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CHAPTER IX. 



LORD GEORGE AS A LETTER- WRITER. 



In 1864 Lord Beaconsfield remarked to an old 

 friend, who is still living, and has repeated the 

 story to me, that Lord George Bentinck's failure 

 as a Cabinet Minister, or in other words, as a 

 statesman of the first class, would have been in- 

 evitable, for the following reasons. " Owing to 

 his incapacity for condensing or compressing what 

 he had to say," added Lord Beaconsfield, " he 

 could not write a letter on any subject without 

 pouring forth at great length all that was in his 

 mind, with the result that — to quote some well- 

 known lines, the author of which I have forgotten, 

 but which still linger in my memory — 



' Blenheim's field became in his reciting 

 As long in telling as it took in fighting.' " 



It has been stated to me by other friends of Lord 

 George Bentinck that he assisted to break down 

 his own health by the extraordinary length and 

 prolixity of his letters. I remember that old John 

 Day, the rider and trainer of Crucifix, once ob- 



