e Treasury-bench and the table of the
House of Commons, turning around to his admiring partisans, and
filling the ear of his auditory with the deep full tones of a voice
that bespoke a colossal stature. Certain phrases which he used to
parrot still vibrated on my brain: "Bonaparte, the child and champion
of Jacobinism,"--"the preservation of social order in Europe,"--"the
destruction of whatever is dear to our feelings as Englishmen,"--"the
security of our religion, liberties, and property,"--"indemnity for
the past and security for the future," with which he used to bewilder
or terrify the plain country gentlemen, or the youths from Eton,
Oxford, or Cambridge, who constitute a majority of that House. His
success in exciting the passions of such senators in favour of discord
and war, his lavish expenditure of the public money in corrupting
others, and his insincerity in whatever he professed for the public
benefit, rendered him through life the subject of my aversion: but, in
this chamber, reduced to the level of ordinary men, and sinking under
the common infirmities of humanity, his person, character, and
premature decease became objects of interesting sympathy. Perhaps he
did what he thought best; or, rather, committed the least possible
evil amidst the contrariety of interests and passions in which he and
all public men are placed. This, however, is but a poor apology for
one who lent his powerful talents to wage wars that involved the
happiness of millions, who became a willing firebrand among nations,
and who, as a tool or a principal, was foremost in every work of
contemporary mischief. The love of office, and a passion for public
speaking, were, doubtless, the predominant feelings of his soul. To
gratify the former, he became the instrument of others, and thence the
sophistry of his eloquence and the insincerity of his character;
while, in the proud display of his acknowledged powers as an orator,
he was stimulated not less by vanity, than by the virtuous rivalry of
Fox. As a financier, he played the part of a nobleman who, having
estates, worth 20,000_l._ per annum, mortgages them to enable him to
spend 100,000_l._ and then plumes himself on his power, with the same
freeholds, to make a greater figure than his predecessors. But, except
for the lesson which he afforded to nations never to trust their
fortunes in the hands of inexperienced statesmen, why do I gravely
discuss the measures and errors of one who did n