for public life, for parliamentary business, or indeed for
business of any sort, the whole tenor of his life was
consistent with this opinion of himself. Had he attempted to
effect what belongs only to characters of another stamp -had
he endeavoured to take a lead in the House of Commons-had he
sought for place, dignity, or office-had he aimed at intrigue,
or attempted to be a tool for others-then, indeed, he might
have deserved the appellation of artificial, eccentric, and
capricious.

>From the retreat of his father, which happened the year after
he entered parliament, the only real interest he took in
politics was when their events happened immediately to concern
the objects of his private friendships. He occupied himself
with what really amused him. If he had affected any thing, it
would certainly not have been a taste for the trifling
occupations with which he is reproached. Of no person can it
be less truly said, that "affectation was the essence of the
man." What man, or even what woman, ever affected to be the
frivolous being he is described? When his critic says, that
he had "the soul of a gentleman-usher," he was little aware
that he only repeated what Lord Orford often said of
himself-that from his knowledge of old ceremonials and
etiquettes, he was sure that in a former state of existence,
he must have been a gentleman-usher,-about the time of
Elizabeth.

In politics, he was what he professed to be, a Whig, in the
sense which that denomination bore in his younger days,-never
a Republican.