ruin that without which they never could make a Government,
character; that the eyes of a great number whom they could by
no means command were upon them: I bade them look at the back
rows on the side of Opposition, and asked them if they could
count such men as Nicholson, Calvert, Halsey, Coke of Norfolk,
&c., &c., as their regular supporters, unless it was from
an esteem for their character--and if that character would
not sustain a deep wound in the outset--if, for the sake of
power, they allied themselves with a man who had deserted all
alliances he had ever made; that he had deserted them before,
after a treaty made, and had then deserted Perceval, after
endeavoring to undermine Castlereagh; his conduct to whom had
injured himself with the public in the most serious manner,
in having allowed him to retain his office and undertake that
melancholy expedition, five months after he had declared
him so incapable that he put his own resignation upon his
dismissal, that to ally with such a man could be only lowering
themselves in public esteem without gaining anything but a
hollow support. I would inform Canning myself, he added, that
this was my protest, if he asked me."

The heads of the "great Whig families," however, were more sanguine,
and hoped, or at least were occupied, to the last. Their treatment
by the Prince was characteristic; and one can fancy the magnates at
Adam's announcement in the following extract:

"What most offended them was the manner in which the Prince
announced his resolution. They were in the very act of forming
the Administration, filling offices, &c., &c., when Adam came
in from the Prince. They said they could not be disturbed;