144 Letter from Exeter Change. 



approach him with confidence, and to lay aside that extreme awe which 

 the previous knowledge of his gigantic powers naturally created in common 

 minds. The deceased did not trouble himself much concerning politics ; 

 but I believe he was not less loyal than others of his family, who had often 

 supported royalty in troublesome times, and I believe no man was more 

 willing than himself, to take his share in bearing the heaviest burthens of 

 the state. He was not particularly attached to Whig or Tory : although 

 some of his relations had suffered from the schemes of Mr. Pitt, yet he felt 

 no ill-will to the memory of that minister. With Mr. Fox he was inti- 

 mately acquainted. Lord Brougham has occasionally been seen in his 

 house ; and between himself and Lord Den-man there had existed a sym- 

 pathy of feeling from their earliest years. In liis transactions of public 

 business upon 'Change, he was equal to the wisest of those around him ; 

 many who plumed themselves as his superiors in mercantile aifairs, were, 

 in point of fact, far beneath him. No one could be long in his company 

 without perceiving that it was in his power to overreach his competitors ; 

 but he constantly disdained to exert that power, but in the most open 

 manner. In fact there was a straightforwardness in his habits, and mode 

 of doing business, which I have often paused to admire. It was very difii- 

 cult to move him when he thought he had taken a right step j this was the 

 more remarkable, as many of his surrounding friends were very changeable, 

 continually aping the idle follies of the day, and shewing a versatility and 

 restlessness, that afforded a curious contrast to the established habits of 

 Mons. E. Le Fant. Not, Sir, that I mean to assert that this almost spot- 

 less character was deaf to the voice of reason ; no, though he would not 

 attend to the suggestions of those who were in their understandings little 

 above the brute creation, yet it was a bright part of his worth, that at the 

 call of duty or reason he would instantly give up any wrong position he 

 might have taken. He did this, not indeed with that weatliercock quick- 

 ness which promises no continuance ; but when Mons. E. Le Fant turned 

 round, it was with a solemnity and majesty which decidedly marked the 

 consideration he was giving the subject, and how much he valued solemnity 

 of carriage. The dress of Mons. E. Le Fant was extremely plain and 

 simple ; from his always wearing clothes of the same sombre colour and 

 pattern, some supposed him to be of the Quaker persuasion ; but this was 

 an error, as he was essentially at variance on many points with that 

 respectable sect : from the general solidity of his views, he was probably 

 of the establishment. I am certain he was not a Papist ; no one was ever 

 more averse than he was to persecution of any kind ; indeed he was perhaps 

 too liberal, for though he had passed many years of his life amongst those, 

 who, to say the least, were never seen in a place of worship, yet he was 

 never heard to utter a word against them. His food and habits were very 

 temperate, nay, abstemious ; he very rarely touched meat ; water, bread, 

 fruit, vegetables, constituted his chief aliment j and if he indulged himself 



