Englishmen were to be found so degraded as to be guilty of this
ingratitude.

Fortunately, the worst of the evil was averted, by the total
indifference of the Duke to all such demonstrations. The greatest men
have been despisers of mankind, of the swaying multitude, that is to
say, the unthinking, the headstrong, and the violent--not of necessity
merely, from that intrinsic superiority and natural antagonism which
forbid their commingling; but also, and with a more hearty potency, from
the experience which they, alternately the adored or the scorned, have
had of the inconstancy of the giddy people. In this light estimation,
indeed, of the judgment of their less worthy fellows, lies the secret of
their greatness and their strength. They ride towards their goal while
the stream tends that way, and when the course of the current is
diverted, they are not dismayed. Their scorn of the means leads them to
pass on by their own strength, or to rest secure on the foundation-rock
of our moral nature--principle, and the consciousness of duty done.

In April, 1832, on the motion for the second reading of the new Reform
Bill in the House of Lords, the Duke made a speech, characterised by
unqualified opposition to the measure, at a time when many of the
conservative peers (called "waverers,") were for giving it a qualified
support. But, after a defeat of ministers in committee, on Lord
Lyndhursts motion of the 7th of May, followed by their resignation, and
when the king, rather than agree to create peers, called on the Duke of
Wellington to form an administration, he expressed his readiness to do
so upon the principle of moderate reform.

This sudden inconsistency the public could not understand; the Duke's
avowed reason was that when called on by his sovereign he could not