The very way in which the little jackanapes, as the hostile pamphleteers loved to call him, strutted through the lobby, making the most of his small figure, rising on his toe, and perking up his chin, made him enemies.

Rash and arrogant sayings were imputed to him, and perhaps invented for him.

He was accused of boasting that there was nothing that he could not carry through the House of Commons, that he could turn the majority round his finger.

A crowd of libellers assailed him with much more than political hatred.

Boundless rapacity and corruption were laid to his charge.