with impunity to dawdle on months
after months at Naples for his pleasure, and leave affairs at
Constantinople to be managed or mismanaged by a Charge d'Affaires
who is altogether incompetent.

May 19th, 1833 {p.372}

[Page Head: RESPECT SHOWN TO WELLINGTON.]

They have found a Secretary for Ireland in the person of
Littleton,[8] which shows to what shifts they are put. He is rich,
which is his only qualification, being neither very able nor very
popular. The West India question is postponed. The Duke of
Wellington told me that he thought it would pass away for this
time, and that all parties would be convinced of the impracticability
of any of the plans now mooted. I said that nothing could do away
the mischief that had been done by broaching it. He thought 'the
mischief might be avoided;' but then these people do nothing to
avoid any mischief. I was marvellously struck (we rode together
through St. James's Park) with the profound respect with which the
Duke was treated, everybody we met taking off their hats to him,
everybody in the park rising as he went by, and every appearance
of his inspiring great reverence. I like this symptom, and it is
the more remarkable because it is not _popularity_, but a much
higher feeling towards him. He has forfeited his popularity more
than once; he has taken a line in politics directly counter to the
popular bias; but though in moments of excitement he is attacked
and vilified (and his broken windows, which I wish he would mend,
still preserve a record of the violence of the mob), when the
excitement subsides there is always a returning sentiment of
admiration and respect for him, kept alive by the recollection of
his splendid actions, such as no one else ever inspired. Much,
too, as I have regretted and censured the enormous errors of his
political career (at times), I believe that this sentiment is in a
great degree produced by the justice which is done to his
political character, sometimes mistaken, but always high-minded
and patriotic, and never mean, false, or selfish. If he has aimed
at power, and overrated his own capacity for wielding it, it has
been with the purest intentions and the most conscientious views.
I believe firmly that no man had ever at heart to a greater degree
the honour and glory of his country; and hereafter, when justice
will be done to his memory, and his character and conduct be
scanned with impartial eyes, if his capacity for government
appears