ry will ever be conscious of her true strength until
the war of the Continent is at an end. I more than doubt the wisdom of
suffering others to take the lead, which belongs to us by the right of
superior rank, superior prowess, and superior fame. I shall have but
slight regret for the fall of those outworks which--massive, nay,
majestic, as they are--waste the power of England by the division of
her force, and make us decline the gallant enterprize of the
field--ramparts and fosses which reduce us to defence, and which,
while they offer a thousand points of entrance to an active assault,
shut us in, and disqualify us from victory."

I now repeat this language of the moment, merely from later and long
experience of its truth. I fully believe, that if England had come
forward to the front of the battle in the early years of the war, she
would have crushed all resistance; or if she had found, by the chance
of things, the Continent impenetrable to her arms, she would have
surrounded it with a wall of fire, until its factions had left nothing
of themselves but their ashes.

I was now fully engaged in public life. The effort which I had made in
Parliament had received the approval of Pitt, who, without stooping to
notice things so trivial as style and manner on questions of national
life and death, highly applauded the courage which had dared to face
so distinguished a Parliamentary favourite as Sheridan, and had taken
a view of affairs so accordant with his own. From this period, I was
constantly occupied in debate; and, taking the premier for my model, I
made rapid proficiency in the difficult art of addressing a British
House of Commons. Of course, I have no idea of giving myself the
praise on this subject, which no man can give to himself on any,
without offence. But I felt that this was an _art_ which might escape,
and which had often escaped, men of distinguished ability, and which
might be possessed by men of powers altogether inferior. I must
acknowledge, that a portion of my success was owing to the advice of
that shrewdest, and at the same time most friendly, of human beings,
the secretary. "You must be a man of business," said he, "or you will
be nothing; for praise is nothing--popularity is nothing--even the
applause of the House is nothing. These matters pass away, and the
orators pass away with them. John Bull is a solid animal, and likes
reality. This is the true secret of the successes of hundreds of men
of