The Sun.
London, England, 1856-11-18 00:00:00

whatever ? When cautious Peel and grim old
Wellington had given in on the Catholic question,
old Eldon, who stuck to it, went to him, and found
him irresolute, weak-minded, refusing to give even
an opinion, and only asking that he should not
again be required to beg his ministers to stay with
him. Even Eldon seems to have lost his wonder-
ful patience, and to have scorned him.
Turning to his domestic life, narrating " the little
that could be told," Mr. Thackeray accompanied
Lord Malmesbury to Brunswick to bring home the
Princess Caroline, of whose fair hair, blue eyes—
even of her toilet, respecting which Lord Mathias-
bury on good grounds advised her to be particular
—the audience were favoured with glimpses. He
would not carry his hearers through the story--
how, at first saluting her, the First Gentleman of
Europe turned to Lord Malmesbury with "Harris,
get me a glass of brandy '—how he hiccupped out
his vows at the altar—and how he kept them.
With the vagaries of the unhappy Princess he
would not deal, but when put upon her trial, " I
vote," said Mr. Thackeray, "she is Not Guilty.
I don't say it is an impartial verdict ; but as one
reads her story the heart beats for that poor out-
raged woman. If wrong there be, let it lie at his
door who wickedly thrust her from him. And yet
he was called the First Gentleman in Europe !
There is no greater satire on the proud English
society of that day than that they admired this
George !"
Some men there were of that time who merited
the title of gentleman, and whose memory would
be fondly cherished when that of yonder monarch
would be buried in oblivion. Walter Scott loved
the king, and championed him like the brave
Highlander, in his own story, who fought round a
chief unworthy of his loyalty. What honest zeal,
what generous devotion, what amiable love was
that of the noble Sir Walter ! There was another
man of letters of that day—Robert Southey, whose
life would long be remembered, for it was sublime
in its simplicity, its energy, its honour, and its
affection. And since heaven made gentlemen,
there was no record of a better than Cuthbert Col-
lingwood. Of braver deeds they might read, but
nowhere of more beautiful love of duty—of a
gentler, truer heart. Beyond the dazzle of success
and the blaze of genius, he loved a hundred and a
hundred times better the sublime purity of Col-
lingwood's gentler glories. As one read of him
and Nelson going into the victory with which their
name was connected, how the old feeling of Chris-
tian honour came on one ! What gentlemen they
were ! What gallant hearts they had ! Reginald
Heber, the divine, was also one of the best of
English gentlemen coun selling his pr ople in
trouble, aiding them in difficulties, and comforting
them in distress. Love and duty was his life's aim.
In 1784, when the first ball was given in honour
of the Prince who was entering upon his life-long
course of vanity, another scene was enacting on the
opposite side of the Atlantic. Washington, the
patriot, was sheathing his sword after a public life
of spotless purity—resigning the power which he
had used so nobly and so effectually. With a power-
ful contrast between the magnanimous acts and
simple language of George Washington, and the
emptiness, heartlessness, and folly, that from the
first characterised Prince George of England, Mr.
Thackeray concluded his lecture amidst great ap-
plause.