16 1 The Cabinet Novel. [Aua. 



which has been made. It is not, however, the intention of the great indi- 

 vidual I alluded to in my last note to depart from the usual course pur- 

 sued upon these occasions. 



I am the person upon whom the choice has fallen quite undeserving as 

 I necessarily must be of so high a promotion and 



I remain, my dear Duke, 



Your's, very faithfully, 



GEORGE THUNDERGUST. 

 No. 4. 



My dear Mr. Thundergust, 



Although all who know your surprising powers must almost worship 

 their fortunate possessor, yet, as I am quite assured that the political 

 objects you intend patronising are quite incompatible with the career I 

 have proposed myself, I must decline to act with you upon any occasion ; 

 and I sincerely regret my inability to benefit my country, or oblige my 

 Sovereign in this respect. 



I remain, dear Mr. Thundergust, 



Very faithfully your's, 



GENERALES. 



VI. 



THE SOIREE. 



"A a a Sir Michael/' said Richard L' Elegant, of Mount's Cottage, 

 at my Lady Cunningtongue's party " a who is our new premier, that is 

 to say, a what is he? any body we know ?" "Why," returned the 

 person to whom this was addressed, " every body knows George Thunder- 

 gust." " The son of a wine merchant" " Oh !" " They made out Wolsey 

 to be the son of a butcher, and Thomas Cromwell a descendant of the 

 same trade, with much the like veracity," said an elderly man, who hap- 

 pened to overhear, and thought it becoming to take up the conversation. 

 He then passed on "Who is that?" inquired L' Elegant, of his tte-&-tete 

 acquaintance. " I don't know," was the answer. "A he looks like a 

 man who never opened a general post letter in his life ha !" > <; But, 

 L'Elegant the premier he is a connection of the Duke of Oporto; 

 I was a schoolfellow of his eldest son, the poor man who died ; and ho 

 told me that his uncle, Thundergust, would, most assuredly, be at the head 

 of every thing, and this was five and twenty years ago." 



"A charming person that Thundergust, upon my soul ; my dear," said 

 the Countess St. Elio to Lady Laura, " the soul and saviour of the country, 

 beyond a doubt." " Poor Lord Wilderness !" returned the Lady Laura ; 

 " Poor jackanapes, my dear; hear what my Lady Cunningtongue will say 

 of him.'* At these words a most reverend person near uttered a very deep 



sigh. " Aye, there now there is a fellow preaching about learning 



and integrity." " If a what is that ?" said L'Elegant, who had lounged 

 to the spot " Nothing that we have any concern with, Marplot," returned 

 the lady, and she flirted off. 



" He must be kept up to the mark," said a dignified woman, in a half 

 whisper, to a gentleman, with just sufficient jocosity to denote a grandee; 

 " highly irritated you see, and circumbendibus no part of his family doctrine 

 -very wrong of these big wigs to desert Rex mind that, mind that." 

 " But I don't know whether we are right in going such lengths the liberal 

 policy of tho country the temper of the times" and she touched the 



