his
education. His father, proud of his talents, had intended him for a seat
in Parliament; but Mr. T--- himself prefers the easy enjoyments of
private life, and has kept himself aloof from politics and parties. Were
I to form an estimate of his qualifications to excel in public speaking,
by the clearness and beautiful propriety of his colloquial language, I
should conclude that he was still destined to perform a distinguished
part. But he is content with the liberty of a private station, as a
spectator only, and, perhaps, in that he shows his wisdom; for
undoubtedly such men are not cordially received among hereditary
statesmen, unless they evince a certain suppleness of principle, such as
we have seen in the conduct of more than one political adventurer.

The next in point of effect was young C--- G---. He evidently languished
under the influence of indisposition, which, while it added to the
natural gentleness of his manners, diminished the impression his
accomplishments would otherwise have made. I was greatly struck with the
modesty with which he offered his opinions, and could scarcely credit
that he was the same individual whose eloquence in Parliament is by many
compared even to Mr. Canning's, and whose firmness of principle is so
universally acknowledged, that no one ever suspects him of being liable
to change. You may have heard of his poem "On the Restoration of
Learning in the East," the most magnificent prize essay that the English
Universities have produced for many years. The passage in which he
describes the talents, the researches, and learning of Sir William Jones,
is worthy of the imagination of Burke; and yet, with all this oriental
splendour of fancy, he has the reputation of being a patient and
methodical man of business. He looks, however, much more like a poet or
a student, than an orator and a statesman; and were statesmen the sort of
personages which the spirit of the age attempts to represent them, I, for
one, should lament that a young man, possessed of so many amiable
qualities, all so tinted with the bright lights of a fine enthusiasm,
should ever have been removed from the moon-lighted groves and peaceful
cloisters of Magdalen College, to the lamp-smelling passages and factious
debates of St. Stephen's Chapel. Mr. G--- certainly belongs to that high
class of gifted men who, to the honour of the age, have redeemed the
literary character from the charge of unfitness for the concerns