red
to him at Glennaquoich was of a different and more interesting
complexion. It would be impossible for the reader, even were I to insert
the letters at full length, to comprehend the real cause of their being
written, without a glance into the interior of the British cabinet at the
period in question.

The ministers of the day happened (no very singular event) to be divided
into two parties; the weakest of which, making up by assiduity of
intrigue their inferiority in real consequence, had of late acquired some
new proselytes, and with them the hope of superseding their rivals in the
favour of their sovereign, and overpowering them in the House of Commons.
Amongst others, they had thought it worth while to practise upon Richard
Waverley. This honest gentleman, by a grave mysterious demeanour, an
attention to the etiquette of business rather more than to its essence, a
facility in making long dull speeches, consisting of truisms and
commonplaces, hashed up with a technical jargon of office, which
prevented the inanity of his orations from being discovered, had acquired
a certain name and credit in public life, and even established, with
many, the character of a profound politician; none of your shining
orators, indeed, whose talents evaporate in tropes of rhetoric and
flashes of wit, but one possessed of steady parts for business, which
would wear well, as the ladies say in choosing their silks, and ought in
all reason to be good for common and every-day use, since they were
confessedly formed of no holiday texture.

This faith had become so general that the insurgent party in the cabinet,
of which we have made mention, after sounding Mr. Richard Waverley, were
so satisfied with his sentiments and abilities as to propose that, in
case of a certain revolution in the ministry, he should take an
ostensible place in the new order of things, not indeed of the very first
rank, but greatly higher, in point both of emolument and influence, than
that which he now enjoyed. There was no resisting so tempting a proposal,
notwithstanding that the Great Man under whose patronage he had enlisted,
and by whose banner he had hitherto stood firm, was the principal object
of the proposed attack by the new allies. Unfortunately this fair scheme
of ambition was blighted in the very bud by a premature movement. All the
official gentlemen concerned in it who hesitated to take the part of a
voluntary resignation were informed that the king