No advantages of social education will
convert a fool or a bore or a prig or a churl into an agreeable member
of society; but, where Nature has bestowed a bright intelligence
and a genial disposition, her gifts are cultivated to perfection
by such surroundings as Frederick Leveson enjoyed in early life.
And so it came about that alike as a young man, in middle life
(which was in his case unusually prolonged), and in old age, he
enjoyed a universal and unbroken popularity.
It is impossible to connect the memory of Freddy Leveson with the
idea of ambition, and it must therefore have been the praiseworthy
desire to render unpaid service to the public which induced him to
embark on the unquiet sea of politics. At a bye-election in the
summer of 1847 he was returned, through the interest of his uncle the
Duke of Devonshire, for Derby. A General Election immediately ensued;
he was returned again, but was unseated, with his colleague, for a
technical irregularity. In 1852 he was returned for Stoke-upon-Trent,
this time by the aid of his cousin the Duke of Sutherland (for the
"Sacred Circle" retained a good deal of what was termed "legitimate
influence"). In 1854, having been chosen to second the Address at
the opening of Parliament, he was directed to call on Lord John
Russell, who would instruct him in his duties.
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