JET. 37.] WHITBREAD. 283 



years not only on most intimate terms, but with 

 whom I had been recently, and almost to the hour of 

 his unhappy end, engaged in daily intercourse and 

 consultation upon subjects of the highest interest and 

 importance. I certainly must have had some instinc- 

 tive presentiment of what was going to happen, for a 

 few days before the 6th of July I had written to Grey 



these words : 



"TEMPLE, July 2, 1815. 



" If you see Whitbread or Lady Elizabeth, do, for 

 God's sake, insist upon their immediately going away, 

 not to Southhill, where he works, but anywhere else, 

 and urge her to keep him absolutely idle for two 

 months at least. I am very seriously alarmed about 

 him, and he refuses to see any medical man." 



It is impossible to enumerate the advantages which 

 the Princess derived from Whitbread's steady support. 

 His private character in every relation of life, whether 

 as a relative, a connection, or a friend, was exemplary 

 almost without a parallel. His great abilities, perse- 

 vering industry, and long habits of business, and his 

 uniform adhesion to his principles, the resolute inde- 

 pendence with which on all occasions he declared 

 them, his determined refusal to make any compromise 

 for Court favour, or even for ordinary party- purposes, 

 gained and retained for him the unabated confidence 

 of the country, giving him a weight both in and out 

 of Parliament such as very few men have ever pos- 

 sessed. Having embraced the Princess's cause, he 

 stood manfully by her, and he was throughout my 

 constant and most powerful colleague. It may be 

 observed that he, as well as myself, were mainly influ- 



