156 
Agricultural Worthies. 
1830 to 1834, when the death of his father removed him to the 
Upper House. How important his position in the Government 
was felt to be appears from the fact that William IV. took 
advantage of his quitting the House of Commons to dismiss the 
Ministry, saying that ib could not possibly stand without Lord 
Althorp. This was a mere pretext, and Lord Grey made great 
efforts to induce Lord Spencer to accept some office as a peer, 
but he declined. 
His father's imprudent expenditure had left the Althorp 
estate very poor, and threw a quantity of unavoidable business 
upon his hands. He continued to live quietly in the country at 
a small estate belonging t j his wife (Wiseton), and devoted him- 
self to his agricultural pursuits and to country business for the 
next ten years, when he died rather suddenly. 
The dress of that day was not a very becoming one — the blue 
and buff, the shorts and gaiters ; but his absence of pretension, 
his simplicity, gave him the unmistakable look which we like 
to think characteristic of a thorough Englishman. 
His speeches were never bitter, and never elicited a bitter 
reply. His look and manner during their delivery were so 
calm that a stranger might think them unimpressive, but the 
oftener you heard him the more you felt how much they con- 
tained, the subjects having been thought over, and his opinions 
expressed so decidedly and firmly, that no one could reply with 
any idea of inducing him to change his mind. 
The complete unselfishness, the absence indeed of any sort of 
self-seeking, or even natural ambition, was one source of the ex- 
traordinary influence which he exercised. The honour and the 
honest} 7 which shone through every thought of his heart and 
every action of his life, with no adventitious gifts of any kind to 
enable him to succeed, were what gave him his power over the 
House and the nation, one never possessed even by men of such 
brilliant abilities as Canning and the Pitts, and I must^say as 
creditable to the England of that day, whether in or out of 
the House, as it was to the man who inspired such enthusiastic 
affection. 
The Editor has sent me his sketch of Lord Spencer, and I 
have much pleasure in saying, after looking through the article, 
that I quite concur in all that he says of Lord Spencer's peculiar 
qualifications as the founder of the Society. He was a highly 
educated man, a trusted political leader, a thorough sportsman — 
riding sometimes sixty miles to cover ; but his taste for agricul- 
tural life was the background of his character. This is plainly 
told in the Editor's article, which faithfully describes our founder 
and first President. Harry Yeknkv. 
