154 
Agricultural Worth ies. 
had had any ulterior intention in view, he would have told us ; 
his language was always outspoken and transparently truthful. 
At the same time, though his speeches were never eloquent and 
never long, I do not agree with Lord John Russell that they 
were obscure. Sitting amoug the youug members of his part}', 
I may say that we never for a moment missed his meaning, or 
did not follow the gist of his argument. 
As Leader of the House, his courtesy was such that no 
member, however distasteful to his audience his speech might 
be, could ever complain that he had not been listened to, or 
had been treated ungraciously. In the long and often weary 
debates, we knew how much happier our Leader would have 
been discussing the points of a fat ox, or the merits of 
turnips and mangels as the best material for making most 
beef and mutton in the shortest time; but he never for a 
moment lost his patience with the bores. At that time there 
were several clever and amusing speakers in the House. What 
has become of them and their speeches ? Even the names of 
the speakers are now forgotten ; they were men of no character. 
In the intervals of debate, when I wanted some explanation or 
information, he would allow me to go and sit by him, and 
seemed gratified to satisfy an honest desire to know the why 
and wherefore, telling me all he knew in the kindest and most 
agreeable fashion. He was the most open and generous of 
opponents, and never concealed anything that might make 
against his own views, so that he often anticipated a speech which 
would have been uttered against him, and his adversary would 
observe, " He has taken my speech out of my mouth." 
He always showed the utmost consideration for those who 
differed from him, and being as he was the Leader of the 
House during the difficult and aggravating questions concern- 
ing the Reform Bill, when the loss of the rotten boroughs was 
arming against it the owners of such jn-operty on both sides of 
the House — when fierce and bitter was the wrath poured out in 
full vials on the measure night after night, though not on him 
personally — Lord Althorp never faltered in the smallest degree. 
He and Lord John and their colleagues had made up their 
minds that the Reform Bill was a measure for the welfare of the 
country, and the principle of the representation of the people 
compelled the abolition of these boroughs. 
There are a few sentences of autobiography by Lord Spencer 
in the first pages of Sir Denis Le Marchant's memoir which are 
very interesting : " I have long known and often endeavoured to 
impress upon my mind that there is only one object worthy the 
ambition of a man of sense, and that is to obtain the favour of 
