Even an idiot can raise a smile. They are so good-natured, or
find it so dull. Mr. Canning's badinage was the most successful, though
I confess I have listened to few things more calculated to make a man
gloomy. But the House always ran riot, taking everything for granted,
and cracked their universal sides before he opened his mouth. The fault
of Mr. Brougham is, that he holds no intellect at present in great
dread, and, consequently, allows himself on all occasions to run wild.
Few men hazard more unphilosophical observations; but he is safe,
because there is no one to notice them. On all great occasions, Mr.
Brougham has come up to the mark; an infallible test of a man of genius.
I hear that Mr. Macaulay is to be returned. If he speaks half as well as
he writes, the House will be in fashion again. I fear that he is one of
those who, like the individual whom he has most studied, will 'give up
to party what was meant for mankind.'
At any rate, he must get rid of his rabidity. He writes now on all
subjects, as if he certainly intended to be a renegade, and was
determined to make the contrast complete.
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