Page:The Poetical Works of William Motherwell, 1849.djvu/62

 to be so called, it had too many of the characteristics of a sectarian club to be agreeable to sober-minded Scotchmen. This act, however, was purely personal, and was confined to Motherwell and one or two of his more intimate friends; and I distinctly remember that there was no subject upon which he was more reserved, and none upon which he bore a little raillery with less equanimity, than upon his alliance with Irish Orangeism. By this time, however, the evil spirit of political acerbity had displaced the gentler impulses of his nature, and William Motherwell had exchanged the catholicity of poetry for the fanaticism of social exclusiveness!

Motherwell remained in London for about a week, and there can be no doubt that he exhibited great mental infirmity before the committee—in common speech, he 'broke down.' That this did not result from any want of courage on his part will be at once admitted by those who knew the man; but it is proper to observe that in such circumstances he was constitutionally 'unready' and slow of utterance. He not only required time to arrange his ideas and to consolidate his thoughts on the most ordinary occasions, but he was habitually slow, and even confused, in the expression of them. No ordeal could, therefore, be more embarrassing to him than a formal examination before a