32 SIR GILBERT'S PA.RTY IN CORSICA

which were sure to follow from the course of action pursued by Sir Gilbert Elliot, is evident enough from what he has written; hut in order to judge fairly of two men by their biographies it is necessary that these biographies should both be composed on the same principle. I have made no attempt biographically to " paint out the warts " from Moore's beautiful face. If any of his actions or words, his vehemence or occasional mistakes, appear to the reader to have that character, here they are for him to see them. On the other hand, I shall have to note from time to time facts as to Sir Gilbert's action which were doubtless unknown to his biographer since they nowhere appear in the Life. There is one very important change in the practical, working of the British Constitution since Sir Gilbert's day, which it would be unfair to him not to notice, because it tends to prejudice judgment against him in the exercise of his constitutional government of Corsica. Sir Gilbert, as is quite frankly acknowledged by himself and his biographer, maintained in office Pozzo di Borgo as his chief Minister and alter ego, in the teeth of the wishes of the Corsicans and of their representatives. Pozzo's government was "good government/' Pozzo's party was his party, and from that position no representations would make him stir an inch. Now, thanks to the long reign of Victoria, the position of a monarch in England becoming as regards acts of state a member of a party is for us unthinkable. Queen Victoria in the early part of her reign, under the training of Lord Melbourne, was in private opinion a Whig. In the latter part of her reign she had become, under many influences, in her private opinions a Conservative ; but whatever her private opinions might be, nothing affected the official relations which she main-