Page:Defence of Shelburne.djvu/20

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

[14]

whenever the King's name was introduced in debate. He knew the temper of his deity, and seldom failed to sacrifice.

Mr. Fox is an utter stranger to all facility, and never softens out of complaisance into another's opinion. From the day he burst the bandages of his political childhood to this hour, he has pursued one invariable line, without the smallest deviation. His system is defined and decisive.—The Earl of Shelburne is above the weakness of persisting in a principle which militates with his interest. He is not rash enough to adhere to any series of opinions which may impair his power, although his honor and consistency were the victims of his compliance. He never entertains a peevish prejudice for old sentiments when they are inconvenient, and has so fortunate a ductility, that he can bend to all sides, and adapt himself to all situations. He has been twenty years an actor upon the state theatre without any fixed charades. His politics are so judiciously ambiguous, that no man can ascertain their quality, from which results this good effect, that he is absolutely, nothing, and may be occasionally, any thing. He is in profession a Whig, and a Tory in practice. He pretends a regard for the people's

rights,