ll a story, or etch
out a character, or condense an argument or statement. Beyond all men I
have ever known, he had the gift of seizing rapidly in every question
the central argument, the essential fact or distinction; and of all his
mental characteristics, quickness and soundness of judgment seemed to me
the most conspicuous. I have never met with anyone with whom it was so
possible to discuss with profit many great questions in a short time. No
one, too, could know him intimately without being impressed with his
high sense of honour, with his transparent purity of motive, with the
fundamental kindliness of his disposition, with the remarkable modesty
of his estimate of his own past. He was eminently tolerant of difference
of opinion, and he had in private life an imperturbable sweetness of
temper that set those about him completely at their ease, and helped
much to make them talk their best. Few men had more anecdotes, and no
one told them better--tersely, accurately, with a quiet, subdued humour,
with a lightness of touch which I should not have expected from his
writings. In addition to the experiences of a long and eventful life,
his mind was stored with the anecdotes of the brilliant Whig society of
Holland House, of which he was one of the last repositories. It is much
to be regretted that he did not write down his "Recollections" till a
period of life when his once admirable memory was manifestly failing. He
was himself sadly conscious of the failure. "I used never to confuse my
facts," he once said to me; "I now find that I am beginning to do so."

'He has mentioned in his "Recollections" as one of the great felicities
of his life that he retained the friendship of his leading opponents,
and his private conversation fully supported this view. Of Sir Robert
Peel he always spoke with a special respect, and it was, I think, a
matter of peculiar pleasure to him that in his old age his family was
closely connected by marriage with that of his illustrious rival. His
friendship with Lord Derby, which began when they were colleagues, was
unbroken by many contests. He spoke of him, however, as a man of
brilliant talent, who had not the judgment or the character suited for
the first place; and he maintained that he had done much better both
under Lord Grey and under Sir Robert Peel than as Prime Minister.
Between Lord Russell and Disraeli there was, I believe, on both sides
much kindly feeling, though no two men could be