*

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

about ten years ago. He has not of late taken any great part in public affairs, as he has been ever since his first publication* closely employed in studying its meaning, and I hear he has still a great deal to do.

"Mr. HORNER, who is a lawyer and reviewer, might be very useful as Chief of the Commission for securing the Liberty of the Press. No man understands better the art of indulging himself in that liberty, which he represses in others. Indeed, the Edinburgh Review I have always considered as the work in this country most consonant to the EMPEROR'S principles, and an admirable model for a Censorship of the Press.

"We have a certain Lord NUGENT here, whose figure would a little startle Madame la Duchesse; but he has notwithstanding a great head. He is the author of a beautiful poem, descriptive of Spain,

Lord King had published several years before a pamphlet on exchanges and currency.

Buckinghamshire, and the Black Sea, which he called Portugal; and he has been now several years employed in bringing before Parliament the details of a rencontre between two packet-boats, in which one damaged the other's jib-boom. Both his Poem and the Parliamentary Inquiry prove how much he can write and say without making the least progress, and if there was any subject which you might wish to delay sine die, without venturing to abandon it altogether, you might find him very useful.

"Lord STANHOPE* might replace De PREAMI NEAU, as Ministre des Cultes. The Emperor himself has scarcely a greater aversion to Bishops than this Peer; indeed, I should say that there is nothing on earth he seems to dislike so much as the Clergy, unless it be the Lawyers. These, you will allow, are valuable antipathies to find in an Englishman. If he should fail as a Minister, he would still be useful at the Vaudeville, as he is a more entertaining • The late Earl Stanhope.

caricature of our country than even JOLY. We English are not very merry, and, least of all English, we Peers of Parliament; but you cannot think how this admirable comic statesman contrives to keep us in a roar.

"As I suppose the Emperor would on no account part with the Duke of OTRANTO, MEHE'E DE LA TOUCHE, or CARNOT, I know not to what use we could turn Sir FRANCIS BURDETT, Mr. BROUGHAM, or my friend Major CARTWRIGHT; in fact, any open connexion with them could not fail to do his Majesty the greatest injury in this country, and I really do not think they could be better employed than they are here.

"We have a Mr. LYTTELTON,* of whom probably you never can have heard, a county member, and though a silent politician, very facetious in society. This gentleman came into our parliament with great expectations, which have been so utterly disap

* The Hon. W. H. Lyttelton, M.P. for Worcestershire.

pointed, that I suppose he would be very ready to change a situation in which he is quite manqué.'

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As he is the most impudent man alive when he has no one to oppose him, and owes his success in table jests to this valuable quality, I imagine he might be very powerful in an assembly like yours, where the whole debate might be arranged beforehand, and Members should be forbidden to answer Mr. LYTTELTON's pleasantries, on pain of the Plain of Grenelle.*

"If the Department of the Leman had not been separated from France, Sir S. ROMILLY might, I apprehend, have been Member for Geneva, and would have replaced the Abbé SIEYES, when that worthy old man shall be called to his everlasting reward. I believe Sir SAMUEL to be well versed in the Code Napoleon, and very fertile in theories of law and legislation, suited to the meridian of France.

* The scene of Buonaparte s military executions near Paris.