be always so barbarous to wish you may esteem me as long as you live."


At last Montagu formally approached Lord Dorchester, who had no
objection whatever to him as a suitor for the hand of Lady Mary. They
could not come to terms in the matter of settlements. Dorchester
demanded that the estates should be put into entail. Also he desired
that his future son-in-law should provide a town residence for Lady
Mary. This did not seem unreasonable, but Montagu did not see his way to
agree to them. He was willing enough to make all proper provision for
his wife, but he declined absolutely to settle his landed property upon
a son who, as he put it, for aught he knew, might prove unworthy to
inherit it, who might be a spendthrift, an idiot, or a villain--as a
matter of fact, the only son of the marriage turned out most things he
should not. Anyhow, Montagu held strong views on the subject, and these
he expounded to Richard Steele, who presented them in No. 223 of the
_Tatler_ (September 12, 1710).


"That this method of making settlements was first invented by a griping
lawyer, who made use of the covetous tempers of the parents of each
side, to force two young people into these vile measures of diffidence
for no other end, but to increase the skins of parchment, by which they
were put into each other's possession out of each other's power. The law
of our country has given an ample and generous provision for the wife,
even the third of her husband's estate, and left to her good-humour and
his gratitude the expectation of farther provision, but the fantastical
method of going farther, with relation to the heirs, has a foundation in
nothing but pride, and folly: for as all men with their children as like
themselves, and as much better as they can possibly, it seems monstrous