Mr. Grenville was a first-rate figure in this country. With a masculine
understanding, and a stout and resolute heart, he had an application
undissipated and unwearied. He took public business not as a duty which
he was to fulfil, but as a pleasure he was to enjoy; and he seemed to
have no delight out of this house, except in such things as some
way related to the business that was to be done within it. If he was
ambitious, I will say this for him, his ambition was of a noble and
generous strain. It was to raise himself, not by the low, pimping
politics of a court, but to win his way to power, through the laborious
gradations of public service; and to secure himself a well-earned
rank in Parliament, by a thorough knowledge of its constitution, and a
perfect practice in all its business.
Sir, if such a man fell into errors, it must be from defects not
intrinsical; they must be rather sought in the particular habits of his
life; which though they do not alter the ground-work of character, yet
tinge it with their own hue. He was bred in a profession. He was bred to
the law, which is, in my opinion, one of the first and noblest of
human sciences; a science which does more to quicken and invigorate the
understanding, than all the other kinds of learning put together; but
it is not apt, except in persons very happily born, to open and to
liberalize the mind exactly in the same proportion. Passing from that
study he did not go very largely into the world; but plunged into
business; I mean into the business of office; and the limited and
fixed methods and forms established there. Much knowledge is to be
had undoubtedly in that line; and there is no knowledge which is not
valuable. But it may be truly said, that men too much conversant in
office are rarely minds of remarkable enlargement. Their habits of
office are apt to give them a turn to think the substance of business
not to be much more important than the forms in which it is conducted.
These forms are adapted to ordinary occasions; and therefore persons
who are nurtured in office do admirably well as long as things go on
in their common order; but when the high roads are broken up, and
the waters out, when a new and troubled scene is opened, and the file
affords no precedent, then it is that a greater knowledge of mankind,
and a far more extensive comprehension of things, is requisite, than
ever office gave, or than office can ever give.