_Eger_. Your pardon, sir, I think he is the true Scot, and the true
citizen, who wishes equal justice to the merit and demerit of every
subject of Great Britain; amongst whom I know but of two distinctions.
_Sir Per_. Weel sir, and what are those? what are those?
_Eger_. The knave and the honest man.
_Sir Per_. Pshaw! rideeculous.
_Eger_. And he, who makes any other--let him be of the North, or of the
South--of the East, or of the West--in place, or out of place--is an enemy
to the whole, and to the virtues of humanity.
_Sir Per_. Ay, sir, this is your brother's impudent doctrine--for the
which, I have banished him for ever fra my presence, my heart, and my
fortune.--Sir, I will have no son of mine, because truly he has been
educated in an English seminary, presume, under the mask of candour, to
speak against his native land, or against my principles.
_Eger_. I never did--nor do I intend it.
_Sir Per_. Sir, I do not believe you--I do not believe you.--But, sir, I
know your connections and associates, and I know too, you have a saucy,
lurking prejudice against your ain country:--you hate it;--yes, your
mother, her family, and your brother, sir, have aw the same, dark,
disaffected rankling; and, by that and their politics together, they will
be the ruin of you--themselves--and of aw who connect with them.--However,
nai mair of that now;--I will talk at large to you about that anon.--In
the mean while, sir--notwithstanding your contempt of my advice, and your
disobedience till my commands, I will convince you of my paternal
attention till _your_ welfare, by my management of this voluptuary--this
Lord Lumbercourt,--whose daughter you are to marry. You ken, sir, that the
fellow has been my patron above these five and thraty years.,
_Eger_. True, sir.
_Sir Per_. Vary weel.--And now, sir, you see, by his prodigality, he is
become my dependent; and accordingly I have made my bargain with him:--the
devil a baubee he has in the world but what comes thro' these clutches--
for his whole estate, which has three implicit boroughs upon it,--mark--is
now in my custody at nurse;--the which estate, on my paying off his debts,
and allowing him a life rent of five thousand pounds per annum, is to be
made over till me for my life, and at my death is to descend till ye and
your issue.--The peerage of Lumbercourt, you ken, will follow of course.--
So, sir, you see there are three impleecit boroughs, the whole patrimony
of Lumbercourt, and a peerage at one slap.--Why it is a stroke--a hit--a
hit.----Zounds! sir, a mon may live a century and not make sic an a hit
again.
_Eger_. It is a very advantageous bargain indeed, sir:--but what will my
lord's family say to it?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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