He proved himself, in a thousand instances, honest,
trusting, and sincere. He was not, like some men, that you and I know,
dark, dispassionate, and impenetrable. On the contrary, no man mistook
him, no man ever charged him with a double conduct or a wrinkled heart.
His countenance was open, and his spirit was clear. He was a man of
passions, my lord. He acted in every momentous concern, more from the
dictates of his heart, than his head. But this is the key to his
conduct; He kept a watchful eye upon that bane of every patriot
minister, _secret influence_. If there were one feature in his political
history more conspicuous than the rest, if I were called to point out
the line of discrimination between his character and that of his
contemporaries upon the public stage, it would be the _hatred of secret
influence_.
Such, my lord, was one of your immediate ancestors, whose name, to this
day, every honest Briton repeats with veneration. I will turn to another
person, still more nearly related to you, and who will make an equal
figure in the history of the age in which he lived, Mr. George
Grenville. His character has been represented to us by a writer of no
mean discernment, as that of "shrewd and inflexible." He was a man of
indefatigable industry and application.
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