valship by posterity; but our own times have seen a
bolder war, a broader peace, and a richer development of science,
invention, and eloquence. For fifty years, England was pronounced to
have worn herself out by the prolific brilliancy of the half century
before; like a precocious infant, to have anticipated her powers, and
ensured their premature decay; like the Boeotians, to have had her
Pindaric period, and thenceforward to have paid for its raptures and
renown by perpetual darkness; or like the Israelites in Egypt, to be
condemned to drudgery for life, sunk into an intellectual
slave-caste;--when in the midst of the scoffing, or the sorrow,
suddenly arrived a new epoch, a new summons to the national genius, a
time of lofty interpositions, "thunderings in the air, and lightning
running along the ground," an era of the marvellous things of mind;
the chains fell off the hands, and the generation went forth, with a
new sense of superiority, into new scenes of knowledge, discovery, and
empire.

Whether it was my good or ill fortune to make my first effort in the
midst of the men whose names have immortalized their day, I shall not
venture to decide. But my resolve had been firmly taken--not to remain
in Parliament unless I discovered in myself faculties fit for its
service. I was determined not to play the mute if I had the means of
uttering a voice. But now the whole force of administration was
demanded; and I made up my mind to ascertain by trial, what no man can
be sure of without that trial, whether I possessed any capacity for
public life.

The subject on which I first spoke was an address to the throne, in
answer to the King's message on the war. On this night Pitt, but
lately recovered from a fit of his hereditary gout, spoke briefly, and
with evident feebleness of frame. Fox, whose energy seemed always to
depend on his rival's power, and whose eloquence always rose or fell
with the vigour or languor of the minister--Fox, never so great as
when Pitt put forth all his strength, on this night idled away his
hour, through the mere want of an antagonist; but Sheridan made ample
compensation for his leader. The House had fallen into lassitude, and
the benches were already thin when he arose. I had heard him as the
humorist on some trivial occasions of debate. I had enjoyed the social
pleasantry which placed him at the head of the wits; but I was still
but imperfectly acquainted with the strong sarcasm, the deep disda