accurate expressions. His speeches may, and generally do, enlighten the minds of his audience, but they never produce any effect, or leave any impression. He is by no means a pleasant speaker, and nothing but the respect entertained for his private character and talents ensures the attention of the house. His manner is awkward. He makes a liberal use of his right arm at occasional intervals, and he has of late acquired a singular habit of turning his whole body from one part of the house to another. If his face be this moment towards the Woolsack, you see it the next towards the Bar. If he looks one time at Ministers-who are always opposite the place from which he addresses their Lordships-you see him, in an instant afterwards, with his back to them, and looking as earnestly in the faces of some of his own friends, as if he were inquiring of them, with the greatest solicitude, the state of their health. At one moment you see him standing quite erect, and holding up his head as if in the conscious justice of his cause; the next, his head is drooping on his breast, and his eyes are fixed on the floor of the house, if not on his own feet. By removing one of the benches, a considerable addition has been lately made to the space between the Oppositon benches and the table. I know of no Peer to whom this has proved so great an improvement as to Lord Wharncliffe. He duly avails himself of the extended room, by always moving_backwards and forwards when addressing their Lordships. Sometimes, indeed, he makes such use of it as actually to describe a circle of two or three yards in circumference.

The noble Lord has a wonderful command of his temper. Not only is there nothing impassioned in his usual manner of addressing the house, but even when he chances to become involved in a personal altercation, he evinces the greatest coolness and self-composure, however excited his opponent may be. His opinions are not of the extreme Tory class, but they are certainly becoming gradually more so.

Lord Wharncliffe has passed the meridian of life, being in his sixtieth year. He has all the appearance of possessing a healthy constitution. He is slightly above the average height, and well proportioned. He is somewhat negligent in his dress. He has an open, pleasing countenance, highly indicative of intelligence and of moral energy blended with urbanity. His face is angular, and his features are regular. His complexion is fair, and his hair of a sandy colour. He has an eagle eye, and a finely developed forehead.

Lord KENYON is not a man of vigorous or comprehensive mind. His intellectual acquirements are below mediocrity. He has never done anything in the House which would have brought his name with any prominence before the public; but his connexion with Orange Societies has done that for him in a more effectual manner than can be altogether agreeable to himself. For many years past he was known to be one of the most zealous supporters of Orangeism, but the late proceedings in the House of Commons have unfolded tales on that subject for which the community were not prepared. No man, I believe, with the exception of the very few persons equally imbued with Orangeism as himself, can justify the part he has lately acted as Deputy Grand Master of Orange Societies; but neither can any candid person deny him the merit-which is more than can be conceded to all the other Brethren"-of being perfectly sincere in his opinions and honest in his conduct. His errors are clearly the errors which result from ignorance. His faith in the happy tendency of his principles is so great, and his attachment to them is so decided, that he would not hesitate, a moment, should the necessity arise, in submitting to martyrdom for them. I recollect being near him when he presided last year, in Exeter Hall, at the great Protestant Meeting, to discuss the tenets of the Roman Catholics as embodied in the polemical works of the celebrated Peter Dens. On that occasion some indescribable scenes of uproar occurred in consequence of Lord Kenyon, who acted as chairman, having refused to hear any of the Roman Catholics, Some of the latter eventually became so indignant, that they threatened vengeance on his Lordship. A gentleman, who had overheard two of them saying Lord Kenyon should be a “marked man,” whispered to his Lordship the circumstance, expressing with a very serious countenance a hope that he would take care of himself; "Pooh! pooh!" exclaimed his Lordship, and then turned about his face to the person addressing the meeting, with as much coolness as if no such menace had been uttered.

His Lordship speaks but seldom in the house, and never at any great length; but he takes parts with some frequency in the altercations which occasionally occur between other Peers. He is an indifferent speaker: his voice is clear enough, and he is sufficiently audible, but he wants energy and animation in his manner. His matter never rises above commonplace; it is often below it. His style is generally bad; it is often at variance with the most ordinary rules of composition: it is never chaste or eloquent.

His Lordship is considerably advanced in life, being in his fifty-seventh year. He does not look quite so old. His complexion is florid, and his countenance has the impress of health on it. His nose is large, and of an aquiline form. His features are regular, and their general expression is pleasing, but by no means intellectual. His face is of the angular form. His hair is of a grayish colour, and is always remarkable for its shortness. He is about the middle size, and well proportioned. He is not particular about his toilet; but has a great partiality to a blue coat and light-coloured trousers.

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CHAPTER X.

PEERS WHO HAVE SEATS IN THE CABINET.

Lord Melbourne-The Marquis of Lansdowne-Lord HollandLord Duncannon.

THE office of Prime Minister, which Lord Melbourne has, with a short interval, filled since Earl Grey's retirement from it, has, as a matter of course, attracted all eyes towards him, and made him the subject of the deepest interest. I question if any man has attained to the same elevation, in the course of the last century and a half, of whom so little was previously heard. As Lord Melbourne, he was not extensively known before his accession to his present office: as the Hon. William Lamb, he was still less so. Under the latter name he was known only as a Tory, or, at best, but as a moderate Reformer. His answer to those who contrast his present liberal sentiments with the moderate principles he professed some years back, is, that he has gained wisdom by experience, and that not he only, but the nation, have made rapid progress, during the last eight or ten years, towards a more liberal order of things. He says, in short, in answer to those who reproach him with a dereliction of his early principles, that he is marching with the spirit of the age, and that he is acting up to the exigencies of the times. He is known to be one of the most liberal members of the Administration of which he is the head. It is well known how strenuously he stood up in his place in the House of Lords, for those clauses of the Municipal Corporation Bill which were eventually rejected by that body. It is an equally established fact, if I am not misinformed, though the public are not aware of it, that he strenuously contended, in the Cabinet Meetings held on the subject, that no concession, however trifling, ought to be made on that question to the Opposition Peers. His view of the matter was, that it would be vain to hope for conciliation on their part, however great the amount of concession made to them; that, in fact, the greater the concessions made, the more strenuous and determined in their орposition to the measure would they become. A majority of his colleagues, however, pointed out to him the frightful consequences which would, in all human probability, flow from a

collision between the two houses; and pressed on him the wisdom of meeting the wishes of the Lords, as far as it could be done without compromising their own characters for consistency, or impairing, to any great extent, the efficiency of the measure. He sacrificed his own individual opinions to the views entertained by a majority of his colleagues, and acquiesced in those modifications of the measure which secured to it the passive concurrence of the Tory Peers.

Lord Melbourne cannot be said to be a man of superior talents. He does not take comprehensive views of a great question, nor does he evince anything like vigour or acuteness in attempting to grapple with it. The predominant quality of his mind is the common-sense view which he takes of a subject, and the clearness with which he communicates his ideas to others. If you look in vain for any original or striking arguments in his speeches, you cannot fail to observe that he has Looked at the subject with the eye of a person of strong good sense; nor can you see him resume his seat, at the conclusion of his speech, without saying to yourself, that he has been remarkably clear and happy in the expression of his sentiments. His forte manifestly consists in singling out the strongest and most obvious arguments which can be advanced in favour of the view which he takes of the question, and bringing them before your mind with all the vividness of perception with which they appear to his own. Like Earl Grey, he trusts much to what he conceives the justice and expediency of his measures; and he is so convinced that they are both just and expedient, that he would not, if he could, make any ingenious or sophistical speech in their support. He states to you the leading grounds on which he brings his measures forward; he endeavours to force the conviction home on your minds, which presses with an immoveable weight on his own, that they are imperiously demanded by the exigencies of the case; and he also admonishes you, in the plainest terms the English language can supply, of what he fully believes will be the consequences of their rejection; and then leaves you to act as you think proper.

I never heard him attempt anything which could be called refined or ingenious argument. His speeches are so plain in their general tenour, that the dullest of comprehension may follow him with the greatest ease in everything he says. Whatever he may be in his study, he is no philosopher in the House of Lords. He deals not in general principles: what he says in a given speech, is so strictly applicable to the point immediately before the house, as if there were no other princinla