JET. 44.] CANNING AND THE WHIGS. 439 



actually beaten them/* Never was a better speech, I 

 might even say a finer one, than Wilson's. The judg- 

 ment of it was perfect ; it could not have been mate- 

 rially improved in point of discretion by any man in 

 the House or at the bar. But Palmerston's total 

 failure no words can describe. 



" I never had a doubt of Wilson's case since I sifted 

 it last autumn ; but one never can te]l the accidents 

 that may happen, and indeed the lies that may be 

 got up ; but to do the enemy justice, they did not 

 even attempt an insinuation ; so that one feels very 

 comfortable now it has gone so safe through the fire. 



" Pray tell Lord F. this, with my best remembrances, 

 for I know how much it will gratify him. Yours 

 ever, H. B. 



" I have just heard from undoubted authority that 

 Castlereagh says Wilson made one of the best and 

 most judicious speeches he ever heard, and which had 

 produced the greatest effect." 



"Saturday, 1822. 



" MY DEAR LORD GREY,t You now have Castle- 

 reagh's plan at full length, but I don't think any 

 reports can give you, who know him, an idea of the 

 style of his speech : he exceeded himself Quid plura ? 

 I positively assure you that he spoke of the ' resurrec- 

 tion of malt.' The House laughed at him sometimes 

 for five minutes at a time, and he was much annoyed. 



* On the motion respecting the removal of Sir Robert Wilson from 

 the army. See Hansard, 1822, vol. vi., second series. 



f This seems to refer to the speech of Lord Londonderry, of 29th 

 April 1822, on "Agricultural distress, and the financial and other 

 measures for its relief ;" among these was the celebrated "sliding scale" 

 of grain duties. See Hansard, 150. 



