t, after disproving the story, he
refused to take a penny from his uncle. He was once reduced to his last
sixpence, and was only kept afloat by accepting small loans, amounting
to about 5_l._, from an old clerk of his father's. At last, towards the
end of 1780 a chance offered. The 'fighting parson,' Bate, afterwards
Sir Henry Bate Dudley, then a part proprietor of the 'Morning Post,'
quarrelled with a fellow proprietor, Joseph Richardson, put a bullet
into his adversary's shoulder and set up a rival paper, the 'Morning
Herald.' A vacancy was thus created in the 'Morning Post,' and
Richardson gave the place to Stephen, with a salary of two guineas a
week. Stephen had to report debates on the old system, when paper and
pen were still forbidden in the gallery. At the trial of Lord George
Gordon (February 5 and 6, 1781) he had to be in Westminster Hall at four
in the morning; and to stand wedged in the crowd till an early hour the
next morning,[10] when the verdict was delivered. He had then to write
his report while the press was at work. The reporters were employed at
other times upon miscellaneous articles; and Stephen acquired some
knowledge of journalism and of the queer world in which journalists then
lived. They were a rough set of Bohemians, drinking, quarrelling, and
duelling, and indulging in coarse amusements. Fortunately Stephen's
attendance upon the two ladies, for he still saw something of both, kept
him from joining in some of his fellows' amusements.

In 1781 there came a prospect of relief. The uncle in St. Christopher's
died and left all his property to his nephew William. William at once
sent home supplies, which enabled his brother James to give up
reporting, to be called to the bar (January 26, 1782) and in the next
year to sail to St. Christopher's. His love affair had unravelled
itself. He had been suspended between the two ladies, and only able to
decide that if either of them married he was bound to marry the other.
Miss Stent seems to have been the superior of Maria in intellect and
accomplishments, though inferior in beauty. She undoubtedly showed
remarkable forbearance and good feeling. Ultimately she married James
Stephen before he sailed for the West Indies. Maria not long afterwards
married someone else, and, to the best of my belief, lived happily ever
afterwards.

My grandfather's autobiography, written about forty years later, comes
to an end at this point. It is a curious document, full