Some LETTERS OF PaTRICK MILLER. 135 
Seven years later Miller was faced with that very same 
contingency—a French invasion—and his instant and 
magnificent answer to his country’s call is too well known to 
quote here. 
Towards the close of 1795 Miller’s eldest son became 
engaged to Lady Mallet, daughter of Lord Lisburne, a con- 
templated union to which his father readily consented, agree- 
ing to allow the couple 4500 a year and to vest 20,000 on 
them at his death. The subject was productive of a charac- 
teristic letter from Miller’? :— 
‘‘ The way in which I rank these requisites [for a 
happy marriage] are: 
‘* Firstly—Strict probity and good principles, and a 
good education, moral and religious. 
““ Secondly—Goed sense and good temper. 
‘* Thirdly—Good looks, in which are included health, 
elegance of manners, and good taste in dress; which last 
is a talent very different from expense and extravagance in 
dress. 
‘* Fourthly—The female accomplishments that adorn 
and are useful in life. 
‘© Fifthly—Connections which should be respectable 
and not high in Rank . . . as the latter is in general 
accompanied with such a portion of folly and expectation 
as to be incompatible with true domestic happiness. 
‘* Lastly—Fortune.’’%? 
But the marriage never took place, and at the elections 
of 1796 Captain Miller retired into private life, and at once 
became a source of financial embarrassment to his father. 
The remaining letters show Miller struggling with 
financial stringency, resolutely carrying out his estate improve- 
ments, and resisting the increasing demands of his son. He 
had purchased Dalswinton in 1785, without seeing it, and 
he has recorded that when he went to view his purchase he 
was so much disgusted that he meant never to return to it. 
He at once set to work to improve it. In 1790 there is. men- 
tion of ‘‘ the building of the new house.’’*! To improve the 
sheep stock he followed the example of Sir John Sinclair and 
