A radical, although a man of wealth, who deliberately refused to take office, feeling himself better able to serve the people as a private member.

"...a good-looking robust man about sixty, with long grey hair and a red complexion, with hard eyes, a wellcut rime, and full lips. He was nearly six feet high, stood quite upright, and always wore a black swallow-tail coat, black trousers, and a black silk waistcoat.... He was one of the most popular, if not the most popular politician in the country. Poor men believed in him, thinking that he was their most honest public friend; and men who were not poor believed in his power, thinking that his counsels must surely prevail" - Phineas Finn