the meanest man/a query (fwd)

Richard B Gorrie (rgorrie@uoguelph.ca)
Tue, 15 Aug 1995 02:08:24 -0400

Hello. I'm hoping someone on the list can identify the man referred to
below.

In an 1867 piece for Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Frances Power Cobbe
slightly alters a quotation to end the essay. Cobbe writes: "[u]ntil
this giant evil [commercial corruption] shows signs of diminution, until
the conscience of the people and the power of the laws be exerted
vigorously to arrest its march, until then we must fear that over our
imperial England, with all her power and wealth, her brave armies and
splendid institutions, may one day be pronounced the mournful judgment
passed upon her mightiest son:--

'The greatest, wisest, _meanest_' of the nations."

QUESTIONS: who was the meanest man and who designated him so?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Marianne Eismann
meismann@deans.umd.edu