Page:Life of the Right Honourable Sir Robert Peel.pdf/18

18 said, that this is no time to criticise the public acts of a public man snatched from the country in the prime of life, when he had the reasonable right to expect that many years remained to him, to be devoted with that great ability, that unflinching zeal, and that unwearied diligence, which we all know he devoted to the public service.

"It has been my fortune at some times to be opposed, and at other times to be the colleague in office of the late Sir R. Peel. It has been my deep regret that, during the last four years of his life, I have been separated from him by a conscientious difference of opinion on an important matter of public policy. It is with deep regret that I know that difference prevailed between us up to the last period of his valuable life. But it is a satisfaction for me personally, my lords, to know that, whatever political difference there was between us, there was no personal hostility on either side. I am confident that there has been none on my side—quite as confident that there has been none on his. I never was one of those who attached unworthy motives to a course of conduct which I can not but deeply lament. I believe that in that step which led me to differ from him, he was actuated by a sincere and conscientious desire to obtain that which he believed to be a public good. Mistaken as he was in that view, I am satisfied that upon that occasion, as upon all others, the public good was the leading principle of his life, and that to promote the welfare of his country he was prepared to make, and did actually make, every sacrifice. In some cases those sacrifices were so extensive, that I hardly know whether the great and paramount object of his country's good was a sufficient reason to exact them from any public man.

"But this is not a time to speak of differences—to speak of disagreements. A great man and a great statesman has passed away from us by the sudden