unimpeachable and his honour without a stain--Lord St Vincent found
himself in the condition of a man who presses reform on those with
whom hitherto it has been only a watchword, and expects faction to act
up to its professions.

The Addington treaty was soon discovered to be nothing more than a
truce. Napoleon lived only in war; hostilities were essential to the
government which he had formed for France; and his theory of
government, false as it was, and his passion for excitement, whatever
might be its price, made even the two years of peace so irksome to
him, that he actually adopted a gross and foolish insult to the
British ambassador as the means of compelling us to renew the
conflict. The first result was, the return of Pitt to power; the next,
the total ruin of the French navy at Trafalgar; the next, the bloody
and ruinous war with Russia, expressly for the ruin of England through
the ruin of her commerce; and finally the crash of Waterloo, which
extinguished his diadem and his dominion together--a series of events,
occurring within little more than ten years, of a more stupendous
order than had hitherto affected the fate of any individual, or
influenced the destinies of an European kingdom.

With the ministry of Mr Addington, Lord St Vincent retired from public
life. He was now old, and the hardships of long service had partially
exhausted his original vigour of frame. He retired to his seat,
Rochetts in Essex, and there led the delightful life of a man who had
gained opulence and distinction by pre-eminent services, and whose old
age was surrounded by love, honour, and troops of friends. He appeared
from time to time in the House of Lords, where, however, he spoke but
seldom, but where he always spoke with dignity and effect.