f useful to his party; he had also made himself personally
popular. To the ease and cordiality of his happy address, he added the
seemingly careless candour so often mistaken for honesty; while,
as there was nothing showy or brilliant in his abilities or
oratory--nothing that aspired far above the pretensions of others, and
aroused envy by mortifying self-love--he created but little jealousy
even amongst the rivals before whom he obtained precedence. For
some time, therefore, he went smoothly on, continuing to rise in the
estimation of his party, and commanding a certain respect from the
neutral public, by acknowledged and eminent talents in the details of
business; for his quickness of penetration, and a logical habit of mind,
enabled him to grapple with and generalize the minutiae of official
labour or of legislative enactments with a masterly success. But as the
road became clearer to his steps, his ambition became more evident and
daring. Naturally dictatorial and presumptuous, his early suppleness to
superiors was now exchanged for a self-willed pertinacity, which often
displeased the more haughty leaders of his party, and often wounded the
more vain. His pretensions were scanned with eyes more jealous and less
tolerant than at first. Proud aristocrats began to recollect that a
mushroom peerage was supported but by a scanty fortune; the men of
more dazzling genius began to sneer at the red-tape minister as a mere
official manager of details; he lost much of the personal popularity
which had been one secret of his power. But what principally injured
him in the eyes of his party and the public were certain ambiguous and
obscure circumstances connected with a short period when himself and his
associates were thrown out of office. At this time, it was noticeable
that the journals of the Government that succeeded were peculiarly
polite to Lord Vargrave, while they covered all his coadjutors with
obloquy: and it was more than suspected that secret negotiations between
himself and the new ministry were going on, when suddenly the latter
broke up, and Lord Vargrave's proper party were reinstated. The vague
suspicions that attached to Vargrave were somewhat strengthened in the
opinion of the public by the fact that he was at first left out of the
restored administration; and when subsequently, after a speech
which showed that he could be mischievous if not propitiated, he was
readmitted, it was precisely to the same office he