all the ready money I thought I had no
occasion for, but my family began to increase,
and I have now eight children, my youngest
not a year old, without the means of providing
for more than three of them." Mr. Gregg
concludes with a touching reference to " the
misery of his situation," presenting though it
might " all the external appearance of plenty
and comfort," and entreats to be recommended
to the King for appointment to the first
vacancy of a Commissioner of Excise.

The public service, a hundred years ago,
enlisted in its cause, with a wise tact, the
freshness of youth, and did not scorn the
infirmities of age. Sir Charles Hotham writes
of a friend " who has had a clerk's place in
the Board of Works ever since he was eleven
years' old; " while Sir Henry Backer applies
for a tide-waitership, on behalf of " a worthy,
good man, very infirm in years, and in
distressed circumstances." Domestic servants
came to glory sometimes in those days. On
behalf of one of them, Lord Harcourt applies
for " a place of fifty or sixty pounds a year,"
(about the amount of his wages, apparently,)
"which would permit him still to continue in
his service."

The importance of the Minister's time is
universally and properly acknowledged by his
correspondents. One is glad to see this. " The
high and national importance," says one of
them, (in a sentence for which we warn the
reader to take in a long breath,) " of your
lordship's moments are so extreme precious,
that I am under every dread and concern
in thus breaking in, in the smallest degree,
upon them, and heartily pray God, my Lord,
that your Lordship's ardent and unwearied
attention for the true glory of his Majesty,
and the felicity of the kingdom in general,
will very shortly confound the devices, and
totally put to public shame and contempt
every subject in the nation who has, either
openly or secretly, opposed your lordship's
sentiments, in what every honest, sensible,
and disinterested person must be convinced
are absolutely pointed to the utility and real
interest of the nation in general." One
naturally imagines that, after this prelude
of long-winded magniloquence, the favour
to be asked is a seat in the Cabinet, or
at least the governorship of a colony; but—
like the man who began by asking the same
Minister for a Commissionership of Customs,
and gradually reduced his demands down to
an old coat — this correspondent (who is a
Custom-house officer) simply desires the
transfer of his station from Greenock to
Edinburgh.

A tendency to beg may have been noticed
in the letters from which we have quoted;
and may, by some suspicious persons, be
thought to indicate a selfish object in the
writers.  This is an error; as we see from
those letters in which the purpose of the
request happens to be carefully defined.
Sir Andrew Grant's chief purpose in the
occasional craving of a small boon (in which
he parenthetically observes he never was
successful) has been, he says, " merely to increase
his influence and consequence, in order to
enable him the more successfully to exert
himself in his humble sphere to promote his
lordship's popularity." Distinctly, friendship !
Sir Alexander Cunningham, in transmitting
to the Minister an application for a share in a
Government loan, intimates that, in doing so,
he, is influenced by no thought of premiums or
interest, or " any (sic) base mechanical
consideraton; " for he describes his proposal as
the offer of  the mite of an old man towards
preventing the ruin of England." Distinctly,
patriotism ! Mr. Harvey is desirous that
the Government appointment, which he is
asking for his son, should be in Lord Bute's
own "office, in order that he may thus have
an opportunity, personally, of showing his
gratitude to his benefactor." Indubitable
gratitude !

The following proposal for the recreation
of the Minister's leisure, during the recess,
affords also a pleasing example of the thoughtful
consideration of his friends. Mr.
Gilbert, on the 22nd May, 1751, writes as
follows: " I should not have ventured to
trouble your lordship, had I not been
encouraged by the generous protection given
to ' The Orphan of China,' which inclines
me, as well as the rest of the world, to look
upon your lordship as the patron of polite
literature " (Mr. Gilbert seems to have
belonged to a Syncretic school, and to have
written several unacted dramas), " a noble
example, much wanted in the present age,
though likely to find but few followers. I,
therefore, beg the favour of your lordship to
give me leave to send you a tragedy, called
' Jugurtha,' which you may take into the
country with you to peruse at your leisure."

High among the pleasures of the Cabinet
Minister is to be ranked also a continual
receipt of crow-quill correspondence from the fair
hands of ladies; which was, of course, all
flattering and all agreeable. More ingenious
than their lords, the ladies do their spiriting
gently, and convey their applications in
pretty phrases; are endowed, moreover, with
delicate and yet unwavering pertinacity—
frail as the summer gnats, and, a rude fellow
might say, as troublesome — it is not a mere
waving of the hand that will divert them
from the dance on which they are determined.
Lady Mary Coningsby entreats Lord Bute's
interest for the appointment of her daughter
to be Bedchamber-woman to the Queen; and,
Miss Granville, a Maid of Honour, wants a
pension. Miss Gambrini seeks the honour of
occasionally diverting her Majesty " with
music," while another lady writes a long letter
for the purpose of vindicating her reputation.
A duchess, the leader of the beau monde,
"presumes to give his lordship the trouble
of a letter to ask his commands for Scotland,
which she will be proud to obey." Her Grace