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was in a manner foregoing, during this severe year, the privilege of his rank, in order to provide with more convenience for a little army of nearly three thousand persons, many of whom must otherwise have found it difficult to obtain subsistence. The result of such conduct is twice blessed, both in the means which it employs, and in the end which it attains in the general improvement of the country. This anecdote forms a good answer to those theorists who pretend that the residence of great proprietors on their estates is a matter of indifference to the inhabitants of that district. Had the Duke been residing and spending his revenue elsewhere, one half of these poor people would have wanted employment and food; and would probably have been little comforted by any metaphysical arguments upon population, which could have been presented to their investigation.

In his domestic relations, as a husband, a son, a brother, and a father, no rank of life could exhibit a pattern of tenderness and affection superior to that of the Duke of Buccleuch. He seemed only to live for his family and his friends, and those who witnessed his domestic happiness can alone estimate the extent of the present deprivation. He was a kind and generous master to his numerous

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household, and was rewarded by their sincere attachment.

In the sincerity and steadiness of his friendship, he was unrivalled. His intimacies, whether formed in early days, or during his military life, or on other occasions, he held so sacred, that, far from listening to any insinuations against an absent friend, he would not with patience hear him censured even for real faults. The Duke of Buccleuch also secured the most lasting attachment on the part of his intimates, by the value which he placed upon the sincerity of their regard. Upon one occasion, when the Duke had been much and justly irritated, an intimate friend took the freedom to use some expostulations with his Grace, pressed to the verge of urgency, on the extent to which he seemed to carry his resentment. The Duke's answer, which conceded the point in debate, began with these remarkable words :-" I have reason to thank God for many things, but especially for having given me friends who will tell me truth." On the other hand, the Duke was not less capable of giving advice than willing to listen to it. He could enter with patience into the most minute details of matters far beneath his own sphere in life, and with strong, clear, unsophisticated good sense, never failed to point out the safest, most honourable, and

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best path to be pursued. Indeed, his accuracy of judgment was such, that even if a law-point were submitted to him, divested of its technicalities, the Duke generally took a view of it, founded upon the great principles of justice, which a professional person might have been benefited by listening to. The punctilious honour with which he fulfilled every promise, made the Duke of Buccleuch cautious in giving hopes to friends, or others, applying for his interest. Nor was he, though with such high right to attention, fond of making requests to administration. But a promise, or the shadow of a promise, was sacred to him; and though many instances might be quoted of his assistance having been given farther than his pledge warranted an expectation, there never existed one in which it was not amply redeemed.

Well-educated, and with a powerful memory, the Duke of Buccleugh was both a lover and a judge of literature, and devoted to reading the time he could spare from his avocations. This was not so much as he desired; for the active superintendence of his own extensive affairs took up much of his time. As one article, he answered very many letters with his own hand, and never suffered above a post to pass over without a reply, even to those of little consequence; so that this single duty oc

cupied very frequently two hours a-day. But his conversation often turned on literary subjects, and the zeal with which he preserved the ancient ruins and monuments which exist on his estates, showed his attachment to the history and antiquities of his country. In judging of literary composition, he employed that sort of criticism which arises rather from good taste and strong and acute perception of what was true or false, than from a vivacity of imagination. In this particular, his Grace would have formed no inadequate representative of the soundest and best educated part of the reading public, and an author might have formed from his opinion a very accurate conjecture how his work would be received by those whom every writer is most desirous to please. The Duke's own style in epistolary correspondence was easy, playful, and felicitous, or strong, succinct, and expressive, according to the nature of the subject.

In gayer hours, nothing could be so universally pleasing as the cheerfulness and high spirits of the Duke of Buccleuch. He bore his high rank (so embarrassing to some others) as easily and gracefully as he might have worn his sword. He himself seemed unconscious of its existence; the guests respected without fearing it. He possessed a lightness and playfulness of disposition, much humour,

and a turn for raillery, which he had the singular tact to pursue just so far as it was perfectly inoffensive, but never to inflict a moment's confusion or pain. There are periods in each man's life which can never return again; and the friends of this illustrious person will long look back, with vain regret, on the delightful hours spent in his society.

In his intercourse with his neighbours, the Duke was frank, hospitable, and social, and ready upon all occasions to aid their views by forming plantations, by exchanging ground, or any similar point of accommodation and courtesy. To the public his purse was ever open, as appears from his Grace's liberal subscriptions to all works of splendour or utility.

We have one trait to add to this portrait-it is the last and the most important. As the Duke of Buccleuch held his high situation for the happiness of those around him, he did not forget by Whom it was committed to him. A portion of his private studies was always devoted to reading Scripture. Public worship was at all proper seasons performed in his family, and his own sense of devotion was humble, ardent, and sincere. A devout believer in the truths of religion, he never, even in the gayest moment, permitted them to be treated with levity

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