230 'OLD Q 



mentary election, are too authentically recorded to be 

 denied. But these acts seem to me more sudden 

 outbursts of generosity by his grace than emanating 

 from the command of the apostle, in. its benevolent 

 meaning, ' Above all things charity.' This never had 

 been Queensberry's maxim, except in a ' homely sense,' 

 where it often stays. Nevertheless, if we cannot do 

 great mercies, let us be content with small ones, seems 

 to have been the spirit in which the Duke regarded 

 his charitable contributions, which leads to the sup- 

 position : if a generous gift was made now and again 

 by him who no more missed the douceur than the 

 ocean a drop of water. Now, whether these few and 

 far-between offerings can be deemed worthy of the 

 name of that cloak, charity, which covers a ' multi- 

 tude of sins,' I will not venture to say. If it should 

 be so, then his grace was certainly endeavouring to 

 ' macadamise ' the narrow but thorny path of virtue 

 with a vengeance. 



One of the most popular of those charitable out- 

 bursts of his grace was his subscribing to the Patriotic 

 Fund, a fund to which some little notice has been ac- 

 corded of late by those ' nasty, prying papers.' Thus, 

 on November 25th, 1805, he subscribed one thousand 

 pounds, or, rather, his name appears for that sum in 

 the list of subscribers issued on that date ; while that 



