or all France, for twenty-eight millions of men--over a portion of
society who had lost their rank, a body already sentenced by their
personal inefficiency--a caste, who, like a famished garrison, had been
starved by the sterility of the spot in which they had inclosed
themselves; or, like the Indian devotees, had turned themselves into
cripples by their pretence of a sacred superiority to the habits of the
rest of mankind."

Opposition still exhibited its ranks but slightly diminished, and the
chief passages of this impassioned appeal, which continued for three
hours, were received with all the fervour of party. Burke then rose.
Strong interest was directed to him, not merely for his eminent name,
but from the public curiosity to hear his explanation of that
estrangement which had been for some time spreading, under his auspices,
through the leading personages of the Opposition. Like most men who have
made themselves familiar with the works of a great writer, I had formed
a portraiture of him by anticipation. I never was more disappointed.
Instead of the expressive countenance and commanding figure, I saw a
form of the middle size, and of a homely appearance, a heavy
physiognomy, and the whole finished by two appurtenances which would
have been fatal to the divinity of the Apollo Belvidere, spectacles and
a wig. His voice and manner were scarcely less prepossessing; the one
was as abrupt and clamorous, as the other was rustic and ungraceful. He
had the general look of a farmer of the better order; and seemed, at
best, made to figure on a grand jury.

But I soon felt how trivial are externals in comparison of genuine
ability; or perhaps, how much even their repulsiveness may add to the
power of genius. I had listened but a few minutes when I forgot every
thing, except that a man of the highest faculties was before me; with
those faculties wrought to the highest tension by the highest subjects.
Taking a line of argument, equally distinct from the leaders of the
Ministry and the Opposition, he dwelt as little on the political views
of England and Europe with Pitt, as he did upon the revolutionary
regeneration of France and Europe with Fox. His view was wholly English;
the reference of the revolutionary spirit to our own institutions. "I do
not charge," he exclaimed, turning full on the Opposition bench,
"individuals with conspiracy; but I charge them with giving the sanction
of their name to principles, which have in the