Macaulay thought him the greatest man since Milton, Lord Morley the "greatest master of civil wisdom in our tongue." "No English writer," says Sir Leslie Stephen, "has received or has deserved more splendid panegyrics." Even when the last criticism has been made, detraction from these estimates is impossible.

It is easy to show how irritable and violent was his temperament.

There is evidence and to spare of the way in which he allowed the spirit of party to cloud his judgment.

His relations with Lord Chatham give lamentable proof of the violence of his personal antipathies.

As an orator, his speeches are often turgid, wanting in self-control, and full of those ample digressions in which Mr.Gladstone delighted to obscure his principles.