desperate conflict with the despotism of revolutionary France, which
his firmness as much as the arm of Wellington brought to a triumphant
issue; his latter days in a ceaseless conflict with the revolutionary
spirit in his own country, and an anxious effort to uphold the dignity
of Great Britain and the independence of lesser States abroad. The
uncompromising antagonist of Radicalism at home, he was at the same
time the resolute opponent of despotism abroad. If Poland retained
after the overthrow of Napoleon any remnant of nationality, it was
owing to his persevering and almost unaided efforts, and at the very
time when the savage wretches who raised a shout at his funeral were
rejoicing at his death, he had been preparing to assert at Verona, as
he had done to the Congresses of Laybach and Troppau, the independent
action of Great Britain, and her non-accordance in the policy of the
Continental sovereigns against the efforts of human freedom.

"His policy in domestic affairs was marked by the same far-seeing
wisdom, the same intrepid resistance to the blindness of present
clamour. He made the most strenuous efforts to uphold the Sinking
Fund--that noble monument of Mr. Pitt's patriotic foresight; had those
efforts been successful, the whole National Debt would have been paid
off by the year 1845, and the nation _for ever_ have been freed from
the payment of thirty millions a-year for its interest. He resisted
with a firm hand, and at the expense of present popularity with the
multitude, the efforts of faction during the seven trying years which
followed the close of the war, and bequeathed the constitution, after a
season of peculiar danger, unshaken to his successors. The firm friend
of freedom, he was on that very account the resolute opponent of
democracy, the insidious enemy which, under the guise of a friend, has
in every age blasted its progress and destroyed its substance.
Discerning the principal cause of the distress which had occasioned
these convulsions, his last act was one that bequeathed to his country
a currency adequate to its necessities, and which he alone of his
Cabinet had the honesty to admit was a departure from former error.
Elegant and courteous in his manners, with a noble figure and finely
chiselled countenance, he was beloved in his family circle and by all
his friends, not less than respected by the wide circle of sovereigns
and statesmen with whom he had so worthily upheld the honour and
di