who were accustomed to him, and filled with indescribable astonishment those who were not."

From the date of his retirement from office, August 1841, time had hung heavily on his hands. No longer the constant guest, companion, adviser, and friend of the Sovereign; no longer the holder of the highest position under the Crown, surrounded by devoted partisans, besieged by place hunters; no longer watched and criticised by the Press and public, sought after, admired, and loved by hosts of friends who now found him a bore; he suffered that neglect which invariably awaits those who have held the power to benefit others and have lost it for ever. That he keenly if silently felt the sadness of his position is vouched for by his biographer Mr. Torrens who says that in striving to account for the indifference with which he was treated "not merely by the common herd of fashion but by those who for years had compassed him round with blandishments of what he had taken for respect and admiration," Lord Melbourne persuaded himself that omissions to call on him were due to accident. "Some were sick and some had gone abroad ; some were time servers and shabby dogs who had learned to trim and were ashamed to look in the face of their old patron. Was he not better without them? But as weeks and months rolled on, and the bed of the once full stream of attention grew more and more dry, the hope of

its ever returning again shrank within him. In the heyday of success and power he would have laughed loudly and merrily at the notion of the world's being grateful. Still between genuine or abiding gratitude and silent stony pitiless neglect there is a difference and a wide one. One who truly and unalterably loved him found him one afternoon looking more than usually dejected. I am glad,' he exclaimed, ' you are come. I have sat here watching that timepiece and heard it strike four times without seeing the face of a human being; and had it struck the fifth I feel that I could not have borne it.''

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His fascinating and eccentric wife had long been dead, his only child the son who had been almost an imbecile from birth and whom he had worshipped, had also been taken from him and his sole resources for sympathy and consolation were his books and the society of his sister, Lady Palmerston and her family. Occasionally while in her drawing-room, surrounded by a few intimate friends he would "lounge and sprawl at his ease, pouring out a rough but original stream of talk, shrewd, playful, and instructive." But these sudden flares of the old spirit became less and less. While reading in his library in his house in South Street, October 23, 1842, he had a sudden but slight stroke of paralysis which left him unconscious for some hours. On recovering a fortnight later he described his illness as "only a runaway

knock, but that he did not care to know the fellow who gave it."

A brief gleam of brightness came into his life when in December 1843, he was Her Majesty's guest at Windsor Castle for three days. Some of his old jovial spirit came back to him while in the company of the Queen, who recalled to him the days when as a girl her concern for his health led her to think he ate too much, as indeed she had done herself until her doctor advised her to forgo her lunch. His laugh was as hearty as ever, as was hers when forgetting himself occasionally, he swore roundly in her presence He still retained his interest in political affairs though he took no active part in them; and on Peel's defeat had been willing to accept office in the new Government, not only as Prime Minister but even in a subordinate position; not realising that his age and failing powers made this impossible. That he was not invited to join the Cabinet was a fresh disappointment to him but of this he made no complaint. On the contrary with the generosity and freedom from jealousy he had always shown he was ever ready to give the benefit of his experiences and his advice when asked for them.

He was now seldom seen in his place in the House of Lords, but his last appearance there, May 25, 1848, was when he voted for the removal of Jewish Disabilities, in this way by a protest against intolerance,