The Third Earl Spencer, 
153 
diffidence, confident without vanity, ardently desiring the good of his 
country, without the slightest personal ambition, he took that part in public 
affairs which his station and his opinions prompted, and he marched through 
the mazes of politics -with that straightforward bravery -which was the 
result of sincerity, singleness of purpose, the absence of all selfishness, and a 
true, genuine, but unpretending patriotism. His tastes, habits, and turn 
of mind were peculiarly and essentially English ; he was a high-minded, 
unaffected, sensible, well-educated English gentleman, addicted to all those 
rural pursuits and amusements which are considered national ; a practical 
farmer, and fond of field sports, but enjoying all things in moderation, 
and making every other occupation subordinate to the discharge of those 
duties to his country, whether general or local, the paramount obligation of 
which was ever uppermost in his mind. His friends followed this plain 
and simple man with enthusiastic devotion, ar.d he possessed the faculty 
of disarming his political antagonists of all bitterness and animosity towards 
him. He was regarded in the House of Commons with sentiments akin to 
those of personal aflection, with a boundless confidence, and a universal 
esteem. Such was the irresistible ascendency of truth, sincerity, and honour, 
of a probity free from every taint of interest, of mere character unaided by 
the arts which captivate or subjugate mankind. 
Note by Sir Harry Yerney. 
I riAVE been asked to give a few personal recollections of the 
first President whom we elected as head of the Society which 
has proved to be so helpful and efficient a promoter of science, as 
applied to agricultural practice, throughout tbe whole kingdom. 
As the " Father " of the Society, now that both Lord 
Eversley and Lord Portman are dead, I am one of the few links 
between the first half-century of its existence and the inaugu- 
ration of what we may venture to hope will be a second period 
of still greater usefulness, now that the necessity of the adapta- 
tion of science to the workaday uses of the present is seen to 
be of vital importance to our position as a nation in the world. 
Lord Althorp was an example, the most remarkable I can 
recollect during the fifty-four years of my Parliamentary life, of 
the power and influence which character alone gives. He had no 
commanding abilities, nor the gift of eloquence, to which such an 
inordinate value is now attached, and his position was honour- 
able, both to him and to us of the House of that day. In his 
most earnest addresses to us there was never a burst of fervid 
feeling. His hearers could not help being impressed by his ap- 
peals, but it was from their conscientious truthfulness and perfect 
simplicity ; everyone knew that he told without disguise exactly 
what he wanted, and why he wanted it. With some Ministers 
there is a feeling that they are bringing forward the thin end 
of the wedge — a measure to establish a principle which will help 
on some other object which they keep in the background. We 
all, Tories, Whigs, Radicals alike, knew that if Lord Althorp 
