ed Jewish
disabilities. He had voted in this particular cause shortly after
his entrance into public life; it was in accordance with that general
principle of religious liberty to which he was an uncompromising
adherent; it was in complete agreement with the understanding which
subsisted between himself and the Protectionist party, when at their
urgent request he unwillingly assumed the helm. He was entreated not to
vote at all; to stay away, which the severe indisposition under which
he was then labouring warranted. He did not rudely repulse these latter
representations, as has been circulated. On the contrary, he listened
to them with kindness, and was not uninfluenced by them. Enfeebled by
illness, he had nearly brought himself to a compliance with a request
urged with affectionate importunity, but from which his reason and sense
of duty held him aloof. After long and deep and painful pondering, when
the hour arrived, he rose from his bed of sickness, walked into the
House of Commons, and not only voted, but spoke in favour of his
convictions. His speech remains, one of the best ever delivered on the
subject, not only full of weighty argument, but touched with a high and
even tender vein of sentiment.

This vote and speech of Lord George Bentinck no doubt mortified at the
moment a considerable portion of his followers, and occasioned great
dissatisfaction among a very respectable though limited section of
them. This latter body must either have forgotten or they must have been
strangely unacquainted with the distinct understanding on which Lord
George had undertaken the lead of the party, or otherwise they could
not have felt authorized in conveying to him their keen sense of
disapprobation. Unfortunately he received this when the House had
adjourned for the holidays, and when Mr. Bankes, who had been the organ
of communication with him in '46, was in the country, and when the party
was of course generally dispersed. Lord George did not take any pains to
ascertain whether the representation which was made to him was that of
the general feeling of a large party, or that only of a sincere, highly
estimable, but limited section. He was enfeebled and exhausted by
indisposition; he often felt, even when in health, that the toil of his
life was beyond both his physical and moral energies; and though he was
of that ardent and tenacious nature that he never would have complained,
but have died at his post, the opportunity of