. At the outset, the Admiral had intended nothing
more than a quiet recognition of the goodness of the Lord in bringing
home a husband for the daughter of the house; but what Englishman can
forbear the pleasure of killing two birds with one stone?

It was Stubbard who first suggested this, and Sir Charles at once
saw the force of it, especially with the Marquis of Southdown coming.
Captain Stubbard had never admired anybody, not even himself--without
which there is no happiness--much less Mr. Pitt, or Lord Nelson, or the
King, until justice was done to the race of Stubbard, and their hands
were plunged into the Revenue. But now, ever since the return of the war
to its proper home in England, this Captain had been paid well for doing
the very best thing that a man can do, i. e., nothing. He could not help
desiring to celebrate this, and as soon as he received his invitation,
he went to the host and put it clearly. The Admiral soon entered into
his views, and as guests were not farmed by the head as yet at tables
entertaining self-respect, he perceived the advantage of a good dinner
scored to his credit with forty at the cost of twenty; and Stubbard's
proposal seemed thoroughly well timed, so long was it now since the
leaders of Defence had celebrated their own vigilance. Twenty-two,
allowing for the ladies needful, were thus added to the score of chairs
intended, and the founder of the feast could scarcely tell whether
the toast of the evening was to be the return of the traveller, or the
discomfiture of Boney. That would mainly depend upon the wishes of the
Marquis, and these again were likely to be guided by the treatment
he had met with from the government lately and the commanders of his
Division.

This nobleman was of a character not uncommon eighty years ago, but now
very rare among public men, because a more flexible fibre has choked
it. Steadfast, honourable, simple, and straightforward, able to laugh
without bitterness at the arrogant ignorance of mobs, but never to smile
at the rogues who led them, scorning all shuffle of words, foul haze,
and snaky maze of evasion, and refusing to believe at first sight that
his country must be in the wrong and her enemies in the right, he
added to all these