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30 My lot has been cast in troubled times, and glad should I have been to have saved you from the responsibility of that decision which I have found a heavy burden. In private conduct you are called upon to act according to your conscience, and your guide is infallible. In public you act according to your ability, and, God knows! that is often insufficient to decide amid conflicting events. How differently, at different times, do we view the same things! Now, who can admit this, yet not distrust his judgment? I had hoped that, our troubles being ended, you might on your return to England have seen no cause for hesitation; but such is the unsettled state of affairs, that, alas! expediency seems now your mean but only guide."

"Methinks, my father, I need do little but follow in your steps, and ask for your advice."

"Alas, Robert! it is for the aged, they say, to give advice; the aged, who, perforce, must know its inefficiency—for advice to be useful it must suit the circumstances; and when do circumstances fall out according to expectation? When I stood by the side of Hampden, contending against a heavy oppression, and for an undeniable right, who could have thought that his refusal to