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.
This faith had become so general, that the insurgent party in the Cabinet of which we have made mention, after sounding Mr.Richard Waverley, were so satisfied with his sentiments and abilities, as to propose, that, in case of a certain revolution in the ministry, he should take an ostensible place in the new order of things, not indeed of the very first rank, but greatly higher, in point both of emolument and influence, than that which he now enjoyed.

There was no resisting so tempting a proposal, notwithstanding that the Great Man, under whose patronage he had enlisted and by whose banner he had hitherto stood firm, was the principal object of the proposed attack by the new allies.
Unfortunately this fair scheme of ambition was blighted in the very bud, by a premature movement.

All the official gentlemen concerned in it, who hesitated to take the part of a voluntary resignation, were informed that the king had no further occasion for their services; and, in Richard Waverley's case, which the Minister considered as aggravated by ingratitude; dismissal was accompanied by something like personal contempt and contumely.

The public, and even the party of whom he shared the fall, sympathized little in the disappointment of this selfish and interested statesman; and he retired to the country under the comfortable reflection, that he had lost, at the same time, character, credit, and,--what he at least equally deplored,--emolument.
Richard Waverley's letter to his son upon this occasion was a masterpiece of its kind.