man, his merited rank, his superior
eloquence, his splendid qualities, his eminent services, the vast space
he fills in the eye of mankind, and, more than all the rest, his fall
from power, which, like death, canonizes and sanctifies a great
character, will not suffer me to censure any part of his conduct. I am
afraid to flatter him; I am sure I am not disposed to blame him. Let
those who have betrayed him by their adulation insult him with their
malevolence. But what I do not presume to censure I may have leave to
lament. For a wise man, he seemed to me at that time to be governed too
much by general maxims. I speak with the freedom of history, and I hope
without offence. One or two of these maxims, flowing from an opinion not
the most indulgent to our unhappy species, and surely a little too
general, led him into measures that were greatly mischievous to himself,
and for that reason, among others, perhaps fatal to his
country,--measures, the effects of which, I am afraid, are forever
incurable. He made an administration so checkered and speckled, he put
together a piece of joinery so crossly indented and whimsically
dovetailed, a cabinet so variously inlaid, such a piece of diversified
mosaic, such a tessellated pavement without cement,--here a bit of black
stone and there a bit of white, patriots and courtiers, king's friends
and republicans, Whigs and Tories, treacherous friends and open
enemies,--that it was, indeed, a very curious show, but utterly unsafe
to touch and unsure to stand on. The colleagues whom he had assorted at
the same boards stared at each other, and were obliged to ask,--"Sir,
your name?"--"Sir, you have the advantage of me."--"Mr. Such-a-one."--"I
beg a thousand pardons."--I venture to say, it did so happen that
persons had a single office divided between them, who had never spoke
to each other in their lives, until they found themselves, they knew not
how, pigging together, heads and points, in the same truckle-bed.[11]

Sir, in consequence of this arrangement, having put so much the larger
part of his enemies and opposers into power, the confusion was such that
his own principles could not possibly have any effect or influence in
the conduct of affairs. If over he fell into a fit of the gout, or if
any other cause withdrew him from public cares, principles directly the
contrary were sure to predominate. When he had executed his plan, he had
not an inch of ground to stand upon. When he had accom