, not on the people.

Lord Mornington's was acknowledged to be the ablest speech on the
ministerial side; and though eclipsed by the richness and power of
Sheridan--and what speaker in the records of English eloquence ever
excelled him in either?--it yet maintained a distinguished superiority
in the force of its reasoning, and the fulness of its statements.
Sheridan, in his peroration, had thrown out some bitter pleasantries on
the ministerial favours, whose prospect he regarded as the only motive
of those abandonments which had left the Whig party suddenly so feeble.
"Is this a time," exclaimed the orator, "for selfish intrigues and the
little traffic of lucre? Is it intended to confirm the pernicious
doctrine, that all public men are impostors, and that every politician
has his price? Nay, even for those who have no direct object, what is
the language which their actions speak? 'The throne is in danger'--'we
will support the throne; but let us share the smiles of royalty.' 'The
order of nobility is in danger'--'I will fight for nobility,' says the
viscount. 'But my zeal would be much greater, if I were made an earl.'
'Rouse all the marquess within me!' exclaims the earl, 'and the peerage
never turned out a more undaunted champion in the cause.' 'Stain my
green riband blue,' cries out the gallant knight, 'and the fountain of
honour will have a fast and faithful servant.' But, what are the people
to think of our sincerity? What credit are they to give to our
professions? It there nothing which whispers to that right honourable
gentleman, that the crisis is too big, that the times are too gigantic,
to be ruled by the hackneyed means of ordinary corruption?"

Wyndham pronounced, that the speech of the noble lord had recapitulated
the conduct of France in a manner so true, so masterly, and so alarming,
"as to fix the attention of the House and the nation." Pitt spoke in
terms still more expressive. "The speech of my noble friend," said he,
"has been styled declamatory; on what principle I know not, unless that
every effort of eloquence, in which the most forcible reasoning was
adorned and supported by all the powers of language, was to be branded
with the epithet declamatory." This debate was decisive; two hundred and
seventy-seven voted for the vigorous prosecution of the war: for Fox's
amendment, _only_ fifty-seven. We have now to follow the career of the
noble lord to another quarter of the globe, where his presence was