“Charles Townshend, who had studied nothing with accuracy or attention, had parts that embraced all knowledge with such quickness that he seemed to create knowledge, instead of searching for it; and, ready as Burke’s wit was, it appeared artificial when set by that of Townshend, which was so abundant that in him it seemed a loss of time to think.  He had but to speak, and all he said was new, natural, and yet uncommon.  If Burke replied extempore, his very answers that sprang from what had been said by others were so pointed and artfully arranged that they wore the appearance of study and preparation; like beautiful translations, they seemed to want the soul of the original author.  Townshend’s speeches, like the ‘Satires’ of Pope, had a thousand times more sense and meaning than the majestic blank verse of Pitt; and yet the latter, like Milton, stalked with a conscious dignity of pre-eminence, and fascinated his audience with that respect which always attends the pompous but often hollow idea of the sublime.”  Burke, too, in one of his speeches on American affairs, utters a still warmer panegyric on his character and abilities, while lamenting his policy and its fruits:  “I speak of Charles Townshend, officially the reproducer of this fatal scheme [the taxation of the colonies], whom I cannot, even now, remember without some degree of sensibility.  In truth, Sir, he was the delight and ornament of this House, and the charm of every private society which he honoured with his presence.  Perhaps there never arose in this country, nor in any country, a man of a more pointed and finished wit, and (where his passions were not concerned) of a more refined, exquisite, and penetrating judgment.  If he had not so great a stock, as some have had who flourished formerly, of knowledge long treasured up, he knew better by far than any man I was ever acquainted with how to bring together within a short time all that was necessary to establish, to illustrate, and to decorate that side of the question he supported.  He stated his matter skillfully and powerfully.  He particularly excelled in a most luminous explanation and display of his subject.  His style of argument was neither trite nor vulgar, nor subtle and abstruse.  He hit the House between wind and water; and, not being troubled with too anxious a zeal for any matter in question, he was never more tedious nor more earnest than the preconceived opinions and present temper of his hearers required, with whom he was always in perfect unison.  He conformed exactly to the temper of the House; and he seemed to lead because he was always sure to follow it.”]

The Opposition expected that the loss of this essential pin would loosen the whole frame; but it had been hard, if both his life and death were to be pernicious to the Administration.  He had engaged to betray the latter to the former, as I knew early, and as Lord Mansfield has since declared.  I therefore could not think the loss of him a misfortune.  His seals were immediately offered to Lord North,[1] who declined them.  The Opposition rejoiced; but they ought to have been better acquainted with one educated in their own school.  Lord North has since accepted the seals—­and the reversion of his father’s pension.