"It is my opinion," ran one of his oracular sayings to Sir George Beaumont, "that a man of letters, and indeed all public men of every pursuit, should be severely frugal."

One would suppose that a reasonably frugal royal family, with no house-rent to pay, could subsist in tolerable comfort on some £2,250 a week; but as a matter of fact, Dom Carlos made large additional drafts on the treasury, which servile ministries honored without protest.

When foreign troops are hired, at a time like this, it is natural to expect that they have been procured by contracts uncommonly frugal; because no nation can be supposed to be lavish in a time of distress.