or a moment supposed that he was insensible to what was occurring. He
was the most sensitive as well as the proudest of men. When the writer
called at Harcourt House, to bid him farewell, before the Christmas
holidays, and, conversing very frankly on the course which he was then
pursuing, inquired as to his future proceedings, Lord George said with
emotion: 'In this cause I have shaken my constitution and shortened
my days, and I will succeed or die.' In the course of the year 1848,
walking home, talking together, from the House of Commons, he twice
recurred to this terrible alternative.

But all considerations were merged at this moment in the predominant one
which was to keep the party together. He wrote to a friend at the end of
January, who urged him, as the hour of work approached and the injurious
inconveniences of his abdication would be more felt, to confer with his
former followers and reconsider his position, that no personal feeling
prevented his taking that course, but that he felt any resumption of
responsibility on his part would not be pleasing to a section of those
who formerly served with him, and that there would be a 'split' in the
ranks. 'As far as I am personally concerned,' he added, 'I could submit
to anything short of having my ears cut off and appearing as a "Croppy,"
to be free again. My pride cannot stand leading an unwilling party; I
would just as soon thrust myself into a dinner-room where I was at once
an uninvited and an unwelcome guest.'

In the meantime, according to his custom, the moment that he had
sufficiently recovered from his illness, he prepared with the utmost
zeal for the coming struggle respecting the fate of our sugar colonies,
in which subject he was soon absorbed.

Parliament reassembled on the 3rd of February, and on that night Lord
George Bentinck brought forward his motion for 'a select committee
to inquire into the present condition and prospects of the interests
connected with and dependent on sugar and coffee planting in her
Majesty's East and West Indian possessions and the Mauritius, and to
consider whether any and what measures can be adopted by Parliament for
their relief.' When he entered the House, Lord George walked up to the
head of the second bench below the gangway, on the opposition side,
and thus significantly announced that he was no longer the responsible
leader of the Protectionist party. It was the wish of the writer of
these pages, who had resolved