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THE

CORNHILL MAGAZINE.

JULY, 1878.

Young Brown.

CHAPTER I.

DUKE OF COURTHOPE.

IR Odo-Plantagenet-Clansgold-Kins

gear-Revel-Wyldwyl, K.G., Duke of Courthope and Revel, in the peerage of the United Kingdom; Marquis of Oldmyth, Earl of Allswon, and Baron Partizan, in the peerage of Great Britain; Earl and Viscount Kingsland in the peerage of Ireland; Earl of Winguid, in the peerage of Scotland; and a baronet, was naturally a great man before the first Reform Bill. He sent eleven Members to Parliament, and persons who owed everything to his patronage were to be found by those who sought after them, in every department of State. He had once condescended to accept the Vice-royalty of Ireland at the personal request of the Prince Regent, who liked to be splendidly represented; and had been for a short time a member of a Courtier Cabinet, which had loyally paid some of his Royal Highness's debts; but he was too magnifi

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cent a personage to care for office. He was a leader of that mighty oligarchy which controlled successive Ministries, and no party leader would have ventured to form a government without counting on his support or forbearance. He left his nominees in the House of Commons to vote much as they pleased on questions affecting their private interests; but directly any measure was brought forward which concerned himself or the privileges of nobility in general, his Grace, and some dozen or two of his personal friends, issued orders for its immediate withdrawal, and marched a compact body of their retainers down to Westminster to see that the business did not go any further.

Neither the Duke, nor any of his political connections, were unkind men. They kept great state in their country houses. They went abroad with trains of carriages, and set the populace agape with awe. They exacted an awe-stricken respect from every one who approached them, in an easy unaffected way, just as they expected that even a beefsteak, which was their favourite dish, should be served to them on gold plate, by a footman in livery. Those who paid them in full, and without haggling, all the deference they claimed as their birthright, had substantial reasons to be thankful for what they got in return. There was nothing out of the reach of the Wyldwyl influence. Places and pensions, bishoprics, commands in the army and navy, the enormously. paid sinecures of the law, and the best berths in the Civil service, which was then called the Service of the Crown, were among the least of the good things which depended on their favour; and they could demolish troublesome people as easily as they could crack nuts. Every one who had dealings with them knew as a fact beyond dispute, and concerning which even dispute was in a manner inexpedient, that they could make their displeasure felt when crossed too boldly. The stocks and the pillory were still in existence. A man might be whipped at the cart's tail by a resolute judge; and even justices of the peace could do strange things. Appeals might be made to the higher courts of law by stubborn people, but they were always costly and seldom successful; for witnesses were to be publicly seen walking about in the neighbourhood of the Old Bailey, with straws in their shoes, as a sign that they were to be hired, and a democrat who persistently made himself disagreeable and refused to mend his manners, might come to be hanged. The nobility were affable and condescending when amused, or indifferent; but not a few of them had shewn at odd times how sternly, and by what unscrupulous methods, they could avenge an affront without appearing openly in the matter. The sentiments of fear or gratitude they inspired, the universal servility with which they were treated by inferiors, did not depend on a slavish adherence to ancient custom: they were feelings based upon solid realities, and all sensible persons were aware that an abject subservience of the whims or interests of the hereditary masters of the country was the shortest way to wealth and honours. A nobleman could help or harm whomsoever he pleased, and if he

meant to be mischievous, there was no escape from him at home or abroad. A private note sent out in a king's messenger's bag received as much attention from Prince Metternich and Prince Polignac, or from Count Nesselrode, the Duke of Coutrofiano and the Italian courts, as a letter marked "confidential," despatched by mounted express to Lord Grenville or Lord Liverpool. Somehow or other, by hook or by crook, disaffected people, however cautious, got into difficulties and never got out of them. Noblemen were simply of opinion that the world, and all that in it is, was made for them, and nothing occurred for many years to shake their faith in that belief.

The Duke of Courthope, who lived at the close of the first quarter of the present century, had gone through the usual round of the pleasures and pains of a duke of the period. It was said that his youth had been wild; but this, if it meant anything, could only be supposed to signify that he formerly was rich and light-hearted. Old Mr. Mortmain indeed, the family solicitor, would sometimes look grave when the stories of twenty years before were mentioned in his hearing; a report had at one time been industriously circulated about a Scotch marriage and a daughter who had mysteriously disappeared, but who might, nevertheless, some day be proved heiress to the estates which mostly descended with the Scotch earldom of Winguid which his Grace had inherited from his mother. But this rumour died out, and the duke had long since been married by a prelate, whom he had placed on the Episcopal Bench, to Lady Mary Overlaw, sole heiress and representative of another duke, whose posterity were named as successors to the crown of England, under certain contingencies, by the will of Henry VIII. It was said in polite society, but it was not always said, that they had one son, a fine handsome young man with the family taste for enjoyment, and that the duchess had died without giving birth to any other children. Other people, perhaps better informed, averred that the duchess never had a son at all. It did not matter much. The Peerage printed that there was a Duke of Courthope, and that was enough for polite society's purposes. The bereaved widower did not take his wife's death much to heart; perhaps he was otherwise engaged, for there were many things which occupied his attention just then. He entertained Louis XVIII., and many of the French lords who followed him into exile, with such princely splendour that heavy charges on his property, and troublesome annuities, which subsequently inconvenienced his Grace considerably, began to take a vexatious shape about this time. Also he contested several elections to keep the disciples of Hunt and Cobbett out of public life, as Members for constituencies which were disposed to show an awkward hankering after independence. Notably, one Brown, a Scotch merchant, who had made a fortune from very humble beginnings in the East Indies, opposed the duke's nominee for a family borough, with a rancour and bitterness which seemed to arise from personal antipathy. The violent goings-on of this Brown, who had impudently bought some

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