1819 Mar. 27

To Erskine

1 o

Lett. IX Whigs self-condemned antireformists

Earl Greys change

1

“The time is come” (says M r Place +) The time is come when it is more than ever the duty of every man to adopt the recommendation of M r Grey, now Earl Grey, made by him in 1794 – when in his place in the House of Commons, he said, This House will never

Now if, speaking as Counsel for Your Lordships Noble friend speaking as Counsel for Your Noble friend, Your Lordship should be pleased to say that his Lordship is ready to say, in the “high character of his eloquence – that he never did say so and that he always did say so – that when he said as much, he did not mean as much that he sees the matter at present in the same light and in the opposite light – that he is the same man as ever, being like Your Lordship’s noble [*]“self devoted as much as ever to a Reform in Parliament – if such be the account given by your[?] Your Lordship of “the highest sense of honour” of this Colleague of your Lordship this Noble leader and Defender of the Whigs – whatever contradiction you may receive from the rough[?] pen of M r Place, you shall receive none from mine.

The immutability of his changeableness is known to every body: but the reason of it – any thing like the shadow of an attempt to produce a reason – are yet to come.

{And to see that one Whig is to see all.}

+ Reply p 31

[*] p. 14