however, as it may, I venture to suggest, whether, after the manner of the conductors of our Opera here, who hire at Paris second-rate dancers to be first in our ballets, I might not be authorised to endeavour to try to engage in London a company of second-rate politicians to set the Constitution a-going.

"Of course I should naturally turn my eyes to my own friends, or, as we call them, the Opposition; firstly, because they never have exhibited that determined hostility to his Majesty which all other classes of the country have shewn; secondly, because they are, in their and my opinion, the greatest statesmen and constitutionalists of the age; and lastly, because I can have them, I believe, at a very reasonable rate.

"I do not promise myself that I should be able to engage any of the first-rate performers. Lord GREY, I apprehend, would hardly give up the place of first sericus man at Westminster, to be a buffo at

Paris. Lord GRENVILLE, I fear, recollects his old quarrel with the Emperor, when First Consul. My friend WHITBREAD would do very well in many particulars, but as you have SANTERRE,* you would hardly want a person of that character; besides, I believe in my heart that we should not keep him quiet three days, and that he would be in Vincennes in the course of a week. Indeed, I consider personal vanity and selfish arrogance so much the great bases of his character, that if he were placed under the Emperor's Government, he would soon declaim against it, if he dared, as loudly as he does against his own.

"As to TIERNEY, I don't well know what to say. -With all the apparent phlegm of a John Bull, he is as versatile as a Frenchman; and, indeed, I doubt whether he could be made any thing of, except in Opposition. His hostility might be advantageous to your budget, for we observe here that our financial * Mr. Santerre was like Mr. Whitbread, an eminent Brewer.

affairs never succeed so well as under his denun

ciations of ruin.

"Of Mr. PONSONBY, his own friends here would give you a bargain; but I suppose he would hardly be induced to move again at his time of life, as he is considerably above 45 years old, which is the utmost limit of age he allows to any political exertion, and I really do not know what you could do with him, unless it was to make him Chancellor-for which, however, he would not answer much better than our round little friend, CAMBACERES; he has also a pension in Ireland of 100,000 francs, which it might distress your treasury to make good.

"I shall now proceed to mention to you some other persons who appear to me to have the kind of talent that would answer my design, if the continuance of a state of peace should encourage them to make a tour to Paris.

66

Sir GILBERT HEATHCOTE is an *old gentleman,

* I have not been able to discover why Sir G. H. is called old his appearance does not account for it.-E.

who, while I was in France, proposed himself, I understand, for the situation of Prime Minister in England* his disappointment in that object might induce him to take a subordinate office; he might be elected one of the members for Gascony, and would be useful in laying down certain undeniable propositions very proper to be stated in the infancy of legislation.

"Mr. BENNET, if there is, as I said, a prospect of continued peace, would make an excellent Minister at War-il a les manières gracieuses; and utters, as poor TALLIEN used to do, the most vehement opinions and the most abusive language, in the mildest manner: he has, if I may use the expression, a polite emptiness of head and heart, which I think not at all ill suited (you will forgive my partiality for a friend) to the Parisian climate.

"Lord DARNLEY is a Kentish Nobleman, who has turned his attention chiefly to farming and sea

affairs,* in which he is equally skilled. I wish I could persuade myself that he would accept the Ministère de la Marine; in the event of a war he might continue to hold that office, as there is no way in which he could better serve his native country.

"Mr. PRESTON, who was proposed as Lord Chancellor in Sir GILBERT HEATHCOTE'S Administration,+ is a perfect economist, and might be made equally useful as Premier Procureur de S. M., or President de la Société Agricole; but he has the disadvantage of understanding neither farming nor French, on which account he has latterly employed himself in translating MIRABEAU's treatise on the Cultivation of Land.

"Lord KING, as Ministre du tresor Public, might have an opportunity of reviving a reputation on that subject, which lasted a few days amongst us

* It appears that the Earl of Darnley, about this period, made several motions on the subject of the naval administration.

† See page 70.

H