It would be impossible
for the reader, even were I to insert the letters at full length, to
comprehend the real cause of their being written, without a glance into
the interior of the British Cabinet at the period in question.
The Ministers of the day happened (no very singular event) to be divided
into two parties; the weakest of which, making up by assiduity of
intrigue their inferiority in real consequence, had of late acquired
some new proselytes, and with them the hope of superseding their rivals
in the favour of their sovereign, and overpowering them in the House
of Commons. Amongst others, they had thought it worth while to practise
upon Richard Waverley. This honest gentleman, by a grave mysterious
demeanour, an attention to the etiquette of business, rather more than
to its essence, a facility in making long dull speeches, consisting of
truisms and commonplaces, hashed up with a technical jargon of office,
which prevented the inanity of his orations from being discovered, had
acquired a certain name and credit in public life, and even established,
with many, the character of a profound politician; none of your shining
orators, indeed, whose talents evaporate in tropes of rhetoric and
dashes of wit, but one possessed of steady parts for business, which
would wear well, as the ladies say in choosing their silks, and ought
in all reason to be good for common and everyday use, since they were
confessedly formed of no holiday texture.
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