Page:Life of William Shelburne (vol 2).djvu/444

408 in 1795, "about any intimate connection between Lansdowne and me, I agree almost entirely with you, except perhaps that I do not give him the credit for sincerity in any system which you seem to do. I never can have a good opinion of him, and still less a great one. However, we are upon terms of the greatest civility, and it must be confessed that his conduct for these last three years has had an openness and consistency which entitles him to every outward mark of respect, from those who think as we do. I have dined with him once, and may probably do so oftener next year, and we have so far explained ourselves to one another, that we agreed that if any opening came from the Court to either of us, that we would mutually communicate and consult. I own I think this is no more than what his conduct has entitled him to, and if there were a change I cannot think that he ought to be left out of any new arrangement, however impossible I may feel it really to confide in him. I think it would not be right for our characters that he should be left out, and the events of these last years not only make one less nice about one's associates, but make it impossible that any system should be formed without some exceptional members forming a part of it; and, among those who are objectionable, I confess I feel less repugnance to those whose life has been mostly spent in opposition, than to those whose habits are all courtly, and whose prejudices are always of the Tory side. I think any overture from the Court so improbable, that perhaps all this discussion is very unimportant; but I felt (and I believe Lansdowne felt so too), that some explanation was necessary or at least desirable, for the purpose of going on pleasantly in opposition."

If any evidence were wanting of the law-abiding character of the English people and of the groundless character of the fears which caused the English Ministers to imagine themselves to be on the eve of the establishment of a London Commune, it is to be found in the fact that excepting some riots caused by the price of bread, no