If he yet breathes the vital air, may all prosperity attend him. Generous, friendly, amiable, with every social quality, he was much beloved by all who approached him with claims of intimacy, with as little of defect and error, as generally falls to the lot of human nature. Let us smile with the reader at two or three instances of pardonable inattention to the forms which the rank he held in life, seemed to call upon him to observe. He was always remarkable for his slovenly appearance, and disregard of dress. On one occasion, when he was invited by a noble relative to meet a person of high official situation in Ireland at dinner, the nobleman, aware of his nephew’s negligence in this particular, ventured to hint that he must come dressed. He was in consequence busily employed at his toilet, when his servant announced that a friend had called in his carriage to take him whither he was going. He hastened himself accordingly, but instead of putting on his dress silk stockings, he stuffed them into his pocket, and hurrying down the stairs, got into his friend’s carriage. When they arrived at the nobleman’s door, he remarked that he had been desired to come dressed, and he thought himself very smart. At this moment one of the silk stockings appeared hanging half way out of his pocket, and he exhibited the whimsical appearance of being in a full court dress, with a very dirty pair of worsted stockings. Fortunately, he had time to repair his inadvertency, by retiring into a private room, and exchanging the situation of the stockings. Upon another occasion, no less important than that of attending one of the state dinners of the Speaker of the House of Commons, our friend, as was indeed usually the case, finding himself too late, and not being able to divest himself very easily of his fashionable leather breeches, drew over them a thin pair of black silk. In the progress of the evening, however, the _leathers_, determining to preserve their ascendancy, worked themselves down a considerable way below the black silk, till they attracted universal notice, and excited general mirth. At another time he attended a fashionable masquerade, at which most of the dresses were very costly and splendid: our friend, however, went only with a mask, which he sometimes applied, and sometimes neglected to apply to his face. A paragraph accordingly appeared the next morning in one of the papers, stating that Mr. ⸺ was at the masquerade the preceding evening, and it was at first supposed that he was in the garb of an old cloathsman, but on observing him more carefully, it appeared that he was only in his customary dress. Adnisi certe sumus, ut quamlibet diversa genera lectorum per plures dicendi species teneremus. CHAPTER XXXI.