Lord George Bentinck | Page 5

gain the vote of Mr. Hildyard, who had been returned that day for
South Notts, having defeated a cabinet minister, Lord George remained
motionless until long past midnight. Mr. Cobden having spoken on the
part of the confederation, the closing of the debate was felt to be
inevitable. Even then, by inducing a Protectionist to solicit the

Speaker's eye, Lord George attempted to avert the division; but no
supporter of the government measure, of any colour, advancing to reply
to this volunteer, Bentinck was obliged to rise. He came out like a lion
forced from his lair. And so it happened, that after all his labours of
body and mind, after all his research and unwearied application and
singular vigilance, after having been at his post for a month, never
leaving the House, even for refreshment, he had to undertake the most
difficult enterprise in which a man can well embark, with a concurrence
of every disadvantage which could ensure failure and defeat. It would
seem that the audience, the subject, and the orator, must be equally
exhausted; for the assembly had listened for twelve nights to the
controversy, and he who was about to address them had, according to
his strange habit, taken no sustenance the whole day; it being his
custom to dine after the House was up, which was very often long after
midnight, and this, with the exception of a slender breakfast, rigidly
restricted to dry toast, was his only meal in the four-and-twenty hours.
He had been forced to this regimen, from food exercising a lethargic
influence over him; so that, in addition to some constitutional weakness
in his organ, he usually laboured, when he addressed the House, under
the disadvantage of general exhaustion. And this was, no doubt, a
principal cause of that over-excitement and apparently unnecessary
energy in his manner of speaking, of which he was himself perfectly,
and even painfully, conscious. He was wont to say, that before he could
speak he had to make a voice, and, as it were, to pump it from the very
core of his frame. One who took a great interest in his success once
impressed on him the expediency of trusting entirely to his natural
voice and the interest and gravity of his matter, which, combined with
his position as the recognized leader of a great party, would be
adequate to command the attention of his audience; and he
subsequently endeavoured very often to comply with this suggestion.
He endeavoured also very much to control his redundancy of action and
gesture, when that peculiarity was pointed out to him with the delicacy,
but the sincerity, of friendship. He entirely freed himself from a very
awkward feature of his first style of speaking, namely, the frequent
repetition of a sentence, which seemed at first a habit inveterate with
him; but such was his force of will, that when the necessity of ridding

himself of this drawback was properly pointed out to him, he achieved
the desired result. No one bore criticism more gently and kindly, so
long as it was confined to his personal and intellectual characteristics,
for he was a man absolutely without vanity or conceit, who thought
very humbly of himself, in respect of abilities, and deemed no labour
too great to achieve even a slight improvement. But though in these
respects the very child of simplicity, he was a man of almost
unexampled pride, and chafed under criticism, when his convictions or
his conduct were questioned. He was very tenacious of his opinion,
almost inexorable; and it required a courage nearly equal to his own,
combined with a serene temper, successfully to impugn his
conclusions.
Not, therefore, excited by vanity, but sustained by self-respect, by an
overpowering feeling that he owed it to himself and the opinions he
held, to show to the world that they had not been lightly adopted and
should not be lightly laid aside, Bentinck rose, long past the noon of
night, at the end of this memorable debate, to undertake an office from
which the most successful and most experienced rhetoricians of
Parliament would have shrunk with intuitive discretion. But duty scorns
prudence, and criticism has few terrors for a man with a great purpose.
Unshaken by the adverse hour and circumstances, he proceeded to
accomplish the object which he had long meditated, and for which he
was fully prepared.
Reminding the House, while he appealed to their indulgence, that,
though he had had the honour of a seat for eight parliaments, he had
never once ventured to trespass on its time on any subject of great
debate, he at once took a clear and comprehensive ground of objection
to the government scheme. He opposed it not only because he objected
to the great change contemplated with respect to the