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The Works of Lord Byron, Letters and Journals, Volume 1 by Baron George Gordon Byron Byron
page 99 of 528 (18%)
obliged to you, as I hate strangers. Adieu, my Beloved Sister,

I remain ever yours,

BYRON.



[Footnote 1: Henry Dundas (1742-1811), created Viscount Melville in
1802, Lord Advocate (1775-83), made himself useful to Lord North's
Government as a shrewd, hard-working man of business, a ready
speaker--in broad Scotch, and a consummate election agent. For twenty
years he was the right-hand man of Pitt--

"Too proud from pilfered greatness to descend,
Too humble not to call Dundas his friend."

Not only was he Pitt's political colleague, but in private life his boon
companion. A well-known epigram commemorates in a dialogue their
convivial habits--

'Pitt'. "I cannot see the Speaker, Hal; can you?"
'Dundas'. "Not see the Speaker, Billy? I see two."

Melville, for a long series of years, held important political posts. He
was Treasurer of the Navy (1782-1800); member of the Board of Control
for India (1784-1802) and President (1790-1802); Home Secretary
(1791-94); Secretary of War (1794-1801); First Lord of the Admiralty
(1804-5). In 1802 a Commission had been appointed to examine into the
accounts of the naval department for the past twenty years, and, in
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