younger son possessed of restricted means, is liable to limitation.

In the comparative seclusion of St. Lucia, and with leisure to turn his mind to such matters, his thoughts again reverted to the subject of promotion. His views on the question had enlarged since he had last occupied himself with it in Ireland, and a company in the Guards was now the object of his ambition. A lieutenancy he would not so much as accept as a gift. He could not but consider it somewhat strange, to say the least of it, that, having been now nearly four years in the service-though he based no claim upon this circumstance he had received no company; and being by this time on the way to complete his twentieth year, he naturally felt aggrieved at the neglect with which he had been treated. One detects the existence of a covert threat in the scheme unfolded to his mother of a plan for seeking in the East Indies, likely before long to become a stirring scene of action, the advancement in his profession which was so unaccountably withheld from him in other quarters.

It is clear that he considered that his relations had been remiss in pressing his claims upon the authorities at home. The Duke of Richmond had declined to interfere-a determination in which his nephew, viewing the matter dispassionately, could not but consider him. mistaken; and her spoilt boy even seems to suspect the Duchess herself of supineness in the matter. His letters are nevertheless as full of affection as ever.

"What would I not give to be with you," he writes, only a month after that astute hint had been thrown out as to a lieutenant-colonelcy to be had in the East for the asking-" what would I not give to be with you, to comfort you, dearest mother! But I hope the peace will soon bring the long-wished-for time"-the peace, observe, the prospect of which frightened everybody." "Till then my dearest mother will not expect it."

"

There is a curious touch of prudence--the prudence which recognises and gauges its own limits-in the allusion made to some wish apparently expressed by the Duke his brother that he should return to England on the attainment of his twenty-first year and set his money affairs in order. The question of the sale of an estate he had inherited appears to have been raised, and is the occasion of the frank opinion he expresses as to his own capacity for the management of financial business.

"I shall tell him," he writes to the Duchess, "that any arrangement he may make with your consent I shall always attend to. I own, if I were to sell entirely, I should feel afraid of myself; but, on the contrary, if I were to have so much a year for it, I think I should get on more prudently. . . As to going home". -on this point he is decided-"I shall certainly not go home about it."

Though not with the object of making a settlement of his money matters, Lord Edward did in fact return to Ireland even before the date desired by his brother.

By the spring of the year 1783 he was at home again, having been absent nearly two years, and bringing back with him the experience of active military operations which he had been anxious to acquire, and which he expected to prove of so much service to him in years

to come.

CHAPTER IV

1783-1786

Returned to Parliament-Life in Ireland-Tedium-The Con-
dition of the Country-Westminster Election-Lord
Edward's Family-Lord Edward in Love-At Woolwich
-In the Channel Islands-Letters to his Mother.

T was in the summer of 1783, a few months

IT after his return to Ireland, that Lord Edward's

political career may be said to have been formally inaugurated, by his finding himself a member of the new Parliament, returned to it by his brother the Duke as member for Athy.

In its ultimate consequences the event was of the last importance, turning, as in course of time it must necessarily have done, his attention to the condition of the country and its relations to England. But at the present moment it was another aspect of the affair by which he was principally affected.

Life in Ireland, in Parliament or out of it, presented a violent contrast to that which he had lately led. Lord Edward frankly confessed that he found the tedium of that life intolerable. It was no wonder. It does not appear that he formed any close friendships, at least as yet, among the men who were to