GENERAL PALMER
This excellent man had the last days of his life embittered
by the money-lenders. He had commenced his career surrounded by every
circumstance that could render existence agreeable; fortune, in his
early days, having smiled most benignantly on him. His father was a
man of considerable ability, and was to the past generation what Rowland
Hill is in the present day - the great benefactor of correspondents.
He first proposed and carried out the mail-coach system; and letters,
instead of being at the mercy of postboys, and a private speculation
in many instances, became the care of Government, and were transmitted
under its immediate direction.
During the lifetime of Mr. Palmer, the reward due to him for his suggestions
and his practical knowledge was denied; and he accordingly went to Bath,
and became the manager and proprietor of the theatre, occasionally treading
the boards himself, for which his elegant deportment and good taste
eminently qualified him. He has often been mistaken for Gentleman Palmer,
whose portrait is well drawn in the Memoir of Sheridan by Dr. Sigmond,
prefixed to Bohn's edition of Sheridan's plays. Mr. Palmer was successful
in his undertaking, and at his death, his son found himself the inheritor
of a handsome fortune, and became a universal favourite in Bath.
The corporation of that city, consisting of thirty apothecaries, were,
in those borough-mongering days, the sole electors to the House of Commons,
and finding young Palmer hospitable, and intimate with the Marquis of
Bath and Lord Camden, and likewise desiring for themselves and their
families free access to the most agreeable theatre in England, returned
him to Parliament.
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