THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM'S MEMOIRS OF THE COURT OF GEORGE
IV.* Tars work, as we anticipated, is less a memoir of the court of George the Fourth, than of the objects, writings, and doings of "the Grenvilles " during his reign. On the king's accession in 1820, and for some time after, various causes contributed to ren- der the Liverpool Ministry "very shaky." The opposition, and the mass of the people were embittered by the high handed measures of previous years ; the scandals of the Queen s trial dis- gusted many respectable and conservative people ; commercial distress had swept over the towns, agricultural distress was exas- perating "the country party " ; the withdrawal of Peel and Can- ning from the government, with the equivocal bearing of Canning, rendered it very weak in the House. The Ministers were not only in danger, but known to be so • and in short strength they must get somehow. To let in the Lansdowne Whigs, supposing they would have taken office without the rest of their party, would have ad- mitted a division of the enemy into the citadel, and who knows
what might have followed? The Grenvilles " were not very numerous, and they had not the power or influence which people fancied ; for the years and health of their chief, Lord Grenville, not to say a doubt of the Ministry on his side, precluded him from taking any active part in Parliament. Still, the band hall a sort of prestige ; they had never joined with Burdett or extreme radi- cals; they were respectable men ; and with some of them ii place they would be drawn off from the opposition. But it is clear they were received grudgingly ; either from doubts as to their fidelity, or an aversion to divide the sweets of office. The negotiations were long and interrupted ; but they finally ended thus in Deoem-
• Memoirs of the Court of George ITT, 1820-18.10 From original Family Docu- ments. By the Duke a Buckingham and Chandos, X.G. In two volumes. Pub-
lished by Hurst and Blackett.
ber 1821, or nearly two years after George the Fourth's accession. Wynn, the most availably able of the baud, became President of the Board of Control, with a seat in the Cabinet ; Fremantle and Dr. Phillimorer two chants of the House, were India- Com- missioners ; and the Marquis of Buckingham, the chief of the clan, was advanced to a Dnkedoni without office. He however reserved to himself the power of putting in his claim to a seat in the cabi- net and high office on a fitting opportunity ; nor did he let this reserved right slumber, once contemplating the Governor-General- ship of India ; though nothing came of it all. Notwithstanding known political dislike to them on the part of Eldon and the Anti-Catholics, and Wynn's continual suspicion of treachery on the part of Canning, they held their posts till the Duke of Wel- lington's aecesbion to the premiership in 1828, when they were turned out, and, according to Fremantle, with scant courtesy. This is substantially the story of the book. Its matter con- sists of letters addressed to the Duke of Buckingham as head man, respecting affairs in general, from the men whose names have been already mentioned, and various other persons, includ- ing Lord Liverpool, the Duke of Wellington, and, as a sort of volunteer client, Ward the author of Trentaine and De Fere. These letters are printed in chronological order and connected together or set by a species of narrative of the reign, readable and useful enough, but not tery remarkable.
The most solid in matter and weighty in opinion as to public measures are the letters of Lord Grenville. Those of his brother Thomas are sensible, but wanting Lord Grenville's force. The few epistles of Lord Liverpool and the Duke of Wellington have an interest from the writers, and as examples of letter writing to a great nobleman by men in high place on delicate negotiations. Wynn furnishes most political information ; for it was his custom during his seven years' tenure of office to keep his chief advised of the state of men and affairs, not only as he knew but often as he supposed them to feel or to be. With these he mingles passing sketches of society, anecdotes, and on dits, told tersely and pointedly, with a quantum suff. of lemon. The most ample cor- respondents of gossip, flying reports, and political or fashionable news are Fremantle, Phillimore, and, at a later time, Ward, who writes exceedingly like a tuft-hunter. The amplest and best cor- respondence of its kind is that of Fremantle ; not only from his flowing style and his knowledge of the world, but from his con- nections with the highest circles and with the Royal family he as w afterwards knighted and held office in the household. It
iin was his to keep "My dear Duke" informed of how the Kin looked, looked, and talked, and enjoyed himself ; to note the comings and goings of the " Regnante " (Lady Conyngham,) and the billing and cooing of the elderly doves—not always it seems the most deco- rous possible before company ; to draw conclusions as to the opin- ions of politicians and society, and to report the best information he could obtain as to the intentions and views of ministers and influential men. Nor did he altogether neglect slices of scandal, and sometimes pretty large slices, one of which relates to a Lady W— and the Duke of Wellington, the truth of which the Duke denied to Fremantle, while admitting the injury it would do him at the outset, if brought before the publio by Lord W— as he threatened. But the correspondent was also an adviser as well as a raconteur and reporter. And this advice as to quarrelling with your post before you get it, was undoubtedly worldly wise ; for Lord Grenville's stately disposition was disposed to exact the strictest old-fashioned etiquette, and to require more than was likely to be attained.
"The state of things is most critical and curious. Everybody now ac- knowledges, and seems to admit, that changes must take place and are pend- ing, but what with the King's flirtation with the Opposition, the strange absence and conduct of Canning at the House of Commons, the illness of Londonderry, and the death of Lady Liverpool, it is all loose and wild con- jecture. My version is this. • • • * That as soon as Lady Liverpool is buried and the session is closed, a communication will be made to you, and that the Government will be strengthened by your accession. How and in what manner this will be arranged, in accordance with your feelings and views, I cannot pretend to say ; but whenever that proposition is made, if you are afterwards to waive the accedence to a junction till you are enabled to satisfy- the theories and calculations of your uncles, [Lord Grenville and Thomas Grenville,] I am quite sure you might as well remain at Stowe. I have no hesitation in saying to .you, that I think you would do well to make a sine qua non of Charles Williams [Wynn] being of the Cabinet ; but if beyond this he is te have all his difficulties of who shall fill the different offices, and how more or leas the Government could be better classed, and if these difficulties are again to be weighed and reasoned on by your uncles. who sit in their libraries and fancy things and men are as they were twenty years ago, and forget we are under a new reign, and such a reign ; and if, above all, they fancy the Government is reduced to the state of giving you carte blanche, and that they cannot go on without your party, I am quite convinced they would not treat on these terms, and that they are prepared to go on, if they find such to be your feelings and line of conduct; I tell you this as my own opinion, and which I think I am bound to give you, knowing the situation in which you stand, and weighing well all these dila- oulties you have to contend against, and as they affect what I know to be the prevailing object of your mind to conciliate the junction." We do not think there is a great deal of new historical in- formation in the work as regards the reign of George the Fourth. But it confirms reports or conclusions by bringing affairs more .closely home to the mind and presenting them in a fuller detail and a more vivid light. We also get a more personal view of the times as it were. Peel left an impression even at that early period of the decision and firmness which lie afterwards displayed, as well as raised doubts of his fidelity to Orangeiam, while he seems to have displayed a hot temper which in latter years he kept more under control. The universal distrust and dislike that Can- ning contrived to inspire is more conspicuous. The King, the Duke of Wellington, Peel, Wynn, (though he does not seem to have had real grounds of complaint, beyond coolness of manner at first) and indeed people generally who were in close contact with him seem to have had an idea that he was a selfish and un- safe person. The Doke of Wellington appears in the comments of others not m much hard or unfeeling as without feeling—a kind of ' intellectual abstraction whose objects centre in himself. The difficulties which the Old Tory bigotry and obstinacy threw in the way of liberal administration and a strong government ; and the manner in which their obstinacy finally cut the ground from under themselves is clearly visible. The influence of the "favourite" is often jeeringly alluded to by the writers, but we do not know that it is made out. The ring could not get his own way when the ministers were clear upon a subject; as the recognition of the revolted Spanish and Portuguese Colonies, which he was too "royalists par metier" to stomach; while Lady Conyngham rather leaned to liberalism without much result. His obstinacy about his wife might receive an interpretation, as well as his undignified joy when Fremantle managed to get up an ad- dress to him from the neighbourhood, if the writer is correct in his judgment as to illness of the head. What the allusion to the Princess Charlotte is we do not know.
"Since I wrote to you last, I have been manufacturing an address from this neighbourhood, which has been carried with great success, and has pleased, particularly in the quarter where I was anxious it should. I re- ceived a communication from the King, through Princess Augusta, who was commanded to deliver it to me, that he should make an exception for his neighbours, and receive it in person, and that he should afterwards invite the principal persons to dine with him, directing me to make a proper selec- tion for him to invite. This has placed me in great awkwardness, for I dare not avow this permission for fear of offending all my neighbours, and it is difficult to make a selection where all are perfectly unfit. However, I have endeavoured to get rid of it, by recommending it to be confined to those only who have been presented, or to neblemen and men of rank. Though highly flattering all this, I think you will agree with me it is highly absurd and infra dignitatem. My-own opinion is that he will notcome to the neighbour- hood this week, as he 'proposed ; for you may rest assured he is extremely unwell—I think, seriously so. He has been bled twice or three times ; the greatest pains are taken to keep this illness from the public; but my au- thority is good, and what I can depend upon. He looked very ill when I last saw him, and I think Lord Grenville must have found his appearance much altered. The impression of my mind is that the complaint is in the head. He has been agitated to a degree by the birth of this Clarence child, and by all the difficulties surrounding him ; and not less from finding that he has no resource, but must submit to whatever his Ministers may decide as to the Queen. He still presses further resistance, and fancies the public will open their eyes to all the history which you know regarding the Prin- cess Charlotte, which they will not believe one word about, but will only consider a further proof of conspiracy. On this point, however, he is un- controllable, and nothing will convince him."
The more valuable conclusions contained in these volumes must often be deduced by the reader for himself, rather than found ready in a definite form ; but there arc a great many anecdotes of celebrated persons or passing indications of their character. If not the most important set of the series of Buckingham Papers, these volumes are the most popular, not only from the nature of their matter, but from the closeness of the period to our own times.
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