He did not at all stamp himself upon me
as a man of much intellectual or characteristic vigor. I found no such
matter in his conversation, nor did I feel it in the indefinable way by
which strength always makes itself acknowledged. B------, though,
somehow, plain and uncouth, yet vindicates himself as a large man of the
world, able, experienced, fit to handle difficult circumstances of life;
dignified, too, and able to hold his own in any society. Mr. ------ has
a kind of venerable dignity; but yet, if a person could so little respect
himself as to insult him, I should say that there was no innate force in
Mr. ------ to prevent it. It is very strange that he should have made so
considerable a figure in public life, filling offices that the strongest
men would have thought worthy of their highest ambition. There must be
something shrewd and sly under his apparent simplicity; narrow, cold,
selfish, perhaps. I fancied these things in his eyes. He has risen in
life by the lack of too powerful qualities, and by a certain tact, which
enables him to take advantage of circumstances and opportunities, and
avail himself of his unobjectionableness, just at the proper time. I
suppose he must be pronounced a humbug, yet almost or quite an innocent
one. Yet he is a queer representative to be sent from brawling and
boisterous America at such a critical period. It will be funny if
England sends him back again, on hearing the news of ------'s dismissal.
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