"His talents were, undoubtedly, above the level of mediocrity: they
have, however, been greatly overrated, on the supposition that several
powerfully written documents, put forth under his name, but composed
by some of his more highly-gifted friends, were his own productions.
His style was, in fact, much beneath his station: it was inelegant,
destitute of force, and even occasionally incorrect. He read his
speeches well, but not excellently: he possessed no eloquence,
although, as a convivial orator, he is said to have been rather
successful.

"At one time, while an associate of Sheridan, Erskine, Fox, &c., he
affected, in conversation, to be brilliant, and so far succeeded,
as to colloquial liveliness, that during their festive intercourse,
according to the witty barrister's own admission, 'he fairly kept up
at saddle-skirts' even with Curran. Notwithstanding this compliment,
his pretensions to wit appear to have been but slender; the best
sayings attributed to him being a set of middling puns, of which the
following is a favourable selection:--When Langdale's distillery was
plundered, during the riots of 1780, he asked why the proprietor had
not defended his property. 'He did not possess the means to do so,'
was the reply. 'Not the means of defence!' exclaimed the prince,
'and he a brewer--a man who has been all his life at _cart_ and
_tierce_!--Sheridan having told him that Fox had _cooed_ in vain to
Miss Pulteney, the prince replied, 'that his friend's attempt on the
lady's heart was a _coup maoquè_.'--He once quoted from Suetonius, the
words, '_Jure_ caesus videtur,' to prove, jestingly, that trial
by jury was as old as the time of the first Caesar.--A newspaper
panegyric on Fox, apparently from the pen of Dr. Parr, having been
presented to his royal highness, he said that it reminded him of
Machiavel's epitaph, 'Tanto nomini nullum _Par_ eulogium.'--A cavalry