mbly where the majority are paid and hired, and a few bold and
able men, by their brave speeches, make the people believe they are
free."

And then again, with regard to religious liberty, what can be finer than
his protest against the spirit of persecution?--

"I admit there is a vast luxury in selecting a particular set of
Christians and in worrying them as a boy worries a puppy dog; it is an
amusement in which all the young English are brought up from their
earliest days. I like the idea of saying to men who use a different
hassock from me, that till they change their hassock, they shall never
be Colonels, Aldermen, or Parliament-men. While I am gratifying my
personal insolence respecting religious forms, I fondle myself into an
idea that I am religious, and that I am doing my duty in the most
exemplary (as I certainly am in the most easy) way."

It may perhaps be dangerous to persecute the Roman Catholics of Ireland.
They are many, they are spirited--they may turn round and hurt us. It might
be wiser to try our hands on some small body like the Evangelicals of
Clapham or the followers of William Wilberforce (at whom in passing he aims
a Shandeau sneer).--

"We will gratify the love of insolence and power; we will enjoy the
old orthodox sport of witnessing the impotent anger of men compelled
to submit to civil degradation, or to sacrifice their notions of truth
to ours. And all this we may do without the slightest risk, because
their numbers are (as yet) not very considerable. Cruelty and
injustice must, of course, exist: but why connect them with danger?
Why torture a bull-dog, when you can get a frog or a rabbit? I am sure
my proposal will meet with the most universal approbation. Do not be
apprehensive of any opposition from Ministers. If it is a case of
hatred, we are sure that one man[155] will defend it by the Gospel: if
it abridges human freedom, we know that another[156] will find
precedents for it in the Revolution."

As years went on, he was sometimes displeased by the doings of his Liberal
friends, but he was never "stricken by the palsy of candour"; he never
forsook the good cause for which he had fought so steadily, never made
terms with political deserters. After the Conservative triumph of 1841 he
wrote:--"The country is in a state of political transition, and the shabby
are preparing their consciences and o