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382 through the influence of Lord Radnor, to represent in Parliament the borough of Downton. A report to this effect reached him while at Brussels, and on his return, he found a letter awaiting him, announcing the event. Referring to his "Book of the Church," the writer adverted to the principles there so perspicuously advocated, proposing to him the single requisition, as a public man, "Ut sustineat firmiter, strenue et continue, quæ ipse bene docuit esse sustinenda." But he was not possessed of the necessary property qualification, and a plan was proposed to purchase one by subscription, in which Sir Robert Inglis greatly interested himself. He was amazed on hearing of this further endeavour to induce him to enter Parliament. "I rubbed my eyes," he writes, "to ascertain that I was awake, and that this was no dream." But he declined to countenance any such attempt to divert him from his settled course of life, and wrote to the Speaker, announcing his election as void, on account of his ineligibility.

In 1829, his household was further diminished, by the marriage of Miss Coleridge, who, with her mother, quitted his roof, after an abode there of twenty-six years; and not long afterwards his eldest daughter married, and left to reside in Sussex.

In October of the following year he paid one of his customary visits to London, and entered more into society than was his wont on such occasions. He dined with the Duchess of Kent, and was gratified by the Princess Victoria, then but eleven years of age, thanking him for the pleasure she had received in reading his "Life of Lord Nelson." He dined also with the Archbishop of Canterbury, and received invitations from the Duke of Wellington and other prominent men. At the levee, to his surprise, his hand was grasped and warmly shaken by the Lord Chancellor Brougham, who seemed to have forgotten his