t undeserved, for he was
assuredly the foremost gladiator of the whig party, and had given proofs
of more varied ability than any living politician or lawyer. But the
dignified eloquence of which he was capable on rare occasions was here
submerged in a flood of egotistical rhetoric, which carried him away so
far that he assumed a political independence which his colleagues deeply
resented, and even spoke of the king in a tone of patronage. Having
lowered himself in public opinion by these speeches, especially at
Inverness and Aberdeen, he attended a banquet in honour of Grey at
Edinburgh, where he provoked a passage at arms with Durham. The press,
and especially the _Times_ newspaper, which had formerly loaded him with
extravagant praises, now turned against him, and ridiculed him as a
political mountebank. But his worst enemy was the king. William IV.'s
ill-concealed impatience of whig dictation had at last been quickened
into disgust by this and other sources of irritation, when the sudden
death of Althorp's father, Earl Spencer, on November 10, gave him an
opportunity which he eagerly seized.

[Pageheading: _DESTRUCTION OF HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT._]

By a strange fatality, this event almost coincided with the destruction
by fire of the houses of parliament on October 16. This calamity was the
result of a carelessness, which it is easy to condemn after the event on
the part of some subordinate officials and the workmen employed by them.
Down to 1826, accounts had been kept at the exchequer by means of wooden
tallies, which were stored in what was called the tally-room of the
exchequer. This room was required in order to provide temporary
accommodation for the court of bankruptcy, and an order was given to
destroy the tallies. The officials charged with the task decided to burn
them in the stoves of the house of lords, and the work of burning began
at half-past six in the morning of October 16. The work, hazardous in
any case, was conducted by the workmen with a rapidity that their orders
did not justify; the flues used for warming the house were overheated,
and though the burning of the tallies was completed between four and
five, the woodwork near the flues must have smouldered till it burst
into flame about half-past six in the evening. In less than half an hour
the house of lords was a mass of fire. About eight a change in the wind
threw the flames upon the house of commons. That house was almost
completely destroyed