When, in November 1834, Lord Althorp's removal to the House of Lords
vacated the Leadership of the House of Commons, Lord Melbourne and the rest
of the Cabinet decided that Lord John must take it. He doubted his fitness
for the post, but said that even if he were called to take command of the
Channel Fleet, he supposed he must obey the call and do his best, Sydney
Smith heard of this modest and patriotic saying, and wove it into his most
celebrated passage,--
"There is not a better man in England than Lord John Russell; but his
worst failure is that he is utterly ignorant of all moral fear; there
is nothing he would not undertake, I believe he would perform the
operation for the stone--build St. Peter's--or assume (with or without
ten minutes' notice) the command of the Channel Fleet; and no one
would discover by his manner that the patient had died--the Church
tumbled down--and the Channel Fleet been knocked to atoms. I believe
his motives are always pure, and his measures often able; but they are
endless, and never done with that pedetentous pace and pedetentous
mind in which it behoves the wise and virtuous improver to walk. He
alarms the wise Liberals; and it is impossible to sleep soundly while
he has the command of the watch."
Once again, in 1839, Sydney Smith returned to the same subject through the
same medium.
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