reagh, whatever
detraction party hate may visit on his home politics, was a consummate
Ambassador. Not of that school which Talleyrand created, and of which he
was the head, but a man of unflinching courage, high determination, and
who, with a strong purpose and resolute will, never failed to make felt
the influence of a nation he so worthily represented. With this, he was
a perfect courtier; the extreme simplicity of his manner and address was
accompanied by an elegance and a style of the most marked distinction.
Another, but of a different stamp, was Lord Whitworth; one on whom all
the dramatic passion and practised outrage of Napoleon had no effect
whatever.

Sir Gordon remarked, that in this quality of coolness and
imperturbability he never saw any one surpass his friend, Sir Robert
Darcy. One evening when playing at whist, at Potzdam, with the late
King of Prussia, his Majesty, in a fit of inadvertence, appropriated to
himself several gold pieces belonging to Sir Robert. The King at last
perceived and apologised for his mistake, adding, "Why did you not
inform me of it?" "Because I knew your Majesty always makes restitution
when you have obtained time for reflection." Hanover was then on the
_tapis_, and the King felt the allusion. I must not forget a trait of
that peculiar sarcastic humour for which Sir Robert was famous. Although
a Whig--an old blue-and-yellow of the Fox school--he hated more than any
man that mongrel party which, under the name of Whigs, have carried on
the Opposition in Parliament for so many years; and of that party, a
certain well-known advocate for economical reforms came in for his most
especial detestation: perhaps he detested him particularly, because he
had desecrated the high ground of Oppositional attack, and brought it
down to paltry cavillings about the sums accorded to poor widows on
the Pension List, or the amount of sealing-wax consumed in the Foreign
Office. When, therefore, the honourable and learned gentleman, in the
course of a continental tour, happened to pass through the city where
Sir Robert lived as ambassador, he received a card of invitation to
dinner, far more on account of a certain missive from the Foreign
Office, than from any personal claims he was possessed of. The Member
of Parliament was a _gourmand_ of the first water; he had often heard
of Sir Robert's _cuisine_--various travellers had told him that such
a table could not be surpassed, and so, although desirou