other recompense for himself than the fulfilment of a long made promise
to you. Dawton was greatly confused, and Lord Clandonald replied, for
him, that certainly there was no denying your talents--that they were
very great--that you had, unquestionably, been of much service to their
party, and that, consequently, it must be politic to attach you to their
interests; but that there was a certain fierte, and assumption, and he
might say (mark the climax) independence about you, which could not but
be highly displeasing in one so young; moreover, that it was impossible
to trust to you--that you pledged yourself to no party--that you spoke
only of conditions and terms--that you treated the proposal of placing
you in parliament rather as a matter of favour on your part, than on Lord
Dawton's--and, in a word, that there was no relying upon you. Lord Dawton
then took courage, and chimed in with a long panegyric on V--, and a long
account of what was due to him, and to the zeal of his family, adding,
that in a crisis like this, it was absolutely necessary to engage a
certain, rather than a doubtful and undecided support; that, for his
part, if he placed you in parliament, he thought you quite as likely to
prove a foe as a friend; that, owing to the marriage of your uncle, your
expectations were by no means commensurate with your presumption, and
that the same talents which made your claims to favour, as an ally,
created also no small danger in placing you in any situation where you
could become hurtful as an enemy. All this, and much more to the same
purpose, was strenuously insisted upon by the worthy pair; and your
friend was obliged to take his leave, perfectly convinced that, unless
you assumed a more complaisant bearing, or gave a more decided pledge, to
the new minister, it was hopeless for you to expect any thing from him,
at least, for the present. The fact is, he stands too much in awe of you,
and would rather keep you out of the House than contribute an iota
towards obtaining you a seat. Upon all this, you may rely as certain."