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will often secretly descend to meanness, from which an ancient lineage would have saved him. I conceive Morton to be naturally a generous, honourable, high-minded man. Some points of his conduct have evinced it. But the want of high descent to serve as a fulcrum to his ambition of fashionable distinction-his restless sense of insecurity-his feverish struggle for an eminence which he was to gain, partly by manoeuvring and cringing, partly by means of a lavish expenditure-all this has debased an honourable mind, and led him through a long train of secret humiliation to one that was signal and decisive.

"I once did him less than justice; for, I will own, that I felt a secret jealousy of his success, which jealousy has since been extinguished by his fall. It shocked my aristocratical prejudices to perceive that a man, with less ostensible pretensions, was more courted than myself; and those prejudices were fostered by seclusion. But I have learned to shake off some portion of

my former exclusiveness, and to applaud the liberal spirit of these times, which presents no insurmountable barrier to any species of ambition.

"Let me now congratulate you, my dear Herbert, on having escaped unhurt from the treachery and artifice by which you have been assailed. Let not your trials tend to give you a worse opinion of human nature; let them not weaken your honourable confidence and freedom from suspicion. You have pursued a straight and manly course, and it has led you to your safety. While knaves are ruining each other, by the vile acts which helped to raise them, the honest object of their mutual attack walks through unhurt and unsuspecting. But were it otherwise, were it necessary to repel the creatures with their own weapons, rather, I will say, than have recourse to the dirty task of countermining, it were better to be libelled and deceived, and be able to exclaim, like another Francis, All is lost except our honour.'

"I will say no more, for I seem to have given you too long a lecture, when I consider how little you need it.

"And now, my dear Herbert, farewell, and with every heartfelt wish for the happiness of yourself, and your intended bride,

"Believe me, ever your most affectionate

father,

"W. LACY."

THE END.

SHACKELL AND BAYLIS, JOHNSON'S-COURT.

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LOVE'S LABOURS LOST.

In

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