Those who look on his character without favour or malevolence will pronounce that, in the two great elements of all social virtue, in respect for the rights of others, and in sympathy for the sufferings of others, he was deficient.  His principles were somewhat lax.  His heart was somewhat hard.  But though we cannot with truth describe him either as a righteous or as a merciful ruler, we cannot regard without admiration the amplitude and fertility of his intellect, his rare talents for command, for administration, and for controversy, his dauntless courage, his honourable poverty, his fervent zeal for the interests of the State, his noble equanimity, tried by both extremes of fortune, and never disturbed by either.

LORD HOLLAND

(July 1841)

The Opinions of Lord Holland, as recorded in the journals of the House of Lords from 1797 to 1841.  Collected and edited by D. C. Moylan, of Lincoln’s Inn, Barrister-at-law. 8vo.  London:  1841.

Many reasons make it impossible for us to lay before our readers, at the present moment, a complete view of the character and public career of the late Lord Holland.  But we feel that we have already deferred too long the duty of paying some tribute to his memory.  We feel that it is more becoming to bring without further delay an offering, though intrinsically of little value, than to leave his tomb longer without some token of our reverence and love.

We shall say very little of the book which lies on our table.  And yet it is a book which, even if it had been the work of a less distinguished man, or had appeared under circumstances less interesting, would have well repaid an attentive perusal.  It is valuable, both as a record of principles and as a model of composition.  We find in it all the great maxims which, during more than forty years, guided Lord Holland’s public conduct, and the chief reasons on which those maxims rest, condensed into the smallest possible space, and set forth with admirable perspicuity, dignity, and precision.  To his opinions on Foreign Policy we for the most part cordially assent; but now and then we are inclined to think them imprudently generous.  We could not have signed the protest against the detention of Napoleon.  The Protest respecting the course which England pursued at the Congress of Verona, though it contains much that is excellent, contains also positions which, we are inclined to think, Lord Holland would, at a later period, have admitted to be unsound.  But to all his doctrines on constitutional questions, we give our hearty approbation; and we firmly believe that no British Government has ever deviated from that line of internal policy which he has traced, without detriment to the public.

We will give, as a specimen of this little volume, a single passage, in which a chief article of the political creed of the Whigs is stated and explained, with singular clearness, force, and brevity.  Our readers will remember that, in 1825, the Catholic Association raised the cry of emancipation with most formidable effect.  The Tories acted after their kind.  Instead of removing the grievance they tried to put down the agitation, and brought in a law, apparently sharp and stringent, but in truth utterly impotent, for restraining the right of petition.  Lord Holland’s Protest on that occasion is excellent: