'But there is a subject on which I wish to say a word,
and it shall be only a word. I allude to the noble, the
generous, the disinterested, the truly patriotic conduct
of the noble Duke in his Parliamentary course. At the
opening of the session the country was involved in
difficulty, and under very considerable embarrassment;
the spirit of faction had crossed the Atlantic; the demon
of discord was abroad; one of the most favoured and
interesting of our colonies was in revolt. The noble Duke
saw this, and seemed at once to decide that it would
require all the energies of the mother country to crush
the Hydra at its birth. Accordingly, when any measure was
brought forward tending to support the dignity, to uphold
the honour, and to secure the integrity of the empire,
the noble Duke invariably came forward and nobly
supported those measures. But the noble Duke did not stop
there: spurning the miserable practices of party spirit,
he upon many occasions offered his sage and solid counsel
to a Government which he had not been in the habit of
supporting. Gentlemen, I declare to you that this conduct
has made a deep impression on me. It appears to me that
this is the true character and conduct of a real patriot;
such conduct is, in my estimation, beyond all praise.'

[11] The impression which Lord Anglesey's speech made was
not such as his own report of it was calculated to
make. A word makes a difference, and he was supposed to
have said that the Duke had 'separated' himself from
faction, which implied censure on others and made it a
_political speech_, and though Anglesey says the Duke
was so pleased, Gurwood told me that in reply he merely
said 'He believed every man present would have done, in
his place, what he had done,' and he afterwards asked
Gurwood if he had said anything in his reply that could
_annoy_ Lord Anglesey, which looks as if he was not so
highly pleased as the former supposed him to be.
Gurwood said, 'We were all on thorns when he talked of
faction, and the Duke replied, "Poor man, he was
suffering very much, and he is not used to public
speaking, so that he did not know what he was saying."'
If Anglesey could hear this!

June 27th, 1838 {p.105}

[