The Greville Memoirs (Second Part) - A Journal of the Reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1852 - (Volume 1 of 3)

Charles Greville

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Greville Memoirs (Second Part), by Charles C. F. Greville

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Title: The Greville Memoirs (Second Part)  A Journal of the Reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1852  (Volume 1 of 3)

Author: Charles C. F. Greville

Release Date: February 3, 2008 [EBook #24504]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

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Transcriber’s Note:

In this work, all spellings and punctuation were reproduced from the original work except in the very few cases where an obvious typo occurred. These typos are corrected without comment.

In the original volumes in this set, each even-numbered page had a header consisting of the page number, the volume title, and the chapter number. The odd-numbered page header consisted of the year of the diary entry, a subject phrase, and the page number. In this set of e- books, the year is included as part of the date (which in the original volume were in the form reproduced here, minus the year). The subject phrase has been converted to sidenotes located below the relevant page number.

In the original book set, consisting of three volumes, the master index was in Volume 3. In this set of e-books, the index has been duplicated into each of the other volumes. Navigation links were created to the entries for the current volume.

T HE G REVILLE M EMOIRS

(SECOND PART)

A JOURNAL OF THE REIGN

OF

QUEEN VICTORIA

FROM 1837 TO 1852

BY THE LATE

C HARLES C. F. G REVILLE , E SQ .

CLERK OF THE COUNCIL

IN THREE VOLUMES — VOL. I.

LONDON LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 1885

CONTENTS. INDEX.

‘PLERAQUE EORUM, QUÆ RETULI QUÆQUE REFERAM, PARVA FORSITAN ET LEVIA MEMORATU VIDERI, NON NESCIUS SUM; SED NEMO ANNALES NOSTROS CUM SCRIPTURA EORUM CONTENDERIT, QUI VETERES POPULI ROMANI RES COMPOSUERE. INGENTIA ILLI BELLA, EXPUGNATIONES URBIUM, FUSOS CAPTOSQUE REGES, AUT, SI QUANDO AD INTERNA PRÆVERTERENT, DISCORDIAS CONSULUM ADVERSUM TRIBUNOS, AGRARIAS FRUMENTARIASQUE LEGES, PLEBIS ET OPTIMATIUM CERTAMINA, LIBERO EGRESSU MEMORABANT. NOBIS IN ARTO ET INGLORIUS LABOR....

NON TAMEN SINE USU FUERIT, INTROSPICERE ILLA, PRIMO ADSPECTU LEVIA, EX QUIS MAGNARUM SÆPE RERUM MOTUS ORIUNTUR.’

TACITUS,Ann. iv. cap.32.

PREFACE

OF THE EDITOR

TO THE SECOND PART OF THIS JOURNAL.

W HEN  the first portion of the Memoirs of the late Mr. Charles Greville, consisting of a Journal of the Reigns of King George IV. and King William IV., was given to the world in the autumn of the year 1874, it was intimated that the continuation of the work was reserved for future publication. Those volumes included the record of events which Mr. Greville had noted in his Diary from the year 1818 to the accession of Her Majesty Queen Victoria in the year 1837, a period of nineteen years. As they were published in 1874, an interval of thirty-seven years had elapsed between the latest event recorded in them and the date at which they appeared. The reigns of George IV. and William IV. already belonged to the history of the past, and accordingly I did not conceive it to be my duty to suppress or qualify any of the statements or opinions of the Author on public men or public events. I am still of opinion that this was the right course for a person charged with the publication of these manuscripts to pursue. I have seen it stated that th e first edition of these Journals contains passages which have been suppressed in the later editions: but this is an error. The first edition contained a good many mistakes, which were subsequently pointed out by criticism, or discovered and corrected. Two or three sentences relating to private individuals were omitted, but nothing which concerns public personages or public events has been withdrawn.

Eight and forty years have now elapsed since the date at which the narrative contained in the former volumes was suspended, and I am led by several considerations to the opinion that the time has arrived when it may be resumed. We are divided by a long interval from the administrations of Lord Melbourne, Sir Robert Peel, and Lord John Russell, and, with a very small number of exceptions, no one survives who sat in the Cabinets of those statesmen. Nearly half a century has elapsed since the occurrence of the events recorded in the earlier pages of these volumes, and in a few months from the publication of them, the nation and the empire may celebrate with just enthusiasm the jubilee of the reign of Queen Victoria. Those who have had the good fortune to witness this long series of events, and to take any part in them, may well desire to leave behind them some record of a period, unexampled in the annals of Great Britain and of the world for an almost unbroken continuance of progress, prosperity, liberty, and peace. It is not too soon to glean in the records of the time

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those fugitive impressions which will one day be the materials of history. To us, veterans of the century, life is in the past, and we look back with unfading interest on the generations that have passed away.

As far as I am myself concerned, I am desirous to complete, whilst I am able, the task allotted to me by Mr. Greville in his last hours, which indeed I regard as a sacred duty, since I know that in placing these Journals in my hands his principal motive and intention was that they should not be withheld from publication until the present interest in them had expired. The advance of years reminds me that if this duty is to be performed at all by me, it must not be indefinitely delayed, and if any strictures are passed on the Editor of these volumes, I prefer to encounter them in my own person rather than to leave the work in other hands and to the uncertainty of the future.

If I turn to precedent and the example of other writers, it will be found that the interval of time which has elapsed since the latest date included in these volumes, embracing the period from 1837 to 1852, is considerably greater than that which marked the publication of similar contributions to [1] political history . At the head of these must be placed Bishop Burnet’s ‘History of His Own Time.’ Bishop Burnet had lived in confidential relations with four Sovereigns and their Ministers, and it would be a mistake to compare the position of Mr. Greville (who never filled any office of a political nature, and who never lived in confidential intercourse with the Court) with that of the bold adviser of Charles II. and James II., and the trusted councillor of William and Mary. Bishop Burnet finished his history of the reigns of Charles II. and James II. about the year 1704; that of William and Queen Anne between 1710 and 1713. In 1714 he died. The first folio containing the earlier reigns was published by his son in 1724; the second in 1734, barely twenty years after the death of Queen Anne. Many passages were, however, suppressed, and the text was not restored in its integrity until the publication of the Oxford edition in the present century.

[1] To look back as far as the Memoirs of the fifteenth century, it may be noted that the first edition of the Memoirs of Philippe de Comines, who had lived in the confidential intimacy of King Louis XI. and King Charles VIII. of France, was published in Paris in 1524, under a special privilege obtained for that purpose. Louis XI. died in 1483, and his son Charles VIII. in 1498. Comines himself died in 1511. These Memoirs, therefore, were published at a time when many of the persons mentioned in them, and most of their immediate descendants, were still alive.

Lord Clarendon died in 1674, and the first edition of his ‘History of the Rebellion and the Civil Wars’ was published in 1702-4, with some alterations and omissions, which were supplied by the publication of the complete text in 1826.

Lord Chesterfield died in 1773, and his ‘Letters to his Son,’ a work abounding in keen and sarcastic observations on his contemporaries, were published in the following year, 1774.

Sir Nathaniel Wraxall’s ‘Memoirs,’ which contain the best account extant of the debates at the time of the Coalition Ministry in 1783, and on

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the Regency Question in 1788, were published in 1815, about thirty years after those discussions.

But it is scarcely necessary to seek for remote precedents to justify the publication of the materials of contemporary history. Our own time has been fertile in great examples of it. For instance, the ‘Memoirs of Lord Palmerston,’ by Lord Dalling and Mr. Evelyn Ashley, are full of confidential correspondence on the secret discussions and resolutions of the Cabinet. The ‘Journal of Lord Ellenborough,’ recently published by Lord Colchester, contains the private record of a Cabinet Minister on the events of the day and the characters of his colleagues. The more recent publication of Lord Malmesbury’s ‘Autobiography,’ and of the Croker Papers, has made public a large amount of correspondence and information of great interest, with reference to the ministerial combinations and political transactions of the present century. And above all, Her Majesty Queen Victoria, by placing the papers of the late Prince Consort, and her own correspondence and journals, in the hands of Sir Theodore Martin, for the purpose of composing from the most authentic materials a full biography of that illustrious Prince, has shown that, far from regarding with distrust or repugnance the records of contemporary history, she has been graciously pleased to contribute to it in the most ample manner by the publication of an immense mass of documents relating to the interior of the Court, the intercourse of the Sovereign with her Ministers, the character of foreign monarchs, the less known transactions of her reign, and even the domestic incidents of her life. No Sovereign ever courted more fully and more willingly the light of publicity on a reign which needs no concealment or disguise.

It would be presumptuous to compare the Journals of an individual who never held any important office in the State, and who derived his knowledge of public affairs entirely from the intercourse of private friendship, with the correspondence and private records of sovereigns, ministers, and statesmen of the highest rank, which have been published with their sanction or with that of their immediate successors. These Journals advance no such pretension; but the production of so many confidential documents of contemporary or recent history by such personages may be fairly invoked to justify,à fortiori, the publication of notes and memoranda of a humbler character.

The incidents and opinions which will be found in these volumes derive their chief value from the fact that they are recorded by a bystander and spectator, who was not, and did not aspire to be, an actor in the occurrences he witnessed, but who lived on terms of intimacy with many of the most active politicians of his times, in both the leading parties in the State, although he strictly belonged to neither of them, and was wholly indifferent to mere party interests.

Mr. Greville himself, in communicating a portion of his manuscripts to one of his friends, wrote of them in the following terms:—

You will find the greater part political, not often narrative; mostly allusions and comments on passing events, the details of which were not notorious and accessible; some miscellanea of

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a different description, personal, social, official; you will find public characters freely, flippantly perhaps, and frequently very severely dealt with; in some cases you will be surprised to see my opinions of certain men, some of whom, in many respects, I may perhaps think differently of now. Gibbon said of certain Pagan philosophers, that ‘their lives were spent in the pursuit of truth and the practice of virtue.’ I cannot boast of having passed my life in the practice of virtue, but I may venture to say that I have always pursued truth; and you will see evidence of the efforts I have made to get at it, and to sum up conflicting statements of facts with a sort of judicial impartiality.

But although I am of opinion that the time has arrived when a further portion of these Journals may without impropriety be published, yet I am sensible that as the narrative draws nearer to the present time, and touches events occurring during the reign of the Sovereign who still happily occupies the throne, much more reticence is required of an Editor than he felt in speaking of the two last reigns, which belong altogether to past history. There were in the records of those reigns topics of scandal and topics of ridicule, already familiar to the world, which cast a shadow over those pages, and the more so as they were true. In narrating the earlier passages of the reign of Queen Victoria, no such incidents occur. The Court was pure; the persons of the Sovereign and her Consort profoundly respected. The monarchy itself has been strengthened in the last forty-eight years by a strict adherence to the principles of moral dignity and constitutional government. Nothing is to be found in any part of these Journals to impugn that salutary impression; and they will afford to future generations no unworthy picture of those who have played the most conspicuous part in the last half century.

Nevertheless, the delicacy and caution which ought to be observed in recording the language and the actions of eminent persons, some of whom are still alive, appear to me to prescribe the omission, at the present time, of some passages that may more fitly be published hereafter. Accordingly, I have exercised to some extent the discretionary powers entrusted to me by the Author with these manuscripts; and I have withheld from publication details which appeared to be of a strictly confidential character, or which related the conversations of living persons. In this respect I have again followed the example set by the illustrious precedents to which I have already referred. Lord Clarendon’s ‘History of the Great Rebellion,’ Bishop Burnet’s ‘History of His Own Time,’ the Duc de Saint- Simon’s ‘Memoirs,’ were all first published with large omissions from the text; and it is only in our own age—one or two centuries after the death of the writers—that these works have been made known to the world in their integrity from the original manuscripts. I know not if these Journals are destined to so long a life; they certainly do not lay claim to so great and lasting an historical and literary fame; but it is probable they will be read and referred to hereafter as a portion of the materials of history of England in this century.

The alternative lay between the entire suppression of the work for an indefinite period, and the publication of by far the larger portion of it with the omission of a few passages which touched too nearly on our

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contemporaries. Upon the whole, the latter course appears to me the most consistent with the duty I accepted from the Author, and which I owe to the public. It must not be supposed, however, that the passages which are omitted in this edition contain anything which it would be thought discreditable for the Author to have written or for the Editor to publish, or that they are of considerable extent or importance. These passages are simply withheld at the present time from motives of delicacy to persons still alive, or to their immediate descendants. I adhere to the opinion previously expressed by me, that the public conduct of those who, by their station or their offices must be regarded as public characters, needs no reticence or concealment.

An observation occurs in one of the later volumes of these Journals (which had previously escaped my notice) in which the Author remarks that much that he has written appears to him to be extremely dull, and that to avoid dullness the manuscript should be carefully revised before it is made public. I have not the same dread of dullness which affected Mr. Greville. A passage may be found to contain something of interest hereafter, though it is not amusing, and at the worst the reader can pass it by. Nor do I attach importance to the amusement the public may derive from this work. The volumes now published may be less attractive to some readers than those which preceded them, for they relate to less dissipated and distracted times; but they are, I think, more instructive because they are marked by a deeper insight into political history.

In conclusion, I may remark that the present publication embraces a period of fourteen years, extending from the accession of Her Majesty Queen Victoria in 1837 to thecoup d’état of Napoleon III. in 1851. The latest events recorded in these pages are separated from us by an interval of about thirty-four years. The occurrences which took place after the close of 1851, the subsequent establishment of the Imperial power in France, the formation of the Cabinet of Lord Aberdeen, followed in 1853 by the Crimean War, mark an important epoch in the history of this country and of Europe. I have therefore thought that this date is the appropriate conclusion of this portion of the work. Mr. Greville continued his Journal for nine years more, until the close of 1860, though in his later years he was less conversant with public affairs than he had been in the more active period of his life. Should life and health be vouchsafed to me, I shall endeavour to complete the task he confided to my care by the publication of one or two concluding volumes at no distant period.

HENRY REEVE.

⁂The notes in brackets are by the Editor, those without brackets by the Author.

CORRECTIONS

The following inaccuracies have been remarked whilst these sheets were passing through the press:—

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Vol. ii, p. 37, the Duke of Wellington sate in Sir Robert Peel’s Cabinet of 1841 without office. Sir E. Knatchbull was Paymaster-General with a seat in the Cabinet.

Vol. ii, p. 60, line 18, forEmerson TennentreadTennant.

Vol. ii, p. 72, for SirGeorgeGrey in the text and note read SirCharles Grey.

Vol. ii, p. 113, the Rev. William Capel was Vicar, not Rector, of Watford, and Rector of Raine.

Vol. ii, p. 126, last line but two, foranyreadmy.

Vol. ii, p. 194, last two lines, forMoore O’FarrellreadMore O’Ferrall.

Vol. ii, p. 372, the battles of Moodkee and Ferozeshah were fought in December 1845,before, notafter, the battle of Aliwal.

Vol. iii, p. 108, line 12, forMachalereadMacHale.

1 Vol. iii, p. 218, note , line 2, forGottoreadGoito.

CHAPTER I.

Contents of the First Volume

The New Reign — Character of William IV — Political Effects of the King’s Death — Candidates for Office — Lord Durham — The King’s Funeral — The Elections — The Whigs and O’Connell — First Impression of a Railroad — Lord Stanley at Knowsley — The King of Hanover — Return to London — Result of the Elections — Liberality of the Queen — Princess Lieven’s Audiences — Conservative Reaction in the Counties — The Queen and Lord Munster — State of Parties in the New Parliament — The Corn Laws — The Poor Laws — Tory- Radicals — Promise of the Queen’s Character — Her Self- Possession — Queen Victoria and Queen Adelaide — The Queen and Lord Melbourne — Mango wins the St. Leger — Racing Reflexions — Death of Lord Egremont — The Court of Victoria — Conservatism of the Whigs — Radical Discontent — Irish Policy of the Government — Mr. Disraeli’s First Speech — Lord Brougham’s Isolation — Radical Politics — Lord Melbourne and Lord Brougham — The Canada Debates — The Use of a Diary — Duke of Wellington on Canada — On his own Despatches — On the Battle of Salamanca — King Ernest in Hanover — English Manor Houses — Festivities at Belvoir Castle — Life at Belvoir — Reflexions — Beaudesert — Death of Lord Eldon.

CHAPTER II.

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Debates on the Canada Bill — Moderation of the Duke of Wellington — State of Canada — Lord Durham’s Position — Weakness of the Government — Parallel of Hannibal and the Duke of Wellington — The Ballot — Lord Brougham on the Ballot — Position of the Government — Policy of Sir Robert Peel — Death of Mr. Creevey — Knighthood of General Evans — Lord Brougham’s Conversation — A Skirmish in the House of Commons — Defeat of Government — Skirmish in the House of Lords — Annoyance of Peel at these Proceedings — Brougham’s Anti-Slavery Speech — Opposition Tactics — Brougham on the Coolie Trade — Ministerial Success — Sir Robert Peel’s Tactics — Composition of Parties — A Dinner at Buckingham Palace — Men of Science — The Lord Mayor at a Council — The Queen at a Levée — The Guiana Apprentices — Smallv. Attwood reversed — Character of the Queen — Wilkie’s Picture of the ‘First Council’ — Smallv. Attwood — Immediate Emancipation — Birthday Reflexions — Lord Charles Fitzroy turned out — Vote on Lord Durham’s Expenses — Lord Durham’s Irritation — Wolff the Missionary — Newmarket — The Coronation — Lord Brougham’s Reviews.

CHAPTER III.

A Ball at the Palace — Aspect of Foreign Affairs — Irish Tithe Bill — Debate on Sir T. Acland’s Motion — Death of Prince Talleyrand — Death and Character of Lady Harrowby — Government defeated on Emancipation of Slaves — Dispute of Mr. Handley and Lord Brougham — Dinner at Lambeth — Arrangement of Irish Questions — Settlement of Irish Questions — O’Connell declines the Rolls — Naval Intervention in Spain — Duke of Wellington’s Moderation — Marshal Soult arrives — Preparations for the Coronation of Queen Victoria — The Wellington Statue — The Coronation — Coleridge and John Sterling — Lord Durham’s Mission to Canada — Lord Brougham contrasted with the Duke — Macaulay on his return from India — Soult in London — Duke of Sussex quarrels with Ministers — Lord Burghersh’s Opera — High Church Sermons — Lord Palmerston and Mr. Urquhart — The Ecclesiastical Discipline Bill — The Duke’s Despatches — Macaulay’s Plan of Life — Lord Durham’s Canada Ordinance — Mr. Barnes — Canada Indemnity Bill — Lord Durham’s Ordinance disallowed — Irish Corporation Bill — Review of the Session

CHAPTER IV.

The Queen and Lord Melbourne — The Battersea Schools — A Council at Windsor — A Humble Hero — Lord Durham’s Resignation — Duke of Wellington’s Campaigns — The Grange — Lord Durham’s Return — Death of Lord Sefton — Lord Durham’s Arrival — His Reception in the Country — Position of the Radicals — A Visit to Windsor Castle — Lord Brougham’s ‘Letter to the Queen’ — Lord Durham repudiates

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the Radicals — A Lecture at Battersea — Dinner at Holland House — Curran and George Ponsonby — Prospect of the New Year — The Petition of the Serjeants-at-Law — Reconciliation with Lord Durham — Murder of Lord Norbury — The Corn Laws attacked — Lord Palmerston and the ‘Portfolio’ — The Serjeants’ Case — Brougham and Lyndhurst ‘done up’ — Opening of the Session — Resignation of Lord Glenelg — State of Parties — Lord Durham’s Report — Lord Glenelg’s Retirement — Lord Normanby, Colonial Minister — Corn Law Repeal — Sir Francis Bond Head — Gore House — Lady Blessington

CHAPTER V.

Opening of the Session — Lady Flora Hastings — Bulwer’s ‘Richelieu’ — Changes at the Colonial Office — Attack on Lord Normanby’s Irish Administration in the Lords — General Aspect of Affairs — The ‘Morning Chronicle’ — Death of Lord de Ros — Precarious Position of the Government — Views of Lord John Russell — A doubtful Question — Conciliatory Conversation with Sir James Graham — Attitude of the Whig Party — Peel’s cold Reception of the Proposal — Result of the Debate — Attitude of Lord John Russell — Language of the Radical Party — Conciliation — Change of Feeling in the Country — Duke of Newcastle dismissed from the Lord Lieutenancy — Lord John Russell’s Letter — Jamaica Bill — Defeat of the Jamaica Bill — Resignation of Ministers — The Queen retains the Ladies of her Household — Conduct of the Whigs — End of the Crisis — The Truth of the Story

CHAPTER VI.

The Whigs retain the Government — Motives of the Queen — Decision of Ministers — Lord Brougham’s Excitement — Ministerial Explanations — State of Affairs in Parliament — Lord Brougham’s great Speech on the Crisis — Duke of Wellington’s Wisdom and Moderation — Visit of the Grand Duke Alexander — Macaulay returns to Parliament — Disappointment of the Radicals — The Radicals appeased — Visit to Holland House — Anecdotes of George Selwyn — False Position of the Whigs — Downton Castle — Payne Knight — Malvern — Troy House — Castles on the Wye — Tintern Abbey — Bath — Salisbury Cathedral — Death of Lady Flora Hastings — Violent Speech of the Duke — Conversation with the Duke of Wellington — Lord Clarendon’sdébutthe in House of Lords — Lord Brougham attacks Lord Normanby — His fantastic Conduct — Pauper School at Norwood

CHAPTER VII.

Review of the Session — Ministerial Changes — Effect of Changes in the Government — A Greenwich Dinner — Dover Dinner to the Duke of Wellington — A Toast from Ovid —

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Decay of Tory Loyalty — Unpopularity of Government — Brougham’s Letter to the Duke of Bedford — Character of John, Duke of Bedford — Brougham at the Dover Dinner — Brougham and Macaulay — The Duke’s Decline — Duke of Wellington consulted on Indian and Spanish Affairs — Baron Brunnow arrives in England — False Reports of Lord Brougham’s Death — Insulting Speeches of the Tories — Holland House — Lord Brougham and Lord Holland — The Queen’s Marriage is announced — Remarkable Anecdote of the Duke of Wellington — The Mayor of Newport at Windsor — Ampthill — Lord John Russell’s Borough Magistrates — Lord Clarendon’s Advice to his Colleagues — Prospects of the Government — Opening of the Session — Duel of Mr. Bradshaw and Mr. Horsman — Lord Lyndhurst’s View of Affairs — Prince Albert’s Household — The Privilege Question — Prince Albert’s Allowance — Precedence of Prince Albert — Lord John Russell and Sir Robert Peel — Judgement on the Newport Prisoners — A Vote of Want of Confidence moved — The Newport Prisoners — Prince Albert’s Precedency — Sir Robert Peel and his Party — Sir Robert Peel’s Speech and Declaration — Precedence Question — The Queen’s Marriage — Illness of the Duke of Wellington — The Precedence Question settled — The Duke opposed to Peel on the Privilege Question — Change in the Health of the Duke — Prince Albert’s Name in the Liturgy — Success of Pamphlet on Precedence — Judicial Committee Bill — Lord Dudley’s Letters — Amendment of Judicial Committee — King’s Sons born Privy Councillors, other Princes sworn — The Duke returns to London — Lord Melbourne’s Opinion on Journals

CHAPTER VIII.

The ex-King of Westphalia — The Duke of Wellington at Court — Failure of the Duke’s Memory — Dinner at Devonshire House to Royalties — Government defeated on Irish Registration Bill — The King of Hanover’s Apartments — Rank of Foreign Ministers — The Duchess of Inverness — War with China — Murder of Lord William Russell — Duke of Wellington on the China War — Weakness of Government — Duke of Wellington’s Conduct towards the Government — The Queen shot at — Examination of the Culprit — Retrospect of Affairs — Conciliatory Policy — Advantages of a Weak Government — The Eastern Question — Lord Palmerston’s Daring and Confidence — M. Guizot and Mr. Greville — Pacific Views of Louis Philippe — M. Guizot’s Statement of the Policy of France — Growing Alarm of Ministers — Alarm of Prince Metternich — Lord John Russell disposed to resist Palmerston — History of the Eastern Negotiation — A Blunder of M. Guizot — Important Conversation with Guizot — Conflict between Lord John Russell and Lord Palmerston — Energetic Resolution of Lord John — Lord Palmerston holds out — Conciliatory Proposals of France — Interview with Lord Palmerston and Lord John

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