Landor.—­It cannot be dissembled that all the victories of the English, in the last fifty years, have been gained by the high courage and steady discipline of the soldier, [83] and the most remarkable where the prudence and skill of the commander were altogether wanting.

[Footnote 83:  Vol. ii. p 214.]

North.—­Ay, that was a terrible mistake at Waterloo.  Yet you will allow Wellington to have been something of a general, if not in India, at least in Spain.

Landor.—­Suppose him, or any distinguished general of the English, to have been placed where Murillo was placed in America, Mina in Spain; then inform me what would have been your hopes? [84] The illustrious Mina, [85] of all the generals who have appeared in our age, has displayed the greatest genius, and the greatest constancy.  That exalted personage, the admiration of Europe, accomplished the most arduous and memorable work that any one mortal ever brought to its termination.

[Footnote 84:  Vol. ii. p. 214.]

[Footnote 85:  Vol. ii. p. 3.  Ded. “to Mina.”—­Wilson.]

North.—­We have had some distinguished statesmen at the helm in our time, Mr. Landor.

Landor.—­Not one.

North.—­Mr. Pitt.

Landor.—­Your pilot that weathered the storm.  Ha, ha!  He was the most insidious republican that England ever produced.

North.—­You should like him if he was a Republican.

Landor.—­But he was a debaser of the people as well as of the peerage.  By the most wasteful prodigality both in finance and war, he was enabled to distribute more wealth among his friends and partisans than has been squandered by the uncontrolled profusion of French monarchs from the first Louis to the last. [86] Yet he was more short-sighted than the meanest insect that can see an inch before it.  You should have added those equally enlightened and prudent leaders of our Parliament, Lord Castlereagh and his successors.  Pitt, indeed! whose requisites for a successful minister were three—­to speak like an honest man, to act like a scoundrel, and to be indifferent which he is called.  But you have forgotten my dialogue between him and that wretched fellow Canning. [87] I have there given Pitt his quietus.  As to Castlereagh and Canning, I have crushed them to powder, spit upon them, kneaded them into dough again; and pulverized them once more.  Canning is the man who deserted his party, supplanted his patrons, and abandoned every principle he protested he would uphold. [88] Castlereagh is the statesman who was found richer one day, by a million of zecchins, than he was the day before, and this from having signed a treaty!  The only life he ever personally aimed at was the vilest in existence, and none complains that he succeeded in his attempt. [89] I forgot:  he aimed at another so like it, (you remember his duel with Canning,) that it is a pity it did not form a part of it.