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 ' ti^C'^'-^^'iu^'^u- L^i^ c.y^^,i>m2.a^ .=£(Mi-r»itce^
 
 THE CROKER PARERS. 
 
 THE 
 
 COKEESPONDENCE AND DIAPJES 
 
 OP THE LATE 
 
 EIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 JOHN WILSON CPiOKEE, LL.D., F.R.S. 
 
 S EGRET AEY TO THE ADMIRALTY 
 FROM 1809 TO 1830. 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 LOUIS J. JENNINGS, 
 
 AUTHOR OF 'EEPUBLICAN GOVERNMENT IN THE UNITED STATES." 
 
 IN THKEE VOLUMES.— YoL. I. 
 
 WITH PORTRAIT. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 
 
 1884.
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED BY -WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, 
 
 STAMFORD STREET AKD CHAKIKG CEOSS.
 
 63L 
 e^ A3 
 
 V.I 
 
 LIBRABY 
 
 UNIYERSn V OF C ALIFORMS 
 
 SAiMA BAiiliAlU 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 A FEW words of explanation may Ijc necessary concerning 
 the papers which are submitted to the pul)lic in these 
 vokimes. 
 
 The letters of Mr. Croker from 1811 to about 1833 were 
 chiefly to be found in twenty-eight large volumes ; from 1833 
 to 1857, they were scattered in great disorder through scores 
 of bundles of miscellaneous documents, most of whicli yielded 
 nothing likely to prove attractive to the general reader. But, 
 mmgled with tax receipts, appeals for alms and loans, 
 friendly invitations, applications for office, and formal notes 
 on business affairs, were many letters of the highest political 
 importance, and others of almost equal value relathig to the 
 social and literary life of the first half of the present century. 
 
 The preliminary work of reading, sorting, aiul making 
 selections from this immense collection consumed the 
 greater part of a year. In the end, I found that althougli 
 there were serious gaps in the correspondence, for which 
 Mr. Croker's Trustees are unable to account, yet that a ga-eat 
 mass remained which could not fail to be of unusual interest 
 to the public, and of great value to the future historian. Mr. 
 Croker's correspondence was chiefly carried on with men of 
 distmction in various walks of life, and it ranged over every 
 topic which engaged popular attention. Mr. Croker's own 
 letters were written in a singularly light and sparkling vein ;
 
 IV PREFACE. 
 
 and his friendships inchided most of the eminent statesmen 
 of his day, and all who had made public life illustrious — ex- 
 cept, of course, on the side of the Whigs. He gave his 
 friends, when he wrote to them, the best he had to give, 
 and they dealt in the same spirit with him. The result, 
 after all deductions, was a correspondence which presents a 
 contribution to the history of our times not surpassed in 
 general interest, or in historical importance, by any similar 
 records which have been brought to light during the present 
 century. The curious series of incidents which preceded and 
 attended the Ministries of Mr. Canning and Lord Goderich ; 
 the letters of Sir Eobert Peel, which throw so powerful, and 
 from some points of view, so new a light, on his entire 
 character and career ; the full details concerning the negocia- 
 tions which went on within the Tory party in the critical 
 month of May, 1832 ; the narrative of the circumstances 
 attending Peel's second great conversion in 1846 ; tlie re- 
 markable conversations with the Duke of "Wellington ; the 
 statement made to JNIr. Croker by George the Fourth, clearly 
 with a view to its publication ; the secret history of many 
 political events which hitherto have been only darkly visible 
 to the public — these are among the features of the Croker 
 Papers which will command universal attention. And it 
 will be found that the literary and social interest of the 
 collection is scarcely less original and attractive. 
 
 The systematic arrangement of these papers, the process of 
 condensation, the frequent necessity of choosing from several 
 documents bearmg upon the same subject that which seemed 
 the most worthy of publication — all this was a most difficult 
 and hea^y task, requiring upwards of another year for its com- 
 pletion. My first and greatest desire from the outset was to 
 let the correspondence speak for itself, a long and patient 
 study of it having convinced me that it afforded a complete
 
 PREFACE. V 
 
 vindication of Mi. Croker lioni tlic injustice with which one 
 writer after another, each imitating the other, had treated hiin. 
 It is too often the first word that decides tlie estimation in 
 wliich a man is to be held. It happened that Mr. Disraeli, 
 inflamed l)y personal dislike and jiique, sjioke that word 
 about Mr. Croker, and others echoed it, some of them from 
 Mr. Disraeli's motive, and others without well knowing 
 what they were doing. 
 
 But although it seemed clear that the correspondence 
 should be allowed to tell its own tale, a connecting narrative 
 was indispensable. In endeavouring to supply this, I have 
 presented the main facts connected with ]\Ir. Croker's life, 
 together with such explanatory comments as appeared to be 
 essential in reference to the public events which are directly 
 mentioned in the correspondence. To have gone beyond 
 these limits would have led to the attempt to construct 
 a long and formal biography of ]\Ir. Croker, for which there is 
 not adequate material ; or to write the political liistory of 
 this country from 1809 to 1857 — an undertaking wliich 
 would have been still more remote from the scope of the 
 editor's duties. 
 
 Tlie narrative portions of these volumes are therefore brief, 
 as brief as they could properly be made ; fov it seemed to be 
 a most important part of the lousiness of an etlitor to interpose 
 as little as possil)le between the reader and ]\Ir. Croker or his 
 coiTespondents. The editor is aware that his own wovlv may, 
 in consequence, have a slight and fragmentary appearance, 
 but this was inevital)le, since it was designed to form a mere 
 link of connection — unobtrusive, but not, it is to ])e hoped, 
 superfluous. 
 
 It would 1 )e too much to hope that no error whatever will 
 be found in a compilation which deals with so many hundreds 
 of names and dates and personal allusions ; but if any mistakes
 
 Vi PREFACE. 
 
 have thus far escaped detection, it may honestly be pleaded 
 that it is not l^ecause the most anxious care and attention 
 have not been bestowed upon the work throughout every 
 stage of its preparation. Finally, the editor is desirous of 
 acknowledging with gratitude the great assistance he has 
 received from Mr. Murray and from :Mr. John Mm-ray, jun., 
 in the laborious task of reading the proofs, and in suggesting 
 appropriate and necessary notes. These notes are placed 
 within brackets when they refer to the diaries or letters, 
 but the brackets are omitted when the editor has appended 
 them to his own remarks. The very few notes furnished by 
 Mr. Croker himself have his initials attached to them. 
 
 October 1884.
 
 CONTENTS OF VOL. I 
 
 CHAPTEPw I. 
 1780-1809. 
 
 FACE 
 
 !Misrepvesentatious of Mr. Croker's Character — Birth and Parentac^e — 
 The Croker Family — Early PecoUections — School life — The 
 Father of Sheridan Knowles — Trinity College — Mr. Croker's Ee- 
 moval to London — The French Pevolution — Letters to the Times 
 — First Literary Productions — His Practice at the Bar — Marriage 
 to Miss Pennell — Elected to Parliament in 1807 — Friendship with 
 Canning — Catholic Di.sabilitics — !Mr. Perceval and the Xew Mem- 
 ber — First Acquaintance with Sir Arthur "Wellesley — Colonel 
 Wardle's Charge against the Duke of York — Canning and the 
 Premiership — Letter from Charles Arbuthnot — ^Ir. Croker ap- 
 pointed Secretary of the Admiralty — Letter to Lord Palmerston — 
 Croker's Performance of his Duties — Memorandum on his own 
 and Mr. Perceval's Position — A Scandal in the Admiralty- 
 Firmness of the Xew Secretary — Foundation of the Quarterhj 
 Eeviev: — Mr. Croker as a Political Writer — His great attention 
 to Facts aud Details — Characteristics of his Style and Workman- 
 ship ........... 1 
 
 CHAPTER n. 
 
 1810-1813, 
 
 Politics in 1810 — Pumoured Appointment of Henry Brougham in 
 Mr. Croker's place — The Pegencj' Bill — The Prince Kegent and 
 the Whigs — The ' Lady of the Lake ' — Incidents of the French 
 War — Mr. Perceval on the Currency and on French Afiairs — 
 Difficulty of obtaining Continental Xews — Mr. Walter and the 
 Times — Mr. Croker's Assistance — ^Ir. AValter declines lo support 
 the Liverpool ^Ministry — A new First Lord of the Admiralty — 
 Catholic Emancipation in Grattan's Bill^Elected for Athlone —
 
 VI 11 CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The War of 1812 with the United States — English and American 
 Frigates — Mr. Croker's Suggestion to English Naval Officers — 
 Eobert Peel on Mr. Canning and Lord Wellesley — Peel on his 
 Life in Ireland — Robert Southey on his Literary Work — Office 
 Seekers and their Eeception — Walter Scott and Eobert Southey — 
 The Laureateshi^D — Thomas Moore — Proposed Sale of an OflTice — 
 The Prince Eegent .29 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 1814-1816. 
 
 Passages in King's Ships — Application from Lord Byron — Mr. Glad- 
 stone of Liverpool — The Brief Peace of 1814 — Monument to 
 Wellington in the Phoenix Park — The ' New Whig Guide ' — A 
 Visit to Paris — Letter to Canning — Paris after the War — Fouche 
 and Talleyrand — Anecdotes of Buonaparte — Jouraal of Events 
 in 1815 — Intended Duel between Peel and O'Connell — Parlia- 
 mentary Encounter between Mr. Croker and Mr. Tierney — The 
 Elgin Marbles — Mr. Canning's Mission to Lisbon — Napoleon in 
 Exile — Peel on " Papal Superstition " in Ireland — The Bombard- 
 ment of Algiers — Walter Scott on Byron's ' Politics and 
 Morality ' — Letter to Dr. Croly on the Question whether 
 Dryden's and Pope's Works were becoming obsolete — Popular 
 Disturbances in 1816 — A Curious Coincidence ... 55 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 1817-1818. 
 
 Unpopularity of the Prince Eegent — The Princess of Wales — 
 Marriage of the Princess Charlotte — Her death — Grief of the 
 Prince Eegent — Marriages of the Eoyal Dukes — Mr. Croker's 
 Account of these Events — Lady Morgan's ' France ' — Her Attacks 
 upon Mr, Croker — Mr, Peel's Warning — State of Public Feeling 
 itt 1817— Walter Scott and Mr. Croker— The Waverley Novels 
 — The Scottish Eegalia — Mr, Croker's Advice to Peel to Prepare 
 Himself for Office — Peel's Disinclination for Public Life — His 
 Elation at his Freedom — Mr. Croker's Predictions of his Success 
 • — ^Illness and Death of Queen Charlotte — Mr. Croker's Visit to 
 Brighton — The Prince Eegent's Mode of Life — Mrs. Fitzherbert 
 and Lady Hertford — Anecdotes of Waterloo — Society at the 
 Pavilion ■ — The Prince at Cards — Anecdotes collected by Mr. 
 Croker . . 102
 
 CONTENTS OF VOL. I. IX 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 1819. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Mr. Croker elected for Yarmouth — Speech on the Catholic Claims — 
 His Opinions on the Necessity of Concession — rarliameutary 
 ]!eform--rThe llight of large Manufacturing Towns to Represen- 
 tation — Representations to Lord Liverpool — Mr. Croker as a 
 Reformer — Literary Work — The Guardian Newspaper — Sir 
 Walter Scott on the Project — Mr. Croker's Standing in the World 
 of Letters — Criticisms on a Tragedy — Advice to an Amateur 
 Dramatist — BlackwoocVs Magazine — Byron's Application for a 
 ConsulshiiT — 'Don Juan' — The Claims of "one Pringle" — Mr. 
 Peel and Specie Payments — Death of the Duke of Richmond 
 from Hydrophobia — The Princess of Wales in Paris — Southey on 
 Freedom of the Press — Table Talk ..... 131 
 
 CHAPTER YI. 
 
 1820. 
 
 Mr. Croker's Diary — Death of the Duke of Kent — And of George HT. 
 — Illness of George lY. — 'Jlie King's Domestic Afiairs — Scandals 
 concerning the Queen — The Prayers in the Liturgy — DifBculties 
 with the Cabinet — Funeral of George IIL — The Cato Street Con- 
 spiracy — Dinner of the Royal Academy — A Yisit to Cornwall — 
 Mr. Croker elected for Bodmin — Visit of Sir Walter Scott to 
 London-^Orafor Hu'nt — Mr. Peel on the changed Tone of Public 
 Opinion regarding Parliamentary Reform — Probable Amalgama- 
 tion of Whigs and Tories — The Conduct of the Queen — Danger 
 of Riots — Alarms concerning the Troops — Lady ConjTighara, 
 the " Vice-Queen " — The King and his Ministers — Re[iorted 
 Mutiny of the Guards — Mr. Peel on the Difficulty with tlie 
 Queen — Death of Mr. Croker's Son ..... 15 i 
 
 CHAPTER YIL 
 
 182L 
 
 Prospects of Peel taking Office — The Necessities of the Government 
 — Lady Hervcy's Letters — Political Piumours — Canning and 
 Peel — Lord Liverpool's Overtures to Peel — The King's Dislike 
 of Canning — A Fancy Ball for Children — The Conynghams — The 
 Story of the Princess Charlotte's Sapphire ^Coronation of 
 
 h
 
 X CONTENTS OF VOL. L 
 
 PACK 
 
 George IV.— l^Ir. Croker's Suggestion for a Popular Fete— The 
 Queen during the Coronation— The King's Visit to Ireland- 
 Death of Queen Caroline— Public Entry into Dublin— Festivities 
 in the City— Lord Liverpool and the King— Mr. Croker's Eiforts 
 to produce a Reconciliation— Lord Liverpool's Aversion to the 
 Conynghams— The King's Journey to Hanover— Letters to Mr. 
 Peel— Remarks on Mr. Canning— The Conynghams, . . 183 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 1822. 
 
 Peel and Canning enter the Cabinet— Mr. Croker's Belief in Peel— 
 The King's Objections to Canning- Assumed Rivalry between 
 Peel and Canning— Suicide of Lord Londonderry— His Funeral 
 —Reconstruction of the Ministry— Political Rumours of the Day 
 
 " Prosperity " Robinson and Huskisson — Peel as a Sportsman 
 
 —The third Marquis of Hertford— Mr. Croker's Intimacy with 
 him— Lord Hertford's Character— His Dependence for Political 
 Information on Mr. Croker- His Mamage with Maria Fagniani 
 —Supposed Portraits of Lord Hertford in " Vanity Fair " acd • 
 
 "Coningsby" — And of "Mr. Rigby" — True Nature of the j 
 
 Relations between Lord Hertford and ]\Ir. Croker— The Hertford [ 
 
 Estates— Character of the second Marquis— Examples of Lord ^| 
 
 Hertford's Letters— Sir B. Blomfield— The " Court" at Brighton || 
 
 Lady Conyngham and the King— A Children's Ball at Carlton 
 
 jIyuse_The " Master of the Robes " 220 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 1823-1824. 
 
 new Club for Literary Men and Artists— Mr. Croker's original 
 Plans— Establishment of the « Athenajum "—Limitations as to 
 Membership— Letters from Sir Humphrey Davy and Mr. Jekyll 
 —Mr. Croker's Advice to the Architect— Imprisonment of Theo- 
 dore Hook— Mr. Croker's Exertions in his Behalf— Gratitude of 
 Mr. Hook's Family— Benjamin Haydon— A Practical Suggestion 
 —Mr. Babbage's Calculating Machine— The King's Health— The 
 Duke of Clarence— Mr. Canning's Irish Tour in 1824— Political 
 Speculations of the Day— Indictment of O'Connell— Lord Liverpool 
 and Mr. Croker on Horace Walpole— Proposal to bring Cleopatra's 
 Keedle on a Raft, in Tow— Church and State . . . .253
 
 CONTENTS OF VOL. I. xi 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 1825. 
 
 PACK 
 
 The Roman Catholic Claims — Proposed Provision for tlie Irish Clergy 
 — Mr. Canning's Opinions — Mr. Croker on the " Emancipation " 
 Policy — View taken by the Duke of Wellington — Mr. Peel's Op- 
 position — Mr. Henry Drummond — The Irish Problem — Theodore 
 Hook — Mr. Croker procures his Release from Gaol — Moore's 
 Life of Sheridan — Misstatements in the Work — Annoyance of 
 George IV. — Xarrative dictated by the King to Mr. Croker — His 
 Intercourse with Sheridan — His Course on the Catholic Question 
 — The reported Marriage with ]Mrs. Fitzherbert — The liegency 
 Question — Sheridan's Extravagance — Receives £20,000 from 
 George IV. — Moore's Conduct towards his " Patrons " — The al- 
 leged Neglect of Sheridan — The Story of Sheridan's Last Days — 
 Notes of Conversations with the Duke of Wellington — Anecdotes 
 of Talleyrand, Buonaparte, &c. ...... 278 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 1826. 
 
 The Panic of 1825 — Course taken by the Ministry — One Pound 
 Notes — The Scotch Banks — Excitement in Scotland — Contro- 
 versy between Sir Walter Scott and Mr. Croker — Letters from 
 Scott — The Corn Laws — Canning on the Spanish DifBculty — 
 Intervention in Portugal — Illness of the Duke of York — Mr. 
 Croker on the Loss of Mr. Robinson's Son — Advice to a young 
 Naval Officer — Anecdotes of Madame de Stael — Capture of 
 Napoleon Buonaparte — Mr. Croker's Plan — Anecdotes of the 
 Duke of Gloucester and Theodore Hook — Conversations with the 
 Duke of Wellington — The Duke offered an Estate — The Grandees 
 of Spain — Talleyrand — Battle of Vittoria — The Duke's Generals 
 — Buonaparte as a General — His System of Secrecy — The Priest 
 of St. Pe— The Duke and the Horse Guards—" Dry Nurses "— 
 The Convention of Cintra — Mr. Gleig and the "Subaltern" — 
 Intrigues against the Duke — An Enigma in Buonaparte's 
 Career 313 
 
 CHAPTER XIL 
 1827. 
 
 Lord Liverpool's last Illness — Death of the Duke of York — Canning's 
 Accession to Power — Political Events iu 1827 — George iV. and
 
 xii CONTENTS OF VOL. I. 
 
 TAGK 
 
 Canning — The Conynghams — Catholic Emancipation — Peel and 
 Canning — The Corn Laws— Wellington and Peel — Power of the 
 Aristocracy in Politics— Canning's Independence — Mr. Croker's 
 Anxiety to effect a Junction with the moderate Whigs — Jealousy 
 of Peel — Mr. Croker is elected for Dublin University — Fete 
 at Boyle Farm — The Summer of 1827 — Illness and Death of 
 Canning — Subsequent Negotiations — Lord Goderich and his 
 Ministry — Early Predictions of its Failure .... 350 
 
 CHAPTER XIIL 
 
 1828. 
 
 Fall of Lord Goderich— Aministration of the Duke of AVellingtou— 
 The " Great Rock " of the Catholic Question — The Prospects of 
 the Whigs— Anecdote of Lady Holland — Ministerial Difficulties — 
 The Duke of Wellington and Peel— Crockford's " Fairy Palace " 
 — ^Mr. Herries and the List of the New Ministry — Burke's Dagger 
 gcene — ^Ir. Croker's Proposals for Gradual Reform — The Vaults 
 of St. ]\Iartin's Church — Dinners with Sir Walter Scott, Lord 
 Lyndhurst, and Charles Grant— The Royal Academy Dinner of 
 1828— Debates on the Catholic Question— The Duke of Welling- 
 ton and Mr. Huskisson — Madame de Lieven — Mr. Croker ap- 
 piiinted Privy Councillor — The Duke of Clarence at the Admi- 
 i-alty — Anecdotes of the Duke of Wellington and Talleyrand . 395
 
 LETTERS, DIARIES, AND MEMOIRS 
 
 RT. HON. JOHN W. CROKER. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 1780-1809. 
 
 Misrepresentations of Mr, Croker's Character — Birth and Parentage — The 
 Croker Family — Early Recollections — School Life — The Father of 
 Sheridan Knowles — Trinity College — Mr. Croker's Removal to London 
 — The French Itevolution — Letters to the Times — First Literary 
 Productions — His Practice at the Bar — Marriage to Miss Pennell — 
 Elected to Parliament in 1807 — Friendship with Canning — Catholic 
 Disabilities — Mr. Perceval and the New Member — First Acquaintance 
 with Sir Arthur Wellesley — Colonel Wardle's Charge against the 
 Duke of York — Canning and the Premiershijj — Letter from Charles 
 Arbuthnot — Mr. Croker appointed Secretary of the Admiralty — Letter 
 to Lord Palmerston — Croker's Performance of his Duties — Memo- 
 randum on his own and Mr. Perceval's Position — A Scandal in the 
 Admiralty — Firmness of the New Secretary — Foundation of the 
 Quarterly lieview — Mr. Croker as a Political Writer — His great 
 attention to Facts and Details — Characteristics of his Style and 
 Workmanship. 
 
 Few men whose names are known to the puhlic have 
 received harder usage than John Wilson Croker. All whom 
 he offended by his articles, or by articles which they thought 
 proper to attribute to him, took care, sooner or later, to 
 exact vengeance. In his lifetime he never replied to any of 
 these attacks, although he could not have been insensible to 
 VOL. L B
 
 2 TEE CBOKER PAPERS. [Chap. I. 
 
 their injustice. After his death their bitterness was re- 
 doubled. He was exhibited to the view of the world as " the 
 wickedest of reviewers," with a " malignant ulcer " in his 
 mind ; a man who employed his faculties " for the gratifica- 
 tion of his own morbid inclination to give pain." These 
 were the softest words which Miss Martineau could find to 
 say of him while the grave was still open to receive his 
 remains. She thought that Mr. Croker had done her a 
 wrong. In 1839 a severe article upon her ' Illustrations of 
 Political Economy ' appeared in the Quarterly Review, and in 
 1852 there was a notice in the same pages — not altogether 
 complimentary, although not severe — of her ' History of 
 England.' Smarting under these criticisms. Miss Martineau 
 struck back at Mr. Croker, and yet he was not the offender. 
 He had nothing whatever to do with either article. In like 
 manner Lord Macaulay, who almost avowedly wrote from 
 motives of revenge, placed it upon record, though the record 
 was not published till after his death, that he was a " bad, a 
 very bad man : a scandal to politics and to letters." These 
 are examples of the portraits which have been drawn by his 
 political and personal adversaries. 
 
 On the other hand, when we get fairly behind the scenes 
 of his life, we find that Mr. Croker was the close and 
 intimate friend of many of the most eminent men of his day, 
 and not only their friend, but their adviser in every great 
 emergency which befell them. They attached an extra- 
 ordinary value to his opinions, and trusted in him to a degree 
 which is rare either in public or in private life. Never was 
 he known to betray this confidence. His discretion and his 
 sturdy common sense could be depended on to the last 
 extremity. Political differences sometimes cost him the loss 
 of a friend ; no man can take an active part in public affairs 
 without being required, sooner or later, to pay that penalty.
 
 1780-1809.] MB. CROKERS TRUE CHARACTER. 3 
 
 But liis sincerity' was never called in question by those who 
 were compelled to part company with him. He was severed 
 from most of his acquaintances only by the hand of deatli. 
 " Our friendship," wrote one of them — the Earl of Lonsdale 
 — " has lasted fifty years without a cloud." He had the 
 cordial respect of Mr. Canning, of the Duke of Wellington, 
 of Sir Eobert Peel, and of every Conservative leader, from 
 Mr. Perceval down to the late Lord Derby ; and he enjoyed the 
 confidence and esteem of many who were habitually opposed 
 to him in politics, — as Sir Robert Peel himself became in the 
 latter part of his career. In private life we find him free 
 from blame or reproach, devoted to his home, overshadowed 
 as it was by the loss of his only son ; deeply attached to his 
 kinsfolk, and never turning a deaf ear either to friends or 
 strangers who came to him for help, and who could prove that 
 they deserved it. 
 
 Such is the man who is presented to us when we see him 
 as he really was. The immense correspondence of all kinds 
 which he left strips away disguises. If he had been the 
 unjust, selfish, and bad man described by his foes, this 
 correspondence would have told the tale. That his character 
 was not without defects, assuredly he would have been the 
 last to pretend. He sometimes held extreme opinions, and 
 was extreme in his way of advocating them. He was of 
 a combative disposition, ever ready for a fray, and seldom 
 happier than when the cry of battle rung in his ears. He 
 was a redoubtable opponent, as his enemies found out to 
 their cost ; and a man who struck so hard, and so often, 
 was sure to make many enemies. But any fair-minded 
 reader who dispassionately considers his life and work, with 
 the aid of the materials which are now produced for the 
 formation of a right conclusion, will speedily be convinced 
 that, so far from being wholly " bad," the vehement contro- 
 
 B 2
 
 4 THE CBOKER PAPERS. [Chap. I. 
 
 versialist had, after all, a kindly heart and a generous 
 nature ; and that in everything he undertook he was animated 
 by a lofty sense of duty, which alone would entitle him to 
 respectful recollection. 
 
 John Wilson Croker was born in Galway, on the 20th of 
 December, 1780. His father, John Croker, was for many 
 years Surveyor-General of Customs and Excise in Ireland, 
 and it is recorded, on the sufficient authority of Edmund 
 Burke, that he was " a man of great abilities and most 
 amiable manners, an able and upright public steward, and 
 universally respected and beloved in private life." His 
 mother was the daughter of the Eev. E. Eathbone, of Galway. 
 On his father's side, he came of an old Devonshire stock, the 
 name of Croker being commemorated in a well-known 
 distich of the county : — 
 
 " Croker, Crwys, and Copleston 
 When the conqueror came were at home." 
 
 When Mr. Croker had made himself a power in public life, 
 his assailants derived some kind of consolation from referring 
 to him as a man of " low birth and no principles — the son 
 of a county ganger;" a description which, though purely 
 imaginary, was not more inaccurate than the account which 
 was given of him at a later period by writers or politicians 
 who had winced under the sharp strokes of his pen. 
 
 Not very long before Mr. Croker's death, he happened one 
 day to be in the library of the British Museum, when he 
 recognised a face which he had not seen for many years. It 
 was that of an old schoolfellow, Mr. Justice Jackson, of the 
 Irish Common Pleas, and the meeting occasioned to both 
 a feeling of surprise, for on his way to the Museum that very 
 morning the Judge was assured that Mr. Croker had died 
 several years previously. The two friends fell into conversa-
 
 1780-1809.] RECOLLECTIONS OF SCHOOL DAYS. 5 
 
 tion, and shortly afterwards they exchanged a few reminis- 
 cences of their early lives. These letters afford us a glimpse 
 or two of Croker's school days. "Your father and mine," 
 wTote Jackson, " were friends and brother officers in the 
 Eevenue. I was sent to Portarlington School very young, 
 and I was placed under your protection. You were then at 
 the head of the school, and facile princeps in every branch of 
 our course. You were also a great favourite with our master 
 Mr. Willis, and with Monsieur Doineau, the French teacher, 
 the principal assistant. They were proud of your talents 
 and acquirements, as being likely to redound to the character 
 and credit of the school. I perfectly well recollect that you 
 had at your then early age translated almost the whole of 
 Virgil into English verse." 
 
 To this Mr. Croker replied (December 4th, 185 G) : — 
 
 Your memory, I think, exaggerates my poetical diligence. 
 I am pretty sure that the first eclogue and the first book of 
 the iEneid were all of Virgil that I translated. Pope's 
 Homer I had by heart. The old Lord Shannon had given 
 me one when my father once took me {(ct. 10) to Castle 
 Martyr. I dare say I knew of no translation of Virgil, and, 
 stimulated by the example of Mr. Pope, was resolved to fill 
 up that chasm in English literature. I don't think that this 
 noble ambition had recurred to my memory from my leaving 
 Portarlington up to the receipt of your refresher of yester- 
 day ; but that hint has recalled it, and I now could repeat 
 a line or two. But I still believe that I got no further than 
 the first eclogue and ^Eneid. But I was an early dabbler in 
 political squibbing. There happened to be an election for 
 the county of Cork severely contested, and prolific of a 
 deluge of lampoons. I forget the date : I suppose about 
 1789. There were three candidates. A Mr. Morris was one. 
 He was my father's and, I suppose. Lord Shannon's ^ friend, 
 and I wrote at least one 2^'ose piece on his side which was 
 printed ; it was a dialogue. I wish I could recover it. As 
 I was born in the last days (20th) of Dec, 1780, 1 could have 
 been not yet nine. It is probable that this election had 
 something to do with my father's visit to Castle Martyr, and
 
 6 THE CROKEB PAPERS. [Chap. I. 
 
 Lord Shannon's notice of me. I wonder whether I also 
 lisped in numbers : I should rather say stuttered ; for you will 
 perhaps recollect that I had a most distressing impediment 
 in my speech, for the cure of which I was sent to an academy 
 kept in Cork by one Knowles, who had married one of the 
 Sheridans, and professed to remedy cacology and teach elocu- 
 tion, after the manner of old Sheridan. Thence, about 1792, 
 I was transferred to Portarlington. From Willis's T was 
 sent for a year or two to a more classical school, where there 
 were but half-a-dozen boys, kept by the Eev. E. Hood, also 
 at Portarlington, whence, in November, 1796, a month before 
 I was sixteen, I was entered at Trinity College, Dubhn, 
 where I found Tom Moore a year or two above me, and met 
 of my own class Strangford, Leslie Foster, Gervais, Bushe, 
 Fitz-G-ibbon, Coote, &c. 
 
 It was not until the time when this memorandum was 
 written — the last year of his life — that Mr, Croker took any 
 interest in verifying his early recollections. He had never 
 felt sure, for instance, that Sheridan Knowles was the son 
 of " one Knowles " who kept the school in Cork, and in 
 November, 1856, he wrote to the author of the * Hunchback ' 
 to make an inquiry on that point. The reply began with 
 the words, " My dear old schoolfellow," and continued 
 thus : — 
 
 I remember you well, for you were, of all my father's 
 pupils, my dear lamented mother's favourite. She loved you 
 for your constant good spirits, and a cordial frankness that 
 drew you to her — for she was frankness and generosity itself. 
 Of all my schoolfellows, you are the only one, except one of 
 the Atkinses, whose face and figure I have before me now. 
 It is a fact — but where is the wonder, when you were pointed 
 out to me by my dear mother's love ? 
 
 A note in Mr. Croker's handwriting, appended to a brief 
 sketch of Ms career which was published many years ago, 
 states that the efforts of Mr. Knowles to cure the impediment 
 in his speech were never entirely successful, and that after
 
 1780-1809.] ABRIVAL IN LONDON. 7 
 
 leavinff this first school, he was sent to another which was 
 originally founded by French refugees. Here, no other 
 language but French was ever spoken, and he attained, he 
 tells us, a " perfect facility in reading, writing, and speaking 
 that language. I was then removed to the classical school 
 of the revered Eichmond Hood, who, a few years later, became 
 the classical tutor of Sir Robert Peel. From Mr. Hood's 
 school I was sent, when a little under sixteen, to College, 
 and, oddly enough, my tutor was a Dr. Lloyd, as Peel's was 
 another Dr. Lloyd." 
 
 It was in 1796 that Mr. Croker was entered at Trinity 
 College, Dublin, and although he had not then completed his 
 ' sixteenth year, his remarkable abilities appeared from the 
 first to have attracted the attention of his associates. The 
 " Historical Society," which had then a high reputation, 
 admitted him as a member, and he not only distinguished 
 himself greatly in its debates, but upon several occasions 
 received medals for essays, which were characterised by an 
 unusual degree of literary power. His first acquaintance 
 with Thomas Moore began at this period, a.nd the correspon- 
 dence which ensued between them was rarely interrupted 
 until the death of the poet, although political ties and other 
 circumstances often threw them widely apart. It was not 
 until Lord John Eussell published Moore's Joui-nals that 
 Croker, the most staunch and faithful of friends, had any 
 reason to suspect the faithlessness of Moore. 
 
 In the first year of the present century, Croker went to 
 London, and entered himself a student of Lincoln's Inn, 
 having made up his mind to foUow the profession of the law. 
 He arrived in the capital armed with good letters of intro- 
 duction, and soon found many friends ; but it does not appear 
 that law exercised so great a fascination over his mind as 
 literature. The French Revolution had produced a powerful
 
 8 • TEE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. I. 
 
 impression upon him, as it could not fail to do on any 
 observant and thoughtful man, and his first contributions to 
 the press were on a subject which he continued to make a 
 profound study for many a year afterwards. They were in 
 the form of letters to Tallien, and were published in the 
 Times — probably the first introduction which Mr. Croker 
 obtained to that journal. He subsequently held relations of a 
 most friendly and confidential kind with the chief proprietor. 
 
 I was lodging and boarding, wrote the late Mr. Jesse, the 
 naturalist, with a Miss Eobinson in Middle Scotland Yard, 
 about fifty-seven years ago, when Mr. Croker became an 
 inmate. The society in the house consisted of four or five 
 very pleasant* men, and Mr. Croker soon became the life of 
 the party by his wit and talents, and his constant readiness 
 to provoke an argument, which he never failed to have the 
 best of. In these lodgings he employed himself in writing 
 political letters on the French Eevolution, addressed to 
 Tallien, which appeared in the Times newspaper. I 
 frequently took them for him to Printing House Square. 
 He probably knew more of the history of the Eevolution 
 in France, and had written more on that subject, than any 
 man living. 
 
 A year or two later he assisted Horace and James Smith 
 Mr. Herries, and Colonel Greville, ia starting two publications, 
 neither of which was destined to attain a long life — the 
 Cabinet and the Picnic. The fire has died out of most of the 
 epigrams contained in these forgotten pages, and it would not 
 be a profitable task to seek to rekindle it. A little more 
 interest belongs to some fragments of table-talk which 
 Mr. Croker amused himself by collecting at that time : — 
 
 ^^ Old Doctor Stopford (Bishop of Cloyne) stopped once at 
 Mr. Pliillips', a clergyman of his diocese, who entertained 
 him very hospitably and, i7iter alia, with some fine fish. 
 When the Bishop was stepping into his carriage to go away — 
 " My dear Phillips," said he, " you have been extremely
 
 1780-1809.] ELECTION TO PARLIAMENT. 9 
 
 kind to me and there is but one thing more which can add to 
 my obligation, that is to drown yourself in the river which 
 produces your excellent fish, that I may give your living to 
 my son Joe." " I thank your lordship," replied Phillips, 
 " but I would not even hurt tlie last joint of my most useless 
 finger to save your lordship, your lordship's son Joe, and all 
 your lordship's family from the gallows." 
 
 This Doctor Stopford was an intimate friend of Swift's, and 
 I daresay this strange speech to Phillips was but an imitation 
 of the Dean's hrusqucric. 
 
 \ When Archbishop Wake waited on King George II. to 
 complain of the famous blackguard song written by the Duke 
 of Wharton on the Archbishop, and the latter, to convince 
 the King of the justice of his complaint, gravely began to 
 read the verses, the old monarch, in an ecstasy, at one stanza 
 cried out, " Bon ! Bon ! " " How, sir," said Wake, " do you 
 call such execrable ribaldry good ? " " Oh, que non,'' replied 
 George correcting himself, " c'est mal, tres mal, c'est exe- 
 crable ; mais il faut avouer que le drole a de I'esprit." 
 
 Several other literary ventures occupied Mr. Croker's 
 attention in 1804 and the succeeding year. One was a satire 
 on the Irish stage, entitled 'Familiar Epistles,' which hit 
 the fancy of the public so thoroughly that five editions were 
 disposed of in less than a twelvemonth. ' An Intercepted 
 Letter,' in which the society of Dublin was caricatured, had 
 even a greater success, for it received the hearty praise of 
 Miss Edgeworth, and speedily ran through seven editions. 
 At this time Croker had attached himseK to the Munster 
 Circuit, to which Daniel O'Connell also belonged. His 
 practice was good, and the Eevenue cases wliich came to him 
 by liis father's influence formed not the least lucrative part 
 of his business. Few men at his age find lying before them 
 so fair and promising a field for their exertions. 
 
 Two events were now approaching which were destined to 
 exercise no small influence in shaping liis future career. 
 One was his marriage, in 1806, and the other was his elec- 
 tion to Parliament, in 1807. In his choice of a wife
 
 10 TEE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap, I. 
 
 Mr. Croker always accounted himself, and with reason, one 
 of the most fortunate of men. He found a partner who was 
 absolutely devoted to him, and whose first and last thought 
 was to promote his happiness or advance his interests. She 
 was the daughter of Mr. William Pennell, who subsequently 
 became British Consul-General in South America, and was 
 a lady of great firmness of character, yet of a most kind 
 and gentle disposition. " Do not," he wrote to his friend Mr. 
 E. H. Locker,* "indulge yourself in fancying my dear wife 
 to be one of those fine and feathered ladies w^ho have a little 
 learning, a little language, a little talent, and a great deal of 
 self opinion. She is nothing like tliis — she has none of 
 what Sir Hugh Evans calls affectations, fribbles, and frabbles. 
 She is a kind, even-tempered, well-judging girl, w^ho can 
 admu-e beauty and value talents without pretending to 
 either, and whose object is rather to make home happy than 
 splendid, and her husband contented than vain — in truth 
 she is all goodness, but for literary talents, she has, as yet, 
 none, and her indifference on this point becomes her so well 
 that I can hardly wish for a change." Mrs. Croker, however, 
 took more interest in literary studies and pursuits than her 
 husband at that time imagined, and her judgment, as he after- 
 wards gratefully acknowledged, was always sound and good. 
 
 They lived to celebrate their golden wedding in 1856, 
 surrounded by many devoted friends; but, unhappily, the 
 son, upon whom was set all the affection which was 
 not given to each other, died in the full promise of his 
 childhood — a blow from which Mr. Croker never fully re- 
 covered. Whenever he spoke or thought of his son, even in 
 the midst of the greatest successes of after years, it seemed 
 
 * The son of Commodore Locker, and father of Mr. Frederick Locker. 
 Mr, Croker and Mr. E. H. Locker continued on terms of intimacy for 
 many years, but the correspondence which took place between them was 
 not of great public interest.
 
 1780-1809.J CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. 11 
 
 as if his bereavement had happened only the day before. In 
 course of time, his adopted daughter — his wife's sister, after- 
 wards Lady Barrow — succeeded in partially removing the 
 heavy sense of bereavement from his heart, and the affec- 
 tion and true womanly helpfiilness of his wife were a 
 constant source of consolation to him. His chief pleasures 
 in life were always found in his own home, and the friends in 
 whose society he most delighted were his own kindred. 
 
 It was in the year of his marriage that Mr. Croker made 
 his fii-st attempt to enter Parliament, for the borough of 
 Downpatrick, but, although the influence of the chief local 
 family was on his side, he was defeated. In the following 
 year there came the collapse of the Grenville Ministry, " All 
 the Talents," and again Mr. Croker resolved to storm Down- 
 patrick, and this time he succeeded. He took his seat in 
 May, 1807, and lost no time in accustoming himseK to the 
 new arena in which he was to strive with fortune : — 
 
 " I spoke very early," he wrote, on the margin of an in- 
 accurate biographical sketch, " indeed, on the very night I\' 
 took my seat. Some observations of Mr. Grattan on the 
 state of Ireland, which I thought injurious and unfounded, 
 called me up, — nothing loath, I dare say, but quite unex- 
 pectedly even to myself; and though so obviously unpre- 
 meditated and, as it were, occasional, I, in after years, was 
 not altogether flattered at hearing that my first speech was 
 the best. I suspect it was so. Canning, whom I had never 
 seen before, asked Mr. Foster to introduce me to him after 
 the division, was very kind, and walked home with me to my 
 lodgings." 
 
 Croker was in favour of some measure of Catholic Emanci- 
 pation ; so was Canning. Starting from the point of view 
 common to them both, they soon became friends. It was 
 evident, however, that the time was not ripe for the removal 
 of Catholic disabilities. Mr. Perceval, the leader of the House 
 of Commons, and the Duke of Portland, the Prime :Minister,
 
 12 TEE CROEER PAPERS. [Chap. I. 
 
 were opposed to any change in the law. Mr. Perceval's 
 opinions were well known. " I could not conceive," he said 
 on one occasion, " a time or any change of circumstances 
 which could render further concession to the Catholics con- 
 sistent with the safety of the State." Mr. Croker endeavoured 
 to convince the public that there was danger in any further 
 delay. In a pamphlet entitled ' A Sketch of Ireland, Past 
 and Present,' published anonymously, but which reached a 
 twentieth edition, he contended that " the Catholic lawyer, 
 soldier, sailor, gentry, priesthood, and nobility should be 
 admitted to all the honours of their professions and ranks. 
 The priesthood, however, should be independent of foreign 
 control, and paid by the State." The ability with which these 
 views were advocated attracted Mr. Perceval's notice, and in 
 the course of the next few months the young Member had 
 shown so many signs of aptitude for Parliamentary life that 
 Sir Arthur Wellesley, then Chief Secretary for Ireland, 
 "^ requested him to take charge of the Parliamentary business 
 of his of&ce during his absence in Portugal.* This was the 
 beginning of a confidential relationship between the two men 
 which continued without a moment's interruption down to 
 the death of the Duke of Wellington in 1852. 
 
 There is, it has been explained, no regular diary of Mr. 
 Croker's in existence, but frequently he made a memo- 
 randum upon public events as they took place, and the 
 following relates to this period : — 
 
 J^me lUh, 1808. — Dined early with Sir Arthur and Lady 
 Wellesley in Harley St., in order to talk over some of the 
 Irish business which he had requested me to do for him in 
 the House of Commons, as he was to set out for Ireland next 
 morning on his way to Portugal. After dinner we were 
 alone and talked over our business. There was one point of 
 
 * Sir A. Wellesley left England in July 1808, and returned in the 
 ensuing autumn.
 
 1780-1809.] TEE DUKE OF YORK. 13 
 
 the Dublin Pipe Water Bill on which I differed a little from 
 him, but could not con^^nce him. At last I said, perhaps he 
 would reconsider the subject and write to me from Dublin 
 about it. He said, in his quick way, " No, no, I shall be no 
 wiser to-morrow than I am to-day. I have given you my 
 reasons : you must decide for yourself" When this was 
 over, and while I was making some memoranda on the 
 papers, he seemed to lapse into a kind of reverie, and 
 remained silent so long that I asked him what he was 
 thinking of He replied, " Why, to say the truth, I am 
 thinking of the French that I am going to fight. I have not 
 seen them since the campaign in Flanders, when they were 
 capital soldiers, and a dozen years of victory under Buona- 
 parte must have made them better still. They have besides, 
 it seems, a new system of strategy, which has out-manoeuvred 
 and overwhelmed all the armies of Europe. 'Tis enough to 
 make one thoughtful ; but no matter : my die is cast, they 
 may overwhelm me, but I don't think they will out- 
 manoeuvre me. First, because I am not afraid of them, as 
 everybody else seems to be ; and secondly, because if what 
 I hear of their system of manceuvres be true, I think it 
 a false one as against steady troops. I suspect all the 
 continental armies were more than half beaten before the 
 battle was begun. I, at least, will not be frightened before- 
 hand." 
 
 No favourable occasion for the display of Mr. Croker's 
 debating powers arose till the following year, 1809, when 
 Colonel Wardle brought forward his charges against the Duke 
 of York, Commander-in-Chief, of corruptly sharing with his 
 mistress, Mary Anne Clarke, the profits arising from the sale 
 of commissions in the army. There could be no doubt of the 
 sway which this woman — who was the daughter of a French 
 polisher and the wife of a builder — had gained over the Duke, 
 although she was by no means in her first youth when he 
 became acquainted with her, and had never been over- 
 burdened with moral scruples. She was a mercenary and 
 designing creature who had led a wild and worthless life; 
 and she was doubtless quite capable of spreading abroad the
 
 14 , THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. I. 
 
 impression that the surest road to advancement in the service 
 was to gain her favour, and that her favour was only to be 
 secured by money. In 1807 the Duke's acquaintance with her 
 ceased. She then formed an intimacy of the same kind with 
 Colonel Wardle, her pension was withdrawn, and in revenge — 
 as no one can now doubt — she accused the Duke of participating 
 with her in the proceeds of the scandalous sale of military 
 appointments.* The House inquired into the charge, and 
 after a searching investigation, in which the King's favourite 
 son was certainly not spared, the Duke was exonerated from 
 the main accusation, although it was justly held that in many 
 respects his conduct had been most rash and reprehensible. 
 The minority, in fact, was large enough to render the Duke's 
 resignation necessary. Mr. Croker took an active part in 
 these proceedings, on the side of the Duke, and it was 
 admitted that the art with which he sifted the evidence of 
 the witnesses, and the great address and skill shown in his 
 speech in reply to Sir Francis Burdett, tended very greatly 
 towards bringing about the Duke's formal acquittal. 
 
 His pamphlet on Ireland, the abilities he had shown, the 
 strongly favourable impression he made on those who con- 
 versed with him on public business, all served to mark him 
 out thus early for public employment, and Mr. Perceval 
 appears to have approached him on the subject more than 
 once. 
 
 Memorandum ly Mr. Croker. 
 
 April 18th, 1809. 
 
 Having occasion to mention to Mr. Perceval, whom I met 
 in the House of Commons, some circumstances relative to 
 giving up the Dublin Paving Bill, after we had settled that 
 topic, he said, "But, Croker, you are all this while taking a 
 great deal of trouble for us, and no care of yourself. Can 
 
 * It is said that Mrs. Clarke died so recently as the year 1880, aged 95.
 
 1780-1809.] PERCEVAL AND CANNING. 15 
 
 you not think of anything we can do for you ? Be assured 
 we have every disposition to serve you." I replied that I 
 was much obliged by his voluntary introduction of this sub- 
 ject, but that I had not turned my thoughts to anything for 
 myself, except that I should have liked, for the sake of 
 learning business, to have been private secretary to the Chief 
 Secretary for Ireland. The conversation ended by his repeat- 
 ing that I should look about for something suitable, and that 
 the Government would be happy to serve me." 
 
 Upon the resignation of the Duke of Portland, Canning 
 had hoped to be made Prime Minister, but he had not yet 
 discovered the secret of securing the good will of the King. 
 The following letter, from the Secretary of the Treasury, 
 enters somewhat fully into the position of affairs in 1809 : — 
 
 Mr. Charles Arbuthnot* to Mr. CroJcer. 
 
 Treasury Chambers, September 23rd. 
 
 My dear Croker, 
 
 I am sure you will not expect me to say a word upon the 
 painful subject of the duel.f On the other more general sub- 
 ject of the resignations I wUl write you a few hasty lines. 
 The Duke of Portland's state of health made his resignation 
 necessary. The question then was who should be his sue-, 
 cessor ? Canning thought that the Minister ought to be ■ 
 in the House of Commons, and he was aware that the choice 
 must be between him and Perceval. He felt that Perceval, 
 having led the House, was the obvious person to become 
 Minister ; but he stated distinctly that in the event of such 
 an arrangement he himself should retire. In short, he would 
 not consent to remain in office unless he were Prime 
 Minister. 
 
 Perceval, on the other hand, though of the same opinion as 
 to the expediency of having the Minister in the Lower House, 
 would have consented, and entreated Canning to consent, 
 that the Duke's successor should be some tliird person in the 
 
 * [The lifelong friend of the Duke of Wellington. He lived with the 
 Duke, and many interesting facts connected with their intimacy will be 
 found in the course of this work.] 
 
 t [Between Lord Castlereagh and Canning.]
 
 16 TEE CROKEB PAPERS. [Chap. 1. 
 
 House of Lords ; and I really believe that he would not have 
 objected to any person for that situation whom Canning 
 might have chosen to select. I know even that there was a 
 doubt in Perceval's mind (who has the best regulated ambition 
 I ever witnessed) whether for the general good he should 
 yield to Canning's pretensions ; but his friends and relations 
 would never have consented to such a lowering of himself. 
 And so, alas, our two former champions in the House of 
 Commons have for the time separated ; but their separation 
 has been painful to both, and there has been nothing between 
 them but the extreme of cordiality. When it became certain 
 that the loss of Canning was not to be avoided, the King 
 directed his remaining servants to submit to him what they 
 considered to be the best new arrangement. 
 
 Their opinion has been (and it is now given to the King) 
 that under the present circumstances their endeavour ought 
 to be to form an Administration upon an extended basis ; 
 that the admission of Lord Sidmouth and his party might by 
 counteraction produce a diminution instead of an addition of 
 strength, and that a junction, upon equal terms, with the 
 Grey and Grenville party would be that which would be most 
 advisable. To this the King has consented, and should the 
 offer be accepted with the cordiality with which it is made, I 
 shall flatter myself that, notwithstanding the unfortunate loss 
 of such talents as Canning has, we may still have such a 
 strong Administration as the exigencies of the country 
 require. 
 
 You must be aware that as yet no arrangement can be 
 made ; I can therefore tell you no more than that the dis- 
 position of Perceval towards you is as kind as you can desire. 
 I will write to you again in a day or two. 
 
 Ever yours, 
 
 C. A. 
 
 The hopes raised by the concluding paragraph of this letter 
 were not destined to remain long unfulfilled. In October 
 Mr. Croker was offered the appointment of Secretary of the 
 Admiralty, under the circumstances which are sufficiently 
 explained in the following letters, written forty-one years 
 afterwards : —
 
 1780-1809.] SECRETARY TO THE ADMIRALTY. 17 
 
 Mr. Croker to his wife. Extract. 
 
 July 28th, 1850. 
 
 After dinner I read some of the letters written by Charles 
 Long and Lord Mulgrave to the late Lord Lonsdale about the 
 time that 1 came into political life, which of course amused 
 me. Lord Mulgrave writes to Lord Lonsdale, in October, 
 1809, to say that he had written to offer the Secretary of the 
 Admiralty " to Mr. Croker, who was active, quick, and intel- 
 ligent, and who might go off to Canning if he were not 
 attended to." In this last point, at least. Lord Mulgrave was 
 mistaken, for before tlie offer was made me, I had already 
 answered Mr. Canning that I could not take his view of the 
 diflferences in the Cabinet. 
 
 Mr. Croker to Lord Palmerston. 
 
 West Molesey, Surrey, 14th June, 1850. 
 
 My dear Palmerston, 
 
 "Will you forgive me for troubling you inter tot et tanta 
 negotia, with two questions, which I know not any one else 
 who can answer ? 
 
 The first is purely literary : — Is there any ground for a 
 doubt lately raised that your father was the author of the 
 pretty lines beginning, — 
 
 " Whoe'er like me with trembling anguish brings 
 His heart's whole treasure to fair Bristol's springs ? " 
 
 I suspect the doubt to have arisen from a different inscrip- 
 tion, I believe to your mother, in Komsey Church, but of 
 course not his. 
 
 The other is rather personal and historical. Ward, in his 
 Memoirs, just published,* states in terms of compliment (which 
 I am far from deserving) that you and I owe our appointments 
 in the Admiralty to the discernment of Lord Mulgrave. Now 
 Lord Mulgrave wrote me the official proposition, and was 
 very cordial and kind to me, but I owed the appointment to 
 the Government, and especially to Mr. Perceval, by whose 
 
 * [' Memoirs of the Political and Literary Life of Robert Plumer Ward.' 
 1850.] 
 
 VOL. I. C
 
 18 TEE CROKEB PAPERS. [Chap. I. 
 
 desire Lord Mulgrave made the official proposition. If you 
 have no objection to tell me, I should be glad to know how it 
 was with you. If you have the slightest, pray have no 
 scruple in leaving my curiosity ungratified. My own im- 
 pression was, that your station and University character 
 suggested you at once to the framers of the new Government, 
 and that if anybody in particular rang the bell it was old 
 Lord Malmesbury. 
 
 Ever, my' dear Palmerston, 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 J. W. Ckokee. 
 
 Lord Palmerston to Mr. Croher. 
 
 Carlton Gardens, June 17th, 1852. 
 
 My deak Crokee, 
 
 There is, I believe, no statute of limitation as to epistolary 
 debts, and you know by your own experience, no doubt, that 
 letters have often remained unanswered by men overwhelmed 
 with business from pressure of occupations, and not from any 
 want of good will towards the writer, and therefore in clearing 
 off " the gathered chaos of five office years " (if I may take 
 a liberty with our great poet) I cannot refrain from assuring 
 you that nothing but an endless repetition of " too much " 
 every day prevented me from replying to two letters of yours 
 which I received long ago, and which you may by this time 
 have forgotten. The replies, however, which I should have 
 given if I had answered your letters at the time, would have 
 been that the verses were my father's, and that my appoint- 
 ment to the Admiralty was given me by the Duke of Port- 
 land at the request of Lord Malmesbury the diplomatist. 
 
 Well, here we are now, two " statesmen out of place," and 
 I should be very glad to renew our companionship ; and if I 
 should chance at any time to find myself in your neighbour- 
 hood, I will not fail to do so. 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 Palmerston. 
 
 Mr. James Smith to Mr. Croher. 
 
 Basinghall Street, December 28tli, 1809. 
 
 My dear Croker, 
 ]\Iy brother and myself are much mortified at our inability 
 to accept your kind invitation.
 
 1780-1809.] MB. CHOKER AT THE ADMIRALTY. 19 
 
 You certainly have a lien upon Horace in respect of ship's 
 licences, and so had some Secretary in the days of Augustus, 
 if we may judge from the following ode : — 
 
 " navis, referent in mare te novi 
 Fliictus. quid agis? fortiter occupa 
 Portum." 
 
 If I am late in the offer of congratulations upon your 
 appointment, you will not on that account doubt the sincerity, 
 
 I should long since have paid them personally but was 
 prevented by considering that you must be too much occupied 
 at the office to receive any visits other than those of business. 
 
 There is a book published * (which I will send for your 
 perusal to-mon-ow) containing a history of the late memorable 
 row at Covent Garden Theatre, with the fugitive rhymes that 
 have been widtten on that event. Of the latter, the pieces 
 signed " H " are my brother's, and those signed " I," with the 
 addition of " Heigho, says Kemble," proceed from the pen of 
 
 Dear Croker, 
 
 Yours most sincerely, 
 
 James Smith. 
 
 Mr. Croker retained this post until 1830, and it has always 
 been admitted that the Board of Admiralty never had a more 
 efficient, zealous, and industrious Secretary. He once wrote 
 to Thomas Moore (October 26th, 1811), inviting him to call 
 at his office, saying, " I should be glad to see you when- 
 ever you happen to pass my way. I am almost always to be\ 
 found at my desk." This was literally true. He was very 
 seldom absent from his duties, except during the time of his 
 annual holiday. "For two and twenty years," he wrote to 
 Mr. Murray, in 1838, " I never quitted that office-room ' 
 without a kind of uneasiness, like a truant boy ; and this 
 feeling still clings to me." A recent First Lord of the 
 Admiralty has said that all which is best and most business 
 
 * [' Rejected Addresses.'] 
 
 c 2
 
 20 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap, I. 
 
 like in the department was the legacy of Mr. Croker. He 
 quickly made himself master of the details of work con- 
 nected with the office. This thorough competency for his 
 duties rendered him indispensable to the successive First 
 Lords under whom he served, and it partly helped to 
 explain the great influence which he exerted on all who 
 came into contact with him in his official capacity. He once 
 referred, to himself in the House of Commons as a " servant 
 of the Board," but Sir Joseph Yorke, a former Lord of the 
 Admiralty, promptly remarked that when he was at the 
 Board " it was precisely the other way." The spirit in which 
 he began his duties is indicated in a letter to his wife : — 
 
 October 12tli, 1809. 
 
 I am now thoroughly and completely in office, and up to 
 my. eyes in business, the extent of which is quite terrific ; 
 but with good assistance (which every one seems ready to 
 give me) I hope to be able to get on. I must attend regu- 
 larly from nine in the morning till four or five in the evening. 
 I therefore shall rise early, and walk or ride for half-an-hour 
 before I come to office. Direct to me now to the Admiralty, 
 but you need not write " private," as I open all letters myself : 
 tell this to Mrs. Casey, and desire her also to direct to me at 
 the Admiralty. 
 
 From Mr. CroJcer's Journal. 
 
 In the summer and autumn of 1809 some differences grew 
 up in the Cabinet, which broke out into general notice by 
 the strange event of a duel between Mr. Canning, Secretary 
 of State for Foreign Affairs, and Lord Castlereagh, Secretary 
 of State for the War Department. This duel took place on 
 the 21st September (Thursday), on Putney Heath. Lord 
 Yarmouth, Castlereagh's first cousin and second, told me 
 afterwards that Charles Ellis, who was Canning's second, 
 was so nervous for his fiiend's safety that he could not load 
 his pistols, and that Lord Yarmouth either loaded Mr, 
 Canning's pistols for Mr. Ellis, or lent him one of his own, 
 I forget which, but I think the latter. Nothing could exceed
 
 1780-1809.] MR. CROKEES APPOINTMENT. 21 
 
 the coolness and ' propriety of conduct of the principals, 
 and Ellis's incapacity does him honour. Yarmouth drove 
 Castlereagh to the ground (which was on Putney Heath, 
 just beyond a cottage on the left of the road to Roehampton), 
 in his curricle, and the conversation was cliielly relative to 
 Catalani, who was then in high fashion, and Castlereagh 
 hummed some of her songs as they went along. 
 
 The differences in his Cabinet and his own bad state of 
 health induced the Duke of Portland to resign; and Mr. 
 Perceval, who had been his Chancellor of the Exchequer and 
 manager of the House of Commons (after a fruitless attempt 
 to obtain the accession of Lords Grenville and Grey), pro- 
 ceeded to form an Administration, in which he was the Eirst 
 Lord of the Treasury. 
 
 Nobody had resigned Cabinet office but Lord Castlereagh 
 and Mr. Canning. Lord Castlereagh's place was filled by 
 Lord Liverpool, and his at the Home Department by Mr. 
 Ryder, but this was after some delay. Lord Bathurst, who had 
 held the Board of Control, took the Foreign Seals ad interim, 
 till it should be known whether Lord Wellesley, then in 
 Spain, would accept them. Mr. Pole,* who was Secretary 
 of the Admiralty, succeeded Mr. Dundas in Ireland, and Lord 
 Mulgrave, at Mr. Perceval's request, offered that place to me. 
 
 I was in Ireland at the time I received these letters, and 
 thought it right to lose no time in coming to London, there 
 to give my answer, because, though the office was a very 
 high one, and much better and greater than my age, con- 
 nexions, or expectations led me to look to, yet the precarious 
 tenure which I should have of it, and the difficulty of the 
 situation itself (at that period particularly, the Walcheren 
 expedition having just failed), induced me to pause before T 
 took so decided a step as throwing up my profession, which 
 was almost my only means of liveliliood. I was not, to be 
 sure, very high in my profession ; but by the assistance of 
 the revenue business, which my father's interest and great 
 knowledge of revenue affairs secured me, I had made in the 
 years previous to this time from 400^. to 600^. a year. I was, 
 besides, fond of the profession itself. 
 
 A\Tien I arrived in London, on the morning of the 10th of 
 
 October, I first saw Arbuthnot, Secretary of the Treasury, 
 
 who told me all the news of the day ; but, as to myself, he 
 
 said, I must accept, though I should be sure of being turned 
 
 * [lit. Hon. Wm. Wellesley Pole.]
 
 22 TEE CHOKER PAPERS. [Chap. I. 
 
 out in a week, for that I was bound in honour to obey Mr. 
 Perceval's wishes, who had thought so kindly of me ; that 
 when he wrote to desire the accession of Lords Grenville and 
 Grey, he had determined, if they came in, to accept the Seals 
 of the Home Department, and had declared that he stipulated 
 but for one appointment, which was that I should be his 
 Under-Secretary. I could, after this, have no doubt what to 
 do, so I waited on Mr. Perceval, and accepted the office with 
 many thanks. Next day I was appointed in form, and took 
 my seat at the Board. 
 
 The selection of a young and comparatively unknown man 
 for such a post naturally gave rise to considerable outcry, but 
 to this Mr. Croker paid little heed. A more serious difficulty 
 presented itself in less than a month after his appointment, 
 and at first it seemed probable that it would render his 
 resignation inevitable. The circumstances are related in 
 the following memorandum, which bears no date, but was 
 evidently written towards the close of Mr. Croker's life : — 
 
 "^- I believe the fury of political parties never ran higher — 
 they certainly in my threescore years of experience never ran 
 so high — as on Mr. Perceval's accession to office ; and amidst 
 a storm of accusation and reproach, of course a very pro- 
 minent topic would be the appointment at such a crisis (it 
 was the depth Of the Walcheren disaster and the height of 
 Buonaparte's triumph on the Continent) to such an office as 
 Secretary of the Admiralty of a " young " and " briefless " 
 Irish barrister, though the epithets were rather overstrained — 
 for I was eight-and-twenty, and I had made professionally in 
 the year before I came into Parliament 600/. But it certainly 
 was un pen fort, and only to be accounted for by the straits 
 to wliich the extraordinary circumstances in which Mr. 
 Perceval was placed [had reduced him] and [by] his personal 
 partiality for me. The outcry was very violent, and some 
 accidents, with which, in fact, I had nothing to do, came in 
 to increase the clamour. But luckily I was able to assert and 
 keep my position, and I never heard, and do not believe, 
 there was any complaint of my official conduct. I was at 
 least not wanting in dihgence and activity. 
 
 Within a month, however, of this unexpected and enviable
 
 1780-1809.] AN OFFICIAL SCANDAL. 23 
 
 appointment, you will be surprised to hear that I resigned it. 
 It happened that, paying a more minute attention to details 
 than my two predecessors had happened to do, I saw reason 
 to suspect a serious defalcation in a public accountant of high 
 rank and respectability, and refused my signature to an 
 additional issue of money till the last issues were accounted 
 for. The person implicated was a protege and personal 
 friend of the King, George III., to whom he represented that 
 this young Irisliman, who knew nothing of his business, 
 refused his signature, which was a mere routine form, and 
 thus impeded the ordinary current of the public service. The 
 King sent for Mr. Perceval and desired him to have an 
 explanation with me. I could not then have known or 
 imagined the extent of the defalcation, still less could either 
 the King or Mr. Perceval ; but the officer himself did, and 
 pressed his royal patron to stifle my capricious opposition, 
 which could be the more easily and properly done because 
 nothing had transpired, and all that was to be done to set all 
 right was that I should sign the same routine order that my 
 predecessors had always signed. This was pressed upon me 
 with an earnestness proportioned to the interest which the 
 King's prompter had in the affair, but in the meanwhile 
 I was silently examining the former practice, and I soon 
 satisfied myself that it was a case of disgrace and ruin to the 
 individual, and a loss of at least 200,000Z. to the public. 
 This grieved me to the heart; I was grieved to be the 
 involuntary cause of so great an affliction to individuals — 
 grieved to oppose the wishes of the King, who at first took 
 a very anxious interest in the affair — grieved to embarrass 
 Mr. Perceval — grieved to lose my high and lucrative office, 
 but, seeing no alternative between the results and an 
 abandonment of my own duty, I adopted them, and placed 
 my resignation in Mr. Perceval's hands, who, sorry as he 
 was, could not but admit that I was right, and I really 
 believe would have himself resigned rather than have com- 
 promised an affair of which by this time he saw the whole 
 importance. Upon his explanation, the just and upright old 
 King came round much more readily than Mr. Perceval had 
 anticipated, and not merely approved of my proceeding, but 
 sent me through Mr. Perceval a most gracious assurance of 
 his satisfaction at my zeal in doing my duty, and, he added, 
 my firmness in resisting his own first suggestions under 
 a misunderstanding of the case.
 
 24 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. I. 
 
 Mr. Croker's firmness and integrity throughout this affair 
 increased the high opinion of him which Mr. Perceval had 
 already formed, and the vigour and tact which he displayed 
 in the debates on the unlucky Walcheren expedition con- 
 firmed the reputation he had previously gained. But 
 although he was assiduous in the discharge of his parlia- 
 mentary and official duties, he found time to pay some 
 attention to those literary pursuits which had been the first 
 to win his affection. All the routine duty which fell upon 
 him — and he had to write or sign hundreds of letters every 
 day, answer innumerable questions, and waste much of his 
 time in personal interviews — did not prevent him getting 
 through an astonishing amount of literary work. Perhaps 
 this was the part of his day's task to which he turned witli 
 the greatest zest. He was at all times the master of a clear 
 and manly style, and in none of his compositions does it 
 show forth to greater advantage than in his letters. 
 Political writing was somewhat artificial and ponderous, as 
 a rule, when Mr. Croker entered the field ; but his lighter 
 hand and more dexterous touch were at once recognised as 
 indicating the arrival of a new-comer who would be formid- 
 able, and whose support it was therefore desirable to secure. 
 Imitations of the letters of " Junius " had been only too 
 plentiful, but originality of style and thought were not 
 common, and it was easily to be seen from the first that 
 Mr. Croker was master of these advantages. Some of his 
 early efforts had been in verse — epigrams on the names of 
 London streets ; a few pasquinades ; and a spirited poem 
 entitled " the Battles of Talavera," which was highly success- 
 ful, and which Lord Wellington appears to have read with 
 " satisfaction."
 
 1780-1809.] " TALAVEBA" AND THE "QUARTERLY." 25 
 
 Badajoz, Nov, loth, 1809. 
 
 My deae Sir, 
 
 I am much obliged to you for your letter of the 20th 
 October, and your poem, which I have read with great satis- 
 faction. I did not think a battle could be turned into 
 anything so entertaining. I heard with great pleasure that 
 you were to be appointed Secretary of the Admiralty, in 
 which situation, I have no doubt, you will do yourself credit, 
 and more than justify me in any little exertion I may have 
 made for you while I was in office. 
 
 Ever, my dear Sir, 
 
 Yours most sincerely, 
 
 Wellixgtox. 
 
 But although Mr. Croker wrote verses, he never pretended 
 to be a poet. The weapon which he handled best was prose. 
 In this year of his appointment to the Admiralty, a publica- 
 tion made its appearance which was afterwards to afford him 
 great scope for the display of his highest literary powers, 
 and to which he became devotedly attached — the Quarterly 
 Review. It was the chief pride of his life to be associated 
 with this famous periodical, and his best original work was 
 done for its pages. He delighted to be included in the list 
 of its founders, but he was not at first a contributor; ten 
 numbers had been published, and among them aU there was 
 but one article by him — in number three. But from 1811 
 down to 1854, with the exception of an interval between 
 1826 and 1831, he seldom failed to supply an article for 
 every number of the Review, and sometimes he wrote three 
 or four articles, every one of which was tolerably sure to 
 attract immediate notice. Although his strength lay greatly 
 in political discussion, he was one of the most entertaining 
 of writers in the general field of literature, and few men 
 equalled him as a critic. It has pleased many persons to 
 speak of Mr. Croker as if in his day he wrote all the political
 
 26 TEE CROEER PAPERS. LChap. I. 
 
 articles in the Quarterly, whereas he was the author of com- 
 paratively few. As he said in a letter to Mr. Lockhart, in 
 1834, " for twenty years that I wrote in it, from 1809 to 
 1829, I never gave, I believe, one purely political article — 
 not one, certainly, in which party politics predominated." 
 Mr. Croker's range was, indeed, a wide one; from the 
 slightest of society novels, or the latest book of travels, 
 to the gravest treatise on affairs of State, nothing came 
 amiss to him. He took immense pains with his articles ; 
 he would ransack all England to verify an important state- 
 ment, or clear up a doubt about a fact. If the disputed 
 point related to family history, he would go to the fountain 
 head for information, and never failed to get it and to make 
 good use of it. In those days, it must be remembered, 
 the newspapers did but a small part of the work which 
 they undertake now, and the great movements which were 
 impending in political parties were known to the public only 
 by vague rumour, or were kept confined to the knowledge of 
 a few well-informed men. It frequently happened that news 
 of the gravest importance was first made known to the 
 country through the medium of the political article in the 
 Edinburgh or Quarterly Reviews. Almost always that article 
 was founded upon intelligence which had been communicated 
 by the heads of the Ministry, or by the originators of some 
 measure which was soon to become the universal theme of 
 discussion. It is evident from Mr. Croker's correspondence 
 that he went for the foundation of many of his essays to the 
 men who alone could rightly know all the facts with which 
 he had to deal, and thus in many cases an almost complete 
 draft of the political article was supplied by the Duke of 
 Wellington, by Sir Eobert Peel, by Lord Stanley (Derby), 
 or by some authority of equal weight on the question of the 
 day. The case wliich Mr. Croker had thus prepared was
 
 1780-1809.] CONTRIBUTIONS TO TEE '' QUARTERLY:' 27 
 
 always stated with great force and pungency, although to 
 the reader of the present day the style may sometimes appear 
 a little too elaborate and strained, while the mannerisms 
 which characterize so many of Mr. Croker's printed composi- 
 tions — entirely absent from his letters — especially his exces- 
 sive use of italics and capitals, give them an archaic appear- 
 ance which does not always correspond with the matter itself. 
 The raw material for much of the political history of the 
 present century, from 1809 onwards, will be found scattered 
 in profusion, though mingled no doubt with strong partisan 
 opinions, in the pages of the Quarterly Review. 
 
 In all Ids articles, and in everything that he did, accuracy 
 and truthfulness were most diligently sought for by Mr. 
 Croker. His opinions, it must be confessed, were sometimes 
 prejudiced and one-sided; for he was an avowed party 
 man of the old type, although his party zeal certainly did not 
 exceed that which we find in his opponents of the Edinburgh. 
 But he always sought to ground himself thoroughly in the 
 facts with which he had to deal. He was often taunted 
 with the great importance wliich he attached to dates, but 
 dates are very important things in liistory, and it is a pity 
 that some of his critics did not borrow his respect for them. 
 He invariably wished to test every statement before commit- 
 ting it to paper. If that was a fault, it is to be regretted 
 that historians and critics of more or less eminence have not 
 always shared it with him. On the margin of a printed 
 sketch of his life, in which the writer had dwelt upon the 
 " exasserated " value wliich he attached to " trifles," Mr. Croker 
 .p^ote : — " I dare say that this may be true, for I feel that I 
 am disposed to think nothing a trifle — not merely because 
 nugm in seria ducunt, but because I think and find that the 
 smallest and apparently most indifferent trifles are always 
 indicative of something — often something of importance. In
 
 28 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. I. 
 
 many not unimportant instances, both in private and public 
 life, I found the benefit of a minute attention to trijies ; and 
 so I believe every man would say who narrowly consulted his 
 own experience." It was this regard for accuracy which 
 made him so indefatigable in the preparation of the celebrated 
 edition of Boswell's ' Life of Johnson ' ; the facts which he 
 brought to light were of the greatest interest at the time, 
 and they will be prized more and more as the persons to whom 
 they relate are removed to a greater distance from successive 
 generations of Boswell's readers. In the same way, his essays 
 in the Quarterly Review on the various collections of 
 family papers which were published during his day — the 
 " Malmesbury Papers," the " Buckingham Memoirs," and 
 similar collections — brought a world of new information to 
 the subject, and in some cases they possessed a higher 
 value by far than the book on which they were founded. 
 The method in which he set about preparing for any labour on 
 which he was engaged will come out very clearly in the 
 course of these pages, and it will be admitted that if Mr. 
 Croker's strong feelings on certain political questions some- 
 times interfered with the coolness of his judgment, he never 
 failed to approach his work in a thoroughly honest and con- 
 scientious spirit, and seldom lost sight of the first and most 
 imperative obligation which every writer owes to the public.
 
 ( 29 ) 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 1810-1813. 
 
 Politics in 1810 — Rumoured Appointment of Henry Brougham in Mr, 
 Croker's place — The Regency Bill — The Prince Regent and the Whigs 
 — The ' Lady of the Lake ' — Incidents of the French War — Mr. 
 Perceval on the Currency and on French Affairs — Difficulty of obtain- 
 ing Continental News — Mr. Walter and the Times — Mr. Croker's 
 Assistance — Mr. Walter declines to support the Liverpool Ministry^ 
 A new First Lord at the Admiralty — Catholic Emancipation in 
 Grattan's Bill— Elected for Athlone— The War of 1812 ^vith the 
 United States — English and American Frigates — Mr. Croker's Sugges- 
 tion to English Naval Officers — Robert Peel on Mr. Canning and Lord 
 Wellesley — Peel on his Life in Ireland — Robert Southey on his Literary 
 Work — Office Seekers and their Reception — Walter Scott and Robert 
 Southey — The Laureateship — Thomas Moore — Proposed Sale of an 
 Office — The Prince Regent. 
 
 The complete series of Mr. Croker's own letters, carefully., 
 copied into well-bound volumes, begins in 1811, and extends' 
 to 1834. Within this period, and especially between the 
 years 1814 and 1830, scarcely anytliing of importance 
 appears to be missing ; before the first date, and after the 
 last, the correspondence must have been somewhat irregularly 
 kept, although a large proportion of the letters received by 
 Mr. Croker was preserved. His replies to these letters are, 
 in many cases, not to be found. It is probable that during 
 the first year or two of Mr. Croker's official life, he gave little 
 attention to his private correspondence ; his time was almost
 
 30 TEE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. II. 
 
 wholly taken up with the routine duties which daily pressed 
 upon him, and with his parliamentary work. He had been 
 a little more than a year in his new position before there 
 seemed to be a probability of Ms losing it. In 1810, politics 
 were in a highly unsettled state, and the general expectation 
 was that a change of Ministry could not be long deferred. 
 The derangement of the King (George III.) recurred in so 
 decided a form that little hope was entertained of his 
 recovery by the most sanguine of his friends, and it was weU. 
 known that the doctors looked upon his case as hopeless. 
 The friends and advisers of the Prince of Wales were openly 
 opposed to Mr. Perceval's Ministry, the Prince himself hated 
 the Prime Minister, and lists of the new Administration 
 were circulated in every club in London. It was sup- 
 posed that Lord GrenvOle and Lord Grey would be at the 
 head of the coming Government, and that Henry Brougham 
 would take Mr. Croker's place at the Admiralty. It could 
 not be doubted that Mr. Perceval's position was as weak as it 
 well could be ; he was not popular in the country, and before 
 his accession to power, as weU as afterwards, events ran steadily 
 against him. The Walcheren disaster, the Peninsula expedi- 
 tion, the appointment of Sir Arthur Wellesley as commander 
 — everything was regarded by the people with more or less 
 disfavour and suspicion. Mr. Croker was, to all appearance, 
 fully justified in the conviction that liis tenure of office was 
 very precarious. 
 
 During the debates on the Eegency Bill, Mr. Croker 
 delivered a powerful speech in the House of Commons in 
 favour of the Ministerial proposition, and it soon appeared 
 that the Prince of Wales had no intention of doing anything 
 to bring about the removal of Mr. Perceval in favour of his 
 Whig friends. It afterwards turned out that he was not very 
 anxious to assist them even when the death of Mr. Perceval
 
 1810-1813.] STATE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS. 31 
 
 gave him a fair opportunity of doing so. So far from being 
 willing to see Lord Grey in office, for instance, he declared v 
 that he would have abdicated if Lord Grey had been forced 
 upon him ;* and thus it befell that a Tory Minister, Lord Liver- 
 pool — who has been much ridiculed by a Tory Minister of 
 our own day as the " Arch Mediocrity " — was put in the place 
 of the assassinated Premier, and remained in power from 
 1812 to 1827. 
 
 There are no letters from Mr. Croker of any consequence 
 in relation to the Eegency debates, but in June, 1811, 
 he briefly touched upon public affairs in a communication 
 to a friend : — 
 
 I hear from a good hand that the King is doing much better 
 than the public reports would give us ground for believing — 
 this is the only circumstance of any interest which I have to 
 communicate. The few people I see all come to me with 
 hopes. One hopes for a Russian war, another for a Spanish 
 victory, a third for an American peace, and a fourth for an 
 American war. As for the two latter, I have not even the 
 means of forming a hope or a fear. About Spain I am at 
 this moment very anxious, and about Russia I sincerely hope 
 she may not break with France too soon. A feverish and 
 jealous peace I think more useful than unconnected and 
 uncombined war. Such a peace might end in a general war ; 
 such a war could but end in a general subjection. 
 
 But the greater part of Mr. Croker's correspondence at 
 this period is of literary or social interest. In the two follow- 
 ing letters, Walter Scott requests Mr. Croker's acceptance of 
 the 'Lady of the Lake' (published in 1810), and expresses 
 his thanks for ' Talavera ' : — 
 
 * "Three times that day, before dinner and after dinner, he declared, 
 that if Lord Grey had been forced upon him, he should have abdicated." > 
 Lord Russell's * Memoirs of Moore,' i. 360 ; Buckingham's ' Memoirs of the 
 Eegency,' &c.
 
 32 TEE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. II. 
 
 Walter Scott to Mr. Croker. 
 
 Edinburgh, May 3rd, 1810. 
 
 My dear Sie, 
 This comes to entreat your obliging acceptance of a certain 
 square volume called ' The Lady of the Lake.' I am now 
 enabled to send her to my friends as the Eomans of yore 
 used to lend their wives, and greatly it is to my own relief ; 
 for never was man more bored of his wife (and that's a bold 
 word) than I am of the said Lady. I hope, however, you 
 will find her agreeable company for an evening or two— and 
 I don't think you will be disposed greatly to abuse me for 
 using your cover for another copy to be left at Hatchard's for 
 Canning, who did me the honour to wish to see it as soon as 
 possible. I would you were all together again, and am apt 
 to hope it may yet come round. 
 
 Believe me, dear sir, 
 
 Ever your truly obliged, 
 
 Walter Scott. 
 
 Oct lOth, [1810]. 
 
 My dear Sir, 
 I drop you these few lines, not to engage you in corre- 
 spondence, for which I am aware you have so little time, but 
 merely to thank you very sincerely for the eighth edition of 
 your beautiful and spirited poem and the kind letter which 
 accompanied it. Whatever the practised and hackneyed critic 
 may say of that sort of poetry, which is rather moulded in 
 an appeal to the general feelings of mankind than the 
 technical rules of art, the warm and universal interest taken 
 by those who are alive to fancy and feeling, will always 
 compensate for his approbation, whether entirely withheld or 
 given with tardy and ungracious reluctance. Many a heart 
 has kindled at your ' Tala . era ' which may be the more patriotic 
 for the impulse as long as it shall last. I trust we shall soon 
 hear from the conqueror of that glorious day such news as 
 may procure us "another of the same." His excellent 
 conduct, joined to his high and undaunted courage, make him 
 our Nelson on land, and'though I devoutly wish that his force 
 could be doubled, I shall feel little anxiety for the event of
 
 1810-1813.] FRENCH CRUISERS. 33 
 
 a day in which he is only outnumbered by one-third. Your 
 acceptable bulletin looks well and auspiciously. The matter 
 of Lucien Bonaparte is one of the most surprising which has 
 occurred in our day — a Frenchman refusing at once a crown, 
 and declining to part with his wife, is indeed one of the 
 most uncommon exhibitions of an age fertile in novelties as 
 wonderful as portentous. 
 
 Believe me, my dear sir, 
 
 Ever your truly grateful, 
 
 Walter Scott. 
 
 Concerning 'Talavera,' Mr. Murray sent him a note in 
 April of this year to inform him that he had printed another 
 edition, and adding, "it has been more successful than any 
 short poem that I know, exceeding in circulation Mr. Heber's 
 * Palestine ' or ' Europe,' and even ^Ir. Canning's ' Ulm ' and 
 ' Trafalgar.' " 
 
 In the following letters, some incidents of the French war, 
 of a kind which at that time were by no means uncommon on 
 our coasts, were brought to Mr. Croker's notice : — 
 
 Mr. {afterwards Sir John) Barrow to Mr. Croher. 
 
 Ramsgate, July 18 th, 1810. 
 
 We had the mortification of seeing two colliers captured 
 the other evening close under the North Foreland, when not 
 a single cruiser was in sight, except one in Margate Roads. 
 See if there is not a Lieutenant Leach commanding the 
 " Cracker " gun-brig, and if that gun-brig is not on the Fore- 
 land station. This gentleman, I understand, has a house at 
 Birchington, where he usually sleeps, and for this purpose 
 Margate Eoads is a very convenient place for his vessel to 
 lie in. The Admiral must be remarkably good-natured to 
 grant him this indidgence, so advantageous to the enemy's 
 privateers. 
 
 Ramsgate, July 27th, 1810. 
 
 A Last night, about eight o'clock, I had the mortification of 
 seeing from my window two French lugger privateers very 
 
 VOL. I. 1)
 
 34 THE CBOEER PAPERS. [Chap. II. 
 
 quickly take possession of an Ordnance Hoy close astern to the 
 Galloper Light, and in the face of our whole squadron in the 
 Downs, not one of which attempted to move a peg. Without 
 pretending to much knowledge of naval tactics, I cannot 
 help feeling, as everybody here feels, that there is some mis- 
 management of our naval force in the Channel, or the enemy 
 would not dare, in the height of summer and during fine 
 weather and broad daylight, come over and beard us close 
 to our own coast; it is mortifying enough to hear people 
 publicly crying out, "Aye, this is what we get for paying 
 taxes to keep up the navy ; a French privateer is not 
 worth capturing, she will not pay the charges of condem- 
 nation." If there be truth in tins, Mr. Yorke* will have 
 the merit of curing the evil by the promotion of Brown 
 and Maxwell. 
 
 I am, dear Croker, 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 J. Baerow. 
 
 Mr. Perceval to Mr. Croker. 
 
 Sunday, Nov. llth, 1810. 
 
 Dear Croker, 
 
 I thank you for the sight of H.'s pamphlet.t I have run 
 through it, I cannot say read it, for it requires much more 
 reading than I have had time yet to give it. It is in many 
 parts very able — in all very specious ; in many, however, 
 I presume to think, very fallacious, and particularly unfair 
 in keeping out of sight so much as it does the circumstance 
 of interrupted commercial intercourse with the Continent 
 which in my opinion is sufficient, together with the causes 
 which he mentions, to account for almost all these symptoms 
 and phenomena which he ascribes solely to the supposed 
 excess in our paper circulation. The truth probably lies- 
 between the two extremes of opinion upon this point; but 
 the practical danger and difficulty of this experiment, so 
 immensely in my mind at least, weighs down the mischief, 
 
 * [Mr. Charles Yorke, The First Lord of the Admiralty.] 
 
 t [The pamphlet referred to was imblished in 1810 by Mr. Huskisson, 
 
 and was entitled 'The Question Concerning the Depreciation of our 
 
 Currency Stated and Examined.']
 
 1810-1813.] PERCEVAL ON EUSKISSON'S PAMPHLET. 35 
 
 which he supposes to exist from the over-issue of paper, that 
 I should cousicler the measure he proposes as tantamount to 
 a Parliamentary declaration that we must submit to any 
 terms of peace rather than continue the war, wliicli, I appre- 
 hend under his project, would be found utterly impossible. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 Sp. p. 
 
 Memorandum hy Mr. Perceval inclosed in the above. 
 
 I do not know that what is written on the accompanying 
 pages is worth your perusal, but it explams a little more 
 what I allude to above respecting the interrupted intercourse 
 in commerce with the Continent, which I conceive to be so 
 very material a part of that question. 
 
 " It is absurd to suppose that any other process can be 
 necessary than that of restoring things to their natural 
 course " (the last member of the last sentence of Huskisson's 
 pamphlet, see page 149). I would ask any man who has 
 read nothing upon this subject but Huskisson's pamphlet, 
 whether he can believe that it is in the power — the ^jhysical 
 power — of Parliament to restore to their natural course all 
 those things which most materially bear upon the present 
 question ? — and if it is not possible, how idle is it to say 
 that nothing else is necessary than to restore things to their 
 natural course. 
 
 His mode of doing it is for the Bank to buy up gold, and 
 to resume their payments in specie. 
 
 But supposing his view to be correct respecting the depre- 
 ciation of our circulating medium (which, to say the least of 
 it, I conceive to be a most exaggerated view of it), can any 
 man say that our want being (as Huskisson supposes it to be) 
 to get more gold into this country from foreign countries 
 (which cannot be brought here either by the Bank or any 
 one else but by purchasing it with some equivalent), will 
 any man say that these orders of the enemy, which impede 
 in so great a degree, if they do not absolutely prevent, the 
 introduction of our manufacture and merchandise into the 
 Continent (by which alone we can purchase the gold from 
 the Continent), are not some of the circumstances, and some 
 too of the most operative, which make gold an article so 
 
 D 2
 
 36 THE CEOKER PAPERS. [Chap. II. 
 
 difficult to get and to keep here ? — or that there are not cir- 
 cumstances which must be removed before " things can be 
 restored to their natural course " ? Yet over these circum- 
 stances Parliament has no control. 
 
 We want gold, and Huskisson supposes it to exist in 
 sufficient quantity on the Continent. Our warehouses are 
 clogged with merchandise which the Continent would be 
 most glad to purchase, but their tyrant will not let them ; if 
 he would, we should get their gold in exchange. Till, then, 
 such an alteration takes place in the world as will admit of the 
 freer intercourse in trade, no measure can be effectual as to 
 the object of acquiring that gold but one which may at once 
 prevent our buying those articles from the Continent which 
 they wish to sell, and which we indispensably tvant — I say 
 indispensably, if we are to carry on the war ; and that shall 
 put a stop to that immense foreign expenditure which, as 
 long as the war continues on, would drain out of this country 
 every new importation of gold and silver which any pur- 
 chasers, however extravagant of the Bank, could possibly 
 procure. 
 
 The difficulty of getting trustworthy news from the 
 Continent at this period was great, and it is well known 
 that no one displayed greater enterprise and spirit in the 
 endeavour to overcome the difficulty, and to satisfy the 
 very reasonable demands of the public for prompt informa- 
 tion, than Mr. John Walter, of the Times — the son of the 
 original proprietor. The Times had its special packet- 
 boats running, but they were frequently interfered with 
 under one pretext or another, and the Government officials 
 did not scruple to try by every means in their power to 
 enable their own organs to leave the independent journal far 
 behind in the race. Mr. Walter was not to be beaten. His 
 organisation and plans were so perfect that in 1809 he was 
 able to announce the capitulation of Flushing two days 
 before the news was otherwise known, even to the Ministry. 
 Early in Mr. Croker's official career Mr. Walter addressed 
 several letters to him on the subject.
 
 1810-1813.] MPx. CROKER AND THE ' TIMES: 37 
 
 Mr. Juhn Walter to Mr. Croker. 
 
 rrinting House Square, May 9th, 1811. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 I take the liberty of addressing you upon a subject which 
 has been suggested to me in relation to the procurement 
 of French papers. The difficulty of obtaining these has 
 increased lately to an extraordinary degree, to overcome 
 which a plan has been proposed to the following effect. 
 
 It is pretty certain that no French journals whatsoever can\' 
 be procured but by the means of smugglers. A person of 
 this description, who is in collusion with a French officer 
 near a certain port, is willing to exchange this contraband 
 traffic in which he has been hitherto engaged for one which 
 is perfectly innocent with respect to its operation upon the 
 public revenue, namely, the conveyance of French papers 
 only to England. He feels disposed to engage in this traffic, 
 if he could be well assured of certain facilities which seem to 
 be necessary to the execution of the scheme. Government, 
 I apprehend, will be no less desirous than myself of obtain- 
 ing the information contained in these papers. I do not 
 mean to ask the permission in this instance directly, but 
 only to know, in the way of information (if you would have 
 the goodness to satisfy me), whether there would be any 
 impropriety in requesting the Admiralty to grant this man's 
 vessel a protection for the purpose above specified, upon the 
 sole condition that no smuggled goods whatsoever should be 
 transported by him. With this understanding, I should, of 
 course, transmit you the papers received with all possible 
 dispatch. 
 
 As I before specified, I only wish now to inquire whether 
 there is any impropriety in making the application, en- 
 gaging, so far as I can possibly be answerable for the conduct 
 of the person employed, that the object of his voyages shall 
 be totally remote from anything connected with contraband 
 . trade. 
 
 I have the honour to remain. Sir, 
 
 Your most obedient servant, 
 
 John Walter, Jun. 
 
 Neither the assistance given to him by Mr. Croker, nor 
 any other consideration, could lead Mr. Walter to sacrifice
 
 38 TEE CROKEB PAPERS. [Chap. II. 
 
 any portion of that spirit of independence whicli always 
 characterised him. When, on the assassination of Mr. Per- 
 ceval, it was perceived that the old Administration was 
 substantially to remain in power, the proprietor of the 
 Times took the first opportunity — only nine days after 
 Bellingham's fatal act — of expressing his opinions to Mr. 
 Croker, in his usual manly and straightforward way : — 
 
 Mr. John Walter to Mr. Croker. 
 
 Wednesday night, May 20th, [1812]. 
 
 My deae Sir, 
 I learn from the evening papers that no important changes 
 will take place in the Administration. This, I confess, 
 appears to me to be a circumstance of that nature which 
 must oblige me to consider attentively the jDart I ought to 
 take in so perplexing situation of things. I have much 
 to thank you for on the score of friendly communications, 
 and many motives for personal esteem and respect ; but 
 I cannot, I fear, extend these sentiments much beyond your- 
 self, or at least not to the general body of the Administra- 
 tion, as it is at present likely to be composed. I hope, 
 therefore, you will not think me taking too great a liberty if 
 I frankly inform you that I must hesitate at engaging by 
 implication to support a body of men so critically situated, 
 and so doubtful of national support, as those to whom public 
 affairs are now likely to be entrusted. This political separa- 
 tion, however — if such it be — will produce no breach on my 
 part of personal esteem ; but it might seem unfair in me to 
 receive farther assistance, when I cannot make the return, 
 which I have hitherto done with so much pleasure. 
 
 I remain, with great respect, my dear Sir, 
 
 Your faithful and obliged servant, 
 
 John Walter, Jun. 
 
 Mr. Croker to Sir Richard Keats. 
 
 March 31st, 1812. 
 Mr. Yorke and Sir Eichard Bickerton left us [the Admi- 
 ralty] on the 25th instant, Sir Eichard to hoist his flag at
 
 1810-1813.] ROMAN CATHOLIC CLAIMS. 39 
 
 Portsmouth, and Mr. Yorke to rear turnips at his saline 
 farm at Boiiington. The latter is really a loss to the public 
 service ; he was" indefatigable in his attention to his duty, and 
 I believe acted in the most conscientious manner in the 
 discharge of it ; but we had been very unlucky in his time, 
 and so many untoward circumstances, together with a dis- 
 position naturally anxious and nervous, rendered him at last 
 heartily tired of the Admiralty ; and he insisted on retiring, 
 very much to the regret of the Government, and I even 
 believe of the Eegent. 
 
 Lord Melville * is a most amiable and worthy man, and 
 very good at business, and I am mistaken if he be not 
 popular with the service and the country. I am sure he will 
 desii-e to be so with both. The French have a little squadron 
 at sea, which we miss, as Skirmish in the play misses the 
 bottle ; I hope, like Skirmish, we shall catch it at last. 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 Mr. Croker retained his office under the new Prime 
 Minister, although he differed from Lord Liverpool on more 
 than one issue of the day, including the question of Catho- 
 lic Emancipation. He supported the Catholic claims, as 
 Mr, Perceval had justly said, on " true no-Popery principles." 
 His views may be gathered from a reply to an address from 
 the Roman Catholic electors of Down, thanking him for his 
 votes in Parliament : — 
 
 I beg you will state to them that I am happy to have 
 deserved their approbation ; I felt it was my duty to be in 
 my place in Parliament on every part of that important 
 question, and to give my decided vote for what appeared to 
 me to be a measure of just and liberal policy and of national 
 conciliation. 
 
 The failure of that measure and the consequences which 
 must follow from the temper with which the measure itself 
 was received in Ireland have given me sincere pain ; but it 
 is a consolation to me to think that for that failure I am as 
 little responsible as for those consequences ; and that in one 
 
 * [The new First Lord.]
 
 40 TEE CEOKEE PAPEES. [Chap. H. . 
 
 of the closest divisions that ever took place in the House of 
 Commons on a great national question where the parties 
 were, if I may use the expression, neck and neck, and where 
 a single vote was of the utmost importance — I am, I say, 
 well pleased to think that I was not absent from my duty. 
 
 While he retained his office, however, he was unsuccessful 
 in retaining his seat for Down, and his opponent, who 
 represented the anti-Catholic interest, was elected. For 
 Mr. Croker himseK a seat was secured for the borough of 
 Athlone. 
 
 It is well known that Lord Wellington was much annoyed 
 and harassed by the hostile criticisms which pursued him 
 tliroughout his campaign in the Peninsula. His feelings on 
 the subject are forcibly described in the following letter : — 
 
 Zard Wellin^on to Mr. Croker. 
 
 Cartaxo, December 20th, 1810. 
 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 I am very much obliged to you for your notes to the 
 4th inst., and I am happy to learn that the King is doing 
 so well. 
 
 In regard to affairs here I must continue to do what I think 
 will be good for the people of England under all the circum- 
 stances of the case, and not what I learn from this or fi'om 
 that print will please them. 
 
 The licentiousness of the press, and the presumption of the 
 editors of the newspapers, which is one of the consequences of 
 their licentiousness, have gone near to stultify the people of 
 England ; and it makes one sick to hear the statements 
 of supposed facts, and the conunents upon supposed transac- 
 tions here, which have the effect only of keeping the minds of 
 the people of England in a state of constant alarm and 
 anxiety, and of expectation which must be disappointed. 
 
 In the early part of the campaign all was alarm and 
 gloomy anxiety ; the British army was doomed to destruction, 
 and I was to be well thought of if I could bring any part of 
 it off the Peninsula without disgrace. Then came the battle 
 of Burgos, and nothing would then suit the editors of the
 
 1810-1813.] WELLINGTON AND TEE PBESS. 41 
 
 newspapers but that Massena's army should be destroyed, 
 although it was 20,000 men stronger than mine in that action ; 
 and, making a very large allowance for reinforcements to 
 mine in the retreat, and for losses to the enemy in their 
 advance, the numbers must have been nearly equal in the 
 first days in October. Those who have seen or know any- 
 thing of armies are aware that a combined army made up as 
 mine is, and always has been, partly of recruits and in a great 
 measure of soldiers in a state of convalescence, and composed 
 of officers unaccustomed to the great operations of war, is not 
 equal to a French army ; and those who have been engaged 
 with a French army know that it is not so very easily destroyed, 
 even by one equal to contend with it. But nothing will suit 
 editors (friends and foes are alike) but that the enemy should 
 be swept from the face of the earth ; and for a month they 
 kept the people of England in trembling expectation of 
 receiving the accounts of an action which was to relieve 
 Europe from the yoke of the tyrant. 
 
 Then every word in a despatch is not only scrupulously 
 weighed and canvassed, but synonymous terms are found out 
 for, and false arguments are founded upon, expressions to 
 which meanings are assigned which never entered into the 
 contemplation of the writer. All this, I conclude, for the 
 instruction of the people of England ! 
 
 I really believe that, owing to the ignorance and presump- 
 tion and licentiousness of the press, the most ignorant people 
 in the world of military and political affairs (excepting the 
 domestic politics of their own country) are the people of 
 England; and I cannot but think that I act wisely and 
 honestly towards them to do what I think is good for them, 
 rather than what will please them. At the same time it is 
 shameful to see the negligence of these same editors (who are 
 so acute in respect to expressions and dates and reasonings in 
 the despatches of a British officer) in respect to the lies of the 
 ' Moniteur.' In the last paper which I have received I see 
 a letter of Massena's, published in the ' Moniteur ' of the 
 23rd November, supposed to have been written on the 3rd of 
 November, and to have been carried by General Foy. A 
 little reflection would show the editors that General Foy 
 could not have gone the distance in the time. In fact he left 
 Massena on the 7th of October. But the letter wliich is pub- 
 lished states that the paragraphs in the English newspapers 
 about liis distresses are "falsehoods. It might have been
 
 42 TEE CEOEER PAPEBS. [Chap. II. 
 
 expected that this attack upon their veracity might have 
 attracted their attention ! But what are the paragraphs 
 alluded to, and when were they published ? 
 
 They were the paragraphs published in consequence of 
 the letters sent from here on the 13th and 19th October. 
 Now I expect that Massena has never seen either English or 
 any other newspaper or letter (excepting those which I have 
 sent him) since he entered Portugal in September ; but unless 
 he received these paragraphs by flying pigeons, and if he had 
 had the best post in Europe, he could not have known on the 
 3rd of November at Alenquer of the paragraphs written in 
 London in consequence of letters from Portugal of the 13th 
 and 14th October. This despatch, therefore, of the 3rd of 
 November is manifestly forged. But nobody in England 
 could find it out ! ! 
 
 Then the supposed statement of General Foy is as false 
 evidently as the letter from Massena is spurious. I don't 
 appeal to my despatches for the truth of the fact, but to 
 Massena's intercepted despatches, the originals of which were 
 sent home to Government and were published, and which 
 contradict every word of it. But how interesting it is to the 
 people of England and to the world to show them that the 
 whole system in Erance is falsehood and fraud, and that not 
 a word of truth is ever published in France, particularly 
 respecting the affairs of the Peninsula ; and whatever proofs 
 of these facts may have been drawn from these papers and 
 from the circumstances known to the whole world, not an 
 editor has taken the smallest notice of them. On the con- 
 trary, I understand that, when these publications reached 
 England, notes were changed, and it was again supposed 
 we were in a bad way. Even now it is represented, and with 
 success, that England must pay the expense of feeding the 
 people of Lisbon ! ! ! 
 
 However grievous it is, and however injurious to the 
 country, I cannot avoid laughing when I reflect upon all this 
 folly ; and I don't know why I have taken the trouble of 
 writing you so much upon it. I shall either fight a battle or 
 not as I shall find it advantageous. The enemy have suffered 
 enormously, and at this moment, including Spaniards, I have 
 the inferior army by ten thousand men. But there is a great 
 deal of difference (particularly in the blood to be spilt) 
 between fighting in a position which I choose or in one in 
 which the enemy choose to fight ! And the difference makes
 
 1810-1813.] TEE WAR OF 1812. 43 
 
 the question wliich the London editors and their readers 
 cannot comprehend. There are, besides, some other con- 
 siderations to be weighed upon which I will not trouble after 
 having written you so long a letter about nothing, but to 
 which it is obvious that these same wise gentlemen have 
 never adverted. 
 
 Ever, my dear Sir, 
 
 Yours most faithfully, 
 
 Wellington. 
 
 During the year 1812 there occurred the serious differences 
 with the United States which led to war between the two 
 countries. English seamen who deserted the Eoyal service 
 were glad to enter that of the American Government, where 
 they deemed themselves secure. The captains under whom 
 they served refused to allow their vessels to be searched by 
 British ships, and in this course they were sustained by the 
 authorities at Washington, The dispute had been going on 
 ever since the outbreak of the war witli France, and France 
 herself had injured the commerce of the United States more 
 than England, by the restrictions she had placed upon 
 American trade. Tliis w\as felt and acknowledged at the 
 time in the United States, and there was a great opposition 
 to the war, the Federalists maintaining that it was unjust, 
 while the Democrats supported it because it tended to assist 
 France in her struggle with England. The Federalists even 
 held a Convention in Connecticut to oppose the continuance 
 of the war ; but the struggle lingered on for nearly three years, 
 and was ultimately brought to an end by the Treaty of Ghent 
 (Dec. 24th, 1814), in which the right of search was not even 
 mentioned, so that, so far as regards official cognizance, the 
 question was left precisely where it was at first. 
 
 In the course of the controversy in 1812, Mr. Croker 
 published a pamphlet explanatory of the position taken by 
 the British Government. It was entitled 'A Key to the
 
 44 TEE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. II. 
 
 Orders in Council,' and was confined to a recapitulation of 
 the decrees and orders issued by Great Britain, France, and 
 the United States, since 1806. But the naval glory of 
 England was tarnished by the successes of the American 
 naval force, — especially by the surrender of an entire British 
 squadron of six vessels to an American squadron of nine, on 
 Lake Erie. The English vessels were, as a rule, unequally 
 matched, as was shown clearly enough in the first action 
 which was fought — that between the Guerriere and the 
 Constitution. At first sight, it appeared to the English 
 people that their frigates had been defeated by ships of 
 equal size, but it was soon ascertained that the American 
 ships were one-third larger than the English in size, com- 
 plement, and weight of metal, and that they were in fact 
 line-of-battle ships in disguise. They were fully able to 
 cope with the smaller description of British vessels, which 
 at that time were classed in the line-of-battle. Opposition 
 newspapers were loud in their outcries against the Naval 
 Administration, and charges of neglect and incompetency 
 were plentifully showered on the Admiralty. Mr. Croker 
 met these attacks in a series of clever letters published in 
 the Courier newspaper, under the signature of "Nereus," 
 and at the same time he rendered a much greater service to 
 the British seamen and the nation by persuading the Cabinet 
 and the Admiralty to allow him to issue a confidential 
 circular, which he believed would produce important results. 
 The following is the circular : — 
 
 My Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty having received 
 intelligence that several of the American ships of war are 
 now at sea, I have their Lordships' commands to acquaint 
 you therewith, and that they do not conceive that any of 
 his Majesty's frigates should attempt to engage, single handed, 
 the larger class of American ships, which, though they may 
 be called frigates, are of a size, complement, and weight of
 
 1810-1813.] THE AMERICAN FBIOATES. 45 
 
 metal much beyond that class, and more resembling line-of- 
 battle ships. 
 
 In the event of one of his Majesty's frigates under your 
 orders falling in with one of these ships, his captain should 
 endeavour in the first instance to secure the retreat of his 
 Majesty's ship, but if he finds that he has an advantage in 
 sailing he should endeavour to manoeuvre, and keep company 
 with her, without coming to action, in the hope of falling in 
 with some other of his Majesty's ships, with whose assistance 
 the enemy might be attacked with a reasonable hope of 
 success. 
 
 It is their Lordships' further directions that you make 
 this known as soon as possible to the several captains com- 
 manding his Majesty's ships. 
 
 Mr. Croker always maintained that there was nothing in 
 these instructions to prevent an officer from fighting if he 
 thought he could do so with success ; the Admiralty merely 
 assumed the responsibility of restraining liigh-spirited men 
 from unnecessarily seeking a contest with ships of nominally 
 the same class but which, in reality, were far superior in 
 strength. This fighting spirit led to the celebrated duel 
 between the Shannon and the Chesapeake, in which the British 
 commander won. It was, however, a somewhat barren vic- 
 tory. The circular issued by Mr. Croker was success- 
 ful in its object. No more unequal fights took place. In 
 illustration of the difficulty the Admiralty had in obtaining 
 correct information, Mr. Croker used to say that when one of 
 the American large frigates was at Spithead shortly before 
 the war broke out, some officers were ordered to visit her 
 and report the result of their inspection. They expressed 
 the opinion that she differed but little from our first-class 
 frigates, though, as it eventually turned out, she was in every 
 way superior. 
 
 It is in this year also that the first letter of Eobert Peel 
 to Mr. Croker is to be found among the correspondence.
 
 46 TEE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. II. 
 
 They had already been friends for a long period, and doubt- 
 less had corresponded, but a diligent search has failed to 
 bring to light any letter of Peel's earlier than that which 
 follows. Peel was at that time, it will be remembered, 
 Secretary for Ireland. The letter relates to the refusal of 
 Canning and Lord Wellesley to join the new Adminis- 
 tration on Perceval's death, and their failure to make any 
 coalition which would have sufficed to form the basis of 
 another Government : — 
 
 Mr. Peel to Mr. Croher. 
 
 Dublin, Oct. 30th, 1812. 
 
 My dear Croker, 
 
 Lord Melville wrote a letter to you which he allowed 
 me to read, and the subject of which you are, of course, now 
 fully apprized of, and which I destroyed, as it could not have 
 reached you before your arrival at the Admiralty. 
 
 I am sorry that the parliamentary aspect is not so good in 
 England as I trust that it is with us, and I am much surprised 
 at the accession of strength which from your letter Canning 
 and Lord Wellesley appear to have acquired. 
 
 I am not, however, much alarmed by it, as I trust and 
 believe that the House of Commons, after what has passed will 
 support Lord Liverpool against either or both of them combined. 
 As for Lord Wellesley, I consider him a sort of appendage to 
 Mr. Canning — incumbrance, perhaps the latter would say. I 
 should think his Lordship could not be very well satisfied 
 when he found that the change of a moment in Mr. Canning's 
 determination to accept office saved him the trouble of de- 
 liberating whether he would succeed the Duke of Eichmond 
 or not. 
 
 I hope we may fight out this battle as we have fought out 
 many others ; there was a time when I should have had less 
 fears, and when perhaps, from every private and public feel- 
 ino-, I should have seen our little champion go forth with liis 
 sling and with his sword, and bring down the mightiest of 
 his enemies, and felt prouder in his triumph ; but there never 
 was a time when I felt more determined to do all I could to
 
 1810-1813.] PEEL IN IRELAND. 47 
 
 support the Government on its present footing and on the 
 principles on which it will meet Parliament. 
 
 If I understood, as I believe I did, the offers made to 
 Canning, I think they were fair ones, as he himself must 
 have thought when he accepted them ; and as to keeping him 
 down, the Government know liis power too well not to wish 
 to have it exerted in their favour. 
 
 I think in the worst event we shall gain one here, in the 
 best we shall have six friends in the place of six enemies, 
 but that is supposing three of the old members who remain 
 in to be equally friendly, and three of tlie new ones to have 
 the disposition which is now attached to them, 
 
 I am, dear Croker, 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 PiOBERT Peel. 
 
 In another letter Peel gives some account of his mode of 
 life in Ireland : — 
 
 I have survived the hospitality of Ireland hitherto, con- \ 
 trary to my expectation. I have scarcely dined once at 
 home since my arrival. I see no great prospect of it for 
 some time to come, excepting with about twenty-five guests. 
 I am just opening upon the campaign, and have visions of 
 future feasts studded with Lord Mayors and Sheriffs Elect. 
 I fancy I see some who think that the Government of 
 England have a strange notion of Ireland when they put a , 
 man here who drinks port, and as little of that as he can, ^ 
 The Governor of the Bank remarked with horror that I was 
 not fuUy impressed %vith the necessity of toasting the glorious 
 memory. 
 
 One of the great troubles of Mr. Croker's life at the 
 Admiralty arose from the avalanche of applications for office 
 which fell upon his desk day after day and year after year. 
 At that period, when official favour was all that was required 
 to get a man into the service of his country, everybody occu- 
 pying an official position was beset with applicants for place, 
 and Mr. Croker appears to have been besieged from morning
 
 48 TEE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. II. 
 
 till night. His friends were importunate, and yet he had no 
 places to give away. He was very chary indeed about using 
 his influence over the Board of Admiralty, for he considered 
 that it was no part of his duty to recommend any person for 
 employment, and he was strongly opposed to anything which 
 savoured of jobbery in public of&ces. Some of the appli- 
 cations which were sprung upon him by intimate personal 
 friends were so far beyond the bounds of decorum or reason, 
 that they provoked retorts which could not have been very 
 pleasant to the unfortunate office-seekers. The following 
 may be taken as examples : — 
 
 3fr. CroJcer to . 
 
 June 8th, 1812. 
 
 A young man came to me yesterday with a letter 
 from Mrs. * to request of me to " make him a mid- 
 shipman. " I cannot conceal from you my surprise and 
 
 concern that Mrs. should write to me on matters of 
 
 business, about which ladies can know nothing. If she had 
 asked you to do this, you would probably have been able to 
 teU her that I have no more to say to the making of mid- 
 shipmen, as she calls it, than to the making of archbishops, 
 and that if even I had the power, it might be prudent, before 
 the poor young man was sent over here,t to ask me whether I 
 was inclined to exert it. You could also have told her that 
 
 was not a person concerning whom I was likely to be 
 
 interested, as I know as little of the uncle as of the nephew. 
 You might also perhaps have told her that no captain will 
 take a young man as midshipman whose friends cannot allow 
 liim thirty or forty pounds per annum. You finally would 
 have informed her that a man turned of nineteen years of 
 age is more than six years too old to begin a sea life, 
 and that he would be entering on the profession with the 
 most deplorable prospects. And having told her all this, you 
 would have saved the poor young man the expense and 
 
 * [The wife of the gentleman to whom Mr. Croker's letter was addressed.] 
 f [From Ireland.]
 
 1810-181.'].] JFFLICATJOXS FOR OFFICE. 40 
 
 mortification of a journey to London, where lie does not 
 know a soul, and where he cannot meet anything but 
 disappointment, and perhaps ruin. 
 
 To another Friend. 
 
 If ]\Irs. F is the daughter or the sister of my father's 
 
 late friend, ]\Iajor F (whom I never saw in my life), 
 
 she might liave known that my name was not Croaker ; and 
 when she next laments that the Board of Admiralty does not 
 
 answer Mr. L 's letters, though its Secretary does, pray hint 
 
 to her that Mr. L knows little of his profession if he does 
 
 not know that the Board of Admiralty never does write a 
 letter (and indeed I hardly see how it could), and that it is 
 for this reason that it has a Secretary. 
 
 It is quite evident, however, that Mr. Croker's kindness of 
 heart induced him to exert his influence in various ways for 
 the benefit of such of his friends as seemed to have a fair 
 claim upon his consideration. Thus he obtained an appoint- 
 ment for ]\Ir. Thomas Scott, who was described l^y his 
 brother, the great novelist, as " a very honest and pleasant 
 fellow." At a later period, he endeavoured to get a son of 
 Robert Burns a clerkship in the Mint, but failed. In 1813, 
 he had some share in placing Robert Southey in the post 
 of Poet Laureate, which had been offered to Scott and 
 declined. Southey accepted it under an implied condition 
 which is now taken for granted on all sides. 
 
 Hohcrt Sovfhc// to Mr. Crulxr. 
 
 Streatliam, Saturday Afternoon. 
 
 [Proba1>ly iu September, 1813.] 
 
 Twenty years ago, when I had a reputation to win, it 
 would have been easy for me to furnish odes upon demand 
 on any subject. This is no longer the case. I should go to 
 the task like a school! )oy, with reluctance and a sense of 
 incapacity for executing it well ; but unless I could so perform 
 
 VOL. I. 1^
 
 50 THE CROKEB PAPERS. • [Chap. II. 
 
 it as to give crexlit to the office, certain it is that the office 
 . could give none to me. 
 
 But if these periodical exliibitions were dispensed with, and 
 I were left to write upon great events, or to be silent, 
 according as the spirit moved,' I should then thankfully 
 accept the office as a mark of honourable distinction, which 
 it would then become. 
 
 I write thus to you, not as proposing terms to the Prince, 
 an impropriety of Avhich I should be fully aware, but as to a 
 friend who has more than once shown me acts of kindness 
 wliich I had no reason to expect and by whose advice I 
 would be guided. 
 
 In the previous month of May, Southey had published his 
 ' Life of Nelson,' a work which he had expanded from an 
 article in the Quarterly Revieiv, at Mr, Murray's suggestion. 
 Mr. Croker at once formed the opinion of this performance 
 which has ever since been entertained by the public ; and he 
 wrote to Southey an encouraging letter, prophesying that the 
 book would always be ' The Poimlar Life of Nelson,' and 
 entering into some interesting particulars concerning the 
 battle of Copenhagen, and Nelson's famous refusal to obey 
 the signal to discontinue the action. 
 
 Mr. Croker to Bobert SoiUhcij. Extract. 
 
 May 7th, 1813. 
 
 On the subject of the Copenhagen fight, I have an observa- 
 tion or two to make to you, which I have from the best 
 authority, namely, my friend Admiral Domett, now a Lord of 
 the Admiralty ; at the period of the battle. Captain of the 
 Fleet to Sir Hyde Parker. Domett, as you will easily 
 believe, exceedingly regretted the signal of recall made by 
 Sir Hyde, but he gives a reason for it highly honourable to 
 that officer. " I will make the signal of recall," said Sir 
 \ Hyde, " for Nelson's sake ; if he is in a condition to continue 
 the action successfully, he will disregard it ; if he is not, it will 
 be an excuse for his retreat, and no blame will be imputed to 
 him." And though Domett, not at all agreeing in this fine
 
 1810-1813.] MOO HE AXD CHOKER. 51 
 
 spun distinction, urged liini, Ijy every possible reason, not to 
 make tlie signal, at least not until a personal communicatiou 
 could be opened, he persisted in doing so, because he thought 
 he was thereby removing the responsibility, in case 
 of failure, from Lord Nelson. However, therefore, tliis 
 famous signal may derogate from Sir Hyde's character as a 
 seaman, or as a man of foresight and boldness, it at least 
 does credit to his disinterestedness and generosity of mind ; 
 and Domett assures me that he was well aware at the 
 moment of the consequence to liis professional reputation of 
 the step he was then taking, but he thought tlie fire was too 
 hot for Nelson to oppose, that a retreat was probably to be 
 made, and that it would be cowardly to leave Nelson to bear 
 the whole shame, if shame there should be, of the failure. 
 
 It was about this time also that ]\Ir. Croker's acf[uaintQnce 
 was renewed with Thomas Moore, who had taken offence at 
 some allusion to Mm in print which he imagined had proceeded 
 from Croker. ]\Ioore's vanity was easily wounded at any 
 time. On this particular occasion, Moore wrote to ]\Ir. Croker 
 expressing his regret for the coldness with which he had 
 treated him. " I have long thought," he said, " that I was a fool 
 to quarrel with you, and by no means required your present 
 conduct to convince me how much you are, in every way, 
 superior to me." Moore had been assisted by Mr. Croker out 
 of a serious difficulty in connection with his Bermuda appoint- 
 ment (Registrar to the Admiralty Court), the duties of whicli 
 the poet found it convenient to discharge by deputy. This 
 probably accounts for the fervour of his protestations of friend- 
 ship. " In warmth of feeling," he declared, " I will not be out- 
 done, and I assure you it is with all my heart and soul that I 
 enter into the renewal of our friendship." With his gratitude 
 for the past was mingled a " lively sense of favours to come," 
 for he attempted soon after this to induce Mr. Croker to lielp 
 him in a x:)roject, which he had nmch at heart, for clandestinely 
 selling his appointment to his deputy — a proposal, as 
 
 E 2
 
 52 THE CHOKER PAPEBS. [Chap. IT. 
 
 Moore coolly admitted in his letter (December 22nd, 1809), 
 ■which " sounds very like one of those transactions which v-c 
 IKitriots cry out against as unworthy of the great Piussell and 
 Algernon Sydney." Mr. Croker declined to undertake this 
 commission, but he gave him some counsel -which, had it 
 been followed, would have saved Moore from the embarrass- 
 ments brought upon him by his deputy a few years later. 
 
 Mr. Crohcr to Thomas Moore. 
 
 Nov. 13tli, 1813. 
 
 I wish I could give you any more agreeable advice on the 
 subject of your office than that which I before have given, 
 namely, that you should yourself go out and look after your 
 profits. I have no doubt that they are well w^orth your doing 
 so, and in your (since acquired) character of father, of a 
 family, I really think it is your bounden duty to look after 
 your family interests. It is very unpoetical, and very 
 un-Irish, and very unromantic to attend to worldly cares, 
 but if not attended to they at last become too strong for 
 the most poetical head and the most ardent heart. 
 
 The following letter is of an earlier date, l)ut it may fitly 
 be XDlaced here, in further illustration of the respect which 
 Moore at this period felt for ]\Ir. Croker. 
 
 Thomas Moore to Mr. Croker. 
 
 Keyworth, Lancai^hire, May 22iid, 1812. 
 
 My deae Ceokee, 
 I dare say you have heard of my having appeared sud- 
 denly to my friends in the new characters of a husljand and 
 a father. If I were quite sure that you feel interested enough 
 about an old friend to wish to know the particulars of my 
 marriage, you should know them. At all events, I hope it 
 will give you pleasure to learn that, though I thought it 
 necessary to conceal the business so long (from every one but 
 mv friends Eogers and the Dowager Lady Donegal), yet the 
 moment the revelation took iplace, all my friends took the
 
 1810-1813.] MOOUE AXJJ rhUKEH. 53 
 
 excellent creature I have married most cordially by the hand, 
 and Lady Loudoun and Lady Charlotte liawdon were among 
 the first to visit her. They knew the story, and could not 
 but respect her. I should have been most happy to have 
 made her known to you, but I found it impossible to stand 
 the expenses of town, and therefore made a hasty retreat 
 into Lord ]\Ioira's neighbourhood, where, with his fair library 
 and a happy home, I hope to live a life of peace and good- 
 ness, and to become at last, perhai)S, respectable. 
 
 I am glad to take the opportunity of troubling you witli 
 the inclosed letter to show you that I am not unmindful of 
 your good opinion nor indifferent to your remembrance 
 of me. 
 
 Ever yours, 
 
 Thomas Moore. 
 
 It need only be added that Mr. Croker never gave Moore 
 any cause of offence, unless it was in declining to become a 
 party to the trafficking in public offices which the poet was 
 so eager to undertake, Ijut which he candidly acknowledged 
 was unworthy of a true patriot. 
 
 Mi: Croker to Jus ir.'fe. 
 
 August 15th, 1813. 
 
 The riy mouth telegraph* announces another complete vic- 
 tory of Lord W. over Soult on the 30th. When I went to 
 the Prince with the news this morning he embraced me with 
 both arms. You never saw a man so rejoiced. I have seen 
 him again to-day, and you cannot conceive how gracious he 
 is to me. 
 
 We were very pleasant yesterday, and H.Il. Highness has 
 asked me to go to the Pavilion Wednesday and Thursday, or 
 as long as I can sta}'. 
 
 * [The news was sent by the old system of telegraphing — that is, by the 
 semaphores on the tops of the hills, — to the Admiralty. Tliis naval,, 
 telegraph had its terminus on the roof of the Admiralty, and thus it " 
 happened that jSIr. Croker received the news first, and was able to com- 
 municate it to the Prince Kcgent.]
 
 54 THE CHOKER PAPERS. [Chap. II. 
 
 The victory referred to was that gained by Wellington over 
 Sonlt, in the battle of the Pyrenees. The intimacy with the 
 Prince Piegent, begun a few months before this letter was 
 written, was continued after the Prince succeeded to the 
 throne ; and it led to the king imparting to IMr. Croker his own 
 story — which was not always the same story — of his relations 
 with Mrs. Fitzherbert. Mr. Croker, however, was much too 
 sincere and plain-spoken to be a model courtier, as the Duke 
 of Clarence discovered when he had official dealings with 
 liiin at the Admiralty.
 
 ( 55 ) 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 1814-181G. 
 
 Passages in King's Ships — Application from Lord Byron — Mr. Gladstone 
 of Liverpool — The Brief Peace of 1814 — Monument to Wellington in the 
 Phronix Park— The ' New Whig Guide '—A Visit to Paris— Letter to 
 Canning — Paris after the War — Fouche and Talleyrand — Anecdotes of 
 Buonaparte — Journal of Events in 1815 — Intended Duel between 
 Peel and O'Connell — Parliamentary Encounter between Mr. Croker 
 and Mr. Tierney— The Elgin ]^Iarbles— Mr. Canning's Mission to 
 Lisbon — Napoleon in Exile — Peel on "Papal Superstition" in Ireland 
 — The Bombardment of Algiers — Walter Scott on Byron's ' Politics 
 and Morality '—Letter to Dr. Croly on the Question whether Diyden's 
 and Pope's Works were becoming obsolete — Popular Disturbances in 
 1816 — A Curious Coincidence. 
 
 OxE of the advantages incidental to the office of Secretary 
 of the Admiralty in Mr. Croker's day was the oppor- 
 tunity which it occasionally conferred of obtaining a 
 passage in a King's ship to some foreign port — a privilege 
 which was highly valued, not only because it was much 
 pleasanter to make a voyage in a vessel of the Koyal Xavy 
 than in an ordinary merchantman, but also because in that 
 disturbed period, when hostile ships were encountered on 
 almost every sea, a comparative degree of safety could be 
 enjoyed in a Eoyal frigate. Many were the applications 
 which Mr. Croker received for these favours, which, after all, 
 he could only secure by using his influence with the com- 
 manders of the vessels, for he had no power or authority of
 
 56 THE CEOKER PAPERS. [Chap. III. 
 
 his own to grant them. As a matter of course, however, 
 the influence of the Secretary was great, and it seldom failed 
 to accomplish the desired purpose. But there were seasons 
 when nothing whatever could be done, and this happened to 
 be the case in July, 1813, with reference to Lord Byron, who 
 was anxious to make his way to Greece, and wdio applied to 
 Mr. Croker to help him. He was obliged to return an answer 
 to the effect that he knew no captain who was going out. 
 A few weeks later, Mr. Croker took the trouble to seek 
 out the captain of the Boijnc, and to get the desired per- 
 mission. Either Lord Byron changed his mind, or he could 
 not get ready in time, for he did not sail by tliis vessel. 
 A little later, in reply to a similar request from Mr. Canning, 
 Mr. Croker was obliged to make the following explana- 
 tion, which serves incidentally to show how reluctant he 
 was all through his life to ask for anything for himself: 
 " A young lady, a cousin of my own, who had been residing 
 with Mrs. Croker these last five years, and who was ordered 
 to Lisbon for the same cause as the young lady you mention, 
 sailed in a merchant vessel this day week, in a convoy pro- 
 tected by three King's ships, in none of which I could take 
 the liberty of asking a passage for her." 
 
 Another application of Canning's is worthy, perhaps, of 
 passing notice from the fact that it solicited ]Mr. Croker's 
 good offices in favour of Mr. Gladstone " of Liverpool," whose 
 son, the future Prime Minister, was then not five years old : — 
 
 Mr. Canning to Mr. Croker. 
 
 Liverpool Office, May 16th, 1814. 
 
 My deak Sir, 
 
 Now that the general question of convoy is disposed of, 
 X am earnestly entreated earnestly to entreat your re-con- 
 sideration of the particular case of a ship for which, if a licence 
 is not obtained to sail without convoy, her voyage will have
 
 1S14-181G.] ,¥/?. GLADSTONES SHIP. 57 
 
 to be undertaken at a hea\y loss. It is the ship Kiiujsmill 
 of Liverpool, lielonginf]; to ]\Ir. Gladstone, destined for the 
 East Indies — a ship of between 5 and GOO tons, armed — 
 '' a small frigate in appearance" — and capable of beating off 
 any ordinary privateer that might attack her. 81ie is quite 
 ready to put to S3a this week. Slie is a venture of -10,000/., 
 •and the delay of waiting for a convoy would be highly detri- 
 mental to tlie owner. That she was not ready for the last 
 eonvoy which sailed is to be attributed to the novelty of the 
 undertaking. The singularity of the case seems to preclude 
 any danger of its being considered as a precedent for licences 
 for merchant ships of smaller force. 
 
 I am ever, my dear Sir, 
 
 A^'ery sincerely yours, 
 
 Geokge Canning. 
 
 There was a transient gleam of peace in 1814 — the calm 
 which preceded the last great storm which Buonaparte was 
 destined to create in Europe. Mr. Croker profited by this 
 lull to go to Paris in the autumn, and he immediately occu- 
 pied himself with the work of tracing out every spot which 
 had been made memorable by the great revolution — the event 
 which he was never weary of studying. He had collected 
 a large library of French journals, tracts, broadsides, and 
 other contemporary documents relating to it ; and he once 
 had some plan in his mind of writing a 'History of the 
 Eevolution.' At this time, however, Mr. Croker was bent 
 not so much upon literary achievements as upon the task 
 of endeavouring to get a suitable memorial erected to the 
 hero of the Peninsula in the Irish capital. Irishmen of 
 every class having made known their desire to do honour iu 
 some way to the name of Wellington. Mr. Croker was 
 strongly in favour of a column, but his advice was not taken, 
 and the miserable design to be seen to-day in the Phcenix 
 Park was substituted for it.
 
 58 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. III. 
 
 Mr. Crolicr to the Secretary of the Wellington Fund. Extract. 
 
 October 7th, 1814. 
 
 I quite agree witli the Committee in its predilection for a 
 pillar. I was one of the pillarists in the Nelson case, and 
 only wish our column had been one of more magnificent 
 dimensions. Great height is the cheapest way and one of 
 the most certain of obtaining sublimity. Ten thousand 
 pounds will build you the liighest column in the world, 
 and will produce an astonishing effect ; fifty thousand 
 pounds would not serve to erect an arch, and when it was 
 erected you would have it doubted wliich, it or the Eoyal 
 Exchange, was the more magnificent object; therefore I 
 exhort you to keep to the columnar form. Whatever you do, 
 be at least sure to make it stupendously high; let it be of all 
 columns in the world the most lofty. Nelson's is, I suppose, 
 about 150 feet, the London monument is 202, Trajan's about 
 150, Antoninus' 122, or, as some have it, 180. Buonaparte's 
 in the Place Yendome is, I think, near 200. I wish there- 
 fore that you should not fall short of 250 feet, and I should 
 prefer to have it exactly from the first layer of the base to the 
 ci^own of the statue 300 feet. 
 
 Not only had Mr. Croker become by this time a regular con- 
 tributor to the Quarterly Review, but he was associated with 
 Mr. Peel and Lord Pahnerston in supplying political squibs 
 and lyrics to the Courier newspaper, resembling in general 
 features the ' Anti- Jacobin ' and the 'Piolliad.' The verses 
 are chiefly parodies of Moore's ' Irish Melodies,' or of Byron's 
 songs, and are far above the ordinary level of such composi- 
 tions, although there is nothing so remarkably brilliant in 
 them as to call for their republication. Most of the allusions 
 to persons or events would now be pointless ; the spirit of the 
 verse has long since evaporated. The various pieces werei ■ 
 collected and published in 1815, under the title of Tlic 
 New JJ'liiy Guide, and for many years afterwards quotations 
 from them were common in periodical literature. A work 
 of a different kind was undertaken by Mr. Croker in the
 
 1814-1810.] THE Fin ST NEWS OF WATEJiLOO. 59 
 
 autumn of 1815 — a retrospect of the chief incidents in 
 Bonaparte's career, prepared for the Quartcrlij. The escape 
 from Elba, the Emperor's defeat by the Prussians at Ligny, 
 and his overthrow at Waterloo, were events which caused 
 everything else then going on in the world to be put out of 
 sight and forgotten. In ]March, ]\Ir. Croker sent the following 
 account of the state of affairs to his friend Canning, who was 
 then Ambassador Extraordinary at Lisbon : 
 
 Mr. Crolccr to Mr. Canniafj, 
 
 March 13tli, 1815. 
 
 You will already have heard by your post from Madrid 
 that Buonaparte has landed in Erance ; and the English 
 papers will tell you all tlie details as far as they have been 
 published. I can only add that my private letters from Paris 
 are very satisfactory. Great inquietude, but it is that of 
 loyalty, and my friends describe the crowds that throng the 
 Tuileries as evincing the best spirit j)0ssible. But I have 
 also seen letters that state that there is a good deal of in- 
 difference with regard to Ijoth parties. The fact I take to be 
 this, that the nation is fully content with the Bourbons, that 
 the higher officers who have something to lose are likely to 
 adhere to the king ; that the great class of reformes, who are 
 as ill off as they can be, must be inclined to take tickets in 
 Xapoleon's lottery, and that the common soldiers to a man 
 are Bonapartists ; but the whole people is so volatile, tliat 
 their conduct will be determined by the first accidental 
 successes of either party, and with tliis opinion you may 
 easily believe that I am not quite so much at my ease as 
 most other people are. 
 
 Our riots, which are a good deal exaggerated in the public 
 papers, are subsiding, and never were, 1 think, at all serious ; 
 but you know how timid all constituted authority is on such 
 occasions. 
 
 The messenger who was employed to convey to tlie Piotlis- 
 childs in London the news of the Yictory of AVaterloo, was 
 ordered to call upon the King of France (Louis XVIIL), at
 
 ^ 
 
 60 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. III. 
 
 Brussels, on the way. He did so, and then proceeded to the 
 Eothschilds. After they had extracted from hmi all the 
 information that he possessed, they sent him on to Lord 
 Liverpool, the Prime Minister, in order thai the Government 
 might receive tidings of this great event. 
 , Lord Liverpool could make nothing out of the man, and 
 .after examining and cross-examining him for some time, he 
 felt increasingly sceptical as to the authenticity of the news 
 which he brought. He then sent for Mr. Croker and told 
 liim that the messenger had come from Waterloo with the 
 tidings of \dctory, but that his story was confused, and it 
 was therefore difficult to accept it as genuine. Thereupon, 
 Mr. Croker began to question the man, with all his legal 
 .acumen, but he succeeded no better than Lord Liverpool in 
 making the narrative intelligible. "Wlien about to give it up 
 in despair, as a last resource, and by a sudden impulse, Mr. 
 Croker questioned the messenger as to his interview with the 
 French King, and he asked him how the King was dressed. 
 The messenger replied, " In his dressing-gown." ]\Ir. Croker 
 then asked him what the King did and said to him, to 
 which the messenger replied : " His Majesty embraced me, 
 .and kissed me!" Mr. Croker asked, "How did the King 
 kiss you ? " " On both cheeks," replied the messenger ; upon 
 which Mr. Croker emphatically exclahned : " My Lord, it is 
 true ; his news is genuine," and so, in truth, it proved. 
 
 In July, 1815, Mr. Croker took advantage of his annual 
 holiday to pay another visit to Paris, then in the midst of the 
 excitement produced by the victory of the Allies. His notes 
 and sketches made at that time, and forwarded regularly to 
 his wife, present a curious picture of the French capital 
 during the English occupation. Mr. Peel and Mr. Vesey 
 ^afterwards Lord) Fitzgerald accompanied him on this journey.
 
 1814-1816.] PARIS UNDER ENGLISH OCCTPATION. Q-l 
 
 Mr. Crolrr to Ids Wife. Rrtmcfs. 
 
 Taris, July 12tli, 1815. 
 
 The town is full of troops, piiiticularly Prussians ; but 
 there are a good many Enolish ; it was annising to us to see 
 the old Life Guards patrolling the Boulevard last night, as- 
 they used to do Charing Cross during the Corn riots. 
 
 I got up this morning three hours at least before my com- 
 panions, Avalked through the I'alais Eoyal, where I found 
 a strong English guard. I spoke to the soldiers, and they 
 were rather surprised to see me. They looked very strange 
 amongst this Ijlue-coated nation. I then went to the 
 Carrousel, where about 2000 Prussians are Invouaeked : they 
 are very picturesque and savage. 
 
 The King appeared last night at the windows of the- 
 Tuileries when we were at dinner, and I really never heard 
 such shouts and cries and other demonstrations of joy as he 
 Avas received with ; and as we came along through the whole' 
 country, all the villagers cried " Vive le Eoi ! " with gi-eat 
 enthusiasm. As we drove into Abbeville, where the garrison 
 were savage Buonapartists, the townspeople huzzaed and 
 cried " Yive le lioi 1 " as we came in, to the great vexation of 
 the military who attended us through the town. 
 
 "Wlien I went to Castlereagh's, he said he had sent for me- 
 to meet the Duke of Otranto (Fouche) and the Count de- 
 Jaucourt, the Minister of Marine, to concoct measures for the 
 capture of Buonaparte. Jaucourt came with Fouche's apology, 
 and an appointment that we should all meet at a conference 
 at Talleyrand's that evening. 
 
 I Avas so detained by writing the draft of the paper that was- 
 to be submitted to the Conference that I came late for dinner. 
 AVe were all English except Marshal I'rince AVrede, the 
 Bavarian, a good-looking, agreeable, gentlemanly man. After 
 dinner we went and walked in the Tuileries, to see the people 
 dancing and singing and shouting under the King'.s window, 
 I never saw so gay, and hardly a more toucldng, scene. After 
 idling there for a couple of hours, we went to Talleyrand's to 
 do our business, and there we found a little kind of male 
 assembly. There were Talleyrand, Fouche, and Jaucourt, 
 Marshal Gouvion St. Cyr, Pozzo di Borgo, Prince John of 
 Zuhlenstein, the Duke of Wellington, &c., &c. You may be 
 sure I was rather i>lad to see all those heroes and rogues " de-
 
 62 ■ THE CBOKER PAPERS. [Chap. III. 
 
 si pres." I did not get home till one o'clock. My comrades 
 were botli in bed ; they, I hear, went from the gardens to the 
 Palais Eoyal, where they indulged themselves with a peep, at 
 \ some of the gaming houses ; JFitzgerald lost 10 lonis, and 
 Peel, more lucky, won 5. 
 
 Thursday, Julij \Wi. — I lost a good deal of this morning 
 in doing lousiness with Castlereagh and going to the Imnkers. 
 We found our poor bankers in trouljle ; Blucher had 
 demanded a contribution of 100 millions from Paris, and, as 
 it was not paid, he shut up the 'Change and arrested all the 
 bankers, M. Perigeux among the rest. The Emperor of 
 Eussia, however, whose bankers they are, has saved these 
 persons out of the clutches of the Vicux Diahlc ; but he 
 swears that he will make them pay the money. The 
 Prussians are very insolent, and hardly less offensive to the 
 English than to the French. The Duke says that they 
 actually forget that there is a British army in Paris. They 
 had mined the two piers of the Pont de Jena, next the 
 Champ de Mars, and had endeavoured, as I saw by the 
 marks of explosion, to blow it up ! but they have been 
 stopped, and no mischief is done. 
 
 Friday, July lUh. — I went to see Denon ; he is very low- 
 spirited for the loss of his friend Buonaparte, and because 
 Blucher has quartered a guard of Prussians on him who are 
 very unpleasant guests. He tliinks the Gallery is likely 
 to be iihindcrcd of its plunder. He, however, was exceedingly 
 civil to me, and if / had been agreeable, as the girls say in 
 England, he would have kissed me on both cheeks. He was 
 V the last person that Buonaparte saw before he went away. 
 Buonaparte spoke very little, but he desired him to tell him 
 all he thought, which Denon says he did, and that B. heard 
 all with great composure and sany froid. Wlien they were 
 about to part, Denon was much agitated and affected ; 
 Buonaparte put his two hands on his shoulders, and said, 
 " Mon cher, ne nous attendrissons pas ; il faut dans des crises 
 comme celle-ci se conduire avec sang froid." Denon almost 
 cried when he told the story. He says he told Buonaparte that 
 he had committed two great faults, one in leaving the army, 
 the other in getting into discussions with a deputation of the 
 Chambers, which grew too strong and factious for him to 
 manau'e, and which began to discuss the rights of citizens 
 when they should have pro\T.ded against the common enemy. 
 In spealdng of the battle of AVaterloo, Denon said to Buona-
 
 1814-181G.] PARIS IN 1815. G3 
 
 parte, " You liaye Ijeen beaten moitie malheur, moitle traJdson." 
 This we observed escaped him Ijy accident ; he coniphiined 
 greatly of the Prussians, expressed great anxiety for the luomi- 
 ments, and said that he was " malheurcux to have to do with 
 a hetcferocc, un animal incUcrottaUc, Ic Prince Bhtchcr." 
 
 Saturday, July loth. — We went to tlie Gallery of tlie 
 Louvre at 11 o'clock, and stayed there a couple of hours. 
 "We met Apsle}', and all four went off to see the English 
 army encamped in the Bois de Boulogne. An army encamped 
 does not answer the expectations one entertains of it. It 
 looks more like a fair than anything martial, for you see 
 very few red coats worn. The soldiers had made themselves 
 nice little huts with the boughs and branches of trees, and 
 I think that the mischief they are doing to the wood will in 
 the end improve its beauty, as they break tlie long formal 
 lines of the rows of trees, and cutting down half-a-dozen 
 leave one or two standing here and there. On our return 
 Fitzgerald went to the Palais Pioyal, and Peel and I went 
 wandering through the town. We afterwards dined at 
 Roberts's, a gaming tavern, where we had an excellent dinner, 
 but it cost us 24 francs each. After dinner we went to the 
 Varietes. My gentlemen, not understanding a syllable, goty' 
 tired, and would not sit it out. I did, and saw, besides the 
 ' Singe Voleur,' which I had seen before, ' Sage et Coquette ' 
 and ' Les Pensionnaires '; the last was agreeable enough, but 
 none of them were very risible. I have not yet see Potier. 
 
 July 16th. — The Pere Ely see sent us an order for the King's 
 Mass, wdiere we went at half-past 12. There was a greater 
 crowd than when you were there, and as there was not 
 a court mourning, everything was much gayer. After the 
 mass, we followed the King on his return. He showed 
 himself with Monsieur and the Due de Berri at the balcony 
 that looks towards the garden to a very loyal multitude that 
 were assembled below. We afterwards went.through the Salles 
 des Marechaux, de la Paix, and du Throne, into the gallery. 
 We were the only people not in uniform, but the Pere passed 
 Tis on quite well. We here saw Marshals Marmont, Augereau, 
 Massena, Kellerman, IMoncey, ]\Iacdonald ; the latter was not 
 dressed as a marshal, but as a peer of France. He went the 
 other day to the King dressed as a Xational (Juard. Has lie 
 the good taste to be ashamed of belonging to sueli a cor])s as 
 the Marshal's, or is he forming some design to distinguish 
 himself from them ? One tiling surprised me exceedingly ;
 
 64 • THE CROKER PAPERS. [CuAr. IIL 
 
 the army and the great majority of the officers belonging to 
 it went off south of the Loire, yet there were yesterday at the 
 Tuileries at least three times as many general officers as we 
 could have under the most favourable circumstances collected 
 at a levee in England, and those there wore orders, stars, and 
 ribbands "j^ar jjoisseaux." Peel said that, on an average, 
 every man in Paris would have tv:o crosses. I saw one man 
 yesterday with 6, twenty with 4 or 5, and hundreds with 
 3 different orders at their button hole. Prince Wrede the 
 other day at dinner wore 6 stars, and I believe he has one or 
 two that he did not wear ; in fact, the greatest distinction 
 our people have here is that they are without them. 
 
 The Emperor of Piussia and the Emperor of Austria rode 
 twice yesterday past our balcony with an innnense staff The 
 Emperor of all the Piussias is a greater dandy than ever ; he 
 had a levee of the English generals to-day, at which he wa& 
 very civil ; he made them a little speech, in which he said 
 he was proud to make acquaintance with the officers of so 
 gallant an army. The Iving of Prance, at his levee of English 
 officers, " congratulated them on their glory, and thanked them 
 for their generosity towards his poor subjects." At present the 
 English are in high favour with the l^arisians, less, I fear, from 
 their own merits, than from a contrast with our worthy allies 
 the Prussians. The latter are, however, decamping out of the 
 city ; their bivouac in the Carrousel has already disappeared. 
 , . . We came round the Boulevards home ; all along the 
 Boulevards there were puppets and punches and merry-go- 
 rounds and the like ; but not much music and not much 
 gaiety to my notion. In general we observe that all the 
 women are loyal ; the men seem a good deal divided, but the 
 majority, the decided majority, of all who are at all " comme 
 il faut" are for the King. What good boys we are ! we are 
 all-in bed by 12. Eitzgerald does nothing but sleep; he 
 goes to bed at 11, and makes his appearance in 12 hours 
 after. Peel also is tolerably lazy. I rise at half-past six, 
 and read and write, and dress myself till nine or half-past, 
 and then I have still an hour to wait for my breakfast. 
 
 July 17th. — We dined yesterday at Castlereagh's with, 
 besides the Embassy, Talleyrand, Fouche, Marshal Gouvion 
 St. Cyr, and the Baron de A^itrolles, Lords Cathcart, Clan- 
 carty, Stewart, and Clive, and two ladies, the Princesse de 
 Vaudemont, a fat, ugly old woman, and a Mademoiselle 
 Chasse, her friend, a pretty young one. At so quiet a dinner
 
 1S14-181G.] TALLEYRAND AND FOUCIIE. G5 
 
 you may judge there was not much interesting conversation, 
 and accordingly T have not often been at a dinner of which I 
 had less to tell. Tlie wonder was to find ourselves at tal)lo 
 with Touche, who, to be sure, looks very like what one would 
 naturally suppose him to be — a sly old rogue ; l)utltliink he 
 seems to feel a passion of which I did not expect to find liim 
 capable ; I mean shame, for he looks conscious and eni- 
 l>arrassed. He is a man aljout 5 ft. 7 in. high, very thin, 
 with a grey head, cropped and ])owdered, and a very acute , 
 expression of countenance. Talleyrand, on the other hand, V 
 is lattish for a Frenchman ; his ankles are Aveak and his feet 
 deformed, and he totters about in a strange way. His face is 
 not at all expressive, except it be of a kind of drunken stupor ; 
 in fact, he looks altogether like an old fuddled, lame, village 
 schoolmaster, and his voice is deep and hoarse. I should 
 suspect that at the Congress his most natural employment 
 would lie keeping the unruly Ijoys in order. We dined very 
 late — that is, for Paris, for we were not at table till half-past 
 six. We afterwards w^ent to the Theatre Feydau, where we 
 had ' Richard Coeur de Lion ' and ' Les Heritiers Michau.' 
 The latter is a pretty little piece made last year on the King's 
 return. I shall tell you the story when we meet. 
 
 Tliink of the Buonapartists having the audacity to wear 
 little marks of distinction, signals to know one another. 
 These last few days the sign (no longer the violet) was a red 
 pink, in opposition to the white pinks ; and on Sunday night 
 a serious riot took place on the Boulevard St. Martin between 
 two of the King's bodyguard and some red jnnk men, who 
 insulted and pursued them till they took refuge in one of the 
 theatres, which the mob were going to storm, but tliat the 
 guard was called out, which put an end to the tunnilt ; but, 
 notwithstanding this disaffection of the blackguards and 
 soldiery, I really never saw more general or uneqiiivocal 
 testimonies of loyalty than one sees in the generality of the 
 people. I am sure last night at Feydau the bursts of joy 
 and triumph at every allusion flattering to the King exceeded 
 what could under any circumstances like the present have 
 been expected. 
 
 Late last night Castlereagli sent me a copy of a note from 
 Fouche, announcing that Buonaparte had gone on board tlie 
 Bellerophon, Capt. INIaitland. He, it seems, wanted to 
 stipulate for couditiojis, but that, being refused, he said he 
 would throw liimself on the Prince llegent's hospitality. 
 
 VOL. I. F
 
 66 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. III. 
 
 I went this morning to Castlereagli's, to hear something more 
 on the subject, but he had no further particulars. The fact 
 was published in the Monitcur, and the account concluded 
 with a statement that thus ended an enterprise conceived by 
 Buonaparte and executed by him with the assistance of 
 MM. Labedoyere, Ney, Soult, La Valette, Bassano, and others. 
 The list of names is generally said to be a designation of the 
 individuals whom it is intended to punish, and folks are sa 
 charitable as to suppose that their old friend Fouche gives 
 them this notice that they may make haste to escape. 
 Castlereagh tells me that what the old rogue says of this last 
 revolution is this, that he confesses that there was a con- 
 spiracy (he calls it a union) of some Jacobins (he calls them 
 patriots) at Paris for the purpose, of operating a political 
 change, but that Buonaparte was no party to it, and that 
 they "did not think of him; in other words, they wished for 
 neither the King nor the Emperor, Ijut what they intended 
 he did not say, and, with all his cunning, perhaps he did not 
 know. While this was going on, Buonaparte heard of it, and 
 resolved, with the assistance of his military friends, to take 
 advantage of the mines against the Iving that the con- 
 spirators had laid. He landed, the King was betrayed on all 
 sides and was driven out. Of all this fine story I believe 
 little more than the last part. Castlereagh says what interest 
 has Fouche now to tell a lie ? I reply, " first, the natural 
 inclination to lying which the Devil and all his disciples are 
 admitted to possess." Secondly, he wishes to clear himself 
 from the disgrace of serving two masters within ten days,. 
 God and Mammon, and would have us believe that lie did not 
 plot with Buonaparte to turn out the King, and a little after 
 concert with the King the means of keeping out Buonaparte ; 
 and thirdly, he wishes to enhance his own importance and 
 that of liis party, by insinuating that it was powerful enough 
 to think of overturning the King's government without any 
 assistance from Buonaparte. I therefore, begging the Duke of 
 Otranto's good pardon, am satisfied either that there was no 
 regular conspiracy at all, and that Buonaparte came with 
 his usual and characteristic audacity to try his luck previous 
 to the final close of the Congress, or else that to the list of 
 traitors published by his Excellency the Duke of Otranto, we 
 should add the name of the notorious M. Fouche. 
 
 At a quarter-past one we went in full dress to the Tuileries 
 to be presented to the King ; there were about thirty persons.
 
 1814-181G.] BLUCHER AT ST. CLOUD. G7 
 
 Russians and English, to 1)6 presented. Among the latter, 
 Lords Stewart, Clancarty, Alvanley, Clive, Sir AY. Colthurst, 
 Sir John Shelley, the gentlemen of the Embassy, and ourselves. 
 The King told me he was happy to revoir me, hobbled round 
 us all, and said in English, " Gentlemen, I am very glad to 
 see you all here." We then went to pay our respects to 
 IMonsieur. He recollected me perfectly, and the first word 
 he said was, " Well, you have got Buonaparte aboard your 
 S(|uadron." He then reminded us that it was to-day just ^ 
 a month from the battle of Waterloo, " Quelle superbe V 
 bataille." He spoke to everybody, and did his part of the 
 farce well enough. We then went in a body to the Duke de 
 Berri's ; but here we only wrote down our names. 
 
 Jidj/ 19th. — After looking at about 5000 men of the 
 Austrian army, who were drawn up along the Boulevards 
 (for the purpose of being reviewed by the two Emperors and 
 the King of Prussia), we set off for Neuilly, where we break- 
 fasted with Sir Lowry Cole, in a very nice villa on the banks 
 of the Seine, which was assigned to him as his quarters. 
 After lireakfast we set out, Apsley, Peel, and Cole on horse- 
 back, Fitzgerald and I in the barouche ; we first went along 
 the river-side to St. Cloud, which we found in possession of 
 old Bluclier and his staff; the great hall was a common 
 guard-house, in which the Prussians were drinking, spitting, 
 smoking, and sleeping in all directions. No mischief, how- 
 ever, had been done, except to one old china jar, which had 
 been broken by accident in the billiard-room. The gallery 
 was perfectly intact. Blucher occupied Buonaparte's ownV 
 apartment, and we did not see it, as we had no mind to 
 disturb the old man ; but I hear that a good many, even V' 
 English officers and others, have helped themselves to books 
 out of the liljrary as marks of triumph. 
 
 Peel and Fitzgerald are gone to visit the Catacombs. I 
 went to pay a visit to my new friend, the JMinister of 
 Marine, who has asked me to take a family dinner with him, 
 and Madame de Jaucourt, to meet General Becker — the officer 
 who was charged with the surveillance of Buonaparte, that I 
 may hear some details from him on the subject of his late 
 transactions.* ]\I. do Jaucourt told me a few particulars which 
 
 * [General Becker received his commission to keep Napoleon under 
 surveillance in June, 1815. Vide Las Casas, ' Me'morial de Sainte- 
 Helbno,' I. pp. 28-32.] 
 
 F 2
 
 68 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. III. 
 
 he had had from General Becker. Buonaparte he described 
 \ as much depressed — as sunk into a kind of mollcssc, and very 
 careful about his personal ease and comfort. Now and then 
 he had fits of talent and activity like those of his better 
 days, and seemed incHned to throw himself into the interior 
 of France and continue the war ; at other times he proposed 
 to set out in the night in a small schooner, to endeavour to 
 pass the English squadron, and so get to America, or "se 
 livrer au liasard." In this latter proposal he meant to include 
 only Bertrafid and Savary; but JNIadame Bertrand, who 
 accompanied them, wept, and " se desolait," and protested 
 and entreated against both those plans ; she said it w^as cruel 
 to separate her from her husband and more cruel still (as she 
 would not leave him) to expose her to the chances of war or 
 of the waves. General Becker represents Buonaparte as glad\ 
 to seize even this excuse for abandoning plans neither of 
 which suited his personal disposition, and to have affected 
 to yield to ]\Iadame's entreaties in giving himself up to the 
 Enghsli. He took on board with him only three boxes of 
 gold ; each not heavier than a man could carry, which, there- 
 fore, might be of perhaps 50 lbs. weight, which at 5/. the ounce 
 would make each box of about 4000/. value. He also had 
 some diamonds, particularly a very fine necklace, which he 
 
 \. took the night before he went from his sister Hortense. 
 
 ^^ Juli/ 20th. — General Becker did not add much to liis former 
 information about Buonaparte, but what he did say gave 
 occasion to La Place to say that Buonaparte, great as he was 
 in prosperity, was never able to bear up against a reverse, 
 under which his talents, resolution, courage, all vanished 
 when he had most need of them. 
 
 Becker showed us a copy of Buonaparte's letter to the Prince 
 Eegent, in which he says that driven out of home by internal 
 factions and foreign enemies, he came, like Themistocles, to 
 sit on the British hearth, and to claim the protection of our 
 law^s from the " plus puissant, plus constant, et plus genereux 
 de ses ennemis." In reading this, when I came to " Themis- 
 tocle," who certainly was the last person I expected to meet 
 there, I could not help bursting out into a loud laugh, whicli\' 
 astonished the French, who thought all beautiful, but " Themis- 
 tocle " sublime and pathetic. I called the whole letter a base 
 flattery, and said Buonaparte should have died rather than 
 have written such a one ; the only proper answer to it would 
 have been to have enclosed him a copy of one of his Monitcurs,
 
 1814-181G.] BUOXA PARTE A XI) WATERLOO. 69 
 
 ill wliicli lie accused England of assassination and every other 
 horror. La Place said that Jiuonaparte ought to have died, if 
 not by his own hand (winch, however, he seemed to think 
 would be better than not dying at all), at least in battle. I 
 said, he preferred living like a Grecian, to dying like a Roman. 
 They all seemed to agree that he had no heart, either in the 
 sense of magnanimity or feeling ; and M. de Jaucourt told us 
 a saying, un mot, of liis mother : " et pour le cceur, Napoleon, 
 il en vovlut." She meant to say that he had a disposition to 
 feel ; just enough to make him wish that he had had a heart. 
 Madame La Princesse said she had heard him sa}' that he had 
 Ic cosur a la tetc, on some particular occasion, and that one who 
 was by said afterwards, that he was glad he had it anywhere. 
 I told them that an Englishman (I meant Douglas) who had 
 seen him in Ellja, had found him ^'ery amiable ; upon which 
 they all cried out in cliorus, " du tout, du tout :" no, he was 
 great and splendid and what you will, maispour aimahlc non, 
 du tout; and men and women vied with one another in 
 asserting the brusquerie of his manners. Becker said that in 
 his way of conferring a favour he always diminished its value, 
 and instead of givinrj one anything he thrcv) it at his head. 
 They seemed to think that he was fond of Marie Louise and 
 had treated her with great attention — Ijut he never opened 
 his lips about her in this latter period ; when General Becker 
 said something to him, as they were walking in the garden 
 of Malmaison the day before they set off, about the Austrian 
 court and its policy, Buonaparte gave him a little slap on the 
 lips with the back of his hand, and said laughingly, " tais toi,V 
 tais toi, mou ami, tu ne connais rien a ces gens la." And of 
 course the subject was never renewed, though Becker had a 
 great wish to have heard him speak of the Empress. 
 
 Whenever he talked of the battle of AVaterloo, he accused , 
 Ney of losing it by making an attack without orders, whichV 
 he said di^ided his forces and his attention. It was good to 
 hear Becker talk of the battle having been gained, and merely 
 lost afterwards by an accident. I asked him if he had ever 
 known a battle lost, but by an accident of the same sci't ; and 
 the Princess said that if the General had any way of 
 reducing war to a certainty and abolishing accidents and 
 chances, she would go to battle herself I think all the 
 Erench laughed very good-humouredly at the General, who, 
 however, did not seem inclined to admit tliat the French were 
 beaten, and was quite sure that they ought not to have been.
 
 70 THE CEOKER PAPERS. [Chap. III. 
 
 . Becker, however, was not personally an admirer of Buonaparte, 
 for lie accused him of great military ignorance in all his wars, 
 not knowing the true principles of mana3u\Ting, and carrying 
 everything by the mere waste of human life. " Diable," said 
 he, " when I joined his army and saw his mode of operating, 
 I no longer wondered that all the other armies were made 
 weak to strengthen his." 
 
 Yesterday we dined with the Duke of "WelHngton, and 
 found Mm in exceeding good spirits ; he was ready enough 
 to give details of his battle, but as Peel sat between me and 
 Mm, he had almost all the benefit of Ms Grace's conununi- 
 cativeness. He is to have Ms review on Monday ; we wait 
 for it, and afterwards shall set out. The Duke expects to 
 surprise the Sovereigns by showing them 65,000 men, as no 
 one here tliinks he has above 20,000. 
 
 Tills morning the three sovereigns, the Dukes of Berri and 
 "Wellington, with Blucher, Schwartzenburg, &c., passed part 
 of the Prussian army in review. Lord and Lady Castlereagh, 
 Mr. Planta, and I went in our barouche, but we found they 
 would not let the carriage go along the Boulevard, and as j:he 
 troops were to pass the Sovereigns in the Place Louis XV., I 
 took them to the Bureau de la INIarine, which is at the corner 
 of that place and the Ptue Pioyale, wMch leads to the Boule- 
 vard ; so that we had, through the politeness of M. de Jaucoui-t, 
 an excellent ^dew of what passed. I certainly never saw 
 so fine a imlitary sight; there were in the whole about 
 12,000 men. I counted them exactly and found there were 
 eleven regiments of infantry of the line and two of chasseurs, 
 each of 8 companies of 80 men; that made 8320 rank and 
 file. The cavalry were one regiment of superlj cuirassiers — 
 the finest thing I ever saw — a 'regiment of light dragoons, one 
 of hussars, and one of lancers, all very fine in their kinds, 
 each regiment was composed of 6 troops at 68 rank and file a 
 troop, in all 1632 men ; the artillery consisted of 21 6-pounder 
 brass guns, many of them marked N, wliich had l)een_ taken 
 from the French, and 8 12 -pounder guns and howitzers; 
 the artillerymen and theii' escort were 629 ; in the whole 
 10,581, rank and file— to which, if the officers, sergeants, and 
 drivers are added, there must have been above 12,000 men. 
 It was, altogether, much the finest sight of the kind I ever 
 saw, particularly when one considered the distinction of the 
 personages present, and the place in which they were 
 assembled. But whether it be (as I fancy it is) that the
 
 1814-1810.] PREVIEWS jy rAIilS. 71 
 
 A peoijle of I'iiris are not so prone to gather into crowds as we 
 are, or that they are sulky and would not come out, I cannot 
 tell, but there really was no concourse of spectators ; even 
 where the sovereigns stood, I Ijelieve I exceed when I say 
 there were 200 persons asseniLled to look on; though the 
 place would have easily contained 20,000. 
 
 Juli/ 22nd. — Went to Lady Castlereagh's, who had a supper; 
 Peel and Fitz. were lazy, and would not dress themselves to 
 come. I had rather not have gone, but as I had promised her 
 verbally, I thought it would be rude not to go. The greatest 
 folks there were the Duke, who wore seven stars on liis coat, 
 the Prince Eoyal of Bavaria, and the Prince of Saxe Coburg. 
 I thought it stupid enough, and came away in about an hour. 
 The only pleasant thing I saw or heard was the Prince of 
 Bavaria endeavouring to speak English; he is, it seems, a 
 great John Bull, and is highly flattered at being told that he 
 speaks Englisli like an EiKjlisliman, and of course his Pioyal 
 Highness finds people enough to tell Mm tliis ; but I doubt 
 whether he finds one creature who understands a syllable he 
 says. I stood by him last night for ten minutes, and I had 
 not the least suspicion whatsoever that he was not speaking 
 German. Sir AVatkyn Wynn is here, and the joke is that Sir 
 VVatkyn has taught the Prince English ; the fact is that poor 
 Sir Watkyn is almost as unintelligible as his Poyal Highness, 
 and, when they are conversing together, one is inclined to 
 admit that the flattery of the courtiers is not altocjdhcr ground- 
 less, and that the Prince talks English like a Welshman. 
 
 [Written at sea on the voyage liome.] 
 
 Wednesday, Jnhj 2Gth. — The weather was now [at Brussels] 
 exceedingly l^ad — cold, and more continued rain than I ever 
 saw, except at Cork when I used to go the summer eireuit ; so 
 that we saw little of Brussels or its environs. We went in 
 the first instance to call on the Duke and Duchess of Eich- 
 mond, who had heard of our coming and wrote to press Peel 
 to stay with them for some days ; but the necessity in which 
 I was of being in London on Sunday prevented the possibility 
 of this, as Peel would not leave me, though I pressed him to 
 do so ; but in fact it would have been inconvenient and un- 
 pleasant both to him and me to have separated. We sat the 
 whole morning at the Duke's till about 4 o'clock. 
 
 We dined oi course at the Duke's, when, besides ourselves,
 
 72 THE CEOKER PAPERS. [Chap. III. 
 
 the only strangers were a Colonel Stewart, who was come to 
 see a wounded brotlier, and Colonel D'Oyly, of the Guards, 
 himself wounded at Waterloo. Yet our party was not a small 
 one, for we had the Duke and Duchess and Ladies JNIary, 
 Sarah, Georgiana and Jane, and after dinner three young- 
 lords and three young ladies more w^ere admitted to the 
 dessert. We did not get home till one in the morning. 
 
 Thursday, July 2*lth. — ^AYe breakfasted at home. Though 
 the weather was still very Lad, we were obliged by our want 
 of time to go to AYaterloo ; so the Duke, the Duchess, and 
 Lady Mary called on us in their landau at 11 o'clock, and we 
 set out. The road goes straight from the town for 10 or 12 
 miles through the forest, wliich, in spite of the horrid weather, 
 we thought very fine. It is a paie the whole way, and well 
 for us it was, for with the rain which had been falling the last 
 ten days and (piantity of waggons and cannon which had 
 j)assed it, the tcrrcs on each side were now quite impassable ; 
 indeed, they were black and muddy and deep, like an Irish 
 bog, and the whole way along w\as strewed with soldiers' hats 
 and caps, broken arms, bones of horses, and other reliques of 
 an army. Waterloo is a little town al^out half a mile long, 
 prettily situated on the other side of the forest, but distant 
 from the scene of the action about a mile and a half, and 
 separated from it by a couple of pretty woods. Beyond these 
 woods is the little village of INIont St. Jean. Here the Duke 
 had sent his horses for us, and we mounted to ride over the 
 field while the ladies returned to Waterloo. As the Duke had 
 seen the whole action up to 3 o'clock on the 18th,* and had 
 been since twice over the ground and knew all the particulars, 
 we could not have had a better guide, and he conducted us 
 over the whole of the ground. Without such a guide we 
 should have seen but little ; for one might have passed along 
 the two roads that lead through the ground, nay, might have 
 ridden over it without finding out that anything very extraor- 
 dinary had passed there. When clear of the woods I have 
 mentioned, you see a great undulating plain, witliout a hedge 
 or tree, and nothing but two or three farm-houses visible for 
 miles. This plain or succession of Little hills is all under 
 tillage, and was covered at the day of the battle with high 
 corn and clover ; in many places the oats and clover had 
 
 * [It is scarcely necessary to remind the reader that it is the Duke of 
 Eichmond who is here referred to.]
 
 1814-181G.] THE FIELD OF WATEBLOO. 73^ 
 
 grown up again ; in some places the farmers had ah-eady 
 ploughed up the ground, but in otliers, where the action had 
 been hottest, the marks of trampling, &c., were still visiljle. 
 The whole of the extent when you came to ride over it was 
 strewed with the cartridges and waddings of the cannon ; 
 letters which had been thrown out of the pockets of the 
 killed and wounded, and the torn remains of hats, caps, and 
 helmets. You also could see the graves into which the dead 
 liad been thrown, sometimes singly, sometimes two or more 
 at a time, and in many places by fifties and hundreds. The 
 farm of Hougoumont, which was the right of the action, was 
 totally destroyed, the house and offices burnt and battered 
 ■with shot, the trees around it (for it had an orchard and a 
 little wood) cut to pieces ; its courts and ditches strewed with 
 caps and cartridges, and the fields around it broken up witli 
 graves. 
 
 On several parts of tlie field we saw people searching ibr 
 some remains of plunder, but they luid not got much, as 
 the whole had been already carefully gleaned over by the 
 peasants ; two boys liad two English Lifeguardsmen's swords. 
 All the peasants of Mt. St. Jean and AYaterloo have collected 
 great quantities of spoil — clothes, swords, helmets, cuirasses, 
 crosses of the Legion of Honour, &c., which they oiler to you for 
 sale. At first tiiese things were bought by the curious cheap 
 enough; now the purchasers are more numerous and the 
 commodity rarer, and therefore their prices are mucli 
 enhanced. The Duke has bought a dozen of cuirasses taken 
 from the bodies of the French, and Peel bought a very hand- 
 some one for two napoleons. I Ijought for you a little cross 
 of the Legion of Honour, which had been taken from a dead 
 French officer ; this cost me one napoleon. I also gave one 
 franc a-piece for half-a-dozen of the broken eagles which the 
 French soldiers wore on the fronts of their caps. The Duchess 
 made me a present of the orderly Ijook of one of the French 
 regiments, which she had l)0ught, and these, with the things 
 I picked up myself on the field, are all my spoils. 
 
 The very morning after the battle the peasants were ordered 
 to bury the dead, and when the Duke of Eichmond rode over 
 the field on Wednesday morning all the bodies had been 
 already stripped and plundered. This part of the ceremony 
 was performed by the fair sex. Tlie most valuable part of 
 the soldier's dress to the plunderers were the shoes and 
 stockings, which of course they made great haste to lay hold.
 
 74 THE CBOKER PAPERS. [Chap. III. 
 
 •of, except only tlie stockings of the Higlilauders, ^Yllicll could 
 be of no use to them, and therefore one saw their bodies, in 
 other respects naked, lying with their plaid stockings on ; 
 but this is enough on this subject. We rode back as fast as 
 we could to Waterloo, lia\ing got wet to the skin ; in the 
 meanwhile, when the Duchess and Lady ]\Iary had laid out 
 a lunch of sandwiches and wine, which they had brought 
 with them, to wliicli the woman of the inn added an 
 omelette and some of the Flemish pancakes called gaufres, 
 while Peel and the ladies were cheapening spoils from the 
 villagers, I went to the stove and dried myself It was in 
 this little inn that the Duke of Wellington had his quarters. 
 On the morning of the battle the poor landlady was weeping 
 and bewailing her danger, but the Duke, she said, encouraged 
 her, and said, slapping her on the shoulders, " C'cst moi qui 
 re]j07id de tout, personue ne souffrira aujourd'hui des Fran^ais 
 excepte les soldats." In this house the I'rince of Orange 
 had his wound dressed. 
 
 Opposite to the inn door is a curious lictle chapel, in which 
 one monument is already erected to an officer wlio fell in the 
 action, a Capt. Fitzgerald, of the Lifeguards, I am told ; his 
 poor wife brought out a leaden cof&n to remove the body, 
 but it would not go into it, and she was obliged to bury him 
 at Waterloo. Some bodies which had been buried have been 
 taken up and sent to England. One officer, the Duchess told 
 me, of the name of Lindsay, was so disinterred, and, though 
 he had been a fortnight in the earth, when they took him up 
 to remove liim he was not in the slightest degree changed ; 
 he had been buried in his clothes, and was immediately 
 recognised by Ids friends. This seems to me very surprising. 
 Some very extraordinary cases of wounds occurred in the 
 action, which I heard of at Brussels. One officer received 
 a severe wound in the shoulder as, it was thought, from 
 \ a ragged ball, but when the substance came to be extracted 
 it turned out to be a tooth ; some poor devil's head had been, 
 it is supposed, knocked to pieces by a cannon ball, and his 
 tooth had been driven into this officer's arm. Another officer 
 had his thigh dreadfully lacerated, and the substance was 
 lodged so deep that the extraction was exceedingly difficult ; 
 when it was taken out it was found to be a piece of five 
 francs, and two pieces of one franc each ; these two must 
 have been shot out of some other person's pocket, as he 
 declared he had not had them in his o'wn. A soldier, Somer-
 
 1814-181G.] BETURN FROM FRANCE. 75 
 
 ville's • surgeon told liini, had a ball tlirougli tlie forehead 
 which came out behind, yet is alive and doing well. I have 
 heard twenty other such stories, but these are quite enough 
 to exercise your faith. 
 
 We dined again with the Duke of Eichniond, and as we 
 could not get away before, and were to be off at dawn of day, 
 I endeavoured to persuade Peel not to go to bed for two or 
 three hours, but to hasten on to Ostend as the wind was fair, 
 and to get there in time to have our carriage emijarked ; but 
 he would not, whicli, as afterwards turned out, was very 
 unlucky. He was very stout about travelling all night and 
 every night when we left Paris, and seemed oidy to fear my 
 laziness or reluctance, and made several speeches in its praise ; 
 but the second night, I fancy, did not please him as well as 
 the first, for he said no more on this subject, and seemed a 
 good deal annoyed ; and this night, though we were to be in 
 bed but three hours, he was decidedly unwilling to come on. 
 
 We are now lying at sea with our sails flapping, and shall 
 think ourselves well off to be at Eamsgate or Deal with the 
 next afternoon's tide. 
 
 On Peel's return to Ireland after this trip, he was two 
 nights and a day crossing from Holyhead to Dublin — a 
 journey which now occupies on the average about four hours. 
 
 Mr. Fed to Mr. Crolcr. 
 
 DuLlin Castle, August 8tli, 1815. 
 
 My dear Ceokee, 
 
 Let me know what you paid the man at Dover for me, for 
 I forget the amount of the charge. Pray have the goodness 
 to send me, if you can, a copy of your Waterloo plan, for 
 I have lost mine. I find here plans of the battle from 
 officers who were in the engagement, who have no more 
 notion of it than they have of craniology. 
 
 I had a passage of thirty-three hours from Holyhead — two 
 nights and a day. Wretched beyond description — a strong 
 N.W. by W., if such a wind blows. I mean westerly, with 
 just enough inclination to the north to make it a completely 
 foul wind. The packet was full of passengers. The men 
 w^ere all sick, and the women and children thought they 
 were going to the bottom, and filled up the intervals of
 
 76 THE CEOKER PAPERS. [Chap. IIL 
 
 sickness with a chorus of lamentation, and cries of " Steward^ 
 are we sinking ? " which wouhl have been ludicrous enough 
 for half an hour, but, like other good things, wearied by 
 constant repetition. 
 
 I always thought Bonaparte must have mistaken La Haye 
 Sainte for Haute St. Jean ; but after all, I think Lord 
 "Wellington's is the best account of the battle. 
 
 Yours most affectionately, 
 
 E. Peel. 
 
 The general political events of 1815 are not touched upon 
 in any of the journals or papers which Mr. Croker left 
 behind him. The agitation which sprung up respecting the 
 supply of corn, the adoption by the House of Commons of 
 a Bill prohibiting the importation of Avheat when the average 
 price was under eighty shillings a quarter, the riots which 
 took place in London, the discussions on the Bank liestric- 
 tion Act — on none of these subjects is there a single letter 
 or memorandum. It must be assumed that Mr. Croker had 
 not yet begun to write with such fulness on political affairs- 
 to his friends as he did in later years. The only documents 
 of any interest, apart from the diaries which were sent 
 to Mrs. Croker from Paris, relate to the quarrel which 
 took place between Peel and O'ConncU. In this curious 
 affair, Mr. Croker was consulted by Peel, although he seems 
 to have had no part in making the arrangements for the 
 hostile meeting. It was sometliing which was said by 
 Mr. Peel in Parliament that produced the misunderstanding ;. 
 and according to a memorandum draw^n up by Mr. Justice 
 Keogh, Peel, after uttering the objectionable words, sent Sir 
 Charles Saxton to O'Connell, not exactly to deliver a message,, 
 but practically to express his readiness to receive one. A 
 correspondence ensued, and the result of it was, as described 
 by Mr. Justice Keogh, that " Mr. Peel sent a message to 
 O'Connell through his friend Colonel Browne," while another
 
 1814-1810.] PEEL AND O'CONNELL. 11 
 
 duel was arranged between the intermediaries who had at 
 first been employed, on account of a misunderstanding which 
 had arisen between them. It was finally arranged that all the 
 parties should meet at Ostend, and ]\Ir. Peel and Sir Charles 
 Saxton proceeded there, having taken every precaution to 
 avoid the vigilance of the police, who had got scent of the 
 intended affray. 
 
 Mr. Crolrr to Mr. IV. Gregory. 
 
 September 12th, 1815. 
 
 As Peel slept at Maidstone last night, I took the oppor- 
 tunity of running down with Browne to see him. Indeed, 
 I had intended to go on with him; but we gave up that 
 j)lan, for reasons that appear good even to me, anxious as 
 I was to accompany him. He was in the finest spirits, and 
 :as unaffectedly gay and at his ease as he was when we were 
 going to Dover two months ago on our tour to Paris. We 
 parted this morning at Maidstone. He will embark pro- 
 bably this evening's tide, and will sleep at Calais to-night, 
 and to-morrow night at Ostend. 
 
 ]\Ir. Peel and Sir Charles Saxton reached Ostend without 
 interference, but O'Connell and his second, Mr. Lidwill, 
 were arrested in London, and bound over by Lord EUen- 
 l)orough to keej) the peace, and not to leave the country 
 ibefore the first day of the ensuing term. The belligerents 
 returned to Ireland pretty much as they went, and ]\Ir. 
 O'Connell seems to have proceeded no farther in the affair ; 
 but in November Mr. Lidwill was still not satisfied, and 
 he insisted on having a meeting with Sir Charles Saxton. 
 This meeting took place, and Lidwill, after receiving his 
 adversary's fire, discharged his own pistol in the air, declar- 
 ing that he felt bound thus to act in consequence of the 
 stringency of the undertaking entered into by him before 
 Lord Ellenborough. Meanwhile, Peel had followed Sir 
 Oharles Saxton to the Continent, with the intention of
 
 78 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. III. 
 
 challenging Liclwill for certain ^^^ords wliicli lie (Peel) con- 
 strued as insulting ; but when he heard that Lidwill would 
 only fire in the air, he resolved not to offer the challenge. 
 O'Connell, who had already " killed his man," as the saying 
 ran, declared that he would never again fight a duel, and 
 here the whole affair — which caused a considerable stir at 
 the time— came to an end. Peel's own comments on the 
 incident in November may perhaps be worth preserving :— 
 
 3fr. Peel to Mr. CroJccr. 
 
 Dublin Castle, Nov. 20tli, 1815. 
 
 My dear Crokee, 
 I know / ccm trust you, and therefore I have no hesitation 
 in writing to you. A person calling himself Major Lidwill 
 sent in his name the day before yesterday to Saxton, and 
 told him Lidvnll was then at Calais. Saxton said, " I shall 
 be there too very soon." The Major replied, "If you are 
 there before «s, leave a note at the Post-office." This was 
 all that passed, and he did not explain tlie contradiction. 
 Saxton sails to-night. I have sent by him a special retainer 
 to Lidwill, desiring him to remain on the Continent. I shall 
 soon follow Saxton— probably before you can answer this — 
 however, try. Let me know &// special express whether you 
 have heard anytliing about Lid^vill — whether he has appeared 
 in the Court of King's Benchj &c., &c. I presume he has 
 not, and that he means to go at all risks; but he is such 
 a fellow that I should wish to be quite certain that he is 
 gone before I start to follow him. There would be some- 
 thing absurd in again lindhig him a detenu. I place 
 implicit confidence in you. No one here but Browne, 
 Saxton, and myself know of Lidwill's communication. 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 P. P. 
 
 My dear Croker, 
 
 Here I am, notwithstanding your advice, which I received 
 
 between Cerneoge and Corwen. I am just going to embark, 
 
 and to escape all apprehensions of arrest, wliich (as this will 
 
 be the fifth night which I have passed without changing my
 
 1814-1816.] THE INCOME-TAX. 79 
 
 clothes) I think I deserve. We had a passage of forty hours 
 from Holyhead, but, notwithstanding, I only left Dublin last 
 Friday night. 1 think I could prove to you I have acted for 
 the best. 
 
 Yours most affectionately. 
 
 My dear Croker, 
 
 EoBEET Peel. 
 
 Do not let the Courier insert my name for the next V 
 fortnight. My father takes it in. Every letter from Dublin 
 to him will be stopped. I hope -he will learn nothing of my 
 departure from Dublin. 
 
 E. P. 
 
 The year 1816 opened with a general anxiety to reduce the 
 burdens wliich had so long pressed heavily upon the peoi^le. 
 At one period (in 180G) the income-tax had been raised to 
 two shillings in the pound, and the people had borne it 
 without complaining; but when the war was over, they 
 naturally considered that they had a just claim to be relieved. 
 Mr. Vansittart proposed to reduce the tax by one-half, but 
 the House was in no mood to submit to a compromise, 
 and it rejected the proposition by 238 to 201 votes. The 
 Opposition, however, determined to beat the Government in 
 a still more effectual manner, and it was thought that the 
 best opportunity would be afforded by throwing out tlie 
 Navy Estimates. When the attempt was made, Mr. Tierney 
 led the attack, and ]\Ir. Croker repulsed it in a manner so 
 brilliant that he added greatly to his reputation as a de- 
 bater, and was offered a Privy Councillor's office, " wliich I V 
 declined," he wrote afterwards, "as I did similar proposi- 
 tions, for I had early made up my mind to remain Secretary 
 of the Admiralty." In 1857, Lord Hatherton (formerly 
 Mr. Littleton, Secretary for Ireland under Lord Grey's 
 Government), happened to meet ]\Ir. Croker, and recalled to 
 his mind the old encounter with Tierney. This led to a
 
 :80 THE CBOKEB PAPERS. [Chap. III. 
 
 correspondence wliicli throws sufficient light on the some- 
 what remarkable circumstances connected with the mis- 
 directed onslaught of the leader of the Opposition. 
 
 Lord Hathcrton to Mr. Crolccr. 
 
 Hastings, July 26th, 1857. 
 
 My dear Croker, 
 
 I regret that my detention at this place still prevents my 
 sending you a copy of the memorandum you asked for. It 
 shall not be delayed a day after my return home. 
 
 There is no reason, however, why I should longer delay 
 to give you my recollection of the very brilliant scene 
 between you and Tierney, to which I adverted when I had 
 last the pleasure of seeing you. 
 
 It must have occurred in the year 181G ; as the occasion 
 ■of it was the presentation by the Government of larger ^oxj 
 Estimates in that year, the first year of the peace, than had 
 Ijeen voted in the preceding year, the last year of the war. 
 
 Tierney, on the motion for the Speaker leaving the Chair 
 to go into the Committee of Supply, made a very formidable 
 attack on the Government for this demand. 
 
 Warrender followed in reply ; but you rose immediately 
 afterwards, and made in eflect the defence of the Govern- 
 ment. But the affair I spoke of must, I think, have occurred 
 subsequently in the Committee of the whole House. For I 
 well remember that you and Tierney spoke frequently in 
 rapid succession to each other ; he enforcing and varying his 
 •attacks, and you instantly and successfully repelling them. 
 The battle was between yourselves only, and continued for a 
 considerable time ; parties in the House cheering their com- 
 batants in a state of great excitement. The passage of arms 
 was so rapid, that I can only describe it in general terms ; 
 and can give no account of it beyond this, that you 
 proved that in every instance the first year of peace had 
 Tjeen more expensive in the Naval Department than the last 
 year of war. But I retain at the distance of more than 
 forty years the most vivid recollection of the scene, the most 
 brilliant of its kind I remember in the House of Commons 
 during the twenty-three years I was a member of it. 
 
 I heartily concurred in the policy of the Government with 
 respect to its proposed plan of armaments at that time \ and
 
 1814-1816.] RECOLLECTIONS OF 181G. 81 
 
 felt much interest in its success. I can recall to mind no 
 instance of a similar attack on a department so triumphantly 
 repelled. 
 
 On the restoration of peace, after the war with Eussia 
 last year, I thought it might be useful to call the attention 
 of Sir Charles Wood to those discussions. But to my 
 surprise I could find no record of them. The debate on 
 Tierney's motion is given. But no notice is taken of those 
 discussions in Committee. Although it was not customary 
 in those days to give debates in Committee at any length, 
 I expected to have found some notice of so exciting a scene. 
 
 I remain, my dear Croker, 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 Hatheeton. 
 
 Mr. CroJ^er to Lord Hathcrton. Extracts. 
 
 February 1st, 1857.* 
 
 In the beginning of 1816 the ministerial defeat on the 
 Property Tax and the public impatience for the reduction 
 of the war establishments, together with some accidental 
 defeats on minor points connected with the army, and 
 especially the Admiralty, contributed to suggest to the Oppo- 
 sition a short cut to office by a coup de main against the 
 navy estimates. The moving these estimates was generally 
 considered in the first instance as a matter of form, and their 
 reference to the Committee of supply a matter of course. 
 All the struggle was to be in the Committee. 
 
 It was the official etiquette that the senior lay Lord should 
 make the motion, and not the Secretary, who might have 
 been naturally expected to be better acquainted witli the 
 details. This practice arose from two causes — first, the 
 official rank of the Lord over the Secretary; the Lord 
 speaking in his own name and that of his colleagues, while 
 the Secretary was only an individual member of the House ; 
 and secondly, because (till our own day) the Secretary was w' 
 not looked upon as a political officer, did not change with ' 
 ministries, and took no part in political debate. This 
 etiquette fell in with the Opposition scheme. 
 
 * [This letter was written six months before Mr. Croker's death.] 
 VOL. I, G
 
 82 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. III. 
 
 The senior lay Lord happened to be Warrender, a much 
 cleverer fellow than he was generally thought, but who 
 knew nothing at all of the Navy Estimates ; the object was, 
 therefore, to demolish Warrender at once, to negative going 
 into Committee where the sea Lords and I would have been 
 able to explain or justify details, and thus by so flagrant an 
 affront overthrow the ministry at a blow. For this purpose 
 Tierney, then the real leader of the Opposition, with the 
 additional authority v>^hich his being an ex-Treasurer of the 
 Navy gave him, was liimself to lead the onset. The Govern- 
 ment were wholly unapprized of the scheme, and it happened 
 (from a curious circumstance, but too complicated to repeat) 
 that I did not expect the debate that night, and had not 
 even brought down the office red box containing my detailed 
 notes on the estimates which I hardly expected to want that 
 night, or at least not so early in the evening ! The box was 
 left on my desk at the Admiralty, whence if necessary, it 
 might be had. 
 
 We knew nothing of the intentions of the Opposition, but 
 I remember we were somewhat surprised at the numbers 
 and the eagerness they exhibited, and the tone in which 
 Tierney in some preliminary conversation about the loan 
 had menaced us with an utter defeat " in half an hour ;" and 
 certainly, if he had not based his hopes on a most extra- 
 ordinary blunder, he would have succeeded. In a most able 
 and forcible speech he examined and contrasted the late war 
 and present peace estimates, and showed by the indisputable 
 figures that the estimates, so far from being prepared with 
 any pretence to economy, were, every where and in all 
 branches, enormously increased. " What could be done with 
 such derisive, such insulting documents, than throw them 
 back in the face of the Government ? " You may recollect 
 the enthusiasm of the Opposition as this speech proceeded, 
 and the uneasiness at our side. But it was no surprise to 
 me. / was prepared for it, and was waiting quietly on a 
 back bench for Warrender's reply, which I knew might be 
 complete. In the meanwhile Castlereagh grew alarmed, and 
 beckoned me down to sit by him, and he asked me " what 
 answer could be made to all that." " Oh," said I, " Warrender 
 has a full answer that will blow it all away in five minutes." 
 " I," exclaimed Warrender, " I know nothing about it." 
 " What," said I, " have you not the memorandum I gave 
 Lord Melville and you yesterday, or at least notes of it ? "
 
 1814-1816.] THE RED BOX. 83 
 
 "No," said "Warrender, "Lord Melville said they -were old 
 stories, and had nothing to do with these times." " Good 
 Lord ! " I said, " and where is the memorandum ? " "I put 
 it back," said he, " in the bundle you gave us." 
 
 "But you can state the facts," said Castlereagh. " It will 
 be of no effect," I replied. The facts are only a series of 
 figures, which nothing but the identical figures can sub- 
 stantiate. "But where," said C, " is the paper?" "At the 
 Admiralty in a red box." 
 
 Billy Holmes,* very much alarmed at the aspect of the 
 House, volunteered to dash away for the recovery of the red 
 box, and brought it me in a wonderfully short space of time, 
 and there I found my memorandum, which was an abstract 
 of the last v:ar and first 'peace estimates ever since the treaty 
 of Eys^vick, in all of which the peace estimate for establish- 
 ments exceeded the war estimate, and proved that naturd 
 rerum it must of necessity do so. The estimates are of two 
 classes ; first, for active service ; second, for the establish- 
 ments; the active service called the "vote of seamen'' was for 
 ship's \dctuals, ammunition, w^ear and tear, and wages, &c., 
 of 145,000 men : say 100 sail of the line. AVhen peace came, 
 80 of the 100 sail were paid off, and reduced the expense of 
 that estimate which fell to nothing, while they and their 
 various expenses were transferred over to the establishment 
 estimate, commonly called " the Xavy Estimate ;" which, of 
 course, was proportionally increased in all its branches. 
 The simple reading of this memorandum, and the evidence 
 of the figures in evert/ case from the treaty of Eyswick, 
 changed the face of the House in a moment. Our opponents 
 were ashamed of Tierney, and Tierney was ashamed of liimself 
 to be taken in such a mare's nest ; and the mortification was 
 the greater, for he had been a party to the same process as 
 Treasurer of the Navy in 1803. The thing was so obvious 
 that, though I had taken pains (for I never spared pains) to 
 work it out, and had given it to Melville and Warrender as 
 general information, I really did not expect that any one, 
 least of all an old fox like Tierney, would have ever given me 
 an opportunity of using it, but my diligence was rewarded 
 by good luck ; and I certainly never saw in Parliament so 
 sudden and so complete a turning of the tide of victory. 
 
 * [Mr. W. Holmes, commonly knowTi as "Black Billy," was then 
 acting as the Treasury Whip.] 
 
 G 2
 
 84 TEE CEOKEB PAPERS. [Chap. III. 
 
 It was celebrated at the time in verse and prose. This is 
 the history, and a curious secret history it is, of the first of 
 the two occasions mentioned in your letter, and which 
 fortunately the little circumstances of the red box and 
 despised memorandum fixed more strongly in my mind than 
 the subsequent affair. 
 
 This, the first really important debate on which the fate 
 of parties was staked, took place on the 25 th of March, 
 1816 ; but it had ended so disgracefully for the Opposition, 
 that, though there was no longer a hope of turning us out 
 on the Navy Estimates, their amour propre induced them to 
 try to make a rally for their own characters, and Tierney, 
 Brougham, and Baring, all of them in after life personal 
 friends of mine, and the two latter intimate and affectionate 
 ones, got up that second scene which as relates to Tierney 
 and me you have so graphically described. But on this 
 occasion, though I was assailed on all sides and by such 
 formidable antagonists, I was not under the difficulty in 
 which I was the first night of coming in as a subordinate 
 and auxiliary. I had not now to send Billy Holmes for my 
 " red box." I had all my papers in my hands and in my 
 head, and I do believe that single-handed (as Castlereagh 
 good naturedly said) I completed that night the success which 
 I had begun on the 25th. 
 
 It was in consequence of these debates that Castlereagh 
 soon after sent for me and offered me from Lord Liverpool, 
 a Privy Councillor's office, which, as I have told you, I then, 
 and twice afterwards, declined. If I had accepted, where 
 should I have ultimately been ? Should I have been sub- 
 merged in the Lethe of time even more completely than I 
 am — like Calcraft, Courtenay, and many others ; or should 
 I have been tottering down the day after to-morrow to the 
 House of Lords, with Glenelg, and Goodrich, and Monteagle, 
 and Brougham and yourself, and twenty others ? It is not 
 worth a conjecture ; I am sure I should never have been 
 happier, nor I hope more respectable. I filled an important 
 office in glorious tunes, and with illustrious colleagues and 
 friends, of whom I am more proud than I ever could be of 
 any successes of my own. 
 
 Ever, my dear Hatherton, 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 J. W. Croker.
 
 1814-1816.] THE ELGIN MARBLES. 85 
 
 P.S. — I have Ijeen very ill while writing this letter, which 
 must account for blots, and perhaps blunders, but with 
 reference to the allusion to contemporaries, friends and foes, 
 made peers, let me add a curious circumstance. I have been 
 once to see the new House of Lords, and wliile I was there, 
 Brougham, I think, first, and then Monteagle spied me out, 
 and came down to the Bar to shake hands with me (it was 
 since the beginning of my illness), and indeed I tliink half 
 the House, or more, did me the same civility, and this called 
 my attention to a fact that I think not unimportant to con- 
 stitutional history. There were, I think, about thirty peers 
 present; and we observed that there was not one, not a 
 single one, with whom I had not sat in the House of 
 Commons, including the Duke of Wellington and the 
 Chancellor. It shows how completely the House of Commons 
 has been the nursery to the House of Lords. 
 
 Mr. Croker gained another success in Parliament during 
 this year by inducing the Legislature to purchase the Elgin 
 marbles, now in the British Museum. His exertions called 
 forth a warm acknowledgment from Lord Elgin. " I 
 perceive," wrote Lord Elgin, " in this hasty sketch [re- 
 ferring to a newspaper report of Mr. Croker's speech] not 
 only the well-informed and triumphant supporter of my 
 cause, but the animated and, I may say, friendly vindication 
 of my conduct. It has ever been a source of great astonish- 
 ment with me, that without its having earlier been at all an 
 object of attention with you, you should, with such perfect ease, 
 have made yourself master of the whole question, as much, I 
 may venture to say, as it can be understood ; and that you 
 should at once have seized, with precision, details which one 
 should imagine nothing short of personal inspection or pro- 
 fessional study could have brought to particular notice." 
 Everybody now acknowledges the almost priceless value of 
 these relics of the Acropolis, but in 1816 it was very difficult 
 to induce the House or the public to regard them as worth 
 the relatively small sum which was paid for them, and
 
 86 THE CROEER PAPERS. [Chap. III. 
 
 which, it was acknowledged, did not suffice to cover the 
 outlay actually incurred by Lord Elgin. Lord Byron and 
 others attacked Lord Elgin bitterly for despoiling the 
 Acropolis, but since then it has been almost universally 
 admitted that the marbles of Phidias were only saved from 
 destruction by a safe home having been provided for them in 
 England. 
 
 Mr. Canning to Mr. Croher. 
 
 Lisbon, January 24tli, 1816. 
 
 My deae Sik, 
 
 If Blackford communicated to you, as I desired, the 
 contents of a letter which I wrote to him, in October I think, 
 (but which by the way he has never acknowledged), you will 
 have been prepared for my application for a ship of war, and 
 for my request (I hope not an unreasonable one) that it 
 might be allowed to touch with me at Bordeaux. 
 
 I have had the satisfaction to hear from Lord Liverpool 
 that I may expect a frigate here in March, and that Lord 
 Melville has been so good as to promise that the instruction 
 which I requested shall be given to the captain. 
 
 I trust to your kindness that you will have had in view 
 for me as good a captain as Briggs (better there cannot be) ; 
 and if a cleaner ship than the Leviathan, I know no other 
 improvement that I could wish. 
 
 Is it necessary that the Admiralty should have a direction 
 from the Secretary of State for this employment of a frigate ? 
 In the uncertainty, I have thought it safest to WTite an 
 official letter (or despatch rasee) to Lord Castlereagh, which 
 I take the liberty of inclosing to you, to be forwarded if you 
 think it necessary ; if not, to be put into the fire. 
 
 Is it necessary that I should trouble you with a list of 
 myself and my establishment ? or will it be sufficient gene- 
 rally to state that to Bordeaux the cargo will consist of 
 ourselves, four children, a governess, three females, and five 
 or six male servants ; and from Bordeaux, of myself, and three 
 or four servants ? Add to this two or three horses and two 
 carriages, if there be room for them ; and baggage somewhat 
 out of proportion to our reduced numbers ; which, however, 
 neither eats nor drinks.
 
 1814-181G.] CANNING AT LISBON. 87 
 
 So much for business. Now will you allow me to ask you 
 whether it would be possible to f,^et soraethin*,' of pleasure 
 out of this frigate consistently with the puljlic service? 
 Have you any instructions to send to Gibraltar ? I have a 
 great desire to see that place ; and indeed it is a shame to 
 leave this part of the world without having made an 
 attempt to do so. Ten days, or at most a fortnight, would 
 be sufficient to carry me there from the Tagus and bring me 
 back. And if it should so happen that this same frigate by 
 being sent out a fortnight earlier might be employed to 
 carry your Mediterranean despatches so far, I should be 
 strongly tempted to avail myseK of the opportunity, and to 
 employ the interval while my packages are making up in a 
 visit to General Don's * dominions. C. Ellis (who is here 
 with his boys) would go with me. I am aware that no 
 orders can be given to a captain to take me to Gibraltar, 
 where I have no business, and which certainly is not on my 
 way home. If the plan be feasible at all, it must be through 
 your management and good nature. If you should find it 
 so, you will perhaps take the trouble to apprize me before- 
 hand of the time at which I might look for the arrival of 
 the frigate on its way to Gibraltar, in order that I may be 
 prepared" not to detain it. 
 
 I should not wish to embark my family for Bordeaux 
 before the very end of March. So I may expect to reach 
 England by the end of the Easter holidays. 
 
 Believe me, my dear Sir, 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 Geokge Canning. 
 
 The foregoing letter will not tend to remove from Canning's 
 memory the reproach of having treated his mission to Lisbon 
 as a means of carrying out his own wishes and plans, without 
 much regard for the public service. Sir H. L. Bulwer — 
 certainly no unfriendly critic — admits that the appointment 
 of Mr. Canning to Lisbon was " considered a job, for an able 
 minister (Mr. Sydenham), on a moderate salary, was recalled, 
 in order to give the eminent orator, whose support the 
 * [Governor of Gibraltar.]
 
 88 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. IIL 
 
 Government wished to obtain, the appointment of ambas- 
 sador on a much larger salary." And he adds that though 
 Mr. Canning rebutted the specific charges which were brought 
 against him, " it was nevertheless clear that it was because 
 he was going to Lisbon for the health of his son, and that it 
 was more agreeable to him to go in an official position than 
 as a simple individual, that he had been employed, and his 
 predecessor removed." * In the above letter, it will be seen 
 that a pleasure trip to Gibraltar was proposed as a part of 
 the homeward journey, although Mr. Canning admitted that 
 he had " no business " there, and that it was not on his way 
 home. What answer to this letter was returned by Mr. 
 Croker we have no means of judging. 
 
 Mr. Croher to Mr. Peel. 
 
 August 8tli, 1816. 
 
 George Cockburn is come backf in good health and spirits ; 
 "^he gives us no hopes of Buonaparte's dying. He. eats, he 
 says, enormously, but he drinks little, takes regular exercise, 
 and is in all respects so very careful of his carcass that he 
 may live twenty years. Cockburn and he parted bad friends 
 but I believe he wishes he had Cockburn back again, for Sir 
 Hudson Lowe is as strict as Cockburn, without any of his 
 liveliness, and little of his activity and talents. I think 
 Buonaparte must feel himself like Don Juan tete-a-tete avee 
 la statue du Commandeitr. Cockburn says positively that 
 he cannot escape if common vigilance is used, but he (Buona- 
 parte) has had some propositions (mad and wild to be sure) 
 from America on this subject. I ought not to say has had, 
 for they were intercepted. You may be sure that his libera- 
 tion will be attempted from America. His friends there 
 have money, talents, audacity, and despair. What would 
 you have more? I wish I could have sent you a turtle 
 Cockburn brought me from Ascension. He weighed 300 lbs., 
 but he was in too infirm a state of health to undertake a 
 journey to Ireland. 
 
 * ' Historical Characters,' vol. ii. pp. 284-5. 
 
 t [From St. Helena, whither he had escorted Buonaparte.]
 
 1814-1816.] PEEL ON IRISH AFFAIRS. 89 
 
 Some additional information about Napoleon was trans- 
 mitted later in the year by Mr. Croker to the Pere Elysee, who 
 was attached to the Royal Household of France. " L'homme 
 de Ste. Helene," wrote Mr. Croker, " se porte assez bien— je 
 dois plutot dire trop bien. Mais il est de tres mauvaise 
 humeur, et quand il ne s'emporte pas il s'ennuye." 
 
 The following letters show the impression which was made 
 upon the mind of the late Sir Eobert Peel by his official 
 residence in Ireland, and they also show how little Ireland 
 has altered for the better during the last sixty or seventy 
 years. 
 
 3fr. Peel to Mr. Croker. 
 
 [Without date.] 
 
 My Deae Choker, - 
 
 The very moment I received your letter respecting the 
 Irish article * I sat down and wrote you a very long letter — 
 about ten sheets of paper. Unfortunately it was very dark 
 when I wrote the letter, and as it was more than I could do 
 to read it the next day, I thought you would not have much 
 chance of benefiting by it. I took it, therefore, to the Park, 
 with the pious intention of copying it, and in a legible form, 
 but I never had courage to open the box which contains it — 
 and there it remains. I remember that I expressed great 
 delight at your intention, complete acquiescence in your 
 opinion that Papal superstition is the cause of one-half the 
 evils of this country, and serious doubts whether the half 
 would be alleviated by Catholic Emancipation. 
 
 I now send you a collection of choice documents consisting 
 first of Cox's Magazine. Cox is of no religion, but would call 
 himself a Protestant if he were compelled to profess any. 
 His object in his magazine was to ferment a bitter hatred 
 against England. His principal assistants in writing were 
 Pt. C. priests. Many parts are only suited for and only 
 intelligible to the lower orders. They relate to the characters 
 of constables, police magistrates, and persons flogging or 
 flogged in the rebellion. The work was distributed occasion- 
 ally gratis, and generally sold at a price which could not 
 
 * On the Irish Grand Jury Laws, Quarterly Review, April 1815.
 
 90 TEE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. HI. 
 
 defray the expense of printing. It was greatly admired by 
 the common people. Keogh, who was hanged the other day 
 for heading the attack on the barrack at Ballagh, had a box 
 half full of Cox's Magazines, which were found on searching 
 his room after his apprehension. It was quite impossible to 
 subdue Cox by any power which the law gave us. The two 
 last volumes — the worst of the set — were written when he 
 was in Newgate for publishing a seditious libel ; he rather 
 preferred a residence in Newgate to any other. He remained 
 in prison a year and a half after the term of liis confinement 
 rather than pay a fine of 300^., which I think such a popular 
 character might easily have raised. 
 
 The little volume called ' A Sketch of Irish History,' is a 
 more infamous work than Cox's Magazine. I have the volumes 
 from which it contains some excerpta. They contain a 
 regular history of Ireland, and on the first page are these 
 words, printed at the bottom, " Intended chiefly for the 
 Young Ladies educated at the -Ursuline Convents. By a 
 member of the Ursuline Community at Ash." 
 
 This work is written with great care — most mischievous 
 and inflammatory — and yet it is thought to be impossible to 
 convict the printer for libel. 
 
 I send also the Dublin CJironick. You know its history. 
 It was established by O'Connell when he and his colleagues 
 had brought the editors of all other papers into Newgate for 
 publishing speeches which they composed and corrected, and 
 afterwards disavowed. 
 
 Perhaps the most noteworthy and extraordinary document 
 of all is the letter which I send you. It was written by a 
 priest in Longford to one of his flock, whom he suspected of 
 giving information. He admitted the writing of it to Major 
 Wiles, a police magistrate, but he has not been convicted yet, 
 and therefore names must not be used. Pray read it, it is 
 very curious — an admirable specimen of the purposes for 
 which the priests of Ireland exert their spiritual influence. 
 If I collect anything more I will send it to you, but I will 
 not inflict my letter upon you. 
 
 Yours most affectionately, 
 E. P.
 
 1814-1816.] MURDEBS IN IRELAND. 91 
 
 . Mr. Peel to Mr. Croher. 
 
 Dublin Castle, Sept. 23rd, 1816. 
 
 My Dear Croker, 
 
 You must give a specimen — one specimen — of the humanity 
 of the poor, suffering, oppressed natives of this country, who 
 are trained up by their priests in the paths of religion and 
 virtue, and are only driven to the commission of outrage by 
 the tyranny of their landlords, or the insulting triumphs of 
 Orangemen. I believe I can furnish you with a more com- 
 plete specimen — of very recent occurrence — than you could 
 discover in any age, however remote. The murderers of 
 Baker were angels in comparison with the perpetrators of a 
 murder in the county of Limerick.* Inclosed is the evidence 
 on which four persons were convicted and hanged, and on 
 nearly the same evidence have five other wretches suffered 
 capitally. It is a melancholy story, and a most singular fact 
 in the annals of murder, that chiefly on the evidence of the 
 little girl, who is, I believe, 11 and not 14 years of age, 
 have nine men been convicted and hanged — five within 
 tlie last week. Four are now in custody, and have offered 
 to plead guilty on condition that they may be transported 
 for life. I know not how many more were present at the 
 murder than the 13 above accounted for. What must be 
 the state of morals in a country where thirteen men, after 
 having killed the husband, and when all apprehension of 
 danger w^as at an end, could kill a woman with an infant in 
 her arms, in the manner in which this unfortunate woman 
 was killed, and where the orphan child of that woman could 
 be told by " all the people in the neighbourhood " to whom 
 she applied for protection, that " she raight go to the devil ? " 
 
 All comment would but weaken the unparalleled atrocity 
 of this transaction. The Dillons were Catholics. 
 
 Yours most truly, 
 
 E. Peel. 
 
 The marriage of the Princess Charlotte — an event regarded 
 with so much interest by the nation — is, strangely enough, 
 
 * [A man and his wife were butchered on their own hearth, and their 
 little child was stabbed. The child survived, Ijut no one in the neigh- 
 bourhood would give her food or shelter.]
 
 92 THE CEOKER PAPERS. [Chap. III. 
 
 not referred to in any of Mr. Croker's papers. On the other 
 hand, there are several letters relating to the bombardment 
 of Algiers by Lord Exmouth — an achievement which relieved 
 the Mediterranean, at once and for ever, from the scourge 
 of piracy, and set free a large number of Christian slaves. 
 Mr. Croker had always been a great friend of Lord Exmouth's, 
 and chose his title for him when he was raised to the peerage 
 as a baron. He now wrote to him on his new successes, and, 
 while praising him and his men very highly, took the oppor- 
 tunity of discouraging the idea which Lord Exmouth appears 
 to have entertained of getting a special medal distributed for 
 Algerian service. 
 
 Mr. Croker to Lord Exmouth. 
 
 October 23rd, 1816. 
 
 My dear Loed, 
 I never have and never will (I hope) do anything for the 
 sake of popularity ; he that steers by any other compass than 
 his own sense of duty may be a popular, but cannot be an 
 honest, and I think not a useful public servant. On the 
 occasion of a medal for the Algerine exploit I have no hesita- 
 tion in telling you that I decidedly disapprove of it; and if 
 my opinion were asked (which it has not been) 1 should say so. 
 Why should that be done for 5000 men who were at Algiers, 
 which has not been done for the million of men who have 
 served in so many glorious actions since 1793 ? You will 
 say that the soldiers of Waterloo have had medals, but surely 
 it is impossible to compare Waterloo with any other battle. 
 The soldiers of Salamanca, Talavera, Vittoria, Toulouse, and 
 the Pyrenees, have no medals. In short, my dear Lord, with 
 the justest sense of the skill and gallantry of your operations 
 before Algiers, and of the admirable courage displayed by all 
 ranks, and the wonderful success of your fire, I must say that 
 I should be sorry to see anything done for it, which should 
 seem to throw a shade over the 1st June, Camperdown, 
 St. Vincent's, the Nile, and Trafalgar. 
 
 Yours, &c., 
 
 J. W. C.
 
 1814-1816.] LITERARY WORK. 93 
 
 The purely literary work which occupied Mr. Croker's 
 attention this year appears to have been restricted to his 
 contributions to the Quarterly Review, for which he wrote 
 nine articles — among them an enlightened justification of the 
 purchase of the Elgin marbles, and a highly appreciative 
 review of the ' Antiquary/ which had then just taken by storm 
 the entire reading world. Mr. Croker had already WTitten 
 an article upon ' Waverley ' — the first of the famous series 
 of novels — full of warm and yet judicious praise.* It was 
 now that Mr. John Murray made his offer of 2500 guineas 
 for a history of the French Eevolution by Mr. Croker — a 
 work which he often meditated, but never found leisure to 
 finish. Such portions of the general literary correspondence 
 of this year as are still of interest may be brought together 
 here. 
 
 Mr. Murray to Mr. Croker. 
 
 Albemarle Street, October 22ud, 1816. 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 I have been thinking upon your plan of writing ' Annals 
 of the French Eevolution ' almost ever since you honoured 
 me with a conversation upon the subject, and I can assure 
 you, after much consideration, that my ardour for its prose- 
 cution is not in the least abated. It appears to me, however, 
 knowing the immensity of the materials, that it will be 
 almost impossible to comprise any complete account of such 
 extraordinary events in less than three volumes in quarto, as 
 there must be a certain quantity of documents (either indis- 
 pensably necessary, exceedingly curious and interesting, or 
 such as are nowhere else to be found) appended. I presume 
 that your object will be to produce a lively, entertaining, 
 interesting and authentic book, for the instructive amusement 
 of the general reader. 
 
 It is not a very easy matter to form a mercantile estimate 
 of what I have not previously seen, but I think I may venture 
 
 * He reviewed ' "Waverley ' in the Quarterly for July 1814, and there 
 is little doubt that the review of ' Guy Mannering ' in the Qtmrterly, 
 Jan. 1815, was also from his pen.
 
 94 TEE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. III. 
 
 to offer for tlie copyright 2000 guineas, to be paid in six and 
 twelve months (1000 guineas each) from the day of its publi- 
 cation, and 500 guineas more at six months from the day of 
 publication of a second edition, with such additions and other 
 improvements as you may think necessary, making in the 
 whole 2500 guineas for the copyright. I ought properly to 
 have ascertained your expectations for labours of which you 
 only can be the proper judge, but I have made an offer with 
 my best judgment and feelings, and should it not meet your 
 own estimate, I am sure at least of your kind allowances for 
 my difficulty. 
 
 John Gifford, of Pitt memory, has long issued proposals for 
 a history of the French Revolution, for which he has collected 
 a library that would fully occupy all the sides of your office. 
 He has probably made progress in this proportionate only to 
 the little encouragement which it has received, and if his 
 library were worth the purchase, he would gladly sell it to 
 the British Museum. 
 
 John Murray. 
 
 3fr. CroJcer to Mr. Murray. 
 
 Admiralty, September 18tli, 1816. 
 
 My dear Murray, 
 
 I have read with great pleasure the poem you lent me.* 
 It is written with great vigour, and all the descriptive part is 
 peculiarly to my taste, for I am fond of realities, even to the 
 extent of being fond of localities. A spot of ground a yard 
 square, a rock, a hillock, on which some great achievement 
 has been performed, or to wliich any recollections of interest 
 attach, excite my feelings more than all the monuments of 
 art. Pictures fade, and statues moulder, and forests decay, 
 and cities perish, but the sod of Marathon is immortal, and 
 he who has had the good fortune to stand on that sacred spot 
 has identified himself with Athenian story in a way which all 
 the historians, painters, and poets of the world could not have 
 accomplished for him. Shakespeare, whom nothing escaped, 
 very justly hints that one of the highest offices of good poetry 
 is to connect our ideas with some " local habitation." It is 
 an old and highly absurd phrase to say that poetry deals in 
 fiction ; alas, history, I fear, deals in fiction, but good poetry 
 
 * [' Childe Harold.' Canto III.]
 
 1814-181G.] BYBON'S POEMS. 95 
 
 is concerned only with realities, either of visible or moral 
 nature ; and so much for local poetry. But I did not read 
 with e(|ual pleasure a note or two which reflects on the 
 Bourbon family. Wliat has a poet wlio writes for immor- 
 tality, to do with the little temporary passions of political 
 parties? Such notes are like Pope's "flies in amber." I 
 wish you could persuade Lord Byron to leave out these two 
 or three lines of prose, which will make thousands dissatisfied 
 with his glorious poetry. For my own part I am not a man 
 of rank and family, and have not, therefore, such motives for 
 respecting rank and family as Lord Byron has, yet I own 
 (however I may disapprove and lament much of what is 
 going on in France) that I could not bring myself to speak 
 irreverently of the children of St. Louis, of assuredly the 
 most ancient and splendid family of the civilised world, of 
 a house which is connected with the whole system of European 
 policy, European literature, European refinement, and, I will 
 add, European glory. My love of realities comes in here 
 again, and I say to myself, when I see Louis XVIIL, over- 
 looking all Ms personal qualities, here is the lineal descendant 
 of fifty kings, all famous, many illustrious ; men who have 
 held in their hands from age to age the destinies of milHons ; 
 some of whom have been the benefactors of mankind, and 
 others (and this part of the recollection is not the least 
 interesting) who have astonished and afflicted the world by 
 their crimes. No ; pray use your influence on this point. 
 As to the poem itself, except a word or two suggested by 
 Mr. Giffard, I do not think anything can be altered for the 
 better. 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 J. W. Ckoker. 
 
 Walter Scott to Mr. Croher. 
 
 [No date.] 
 
 I send Murray a review of Lord Byron. I have treated 
 him with the respect his abilities claim, and tlie sort of 
 
 attachment which I really feel for his person. But d 
 
 his morals and his politics ! What a goodly vessel have they 
 combined to wreck.
 
 96 TEE CBOKEB PAPERS. [Chap. III. 
 
 3fr. Croher to the Bev. George Croly* 
 
 November 28th, 1816. 
 
 Deak Sik, 
 
 Just as I was about to write to tell you that I had at last 
 found the two volumes I promised you (and they are sent 
 herewith), I received your note, and as you wish for my 
 opinion on one or two points which are connected with the 
 progress of your work, I do not delay to give it, though you 
 will be aware that I shall give it hastily. 
 
 I do not think that the fame of Pope, and still less that of 
 Dryden, is on the wane as compared with the taste of fifty 
 years ago. On the contrary, I believe that Dryden rises in 
 the estimation of all good judges. To be sure, every day 
 deprives them more and more of the charm of novelty, and 
 those who read them do not talk about them, because they 
 no longer afford subject for fashionable chit-chat, but I believe 
 they are more read, more profitably, solidly read, than any 
 two of their successors whom you could name. If you mean 
 to say that all our old writers are going out of fashion, it is 
 to a certain degree true, and as must always, to the degree I 
 have mentioned, happen ; but surely Dryden and Pope keep 
 their relative situations at least, and if they do stand, when 
 compared with their predecessors or contemporaries, as high 
 or higher than they did, the general depreciation (even if it 
 exist) cannot be said to apply to them particularly. 
 
 But I believe there is no real depreciation ; for my own 
 part I can say, that though I have little time to read poetry, 
 and notwithstanding all the charms of novelty and fashion, 
 I read more of Pope and Dryden than I do of even Scott and 
 Byron ; that is to say, I do not return to Scott and Byron 
 with the same regular appetite that I do to the others. You 
 seem to think that the wildness of the latter poets is their 
 great cause of popularity ; and you therefore tliink that 
 the popular taste is for the irregular, the rambling, and the 
 obscure. I deny your major, and even if it were true, I deny 
 the conclusion. Mr. Scott and Lord Byron have adopted 
 subjects to which their peculiar styles are appropriate. Scott's 
 irregularity is an imitation of the Border minstrelsy which 
 
 * [Long the Eector of St. Stephen's, "Walbrook, London, author of 
 ' Salathiel,' of a poor edition of Pope, and of many other works.]
 
 1814-1816.] MR. CROKER ON POETRY. 97 
 
 he has revived and improved, but he is never obscure. Lord 
 Byron, on the other hand, in his great work, the * Childe 
 Harold,' is obscure, because he deals in metaphysics, and in 
 tlie internal workings of a dark soul ; but he is never irre- 
 gular. So that when you accuse, or rather I should say 
 when you applaud, the taste of the age for tending towards 
 the irregular and obscure, you appear to me to commit the 
 same mistake that one would do who should say that, won- 
 derful to relate, he saw Mr. Jenkins eat salt and sugar to his 
 dinner, because he ate salt to his mutton, and sugar to liis 
 fruit. My friend, Mr. Southey, has written several poems ; 
 one at least of them, the 'Curse of Kehama,' unites your 
 two beauties of irregularity and obscurity in so high a 
 degree, that it ought to be very popular, and yet no one 
 reads it, W' hile the ' Eoderick,' which is absolutely regular, is 
 universally read and admired. 
 
 But even if there were an epidemic at this hour abroad for 
 the wild, as there was twenty years ago for the Delia Cruscan 
 style, and as there was somewhat later for the hobgoblin 
 tribe, ought it to influence a real poet and a sensible 
 man ? Decipit exemplar — the proverb is somewhat musty. 
 Mr. Scott and Lord Byron are original in their own style, 
 and their styles therefore become them, but those who imitate 
 them only catch their faults. However we bear or even 
 admire (as we often do) a fault which is original and natural, 
 we have no such mercy upon faults which are affected and 
 unappropriate to the w^earer. 
 
 Add to all this, that the multitude of imitators, good, bad, 
 and indifferent, has palled the public appetite, and I think 
 I see that each succeeding poem of even Mr. Scott and 
 Lord Byron themselves are more coolly received than the 
 former. 
 
 I therefore intreat of you to remember that if you suffer 
 yourself to be drawn on by what you conceive to be the 
 taste of the day, you will write a poem which will probably 
 be but little attended to even at the day, and will more 
 probably not survive it. You will write in the same style, 
 aye, and write as well as Scott and Byron, without sharing 
 their success; they are originals, and you wall be only a 
 copyist. 
 
 But you adduce my example against my argument ; let 
 me concede to you that my example is with you, I should 
 still say the argument is good, and the example is bad ; but 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 98 TEE CHOKER PAPERS. [Chap. III. 
 
 I am not pushed to the painful extremity of confessing my 
 practice to be bad. It is, I think, not irreconcileable with 
 all I have said. My verses are certainly not obscure (not 
 intentionally obscure I mean, for that is the question) ; they 
 are not even irregular ; the recurrence of the rhyme of the 
 short syllable is at different intervals indeed ; but it is all 
 one metre, and I well remember having taken a good deal of 
 pains to get rid of a few irregularities, which had escaped me 
 at first, and, if I recollect rightly, there is but one (and that 
 so slight as not to be generally perceptible) which has sur- 
 vived my correction. Then there is no attempt at that 
 misty pomp of language which you appear to think laudable. 
 I believe there is not one inversion in the whole thing (at 
 least, I repeat again, not one intentional inversion), and 
 everything goes by its proper name ; a spade is a spade ; and 
 a bayonet a bayonet, and if on one or two occasions the 
 French are the Gauls, I am ashamed of it. I will now, since 
 I am on the subject, tell you a fact — that * Talavera ' was 
 written in consequence of a conversation at a literary table, 
 at which I insisted that poetry ought not to be fiction, and 
 that so powerful was the charm of simplicity and nature, 
 that if two poems were to be written on the subject of the 
 then recent triumph of Talavera, and that one was to deal in 
 Mars and Bellona, helmets and shields, knights and heroes, 
 and that the other (ceteris paribus) should call everything by 
 its proper name, talk of Wellington and Bellona, bayonet 
 and cap, cavalry and infantry, the latter would be the most 
 popular. This conversation, added to my regard for Sir 
 Arthur and my national feeling, set me to work on ' Tala- 
 vera ; ' and whatever success it has had I attribute altogether 
 to the truth and simplicity, I might say to the matter-of- 
 factness, with wliich it is -wTitten. One word more on this 
 point. ' Talavera ' was written seven years ago, before the 
 prolific pen of Mr, Scott and the more prolific pens of a 
 thousand imitators had hackneyed the eight and six syllable 
 metre. 
 
 You allude to architecture, and say we are come to a new 
 era of poetical architecture. My good Sir, I should desire 
 no better theme or allusion. The Athenian Parthenon, the 
 Eoman Pantheon, will attract for ever the admiration of 
 mankind; they have, as Plutarch said two thousand years 
 ago of the former, all the grandeur of antiquity and all the 
 grace of novelty. Not less grand, and little less graceful.
 
 1814-1816.] RIOTS IN 1816. 90 
 
 are the miraclQS of Gothic architecture, miracles of little- 
 nesses piled together till they become magnificence and 
 diversity multiplied into sublime regularity. Each style is 
 admirable in its own way and for its peculiar purposes, but 
 the mixture of both — I leave you to draw the conclusion. 
 Excuse the freedom and length of my letter. An anxious 
 desire to be of use to you is at once my motive and 
 excuse. 
 
 I have, &c., 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 The close of the year 1816 and the beginning of the fol- 
 lowing year were marked by serious riots in the metropolis 
 and other parts of the country, provoked chiefly by the want 
 and misery which prevailed among the poor. It was not 
 alone the strain of the long war which had impoverished the 
 community, although that necessarily had been severely felt, 
 and had left many serious consequences behind it. But 1816 
 was a disastrous year in all respects. There was no summer ; 
 cold winds and incessant rain prevailed throughout the 
 months when harvest operations should have been going on, 
 and in October the grain was still lying rotting upon the 
 ground all through the midlands and in several of the home 
 counties. The price of wheat rose to 103.s. a quarter. Lord 
 Eldon, who lived in Dorsetshire, (where, in one parish, 419 
 out of 575 inhabitants, were receiving relief,) declared that 
 as a farmer he was ruined, and he added, that he looked 
 forward " to the winter with fear and trembling." Food riots 
 broke out in almost every direction, and at night the skies 
 were lit up with incendiary fires. The Ministry adopted a 
 stern policy of repression, but it was not stern enough to 
 satisfy many of its supporters or followers, among whom 
 must be reckoned Walter Scott. " By-the-bye," he wrote 
 to ]\Ir. Croker, in March, 1817, " we are all shocked at your 
 
 giving your mob so much head, and puzzled to account for 
 
 H 2
 
 100 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap, III. 
 
 your late acquittals."* At tlie opening of the session in 1817, 
 missiles were thrown at the Prince Eegent's carriage, on its 
 way to Parliament, an incident to which Scott referred in the 
 same letter : " The infamous and unmanly attempt on his 
 Eoyal Highness makes one's blood boil. I only wish the 
 claymores were walking among the lads, which they would 
 do with right good will." Throughout this stormy era, 
 Mr. Croker kept no journal, and there are very few references 
 in his papers to any of the events then passing. In the 
 subjoined letters a very curious coincidence is referred to, 
 and beyond these there is nothing further relating to 
 the year 1816 : — 
 
 Mr. Peel to Mr. Croker. 
 
 [No date — evidently December, 1816.] 
 
 My deae Ceoker, 
 
 This moment a most extraordinary (madman I suppose) 
 lias left me — a Mr. Davoch, a Ptoman Catholic priest, 
 of&ciating, notwithstanding his madness, at St. Paul's Chapel 
 on the Quays. He said he felt it his duty to inform me that 
 he had received information of the latest date from England, 
 that the Ptoyal family were flying for protection to Ireland — 
 of all places in the world — that the populace had possession 
 of London — that the soldiers were in league with them — and 
 so forth. I was relieved a little by his informing me that all 
 this happened in London at three o'clock this day, and that 
 on riding from the Black Eock he saw the indications of these 
 important events in the clouds. 
 
 I could only get rid of him by a promise that if on Friday 
 or Saturday next I found his visions confirmed by the more 
 vulgar and common-place intelligence brought by the regular 
 post, I woTild come to his chapel and hear him preach a 
 sermon on revelations. 
 
 I remain yours affectionately, 
 
 E. Peel. 
 
 * The acquittals of the persons charged with complicity in the Spa- 
 fields riots, which had occurred in the previous December.
 
 1814-1816.] A PROPHETIC Pit I EST. 101 
 
 Mr. Croker to Mr. Peel. 
 
 December 9th, 181G. 
 
 Dear Peel, 
 Your letter without date, but which must have been 
 written on Tuesday or Wednesday, relative to the priest of 
 St. Paul's, surprised us exceedingly (" us," 1 say, for I showed 
 it to Lords Liverpool and Sidmouth). If the priest was not 
 aware of the intention of a riot in London, surely the infor- 
 mation he gave you was a very strange coincidence ; but I am 
 inclined to think the priest was not mad, but that he was at 
 once willing to let you see he knew something, and unwilling 
 to let you see how he knew it. A nearly similar incident 
 occurred about fifteen years ago, when the king was fired at 
 in Drury Lane. I received a letter two days after, which had 
 been written in Dublin the day of the event, mentioning a 
 report which aUuded darkly to an accident happening to the 
 king at a playhouse. This was the more surprising, because 
 there seems no doubt that Hadfield was an insulated 
 madman. Your priest may have been informed of Hunt's 
 and Watson's proceedings ; or the very knowledge that a 
 meeting was intended on ]\Ionday may have given rise to a 
 suspicion of disturbance. The most curious part of it is that 
 the mob boasted that they had driven the Prince and the Royal 
 family out of London, which your priest seemed to allude 
 to ; and to this hour the people believe that the Prince left 
 town on Monday morning, although, in fact, Lord Sidmouth 
 prevailed on his Eoyal Highness to postpone his journey. 
 
 Yours, &c., 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 LreRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 SAN iA BAKliARA
 
 102 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. IV. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 1817-1818. 
 
 Unpopularity of the Prince Eegent — The Princess of Wales — Marriage of 
 the Princess Charlotte — Her death — Grief of the Prince Regent — 
 Marriages of the Royal Dukes — Mr. Croker's Account of these Events 
 — Lady Morgan's ' France ' — Her Attacks upon Mr. Croker — Mr. Peel's 
 Warning— State of Public Feeling in 1817— Walter Scott and Mr, 
 Croker — I'he Waverley Novels — The Scottish Regalia — Mr. Croker's 
 Advice to Peel to Prepare Himself for Office — Peel's Disinclination for 
 Public Life — His Elation at his Freedom — Mr. Croker's Predictions of 
 his Success — Illness and Death of Queen Charlotte — Mr. Croker's Visit 
 to Brighton — The Prince Regent's Mode of Life — Mrs. Fitzherbert 
 and Lady Hertford — -Anecdotes of Waterloo — Society at the Pavilion 
 — The Prince at Cards — Anecdotes collected by Mr. Croker. 
 
 Notwithstanding the troubled state of the country in 1817, 
 the people occupied themselves to no slight extent with the 
 family affairs of the Prince Eegent, whose unpopularity 
 seems to have culminated at the beginning of this year. He 
 was, as it has been stated, pelted on his way to the Houses of 
 Parliament, although he was not subjected to an indignity 
 like that which was inflicted upon him on another occasion, 
 when a man put his head in at the carriage window, and 
 cried out, " Prince, where's your wife ? Where's your wife ? " 
 The multitude sympathized with the wife, in spite of the 
 many proofs which were daily afforded of her utter want of 
 discretion, to put no worse construction upon her conduct. 
 But it could not be denied even by the Ptegent's best friends
 
 1817-1818.] THE PRINCE REGENT. 103 
 
 that he had seriously mismanaged his affairs. The nation 
 could not be expected to look with entire approval on 
 the grant by the House of Commons of 650,000/. to enable 
 Mm to pay his debts. His marriage with the Princess 
 Caroline of Brunswick had turned out unfortunately ; they 
 were separated immediately after the birth of their child, 
 the Princess Charlotte, and from that time scandals of all 
 kinds bejjan to accumulate round the head of the wife. 
 In 1806, a commission of inquiry was held into one set 
 of odious charges, and although the Princess of Wales 
 was pronounced guiltless of the worst of them, it was im- 
 possible to hold that she had not committed many grave 
 offences against propriety. But the public feeling then, as at 
 a later date, was entirely with the Princess. " All the world 
 is with her," wrote Sir James Mackintosh in his ' Diary,' 
 " except the people of fashion at the west end of the town." 
 By the great body of the nation she was looked upon as an 
 injiu-ed and persecuted woman. " The country," as Sir George 
 Cornewall Lewis remarked, in his summary of the story, 
 " regarded his (the Picgent's) conduct as the oppression of the 
 weak by the strong, accompanied with almost every con- 
 ceivable circumstance of aggravation." * The time came 
 when the public did not feel so confident that all the blame 
 of these miserable brawls rested entirely with the husband, 
 but for many years they were the means of bringing down 
 much obloquy upon his head, and of rendering him defiant of 
 public opinion, which he regarded as obstinately unjust 
 towards him. 
 
 But in the spring of 1817 there was a slight change in the 
 Eegent's favour, in consequence of the marriage of his 
 daughter, the Princess Charlotte, " the fair haired daughter of 
 the Isles," as Byron called her in his noble lines. It was 
 
 * ' Essays on the Administrations of Great Britain,' p. 406.
 
 101 TBE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. IV. 
 
 thought then that the marriage of the Princess afforded the 
 only prospect of the crown being worn by a descendant of 
 George the Third, failing the issue of the Duke of Cumber- 
 land, who was one of the most unpopular men alive. A 
 match had been partly arranged for the Princess Charlotte 
 with the Prince of Orange, but it was broken off, and the 
 Princess had sunk into a low state of health and spirits. From 
 this she was roused by the prospect of a much happier union 
 with one upon whom her affections were securely fixed almost 
 from the first moment of their acquaintance — Prince Leopold, 
 afterwards King of the Belgians. The marriage pleased the 
 nation, as well as the persons who were more directly con- 
 cerned in it, and there was no objection from any quarter to 
 the grant of 60,000/. voted by Parliament as a wedding 
 portion for the Princess, or to her annuity of 60,000/. At 
 first the Prince and Princess lived at Marlborough House, 
 but Claremont was purchased for them, and there they took 
 up their residence. In the following November the Princess, 
 whose early life had been so sadly clouded, remarked to one 
 of her friends, " Certainly I am the happiest woman in the 
 world. I have not a wish ungratified — surely this is too 
 much to last."* Her mournful presage was too surely 
 verified ; ten days after she had uttered it, she was dead. 
 The popular grief was profound, and it found a grand and 
 lasting echo in Byron's stanzas.f 
 
 " Hark ! forth from the abyss a voice proceeds, 
 A long low distant murmur of dread sound, 
 Such as arises when a nation bleeds 
 With some deep and immedicable wound." 
 
 The death of the Princess was received by her mother with a 
 composure which it was hard to distinguish from indifference, 
 
 * ' Buckingham Papers,' the ' Regency,' vol. ii. pp. 190-91. 
 t ' Childe Harold,' Canto IV., 167-172.
 
 1817-1818.] ROYAL MARRIAGES. 105 
 
 but the Prince . Eegent seems to have felt his daughter's 
 untimely end much more keenly. " He sees nobody," wrote 
 Mr. Croker to Lord Wliitworth (14th November, 1817), " but 
 his own attendants, the Eoyal Family, and such of the 
 Ministers as have business with him, and all his thoughts 
 and conversation turn upon the late sad event. He never 
 stirs out of his room, and goes to bed sometimes at eight or 
 nine o'clock, wearied out, and yet not composed enough for 
 rest." And again on the 18th he writes: "The Prince 
 Eegent is better. The necessity of giving orders about the 
 funeral has acted like a blister, and has given employment to 
 his mind." He very soon found other employment for his 
 mind in setting on foot preparatory measures for obtaining a 
 divorce from his wife. 
 
 Then followed a sort of race for marriage among the sons 
 of George the Third who were still free to take to themselves 
 wives. The Duke of Cambridge married the Princess 
 Augusta of Hesse Cassel, and the Duke of Clarence the 
 Princess Adelaide of Saxe Meiningen, It was not, indeed, 
 the fault of the latter prince that he had not been married 
 before.* The alliance of the Duke of Kent with the widow 
 of the Prince of Leiningen proved to be by far the most 
 fortunate of these weddings, for it led to all the advantages 
 which the people had vainly anticipated from the union of 
 their favourite princess with Prince Leopold. It is to these 
 events that the next letters refer. 
 
 Mr. Croker to Mr. Peel. 
 My dear Peel, November 15th, 1817. 
 
 The people continue exceedingly afflicted by the loss of the 
 Princess and her child ; but that which was at first mere grief 
 takes, I am sorry to tell you, a very saur turn. The Prince's 
 
 * Memoirs of the Court of England during the Regency (' Buckingham 
 Papers '), i. 146-7.
 
 106 TEE CROEER PAPERS. [Chap. IV. 
 
 absence and, above all, the absence of the Queen, are subjects 
 of very hitter regret with all those who do not know that the 
 Prmcess would not have the assistance of her Majesty, nor 
 the attendance of any one but those named by herself, and 
 who do not recollect that a father is on such occasions worse 
 than useless. Fortunate it was for the Prince, and for all 
 who are interested for the popularity of the Ptoyal Family, 
 that he did come up with such rapidity when the alarming 
 express reached him ; his anxiety and alacrity in that 
 moment has preserved him from the most dreadful weight 
 of unpopularity. In truth, the conduct with regard to 
 H.E.H. was very extraordinary ; notice was not sent to him 
 of the beginning of the labour, and he might have been 
 in London twenty-four hours sooner, if he had been aware 
 that the Princess had been taken ilL The Queen's great 
 experience in such matters points her out to the people as 
 the person of all others who ought to have been by the 
 bedside of her grand-daughter, and it must be confessed 
 that though she could not well have been at Claremont, 
 she might perhaps have been at Windsor, within call, if 
 I may use the expression. It is also said, and I think 
 with some justice, that no fancy of the poor Princess's nor 
 any confidence of Dr. Croft's* ought to have induced the 
 Government to leave her fate in the hands' of a single 
 man at the distance of seventeen miles from any assist- 
 ance. So important an affair should not have been left liable 
 to a little accident. But even if there were no danger of 
 an accident to the doctor, there manifestly was to the patient, 
 and was it right that when the crisis should occur, they 
 should have to send off to London for another doctor to 
 consult with ? To be sure Dr. Sims was sent for, but this 
 only proves that he ought to have been there, for she had 
 been twenty-four hours in labour before he was sent for, 
 and thirty before he arrived. I am satisfied that nothing 
 could have saved her, nor even the child, but in an affair of 
 such vital importance to herself, to her offspring, to her 
 family, to the nation, and to Europe, surely precautions 
 should have been taken which you or I in our private 
 families would have thought almost necessary if our wives 
 were to lie in at a great distance from immediate assistance 
 or additional advice. 
 
 * [Sir E. Croft. He afterwards committed suicide.]
 
 1817-1818.] THE PRINCESS CnARLOTTE. 107 
 
 The opening .the body has afforded the only melancholy 
 consolation for her loss. It seems slie died of exhaustion and 
 external hemorrhage, and she would probably have soon died 
 after an excruciating illness. If this be true, then her loss 
 was a mercy of heaven to her, and even to us. 
 
 Prince Leopold, it is said, endeavoured at first to bear up 
 against the loss with over-fortitude, and he has since been 
 very ill ; but I know no particulars, and can easily suspect 
 some little exaggeration in his German physician's account of 
 his present indisposition ; but there is no doubt that he is 
 most sincerely and most unaffectedly afflicted. 
 
 The shock which the Prince Pegent received, added to the 
 effort of so rapid a journey at night, has produced an un- 
 pleasant effect upon him, but he was bled and cupped, and 
 thereby relieved. He, however, up to the day before yester- 
 day, was in a state far from comfortable, he harassed himself 
 to death, and when he went to bed at eight or nine o'clock 
 when unable to sit up from fatigue, he was too uneasy to rest. 
 Yesterday, however, he grew more composed, and to-day 
 has (for the first time) seen some of his private friends, but 
 he will not leave his room, and he is really in great need 
 of a little air, exercise, and diversion ; I mean of course in 
 the strict sense of the word. He will, however, soon remove 
 to Brighton, when he will ride, and I hope recover his spirits. 
 At dinner the other day at Yarmouth's, some one said the 
 Duke of York was about to retire from the command of the 
 army, and that the Duke of Kent was to succeed him. The 
 story was laughed at, and yet I think there may be some 
 grounds for the first half of it. PecoUect that the Duke of 
 York is now heir presumptive. Is it constitutional, or even 
 proper, that the heir presumptive should have the armed force 
 in his hand ? Everybody has the most implicit confidence in 
 the Duke of York, but as a precedent and in theory there is 
 some weight in the objection. I am induced to give some 
 kind of credit to this rumour, because a little circumstance 
 occurred within this day or two to make me think that some 
 proposition has been made that Calvert* should resign and that 
 Torrenst should succeed him. Situated as affairs now are, I 
 cannot conceive the Duke's parting with Torrens, and though 
 he might be, and would be, of the greatest use to a successor, 
 Torrens may not like the prospect, and may be anxious to 
 
 * [Adjutant-General.] t [Military Secretary.]
 
 108 THE CROEER PAPERS. [Chap. IV. 
 
 secure his retreat on good terms. You have now my specula- 
 tions, and can judge as well as myself. I am afraid that 
 jealousies have already begun to be felt in the Eoyal Family, 
 and you may depend upon it they will not diminish. The 
 Princess of Wales and the divorce occupy many thoughts, 
 but nobody speaks about them. The Prince is anxious for it, 
 the Ministers strong against it ; the public only waiting to 
 see the Prince take a part to take one against him. In short, 
 my dear Peel, I never looked into a blacker political horizon 
 than is now around us. All this is in strict confidence. 
 
 Yours, &c., 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 Mr. Peel replied to this letter a few days later, and 
 incidentally he gave Mr. Croker warning that he had made 
 another enemy by his pen. In the Quarterly Review for 
 April 1817 there had appeared an article on a book then but 
 lately published by Lady Morgan, entitled, "France" — an 
 article which handled both author and book with much 
 greater severity than would be deemed justifiable now, 
 although the work was really open to serious objection. 
 Reviewers of the present generation, if they wish to convey 
 the same ideas — as they sometimes do — contrive to wrap 
 them up with a little more skill. But these were the days 
 of plain-speaking, and as a rule the victims did not fail to 
 prove that they possessed ample powers of retaliation. 
 
 Mr. Peel to Mr. Croker. 
 
 Dublin Castle, Nov. 22iid, 1817. 
 
 My dear Croker, 
 
 You are the only man in London who takes compassion on 
 your friends in foreign parts and enlightens their darkness. 
 
 You have not, however, improved in the caligraphic art ; 
 and if I had not some skill in deciphering illegible writing, 
 and had not been disciplined by such writers as Fitzgerald, 
 I should have lost a part of what was very interesting to me. 
 I make no apologies to you for quoting from Lady Morgan,
 
 1817-1818.] LAD7 MORGAN AND Mli. CROEER. 109 
 
 as she vows vengeance against you as the supposed author of 
 the article in the QuartcrUj, in which her atheism, profanity, 
 indecency, and ignorance have been exposed. You are to be 
 the hero of some novel of which she is about to be delivered. 
 1 hope she has not hoard of your predilection for angling, 
 and that she will not describe you as she describes one of her 
 heroes, " seated in his 'pucatory corner, intent on the destruc- 
 tion of the finny tribe." One of her sworn friends was 
 attempting to extract from me whether you were the author 
 of this obnoxious article or not ; but I disclaimed all know- 
 ledge of the author, and only did not deny that it was to be 
 attributed to you, because I thought you would be very 
 indifferent as to Lady Morgan's hostility. 
 
 I was excessively amused by hearing that the female 
 literary circles of Dublin generally attribute the article to 
 Vesey [Fitzgerald]. If he hears this, and hears, too, that 
 Lady Morgan is whetting her tusks, he will deprecate her ire 
 by a formal disclaimer, which she will publish in the preface 
 to the novel. 
 
 There was no part of the empire which participated with 
 more sincerity in the general grief on account of the death of 
 the Princess than Dublin. The shops were voluntarily 
 closed on Wednesday, and more persons attended service at 
 the different places of worship than are generally seen there 
 on Sunday. 
 
 Believe me ever, my dear Croker, 
 
 Most affectionately yours, 
 
 EoB. Peel. 
 
 There was no novel published by Lady Morgan after this 
 of which Mr. Croker was supposed to be the hero, but there 
 was a story, in which he was alleged to have figured as 
 " Counsellor Con," written in 1814 ; and that was supposed to 
 have been intended as a retaliatory stroke for a review in the 
 first number of the Quarterly of an earlier novel by Lady 
 Morgan, entitled, " Woman ; or, Ida of Athens," which also 
 received rough treatment, in a short article of three pages. 
 It seems to have been attributed by Lady ]\Iorgan to 
 Mr. Croker ; in reality it was written by j\Ir. Gifford. This
 
 110 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. IV. 
 
 was not by any means the last occasion on which Mr. Croker 
 was struck at for causes of offence of which he was wholly 
 innocent. 
 
 Mr. Croker to Mr. Peel. 
 
 November 26th, 1817. 
 
 My dear Peel, 
 It is unlucky for you that your only correspondent should 
 be one who knows so little of what is going forward as I do, 
 for I never go out, and those who go out do not call upon 
 me, so that I am but a bad gazetteer. Such talk, however, as 
 reaches me you shall have. 
 
 Our grief, as you must see, is wearing off, and the public 
 is in, I think, rather a sulky humour, waiting for any fair or 
 unfair excuse to fly into a passion, and wTcak, like Fag in 
 the ' Eivals,' their vexation on the first unhappy wight that 
 may fall in their way. I am much mistaken if ever there 
 existed at any former period so much of a bad spirit amongst 
 the ol iroWol, combined wdth so much apathy among the 
 crvveTol; and I expect to see the clouds burst furiously. If 
 there should arise any division in the Royal Family, it will 
 be the match to fire the gunpowder. Aprajjos of royal 
 matches, I hear that Ministers have been a little puzzled 
 how to deal with the avowed readiness of the Duke of Kent 
 to sacrifice himself and jump into the matrimonial gulf for 
 the good of his country, but they have hit upon a scheme 
 \ which seems politic. They propose to marry the Duke of 
 \ Clarence, as the eldest unmarried Prince, and he who has 
 M a right to the first chance ; and also to marry the Duke of 
 Cambridge, the youngest unmarried Prince, from whom the 
 country has the best chance ; and having thus resolved to 
 burn the candle at both- ends, Vansittart discovers that he 
 cannot afford to burn it in the middle too, and therefore 
 Kent and Sussex cannot have the wedding establishments, 
 &c., suited to their rank. 
 
 The ladies who are selected for them are their Electoral 
 Highnesses, two Princesses of Hesse. There are seven of 
 them ; the eldest is forty-four, and the youngest sixteen. If 
 the Court of Hesse should imitate our plan, and marry their 
 eldest and their youngest, the Duke of Clarence will be hit. 
 
 The lady in the Duke of Kent's eye is not ill-chosen for 
 popular effect. She is the sister of Prince Leopold. When
 
 1817-1818.] THE LOO-CHOO ISLANDERS. Ill 
 
 the Duke first thought of her, it could only be in hopes of 
 popular influence. Now he will probably think that any 
 Coburg alliance will be popular. 
 
 We' have Cabinet meetings every day, chiefly on the 
 Spanish South American aflairs. You may judge how un- 
 willing Lord Liverpool must be to interfere ; but his phlegm 
 is doubtless corrected by the more magnanimous counsels of 
 Pole,* who, " though he belongs to every department," thinks 
 that measures which have so great an influence on the 
 supply of bullion especially concern the Mint. . 
 
 You are fond of characteristic traits ; here is one. Captain Y 
 Hall,t of the Lyra, who is just come home, and who is mad 
 about certain simple islanders whom he fell in with in the 
 China Seas, touched at St. Helena and saw Buonaparte, and 
 amongst other things told him the story of his interesting 
 inhabitants of Loo-Choo, and happened to mention that 
 such was the primitive innocence of the people, that he could 
 not discover that they had any offensive weapons. " Diable !" 
 exclaimed Buonaparte, " et comment font-ils done la guerre ?" 
 Hall dined some time ago at Vansittart's, and was relating 
 this conversation, and everybody but Vansittart was greatly 
 amused at the natural turn of Buonaparte's wonder. Van- 
 sittart, however, took no kind of notice of it, but seemed 
 absorljed in his own contemplations. Hall went on to say 
 that he found Buonaparte quite incredulous upon this fact, J 
 and that, in order to persuade him of the extreme simplicity 
 of the islanders, he added another circumstance, which was, 
 that he had not seen amongst them any kind of money. 
 " No money," cried A^ansittart, awakened out of his trance, 
 with the greatest vivacity. " Good heavens ! Captain Hall, 
 how do they carry on the government ! " This is literally 
 true. 
 
 Thank you for your information about Lady Morgan. 
 She, it seems, is resolved to make me read one of her novels. 
 I hope I shall feel interested enough to be able to learn the 
 language. I wrote the main part of the article in the 
 Quarterly, but, as you know, was called away to Ireland 
 
 * [Master of the Mint.] 
 
 t [Captain Basil Hall, R.N., author of a Voyage to Loo-Choo and 
 numerous other works of travel ; died in 1841.] 
 
 J [Buonaparte was right. Later travellers discovered that the Loo- 
 Choo people had warlike appliances, like other nations.]
 
 112 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. IV. 
 
 when it was in the press ; and I am sorry to say that some 
 blunders crept in accidentally, and one or two were premedi- 
 tatedly added, which, however, I do not think Lady Morgan 
 knows enough either of English, French, or Italian to find 
 out. If she goes on we shall have sport. 
 
 Your godson* thrives apace. He has seven teeth, and 
 bites harder than Lady Morgan. Who do you think, of all 
 mankind (if, indeed, he be human), formed an alliance with 
 him at Ryde, who but Lord Nugent ! The little fellow was 
 too young to be frightened, and the friendship prospered. 
 Remember me to Vesey, who, I suppose, sometimes solaces 
 himself in your society. 
 
 Yours, &c., 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 An acquaintanceship in the field of literature of a far more 
 memorable kind was that with AValter Scott, who frequently 
 applied to Mr. Croker for his help in various ways, but who 
 seems to have taken good care not to divulge the secret of 
 the authorship of the ' Waverley Novels ' even to this intimate 
 correspondent. Mr. Croker, in a letter to a friend, written in 
 May 1817, says: "I send you the * Antiquary' and 'Tales 
 of My Landlord,' by the author of 'Waverley' and 'Guy 
 Mannering.' They are the most popular novels which have 
 been published these many years ; they are, indeed, almost 
 histories rather than novels. The author is certainly Walter 
 Scott, or his brother Mr. Thomas Scott. The internal 
 evidence is in favour of the former, but his asseverations, and 
 all external evidence, are for the latter. I cannot decide." 
 Walter Scott had long been anaious to look for the lost 
 reo-alia of Scotland, under the belief that discoveries of 
 importance would result from his search. He begged Mr. 
 Croker, in 1816, to get the requisite permission from the 
 Prince Eeo-ent ; and although Mr. Croker felt convinced that 
 
 * [Mr. Croker's only son, born January 1817.]
 
 1817-1818.] THE SCOTTISH EEGALIA. 113 
 
 the chests contained nothing of material value, he continued 
 to exert himself to gain consent to have the room examined, 
 and at last he succeeded. 
 
 Mr. Crolccr to Walter Scott. 
 
 January 9tli, 1818. 
 
 ]\Iy dear Scott, 
 
 I have the pleasure to tell you tliat at last 1 have gotten 
 tlie warrant for searching for the old regalia of the Scottisli 
 Crown, wliich at your suggestion, and by the Prince's 
 command, I have been soliciting so long. It has been two 
 months delayed for the fees, which, however, as soon as I was 
 apprised of the causes of the stoppage, I hastened to advance, 
 and I by this night's post have sent the document to the 
 Lord Advocate. I was not sure to whom I should send it, 
 particularly as 1 am told that it is uncertain whether you 
 are now in Edinburgli, and 1 tliought I could not be far 
 wrong in addressing it to the Lord Advocate. I shall be, of 
 course, anxious to hear of (though I am not very sanguine as 
 to) the result of your search. I know that both the Eegent 
 and yourself have hopes of finding something. I limit my 
 expectations to your ascertaining that there is nothing to be 
 found. 
 
 Do you tlmik that such a fellow as Piob Eoy would have 
 driven cattle, while there was such a prize at Edinburgh 
 Castle ? 
 
 Yours, &c, 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 It turned out that Scott was right. In a letter dated 
 
 Vth February, 1818, and published in ' Lockhart's Life of 
 
 Scott,' an account is given of the discoveries which were 
 
 made, which included the Crown, Sceptre, and Sword of 
 
 State, now shown to the public at Edinburgh Castle. The 
 
 chest in which they were deposited had never even been seen 
 
 since 1707, when the room where it was placed was sealed 
 
 up by the Commissioners. 
 
 Although in after years there was a hopeless breach in 
 VOL. I. I
 
 114 THE CBOKER PAPERS. [Chap. IY. 
 
 the friendsliip between Sir Robert Peel and Mr. Croker, it is 
 impossible to question the fact, that at this period, and for 
 long afterwards, they seldom took any important step without 
 first consulting one with the other. Mr. Croker was almost 
 the first to detect and appreciate the great powers of the 
 future Prime Minister, and to point out to him the path on 
 which he was destined to reach fame. The following letter 
 seems to have been drawn forth by a report of Peel's intention 
 to retire altogether from public life. 
 
 Mr. CroUr to Mr. Peel. 
 
 July 13th, 1818. 
 
 I must now mention to you more seriously (because it has 
 been mentioned more seriously to me) what I have hereto- 
 fore touched lightly upon, namely, your taking office. I do 
 assure you upon my honour that I have never begun any 
 conversation on the subject, but that in those companies 
 where I have been, composed of very different classes of 
 society, your acceptance of Van's * office, and your ultimate 
 advancement to the highest of all, have been wished for 
 warmly and unanimously. One of these places was Grant's f 
 (of Pall Mall), where, on Friday last, we had Yarmouth, 
 Lowther, Beckett, Lushington, and Berkeley Paget, and on 
 some conversation about the meeting of Parliament, and the 
 state of the Ministry, there was one voice that you were the 
 person whom all the friends of good order would support. 
 Some one had said that our Iwncst friend % wanted eloquence, 
 and our eloquent friend § honesty, but that you, uniting both, 
 would unite the confidence of the whole party. There was 
 some more talk of this kind, and considering that of the 
 seven people at table I was the only intimate friend of 
 yours, and that they were all in different interests and 
 feelings, you must allow that their sentiments and feelings 
 must be taken as something more than the mere expression 
 of individual opinion. 
 
 * [Mr. Vausittart, Chancellor of the Exchequer.] 
 
 I [Sir A. C. Grant.] 
 
 X [Mr. HusL-isson?] § [Mr. Canning ?]
 
 1817-1818.] PEEL AND OFFICE. 115 
 
 I did not, however, think it worth while to relate this 
 circumstance to you, to which I attached no very great 
 importance ; but I went yesterday to dine with Yarmouth, * 
 and as I came early I found him alone. After a little talk 
 on general matter, he said to me, " Croker, I have been 
 tliinking of what I have twice already mentioned to you, and 
 we must have Peel Minister. Everybody wishes for him, 
 everybody would support him. Lowther, Apsley, and my- 
 self, who are three heirs apparent of some weight, in votes at 
 least, would join him heart and hand. I like him personally. 
 I have no other motive than personal liking and public 
 respect, and I should be glad on every account to see him at 
 the head of affairs." 
 
 I said a few words of your disinclination from, or rather 
 indifference to, such objects, but I owned that no effort or 
 entreaty of mine should be spared to induce you to abandon 
 the thoughts of a retirement from business, and that I 
 thought I could venture to say, that whatever your private 
 wishes might be, you would still feel it to be your public 
 duty not to flinch from any responsibility which the public 
 service might call you to. People then came and the matter 
 ended. 
 
 Now I know as well as you that all this is en Vcdr, and I 
 know that ministers are not made in conversations before or 
 after dinner. But I know also that when the public opinion 
 (which often speaks at such times through organs of the kind 
 I have quoted) designates a man for high station, it is a duty 
 which his friends owe him not to leave him ignorant of the 
 manner in which his name is mentioned. I do what I think 
 to be the duty of friendship and affection towards you in 
 thus telling you what I hear. I shall also do the other duty 
 of friendship, which is to hold my peace, and not commit, by 
 any expression of mine, your name in any such conversations. 
 But I do hope that some opportunity may occur of doing the 
 country the double good of rescuing the Exchequer from Van, 
 and of placing you in that office. 
 
 Yours, &c., 
 
 J. "W. C. 
 
 The reply made by Peel has no date, but it enters into his 
 opinions on the question of taking office ; and it will be seen 
 
 * [Afterwards the third Marc^uis of Hertford.] 
 
 I 2
 
 116 THE CROEER PAPERS. [Cuap. IV. 
 
 that upon that, as upon other questions, private and public, 
 his views underwent a very thorough change in course of 
 time. 
 
 Mr. Peel to Mr. Croler. 
 
 [No date.] 
 
 My Dear Ckoker, 
 
 To all the latter part of your letter I answer in the em- ^ 
 phatic term of a reverend Pastor in the ' Vicar of Wakefield ' ^ 
 — Fudge. 
 
 I am thinking of anything but office, and am just as 
 anxious to be emancipated from office as the Papists are to 
 be emancipated into it. 
 
 I am for the abolition of slavery, and no men have a 
 right to condemn another to worse than Egyptian bondage, 
 to require him, not to make bricks without straw, which a 
 man of straw might have some chance of doing (as Lord 
 JSTorbury would certainly say), but to raise money and 
 abolish taxes in the same breath. 
 
 "Night cometh when no man can work," said one who 
 could not have foreseen the fate of a man in office and the 
 House of Commons. 
 
 A fortnight hence I shall be free as air — free from ten 
 thousand engagements which I cannot fulfil ; free from the 
 anxiety of having more to do than it is possible to do well ; free 
 from the acknowledgments of that gratitude which consists in 
 a lively sense of future favours ; free from the necessity of 
 abstaining from private intimacy that will certainly interfere 
 with public duty ; free from Orangemen ; free from Ptibbon- 
 men ; free from Dennis Browne ; free from the Lord Mayor 
 and Sheriffs ; free from men wdio pretend to be Protestants on 
 
 principle and sell Dundalk to , the Papist of Cork 
 
 — free from Catholics who become Protestants to get into 
 
 Parliament after the manner of , and of Protestants who 
 
 become Catholics, after the manner of old ; free from 
 
 perpetual converse about the Harbour of Howth and Dublin 
 Bay haddock ; and, lastly, free of the Company of Carvers 
 and Gilders which I became this day in reward of my public 
 services. 
 
 Ever most affectionately yours, 
 
 PtOB. Peel.
 
 1817-1818.] PEEL EETIRES FROM IRELAND, 117 
 
 Do not venture to say anything about my feelings of 
 public duty, &c., &c. Sajj nothing about me in short. 
 
 In the course of the year Mr. Peel relinfjuished his office of 
 Secretary for Ireland, thoroughly tired of the country as well 
 as of the office, and his feelings of relief at laying down his 
 burden were not greater than those of the Catholic section of 
 the Irish population at seeing his departure. They had long 
 regarded him with hatred, and conferred upon him the nick- 
 name of " Orange Peel," which clung to him long after he had 
 ceased to be directly interested in Irish affairs. Mr. Peel, on 
 his part, had no sooner found himself free than he proceeded 
 to give himself the holiday he had so long desired : — 
 
 Mr. Peel to Mr. Croker. 
 
 [Without date.] 
 
 My dear Ckokee, 
 
 Here I am, hoping not much longer to remain here. If 
 I was going to remain, or if I could offer you any inducement 
 to come here, or if 1 thought you had charity and leisure 
 enough to come here without any, I would beg of you to 
 order your postchaise and repair to Drayton. 
 
 I went to Scotland from Ireland, and remained five weeks 
 among the mountains of the Badenoch district of the county 
 of Inverness. Daly, my brother, Col. Yates, and I were of 
 the party. We had one of the best houses in Inverness-shire, 
 a modern castle — tolerably well furnished — as well indeed as 
 we could wish. We liad an enormous district of country ; 
 plenty of grouse, of which we slew about thirteen hundred ; 
 \ and I took my cook there, to gild the decline of day. 
 
 The Scotch expedition succeeded far beyond my expecta- 
 tions. We lived in the midst of a host of Macphersons 
 — terrible Jacobites in the olden time — in a very pretty valley, 
 hemmed in by rocky mountains, with the Spey before our 
 door, and a large woody district of fir behind us. Pioes in the 
 wood, and eagles on the mountains, which were rugged and 
 high, and had snow enough on their tops to convince us we 
 were in the " north countrie." 
 
 We had supreme dominion, so far as the chase is con-
 
 118 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. IV. 
 
 cerned, over uncounted thousands of acres. Locli Erricht, 
 and Loch Laggan, and Loch Dhu, and the streams from a 
 thousand hills, were ours. We had hind and hart, hare and 
 roe, black game and grouse, partridge and ptarmigan, snipe 
 and wild duck. We had highlanders for our guides, _ and 
 highland ponies without shoes ; and no civilized beings within 
 ten miles of us. 
 
 I really left Clunie with regret : there was so much novelty 
 in the mode of life — so much Mildness and magnificence in 
 the scenery — so much simplicity and unaiTected kindness 
 among the people. 
 
 I came through Yorkshire, and stayed eight or ten days with 
 Grantham. I shall remain here about a fortnight. I shall 
 then, I think, either come to town, and go to Oxford from 
 London for a day or two, or take Oxford in my way to 
 London. 
 
 Lord Erskine could not have said more about himself and 
 his proceedings, past, present, and future, in so short a space. 
 
 Vesey and I talked of going to the continent till the latter 
 end of January ; but should the Queen die, I suppose we 
 shall be wanted in Parliament. I shall go to Paris, I think, 
 for a short time at any rate. 
 
 Lord Sidmouth proposed to associate me " with those highly 
 intelligent and most respectable Bishops and Privy Coun- 
 cillors," who form the unsalaried half of the Education Board, 
 but I was not so covetous of the honour as I ought to have 
 been — foreseeing the sacrifice which the Speaker is called 
 upon to make, lioth in regard to the society which he loses, 
 and which he gains. 
 
 Eemember me to him most kindly, and believe me. 
 
 My dear Croker, 
 
 Most affectionately yours, 
 
 EoB. Peel. 
 
 Mr. Croker, however, was fuU of confidence that Peel 
 would not be suffered to remain long out of office ; and we 
 find him writing to Mr. Vesey Fitzgerald, " Mind, 1 tell you, 
 whatever may befall your merit or mine, the country wiU not 
 suffer Peel's merit to be neglected. It will call for him in a 
 way that the deafest of the Cabinet will be obliged to hear."
 
 1817-1818.] DEATH OF THE QUEEN. 119 
 
 And then he goes on to give some account of the condition of 
 Queen Charlotte, who was now rapidly approaching her end : — 
 
 The Queen is very ill and cannot last long. I saw the 
 Prince yesterday, and he seemed to me to apprehend that 
 the conclusion was very near. He is himself looking very 
 well : he had his table covered with papers for perusal and 
 signature, and he was signing away in full gallop. I ventured 
 to make a half joke to him on his sinecure olfice, which was 
 w^ell taken, and he retorted upon mine with a tu quoquc. 
 
 The Duke of Cumberland is gone to Hanover. * * He 
 and the P. B., are, I have reason to think, on no very cordial 
 terms. He hardly took leave, and came to the Admiralty 
 to ask for the Koyal yacht to convey him, without saying 
 the preparatory word of civility at Carlton House. This 
 is the more to be regretted, for he has got a wig so like 
 the Prince's that on an emergency he might pass for the 
 Eegent, if the latter should be confined by the gout from 
 attending any public occasion. 
 
 All through the autumn the death of the Queen seems to 
 have been almost daily expected. On the 5th of September 
 Mr. Croker wrote to Lord Melville telling him that her 
 Majesty had not forty-eight hours to live, and giving him a 
 melancholy account of her condition : — " She is not capable 
 of being put to bed. She is blistered in the chest, from 
 wdiich she suffers a good deal, but not so much as from 
 the flutter of her nerves, which makes her very miserable. 
 Her legs are immensely swelled. The bulletin the day 
 before last said ' she had had a better night than was 
 expected.' The fact is, she never slept at all that night, 
 and was expected to expire; so that it was better than 
 expected." 
 
 There was no more afflicted household in all England at 
 the time than that of George the Third. IMisfortunes had 
 accumulated thickly upon it. The poor old Kuig had been 
 for several years a mere phantom — dead to the world, as the
 
 120 THE CBOKEE PAPERS. [Chap. IV- 
 
 world was dead to liim ; deaf, blind, bereft of reason, uncon- 
 scious of the great events which had taken place in the 
 nation, and of the changes which time had wrought in his 
 own family. He was, of course, unaware of the perilous con- 
 dition of the Queen, to whom he had been devoted, and who 
 had rewarded his devotion by the most unswerving attach- 
 ment to him through all his troubles and disasters. It was 
 the spectacle of the homely simplicity and fidelity of this 
 aged couple, combined with their domestic sorrows, which 
 made them so popular with the bulk of the people. Every- 
 body knew that the last and worst blow which fell upon the 
 King's reason arose from the grief which he felt at seeing 
 his daughter Amelia gradually sinking into the grave. The 
 Queen had been thoroughly prostrated by illness during the 
 inquiry into the conduct of the Duke of York. The hopeless 
 illness of the King made heavy inroads upon her health and 
 spirits, and the end came in the month of November. 
 
 Mr. Crokcr to Mr. Peel. 
 
 November 19th, 1818. 
 
 My dear Peel, 
 
 I presume you see the English papers, or you would have 
 desired me to send you one ; I shall therefore say nothing of 
 what you will see in them, except that the Queen died about 
 five minutes before one. The Prince, the Duke of York, the 
 Duchess of Glo'ster, and Princess Sophia were in the room 
 when she died ; she had been breathing hard and loud for 
 half an hour as she sat in her chair ; suddenly she stopped, 
 and drawing a long sigh she expired ; her hand fell over the 
 arm of her chair, and her head and body fell towards that 
 side on which she had not been able to lean during her 
 illness. 
 \ The Prince was extremely affected, and they were obliged 
 "^ to give liim some cordial to prevent his fainting. Tlie will 
 was, I heard, to be opened yesterday, but I have not since 
 heard what it contained, nor even if it was opened, but I 
 presume it was. She had left no money, nor had she any-
 
 1817-1818.] THE QUEEN'S FUNERAL. 121 
 
 tliinjT to leave, except her jewels, which I have heard valued 
 at 200,000/. This is a large sum in jewels. 
 
 The Prince held a Council to-day to do the necessary- 
 business ; there was a Council without the Prince yesterday, 
 at wliicli they did little more than resolve not to adopt the 
 cumbrous precedent of Queen Caroline's funeral. Indeed 
 it was not possible to follow it; for as the King had re- 
 peatedly ordered that he and the Queen should be buried in 
 Windsor, she is to be there interred ; and they do not think 
 that there is room at Windsor to admit of a jmUic funeral. 
 At a public funeral, you know, all man and womankind walk 
 each after its rank and species, and though they could walk 
 in St. George's Chapel, as well as in Henry Vllth's, Windsor 
 could not hold all tlieir horses and carriages, and lodge 
 themselves and servants. The funeral, therefore, is to be 
 private ; that is, three or four hundred people only are to 
 be present. 
 
 Mr. Crokcr to the Rifjht Hon. diaries Planners Sutton.* 
 
 Brighton, Dec. 8th, 1818. 
 
 ;My dear Sutton, 
 I have been rather not well than ill for some time past. 
 My complaint is an uneasiness in the head, Baillie says from 
 overwork. I myself think from ^Aa^ joined with some organic 
 causes ; in short, I am not easy about myself, and make up 
 my mind to act as if I were in danger. Yarmouth, the most 
 good-natured man alive, has dragged me do^Nii here for a few 
 days' relaxation and exercise. We live at the inn ; he drinks 
 my health in claret, and I pledge him in table beer. We ride 
 together, and in the dirty roads splash one another like two 
 members of your honourable house. 
 
 During this visit to Brighton, Mr. Croker kept a journal, 
 and wrote daily letters to his wife, as he was in the habit of 
 doing whenever he was absent from her. In the early 
 part of the year his little boy had been rather ill, and this 
 had caused both father and mother some anxiety. The 
 Speaker, Mr. Charles Manners Sutton, had written a note to 
 
 * [Speaker of the House of Commons from 1817 till 1835.]
 
 122 THE CHOKER PAPERS. [Chap. IV. 
 
 him at that time, in which he said, " I well know the misery 
 of any apprehension about infants. It makes cowards of the 
 stoutest of us. My boy Charles said, when I told him of 
 your little one having been ill, ' Oh, I w^ould certainly give 
 him some magnesia, if the little boy can take it like a man.' 
 This shows the materia mcdica principally used in my 
 nursery." At Brighton, Mr. Croker found the change, if 
 not the repose, which he sorely needed, and his account of 
 his visit is written in the light vein which seems, after all, 
 to have been more natural to him than any other. 
 
 Extracts from Journal of 1818. 
 
 JDcccr/iher 1th. — Left Munster House on horseback at 9 for 
 Cobham, where I was to meet Lord Yarmouth at 11 and 
 thence proceed to Brighton. A little beyond Kingston it 
 came on to rain, and as I happened to overtake a stage coach 
 I sent back my horse and got into it ; in two minutes after I 
 got to Cobham, Lord Yarmouth drove up and we set off and 
 arrived at Brighton a little before 4. It rained the whole 
 way, but the roads were so good that we had not a jolt for 
 fifty miles. Passed through Leatherhead, Dorking, Horsham, 
 and Henfield. Lord Yarmouth liad come from Oatlands, 
 where he had been for two days, and where the Duke of 
 York had assembled a parliament of dandies. The Duchess's 
 life is an odd one ; she seldom has a female companion, she 
 is read to all night and falls asleep towards morning, and 
 rises about 3 ; feeds her dozens of dogs and her flocks of 
 birds, &c., comes down two minutes before dinner, and so 
 round again.* She sometimes walks a little, and does some 
 local charities. She is now preparing her Christmas presents — 
 the habitues of Oatlands give her etrcnncs and receive them 
 in return from her. 
 
 The Prince certainly married Mrs. Pitzherbert with the 
 left hand — the ceremony was performed by parson Johus,\ 
 who is still about town. The Prince had seen her in her 
 carriage in the Park and was greatly struck with her — 
 inquired who she was — heard the widow Fitzherbert, con- 
 
 * [Much the same account is given by Charles Greville — 'Greville 
 Memoirs,' i. 5.]
 
 1817-1818.] MES. FITZEERBEllT. 123 
 
 trived to make her acquaintance and was really mad for Lne. 
 The lady felt or affected reluctance and scruples, which the 
 left-hand marriage and some vague promises of conversion to 
 Popery and resignation of all hopes of royalty silenced. I 
 cannot but wonder at her Hving here and bearding the I'rince 
 in a way so indelicate, vis-a-vis the pubUc, and I should 
 have thought so embarrassing to herself To her presence is i 
 attributed" the Prince's never going abroad at Brighton. I ^ 
 have known H.P.H. here seven or eight years, and never saw 
 or heard of his being on foot out of the limits of the Pavilion, 
 and in general he avoids even riding through the princii)al 
 streets. I cannot conceive how poor old Mrs. Fitzherbert 
 (she is now near 70*) can cause him any uneasiness. 
 
 Mr. Horace Seymour and his lady met us as we were going 
 to the warm baths before dinner, and he called in on us 
 while we were at dinner. They are staying at Mrs. Piz- 
 herbert's. It was about his sister Mimif that there arose 
 such a piece of work some time ago. Mrs, Fitzherbert was 
 dotingly fond of her, and when the Seymour family attempted 
 to remove her from ]\Irs. Fitzherljert's care, she induced the 
 Prince to soUcit tlie interest of Lord Hertford as the head of 
 the family. This brought about the acquaintance with Lady 
 Hertford,! and Mrs. Fitzherljert kept the child and lost the 
 Prince. 
 
 Beau Brummell is going, or says he is going, to publish an 
 English Journal at Calais, which alarms some great folks, 
 and it is said the French pohce have been requested to look 
 to it. I hardly think he can dare make such an attempt — 
 he only wants "to be bought off, but surely no one will l)uy 
 him off. I had heard some time ago that he was writing 
 memoirs of liis own life ; this is likely enough and may have 
 given rise to the other report. 
 
 We came to the Castle Inn ; tlie Prince was good enough 
 to offer us lodgings in the Pavilion, but as he is to be down 
 himself to-morrow in the strict incognito of grief, we felt we 
 should be dc trop there, and have come hither to " take our 
 ease in our inn." 
 
 * [Mr. Croker, seldom mistalscn in an ap;e or a date, was wronp; in thi.s. 
 Mrs. Fitzlierbert was not more than 62 in 1818. She died at Brighton in 
 1837, aged 81.] 
 
 f [Mrs. Dawson Damer.] 
 
 X [This was the mother of the 3rd Marquis, Mr. Croker's friend.]
 
 124 TEE CEOKER PAPERS. [Chap. IV. 
 
 Decemher 8th. — Walked a little about the town, then rode 
 'with Mr. and Mrs. Horace Seymour to Shoreham. As we 
 rode up from the sea-side the ground was extremely like the 
 ground of Waterloo, and Horace, who had been Lord Angle- 
 sey's aide-de-camp and had greatly distinguished himself 
 there, told me many entertaining particulars. He had been 
 about 2 o'clock sent to the extreme left by the Duke of 
 Wellington with some orders. There he found a report that 
 the Prussians were near — he thought it right to ascertain so 
 important a fact with his own eyes, so he galloped on till he 
 actually met and spoke with the Prussian advance, he then 
 hastened back to tell it to Lord Wellington. Gordon, one of 
 his Grace's aides-de-camp, was so anxious, that he leaned 
 across the Duke to question Seymour. The Duke was, how- 
 ever, much pleased and ordered Seymour to ride back to 
 Bulow with a request to send him 4000 infantry to fill up 
 his lines. Seymour, in crossing the Genappe Chaussee with 
 this message, was taken by the French cavalry. And the 
 Duke, seeing this, sent Fremantle on the errand and sent 
 some dragoons to rescue Seymour, which they did. It was 
 about 3 o'clock that Seymour saw the Prussians, or rather 
 later, perhaps about 4. He was next Lord Anglesey when 
 he was shot ; he cried out : " I have got it at last" And 
 the Duke of Wellington only replied : " No ? Have you, 
 by God ? " Lord Anglesey had himself told me this two 
 years ago. Somebody — " at least we young ones," he said, 
 "thought at 2 o'clock and for hours after that the battle 
 was lost ; " he thought tliat the old ones knew better. He 
 had five horses shot under him that day. One moment when 
 the smoke cleared away, Seymour was riding near the Duke, 
 and he saw the Cuirassiers close to them, and it was only by 
 a very sudden run they avoided being taken. This was 
 while the French cavalry had possession of the Plateau, 
 which aflbrded a most extraordinary scene. The English 
 squares and the French squadrons seemed almost for a short 
 time hardly taking notice of each other. He never could 
 distinguish Buonaparte, or his staff, to he sure of them. 
 "Early in the day we saw a body moving along the 
 French line, which we guessed was him and his staff." 
 While the Cuirassiers had possession of the plateau, Seymour 
 saw one Frenchman place his sabre on one of our cannons, as 
 much as to mark it and say, " this is mine." 
 
 Before we went to ride, we went to look at the Pavilion.
 
 18>7-1818.] THE PAVILION AT BRIGHTON. 125 
 
 It is not so much clianged as I had l)eeii told, and affords 
 me a new proof how inaccurate people are. I had heard 
 from ])icknell, who had just returned from it, that it was all 
 «altered, and even the "round room," which I especially asked 
 about, thinking it unlikely to have been destroyed, he insisted 
 was pulled down. On the contrary, none of the rooms which 
 the Prince ordinarily uses are altered, that is to say, the low 
 south room (which was the hall, and two sitting-rooms of the 
 original Pavilion, thrown into one many years since), the 
 dome or round room, and the Chinese gallery, are all un- 
 changed. But in the place of the two rooms which stood at 
 angles of 45° with the rest of the building — one of which I 
 rememlier, a dining-room and which was also a kind of 
 music-room, and the other, next the Castle Inn, a Chinese 
 drawing-room, which was hardly ever opened — have been 
 erected two immense rooms, sixty feet by forty ; one for a 
 music-room and the other for a dining-room. They both 
 have domes ; an immense dragon suspends the lustre of one 
 of them. The music-room is most splendid, but I think the 
 other handsomer. They are both too handsome for Brighton, 
 and in an excessive degree too fine for the extent of His 
 Eoyal Ilighness's premises. It is a great pity that the 
 whole of this suite of rooms was not solidly Ijuilt in or near 
 London. The outside is said to be taken from the Krendin 
 at Moscow ; it seems to me to be copied from its own stables, 
 which perhaps were borrowed from the Kremlin. It is, I 
 think, an absurd waste of money, and will be a ruin in half a 
 century or sooner. 
 
 December 9th — The Prince not yet come, nor any reason 
 why not. I hope he has not got the gout. A miserable 
 rainy day but for a couple of dry hours before dinner ; walked 
 about, and bought some toys for my children — little darlings ■ 
 One reason why Mrs. Fitzherbert may like this place is that 
 she is treated as queen, at least of Brighton. They don't V 
 quite Highness her in her domestic circle, but they Mculain 
 her prodigiously, and stand up longer for her arrival than for 
 ordinary folks, and in short go as near to acknowledging her 
 for Princess as they can, witliout actually giving her the title. 
 AVhen she dines out she expects to be led out to dinner before 
 princesses — mighty foolish all this. The Duke of York still 
 keeps up a correspondence with her, for Seymour mentioned 
 that she had had a letter from his Poyal Highness this 
 morning. I dare say the Prince would not be much pleased 
 if he knew this.
 
 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. IV. 
 
 ^kcemhcr lOi'/i.— Eeturned to Minister House.* 
 Deccmhcr 13^^.— Rode to Cobham again and met Lord 
 Yarmouth who had come from Oatlands and arrived at 
 Brighton at 6. We were afraid of being obliged to dine at 
 the'' Pavilion, so we loitered on the road, and came into 
 Brighton, and dined quietly and slept at the Castle. 
 
 Scccmher 14:th. — After breakfast Blomfield called to scold 
 us for not going to the Pavilion at once, and to command us 
 on the part of his Eoyal Highness to come there. We went 
 there and walked through the rooms again and visited the 
 offices. The kitchen and larders are admirable — such con- 
 trivances for roasting, boiling, baking, stewing, frying, steam- 
 ino- and heating ; hot plates, hot closets, hot air , and hot 
 hearths, with all manner of cocks for hot water and cold 
 water, and warm water and steam, and twenty saucepans all 
 ticketed and labelled, placed up to their necks in a vapour 
 
 bath. . 
 
 Dined with his Eoyal Highness, eighteen at table, \az. : ihe 
 Prince, Ladies Liddell and Blomfield, and Mrs. Pelham, 
 Lords Hertford, Arran, Headfort, Carleton and Yarmouth, 
 Bishop of Exeter, Sirs AY. Keppel, B. Blomfield, Ed. Nagie, 
 Thomas Liddell, Col. Thornton, ]\Ir. Blomberg, Mr. Nash, and 
 myself We dined in the room which was once the hall and 
 two rooms of the original Pa\ilion, and the one dining-table 
 filled what was once the Prince's whole house. The Prince 
 was in good spirits— he said, " Lord St. Yincent is gone 
 -abroad only to marry ]\Iiss Knight, and to avoid^ the ridicule 
 of marrying her at home. He has disposed of all his landed 
 and much ^of his other property to his relations in the way 
 one might expect, but he has kept a large sum for himself, 
 which he intends to leave to this intended wife. She is sixty 
 past, and he past eighty." In the evening the new music-room 
 was lighted and the" band played, both magnificent — the band 
 TRiheY%rui/ant, and the music better heard from the next room 
 in my opinion. 
 
 There was a fine boar's head at the side table at dinner. 
 The Prince pressed Lord Hertford to eat some of it. He 
 refused, and the Prince said it was the only kind of bore that 
 Lord Hertford was not fond of; this is good, because Lord 
 Hertford has a real passion for persons whom everybody else 
 considers as bores. Got to our bed-rooms at half-past 12. 
 
 Deccmhcr loth. — Eode to Eottingdean, a poor little village, 
 
 * [Mr. Croker'6 house at Fulham.]
 
 -1818.] THE PBINCE REGENT AT BRIQHTOX. 127 
 
 dtli a couple of good summer lodging-houses. Our dinner 
 l)arty, twenty, tlie persons the same, with the omission of Sir 
 Tliomas and Lady Liddell, and tlie addition of Lady Hertford, 
 and Lord and Lady Cholmondeley. The dinners are dull 
 enough, they are too large for society and not quite crowded 
 enough for freedom, so that one is on a sort of tiresome good 
 behaviour. How much pleasanter it used to be with a dozen 
 at a circular table in the old dining-room. His lioyal Higli- 
 ness not looking well to-day. The fineness of the weather 
 does not tempt him abroad ; his great size and weight make 
 him nervous, and he is afraid to ride. I am not surprised at 
 it. I begin to fear that he never will ride again. He says, 
 " \Vliy should I ? I never had better spirits, appetite, and 
 health than when I stay within, and I am not so well when I 
 go aljroad." He seems as kind and gracious as usual to 
 everybody. The etiquette is, that before dinner when he 
 comes in, he finds all the men standing, and the women rise ; 
 he speaks to everybody, shakes hands with new comers or 
 particular friends, then desires the ladies to be seated. "When 
 dinner is announced, he leads out a lady of the highest rank 
 or wdien the ranks are nearly equal, or when the nominal 
 rank interferes a little %vith the real rank, as yesterday, with 
 Lady Liddell and Mrs. Pelham, he took one on each arm. 
 After dinner the new dining-room was lighted and he took 
 the ladies to see it. It is really beautiful, and I like it better 
 than the other, if I can venture to say that I prefer either. 
 Everybody was comparing them, and the praise of one was 
 always, as is usual in such cases, expressed by its superiorit}' 
 over the other. I ventured to say that this was not a fair 
 way of judging of them ; that though different they were, 
 perhaps, both equally beautiful in their respective kinds, like 
 a " handsome man and a handsome woman." Tins poor little 
 phrase had great success. [Note by Mr. Croker, 1821. — 
 " So great that I heard it tliis year attributed to Mr. Canning."] 
 The ceilings of both the rooms are spherical and yet there is 
 no echo. Nash says that he has avoided it by some new- 
 theory of sound, which he endeavoured to explain, and which 
 I did not understand, nor I believe he neither. The rooms are 
 as full of lamps as Hancock's shop. In the evening His Eoyal 
 Highness got the plans of the house to show Lady Hertford ; 
 she made a few criticisms, and I think the Prince was ready 
 enough to have restored the old entrance if her ladyship had 
 persisted in her opinion to that effect, but she retracted
 
 128 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. IV. 
 
 ^^^lau 
 
 kautement, when she saw a tendency to additional expense. 
 I think the tone between his Royal Highness and her ladyship 
 was somewhat aigrc-doux. She was against all additional: 
 expense. Yarmouth seems out of favour with papa and 
 mamma — they are certainly so with him — he is more sensible 
 to attentions than I thought him, and they do not spoil him 
 by too much fondness. From several expressions he has used, 
 T begin to think Lord Hertford would not permit him to con- 
 tinue in Parliament his own master. 
 
 Deccmhcr 16th. — Before dinner His Eoyal Highness told 
 me he had been reading "Walter Scott's edition of Swift, which,\ 
 and particularly the correspondence, greatly amused him ; 
 and above all he was surprised to find Dr. Sheridan's character 
 to be so exactly that of poor Sheridan. He said he thought 
 the best letters were Lord Bolingbroke's. I ventured to 
 mention Lady Betty Germain. " Oh yes," said the Prince, 
 " excellent, and the Duchess of Queensberry's very natural." 
 I had shown H.R.H. in the morning, a copy of a letter written 
 40 years ago by Mrs. Delany (widow of the Dr. Swift's friend) 
 giving an account of a visit of the Eoyal family to Bulstrode, 
 in which H.E.H. was mentioned ; he was pleased at this 
 revival of early recollections, and assured me every word of 
 the account was true. After dinner there w^as music as usual, 
 and H.E.H. made me sit down near him and he repeated to 
 me all that passed in Council on the subject of the men 
 executed yesterday for forgery, in wdiich Lord Liverpool's 
 opinion prevailed (against the new Chief Justice) to pardon 
 two, and to execute the law on the three unfortunates, who 
 died yesterday. The Cliief Justice seemed to think the whole 
 equally guilty. 
 
 The supper is only a tray with sandwiches, and wine andV 
 water handed about. The Prince played a hand or two at 
 Patience, and I was rather amused to hear liim exclaim loudly 
 when one of the kings had turned up vexatiously, " Damn 
 the king." 
 
 Mr. Croker occasionally made a note of anything he liad 
 heard or read which amused him, and the first small collec- 
 tion of this sort is to be found among his papers of 1818. It 
 may fitly be introduced by an extract from one of his own 
 letters to Lord Yarmouth: —
 
 1817-1818.] NOTES AND ANECDOTES. 129 
 
 I'll tell you a pleasant piece of Russian diplomacy. "When 
 Arcliduke Michael went to Ireland, he found that the Lord 
 Lieutenant, Vice Rcfjis, would not pay him the visit, and he 
 of course had to wait upon him. This was bad enough for a 
 proud stomach, but he was moreover afraid that he would 
 have been obliged /aire Vcuitichamhre and to avoid this affront, 
 he resolved to follow tlie huissicr at once wherever he went, 
 <[uite sure that it would lead him at once to the Viceroy's 
 presence. They accordingly stuck close to the poor foot- 
 man, and earthed him in Lady Talljot's dressing-room ; and 
 so the interview took place in her Ladyship's presence, and 
 in the midst of her dressing-box and eau-de-Cologne bottles — 
 and this was considered by the Tartar as a grand coup. 
 
 (From Mr. Crolccrs uVotehook.) 
 
 Mr. Bankes' manners in society are not very easy or agree- 
 able. He has just pul dished a history of Eome, whicli was 
 pronounced dull, " and yet," said Jekyll, " his liome is better 
 than his company."* 
 
 There is an inscription on the great Spanish mortar in the 
 park in no very classical Latin. Part of the ornaments on 
 the carriage are dogs' heads ; VTiiy dor/s heads ? " to account 
 for the Latin," said Jekyll. 
 
 The Sun office, in the Strand, was one of the first which 
 exhibited the fashion, since grown so common, of introducing 
 columns ; when it was noticed as a novelty, it was answered 
 that, on the contrary, it was a very ancient fashion — " Atria 
 soils erant sublimibus alta columnis." 
 
 Mr. Pepper, a gentleman well known in the Irish sporting 
 world, asked Lord Norbury to suggest a name for a very 
 fine hunter of his ; Lord Norbury, himself a good sportsman, 
 who knew that Mr. Pepper had had a fall or two, advised him 
 to call the horse " Pcppcrcastcr." 
 
 * [It need scarcely be said that at this period the ftxshionaLIc pronun- 
 ciation of the word was " Room." The work here referred to, by IMr. Henry 
 Bankes, M. P., was published in 1818, under the title of " The Civil and 
 Constitutional History of Rome, from the Foundation to the age of 
 Augustus."] 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 130 / THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. IV. 
 
 Mr. O'Connell, whose arrest by the civil power as he was 
 ''proceeding to meet Mr. Peel was supposed not to be quite 
 involuntary on his own part, was soon after arguing a law 
 point in the Common Pleas, and happened to use the phrase, 
 " I fear, my Lords, I do not make myself understood." " Go 
 on, go on, Mr. O'Connell," replied Lord ISTorbury, " no one is 
 more easily aijpreliendcd." 
 
 December, 1818. — AVe had made a, jmrtie carree to go down 
 with Lord Yarmouth to shoot in Suffolk. After it was 
 formed, Mr. Horace Seymour begged to be admitted as a 
 fifth. I supported his demand thus — 
 
 " To a party of four t'were unclassic to stint us, 
 Horatius, I think, has some right to be Quintus." 
 
 When we went to Prance immediately after Waterloo, we 
 found great difficulty in landing at Boulogne. The town 
 major took me almost into custody, and insisted on my going 
 to the Governor's. As we went along he was very vehement 
 in his assurances that the result of the recent battle had been 
 exaggerated ; the flower of the army was saved, and especially 
 the vieille r/arde was still in considerable force. I observed as 
 we walked along that there was not a regular soldier in the 
 town; and when we came to the Governor's, I found the 
 guard mounted by a party of the national guard of the place, 
 dressed in rags, smock-frocks, great coats, every thing but 
 uniform; and I verily believe the /oungest of the squad 
 must have been sixty. I had hitherto made no answer to 
 my conductor, but I now ^'entured to take my revenge by 
 saying — " Ce sont apparemment les restes de la vieille garde." 
 He looked as if he had a mind to run me through the body.
 
 ( 131 ; 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 1819. 
 
 Mr, Croker elected for Yarmoutli— Speech on the Catholic Claims — His 
 Opiuions on the Necessity of Concession — Parliamentary Reform — 
 The Right of large Manufacturing Towns to Representation — Repre- 
 sentations to Lord Liverpool — Mr. Croker as a Reformer — Literary 
 Work — -The Guardian Newspaper — Sir Walter Scott on the Project 
 — Mr. Croker 's Standing in the World of Letters — Criticisms on a 
 Tragedy — Advice to an Amateur Dramatist— jBZaci-t^oocZ's Magazine 
 —Byron's Application for a Consulship) — ' Don Juan ' — The Claims 
 of " one Pringle " — Mr. Peel and Specie Payments — Death of the 
 Duke of Richmond from Hydrophobia — Tlie Princess of Wales in 
 Paris — Southey on Freedom of the Press — Table Talk. 
 
 Mr. Croker did not succeed in liis first attempt to secure a 
 seat in Parliament for Dublin University, and it became 
 necessary for him, as the Secretary to the Admiralty, to find 
 some other constituency which would be willing to elect him. 
 This proved to be a matter of no great difficulty. With 
 the influence of the Hertford family on his side, he was 
 returned for Yarmouth, and wdien Grattan brought forward, 
 in May, his motion in favour of the Catholics, Mr. Croker 
 distinguished himself by delivering a speech of remarkable 
 vigour and eloquence. Mr. Spring liice, afterwards Lord 
 jMonteagle, bore emphatic testimony to the excellence of this 
 speech. 
 
 Mr. Spring Rice to Mr. Carey. 
 
 May 3rd, 1819. 
 
 My dear Carey, 
 
 I write to you from the House of Commons to Iia^-e the 
 pleasure of communicating pleasure to you. I liave just 
 
 K 2
 
 132 THE CHOKER PAPERS. [Chap. V. 
 
 heard your friend Croker, and you could not wish him or 
 any favourite of yours to have made a stronger or more 
 favourable impression upon the House. His speech was one 
 which was calculated to conciliate at this side of the Channel 
 and to gratify at the other. It was replete with ingenuity 
 and yet free from fanciful refniement. It was characterised 
 by an acuteness of legal deduction, and yet exempt from 
 sophistry or the pedantry of profession. It treated a worn- 
 out subject so as to make it appear a new one. But its 
 principal merit in my eyes lay in its frankness, warmth, and 
 sincerity. It redeemed the pledge and fulfilled the promise 
 of his ' Historical Sketch.' It sJiowed him to he an honest 
 Irishman no less than an ahle statesman. It showed him at 
 this moment to be disinterested, and ready to quit the road of 
 fortune under the auspices of his personal friend Peel, if the 
 latter was only to be conciliated by what Oxonians term 
 orthodoxy, and we Cantabs consider as intolerance. 
 
 All this pleased me exceedingly, and if it pleased me, it 
 must have delighted others, for you cannot but be aware that 
 I feel strongly and have cause to feel the peculiar unkind- 
 ness, and I will say the unfair unkindness, with which 
 Croker treated me. With all the faults he discovered in my 
 unfortunate ' Primitive Literarise/ he should have seen a dis- 
 position to do right, and he ought to have pardoned the 
 execution for the sake of the motive. I therefore cannot but 
 feel strongly hostile to the official reviewer— but this only 
 gives me an additional pleasure in doing full justice to the 
 talents he has displayed, and I only allude to the circum- 
 stances to give you a yet more favourable scale by which to 
 measure your friend's success. ... I cannot refuse to myself 
 or to you the pleasure of writing and of hearing the praise 
 of your friend, reserving to myself every right of future 
 hostility whenever it may be my fate to be able to descend 
 into those lists where he is so powerful a champion. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 T. SpKIXG PtICE. 
 
 Mr. Grattan's motion was lost by a vote of 243 noes to 241 
 ayes, and this was almost the last occasion upon which the 
 sreat orator was able to exert himself for the cause wliich he
 
 1819.] THE CATHOLIC QUESTION. 133 
 
 had so much at heart. In tho following year, just as he 
 was about to begin the long Ijattle over again, he was 
 struck down with tlie illness which proved fatal, but he 
 found strength to declare that the settlement of the question 
 was " essential to the permanent tranc^uillity and happiness 
 of the country." Tliis was substantially the view which 
 Mr. Croker had always taken. He enters fully into his 
 motive for dealing with the question on the particular occa- 
 sion now referred to in the following letters : — 
 
 Mr. Crol-cr to the Provost of DuUin University. 
 
 May -ith, 1S19. 
 
 My dear Sir, 
 You will perceive by the newspapers that I had last night 
 spoken on the Catholic question, l)ut I fear you will from 
 them form but a very imperfect opinion as to what I said. 
 I cannot conceal from myself that my sentiments on thi? 
 subject are at variance, at least in some points, with tliose of 
 some of my best and dearest friends, yourself amongst others ; 
 and I have tlierefore for many years declined to take any 
 part in the debates. It happened to me, however, as part of 
 my official duty, to have to introduce two years ago the Bill 
 admitting the Catholics to the Army and Navy ; in my 
 researches into the laws while framing that Act, I discovered 
 (or think I did) tliat the law was already wliat the Govern- 
 ment had consented to make it, and the Bill was in fact 
 brought in and passed at the desire of the Protestant part of 
 the Government, in order, I presume, to avoid any considera- 
 tion of a wider question. Since that time I pursued my 
 inquiries further, and I really found the whole state of the 
 law to be so strange and anomalous, so contradictory and 
 ineftective, that I could not reconcile it to my conscience nor 
 my honour to keep my discovery, for such I may call it, to 
 myself. I was not, however, hasty in bringing it forward, 
 nor did I bring it forward in a way to entrap or surprise the 
 advocates of "the Protestant cause. j\Ir. Peel, ]\Ir. Leslie 
 Poster, and the Attorney General of Ireland have been long 
 acquainted with my view of this (piestion, and I spoke last 
 night, by arrangement with Mr. I'eel and Mr. Foster, before
 
 134 THE CBOKER PAPERS. [Chap. V- 
 
 them, that they might detect any fallacy in my argument. 
 I was not speaking for victory, nor advocating the claims of 
 the Catholics ; I was apprising the Protestants of what I 
 conceive to be the state of the "law, and soliciting them to 
 examine for themselves. In all I have ever done or said, or 
 ever shall do or say, my first and greatest object is the 
 Protestant Church, " the most glorious combination," as I 
 said last night, " of the goodness of God, and the gratitude 
 and adoration of man ; of divine wisdom and of human 
 expediency that ever was exhibited upon earth, and I never 
 can approve the slightest concession to the Catholics that 
 can be inconsistent with the glory, the safety, and the as- 
 cendency of the Church." With these sentiments, and 
 placed under the peculiar circumstances in which I stood, 
 I trust that you will be of opinion tlmt I could not but 
 deliver my reasons for thinking that we ought to enter into 
 a reconsideration of the existing state of the laws, and that 
 my friends, even those who might differ from me as to the 
 details of the Catholic question, would be pleased at seeing 
 me take a new and important view of the subject, and com- 
 municating to both sides of the House information which it 
 had not before received. 
 
 Believe me, &c., 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 P.S. — Peel and Plunkett were hanging back, each un- 
 willing to speak first, and by accident both were precluded 
 from speaking, and the debate ended suddenly. 
 
 Mr. Croker to the Rev. C. Elrington. 
 
 May 21st, 1819. 
 
 My dear Charles, 
 
 I was not blind when I rose to second Grattan's motion to 
 the difficulties of all kinds to which I was likely to subject 
 myself, but the Act which I had brought in and passed two 
 years ago was become so prominent a feature in the discus- 
 sion, and its real meaning and effect were so little understood, 
 that I felt obliged in duty and honour to make an exposition 
 of the existing law, out of which that particular Act had 
 grown. 
 
 Besides, my sentiments had been known for these twenty
 
 1819.] rAnUAMENTARY BEFOItM. 135 
 
 years to be in favour of the Catholics, but I was anxious to have 
 it understood that I supported them, not on their own claims 
 or merits, but out of my anxiety for the Protestant estaljlish- 
 ment, wliich I look upon as more endangered Ijy their exclusion 
 than it could be by their admission. I lament from the 
 Ijottom of my heart this unliappy question whicli divides, not 
 only the Catholic and Protestant, but the Protestants 
 themselves ; but you may depend upon this, that I should be 
 so lost in cliaracter as to be totally unworthj^ of your 
 friendship and support, if, under all the circumstances of the 
 case, I had endeavoured to evade deliverinj,^ my opinion. 
 
 You may perhaps wonder why I seconded Grattan's motion ; 
 it was an odd circumstance. I had intended to have moved 
 an amendment upon his motion, whicli amendment would 
 only have gone to aj)pointing a Select Committee to inquire 
 what was the state of the law, and both Peel and Poster 
 were apprised of my intention ; but when we found Grattan's 
 motion, which we had not seen beforehand, pointing directly 
 to the same point of oaths and declarations, Foster thought, 
 and so did all who sat near me, that instead of moving an 
 amendment I could do nothing so properly as to second the 
 motion, particularly as I was desirous of opening to the 
 House as soon as possible my new view of the law, and of 
 giving both Peel and Poster, who were aware of what I had 
 to say, a full opportunity of answering me. In short, on a 
 review of the whole case, I am convinced that I could not 
 have done otherwise, and if you had been sitting by my side 
 you could not have advised me to any other course. 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 Another question of the day, on which Mr. Croker took a 
 more liberal view than the great majority of his party, was 
 that of Parliamentary Eeform. He was of opinion that 
 timely concessions would prevent unreasonable demands and 
 dangerous agitation at a later period, and moreover he 
 believed that such concessions were required alike by 
 considerations of justice and the interests of the country. 
 The chief manufacturing towns, which were then so rapidly 
 extending — Manchester and Birmingham, Sheffield and
 
 136 THE CEOKER PAPERS. [Chap. V. 
 
 Leeds — were entirely without representation in Parliament, 
 while numbers of small and corrupt boroughs were allowed to 
 elect two Members. Manchester at that time (1819) had a 
 population of 112,000 (in 1883, over 400,000). Birmingham 
 of 97,000 (now about 500,000), Leeds, 54,000 (now 309,000), 
 and Sheffield, 52,000 (now about 290,000). Mr. Croker saw 
 the necessity of giving to communities such as these their 
 proper representation in Parliament, and he drew up and 
 presented to Lord Liverpool a paper containing a list 
 of all the towns which contained a population of ten 
 thousand and upwards, and which sent no members to the 
 House of Commons. There were thirty-three towns thus 
 enumerated, many of them in the manufacturing districts, 
 and Mr. Croker urged their claims to one member at 
 least, if not more. He recommended that the Gram- 
 pound franchise, then forfeited through bribery, should 
 be " resumed," and given to Leeds and Sheffield, and that 
 the seats for East Pietford should be taken away and given 
 to Manchester and Birmingham. Lord Liverpool received 
 the proposition with indifference, and seems to have 
 taken no steps whatever towards carrying it out, although 
 the forfeited franchise of Grampound might at once have 
 been disposed of. In 1830, Mr. Croker substantially re- 
 peated his recommendations in a letter to Mr. Peel, but 
 afterwards, when much larger measures of Parliamentary 
 Eeform were brought forward, he opposed them with an 
 energy which astonished friends and foes alike. His reasons 
 will clearly appear from his correspondence of a later period ; 
 at present it will suffice to quote a fragment which is found 
 upon the margin of an old proof-sheet of a biographical 
 sketch of Mr. Croker, in which the writer had said that 
 " restlessness " was the great characteristic of the subject of 
 the memoir. Upon this Mr. Croker writes : —
 
 1819.] THE nEFOEM QUESTION. 137 
 
 I cannot presume to gainsay other people's opinion, but I 
 feel as if niv energy, or rather activity, ^vas not mere 
 " restlessness." I think that of all the men I have lived 
 with, I was, on the whole, the least inclined to mere clianrjc, 
 even of place — well inclined to be busy, but not, I think, rest- 
 less. ]\Iy first feeling, both in public and private, was quicta 
 own movcrc. I was ready and forward to improve the riio(hi>i 
 operandi, but I had a great reluctance to shake any admitted 
 principle — a principle once set in motion seemed to me an 
 avalanche that could not be stopped till it had expended 
 itself, and God would only know what mischief it might do 
 in its course. This was my main and innate objection to 
 the Wliig Eeform Bill — the reforms which I myself urged on 
 Lord Liverpool and Peel were so limited and guarded that 
 they involved no change, and were in fact a recurrence to ■ 
 existing principles and old constitutional practice. 
 
 I refused subsequently to make one of the Duke of 
 Wellington's attempted Cabinet in May 1831, which was to 
 have, adopted " a large measure of reform." I thought that 
 from Conservatives would have been not only a sacrifice of 
 private and puljlic character, l»ut would hasten and extend 
 the mischief even beyond what the "VVliigs could venture to d(j. 
 ^Peel and I walked out of a meeting at the Duke's together, 
 leaving Lyndhurst, Hardinge, Sutton, and one or two others 
 who were willing to make the experiment. The Duke 
 afterwards sent for me alone and was seriously angry that 1 
 was still ol)Stinate, but most unreasonably ; for exclusive of 
 my resolution to have nothing to do with tluis kind of reform 
 (I had been an old friend and advocate to the enfranchising 
 Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, and Sheffield with the forfeited 
 franchises of Grampound, Penryn, East Petford, and another 
 delinquent borough, and had proposed and prepared a sclieme 
 for doinsj so in 1820, which the then Cabinet had almost 
 agreed to), I say besides that resolution, 1 had on our general 
 resignation in i^Tovember, 1830, apprised both the Duke and 
 Peel that I would never take political office again. 
 
 Xothing, then, came of Mr. Croker's attempt to anticipate 
 the inevitable agitation on the Eeform question, and there 
 is no evidence that he took any further active part in 
 politics during the remainder of this year. It is once 
 more to literature that he appears to have devoted his leisure
 
 138 THE CROEEB PAPERS. [Chap. V. 
 
 hours, and in the autumn he was engaged '^'ith his usual 
 ardour in that most dangerous of all experiments — the 
 attempt to establish a new paper. A title which has always 
 been a favourite with projectors of Conservative journals — 
 the " Constitution " — was originally thought of, but it was 
 changed, on Mr. Croker's suggestion, to the " Guardian." 
 The first number was bad, as a matter of course. Mr. Croker 
 explained the whole affair, and supplied incidentally a defi- 
 nition of what he understood by the phrase " Toryism," 
 in letters to Mr. Lockhart and Sir Walter Scott. 
 
 Mr. Croker to Mr. J. G. Lockhart. 
 
 Is'ovember 18tli, 1819. 
 SlE, 
 
 I trust that the mutual converse of our common friends 
 has so far made us acquainted as to justify me in taking the 
 liberty of writing to you without having had the pleasure of 
 a personal introduction to you. The occasion is this. Some 
 literary gentlemen have determined to set up a weekly paper 
 on principles diametrically opposite to the weekly journals 
 which are now in vogue, that is, principles of morality, loyalty, 
 respect for constituted authorities, &c. — in short, Toryism. It 
 is intended that this paper should be not merely a polemical 
 one, but should also be in other respects an entertaining and 
 useful newspaper. Now what I have to request of your kind- 
 ness is, that you will communicate this design to Mr. Wilson, 
 and that you will both favour this new undertaking with the 
 assistance of your pens. If the principles and conduct of the 
 Constitution (the intended name of the paper) shall appear to 
 you and Mr. Wilson to deserve your support, I cannot doubt 
 that the Whigs and Reformers in Scotland will afibrd you an 
 ample field and plenty of game. 
 
 The Eev. Mr. Croly, author of ' Paris,' and some other works, 
 is the editor and joint proprietor ; the son of Mr. Street, of 
 the Courier, is the other proprietor, and though I cannot at all 
 answer for the talents they may exhibit, I think I can venture 
 to promise that their principles will be such as we can approve. 
 
 You will see that for obvious reasons I have not been 
 authorized to mention this matter to Mr. Blackwood, and I
 
 1819.] A NEW TORY rAFEB. 139 
 
 think it will be better that lie should not l)e troubleil with it ; 
 he has qnite enough on his shouhlers already. For the same 
 reasons it has not been communicated to ]\Ir. ]\Iurray ; but as 
 much of the success of the paper will depend upon its adver- 
 tisements, we must have an an;ent in Scotland to collect 
 advertisements and subscriptions ; you perhaps would 
 have the goodness to point out some one to whom the pro- 
 prietors might address themselves for this purpose. It would 
 not be necessary that you should interfere with this person, 
 but that you should "^acquaint me through what channel 
 Mr. Croly might apply for this assistance. 
 
 Walter Scott to Mr. Crokcr. 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 [Without date.] 
 
 My dear Croker, 
 
 I had yours with the Prospectus. Xo doubt suljscriptions 
 will Ije found here, and advertisements will follow circula- 
 tion. Circulation, however, will depend on the labour 
 exerted, and, frankly, you must exert yourself to get support. 
 What is Canning doing ? He must not wear the kerchief 
 now, if possible. The prospectus is extremely well written. 
 Support it in the same strain, and it will do. But as it 
 requires a strong man to jostle through a crowd, so it demands 
 a well supported paper to make its way through the scores 
 that set up pretensions to public favour. But strength will 
 conquer in both cases, and though we shall do all that is 
 possible in Scotland, yet the main impulse must be given 
 from London. In the meanwhile, to show we are not quite 
 idle, I send you a " Vision " * which has made a little noise 
 amongst us, and which is to be followed by others adapted 
 to the times. 
 
 Our manufacturing districts are in a sad state ; indeed, as 
 bad as it is possible to be. But I have no great fear of the 
 result. The people of property, by which I mean all who 
 have anything to lose, however little that may be, are takmg 
 the alarm, and mustering fast. 
 
 But I need say tlie less of these matters as I hope, unless 
 unforeseen events should keep me at my post, to l)e in town 
 
 * [Three essaj-s on certain popular delusions, published in December, 
 1819, and January, 1820.]
 
 140 THE CBOKER PAPERS. [Chap. Y. 
 
 about the New Year, when we will have tmie to talk over 
 these as well as over more agreeable subjects. 
 
 Ever most truly yours, 
 
 Walter Scott. 
 
 Mr. Crohcr to Walter Scott. 
 
 December 13tli, 1819. 
 
 My dear Scott, 
 
 Pray don't judge of the Guardian by its first silly number. 
 Our editor, a man of great talents, is, I find, a bad drudge ; 
 ] )ut I hope next numljer to force him into a better course in 
 spite of his mulishness. Moii Dien, said the French woman, 
 cjue les gens d'esprit sont hetcs. Such is our editor. 
 
 Your " Vision " I had before, and intended to have inserted 
 lialf of it in our first number, but the article on the Duke of 
 Hamilton was too long to admit the other, and too important 
 to be omitted. Ours being a weekly paper, must of necessity 
 deal in short articles. I therefore intend to cut yours in 
 two, and I do entreat and beg of you that you will send me 
 some more of the same kind ; but if possible don't exceed 
 half a column at a time ; as many half columns as you please, 
 but always half columns. We find that long articles in 
 Sunday papers have a bad effect. If you Scots will take up 
 the Guardian and make it your vehicle, it will soon make its 
 way in Scotland, and with tenfold greater effect than a mere 
 Scottish publication. 
 
 Yours, &c., 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 Walter Scott to Mr. Crokcr. 
 
 Edinburgh, December ITtb, 1819. 
 
 My dear Croker, 
 
 l7iter arma silent Musa: — I fear the sharp temper of the 
 times will not be put down by our literary exertions. How- 
 ever, they shall not be wanting. We are gathering and 
 arming fast here, and I expect to be obliged to go to the 
 country to bring out those with whom I may hope to have 
 some influence. They are, liigh and low, extremely loyal, 
 and ready to take arms ; and if Cumberland and Northumber-
 
 1819.] ADVICE TO AN AUTHOR. 141 
 
 land be but half, so bad as you say in London, it is time the 
 })leasant men of Teviotdale were in motion. If times sliould 
 turn worse, I h(.)i)e that my son Walter may liave leave of 
 absence from his regiment, as he might be of great use witli 
 us. In the meantime there is much distress in my family. 
 On Monday my mother was struck with a paralytic affection, 
 from which, at the age of eighty-seven, her recovery is not to 
 be expected ; and what is very extraordinary, her brother 
 (my uncle, a most respectable and excellent pliysician) died 
 suddenly on Tuesday morning. ]\Iy aunt, the only remaining 
 member of the family, is dangerously ill ; and as we lived on 
 terms of great affection, we are much distressed. So it may 
 be some time before I can help the Chiardian effectiially. 
 I have not seen it yet. Will you hand to the Editor the 
 subscriptions on the other side ? 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 Walter Scott. 
 
 Mr. Croker's reputation as a man of letters had grown and 
 spread every year since his appearance in London, and it is 
 evident from his correspondence that authors of all degrees of 
 merit were accustomed to send their productions to him for 
 an " opinion," and that in many cases he took a great deal ol' 
 pains to give it, always with perfect frankness, and yet with 
 a kindness of heart which was a characteristic of his nature, 
 although he did not invariably 'allow this side of his dis- 
 position to appear in his published writings. On one 
 occasion, somebody sent him a long play to read, and 
 although it seems to have been worthless stuff, ]\Ir. Croker 
 wrote a careful letter of criticism and good advice to the 
 author, the criticism on the play Ijeing marked by all his 
 accustomed keenness and sense of humour, while the asperi- 
 ties of his more formal reviews were mercifully omitted. 
 The author had, it would appear, appealed in a sort of intro- 
 duction for " patronage ;" and he asked for this, by way of 
 making more sure of getting it, in two languages, English 
 and Latin. " But," Mr. Croker tells him, you demand that 
 ■which " I cannot give you, which no man can give you. The
 
 142 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. Y. 
 
 public is the only patron nowadays. If you have talents, 
 nothing can keep you down ; if you have not, no partiality 
 can raise you." With regard to the play itself — it was 
 a tragedy — he wrote : " Let it not mortify you if I say that if 
 a manager were to ask my advice on a similar piece, I should 
 not advise him to produce it. The first, and the second, and 
 the third requisites in a tragedy are, in my humble judgment, 
 interest, interest, interest. The poetry, and the j^lan, and 
 the persons are all secondary considerations ; the persons 
 may be faultless, the plan regular, the poetry beautiful, and 
 yet there may be no interest ; and if there be not, it never 
 can succeed on the stage. . . . Why should all the person- 
 ages of your play be poets ? Why cannot an old Spanish 
 captain see the sun set without comparing him to a bride- 
 groom ? Why cannot the general of a besieging army look 
 at a town without talking of ' gilding its towering walls ? ' 
 Why must one lady invoke memory to ' wear the rugged 
 etchings of despair from a cold heart of rock ? ' and why 
 must another talk of a warm bath as l)eing ' lassitude divine, 
 that wings the soul for Paradise ? ' " To sweeten this whole- 
 some but doubtless unpleasant medicine, Mr. Croker offered 
 to pay half the expense of publishing the tragedy, if the 
 author still thought the public were waiting to extend 
 a greeting to him. But he advised him not to place his 
 dependence on literature. " In former days," he wrote, " in 
 which we read so much of the miseries of authors, it would 
 be hard to name a man of talents and good conduct who 
 did not rise to respectability and a competence, if not to 
 affluence. And nowadays, although we never hear of 
 fortunes made by literature, we should find, I fear, on inquiry 
 that there is in the lower ranks of authors as much misery 
 as ever." Mr. Croker held the same opinion on this 
 subject as Sir Walter Scott, who was accustomed to say that 
 literature might do well enough as a staff, but was worthless
 
 1819.] BLACKWOOD'S MAGAZINE. 143 
 
 as a crutch. And yet Scott could make £24,000 liy cue 
 novel, and he is believed to have realised from his peu no 
 less a sum than £500,000. 
 
 One of Mr. Croker's valued correspondents on literary 
 matters was Mr. William Blackwood, the founder of the 
 celebrated magazine, whose list of eontributnrs would be 
 found to include some of the most famous names of tlie 
 present century. ]\Ir. Blackwood always invited j\Ir. Croker 
 to express a frank and free ojiinion of "Maga," and Mr. 
 Croker generally complied with his wishes. 
 
 3Tr. Crol'cr to Mr. W, BlacTxicood 
 
 August 24th, 1819. 
 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 I have received your last number, and in return the best 
 kind of thanks I can give you is my honest opiiuon of its 
 merits. 
 
 As a series of essays, critical and humorous, it is excellent ; 
 but in this part of the world we think there is too much 
 criticism and humour for a magazine. In a work of this 
 kind we expect curious facts and miscellaneous information. 
 
 Professed reviews should l)e left to the professed reviewers ; 
 and allow me to say, that the personal and local pleasantry 
 which is so abundant in your magazine, and which, I have 
 no doubt, must be delightful in Edinburgh and Glasgow, is 
 here scarcely understood, and in Ireland I have some reason 
 to know that it is a perfect puzzle. You can best judge the 
 state of your sale, but you may depend upon it that in 
 England we should like your magazine better if it were more 
 magazinish. The fact is, you are too strong ; your contri- 
 butors are too able ; they melt down into a monthly pampldet 
 the materials which would furnish out perennial volumes. 
 I am, as they are, fond of angling ; and I can well imagine 
 the pleasure they have in hooking the huge Whigs, and, in 
 spite of their floundering efforts, dragging them to light and 
 safely l)asketing them. But fishing for men, as for fishes, 
 should not be your daily employment but your occasional 
 amusement; and your notices of literary works shuidd be
 
 144 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. V. 
 
 short, light, and piquant. The last quality you have 
 at will. 
 
 Excuse my presumption in intruding these suggestions. 
 I make them sincerely, and out of the interest which I take 
 in the success of your magazine, admiring, as I do, the 
 principles and talents which support it. 
 
 Yours, &c., 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 In the latter part of the year, Lord Byron w^'ote to 
 Mr. Murray from Bologna asking him to get a consul's or 
 vice-consul's appointment for a friend of his at Eavenna — 
 it is now understood, for the Count Guiccioli. " Will you," 
 he said, "get a favour done for me? You can, by your 
 Government friends, Croker, Canning, or my old school- 
 fellow Peel, and I can't. Here it is. Will you ask them tO' 
 appoint {without salary or emolument) a noble Italian (whom 
 I will name afterwards) consul or vice-consul for Eavenna ? 
 He is a man of very large property — noble, too; but he 
 wishes to have a British protection, in case of changes. . . . 
 His motive is a British protection in case of new invasions. 
 Don't you think Croker would do it for us ? . . . Perhaps a 
 brother wit in the Tory line might do a good turn at the 
 request of so harmless and long absent a Whig, particularly 
 as there is no salary or burthen of any sort to be annexed 
 to the office."* Mr. Croker was confined to his house by 
 some passing ailment when Mr. Murray forwarded this 
 request to him, but it will be seen that the " Tory " lost no. 
 time in endeavouring to serve the " Whig." 
 
 Mr. Crohcr to Mr. Murray. 
 
 September lotli, 1819. 
 
 Dear Mureay, 
 My illness is neither serious nor painful, and it is quite 
 a waste of pity to throw it away upon me at present. I am 
 
 * [Moore's ' Life of Byron,' vol. ii. pp. 493-91.]
 
 1819.] IJUID BYllON. 145 
 
 in Led, indeed, but it is only because my apothecary has 
 given me a sudorific. 
 
 In spite of my confinement, however, I liave had an 
 opportunity of inquiring how Lord Byron's wishes about the 
 FVcc-Consul can be effected. Consul is out of the question, 
 for we have a Consul-General at Venice ; but the Vice- 
 Consular alternative may be achieved without much diffi- 
 culty. Vice-Consuls are not appointed at home ; if they 
 were, I should not have had the least liesitation in asking- 
 Lord Castlereagh, even though you had published 'Don 
 Juan ' without an erasure. Tories are placable people ; and 
 of all Tories, Castlereagh the most so ; but as I said, he has 
 nothing to do with the appointments of Vice-Consuls ; they 
 are named by the Consuls, and only approved (generally as 
 a matter of course) at the Foreign Office. Now our Venetian 
 Consul is no other than Gifford's protetje Iloppner, and a 
 line from the former to the latter will insure the nomina- 
 tion, and a line from you to me, when the said nomination 
 is sent home for approval will insure, I should hope, its final 
 success. 
 
 Thank you for the perusal of the letter;* it is not very 
 good, but it will vex these old women of British critics, 
 which perhaps is all the autluu- intended. I told you from 
 the first moment that I read ' Don Juan,' that your fears had 
 exaggerated its danger. I say nothing about what may have 
 been suppressed; but if you had published 'Don Juan' with- 
 out hesitation or asterisks, noljody Avould have ever thought 
 worse of it than as a larger Beppo, gay and lively and a 
 little loose. Some persons would have seen a strain of satire 
 running beneath the gay surface, and might have been vexed 
 or pleased according to their temper ; but there would have 
 been no outcry either against the puljlisher or author. 
 
 Yours, iSrc, 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 Mr. Crohcr to Mr. Murray. 
 
 Eyde, July 18th, 1819. 
 
 Dear Murray, 
 
 I am agreeal)ly disappointed at finding ' Don Juan ' very 
 little offensive. It is by no means worse than ' Childc 
 
 * [Byron's ' Letter to the Editor of My Grandmother's Eeview.'j 
 YOL. I. " L
 
 146 THE CROKEB PAPER S. [Chap. V. 
 
 Harold/ which it resembles as comedy does tragedy. There 
 is a prodigious power of versification in it, and a great deal 
 of very good pleasantry. There is also some magnificent 
 poetry, and the shipwreck, though too long, and in parts 
 very disgusting, is on the whole finely described. In short, 
 I think it will not lose him any character as a poet, and, on 
 the score of morality, I confess it seems to me a more inno- 
 cent production than ' Childe Harold.' "WHiat ' Don Juan ' 
 may become by-and-bye I cannot foresee, but at present 
 I had rather a son of mine were Don Juan than, I think, 
 any other of Lord Byron's heroes. Heaven grant he may 
 never resemble any of them. 
 
 I had Crabbe's tales with me on shipboard, and they 
 were a treasure. I never was so much taken with any- 
 thing. The tales are in general so well conducted that, in 
 prose, they would be interesting as mere stories ; but to this 
 are added such an admirable case and force of diction, such 
 good pleasantry, such high principles, such a strain of poetry, 
 such a profundity of observation, and such a gaiety of illus- 
 tration as I never before, I think, saw collected. He imagines 
 his stories with the humour and truth of Chaucer, and tells 
 them with the copious terseness of Dryden, and the tender 
 and thoughtful simplicity of Cowper. This high commen- 
 dation does not apply to the whole of the tales, nor, perhaps, 
 to the whole of any one. There are sad exceptions here and 
 there, which might easily be removed, but on the wdiole it is 
 a delightful book. 
 
 ]\Ir. Gifford has set me Leigli Hunt as a task. He asks 
 but two or three pages, and I shall see what I can do this 
 evening, but I had rather have let it alone. 
 
 ^O' 
 
 Yours ever, 
 
 J. W. Crokek. 
 
 Another application arrived about the same time from 
 Walter Scott, under circumstances which cannot possibly 
 be better told than by Mr. Croker himself in the following 
 letter : —
 
 1819.] A NEW " TALE OF JIY LANDLOItBr 147 
 
 Mr. Crohcr to Mr, Goulhurn. 
 
 September 8th, 1819. 
 DEAli GOULBUKX, 
 
 " Accept a miracle instead of wit." I send you a very dull 
 and almost illegible piece of Walter Scott's composition, but 
 dull and difficult as it is, I hope his name and my request 
 will induce you to wade through the enclosed packet. 
 
 The argument of tliis new 'Tale of my Landlord' is as 
 follows : — 
 
 One Pringle, a Scotch Tory, born lame, dedicates himself to 
 literature — sets up a magazine — quarrels with his publisher — 
 is turned off, abused and ridiculed. Sets up a new magazine 
 in opposition to the former, engages with the new publisher 
 for a salary for five years, on the strength of which he 
 marries, computing, as it would seem, that his marriage and 
 all its consequences must be ended before five years. The 
 new publisher as bad as the old — another dismissal — tlie wife 
 breeds copiously — the little all of tlie increasing family 100/., 
 which, however, is to last l)ut two years — present difficulties — 
 dreadful prospects — desperate projects — emigration to Canada 
 or the Cape — prefers Canada — changes his mind — prefers the 
 Cape — how to get there ? Applies to Walter Scott, for whom 
 he bad done some little literary jobs — and on whose family lie 
 had some kind of dependence — sets forth his wishes and his 
 means — the former a grant of land — tlie latter 500/., and a 
 dozen experienced farmers and their wives, his own relations 
 or servants. Walter Scott receives the proposal, and conveys 
 it to the first Lord of the Admiralty. His Lordship advises 
 Scott to interest Mr. Croker, who can interest Mr. Goulburn, 
 who can interest Lord Bathurst, who can interest Lord 
 Charles Somerset to do something for the interest of the 
 intended colony of the Pringles. 
 
 Croker, who was himself bored with reading three long 
 letters and one short one on the subject, writes a longer 
 letter than any of them to Goulburn, and bores him with 
 the whole galiamatias. Goulburn in a rage ^^Tites a hasty 
 refusal without reading the letters; next day dreadfully 
 wet, can't go abroad ; thinks he may as well endeavour to 
 decipher Walter Scott's letter, and wade through Pringle's. 
 Does so in two hours, ten minutes, fifteen seconds. Writes 
 a favourable answer to say the proposals promise reasonably 
 
 L 2
 
 148 THE CHOKER PAPERS. [Chap. V, 
 
 well, and that he will do all he can. Croker acquamts Scott — 
 Scott tells Pringle. Pringle in ecstasies of joy runs to tell 
 his wife, big with child, — rapture accelerates her labour. 
 She is brought to bed of a fine boy, who is christened Henry- 
 Scott-Bathurst-Goulburn Pringle. 
 
 Finis of the 1st volume. 
 
 Yours ever, 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 There are, as it has been stated, scarcely any references 
 to political matters or to public affairs of any kind in Mr, 
 Croker's correspondence of this year. He seems to have 
 taken no part in the numerous discussions which arose 
 in the House on financial questions, and he makes no 
 allusion to the appointment of his friend Mr. Peel as Chair- 
 man of the Committee to " consider the state of the Bank 
 of England, with reference to the expediency of the resump- 
 tion of cash payments at the period fixed by law." It was- 
 probably supposed that Peel would advocate the continued 
 suspension of cash payments, and Mr. Wynn wrote at the 
 time, " Peel, who is Chairman of the Bank Committee, pro- 
 fesses, I find, to have as yet formed no opinion on the subject^ 
 but to be 023cn to conviction ; and the same is the language 
 of the Duke of Wellington."* We now know, however, that 
 Peel had very decided opinions, and that they were quite 
 opposite to those wliich had been attributed to him. He was 
 in favour of cash payments, the rest of the Committee agreed 
 with him, the House adopted its plans, and the Bank resumed 
 specie payments in 1821. This was Peel's first success in the 
 field where he was afterwards to make so great a reputation ; 
 and it can only be owing to some accident that no record of 
 it appears in any form among Mr. Croker's papers. He was 
 
 ♦ The ' BuckiDgham Papers ' — the ' Eegeucy,' vol ii. p. 303.
 
 1819.] THE DUKE OF RICHMOND. 140 
 
 not idle, as may be seen from his letters dealing with the 
 general topics of tlie day. 
 
 ^1//'. Crohcr to Lord Yarmouth, 
 
 October 8th, 1819. 
 
 My dear Y., 
 
 There is no longer any doubt that the poor Duke of rdch- 
 niond died oi hydrophobia, and as little that it was caused by 
 the bite of a tame fox which had been irritated. The first 
 symptom he showed was on the 23rd of August, when he 
 wished to drink some wine and water, but could not ; how- 
 ever, neither he nor any one else minded it ; next day he 
 found some difficulty in w^ashing himself, but he dined and 
 drank some wine as usual ; he even had company with hun ; 
 the third day he desired to be placed in a canoe and was 
 rowed on the water, but he soon found the agony greater than 
 he coidd bear, and was forced to come ashore. On the 2Gth 
 and 27th the disorder was no longer to be mistaken ; the 
 horrible convulsions came on, and during the intervals his 
 mind was quite collected. He dictated messages to his 
 family and friends, but every now and then fresh convulsions 
 disordered his frame and intellect, and at last he died on 
 the 28th, quite exliausted and without a struggle. 
 
 This is but a fanit sketch of this most melancholy event, 
 which is a new proof of the horrors of this mysterious disease. 
 His attendants doubted whether the disease arose from the 
 bite of the fox, or from his having caressed a favourite dog 
 seven months before, which had been bitten by another dog. 
 I have no doubt the former w^as the cause. 
 
 Yours, &c., 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 Mr. Crohcr to his Wife. 
 
 We talked of the Duke of Eichmond's death, and Lady 
 Hamilton told us that she had been bitten at Bruxelles about 
 four years ago by a little dog that w^as said to have been 
 bitten by a mad dog, and of course you may judge that slie 
 was very uneasy ; but the poor Duke, who was there, ridiculed 
 her terrors, and said that there was no such thing as hydro- 
 phobia, that he had been all his life in kennels and amongst
 
 150 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. V.. 
 
 dogs, and bitten a hundred times, and a thousand times had 
 seen people l^itten, and that he never saw a case of hydro- 
 phobia ; and, in short, he thought it all falsehood and fancy, 
 and he never saw Lady Hamilton after without inquiring jest- 
 ingly whether she was afraid of water. 
 
 I must tell you another anecdote of the poor Duke which 
 Sir Hugh told me, and which is singular of a man of his 
 rank. He died, we know, in a barn — but it seems he was also 
 born in a barn. His mother. Lady Louisa, was taken iR 
 when on a fishing party, and there was only time to carry" 
 her to a neighbouring farmyard, where the Duke was born. 
 
 Mr. Crohcr to Lord Yarmouth. 
 
 Xovember 6th, 1819. 
 
 Dear Y,, 
 
 Here I am once more in England, after an absence of 
 twenty days, fourteen of which in Paris. You are as little 
 interested as I am informed on the subject of French politics, 
 and therefore I shall say nothing on that head; and on those 
 subjects on which you might desire to know something, I fear 
 I am still more ignorant. I passed my time between book 
 shops and the play-houses, and a few people whom I had 
 business with ; and, in short, I am come back from Paris no 
 wiser than I went. All that 1 did hear was about ourselves. 
 Eebellion, revolution, what not, at home ; and then her lioyal 
 Highness the Princess of Wales made a great figure in the 
 " on dits " of Paris. I myself pay little attention to scandal- 
 ous stories, and forget them as fast as I hear them, but Stuart 
 told me that she was come to Lyons to meet Brougham ; and 
 that Lord Essex had gone to Lyons to see her, that she 
 thought he was come a deputy from the Whigs, but he unde- 
 ceived her. She is gone to Marseilles or Montpellier. In 
 truth, she is quite mad, and that will appear one of those days 
 with so much edat as to remove all doubts and difficulties. 
 
 The French Government were embarrassed what to do with 
 her, but they at last sent her a message " that she could not 
 be received at Court without the concurrence of the British 
 Ambassador, and as he had stated that he could not present 
 her, the King would see her arrival at Paris with great pain." 
 This, you see, was not a positive refusal, but it was accom- 
 panied with a secret order to the Prefet to delay granting pass-
 
 1819.] THE DUKE OF YOL'K. 151 
 
 ports. Before, however (Stuart says, l.ut I fear not), this 
 message arrived she had already gone oil' towards ^Marseilles, 
 so that she is supposed to know iKjthing of ; so nnieh the 
 better; but I cannot but think tiiat it either has reached or 
 will reach her; and that we shall have this added to the list 
 of grie^'ances. 
 
 From Mr. Crolrrs Notc-Bools. 
 
 Dined Avith tlie Diike of York at Lord Yarmouth's. It is 
 said in the life of Frederick the Great, that he preserved his 
 health and intellect till within two days of his death 
 (17th August, 1786). His Koyal Higlniess, however, told us\ 
 that when he was at Berlin in 1785, he dined with the King 
 at a numerous dinner (the late Lord Cornwallis was there). 
 Frederic had never been more lively or entertaining; after 
 dinner he retired as usual, and left his guests to their coffee ; 
 but he had hardly left the room, when he dropped down in an 
 apoplectic fit. This, however, was not known at the time. 
 Next morning the Duke was on the parade as usual to meet 
 the King, when the Prince Eoyal, who was only a Lieu- 
 tenant-General, asked him whether he had not had an invita- 
 tion to dine with the King ; the Duke said yes ; the Prince 
 replied, that he feared they should not have His ]\Iajesty's 
 company, as he w^as ill, but that no notice was to be taken of 
 it. So they sat down — eight — to dinner ; and a strange and 
 melancholy dinner it was ; everybody knew that the master 
 was dying in the next room, but no one was to take notice of 
 what they were all thinking of. Then the Prince lloyal was 
 at table — a secondary kind of person — for as all was regulated 
 by military rank, the old General at the head of the table 
 (I forget his name) commanded him, and every time the door 
 opened they expected to hear their companion saluted King. 
 The King, however, did not die then, nor for some months 
 after ; but he never dined in company again. 
 
 The Duke said that but one of the peers had a distinct seat 
 in the House of Lords, namely, the Junior Baron. His place 
 is fixed, for as in all processions, &c., the Premier goes first, 
 he takes his lowest place (which is on the last bench on the 
 right hand next the gangway), and then all the other lords 
 who appear take their places in succession ; and the Duke 
 mentioned occasions on which, by this process, he, coming 
 last, got no seat at all.
 
 152 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. V. 
 
 The Duke said he had no doubt that he was Earl of Eoss 
 in Scotland ; Lord Lauderdale thought so too. The claim is 
 that Charles I. (while his brother was alive) and the second 
 son of the King of Great Britain for the time being, was 
 created Earl of Eoss. It seems that there were also great 
 estates annexed to this title, a part of which constitutes the 
 wealth of the House of Athol. The Duke consulted Lord 
 Thurlow about prosecuting this claim ; but he dissuaded him, 
 as it was likely to be invidious and unpopular. I was sur- 
 prised to find the Duke of York and Albany and Earl of 
 Ulster, Field Marshal, Commander-in-Chief, Guardian of the 
 King's sacred person, &c., so anxious as he happened to be 
 about the Earldom of Eoss, which was, he said, only a feather, 
 but a feather which he wished to stick in his cap. I told 
 him that if the estate might be recovered with it, I should 
 think it worth looking after, and that then his Eoyal High- 
 ness would have both the cap and the feather. 
 
 We had a very pleasant dinner, but rather too much wine. 
 There were Lord Lauderdale, Colonel Cooke, Mr. Byng, 
 Mr. Luttrell, Mr. Eaikes. It was like the dinner at Sans 
 Souci — a dinner of eight — but rather pleasanter. 
 
 When Adair, whose father was a surgeon, went as Fox's 
 Ambassador to Eussia, Lord Whitworth, then the King's 
 Minister, made a good joke, which tended not a little to 
 lower Adair and to defeat his object. " Est-ce un homme 
 tres considerable, ce M. d' Adair ? " asked the Empress. " Pas 
 trop, Madame," replied Lord Whitworth, " quoique son pere 
 etait grand seigneur \_saigneur'\." 
 
 Old Languet, the celebrated Cure of St. Sulpice, was 
 remarkable and disagreeable for the importunity with which 
 he solicited subscriptions for finishing his church, which is 
 not yet finished. One day at supper, where Cardinal de 
 Fleury was, he happened to say that he had seen his Emi- 
 nence's portrait at some painter's. The old Cardinal, who was 
 stingy in private as well as economical in public expendi- 
 ture, was glad to raise a laugh at the troublesome old cure, 
 and replied, " I dare swear, then, you asked it (the picture) 
 to subscribe ; " " Oh, no, my Lord," said Languet, " it was too 
 like!" 
 
 One day an officer came very late to dinner at Talley- 
 rand's, an unusual negligence in France where everybody is 
 exact. He made a kind of impertinent apology, alleging 
 that he had been delayed by a jpequin, the nickname wliich
 
 1819.] DINNER-TABLE ANECDOTES. 153 
 
 French soldiers give civilians. M. Talleyrand, himself a 
 peqiiin, asked what a 'ptqidn ^vas ; "Nous appelons pdquin," 
 replied the Hector, "tout ce qui n'est pas militaire." "Ah! 
 ah ! " replied Talleyrand, " c'est comme nous, nous appelons 
 militaire tout ce qui n'est pas civile." This joke is even 
 better in English than in French. 
 
 AVe were wondering at Lord Stafford's giving up the 
 county as he did, and still more how a canvass of a few days 
 could cost him twenty thousand pounds, which it was said to 
 have done. "Why," said somebody, "in the first place he 
 secured all the carriages in the county" — "including mis- 
 carriage," added Jekyll. 
 
 There have been disputes pending between Baden and 
 Bavaria these two years, which, contemptible as they were 
 compared with the great European system, were yet so 
 serious as to threaten that part of Germany with war. Some 
 one was lamenting the likelihood of hostilities in presence of 
 M. de Talleyrand. " Eassurez vous, mon ami," said the 
 Prince, " toutes ces dissensions ne sont que badinage et 
 bavardage." 
 
 Lady Warrender told me one day that her alliance with 
 Sir George was a crying proof of the falsehood of the proverlj 
 " that marriages were made in heaven." I ventured, as she 
 had taken a laughing tone about it, to say that, on the con- 
 trary, I thought it a strong proof of a providential arrange- 
 ment, as there would otherwise have been two unhappy 
 couples instead of one. She laughed very good-humouredly 
 but I believe the joke was plain truth.
 
 154 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. VI. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 1820. 
 
 Mr. Croker's Diary — Death of the Duke of Kent — And of George III. — 
 Illness of George IV.— The King's domestic Affairs — Scandals con- 
 cerning the Queen — The Prayers in the Liturgy — Difficulties with the 
 Cabinet — Funeral of George III. — The Cato Street Conspiracy — ■ 
 Dinner of the Royal Academy — A Visit to Cornwall — Mr. Croker 
 elected for Bodmin — Visit of Sir Walter Scott to London — Orator 
 Hunt — Mr. Peel on the changed Tone of Public Opinion regarding 
 Parliamentary Reform — Probable Amalgamation of Whigs and Tories 
 — The Conduct of the Queen — Danger of Riots — Alarms concerning the 
 Troops — Lady Conyngham, the "Vice-Queen" — The King and his 
 Ministers— Reported Mutiny of the Guards — Mr. Peel on the Diffi- 
 culty with the Queen — Death of Mr. Croker's Son. 
 
 During the year 1820 Mr. Croker made a few notes from 
 time to time of certain interesting events, but a great be- 
 reavement which befell him drew his mind from public affairs, 
 and thus there is little or no reference to many incidents 
 which, as we know, occupied no small share of general 
 attention — such, for instance, as the disturbed state of the 
 country, or the growing weakness of the Ministry, which led 
 one observer of politics to exclaim, " We want another Pitt, 
 but where is he to be found ? " * Mr. Croker's diary deals 
 very little with public affairs of any description after the 
 month of May, when he lost his only son, and was obliged to 
 
 * Lord Redesdale to Lord Colchester, ' Colchester Diary and Corres- 
 pondence,' iii. 108.
 
 1820.] THE DUKE OF KENT. 155 
 
 seek in foreign travel some relief from the poignant distress 
 which this affliction occasioned him. The very hook which 
 he used for a diary was not fa^•uurahle to the preservation of 
 anything but the briefest kind of record of passing events. 
 It was a copy of ' Eichards's Universal Daily Hemembrancer/ 
 with blank spaces for four days on each page. These spaces 
 were filled in by Mr. Croker at irregular intervals, and his 
 correspondence does not render the narrative of the year by 
 any means complete. 
 
 The first entry is under the date January 22nd, and relates 
 to the Duke of Kent, who was seized with an illness two 
 days previously : — 
 
 From Mr. Crolrr's Dianj. 
 
 The Duke of Kent is very seriously ill. Eeceived a note at 
 Munster House from [Lord] Yarmouth, to say that the Duke 
 of Kent had rattles in his throat, and was despaired of. He 
 could not live a day. This seems incredible ; so strong a 
 man to go in so short a space, and from, in its origin, so 
 trifling an indisposition.* 
 
 Mr. Crol'cr to Lord Loivthcr. 
 
 January 24tli, 1820. 
 
 You will be surprised at the Duke of Kent's death. He 
 was the strongest of the strong ; never before ill in all his 
 life, and now to die of a cold, when half the kingdom had 
 colds with impunity, is very bad luck indeed. It reminds 
 me of ^sop's fable of the Oak and the Eeed. 
 
 The King too has l}een very ill these some days ; alarmingly 
 so, indeed. The Speaker is kept in town lest he should go o\X 
 suddenly, and they won't consent to his going away for 
 twenty-four hours. 
 
 The old King was, in fact, rapidly approaching his end. 
 He had been suftering from ill health for several months past 
 
 * [His illuess arose from getting liis feet wet while taking a walk.]
 
 156 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. VI. 
 
 and for eight years, with very few intervals, he had been com- 
 pletely dead to the Avorld. His physicians began to see, 
 •early in January, that his wonderful powers of vitahty were 
 at last failing him ; but it was not till towards the middle of 
 the month that all expectation of saving him was abandoned. 
 
 From Mr. Crohers Diary. 
 
 Jan. 2oth. — Heard by letter from Windsor that Dr. 
 Heberden was of opinion that the King had no ailment, 
 -and might last several months ; so, it is said, is Sir David 
 Dundas ; but I learn from Lord Yarmouth that those who 
 know him best think he cannot last one month, perhaps not 
 ten days. 
 
 Jan. 27th. — Huskisson, Peel and I were to have gone to- 
 day to shoot at Sudbourne with Lord Yarmouth, who was to 
 have had a battue for the Duke of York, but the Duke of 
 Kent's death prevented the latter, and the imminent danger 
 of the King dissuades the rest of us, as if he dies Parliament 
 must meet immediately, and we should have to hasten back 
 to town. We have therefore given it up. 
 
 Jan. 30th. — Early in the morning had a note from Melville 
 to say the King was dead. Came immediately to town 
 from Munster House. He died about the very instant when 
 I received the account last night. Made immediate prepara- 
 tions for the official measures to be taken on this occasion. 
 Followed the precedent of the Queen as to the mourning, for, 
 strange to say, no other precedent is to be found ; and indeed 
 I have ascertained that, on the demise of George II., no 
 orders were given from this office [the Admiralty] except the 
 notice of the officers' mourning. 
 
 Pieceived a note from Lord Sidmouth to attend at Carlton 
 House at two to proclaim the new King. Privy Councillors 
 were summoned at one. About 50 people attended. AVe all 
 signed the proclamation, and then the Privy Councillors went 
 up stairs to be sworn in. The King [George IV.] has been 
 very unwell with an inflammation of the chest, but he got up 
 to receive the Council. He was very gracious and even 
 affectionate to all, except the Duke of Sussex, who was not 
 admitted into his bed chamber, as the rest of the royal family 
 were, but stood in the outward room with the other Privy
 
 1820.] THE KlXCrS nEALTII. 157 
 
 Councillors (none of whom spoke to him), looking very sullen 
 and ashamed, and reminding one, as I was told, of FranJccn- 
 stein's man. 
 
 The new King was now seized with a disorder ^^•hich, for a 
 time threatened to carry him off, anil in the course of a few 
 days he became so much worse, that his own medical advisers 
 orew seriously alarmed. It has been stated that 130 ounces 
 of blood were taken from him,* and this is confirmed hj 
 Mr. Croker, who was in constant communication with the 
 principal physician. Sir "William Knighton. 
 
 From Mr. Croker' s Diary. 
 
 Jan. olst. — The hurry and agitation of all tliese great 
 affairs has made the King worse. He was proclaimed exactly 
 at 12 o'clock at Carlton House inside the screen,! with a good 
 deal of applause of the people, but more of the soldiers. A 
 very fine day. 
 
 Feb. \st. — The King is much worse, alarmingly worse. 
 They are bleeding him profusely. Evening. The King is in 
 imminent danger. AVent down to the House and took the 
 oaths and matle the declaration, all except the ([ualification 
 oath. Not more than 40 or 50 were sworn to-day, and I 
 believe not so many yesterday. We are to adjourn over the 
 King's funeral, which will take place about the IGth. 
 
 Feb. 2nd. — The King is a shade better, but not at all out 
 of danger. Wrote to Dr. Boyd and my other friends at the 
 University to say that Lord Liverpool felt so strongly against 
 disturbing j\Ir. Plunkett's % election that I could not but accede 
 to his wislies. This is a great sacrifice, and one which Lord 
 Liverpool had certainly no right to expect from me ; and I 
 should not have consented but that I did not wish to commit 
 my friends against the Government. 
 
 Feb. 5^/t.— The King would be better Init that his anxiety 
 about the Queen agitates him terribly. 
 
 * 'Colcliester Diary and Correspondence,' iii. 111. 
 
 t [The Ionic screen, added to Carlton House by Henry Holland, and 
 removed with the rest of the building in 1827.] 
 
 % [The Kight Hon. W. C. Plunkett, who had been successful in the 
 contest for the representation of Dublin University against Mr. Croker.]
 
 158 THE CBOKER PAPERS. [Chap. YI. 
 
 The miserable state of the King's domestic affairs was now 
 occasioning him more vexation than ever, for the Princess of 
 Wales had caused her friends to understand that she would 
 insist upon sharing the throne, while the King was fixed in 
 his determination that she should never again be received 
 Tinder his roof. She had been absent from England ever since 
 1814, travelling from place to place, oftentimes in very- 
 dubious company. She had made her valet, the notorious 
 Bergami, a Knight of a new order created by herself, the order 
 of " Saint Caroline of Jerusalem," and had procured for him 
 several titles, including that of a Baron, from foreign- powers. 
 He was very seldom absent from her side. " The Princess 
 of "Wales," wrote Lord Colchester, " changed horses to-day at 
 Genoa .... Her travelling party consisted of herself, with 
 the Baron courier and a Frenchwoman in one carriage ; and 
 the Baron's brother and sister, and William Austin, and 
 another female in a second carriage, both battered old 
 German caleches." * The " Baron's " sister was the Prin- 
 cess's waiting-woman, and his brother was her equerry. 
 The whole of the Bergami family had, in fact, been saddled 
 upon the Princess — with the somewhat important exception 
 of his wife, who was kept out of sight. A plentiful crop of 
 scandals was continually brought to the notice of the Prince 
 oi Wales, and there is no reason to doubt that he strongly 
 believed his wife's guilt, and had perhaps done so ever 
 since 1805, when the first serious charges against her were 
 brought forward. Upon his accession to the throne, he was 
 obliged to take a definite course in regard to her. Down to 
 that time, "their Koyal Highnesses George, Prince of 
 Wales, and the Princess of Wales," had been prayed for in 
 the Liturgy, and the Prince could scarcely help this, although 
 he had been separated from his wife since 1796. But now it 
 
 * 'Colchester Diary aud Correspondence,' iii. 111.
 
 1820.] THE KING AND THE QUEEN. 159 
 
 was necessary to alter the prayer in the Liturgy, and the King 
 felt an invincible repugnance to the thought of his wife's 
 name being once more coupled with Ids own as Queen. It 
 is to tliis situation of affairs that Mr. Croker's next entries 
 refer : — 
 
 Fro7n Mr. CroJcers Diary. * 
 
 Feb. 6t7i, Sunday. — The King was better, but unluckily 
 last night he recollected that the prayers to be used to- day 
 were not yet altered. He immediately ordered up all the 
 Prayer-books in the House of old and new dates, and spent 
 the evening in very serious agitation on this subject, which has 
 taken a wonderful hold of his mind. In some churches I 
 understand the clergy prayed for " our most gTacious Queen " ; 
 in others, and I believe in general, they prayed for " all the 
 Eoyal Family." 
 
 Feb. lOtk. — Came in [to town] to breakfast with Lowther. 
 We talked over the difficulty about praying for the Queen. 
 It struck me that if she is to be prayed for, it will he, in fact, 
 a final settlement of all questions ia her favour. If she is fit '^''^'^'■ 
 to be introduced to the Almighty, she is fit to be received by ,.>- 
 men, and if we are to p^^ay for her in Church we may surely 
 bow to her at Court. The praying for her will throw a 
 sanctity round her which the good and pious people of this . 
 country M'ill never afterwards bear to have withdrawn. 
 Lowther said that in all the discussions he had never heard 
 the matter argued from this religious point of view, and he 
 advised me to communicate my opinions to the King. We 
 accordingly went over to Carlton House, and saw Blomfield,* 
 and, strange to say, this view of the subject was as new to 
 him as to Lowther. It made a great impression upon him. 
 He said it never had occurred to the King to argue the 
 question in that way ; that it had been discussed as a mere 
 matter of civil propriety and expediency, but that this was a 
 new and clear view, and quite decisive. " If she was fit to 
 be introduced as Queen to God she was fit to introduce to 
 
 * [Sir B. Blomfield, Keeper of the Privy Purse, and Private Secretary 
 to George IV,, aftenvards raised to the peerage. The name is spelt 
 " Bloomfield " in the Peerage and elsewhere, but in Sir Benjamin's own 
 letters there is clearly but one o in the signature. The Editor has 
 followed these letters as the best authority,] 
 
 hJL*.
 
 160 TEE CBOKEE PAPEBS. [Chap. VI. 
 
 men. Yes, yes ; the King is to see the Ministers to-day on it, 
 and he shall in half an hour be in possession of this unanswer- 
 able argument." On my return I repeated this line of 
 reasoning to Lord Melville, and, Avonderful to say, it appeared 
 that the religious and moral effect of the prayer had been 
 overlooked by the Cabinet also. They had considered it only 
 as to its legal consequences. Three or four of the Cabinet 
 are for praying for her as Queen, but they will be outvoted. 
 This question is of great importance, and I do not see the end 
 of it. 
 
 Fch. 12th. — A Council held to-day, and it is finally settled 
 not to pray for the Queen by name. An order to tliis effect 
 wuU appear in to-night's Gazette. The Archbishop* was for 
 praying for the Queen. 
 
 Stayed in town, and dined tete-a-tete with the Speaker. f 
 He, of course, thinks with the Archbishop, and, on the whole, 
 does not ajiprove the course which the Ministers seem to have 
 adopted. He thinks they ought to liave taken one line or the 
 other — Queen or no Queen. 
 
 Feb. IWi. — A new and most serious difficulty has arisen. 
 The King wants the Ministers to pledge themselves to a 
 divorce, which they will not do. They offer to assist to keep 
 the Queen out of the country by the best mode, namely, 
 giving her no money if she will not stay abroad ; but this 
 will not satisfy the King. He is furious, and says they have 
 deceived him ; that they led him on to hope that they would 
 concur in the measure, and that now they leave him in the 
 lurch. It looks like a very serious breach. Sir John 
 Leach,t who has a mind to be Chancellor, suggests, it is said, 
 a new administration, and it is reported has authority to 
 sound Lord Wellesley, if not the Opposition. The Cabinet 
 offer all but a divorce ; the King will have a divorce or 
 nothing. His agitation is extreme and alarming ; it not only 
 retards his recovery, but threatens a relapse. He eats hardly 
 anything — a bit of dry toast and a little claret and water. 
 This affair becomes very serious on a more important account 
 than the plans of the Ministers, but the King has certainly 
 
 * [The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Manners Sutton.] 
 
 ■\ [Charles Manners Sutton, son of the Archbishop.] 
 
 J [Sir John Leach had been one of the Prince's Whig friends in the 
 Ee^ency days, and was now the Vice-Chancellor, having succeeded Sir 
 Thomas Plumer, appointed Master of the Kolls.]
 
 1820.] FUNERAL OF THE KING. 161 
 
 \ intimated intentions of looking for new and more useful 
 servants. 
 
 Fch. lUh. — Keports that Leach is trying to enlist an Ad- 
 ministration. Lord Castlereagh had a conference of several 
 hours to endeavour to soothe the King's mind. I went to tell 
 Blomfield, as a friend of the King's, that the plan of a new 
 Government was madness ; that if the present men were turned 
 out on this point, the whole clergy, gentry, &c., would go with 
 them ; that tlie Whigs, with the sincerest intentions, must 
 fail ; tliat their own followers would desert them ; and that I 
 knew of no question but this one upon wliich a Tory Opposi- 
 tion would be formidable. I had before mentioned this view 
 to some of the Cabinet. And as they knew I had been some- 
 times honoured with some personal notice from the King, 
 they thought it right that I should state my opinion in a 
 way that it might reach his IMajesty, to wliich I could have 
 no objection, seeing, as I think I do, the King about to take 
 a false stc]), which will not only expose him to great vexation, 
 but will ultimately defeat his oljject. Castlereagh is charged 
 by the King to ask the Cabinet for explanations on some 
 points, suggested, I believe, by Leach. He is to give him 
 their answer to-morrow. 
 
 Fch. 15th. — The Cabinet's explanation is not likely to be 
 satisfactory, but they defend themselves from the charge of 
 surprise by saying that in June last they explained tlieir pre- 
 sent views in a Cabinet minute, which was laid before the 
 Eegent. Castlereagh seems to think His ]\Iajesty was more 
 placable at this last interview. There is a blunder about the 
 prayer after all. The Act of Uniformity authorizes (jnly the 
 change and not the omission of names. 
 
 Feb. IQfh. — Went to Windsor with Lords Melville and 
 Binning to attend the late King's funeral. Dined and slept 
 at Mr. Locker's. Having no official place in the procession, 
 Sir George Naylor made me one of the supporters to the 
 Crown of Hanover, but, by some error in the heralds in 
 placing me, I luckily never got near the Crown, and walked 
 between Lords Roden and Breadalbane, who carried the 
 banners of Ireland and Scotland, and Lords Grenville and 
 Howard, who carried the Union and St. George. I could not 
 help admiring the felicity of the heralds (who are by pro- 
 fession typifiers) in making Lord CJrenville bear the Union 
 banner. The night was very cold, and the whole ceremony 
 unaffecting, though I suppose it looked splendid. The nuisic 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 162 TEE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. VI, 
 
 tiresome, and too long. All that I saw or heard worth notice 
 were, first, the Yeomen of the Guard, in Llack in a black 
 room, not half lighted, which preceded the apartment in 
 which the body lay. The haze and hangings of the room 
 made a kind of palpable gloom which was very striking, and, 
 through the mist, these fellows looked like black giants ; 
 secondly, as the procession moved round the edge of the 
 Castle walks, the dismal and monotonous sounds of trumpets 
 from the park below had a very solemn effect ; and, thirdly, 
 the death-like appearance of old Lord Hertford's fine but 
 feeble figure tottering in before the coffin, and looking almost 
 as if he was going to his own grave, was very melancholy. 
 It was over by 20 minutes past 11. 
 
 Feb. 18th. — Yesterday the King wished to postpone the 
 message for a few days. This shows that he has still some 
 design not quite in consonance with the Ministers. They 
 merely replied that, according to all precedents, the message 
 must be brought down, and they did so, which gives them an 
 additional hold of the King. But what could H.M. do ? No' 
 men could undertake [to accomplish] his object, nor, if they 
 did, could [they] carry it. Dined at Peel's with the Speaker, 
 Grant, Lowther, Huskisson. 
 
 The wretched squabbles about the Queen were for a time 
 cast into the background by the singular affair which after- 
 wards became known as the Cato Street Conspiracy. The 
 prime mover in it was Arthur Thistlewood, who had pre- 
 viously taken a leading part in the Spafields riots. The 
 plan resolved upon was to assassinate the entire Cabinet, and 
 to get possession of London by means of an armed mob. 
 The news that the Ministers would all meet on the 23rd of 
 February, to dine together at the house of Lord Harrowby in 
 Grosvenor Square, was received by the conspirators with 
 great exultation, for they entertained no doubt that a most 
 favourable opportunity was at hand for carrying out all their 
 plans. But, as in so many other conspiracies before and 
 since, the informer was early at work ; Lord Harrowby was. 
 apprised of all that was going on, and so was Lord Sidmouth.
 
 1820.] THE TIIISTLEWOOI) CONSPIRACY. 163 
 
 The police were sent to arrest the ringleaders before they 
 could strike a bloAv, and the whole plot ignominiously 
 collapsed. In the following May, Thistlewood and four of 
 his confederates were hanged. 
 
 {From Mr. Croher's Diary.) 
 
 February 2?yrcl. — The Cabinet which was to have dined at 
 Lord Harrowby's, dined at Fife House, having traced an in- 
 tention of which Thistlewood was the head to assassinate them 
 
 by attacking Lord H 's house at half-past 8. ]\Ir. Bu-nie, 
 
 the magistrate, came to the place of meeting of the con- 
 spirators before 8, and after a kind of action in which one 
 man — a constable — was killed and several wounded, he took 
 nine of them ; but Thistlewood escaped. Mr. Fitzclarence, 
 who commanded the guard, mistook his post, else they would 
 have been all taken. Personally, Fitzclarence behaved per- 
 fectly well. 
 
 February 24:th. — Thistlewood is taken. I saw him twice 
 at Lord Sidmouth's office, looking mean, squalid, and miser- 
 able, but I dare say if he was dressed, and above all at the 
 head of 10,000 men, he would be called a good-looking man. 
 Long, who saw him on his trial two years ago, and saw him 
 now with me, would not have known liim again. Having 
 had occasion to go two or three times to the Home Office, I 
 saw three or four more of these wretches ; they looked so 
 intensely miserable that I pitied them. I went afterwards 
 and called on Yarmouth, where I found the Duke of York, 
 who knew no more of the whole affair than the newspapers 
 told him. When I informed him that the Ministers had 7iot 
 dine^i at Lord Harrowby's, he was at first incredulous and 
 afterwards almost indignant. It seems odd that he lias not 
 been called to the council, for Lord Sidmoutli told me that 
 the Cabinet felt so much like iKcrtie^i in the affair that they 
 wishedforafew other Privy Councillors ; and I accordingly sent 
 Long* and Peel. I never saw the Duke looking gayer or better. 
 
 The mob exclaimed that Thistlewood ought to be hanged. 
 A poor man gave Harrowby in the Park a note addressed to 
 Castlereagh, or as he spelled it Castellroy, warning him of the 
 danger. This was on Tuesday. The Cabinet had been before 
 
 * [Right Hon. Sir C. Long, M.P. for Haslemere; Paymaster-General 
 of the Forces.] 
 
 M 2
 
 164 TEE CHOKER PAPERS. [Chap. VI. 
 
 apprised of tlie danger, and this was the confirmation ; the letter 
 is so badly written and spelled as to be almost unintelligible. 
 
 February 2bth. — All the world talking and wondering about 
 the conspiracy. I believe that it is not directly and imme- 
 diately connected with any larger design, but is a kind of 
 episode in the great plot against the whole establishment, 
 made by a few individuals under the excitement of particular 
 feelings. Almost all great conspiracies have had their under- 
 plots created by, but not necessarily connected with, the main 
 design, and this I think will be found to be such a one. 
 
 Fcbriiarij 26th. — Dined at Eobinson's * with our ladies and 
 Miss Temple, Lords Ancrum, Sandon, the Speaker, Warrender, 
 Eichard Wellesley, Planta, Perceval, Grant, Huskisson. A 
 very agreeable day ; Lady Sarah complained much that she 
 knew nothing of the conspiracy ; none of the women were 
 trusted with the secret but Lady Harrowby, whom, and her 
 daughter, it was necessary to get out of the house. 
 
 Ajn-il 29th. — Dinner of the Eoyal Academy ; a picture by 
 Phillips, of Lord Grey, which Lauderdale took for me and 
 told me it was a fine likeness. So it seems several others 
 thought too. I sat at a small table with Messrs. Bankes, 
 Phillips, Campbell, Mulready, Turner, Sir Wm. Elford, and 
 Sir Thos. Heathcote. Bankes, by some mistake in reading the 
 catalogue, thought Lord Grey was by some one else, and 
 praised it to Phillips. The Duke of Sussex speechifying — I 
 never heard anything so bad. In one speech he got into 
 certain ramifications out of which he could not extricate him- 
 self It is the first time I ever heard him, and witli my good 
 will should be the last. A bad exhibition ; there are but two 
 good pictures in it to my taste ; Sir Wm. Grant, by La^vrence, 
 and Two Boys, by Mulready ; all the rest is common-place, 
 except Fuseli, who is madder than ever. 
 
 There had been, of course, a dissolution of Parliament on 
 the death of George the Third, and Mr. Croker was prevailed 
 upon to stand for Bodmin, where it was tolerably certain 
 that he would succeed in securing a seat in the new 
 House. He went to see his proposed constituents in the 
 early part of March. 
 
 * [Eight Honourable Frederick John Robmson, created Viscount 
 Goderich, 1827 ; Earl of Eipon, 1833, Married in 1814 Sarah, daughter of 
 the fourth Earl of Buckinghamshire.]
 
 1820.] ELECTIONEERING IN CORNWALL, 1G5 
 
 ■ (From Mr. CroJcer's Diary.) 
 
 Arrived at Bodmin and canvassed the borough. Thirty-six 
 corporators, one-third in the rank of gentlemen, the rest 
 trades-people. Their patron is rather their agent than their 
 master ; he has no other hold over them than good offices and 
 good will ; they jealously elect their own fellow-corporators 
 who must be residents, so that the patron can never get his 
 own private friends into the corporation. Sir John Morshead, 
 a former Lord Warden, was their patron, and on his death or 
 resignation, they placed themselves under the Pitts, Lords 
 Canielford, who had some property in the borough. On 
 Lord Camelford's death, Lord Grenville wislied to be patron, 
 but some kind of demur took place, and Mr. C. Kashleigh, who 
 was an attorney and a chief manager in the ])orougli, advised 
 them to invite Lord de Dunstanville, which they did ; he 
 does them favours, and I believe may lend money occasionally 
 to some of the inferior corporators. After the canvass we 
 went on and slept at Truro, Prince's Hotel, a large good inn. 
 
 March 5fh. — Had a visit from i\Ir. Polwhele,* the poet and 
 historian of Devon and Cornwall ; he is in a peck of troubles 
 about his church which he began to repair without proper 
 authority, and his parishioners are now threatening him with 
 law. He appears, like most of the old race of poets, to have 
 very little worldly wisdom. Our modern bards understand 
 the " main chance," as it is called. 
 
 Went to church — a fine country church, good organ, very 
 good organist ; an indifferent reader ; a tolerable preacher ; a 
 very crowded and respectable congregation ; and the most 
 ridiculous (in voice, manner, and appearance) clerk I ever 
 heard. Absurd epitaph on Mrs. Vivian, motlier of Sir H. 
 Went on to Tehidy Park to dinner. A miserable mining 
 country. Lord de Dunstanville has planted a good many 
 pines and firs about his place, liut it is cold and dreary ; the 
 house is a tolerable corjjs de logis, with four pavilions, but it 
 is neither lighted nor warmed as it ought to be; we were 
 perished with cold. 
 
 March 6th. — Went in Lord D 's carriage to see the 
 
 great copper mine of Dalcoath, between Eedruth and Cam- 
 
 * [The Rev; Richard Polwhele, a voluminous writer (1760-1838). He 
 was the author of Histories of Devonshire and Cornwall, Anecdotes of 
 Methodism, and other works.]
 
 166 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. YI. 
 
 borne. The mines here are always worked by adventurers, 
 as they are called, who give the Lord of the soil a portion, 
 say one-sixth of the ore produced. Sometimes the Lord has 
 a share in the adventure. The annual expenses of Dalcoath 
 are now about 60,000/., and its produce not more than 10,000/. 
 above that sum, and this is considered very prosperous ; in 
 general they little more than clear themselves ; the greatest 
 depth is, I think, 268 fathoms. I was much pleased with the 
 maps and sections of the mines ; all the rest I had seen before 
 elsewhere. 
 
 March 8th. — Breakfasted at Truro, and went across the 
 passage to see Tregothnan. Lord Falmouth has spent all his 
 money on the exterior of his house, which he has disfigured 
 with pinnacles or minarets which look like pepper boxes ; the 
 house itself will be but a small one after all. As we returned 
 we thought it right to leave our names for Lord Falmouth 
 who was residing at the vicarage, but on opening the front 
 door we found it led into a parlour where he and Lord Fitzroy 
 Somerset were at breakfast. He was good humoured, even 
 on the subject of the election, though he told me he had 
 made up his mind to the loss of one seat. Eeturned to 
 Bodmin and dined with Mr. Wallis, who asked Lord Yar- 
 mouth, who happened to be at the inn, to dine with us, to the 
 visible and ridiculous annoyance of Gilbert. 
 
 March 9th. — The election — proposed by Mr. Ealeigh Gil- 
 bert, and seconded by Mr. Edyvean ; a good and decent 
 dinner at 3 ; tumultuous and merry ball in the evening. I 
 danced, by order, with Miss Wallis and Miss Stone, the 
 young female representatives, it seems, of two parties in the 
 town. They happened also, luckily for me, to be two of the 
 prettiest damsels in the room, so I was obliged to dance regu- 
 larly through thirty-six couples four times over. Upon the 
 whole, the affair was at once tiresome and foolish. 
 
 March 10th. — Called on all the corporation to return 
 thanks. Mr. Phillips, a clergyman, and Mr. Watkins, an up- 
 holsterer — two of what are thought to be a discontented party 
 — were forward in offering their services on a future occasion. 
 Some ladies and gentlemen of the county came to the ball 
 last night in what they call a double horse, i.e. the lady riding 
 on a pillion behind the gentleman. At 1 p.m.. Lord Yar- 
 mouth, who had been also elected at Camelford yesterday, 
 came over to pick me up on our way to town. Faute de chc- 
 vaux, we left our servant in my carriage and came on together
 
 1820.] NOTES IN CORNWALL. 167 
 
 in liis. Crossed at Torpoint in the dark, and got to the hotel 
 at Plymouth about 9. 
 
 March lltli. — Went to breakfast with Lord Exmouth — there 
 I found Lord Clinton ; walked througli the dockyard and 
 went out in a rowing-boat to the breakwater with Lord Ex- 
 mouth. We could not proceed many yards from the landing- 
 place, as a S.W. wind was breaking the sea over the Break- 
 water. Eeturned in a tender in a few minutes — though 
 we had been two hours rowing out — went two miles out of 
 our road to the southward to see Lineham, the seat of my 
 ancestors — a delightful place ; slept at Totnes ; Seven Stars 
 Inn, better than it looks. 
 
 March 12th. — Passed through Exeter and Sidmouth, where 
 we dined, to Crewkerne, where we slept at the " George," 
 a slovenly place. I saw at Sidmouth the Vale of Tears, a V 
 little cottage where the Duke of Kent died. There is a little 
 stream running through its little lawn. It is at the west side 
 of the Esplanade. Sidmouth is a very agreeable watering- 
 place, except that the neighbouring roads are hilly, and that 
 there is no sand. The hotel is a good inn with an excellent 
 view of the sea and of the walk or parade ^^'hich runs along 
 in front of the town. 
 
 The patronage of Bodmin is quite personal, and I suspect 
 from his superabundant caution and punctilious manceuvres, 
 that Mr. Da vies Crilbert has a mind to succeed Lord de Dun- 
 stanville in that office. He took care to assure me that Lord 
 
 D left the whole management to liim, and indeed he acted 
 
 the manager all through with some degree of ostentation, 
 
 Mdiich, perhaps, occasioned Lord D to hint, and Mr. and 
 
 Mrs. AVallis to say plainly", that though he was a Cornish 
 man, and had sat two or tln-ee times fur Bodmin, he was no 
 more connected with the borough and no more on his own 
 ^ground than myself. I, however, thought it right to indulge 
 Mr. Gilbert by doing whatever he wished, and by appearing 
 to defer to him. His importance was innocent, amusing, and 
 not unfriendly ; his dread of Lord Yarmouth quite laugliable. 
 
 March loth. — I'assed through Sherborne, and went to see 
 Lord Digby's place ; the ruins of the castle are finely situated, 
 but ill taken care of, and no evergreen planted about them. 
 The house was a lodge to the castle ; it is a small odd old 
 English house, and when repaired or modernised, has been 
 done in the poorest and most parsimonious way ; the stair-
 
 168 THE CBOKER PAPEBS. [Chap. VI. 
 
 case is hardly as good as that of the inn where I write. A few 
 pictures, one or two by D. Mytens, probably ; called Vandyke. 
 One called Lord Mornington, with the Star of the Bath, and 
 one prodigiously like Lord Wellesley, called the late Lord 
 Digby. The grounds fine ; the made water natural, except 
 the' head of it near the entrance-gate which ought to be hid 
 with bushes. Went to Wardour, the old castle beautiful, at 
 once sheltered and commanding; the grounds and water 
 fine and natural. We were too late to see the new house, 
 which is large and ugly and would not be a good county hos- 
 pital. Pent Hill and Wootton, which we intended to see, 
 not shown. Slept at Deptford Inn, very comfortable ; stopped 
 at Stonehenge. At a little distance it makes no effect. When 
 you approach and consider it, it rises in height and grandeur. 
 I feel before it as if I were in presence of twenty centuries. 
 I still think, as I always thought, that in its rudeness it 
 exhibits sometliing of the proportion and grandeur mixed 
 with beauty of the Greek Doric, particularly the two triads 
 of stone which are perfect, and which probably backed the 
 altar. 
 
 To-day is the chairing of the county members at Wilton, 
 and the road is full of carriages and horsemen proceeding to 
 the show. INIost have cockades on both sides of their hats, 
 but of different colours. A gentleman who attended some 
 ladies in a chariot and four, and four servants, drank at 9 in 
 the morning, at Deptford Inn door, a dram of raspberry 
 brandy, and pressed the ladies in the carriage to do the same. 
 They, to be sure, refused, but a clergyman who was of the 
 same party accepted the ofter as far as half a glass. When 
 they had driven off, the servants on horseback lingered 
 behind and had full glasses, of which, however, they drank 
 but half. All this looks like a state of society which I 
 thought was quite obsolete. Arrived at home (Munster 
 House) at 8 o'clock p.m., and found all well. 
 
 March 2ord. — Walter Scott came to town and called upon 
 me ; he looks older and not so well as I had hoped to find 
 him', but his spirits are excellent, and he had not been ten 
 minutes with me when he repeated some stanzas of a ballad 
 made on some laird or laird's steward in the west of Scotland, 
 who is represented as sending out the tenants to catch a mer- 
 maid which was rumoured to be on the coast. I recollected 
 but one stanza : —
 
 1820.] nUNT AND DURDETT. 1G9 
 
 " Some they fished with long lines, 
 And some they fished with sma', 
 And they caught him plenty of whitings, 
 But the devil a mermaid at a'." 
 
 March 2Uh. — Scott and liis son dined at Munster House 
 -svith I'ahnerston and Miss Temple, ]\Ir. and ]\Irs. xVrl)Uthnot, 
 Yarmouth, Torrens, &c. Speaker sent an apology. We bad 
 a very agreeable day. 
 
 March 27th. — Dined at Lord Anglesey's to meet the Duke 
 of York, Duke of Montrose, Lord Cliancellor, Lord Camden, 
 Earl of Lauderdale, Yarmouth, Congreve, Jekyll. A pleasant 
 day. Great apprehensions of the acquittal of Hunt * and bis- 
 fellows at York, through the time-serving misdirection of the 
 judge. 
 
 The belief at that time was very general, as the last entry 
 suggests, that Hunt would not be punished. " Hunt's con- 
 viction," wrote Lord Grenville,t " is beyond my hope. . . . 
 It would have been a dreadful thing indeed if it had been 
 established by the result of that trial that the Manchester 
 meeting was, under all its circumstances, a legal assembly." 
 About this time Mr. Peel wrote to Mr. Croker requesting 
 some news, and asking, " Will Hunt and Burdett be acquit- 
 ted ; and if they are, will not their acquittal make a great 
 and lasting impression upon the country ? " In the same 
 letter, the future Prime Minister enters more largely into the 
 field of politics, and reveals the nature of the questions 
 which were evidently then occupying his mind. He seems 
 to foreshadow, ui one or two remarkable passages, the change 
 which was destined to take place in public opinion, as well 
 as in his own future policy. 
 
 * ["Orator Hunt," arrested in 1819 for being concerned in the 
 " Peterloo " agitation, which had such disastrous consequences ; he was 
 sentenced, the following year, to two and a half years' imprisonment.] 
 
 t To the Marquia of Buckingham. 'Iilemoirs of the Comt of 
 George IV.,' i. 15.
 
 170 THE CBOKEB PAPERS. [Chap. VI. 
 
 ^ Mr. Peel to Mr. Crokcr. Extract. 
 
 Boguor, Marcli 23rd. 
 
 Do not you think that the tone of England — of that great 
 •compound of folly, weakness, prejudice, %vrong feeling, right 
 feeling, obstinacy, and newspaper paragraphs, which is called 
 public opinion — is more liberal — to use an odious but intelli- 
 gible phrase — than the policy of the Government ? Do not 
 you think that there is a feeling, becoming daily more 
 general and more confirmed — that is, independent of the 
 pressure of taxation, or any immediate cause — in favour of 
 some undefined change in the mode of governing the 
 country ? It seems to me a curious crisis — when public 
 opinion never had such influence on public measures, and 
 yet never was so dissatisfied with the share which it 
 possessed. It is growing too large for the channels that 
 it has been accustomed to run through. God knows, it is 
 very difficult to widen them exactly in proportion to the size 
 and force of the current which they have to convey, but the 
 engineers that made them never dreamt of various streams 
 that are now struggling for a vent. 
 
 Will the Government act on the principles on which, 
 without being very certain, I suppose they have hitherto 
 professed to act ? Or will they carry into execution mode- 
 rate Wliig measures of reform ? Or will they give up the 
 government to the AVhigs, and let them carry those measures 
 into eff'ect? Or will they coalesce with the Whigs, and 
 oppose the united phalanx to the Hobhouses, and Burdetts, 
 and Eadicalism ? I should not be surprised to see such an 
 union. Can we resist — I mean, not next session or the 
 session after that — but can we resist for seven years Eeform 
 in Parliament ? Will not, remote as is the scene — will not 
 recent events in Spain diminish the probability of such 
 resistance ? And if reform cannot be resisted, is it not more 
 probable that Whigs and Tories will unite, and carry through 
 moderate reform, than remain opposed to each other ? 
 
 This was not the solution which time and circumstances 
 worked out, but it is evident that Peel — like Croker himself 
 — clearly perceived that the question of Parliamentary 
 Eeform could not be perpetually kept upon the shelf, and
 
 1820.] CONDUCT OF THE QUEEN. 171 
 
 that the Government of the day, or some other Government, 
 woukl soon be called upon to deal honestly with it. 
 
 There was now, however, but one topic of conversation hi 
 London — the conduct of the Queen. From this time till the 
 end of the year, her name and her cause were continually 
 before the country, and discussions upon her guilt or inno- 
 cence raged violently in every gi-ade of society. The 
 populace generally took her side, while the well-to-do classes 
 were unanimously against her. All sorts of apprehensions 
 were entertained as to the results of the commotion in her 
 favour. Mr. Plumer Ward records tliat one day he met 
 a noble lord in the park, who told him that she was a bold, 
 dangerous, impudent woman, " full of revenge as careless of 
 crime, and that if we did not take care might play the part 
 of Catherine the Second, who by means of the guards 
 murdered her husband, and usurped the throne." * There 
 were, indeed, very serious doubts at one stage of the dispute 
 concerning the fidelity of the troops, and it was known that 
 in London the guards were much more disposed to sympa- 
 thise with the Queen than with the King. "The City is 
 completely with her," wrote Mr. Fremantle to the Duke 
 of Buckingham f — " not the Common Council, but the shop- 
 keepers and merchants — and I have great doubts if tlie 
 troops are not infected. The press is paid for her abun- 
 <lantly, and there are some alehouses open where the soldiers 
 may go and drink and eat for nothing, provided they will 
 drink prosperity and health to the Queen." The truth was 
 that the bulk of the people did not find the life of the King 
 so irreproachable as to give him any right to act the part of 
 a censor of morals. They had heard of Mrs. Fitzherbert, of 
 Lady Conyngham, and of other associates of George the 
 
 * ' Memoirs of Mr. Plumer Ward,' ii. oG. 
 t ' The Comt of George IV.,' vol. i. p. 51.
 
 172 THE CROKEB PAPERS. [Chap. VI. 
 
 ^Fourth, and in the popular literature of the day the scandals 
 of the Court were magnified rather than underrated. More- 
 over, the people did not believe the stories of the Queen's 
 misconduct. They were convinced — and perhaps they were 
 right — that some, at least, of the foreign witnesses had 
 perjured themselves ; and they received with ridicule the 
 statements made by the Italians, caricatures of whom, with 
 a label coming out of their mouths, inscribed "Non mi 
 ricordo," lingered in the shop windows even down to the 
 youth of the present generation. There were times when 
 the popular feeling ran so high in favour of the Queen, that 
 serious riots were anticipated, the Ministry were in a state of 
 great alarm, and even the Duke of Wellington is said to have 
 been "earnest for disbanding one of the regiments of 
 Guards." * Several of the reasons which existed for regard- 
 ing a portion of the army with distrust are explained in 
 Mr. Croker's letters. 
 
 All that is of any interest on this and kindred subjects in 
 his diary and correspondence is brought together below, 
 in the form most convenient for reference. 
 
 From Mr. Crohcrs Diary. 
 
 Ajjril 12th. — Brougham, it is said, grossly, has sold the 
 Queen. There is no doubt that he has withdrawn liimself a 
 good deal from her, and 1 believe has been for some time in 
 underground communication with Carlton House. Certainly 
 none but madmen could think of making common cause with 
 her a measure of party ; but at the same time there will be 
 something very revolting in Brougham's takmg up the King's 
 cudgels against her. Caring little as I do for her or B., I 
 should still be sorry for the sake of public character. 
 
 April loth. — I hear that Leach has been again sent to by 
 the King, who is still as agitated and anxious as ever about 
 the Queen. It is said the Cabinet have stated to him that, 
 
 * Buckingham Papers — ' George IV.,' i. 54, 55.
 
 1820.J LADY CONYNGHAM. 173 
 
 whatever else may be done hereafter, Queen she is, and Queen 
 slie must be officially called. Lords Donoughmore and Hut- 
 chinson ; Congreve, Kinnaird, and Warrender dined with me 
 at ]\Iunstcr House. Kinnaird and Congreve want to pay off 
 the National Debt by confiscation. 
 
 Api'il IGth. — Last night's Gazette appoints Lord F. Conyng- 
 ham Master of the Robes to the King. Lord Hutchinson, 
 talking of the Queen to me yesterday, said, " All the accounts 
 wliicli trc have received make us fear that her arrival would 
 make a great sensation among the lower and middling orders." 
 He is again in favour and confidence at Carlton House. Tlie 
 King could not have an honester or more judicious friend. 
 It is a pity that he is so deeply committed with the AVhigs, 
 for he is in truth a A^ery moderate man in politics, and a 
 very good kind of man in every other respect. 
 
 Ajml 19th. — The King came to town from Brighton. Lady 
 C, whom they call the Vice Queen, is gone, they say, to her 
 brother's (Denison) * to appease his indignant virtue by the 
 offer of a peerage. It is also said that Legh, the traveller, is 
 to be created a peer on marrying Lady Elizabeth.f This must 
 be nonsense. I remember two years ago the King telling me 
 after dinner that he wished to make Legh a baronet. This 
 was, I since heard, because he was then flirting with Miss 
 Aston, one of Lady H.'s + cousins. 
 
 April 22nd. — Brougham and Denman sworn in the day 
 before yesterday as Attorney and Solicitor General to the 
 Queen. Brougham, I hear, wished to secure the profits 
 without the inconveniences of this appointment, and offered 
 not to assume it if Government would give him a patent of 
 precedence, but the Chancellor refused. Dined yesterday at 
 the Comptroller's ; an Admiral Wilson dined there who 
 was a midshipman with Lord St. Vincent when a captain. 
 They have now the same flag at the same masthead; odd 
 enough. 
 
 April 21th. — The King went to Parliament ; little applause 
 
 * [Lady Conynghain was the eldest daughter of Mr. J. Denisou, of the 
 Denbies, near Dorking. She outlived all the famous " Pavilion set," dying 
 in 18(51, aged ninety-two.] 
 
 \ [The daughter of Lady Couynghani. ]\Ir. Thomas Legh, M.P., was 
 the author of a ' Narrative of a Journey in Egypt and the Country beyond 
 the Cataracts," published in 181G.] 
 
 X [Probably Lady Harriet, second daughter of Lady Conyugham.]
 
 174 THE CROEER PAPERS. [Chap. VL 
 
 and no great crowd, except of carts and waggons, which 
 blocked up Wliitehall for 3 hours after the King had repassed. 
 His Majesty's equipages were very handsome. He came 
 down through Charing Cross ; hitherto his father and he had 
 come from St. James's through the park. 
 
 Ju7ie 5th. — The Queen is embarked for England. Lord 
 Hutchinson and Brougham have mismanaged their negotia- 
 tions sadly. 
 
 June 6th. — Queen landed yesterday. People at Brooks's 
 said that Brougham has acted most basely by her. I can 
 hardly believe it ; but, at all events, if he finds that her 
 arrival here succeeds, he will back out and rejoin her. Queen 
 came to town at half-past five. 
 
 J2inc 7th. — The mob obliged some people near Alderman 
 "Wood's (in Audley Street) to put candles in their windows 
 last night. Lord Sidmouth, going home from Cabinet with 
 the Duke of Wellington, could not get into his own house, 
 and the mob broke the windows of the Duke's carriage. I 
 think the Ministers ■UTong, that is, injudicious in proposing a 
 secret Committee. 
 
 Jmic Sth. — A strange debate last night. I was not there, 
 and I find that I cannot even command my attention to read 
 the speeches ; but they told me that Castlereagh's was long 
 and vague ; Brougham's clever, and particularly so as holding 
 a door open for himself either way ; Canning's highly compli- 
 mentary to the Queen's person and manners. 
 
 JVov. 13th. — The Speaker called and sat an hour with me. 
 He thinks that Lord Liverpool ought to go out, conditioning 
 with the King to take Lords Grey and Lansdowne, who 
 would be in such difficulties with all their pledges that they 
 could not hold six months. I think if the King could be 
 persuaded to take the opposition, it would relieve him from 
 a deal of present unpopularity; but he will not, I think, 
 consent to do so, and if he will not. Lord Liverpool, as a man 
 of honour, must stick to him. If the Queen has political 
 courage, and will stand her ground, the trouble is only begin- 
 ning ; but I suspect Lord L. must have some kind of hope 
 that she will not. 
 
 Nov. 14:th. — The King and the Ministers are again at 
 variance, the King wearied and worn out with this horrid 
 affair; wants to have it ended, and that Ministers should 
 meet Parliament on the 23rd and settle the Queen's allow- 
 ance, &c. The Ministers wish for delay till the meeting in
 
 1820.] THE QUE EX AXD THE I'OPULACE. 175 
 
 spring'. Lord Donoughmore tells me that tlie Queen yester- 
 day idedged lierself to lier friends not to go away, as she had 
 some tlioiights of doing ten days ago. If she has strength 
 and courage to push her advantage, she must turn out the 
 Ministers, and may overturn the country, but then she must 
 have a Whig ministry to assist her. 
 
 Dec. loth. — The King sent to desire to see me at one o'clock. 
 He talked to me very freely and fully of public affairs ; told 
 me all the details of his communication with Canning, his 
 resignation, and the King's acceptance of it, and finally his 
 commands to Lord Liverpool to propose to Peel. I called on 
 Peel in the evening, as I was going to dine at Yarmouth's, to 
 warn him of what was coming. He had as yet heard nothing, 
 and seems disinclined to accept. 
 
 Mr. Croher to Lord Yarmouth. 
 
 June 6tli, 1820. 
 
 Dear Y. 
 I came to town last night. The Queen landed yesterday 
 at Dover. The populace drew her to her inn, and pelted 
 away a guard of honour which Colonel Ford foolishly sent to 
 attend lier. He also fired a royal salute, for which I think 
 he will be sorry, for it was almost against orders, he having 
 been ordered not to salute on her birthday. She had not 
 passed Ptochester at two this day. Lord Hutchinson and 
 Brougham seem to mismanage the affair, and to have mis- 
 understood one another sadly ; for after travelling together, 
 when they got to St. Omer they took up their quarters in 
 thfferent places, and began to fire off notes at each other. 
 Hutchinson is thought to have acted, if not wisely, at least 
 honestly and honourably ; as much is not said of the other. 
 In short, they have a difference by way of episode in the 
 great piece. 
 
 Yours, &;c., 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 Mr. CroJcer to Lord Melville. 
 
 June IGtli, 1820. 
 
 My dear Lord, 
 We were very much alarmed yesterday evening with a 
 report that the Guards (the 3rd regiment) had mutinied, and
 
 176 TEE CROKEB PAPEES. [Chap. VI. 
 
 you may judge that at this moment such a rumour was very 
 alarming. The truth, however, is that this regiment (which 
 it seems its Eoyal Colonel the Duke of Glo'ster, has been 
 endeavouring to manage upon principles of what he thinks 
 rational and philanthropic discipline), has been long in an 
 unsatisfactory state ; and that they have been lately removed 
 into temporary bnrracks in the mews; this removal from 
 quarters and a good deal of duty are supposed to have dis- 
 gusted them; and the lower orders of the people knew 
 on Wednesday and yesterday morning that the regiment in- 
 tended to strike work, as the tradesmen would say. The 
 adjutant and non-commissioned officers either did not know 
 of the intention or did not report it (and either case seems 
 very serious). As soon as the thing was known, measures 
 were taken to get their ammunition, and some ten or dozen 
 of the men refused to give it up. It is not very clear to 
 what extent of insubordination they went, certainly not a 
 oreat way, far enough, however, to render their immediate 
 departure 'from town necessary, and orders were given for 
 them to march at three this morning; all last night they 
 individually talked of not marching, and several of them re- 
 . moved their hits from the barracks and seemed inclined to 
 disband themselves, but all this came to nothing ; and at four 
 this morning one division was paraded and marched, one man 
 •only having dared to refuse to shoulder arms. They are 
 now quartered about Hounslow, and the reports of their con- 
 duct are satisfactory. The second division is to march to- 
 morrow, and in the meanwhile is kept in the mews with the 
 gates locked. They are said to express shame and contrition 
 for their offence. The people, who assembled in very small 
 numbers about the gates, seemed to take no part with the 
 soldiers, but rather ridiculed them. The business is now I 
 hope over. 
 
 Mr. Peel to Mr. Crol-er. Extract. 
 
 Mickleliam, near Leatherliead, August lOtli, 1820. 
 
 I do think the Queen's a.ffair very formidable. It is a 
 famous ingredient in the cauldron which has been bubblinfir 
 a long time, and upon which, as it always seemed to me, the 
 Government never could discern the least simmering. They 
 applied a blow-pipe, however, when they omitted the Queen's
 
 1820.] FEELING AMONG THE TROOPS. 177 
 
 name in the Liturgy : when they established a precedent of 
 dethronement for imputed personal misconduct. Surely 
 this was not the time for robbing Eoyalty of the exterior 
 marks of respect, and for preaching up the anti-divine right 
 doctrines. If she be worse than Messalina, nothing but the 
 united voice of King, Lords, and Commons should have de- 
 graded her. I certainly would have tried her the moment 
 she set her foot in England, but I would have prayed for her 
 as Queen till she had been tried. What is to be the end of 
 it ? What mean all the compliments to Colonel Bosanquet 
 and 143 City light horse men ? Did you read them ? Is the 
 army suspected ? I saw the Queen the other day pass the 
 barracks in Hyde Park, and at the moment of her passing 
 there was an immense shout. I did not see whether the 
 soldiers joined in it or not. The ' Morning Chronicle ' says 
 they did. 
 
 Ever most affectionately, I am, 
 
 My dear Croker, 
 
 PtOBEKT Peel. 
 
 Mr. Croher to Mr. Peel. Extract. 
 
 September 1st, 1820. 
 
 My dear Peel, 
 
 As to the Queen's affair, I can only tell you that all the 
 disgusting details proved against her seem to make no change 
 in the minds or numbers of her partisans. This is natural — 
 they adopted her because she was in opposition to the King 
 and the Government, and her personal conduct, if it only 
 continues impudent and violent enough, is of no kind of 
 importance to the mob. AVhat the opinion of the sober 
 middle classes may be, I do not know, but I have never met 
 any one of any kind who believes lier to be innocent ; 
 and if the country believes her to be guilty, I cannot 
 but think that they must approve of the proceedings sub- 
 stantially, and that there will be no difficulty in passing 
 the Bill — although the Whigs with their usual half-sided 
 wisdom will oppose the form without venturing to impugn 
 the substance. 
 
 In fact, I now think the whole of the Queen's chance is 
 narrowed to a point. She had two lieutenants of the English 
 Na\y with her in the polacre, and through most of lier 
 
 VOL. I. N
 
 178 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. VI. 
 
 journeys. Now if she does not produce them, as they are 
 both on the spot, she is undone ; and all that Majocchi and 
 Dumont, &c., have sworn must receive universal credit. I 
 myself am persuaded that she will examine them ; and I 
 believe it for this reason, that Hownam, one of the lieutenants, 
 is married in France, and was obliged to go thither lately to 
 his wife's lying in ; now this was as good an opportunity and 
 excuse as could be desired for his absence, but he is come 
 back. I therefore conclude that they intend to produce him. 
 Now can they be mad enough to produce him unless he will 
 contradict* the whole of what all the other witnesses have 
 said ? and if he does contradict them, I am afraid, as he is a 
 man of hitherto good character, that he will be believed 
 against the whole host of Italians. This consideration excites 
 the only doubt I have on the case. 
 
 There was a report yesterday in the Lords that Brougham 
 did not intend to ask for any delay. If Hownam and Flynn 
 will deny the facts stated, he is quite right to go on directly, 
 and take advantage of the present ferment, which would by 
 the evidence of these two English officers be blown up into a 
 conflagration that would reduce the whole proceeding to ashes, 
 and might involve the Government, the Throne, and the con- 
 stitution in the destruction. In this case we ought all to be 
 at our posts on the 17th, because the case is nearly closed 
 against her, and the examination of the two lieutenants could 
 not take two days. But all this you will see is mere conjec- 
 ture upon which you can form your opinion as well as I, 
 from the premises which I have stated to you. 
 
 Yours ever, 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 Mr. CroJcer to Mr. Peel. Extract. 
 
 November 3rd, 1820. 
 
 Dear Peel, 
 
 The debate still goes on. Grosvenor violent against the 
 Bill ; Harewood, hare-hearted, thought the Queen guilty, but 
 the Bill impolitic. Donoughmore for the Bill exposed Hare- 
 wood's inconsistency. Grey in a long and laboured speech 
 introduced his conscientious verdict of not guilty. At half- 
 
 * [He attempted to contradict, but broke dowa on his cross-exami- 
 nation.]
 
 1820.] PUBLIC OPINION AND THE QUEEN. 179 
 
 past three Liverpool got up to answer him, and will probably 
 speak till seven. Some people think that they will divide 
 to-night. I think not — but what you will stare at is that I 
 believe after carrying the second reading and voting that the 
 preamble is proved they will drop the bill.* 
 
 Mr. Croker to Lord Yarmouth. 
 
 November 14th, 1820. 
 
 Dear Y., 
 It is hard to find the truth of anything. I told you that 
 the King and his Ministers were agreed, and mutually satis- 
 fied ; such loas the tone of Blomfield's room. To-day I learn 
 that Fife House and Carlton House are, or at least were, two 
 hours ago at variance, and what do you think the variance 
 is ? The King wants to have the Queen's allowance, palace, 
 &c., &c., immediatehj settled by Parliament, while the 
 Ministers wish to postpone it to the next year. I leave 
 you to meditate upon so wonderful a change of sentiments 
 as this seems to imply. In fact, the poor K. is weary of the 
 whole affair, and only anxious for a little peace and quiet. 
 The Ministers are resolved not to replace her in the Liturgy, 
 and to go out if necessary upon that, but not else. The 
 Queen has been for the last fortnight upon the point of what 
 the Scotch call flitting ; but her quite unexpected triumph 
 has given her new life and courage, and she yesterday pledged 
 herself to her friends not to go. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 Before the close of the year everybody was becoming tired 
 of the Queen and her case. The tone of the public mind was 
 cleverly expressed in an epigram written by some one on the 
 malapropos passage which concluded Mr. Denman's speech 
 for the Queen, and in which he begged the House to teU her 
 to " go and sin no more " : — 
 
 * [" The bill was carried by a majority of 28, 123 voting for and 
 95 against it. This majority, however, dwindled down to 9 upon the 
 third reading, four days afterwards, upon which Lord Liverpool at once 
 intimated that he would proceed no further with the measure." — ^lartin'a 
 ' Life of Lyndhurst,' p. 182.] 
 
 N 2
 
 180 TEE CEOKER PAPERS. [Chap. VI. 
 
 " Most gracious Queen, we thee implore 
 To go away and sin no more ; 
 But, if that effort be too great, 
 To go away at any rate." * 
 
 The Queen herself now saw that her cause had been taken 
 up by the Whigs chiefly to suit their own purposes. " No 
 one, in fact, care for me," she wrote, in her broken English, 
 " and this business has been more cared for as a political 
 affair, dan as de cause of a poor forlorn woman." After the 
 Bill against her had been withdrawn, she sank comparatively 
 out of sight, and the public became more and more indifferent 
 to her until, happily for herself, she died in the following 
 year. 
 
 The event of 1820, which was of profound and lasting 
 moment to Mr. Croker personally, was the death of his only 
 child, a son still of tender years, but old enough to have engaged 
 the deepest aflections of his father's heart. From this time 
 he appears to have relinquished all ambition, and to have 
 studiously avoided the opportunities of political advance- 
 ment which presented themselves to him. "I look upon 
 oflice," he wrote at the end of 1821, "as Hamlet did on life, 
 and would not be displeased with him who should take it 
 fioin me. Indeed, since the death of my poor child, I have 
 been meditating a retreat, and would have executed it but 
 that I am afraid of my own powers of bearing solitude and 
 desceuvrement. However, I conveyed lately to Lord Liverpool 
 my readiness, if my office could facilitate his arrangements, 
 to place it at his disposal My poor wife is still worse than 
 I am, and reverberates all my griefs upon me with double 
 intensity. She is bodily ill and mentally miserable, and 
 spends her time between pain and sorrow. She has not 
 been able to walk across the room these six months." 
 
 * [' Diary and Correspondence of Lord Colchester,' iii. 181.]
 
 1820.] DEATH OF MR. CROKERS SON. 181 
 
 The child was taken ill, as it appears from Mr. Croker's 
 diary, on the 25th of April. "His illness," he writes five 
 days later, " is the same as he had last year — fits of sickness 
 and dulness, with intervals in which he is lively and well. 
 Sent for Sir William Knighton. He thinks nothing of it." 
 But the sufferer continued to grow worse, and his father 
 records on the 6th of May that the torpor had increased — 
 " he takes nothing ; he has an odd kind of nervous sighing 
 or groaning, very frequent." The doctors — Dr. Baillie now 
 with Sir AVilliam Knighton — again assured the anxious 
 parents that there was no occasion for alarm. But they 
 appear to have had a sad presentiment of the truth. 
 Mr. Croker, during these days and nights of suspense, 
 rarely left his child's bedside. There are five days on 
 wMch he made no entry in his diary. At last there are 
 three entries, one made some months after the date : — 
 
 May 15th. — My child departed this life at exactly nineteen 
 minutes after five in the morning. God be merciful to us 
 and enable us to support this loss. I write this the 16th. 
 
 May 16th. — The head of our child was opened by Dr. 
 Baillie, Mr. White, and Mr. Jackson. It appears that water 
 on the brain was the cause of our misfortune. (I write this 
 nine months after, and feel this dreadful loss as keenly as I 
 did at the first moment. My poor, pretty boy !) 
 
 May 22nd. — An anniversary which we had intended to 
 keep, and of which our poor child was to be the ornament. 
 Alas ! this day week he died. 
 
 " My poor wife is heart-broken," he writes to Robert 
 Peel; "heaven preserve you from such a calamity as has 
 beaten us down." " I am almost unwilling," Peel wrote to 
 him in reply, " to break in by any allusion upon the sacred 
 subject of your grief, for I know how futile every attempt 
 must be to offer any other consolations to you than those to 
 which your own mind has already had recourse. I most
 
 182 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. VI. 
 
 deeply and sincerely sympathise with you, and earnestly 
 pray for every alleviation of misery that it is possible for you 
 and the partner of your woes to receive." 
 
 This giief tinged the whole of Mr. Croker's subsequent 
 life. On the anniversary of the dark day he never ceased to 
 visit the spot in the churchyard at Wimbledon where his lost 
 child was buried, and almost his last thoughts turned upon 
 his desire to make arrangements by which they might both 
 rest in the same grave. Mrs. Croker's affliction was still 
 more distressing ; she could not be persuaded to revisit any 
 of the houses where she had lived with her son, and it was 
 necessary to take her abroad in the hope of diverting her 
 mind from what proved to be a hopeless grief. Some conso- 
 lation the bereaved couple derived from the society and 
 companionship of a sister of Mrs. Croker, who was adopted 
 by Mr. Croker as his own daughter before his son was born, 
 and who became, as it has been stated. Lady Barrow. But 
 there are many evidences throughout Mr. Croker's writings 
 that to his own last hour, the old wound reopened and bled 
 whenever he realised that the one great hope of his life had 
 been taken from him. 
 
 The following lines were written by Mr. Croker, and 
 placed over the child's grave at Wimbledon : — 
 
 " Oh pity us who lost when Spencer died, 
 Our joy, our hope, our pleasure, and our pride. 
 In him we saw, or fancied, all such youth 
 Could show of talents, tenderness, and truth ; 
 And hoped to other eyes his ripened powers 
 Would keep the promise they had made to ours. 
 But God a different, better growth has given, 
 The seed he planted here nov/ blooms in heaven."
 
 ( 183 ) 
 
 CHAPTEK VII. 
 1821. 
 
 ■Prospects of Peel taking Office — The Necessities of the Government — 
 Lady Hervey's Letters — Political Rumours — Canning and Peel — Lord 
 Liverpool's Overtures to Peel — The King's Dislike of Canning-^ 
 A Fancy Ball for Children — The Conynghams — The Story of the 
 Princess Charlotte's Sapphire — Coronation of George IV. — Mr. CVoker's 
 Suggestion for a Popular Fete — The Queen during the Coronation — 
 The King's Visit to Ireland — Death of Queen Caroline — Public Entry 
 into Dublin — Festivities in the City — Lord Liverpool and the King — 
 Mr. Croker's Efforts to produce a Reconciliation — Lord Liverpool's 
 Aversion to the Conynghams — The King's Journey to Hanover — 
 Letters to Mr. Peel — Remarks on Mr. Canning — The Conynghams. 
 
 Mr. Croker's private sorrows, and the redoubled attention 
 which he wisely paid to the duties of his office and to the 
 literary work he had taken in hand, prevented him from 
 making any record of the political events of the early part of 
 the year. There is thus no direct reference in his papers to 
 Canning's resignation of his office as President of the Board 
 of Control, to the continued wrangles in Parliament over 
 the question what was to be done with the Queen, or to 
 Mr. Plunkett's motion in favour of the removal of Catholic 
 disabilities — upon which, for the first time, a majority 
 was gained for the cause of Catholic emancipation. Nor 
 is there any allusion to the expectation, wliich was so 
 generally entertained at the time, that Mr. Peel would be 
 induced to take office in the place of Mr. Canning, who liad
 
 184 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. YII. 
 
 retired from office that he might not have occasion to vote 
 against the Queen. Mr. Croker, it has been said, was one 
 of the first to perceive Peel's great powers, and he was 
 certainly not blind to the growing opinion that a distin- 
 guished career lay before the ex-Secretary for Ireland. In 
 the closing month of the previous year he had written the 
 following letter : 
 
 Mr. CroJcer to Lord Yarmouth. 
 
 December 20th, 1820. 
 Deak Y. 
 
 There seems to be no doubt that Peel has been or will be 
 offered office, and as little that he had declined or will decline 
 it. I confess that I myself would do so ; and with a great 
 ^\ fortune and domestic habits like his, I tliink the stormy sea 
 of politics can have little temptation for him. But then, 
 what is the Government to do ? I cannot tell ; they have 
 not one man in the house who can speak so as to command 
 attention, and though good speeches do not perhaps get 
 many votes, they prevent many shy votes going away. 
 
 In short a Government cannot go on without the gift of 
 the gab. Suppose Lord Liverpool were to make Brougham 
 an offer ? 
 
 Seriously, I think they will move Pole or Eobinson to 
 Canning's place, and will appoint a successor to the vacated 
 office not in the Cabinet. This is the best tiling they can do. 
 I hear that the country gentlemen are favourable, and that if 
 we had but a spokesman or two we should shuffle through 
 the session. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 Mr. Peel, however, did not take office at that time. He 
 was not anxious to become involved in the unpopularity 
 which Ministers had brought upon themselves by the Queen's 
 trial — for as such it was regarded — nor had he any ambition 
 to assist them to "shuffle through the session." He there-
 
 1821.] THE HERVEY LETTERS. 185 
 
 fore kept aloof from public life till January, 1822, when he 
 succeeded Lord Sidniouth as Home Secretary.* 
 
 Mr. Croker, anxious to find some distraction for his 
 thoughts, threw himself with greater ardour than ever into 
 the affairs of his office, and in his hours of leisure he worked 
 hard at the letters of Lady Hervey, an edition of which he 
 had undertaken to prepare for the press, at ]\lr. Murray's 
 desire. As usual, when he had engaged to perform any task 
 of this kind, he threw out his net far and wide for inform- 
 ation, and thought no pains too great to ensure accuracy 
 in small things as well as in great. Before arranging his 
 plans, he wrote as follows to a descendant of Lady Hervey : — 
 
 Mr. Crohcr to the Earl of Mulgrave. 
 
 Mr. Murray has just put into my hands a volume of letters 
 of Mary Lepell, Lady Hervey, your grandmother, which he 
 is now publishing. I have always taken an interest in Lady 
 Hervey, to whom Horace Walpole introduced me (though she 
 was dead twenty years before I was born) ; and as well for 
 her sake as out of regard to her descendants, I am anxious 
 that the forthcoming publication should do credit and 
 justice to this agreeable and amiable lady. The letters in 
 Mr. Murray's possession he knows little or nothing about, 
 not even to whom they are addressed. They are evidently 
 not originals but copies carefully made. I enclose you one 
 sheet which contains part of three letters. You will observe 
 
 in the third page a Mrs. P ps mentioned with great 
 
 regard, but with so much formality, that it can hardly mean 
 her own daughter, married to your lordship's father about 
 three months preceding the date of this letter. Can your 
 lordship form any guess to whom the letters were addressed, 
 and who Mrs. P ps can be ?t I believe your father had a 
 
 * " Peel has declined accepting office, but whether it is because he likes 
 to live retired with his pretty wife, or that he thinks the Ministry wiU 
 not stand, I know not." — Mr. Wilbrahani to Lord Colchester, ' Colchester 
 Correspondence,' iii. 202. 
 
 [t These letters were addressed to the Rev. E. Morris. The lady was 
 Mrs. Phipps.]
 
 186 TEE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. YIL 
 
 sister who died unmarried ; she might in the fashion of that 
 day be called " Mrs." 
 
 The whole collection of these letters is large enough to 
 make a couple of volumes ; but though they are all full of 
 good sense and good taste, they want variety ; they are all 
 addressed to one person, and are almost all of a grave turn.. 
 Now I think it is a pity that so very narrow a view of Lady 
 Hervey's talents should be exhibited, and I cannot but wish 
 that her family would enable me to enliven, or rather to 
 diversify, the publication with some letters of a different 
 class, and if, as I should guess, she has left any little original 
 pieces of her own composition, I should be exceedingly glad 
 to have them. I intend to give Mr. Murray a little sketch of 
 her life, and if you could help me to any original materials, I 
 need hardly say what an advantage it would be; and I 
 suppose also I need hardly say, that as my share in the 
 publication will be anonymous and of a very humble 
 character, I can have neither any object of reputation or 
 profit from it. 
 
 Ever, my dear lord, 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 This work was brought out in May, 1821, and was the 
 first of several collections of the kind wliich Mr. Croker was 
 the means of giving to the public. 
 
 There are no entries in the diary of this year until the end 
 of May, when we find the following : — 
 
 May 31st. — Lord Melville * informs me that he is about to 
 be kicked upstairs (his expression) to be Secretary of State for 
 the Home Department. He does not wish it, but Lord Liver- 
 pool and the King insist upon it. The fact I take to be that 
 Lord Sidmouth is tired of so laborious an office, and indeed 
 unequal to its duties, and that Lord Liverpool is anxious to 
 bring in Canning again ; but as the King could be hardly ex- 
 pected to like to have Canning in an office of such close and 
 constant personal intercourse as the Home Department, Lord 
 Melville must go there, and Canning come to the Admiralty, 
 
 * [The second Lord Melville.]
 
 1821.] PEEL OFFERED OFFICE. 187 
 
 for which he was designed in 1807. He (Melville) intimates 
 to me that Peel has been offered, and declined to come. It is 
 not quite clear what Peel was offered ; but it is clear that 
 Lord Melville understands him to decline everything. Lord 
 M. said that Wilmot and Twiss had been mentioned to him as 
 Under Secretary. I advise Wilmot ;* Twiss has not yet weight 
 enough with the House. I suggested Spencer Perceval,t but 
 without any expectation that he could be seriously thought of 
 yet ; his late unsteady conduct is not forgotten. A place at 
 one of the Boards would suit him better. 
 
 June \st. — Lord Melville and I saw Peel and the Speaker 
 walking on the Parade under our windows in deep converse. 
 Lord Melville said, " I have not lost all hope that Peel may 
 be persuaded to join. I am sure the Speaker will give him 
 good advice." 
 
 Lord Melville thinks, and I agree with him, that Canning, 
 for his own sake, ought not to take ofiice ji^st now ; and I go 
 on to say, that he ought not to take a better office than that 
 which he has left. He has so many enemies, and so many 
 imputations, false and groundless, but general and credited, 
 are made against him, that he ought to be more cautious than 
 another man of what he does. 
 
 June 2nd. — Met Peel in Pall Mall ; he was coming to me, . 
 so I turned back with him. He told me that Lord Liverpool V 
 had sent for him, and made him an offer of Cabinet office, but 
 that it was done in a strange, shuffling, hesitating sort of way, 
 that nothing specific was offered, but that he conjectured, 
 from the style and the expressions, that Lord Liverpool 
 referred, in his own mind, to the Board of Control. Peel gave 
 an answer as vague as the application. He is now inclined 
 to write to Lord Liverpool, to understand him as distinctly 
 offering the India Board, and to refuse it. His reasons are, 
 first, he refused it before when the Government was in danger, 
 and he thinks it might look shabby to take it now when the 
 vessel has righted, but he would not care for mere appear- 
 ances or misrepresentation of his motives ; but, secondly, he 
 
 * [Mr. E. Wilmot, M.P. for Newcastle, Staffordshire.] 
 t [The late minister's son. His " late imsteady conduct " was doubtless 
 a reference to his enthusiasm in behalf of the Queen. It was he who sug- 
 gested to Brougham at her trial the effective quotation from Milton — 
 
 " What seemed his head 
 The likeness of a kingly crown had on."]
 
 '188 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. VII. 
 
 does not think lie could be of use in that office. He has no 
 \ taste or turn for debate unless when obliged by his office to 
 take part in it, &c. Neither of these motives satisfy me, and 
 I begged him not to write a final answer, or, if he did, at 
 least to limit his refusal to the office in question. He seems 
 generally disinclined to official life, but hand credo. 
 
 June '3rd. — Paid my usual visit to [Lord] Yarmouth. He 
 told me that Lord Sidmouth was going out and Canning 
 coming in, and Lord Melville shifting, and that Sturges 
 Bourne was to be Secretary of the Admiralty. But not 
 a word of Peel. I of course said nothing of what I knew 
 from Lord M. or from Peel, but answered that I thought 
 all the rest probable, except as to Bourne, which could 
 hardly be without my knowledge. 
 
 Yarmouth had betted General Gascoyne twenty guineas 
 that Canning would be in office before the 25 th of June, and 
 he is now quite sure of winning. I tell him that I doubt it, 
 and so I do ; for even if he chooses to accept Lord Liverpool's 
 offer, it can hardly be accomplished before the 25th ; but the 
 Speaker tells Yarmouth that we shall adjourn on that day, 
 and of course the writs must be previously moved. Called at 
 Carlton House, and was just beginnmg to have some talk 
 with Blomfield, when the King sent for him. 
 
 I fancy that I see Lord Liverpool's game. He wants, 
 a toute force, to have Canning in. Canning, I presume, feels 
 reluctant to return to the India Board ; therefore Lord Sid- 
 mouth must ask for otium cum dignitate in the Duchy or 
 presidency of the Council. Then Lord Melville is to be per- 
 suaded that Peel would not consent to succeed Sidmouth, 
 and that he must ; he reluctantly consents, and then Canning 
 may have the Admiralty, and Peel may be distinctly offered 
 the India Board. But, as there may be some hitch in the 
 arrangement. Lord Liverpool keeps JPeel open to have him at 
 hand to put into any gap which he may not be otherwise 
 able to fill up, in the Admiralty if Canning should refuse, or 
 in the Home Department, if that should be more convenient. 
 In short, he wishes to have Peel under his lee; he was 
 obliged to say something to him lest Peel should be offended 
 if he heard of these changes first from other quarters ; but he 
 could not speak plain as he does not yet quite know what he 
 has to give. 
 
 June 4:th. — Saw Blomfield: quite clear that the King 
 does not wish for Canning's return; insists upon the Admi-
 
 1821.] OVERTURES TO PEEL. 189 
 
 ralty's being an' office of much personal intercourse, not quite 
 so much as the Home Department, but enough so to require 
 confidence and cordiality. B. talked as if the King did not 
 know of Peel's refusal of the India Board in the spring, which 
 is next to impossible ; " but if he did refuse then, how can 
 they expect him to accept the same office now ? " It seems, 
 therefore, that the King will suggest Peel either for the Ad- 
 miralty or the Home Office, if for no other purpose than to 
 keep Canning out. 
 
 Peel called on me, and says he is going to Lord Liverpool 
 to refuse the India Board. 1 cannot bhmie him, for certainly 
 his accepting now what he before refused would be liable to 
 misinterpretation, and as he dislikes office, and is really above 
 all little motives, it would be hard to expect him to subject 
 himself to the imputation of acting from such. I endeavoured 
 to convince Peel that, if not in Government, he would soon 
 be in Opposition. 
 
 June 5th. — Goulburn called on me. As he seldom comes, 
 and as he began immediately to talk about the changes, I 
 think he rather wished to find out how Peel was disposed 
 through me. Peel had spoken to him last night, and had 
 stated Lord Liverpool's offer of the India Board as much 
 more distinct than I had understood it ; and it seems that, 
 after leaving me yesterday, Peel went to Lord Liverpool and 
 verbally^ and positively refused it. Goulburn regretted this, 
 and when I rather justified it, dropped that Peel could hardly 
 expect to have a higher office than Canning, which is true. 
 Goulburn, I have no doubt, loves Peel and has no particular 
 regard for Canning, but wishes that we should keep all 
 together. We laughed about his refusing to go to Ireland on 
 account of the expense, and Charles Grant laying by 4000/. 
 a-year out of it. He agrees with me that Wilmot would 
 make a better Under Secretary than Twiss ; indeed he is 
 very anxious for Wilmot. Twiss he thinks highly of, but 
 would advise him to stick to his law. I spoke to him of 
 Spencer Perceval, and suggested a place at one of the Boards 
 for him. 
 
 June Qth. — The negotiations are all at a stand. The King 
 holds out against Canning, and last evening Lord Sidmouth 
 told Lord MelviUe that he had consented to stay a little 
 longer ; but I do not think the King will long resist ; he is 
 too good-natured to bear personal grudge for any length of 
 time.
 
 190 THE CROEER PAPERS. [Chap. VII. 
 
 Yarmouth called to tell me "that Peel was yesterday 
 offered the India Board to reconcile the King to Canning's 
 appointment." This is erroneous in fact, and I do not see 
 how it could be just in reasoning, even if the fact were true ; 
 but Y. insisted he had it from a good quarter, which only- 
 shows me that at Carlton House Peel is set up against Can- 
 ning. Yarmouth says that he supposes the Ministers will 
 now use the droit du plus fort with the King, since they have 
 discovered H.M.'s attempt some months ago to bring in the 
 Opposition through Donoughmore, who had, he says, autho- 
 rity to speak to Lord Lansdowne, but came back to represent 
 that he could not in honour make any proposition to Lord L. 
 that should not include Lord Grey ; that the I^ng hesitated 
 for some while, but at last gave authority to include Lord 
 Grey. I can hardly believe all this; it must have been 
 before Donoughmore's wishing me to bring him and Lord 
 Liverpool together. In short, 1 do not believe it. 
 
 June 7th. — Peel and I walked down to the Court of Claims. 
 As we went he told me of his interview of Monday with Lord 
 Liverpool, and he now agrees that Lord L. was playing a 
 game, and, he thinks, not quite a fair one. When Peel said 
 that he came to decline the offer of the India Board, Lord L. 
 ^ said hastily, " And anything else I should ofter ? " Peel 
 begged to say that, when anything else should be offered, it 
 would be time enough to decide on it, as he could not presume 
 to refuse what perhaps never would be tendered for his 
 acceptance. He thought Lord L. was peevish and embar- 
 rassed. I am sure that, what between his fear of having V 
 Peel as his Chancellor of the Exchequer and his desire of 
 forcing Canning on the King, he would be glad to have a 
 general refusal from Peel, who would have been but too ready 
 to give one if he had not suspected that Lord L. wished for 
 one, which piques him a little. 
 
 June 8th. — Canning arrived the night before last. Lord 
 Melville says the King is angry with Peel. This can hardly 
 be for Peel's refusal of the India Board, as he himself antici- 
 pated it. 
 
 The King is gone to-day to Windsor. What a wonderful 
 constitution ! He has had a fit of the gout this last fortnight 
 which would have reduced any other man to helplessness. 
 He was in bed the day before yesterday, and, for aught I 
 know, yesterday, and to-day he has frisked off to Windsor. 
 
 The great Derby race at Epsom to-day. The Queen was
 
 1821.] THE KING AND CANNING. 191 
 
 \^ there, little noticed, less applauded. They say that on her 
 return she was hissed — this seems doubtful. 
 
 The King has sent out cards for a children's ball for the 
 13th inst. He has honoured my little girl with his recollec- 
 tion and an invitation; he was greatly taken with her at 
 Brighton. 
 
 June 9tJi. — The Speaker spent an hour and a half with me. 
 We talked over Peel's affair, and, as Peel before told me, we 
 agree nearly in our view of it. We both wish him to be in 
 office, and both would have rather advised him to accept the 
 India Board, but neither feel that he has done wrong in 
 acting upon his own view of the awkwardness in which he 
 thinks an office without Parliamentary business would place 
 him. I think, however, we both agree in thinking that it is 
 perhaps looking a little too high at first, because, in fact, 
 except the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and occasionally the 
 Secretaries of State, no one has ex-officio any distinct share of 
 House of Commons business ; the argument which applies to 
 the India Board applies equally to the First Lord of the 
 Admiralty. The upset, however, is that all is at a stand, and 
 that the King will not have Canning. I know the King's 
 placability, and do not think this obstacle likely to last long. 
 
 June lOfJi. — The King is not quite so well as he was ; the 
 jaunt to Windsor was too much for him. He is resolved to 
 go to Ireland by long sea. I am sorry for it, and do not think 
 he will accomplish it. 
 
 Had a talk with Blomfield, chiefly with a wish to explain 
 Peel's refusal not to have been general, but limited to the 
 Board of Control ; but this without any authority from him, 
 and indeed without any opinion of my own whether he would 
 or would not refuse other otfers if made. The King is by no 
 means dissatisfied vsdth Peel, as had been stated to me ; and 
 his refusal was, it seems, put to His Majesty upon the score 
 of health. The King still disinclined to admit Canning, I 
 advised him to consent to Canning, on condition that Peel 
 should be Chancellor of the Exchequer. This would at once 
 cool Liverpool, Castlereagh, and Canning, and the failure of 
 the negotiation would then lie with them and not with the 
 King, who, of course, is averse to giving a decided exclusion 
 to Canning. 
 
 June llth. — They tell me that the Chancellor says that 
 he will resign if Sidmouth does. This must be the King's 
 mode of excluding Canning. Poor Lady Liverpool died at
 
 192 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. Vn. 
 
 half-past five this morning. An amiable creature ; she has 
 been long wasting away, and if grief was not selfish, we 
 should have no reason to grieve for her. I am really sorry 
 for her. She felt for our sorrows this time last year, and 
 I have not seen her since. She was the only Hervey I ever 
 knew in whom one could not perceive some little travers. 
 
 June 12th. — Yarmouth, Lowther, Shawe, Watson, Smith, 
 and the two Hooks dined with me. Much punning, none 
 very good. 
 
 The Courier to-night publishes a correspondence between 
 Canning and Burdett * ; the latter comes shabbily off, for he 
 denies a meaning which his words have, if they have any. 
 
 June VMh. — Took my little girlf in the evening to the 
 King's ball. We arrived at five minutes after the appointed 
 hour, half-past 8, and His Majesty was already in the room. 
 In spite of his gout he walked about for full two hours with- 
 out sitting down. He was very gracious to Nony, and kissed 
 her at her departure. Princess Augusta also took great notice 
 of her. I really believe that of the nobility present the 
 \ majority were persons who had voted for the Queen. There 
 were the Duke of Devonshire, Lords Lansdowne, Grey, 
 Grantham, &c. Nay, there were even some ladies who had 
 visited the Queen. 
 
 None but the children danced, and they only sat down to 
 supper ; it was a very pretty fete. We got home a little 
 after 12. Lady Conyngham was, I think, a little too muchV 
 en evidence. 
 
 The King took me aside in the beginning of the evening, 
 and said, in allusion to the proposed changes, that "they 
 were madmen (meaning the Ministers) not to let well alone." 
 After a few words more of disapprobation, he asked me how 
 I should like the change proposed for the Admiralty. I 
 replied that it was my duty to like anything which should be 
 settled. " Ah ! " he replied, " but it's not mine." I thought 
 ^ he received Lord Grey as coldly as he well could in his own 
 house, and Lord Lansdowne much less formally. 
 
 * [In a letter on Parliamentary Eeform, Burdett had called Canning 
 the champion of a system by the hocus pocus tricks of which he and his 
 family received public money.] 
 
 t [This allusion in Mr. Croker's letters or diaries always refers to Miss 
 ■^ Eosamond Croker, his adopted daughter, afterwards Lady Barrow. Her 
 pet name was Nony.]
 
 1821.] LADY CONYNGHAM AT COURT. 193 
 
 June lUh. — The King dined witli the Duke of Devonshire. 
 June 15th. — I hear tlie dinner yesterday was not as magni- 
 ficent as might have been expected ; no gold plate and no 
 fine china. There was an assembly in the evening. Lord 
 Wm. Bentinck was at the dinner with his riljband of the Bath 
 over the wrong shoulder. 
 
 Jime 17th. — A curious story going about tliat the King gave 
 Princess Charlotte a remarkal)ly fine sapphire on her mar- 
 riage, and that after her death he asked it back as being a 
 royal jewel, that Prince Leopold returned it reluctantly, but 
 that, lo ! Lady Darnley has recognized it on Lady Conyng- 
 ham's neck. Another story now a-going I know to be false ; 
 they say that at the ball Princess Augusta asked leave of the 
 King to place the Princess Feodore* in a quadrille, and that his 
 Majesty answered, " You must ask Lady Conyngham ; I have 
 left it all to her." I had myself the honour of assisting 
 Princess Augusta in making some quadrilles of the little 
 folks, and she certainly never asked the King or the lady 
 about them ; and, after the first one or two dances, the King 
 and she went and sat behind a door in the ante-room and 
 danced qui voudrait. If there be any kind of colour for this 
 story, it must be that Princess Feodore might have been thought 
 too old for the rest of the dancers. I happened to be present 
 when she and the Duchess of Kent came in, and the King 
 kissed her and received her with great kindness and even 
 affection. I saw this, for there were few come at the time. 
 
 June ISth. — Went to the House of Commons to vote for V 
 6000/. to the Duke of Clarence. It had been voted in 1817, 
 but he was then advised to decline it. Three divisions, 
 144 to 18, 167 to 30, 131 to 81. The last was on a strong 
 point, whether H.li.H. should have the arrears since 1817. 
 Sir James Graham, as H.Pi.H.'s friend, made a most absurd 
 speech, in which he said that the Duke was very unwilling 
 to decline the allowance in 1817, but had been over-persuaded 
 by wiser heads, meaning the INIinisters. 
 
 June 19th. — I liear that public report gives me Huskisson's 
 place in the Woods and Forests, and sends him to the India 
 Board. The latter is probable, the other absurd. I presume 
 no one would take the trouble to advance me (as such a 
 
 * [Feodore, Princess of Holienlolie Langeuburg, was a daughter of tlic 
 Duchess of Kent by her first marriage, and consequently half-sister of 
 Queen Victoria.] 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 194 THE CHOKER PAPEES. [Chap. VIT. 
 
 cliange would be considered) without my consent, and I would 
 mucli rather stay where I am ; as long as I am able to hold 
 office, I do not wish to change. 
 \ They talk of a correspondence between the Duke of Devon- 
 shire and Lady Jersey, because the Duke had (at the King's 
 desire seiitend) put her off' from coming to his assembly the 
 other night. She rates him soundly for pusillanimity and 
 want of gallantry, &c. 
 
 Jtcne 20th. — Eode a little with the Speaker. He is vexed 
 that, in consequence of the prorogation, he cannot walk as 
 SpcaJxr, and is more vexed that he must walk, as he says 
 5 degrees below his rank as a Privy Councillor. The King 
 . is to occupy his house for the night before and the night after 
 the Coronation. I hear that Lady Spencer has also \ratten 
 angrily to the Duke of Devonshire because she and Lord 
 Spencer were not invited to his dinner to the King. Lady 
 Jersey's correspondence is, they say, handed about, but 
 I have not seen it or any one who has. 
 
 June list. — Grant tells me that he hears of my going to 
 the Woods and Forests from the Opposition. G-rancl Mcrci ! 
 Canning made an excellent speech last night on the subject 
 of the self-sacrifice of the Hindostanee widows. 
 
 Lowther is gone down to the Cottage at Windsor, where the 
 
 King has been ever since Monday on account of Ascot races. 
 
 \ The Queen was at Astley's last night, and received as one 
 
 would suppose such a person would be by such company as is 
 
 ordinarily found at such a place. 
 
 June 22ncl. — I hear the Duke of Devonshire is gone down 
 to the Cottage. It is clear that the King is playing the 
 game of softening, if not conciliating, the Opposition. He 
 thinks he will obtain domestic quiet by that line of conduct, 
 and so he may for a time, but, in the long run, I do not 
 think it can succeed. Party is in England a stronger passion 
 than love, avarice, or ambition ; it is often compounded of 
 them, but is stronger than any of them individually. • 
 
 The King was twice on the course at Ascot, Tuesday and 
 yesterday, looking ill the first day, but well and lively the 
 second. 
 \ June 2ord. — I find that the Queen's reception at Astley's 
 
 A was not at all so flattering as I had heard. Orby Hunter, 
 wdio was there, and who is an impartial witness, assured me 
 that it was quite the contrary. She took an odd mode of 
 procuring api)lause. At one moment there happened to be a
 
 1821.] COnONATION OF GEORGE IV. 195 
 
 profound silence in the house, of which she took advantage 
 to stand up and curtsey all round. Tins was answered l)y 
 some aj^plause, but the majority was against her. 
 
 In the month of July, there was celebratedthe Coronation 
 (»f tlie King, amid every circumstance of splendour — and as 
 some said of extravagance — that the heralds and other officials 
 could devise. The new crown alone had cost £.')4,000, and 
 £24,000 was spent upon robes. At a later period there 
 was a great outcry, in Parliament and out of it, concerning 
 this expenditure. 
 
 Jnhj ISth. — The King sent at 10 a.m. to desire me to come 
 to him. I did so. He told me that he had heard that I did 
 not mean to see the coronation (it was settled that I should 
 stay at the Admiralty to be at hand to give directions in case 
 of any confusion), that he knew the reason, and was oliliged 
 to me for it, and that, to make me what amends lie could, he 
 begged me to accept a gold snuff^-box, which he pulled out 
 
 ■^ from under his pillow, with a fine medallion of Idmself. He 
 also sent a gold coronation medal to my wife, and one to 
 " tJie darling little girl" as he was pleased to call her. He 
 
 -^ complains of Lord Liverpool's temper and manners. The 
 king went at night to sleep at the Speaker's ; some ill- 
 disposed persons, not half a dozen, I am told, cried " Queen ! " 
 as he went along. 
 
 July 19th. — I went to the Speaker's house in the morning 
 to see Knighton, who is attending my wife. I sat an houi* 
 with Blomfield and his son, who were dressing in their silks 
 and satins; the boy's dress as falconer was pretty. The 
 King heard I was tliere, and sent for me. He was waiting, 
 dressed in his underclothes, for the piiblic officers to proceed. 
 Even after he had put on his robes and hat, most cumbrous 
 and heavy, he had to wait full half an hour for the Great 
 Chamberlain, Lord G-wydir, who, it seems, had torn his robes, 
 and was obliged to wait to have them mended. I dare say 
 the public lays the blame of the delay on the King, M'ho was 
 ready long before anybody else. His JMajesty told me the 
 story of tlie Queen's various attacks on the lines of cii'cum- 
 vallation and her several repulses. 
 
 She had passed by the Admiralty on her retreat, attended 
 
 2
 
 196 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. VII 
 
 by a tliin and shabby mob. She pointed to " God save the 
 King ! " which -was over the screen for the evening ilhimin- 
 ations, and her mob hooted. 
 
 We had rumours all day of mobs and riots. I went my- 
 self to see what had happened ; it turned out that half a 
 dozen windows were broken in half a dozen places, and that 
 was all. There was no more crowd opposite the Queen's 
 door than served to fill the pavements; the centre of the 
 street was quite clear. 
 
 The shoals of people that crowded the streets and parks all 
 this day and all night are incomprehensible. The day indeed 
 was remarkably fine, and I should really believe that there 
 were full a million of people out of doors. 
 
 The suggestion relative to the canopy was adopted. 
 
 How fortunate my suggestion about a fete in the parks has 
 been, and hardly less fortunate the change from the Ch^ccn to 
 Hyde Park. I am confident that 500,000 people were par- 
 takers of this beautiful fete* 
 
 The King was bled inofuscly last night. Knighton was 
 very uneasy in the morning as to H.M.'s getting through the 
 day. This mode of bleeding is a strange kind of tonic, but 
 the King finds that it does him good. 
 
 Mr. Crohcr to Mr. Peel. Extracts. 
 
 July 24tli, 1821. 
 
 My deae Peel, 
 You can have no idea either of the. splendour of the 
 pageant or of the good order and good luck which accom- 
 panied the ceremony of the coronation .... I assure you it 
 was not only worth seeing, but, according to Dr. Johnson's 
 distinction, worth going to see, particularly the procession on 
 the platform and the fete in Hyde Park. Lord Gwydir had 
 too much to do and yet did it pretty well. One little morti- 
 fication he suffered. He abused, some say struck with his 
 wand, one of the heralds for some supposed breach of duty. 
 The herald, with gi'eat good sense, took the blow as a mere 
 mistake and said, " My lord, you do not know our functions, 
 characters, or duties ; we are not servants — my family were 
 
 * [Chinese bridges had been thrown over the ornamental water in St.. 
 James's Park, and fireworks exhibited from temporary platforms, at Mr. 
 Croker's suggestion.]
 
 1821.] VISIT TO IRELAND. ' 197 
 
 gentlemen five hundred years before a Burrell was heard of." 
 Lord Gwydir was in fact in the wrong, and had treated the 
 Jierald Ijy mistake as if he were one of the attendants. 
 
 The (^ucen and Wood were hooted by the sjjectators. She 
 went off in a rage of disai)i)ointment. She, no doul)t, came 
 down not to get in, for she took care to liave hut one ticket, 
 and that one irreguLar, although she might have had fifty good ^ 
 ones, and would have been let in if she had produced aV 
 proper ticket. The attempt to get admission was therefore 
 only a pretence for the parade through the streets, and that I 
 firndy believe was calculated to try her strength, and it only 
 proved her weakness. And from eight o'clock on Tliursday 
 morning we heard not a word more of her till about the same 
 hour yesterday morning when the ' Morning Post ' and all the 
 town had it she had fled, some said to Italy, and others to 
 Scotland. In fact she was in the dumps at Brandenburgh 
 House, and we hear to-day intends, like the Duke of 
 Monmouth of old, to make a progress in the West. 
 
 The King and his Ministers are, I hear, worse and worse ; 
 this vacancy of the Chamberlain's office is unlucky for both 
 parties. I myself do not think that a change was ever so 
 likely — certainly Lord Liverpool never was w^orse with His 
 Majesty than at this moment, when it would require the 
 greatest cordiality and good understanding to enable them to 
 agree on a fit Lord Chamberlain. 
 
 The King talks of leaving town for Brighton on :Monday, 
 and embarking next day for Dubhn, I, if Mrs. Croker be 
 tolerably well, will go by land, and, after spending a few 
 days al)out my own private concerns in the country, will go 
 to Dublin to pay my duty. 
 
 Yours ever, &c., 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 The King's visit to Ireland, which was then supposed to be 
 the beginning of a " new era " of reconciliation ; his subse- 
 quent journey to the Continent; the Queen's death; the 
 difficulties between the King and his Ministers — all these 
 topics are touched upon in Mr. Croker's diary or correspond- 
 ence for the remainder of this year.
 
 198 ' THE CEOKER PAPEES. [Chap. VIL 
 
 {From the Diary.) 
 
 July 29f7i.— Dined at Yarmouth's with the Duke of York, 
 We had also the Speaker, Shaftesbury, Huskisson, Beckett, 
 Greenwood, Watson Taylor, Col. Armstrong, Mr. Dent and 
 Chin Grant.* Before he came, Yarmouth and the Speaker 
 said the Duke was greatly out of spirits, vexed at all that was 
 going on, with the King, and with the ]\linisters, and with 
 the reductions in the army. When he came, however, I could 
 not think I had ever seen him in much better spirits. The 
 truth is, the Speaker is vexed, and he fancies other people 
 are so too. 
 
 Jidy dOth. — I was to have set out for Dublin to-morrow, 
 but Mrs. Croker continues so ill that I cannot leave her. I 
 was to have had an audience of the King to receive his last 
 commands for Ireland, and I saw H.M. at two o'clock ; but I 
 was obliged to ask leave to stay, which he granted with many 
 expressions of regret, and he desired that, if Mrs. C. gTew 
 better, I should hasten after him. He is as well as I ever 
 saw him ; he was a little warm ; Lord Liverpool had been 
 just with him, and, after I had said " my little say," he beg:an 
 to complain of Lord Liverpool. He says he cannot go on with 
 him, and that he will not ; that he likes all the rest of his 
 Cal)inet, nobody, for instance, better than Castlereagh ; that 
 if the Caljinet chose to stand or fall with Lord Liverpool, they 
 must fall ; if not, he does not wisli for any further change. 
 The Cabinet, he says, is too large, and people are in it who 
 have no title to be there. He asked how it could be suspected 
 that he wished to get rid of his Ministry, he who had made 
 them himself. But Lord Liverpool was captious, jealous, and 
 impracticable ; he objects to everything, and even when he 
 gives way, which is nine times in ten, lie does it with so 
 bad a grace that it is worse than an absolute refusal. Even for 
 his own personal comfort the King cannot get the smallest 
 tilings done ; for instance, two rooms of one story to his 
 cottage are positively refused liim. When he is refused such 
 a misere as that, what must it be with greater matters ? But 
 
 * [Sir Alexander Grant. He sat in Parliament from 1812 to 1843, 
 and was Chairman of Ways and Means in the House of Commons from 
 1826 to 1832. He was also a member of the Board of Control in Sir 
 R. Peel's Administration, 1834-35, and was so much attached to Peel 
 that he wore mourning for him long after his death.]
 
 1821.] ILL-HEALTH OF THE QUEEN. 199 
 
 he would bear it no longer ; lie is rex Dei fjredid, and Dei 
 gratia rex he would be. 
 
 There was a great deal more of this kind. It is quite im- 
 possible that Lord Liverpool can stay in with such feelings 
 existing towards him ; the King described him with one 
 happy, and though exaggerated, not on the whole unjust ^ 
 trait : "he is in the highest degree irritable, without having any ^ 
 feeling." 
 
 There was no great recii^rocity in our conversation, for I 
 said little or nothing, only of Castlereagh. When he spoke 
 of him, I said that, tliough he was not popular with the mob, 
 he was highly so in Parliament. 
 
 July oist. — The King left town at half-past eleven, and 
 Mrs. Croker is so much better that Sir William Knighton has 
 told the Kiiuj that I may go, and me that I must go, to Ireland. 
 August Is^.— Slept at Oswestry. Lord Beresford and 
 Lord George had passed me on the road, and I have rejoined 
 and supped with them. 
 
 The road and scenery through Wales delightful. 
 Our supper whimsically served ; the first dish being green 
 peas alone, and when we asked for the mutton chops we were 
 told they would be ready by the time we should have done 
 tvith the iKeis^ 
 
 Dublin, August 4^A.— The King's tables begin to-morrow, the 
 Lords and Grooms at the first, the equerries and the rest at 
 the second. As I have no character but as tlie King's guest, 
 they gave me my choice at wliich table I should dine ; but I 
 need not make a formal choice, as I shaU dine little at either. 
 I must dine once or twice with both, which is as much as I 
 shall be al)le to do. Visits and invitations shower upon 
 one with a most embarrassing and overwhelming profusion. 
 
 Aucjust 5th. — We have an account of the Queen's being 
 dangerously ill of an inflammation in the bowels. This un- 
 expected event throws all the preparations here into a state 
 of indecision, as it is impossible, if the disease should end 
 fatally, that the King should come hither for some time at 
 least. Sir M. Tierney thinks iU of her from the bulletins, but 
 he can know no more than we all do. 
 
 August Qth. — The Queen's disorder is said to be unabated ; 
 but I cannot think she is in such extreme danger as is sup- 
 posed. Some people think it is all a hoax, and others not 
 more charitable say that she is poisoned. Certamly her death 
 at this moment would be a most extraordinary occurrence. I
 
 200 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. VIL 
 
 suppose they will have sent expresses to meet the King off 
 the Land's End. 
 
 August 8th. — The King arrived at Holyhead yesterday, 
 and received there the first accounts of the Queen s illness. 
 He went immediately to Plas Xewydd, and Lord Sid- 
 mouth sailed at nine this morning to advise His Majesty 
 to postpone his public entry till something more decisive 
 
 should be known as to the Queen's state. Lord S 
 
 reached Holyhead in six hours, saw the King, and took the 
 steam-packet again about six in the evening, and was in 
 Dublin in about eleven hours, blowing a gale of wind the 
 whole time. The steam-packet returned immediately to 
 Holyhead with the mail of the preceding evening. 
 
 The bulletins give expectation of the Queen's recovery. 
 
 August 9th. — Dined with the Archbishop of Dublin, with 
 the Lord Lieutenant, Duke of Montrose, Lord Graham, Lord 
 Winchester, Lords Meath, Longford, Belmore, Sidmoutli, 
 Castlemain, Lovaine, Howden, and Beresford, Lord George 
 Beresford, Capt. Anson, and the Attorney-General : grave 
 enough. Lord Sidmouth tells me that the King had not a 
 line of communication from his Ministers in London either 
 as to the Queen's illness or as to his own course upon it — nay, 
 Lord Sidmouth had not a syllable on the subject himself, 
 except a note from Hobhouse to say that, if she died, the 
 event should be announced in the Gazette without the usual 
 expression of regret, and that a short mourning should be 
 ordered ; but not a word from Lord Liverpool himself as to 
 what the King was to do in such an event. This seems in- 
 credible, but it is true. Lord Sidmouth, however, advised 
 the King, if the next mail should bring fatal accounts, to 
 retire to Plas Newydd ; if the accounts should be doubt- 
 ful, to come over and land privately and proceed without 
 ceremony to the Park to wait the result; but if all was look- 
 ing well, then to make liis public entrance as originally 
 intended. Lord Sidmouth expressed the greatest surprise at 
 Lord Liverpool's most unaccountable neglect both of the King 
 and of liis colleagues. 
 
 It blows very hard to-night in squalls. 
 
 August loth. — A mail arrived in the night with an account 
 that the Queen was " suddenly much worse." We had also 
 a copy of a private note to the same effect from Doctor Morton 
 to Watson. The result is that the King will land incognito 
 at Howtli and go to the Paik — a great disappointment to
 
 1821.] DEATH OF THE QUEEN. 201 
 
 expectations here, and yet perhaps more tlian will be approved 
 in England. 
 
 AiKjmt 11th. — The Queen died on Tuesday evening. Her 
 will is tolerably expressive of her feelings. She mentions 
 neither Brougham, Denman, nor Wood, and leaves Billy 
 Austin residuary legatee. She desires that on her coffin may 
 be inscribed " Caroline, the injured Queen of England." Lord 
 Liverpool \mtes to Lord Sidmouth that this inscription no 
 authority can place, but that her servants may do as they 
 like. It is observed that she says injured, not innocent, and 
 that no clergyman attended her in her last moments. 
 
 August 12th. — The King came over in the steam-packet, 
 and landed at HoM'th at about half-past four. His birthday. 
 Dined with the equerries. The King was uncommonly well 
 during his passage, and gayer than it might be proper to tell ; 
 but he did not appear upon deck after he heard of the Queen's 
 death, and, though it would be absurd to think that he was 
 afflicted, he certainly was affected at the first accounts of this 
 event. He walked about the cabin the greater part of the 
 night on wdiich the news reached him. 
 
 In conversation on Friday, M'hich began on other matters. 
 Lord S. told me all the details of his breach with Pitt. I 
 never doubted that the latter was in the wrong as regards 
 Lord Sidmouth.* He did not act either fairly or even politely 
 by him. I thought so at the time, and have always continued 
 to think so ; that Lord Sidmouth's account only confirms a 
 " foregone conclusion." 
 
 August loth. — The King remains in seclusion in the Park; 
 his family and friends dine together at the Castle. To cele- 
 brate his birthday we were 33 at table, very hot and very dull. 
 
 Blomfield tells me that the King intends to w^ear mourn- 
 ing at liis private levee, which is to take place in a day or two, 
 and crape round his arm for the rest of the time. It was not 
 easy, I learn, to persuade him to this. 
 
 A August 14:th. — I learned a curious fact. In the absence of 
 letters from Lord Liverpool or any other ]\Iinister, Lord 
 Londonderry, at Holyhead, thought himself justified in open- 
 ing a letter from Hobhouse to Lord Sidmouth, with a view of 
 obtaining some information as to the Queen. He did so in 
 the King's presence, and began to read till he came to " TJie 
 Duke of York — " when he looked horrorstruck and stopped 
 
 * [In 1803, on tlie question of admitting the Grenvilles and Mr. 
 Windham into the Cabinet.]
 
 202 THE CBOKER PAPERS, [Chap. VIL 
 
 short. " Come, come ! " said the King, " you must now go on 
 with it, or I shall think it worse than I daresay it will turn 
 out to be." Castlereagh was then obliged to stammer on, 
 " Tlic Duke of York is in despair at an event which so much 
 diminishes his chance of the Croivn." The King, however, 
 laughed very good-humouredly at it, and afterwards repeated 
 the story with equal good humour. 
 
 August 15th. — The King had a private levee in the park in 
 deep mourning. I dined with Mr. F. Hutchinson, where we 
 had, beside Lord Hutchinson and tlie sons of Frank and Kit, 
 the Archbishop of Tuam, Lords Eoden, Luton, Powerscourt, 
 Monck, and Hawarden, Mr. Lefroy, and Mr. Bernard. The 
 best dinner and wines I have seen at any house in Ireland, 
 but it must be confessed that the tone of conversation, of 
 Lords Powerscourt and Hawarden, for instance, is not very 
 refined. Lord Hutcliinson whispered me to sit near him, and 
 he made me remark that we had fallen into a company of the 
 over-righteous. His brother, he said, was beginning to tend that 
 way. The Archbishop of Tuam is the patriarch of this sect. 
 
 August 11th. — As early as six the people began to assemble 
 for the King's public entry. I walked about for two or three 
 hours to see the preparations, which are not costly, but to 
 which the dimensions of the streets and buildings impart 
 some of their magnificence. The entry was fine and the pro- 
 cession had more carriages and horsemen than I thought 
 Dublin could have afforded. They said there were 500 
 carriages and 3000 gentlemen on horseback ; probably half 
 the number would be nearer the truth : 100 carriages make 
 a great train. One fact I saw. The train of carriages which 
 preceded the King had passed the College, where I stood, and 
 had gone through Dame Street, Cork Hill, both Castle yards, 
 and l)y the back streets and Grafton Street back again into 
 College Green before the King had arrived at Carlisle Bridge, 
 so that there must have been, I should think, at least an Irish 
 mile of carriages. The people shouted. The Irish, it seems, 
 do not know how to hurrah or cJieer ; they have not had much 
 practice in the expression of public joy. After the King had 
 received the addresses on the throne, he sent for me into his 
 private room. He was walking about greatly agitated between 
 pleasure at his reception in Ireland and dissatisfaction at 
 what has occurred in London. He renewed all his complaints 
 against Lord Liverpool, and said roundly that he would not 
 go on any longer with him. He kept me full half an hour, 
 and talked the whole time, alternately of the triumph of Dublin
 
 1821.] THE KING IN IRELAND. 203 
 
 and the horrors' of London* B. tells me that the King sat up 
 the greater part of the night fretting about this latter affair ; 
 it affects him certainly more deeply than I should have 
 expected. 
 
 The day was, in my opinion, not very favourahle for the 
 procession : it was hazy. The King, however, said " it was 
 just the day he wished for ; no sun, no wet, no dust." A 
 triumphal arch was erected at the upper end of Sackville 
 Street near (not at) the bounds of the city, where the Lord 
 Mayor offered the keys. I gave the architect the inscriptions 
 for it. On the face towards the King I proposed "Eegi 
 Gives," and on the other next the city this from the Gth 
 ^neid :— 
 
 " Hie est, tibi qiieni promitti sa^pius audis 
 Augustus." 
 
 The latter only was used. The other side had " An hundred 
 thousand Welcomes " in Irish. Better than mine. 
 
 August 18 fh. — A review in tlie park ; the day was wonder- 
 fully hne, and the scene was delightful. I went in one of the 
 King's carriages with Lords Winchester and Charles Ben- 
 tinck, and Sir Ed. Nagle. Most' of the others went on horse- 
 back. The prettiest part of the show was the children of the 
 Soldiers' Orphan School marching past ; their tiny discipline 
 was very exact, and their appearance singularly touching; 
 they brought recollections into my mind and tears, which I 
 could not check, into my eyes. 
 
 In the evening I dined with my old friend the IMaster of 
 the PtoUs.t When I went my first circuit I found MacMahon 
 in a kind of Coventry, and was warned not to continue my 
 acquaintance with him. As I had never known anything of 
 him that Avas not kind and honourable, I rejected the advice, 
 and had the pleasure to see ]Mac]\Iahon rising every day to 
 wealth and honours. We had at dinner Lords Eoden, Do- 
 noughmore, Aylmer, and Gort, the Bishop of Ferns, ]\Ir. Bar- 
 nard, Mr. Doherty, and some ladies and others. 
 
 Auf/ust 19/^.-^The King M'ent to church, where, what with 
 chaunting long Te Dennis and anthems, they kept him exactly 
 three hours. After he returned to the Castle, His ]\Iajesty 
 
 * [Referring, no doubt, to the disgraceful scenes wliich occurred at tlie 
 Queen's funeral.] 
 
 t [Sir AYilliam MaclNIalion.]
 
 204 THE CHOKER PAPERS. [Chap. VII. 
 
 sent for me, and I saw him for a few minutes ; lie was tired, 
 and anxious to get to the Park. When I was going out Sir 
 Matthew Tierney came in, but the King said, laughingly, 
 "Tierney, I do not want to see you; I never was better in 
 my life." Yet I know he had not been well in the morning, 
 and Tierney had been desired to wait upon liim on his return 
 from church. 
 
 August 20th. — The King held a levee, and previous to it 
 received the addresses of the Synod of Presbyterians, the 
 Quakers, and the Catholic bishops in the closet. He also had 
 an investiture of St. Patrick and the Bath. Lord Graves, 
 proxy for the Duke of Cumberland, and Lords Donegal, 
 Ormond, Meath, Eoden, Fingal, and Courtown, were invested. 
 
 The address of the Catholic bishops was in bad taste ; it 
 talked too much politics, and said that they were four-fifths 
 of the population. Everybody observed how unseemly this 
 tone was at this time. Some days after, Lord Donoughmore 
 told me that he had written this address, and he took great 
 credit for having inserted these very passages. He told me 
 that the address which the Catholic prelates themselves had 
 prepared was mere milk and water, welcome and adulation, 
 but that he wished to give their address political substance 
 and weight, and to register the fact of Catholic importance 
 iind preponderance in Ireland in an address to the throne, 
 where, if not contradicted from the throne, it would remain 
 an indisputable admission of the fact which he wanted to 
 prove. I thought all this wrong, and I told him so, and that 
 if I had been Secretary of State for the Home Department, I 
 should have rejected these passages of his address. I cannot 
 conceive how a man can be so blinded by vanity or party as 
 not to see that his address is at least a thing not to boast of. 
 
 The levee which ensued was wonderfully crowded. I reck- 
 oned 1500 names, and was told there were 2000. I know 
 not how many guineas were offered for the loan of a dress 
 sword, and I know two people who were kept away by the 
 \J want of this article of court dress. Some who came had 
 most incongruous swords, and there were many ludicrous 
 figures, but they were lost in the immense crowd, and many 
 passed the King without seeing or recognising him. 
 
 August 21st. — I dined at the Lords' table. I had promised 
 to dine there one day, and thought this a good opportunity to 
 go. Dressed for the drawing-room. By opening a large 
 suite of rooms, and by publishing the King's desire that no
 
 1821.] CEBEMONIES IN DUBLIN. 205. 
 
 gentlemen should come except in attendance on ladies, the 
 crowd -was not so inconvenient as at the levee, though the 
 numbers were greater. I should suppose that above 1000 
 ladies were presented, and really they were (with a very few 
 and very inconsiderable exceptions), all ladies who luiglit 
 have very properly appeared at St. James's, and their dresses 
 were both rich and in good taste. When the rooms began to 
 thin, about twelve o'clock, I walked about with Lord Lovaine, 
 making our observations, and we both agreed that it was a 
 drawing-room quite equal, except as to jewels and titles, to 
 any we had seen at St. James's. By some interru^jtion, 
 about one-third of the company were cut off and prevented 
 coming up with tlie stream. The attendants thought there 
 were no more to be presented, so the door of the presence 
 chamber was sliut, and the King made his bows and retired. 
 In a few minutes it was found that the ante-rooms were 
 again full (the interruption in the train of carriages having 
 been obviated). What was to ])e done ? The King had 
 retired and was undressed. On the other hand, the ladies 
 were dressed and had no mind to retire ; after a good deal of 
 2}mirparlers, the King was told of the circumstance, and ^^•ith 
 great good nature he put on his fine coat, came back to tlie 
 presence chamber, and went through the ceremony of kissing 
 about 300 ladies more. 
 
 Aufjv.st 2ord. — The City dinner, extremely sjilendid and, 
 what is more wonderful, good and well regulated and well 
 served. About 400 dined. The room built for the occasion 
 in less than six weeks, and for less than 5000/., represented 
 the interior circular court of a Moorish palace open to the 
 sky ; the battlements were a gallery filled witli ladies, music, 
 and a company of halberdiers, in Spanish dresses of light 
 blue silk as a guard of honour to the King. It was liglited 
 by a vast circle of light, hung by invisible wires, which had 
 a wonderfully fine and curious effect. Poster pleasantly and 
 forcibly called it Saturn's ring. Tlie whole was gay, graceful, 
 and grand, and went off a souliait, except the music, which 
 was bad — poor and scattered. The finest incident was that 
 after the loud cheers of the company on drinking the King's 
 health had subsided, the distant cheering of the people from 
 the surrounding streets burst in (from the invisible windows 
 of the ceiling), and gave an air of reality to the whole 
 pageant. 
 
 Augicst 24:th. — A beautiful dejhhier on tlie lawn of the
 
 206 THE CBOKER PAPERS. [Chap. VII. 
 
 Dublin Society— a splendid and profuse breakfast in a royal 
 pavilion and in about thirty other tents. There were about 
 1200 persons present, and scats at table (as I was told and 
 believe from what I saw) for 900. 
 
 The King went minutely through the museum and other 
 parts of the interior. Whether this tired him or that he was 
 too impatient to get to Slane,* I cannot tell — perhaps both ; 
 l)ut he did not appear on the lawn for above four minutes. 
 He walked a little way down, bowed on each side, and re- 
 turned, as every one supposed, to take, or appear to take, 
 some of the refreshments which had been prepared for him ; 
 but no, before anyone would have guessed it, he was already 
 in his travelling carriage and on the road to Slane. Great 
 disappointment and some criticism, which five minutes more 
 would have prevented. 
 
 August 25th. — My sister and aunt arrived in town last 
 nio-ht. I spent this day in showing them what I could of the 
 shows, and dined with them and Mr. and Mrs. A. Hutchinson 
 at Dean Bond's. I am commanded to Slane to-morrow, 
 which I regret on several accounts. The Duke of Montrose, 
 who went yesterday, is returned enchanted with Slane : " the 
 finest place he ever saw in England or Scotland. Dunkeld, 
 the best Scotch place, is a hagatcllc to it." Slane is a fine 
 place, but it is narrow and owes nearly half its beauties to its 
 neio-hbours ; but these defects are not visible unless one is 
 apprised of them, and it is really, in both senses of the word, 
 a very imposing place. The King went to see the scene of 
 the battle of the Boyne ; it seemed, from what he afterwards 
 said to me, that they had not explained the matter clearly to 
 him. 
 
 August 26t7i. — Went to Slane with Col. Thornton. Called 
 at Sir M. Somerville's for Sir Andrew Barnard. Sad rainy 
 weather, so that I never went outside the doors of Slane. At 
 dinner, iDcsides the King and the Conynghams, old and young, 
 we had the Esterhazys, Eagel, the Blomfields, and the 
 Attorney and Solicitor-General. The pleasantest dinner I 
 almost ever was at ; the King in excellent tone and spirits, 
 and the Attorney and Solicitor delighted with him. He 
 pleasantly asked Saurin'sf legal opinion whether he might not 
 stay where he was, and send Lord Talbot, as Lord Lieutenant, 
 
 * [Slane Castle, the seat of the Marquis of Conyngham.] 
 t [William Saurin, Attorney-General for Ireland.]
 
 1821.] THE RETURN FROM DUBLIN. 207 
 
 to England. A' round Gothic room at Slane, very handsome 
 and handsomely lighted. In the evening the King conversed 
 a good deal with the two law)^ers. He had been at Slane 
 Church in the morning ; great crowds and some oppressive 
 loyalty. 
 
 At Slane they showed me a musical instrument, very like, 
 I suppose, an ancient lyre, which a neighbouring gentleman 
 had sent as a present to the King ; the testudo, or shell, was 
 formed of the skull of a horse, and of the horse — so ran the 
 inscription — wliich Duke Schomberg rode at the battle of the 
 Boyne. 
 
 August 27th. — I left my carriage at Slane for Barnard and 
 Thornton, and, as I Avanted to be in town early, I came 
 in with the Attorney and Solicitor. We had an agreeable 
 drive, and the Solicitor (Bushe)* was very amusing. Still 
 heavy rain. 
 
 The College dinner went off very well ; the library was 
 the reception room, and the theatre the dining room, both 
 fitted up with great splendour and taste. The dinner was 
 handsome and good, the wines very good, and the music 
 excellent. The King seemed much pleased, but he retired 
 half an hour too soon. The young men at the gates took 
 leave to express their approbation, and in some instances 
 their disapprobation, of the guests as they passed to their 
 carriages. Bad taste, although I had the honour of being 
 amongst the applauded. 
 
 August 28th. — Left Dublin, intending to proceed from 
 Howth to Holyhead by the steam-packet; but an accident 
 had occurred to the packet, and there was none but a sailing- 
 packet going ; so, as the wind was high and adverse, I did 
 not embark. Lord and Lady Manners were in the same pre- 
 dicament, and we agreed to stop at Howth instead of going 
 back to the festivities of Dublin. Baron Eagel, the Dutch 
 Ambassador, was also there, and we spent a very stormy day 
 agreeably enough by the fireside. Went out for a moment to 
 the hill to see the steamboat arriving — a very sublime and 
 almost alarming sight ; she rolled tremendously. 
 
 August 29th. — Sailed in the steam-packet, the wind quite 
 against us, very strong, and a good deal of sea. We had a 
 rolling and disagreeable passage of ten hours and fifty 
 minutes. The sailing-packet, which had sailed twenty-four 
 
 * [Charles Kendal Bushe, the Irish Solicitor-General.]
 
 208 THE CROKEE PAPERS. [Chap. VIL 
 
 hours before us, we passed at sea, and she cannot arrive for 
 twelve hours after us. If she has any passengers on board, 
 they must have passed a miserable time. I sat in my car- 
 riage on deck ; everybody was deadly sick. I was not at all 
 incommoded ; I fancy the motion of my carriage on its own 
 springs — a motion to which one is accustomed — prevented 
 my feeling the motion of the vessel as much as I should 
 otherwise have done; but Lord Manners and Baron Fagel, 
 who tried the same plan, were both horribly sick. 
 
 August dOth. — Breakfasted at Bangor Ferry ; then spent an 
 hour fishing in one or two spots where the road goes by 
 lakes and rivers, with a little, and but a little, swamp. 
 
 Dined at the King's Arms, Llangollen, a new inn in a 
 beautiful situation, where I found Herries stopping on his 
 way to Ireland, where he is going as one of the Commissioners 
 of Inquiry. Travelled all night. 
 
 Sept. 1st. — I find London more quiet, in fact, than it looks 
 in the oicivspcqjers. The strange inquest on the man killed at 
 the Queen's funeral still going on, with a violence on the 
 part of the prosecutors and rabble and a partiality on the 
 part of the jury which disgusts all right-minded men of all 
 parties, and must after all do good. It is, indeed, now of no 
 kind of consequence what verdict they bring in. 
 
 Sept. 2nd. — Cockburn explains to me liis motives for ad- 
 vising the Queen's funeral not to go by water, and I am 
 satisfied that he was right ; but I tliink that she should have 
 been sent to Portsmouth, where the ship was which was to 
 convey her. To this I can also see objections, but it was, on 
 the wliole, the easiest way of proceeding, and the least likely 
 to produce mischief. 
 
 Sept. Zrd. — I had a letter from Arbuthnot, complaining 
 that I had talked of the King's being dissatisfied and the 
 Government in danger. As I had not been out of the Board- 
 room, I knew that this came from Osborne to Lord Liverpool. 
 I answered that Osborne was a little mistaken in some details, 
 but that the facts were true enough, and, as I was not 
 delighted at this kind of aigre doux remonstrance, I stated 
 that no one meddled with such tilings less than I did, not 
 because I wanted opportunities, which H.M.'s favour some- 
 times offered me, nor because I did not think myself as well 
 entitled to j^^tsh myself into .their confidences as another, but 
 simply because I did not like the pursuit ; and little as I 
 ever had liked what is called political intrigue, I now had
 
 1821.] LOED LIVERPOOL. 209 
 
 every day less and less reason to dabble in sucli troubled 
 waters, for that all my ambition, which never was very great, 
 was now buried with my poor child, and that I did not want 
 and would not accept change of office or of rank as any 
 favour. I continue in office not Ijecause it gratifies me, but 
 because I am advised, and indeed feel, that having spent my 
 life from twenty-seven to forty in office, I should be desceuvre 
 out of it, and that, under my present feelings, I could not 
 answer for my own strength of mind. 
 
 I observe that my nerves, as they are called, grow every 
 day weaker and more irritable, above all when I tliink of my 
 poor boy. 
 
 Sept. 8th. — I had a letter from Lord Liverpool at Walmer, 
 saying that he was very anxious to see the Iving as soon as 
 possible, and begging me to inform him of His Majesty's 
 movements. He added that as the affair of the Queen's 
 funeral was the great sin of which the King now accused 
 the ministers, ]ie begged Sir Geo. Cockburn and me to draw 
 up a memoire justificatif of the arrangement made on that 
 occasion. 
 
 I wrote to him in reply that the Queen's funeral would 
 not be considered as the true cause of the dissatisfaction, and 
 that, since he did me the honour of opening the subject to me, 
 I should venture to say that I looked upon that as a trivial 
 point of difference, and that the real quarrel was old, and lay 
 deeper, and should be treated accordingly. 
 
 In the evening I had a note from his lordship, to say he 
 was come to town, and would be glad to see me next morning 
 before church. 
 
 Sept. 9th. — I called on Lord Liverpool. "We talked over 
 all the details of the Queen's funeral, and we both agreed 
 that the reasoning for not going down the Thames was 
 conclusive ; and I promised to get Cockburn to draw up a 
 statement of his nautical view of the subject, to which I 
 would add a summary of the more general reasons. At the 
 same time I repeated that I thought this case ought not to 
 be argued with the King in any hope that convincing His 
 Majesty on this head would satisfy him on many others, and 
 I hinted that Lord Liverpool had perhaps some personal 
 excuses to make on one or two points. He agreed to all 
 I said, but quoted the fable of the wolf and tlie lamb. I did 
 all I could to soften Lord L.'s feeling, and to induce him to 
 meet the King, not argumentatively, but kindly and frankly. 
 
 VOL, I. " P
 
 210 THE CBOKEB PAPERS. [Chap. VII. 
 
 He is undoubtedly in the wrong towards the King on some 
 points, and for these he ought to offer something like apology. 
 Lord Liverpool talked of the refusal of the Chamberlain's 
 place to Lord Conyngham, and of the King's desire to make 
 young Mr. Smnner* (Lord IrtzCharles's tutor) at once a Canon 
 of Windsor. He talked a^od deal and freely about Lady 
 Conyngham and her designs against the Government. I said 
 that I had seen no marks of it, that a change of Government 
 would place her husband and son in rather awkward circum- 
 stances, and that I hardly thought that she was ready to run 
 all the risks of throwing the King and herself into the arms 
 of the Opposition, and I asked, would the Opposition, with 
 all their boasted public virtue, dare to receive the Govern- 
 ment from a female intrigue ? He said, yes, no doubt that 
 Lord Grey paid great court to Lady C. What Lord Lans- 
 downe might do was more doubtful, as he was a cautious 
 and reserved man, whose sentiments were not so easily dis- 
 coverable. He talked also of the difficulties arising from 
 the ladies of the Ministers, and mainly Lady Londonderry 
 not associating with Lady C. 
 
 Sept. 10th. — I brought Lord Liverpool Cockburn's state- 
 ment and my summary, which he highly approved of.. 
 I have renewed to him my advice jiot to treat this matter 
 as a pure logical argumentation, for, convinced or uncon- 
 vinced on this point, the King's feelings towards liim will 
 not be softened, though they may be rendered more adverse- 
 by debate. 
 
 I took the liberty of telling Lord Liverpool that I gave 
 this advice for no object but peace sake ; that I was in a 
 situation which would render it highly irksome to me that 
 the King, who honoured me with his private favour, should 
 be dissatisfied with those under whom I held a public office, 
 but that I was above or below the reach of royal or minis- 
 terial favour ; that I wanted nothing, and would take nothing, 
 
 * [The Duke of Wellington to Lord Liverpool, October 26th, 1821 :— 
 ' " As I told you at "Walmer, the King has never forgiven your opposition to 
 his wishes in the case of Mr. Sumner. The feeling has influenced every 
 action of his life in relation to his Government from that moment ; and I 
 "believe to more than one of us he avowed that his objection to Mr. Canning 
 ■was that his accession to the Government was peculiarly desirable to you." 
 — ' Wellington Despatches,' New Series I. 195. Mr. Sumner afterwards 
 .became Bishop of Winchester.]
 
 1821.] EETUBN OF THE KING. 211 
 
 and, in fact, had no object but to prevent, as far as my humble 
 advice would go, dissatisfaction and dissension. 
 
 Sept. 11th. — A severe gale of wind from the S. and S.S.W. 
 It is impossible that the King's squadron can make head 
 against it. I hope they were not at sea. 
 
 The whole Cabinet is summoned to town to meet the King ; 
 they seem to think that he is inclined to make an immediate 
 change. I cannot think this ; he must postpone anything of 
 that kind till after his journey to Hanover, or postpone liis 
 journey to Hanover to another year. 
 
 Sejyt. 14:th. — No account of the King. I do not think he 
 can. have got roiind the Land's End, and, as he has not 
 returned to Milford Haven, he must have gone for Cork. 
 I wonder at his perseverance. 
 
 ScjJt. 15th. — The King was obliged to return to Milford 
 Haven on the 12 th, and on the 13 th he landed and pursued 
 his journey to town. They say the yacht was taken aback 
 in a squall in the night between the 11th and 12th, and 
 might have gone do^vn but for the presence of mind of Lieut. 
 Maingay, who was on deck. He had returned to Milford 
 time enough for us to have heard it yesterday ; but, I know 
 not why, nobody vsTote, and our daily office reports did not 
 arrive. 
 
 The King slept at Chapel House * last night, and Blomfield 
 happened, by a very curious chance, to fall in %vith His 
 Majesty, he being on his way from Dublin, where he had 
 stayed after the King. A still more curious chance had 
 almost brought H.M. in contact with his old friends Lord 
 and Lady Hertford, who sleep at Chapel House to-night, on 
 their way from Ragley to Sudbourne. In the days of their 
 favour, Chapel House was the favourite meeting place on the 
 road to Ragley. 
 
 Sejjt. 16th. — Lords Melville, Lovaine, Yarmouth, Beresford 
 and Lowther, Sir Hudson Lowe, Mr, Eobinson, Hamilton, and 
 Watson dined with me. 
 
 Yarmouth is just returned from a tour wliich took him as 
 far as Milan and Venice. 
 
 Lord Liverpool wrote to me early this morning, or indeed 
 I should rather say last night, to ask some further explana- 
 tions, as the lamb was to be in presence of the icolf to-day at 
 
 * [A posting-house, ten miles beyond Woodstock, on the Birmingham 
 road.] 
 
 r 2
 
 212 THE CROKEB PAPERS, [Chap. VII. 
 
 eleven. At eleven accordingly he went to Carlton House, but 
 K the King would not see him. His Majesty saw the Chan- 
 cellor, and desired him to tell Lord Liverpool that, if his 
 lordship would abstain from speaking about j)olitical arrange- 
 ments, he would receive him to-morrow. This seems to me a 
 mortification to which I wonder Lord L. can submit, particu- 
 larly as the King has seen Lords Londonderry and Bathurst ; 
 and, by the way, he is not much pleased with the latter, for, 
 although he knew that he was the only Secretary of State in 
 England, neither the Queen's illness nor her death brought 
 him up from Gloucestershire, where, in any circumstances, he 
 ought not to have been when there was no other Secretary of 
 State who could attend in London. It must be confessed 
 that, whether it be the King's own popular manners, or the 
 habits into which the Eegency has led his Minister, or the 
 levelling temper of the times, the Eoyal authority and the 
 King's person are treated with a striking degree of levity, and 
 no reformers, if they knew the whole secret, would wish to 
 reduce the monarch lower in real and effective state and 
 power than his Ministers place him. 
 i. Sept. 20th.- — The intention of the King's going to Vienna is 
 quite given up, and his going to Paris is doubtful. The 
 reasons stated are the necessity in such a tour of also going 
 to Berlin and the late season of the year. I have heard, in 
 private, that the expense of sovereign visits to these continental 
 courts, and particularly to Vienna, is so enormous as to terrify 
 the nerves of the Privy purse. I forget what they say that 
 the Emperor of Eussia's visits cost him. All this was in dis- 
 cussion when I went to Brighton ; on my return I found it 
 had been so finally arranged. 
 
 Sept. 23rd. — I dined with Lord Melville, and in the evening 
 we looked over some papers of his father's correspondence 
 with the late King and with his colleagues, particularly Mr. 
 Pitt, and Lords Spencer and Grenville ; the former particularly 
 curious. The King's notes show a great deal of shrewdness 
 of thought and terseness of expression. They are not very 
 important, because the King saw his Ministers on regular 
 days, and these notes were only occasional communications 
 pro re natci. Some epigrammatic remarks upon the Duke of 
 Eichmond and his brother, the late Duke, whom H.M. appears 
 to have much disliked; great tenderness for and a high 
 opinion of the Duke of York; considerable knowledge of 
 detail of the army, and other branches of the public service ;
 
 1821.] THE KING'S JOURNEY TO HANOVER. 213 
 
 aversion to a peace with the French Eepublic, and a great 
 inclination to colonial aggrandisement. 
 
 He every\\'here evinces reluctance to expeditions — that to 
 Ferrol was forced npon him by Pitt and Dundas declaring ^ 
 that they must resign if they were thwarted in it.* One of 
 the King's notes, in answer to Dundas, was so sharp upon 
 him that the latter had written a letter of resignation, which, 
 however, Pitt induced him not to send. 
 
 The King's note, declaring his resolution not to accede to 
 the Catholic claims, is well written and dignified, and his 
 subsequent acceptance of the Minister's resignation is cool and 
 formal. 
 
 In the earlier notes particularly the King's observations 
 are shrewd, and sometimes satirical. 
 
 Sept. 2Uh. — The Iving set out for Hanover at ten minutes 
 before 1 p.m. I was waiting in the hall to make my bow to 
 him as he passed. He took me into one of the rooms and 
 made me sit down. He told me that he was not weU, and 
 that he was tired of his journey before he began it. He then 
 went on to speak of his ministrj^ complaining that Lord 
 Liverpool had thrown the weight of rejecting Mr. Canning ' 
 on his shouklers. As it was more likely that some one 
 of thirteen should have dissented, he should have first com- 
 municated with his colleagues, and then come to him with 
 their joint or their divided opinions, but, without taking the 
 pains of ascertaining whether, after all, the Cabinet would 
 admit him, Lord Liverpool threw the odium of the decision 
 on the King in the first instance. He said he had postponed 
 his determination on the subject of his Government, biit he 
 hoped in the meanwhile they would be true to their own inte- 
 rests and his honour by resisting Canning and making some 
 arrangement with ]\Ir. Peel. He was told, he said, that IMr. 
 Canning would become his irreconcilable personal enemy ; 
 that was the fault of Lord Liverpool's unconstitutional pro- 
 
 * [" Ferrol was the scene of one of our greatest military blunders. In 
 1800, a squadron, under command of General Pulteney, made an attack 
 upon the town. Just as the inhabitants were preparing to surrender, the 
 cowardly Pulteney — scared by the rapidly falling barometer, and beaten 
 (it is said) at the game of brag, ordered the re-embarkment of his almost 
 mutinous troops, amidst the jeers of the sailors of the English fleet, and 
 to the astonishment of the Spaniards themselves." — Tide Ford's Spanish 
 Handbook.]
 
 214 THE CBOEER PAPERS. [Chap. VII. 
 
 ceeding, wiiicli had brought him into direct contact with Mr. 
 Canning's claims, and therefore the Government was bound 
 to support him against tliat personal enmity, which, after all, 
 he valued very little, and only alluded to it as it was a threat 
 brought forward in the shape of an argument. During all 
 this conversation, or rather during this speech, he seemed very 
 fixed and very determined, not talking at random, but with a 
 deliberate design. He seemed to avoid mentioning Lord 
 Liverpool's or Mr. Canning's name, but pointed them out by 
 descriptions and allusions not always flattering. Peel's name 
 he mentioned just as I have written it. 
 
 Lord Conyngham and Sir B. Blomfield went in the coach 
 with his Majesty ; Sir Andrew Barnard, Lord Francis Conyng- 
 ham, and Sir William Knighton followed in a second coach. 
 It was observed to me by a friend in Carlton House that 
 Blomfield would be in a sad minority* Knighton himself 
 tliinks the King not very well, and it is now clear that this 
 journey is made rather to keep the promise than from any 
 great desire on H.M.'s part to go abroad. 
 
 Sc23t. 25th. — The Eling saded from Kamsgate at half-past 
 eleven, and arrived at Calais between four and five ; it was 
 low water, and not only could no yacht get in, but his own 
 barge drew too much water, and he was obliged to take to a 
 French fishing boat ; but even that struck on the bar, and 
 was in considerable danger. She fortunately, however, 
 bumped over it, but half filled with water, and all the pas- 
 sengers drenched. The King's coolness and presence of mind 
 in this danger were very conspicuous. It was altogether 
 an awkward affair ; the wind was so strong as to render 
 the vessel's lying in Calais roads till the tide made, im- 
 possible. 
 
 3Ir. Crokcr to Mr. Peel. 
 
 SeptemToer 14tli, 1821. 
 
 My dear Peel, 
 
 The King's visit to Ireland has done good. It has for a 
 moment assuaged the violence, and for some time removed the 
 
 * [This is probably an allusion to the fact that the King and Lord 
 Conyngham were strongly against Lord Liverpool, whereas Blomfield was 
 an equally strong partisan of the Prime Minister's. As it is explained 
 later on, he was the means of making peace between the King and Lord 
 Liverpool.]
 
 1821.] ALDERMAN DABLEY. 215 
 
 rancour of party'. Human jxassions will break out again, but 
 Sir Edward Stanley cannot call O'Gorman rchcl, nor O'Gorman 
 call him hloodtldrstij ligot again. 
 
 I agree with you that there was a considerable condescen- 
 sion in the Iving, and something like meanness in liis 
 Ministers, in the course adopted with regard to Alderman 
 Darley ;* but you will agree with me that the case was a 
 little hard to deal with. The offence was not the drinking a 
 toast, which in itself is loyal, constitutional, and such as 
 Lord ringal and every other honest man would drink if it 
 had no meaning but what it professes ; but in Ireland it has 
 been considered as a icatchicord, as a party-cry, without any 
 reference to its original meaning (for, in fact, William and 
 the Stuarts are equally extinguished). The King had de- 
 sired that party feelings should be as much as possible 
 suppressed, and that party expressions should be altogether 
 avoided during his residence in Ireland. Under all these 
 circumstances, it was, I say, very hard to know what to do 
 with the Chief Police Magistrate, who, at a dinner given to the 
 King, presumed to violate his commands, and to give a toast 
 wliich was at once offensive to the King and to tiie majority 
 of the people. I cannot but say that I should respect 
 Darley's boldness, steadiness, and consistency, if I thou<Tht 
 he was sober and delil)erate when he did it, and in any case 
 I like the generous impulse which prompted him; but I 
 confess that I hardly think the King could have let the 
 thing pass without some expression of disapprobation. You 
 know enough of Ireland to know that if he had done so 
 every man, Protestant and Catholic, would have believed 
 that the Alderman had acted under Castle influence, and that 
 his conduct was agreeable to the King, which would have 
 been to raise an imputation against His Majesty of meanness 
 and duplicity, under which no gentleman, much less the 
 Sovereign, could have consented to lie. 
 
 My own opinion is, that if you had been there you would 
 have conveyed a direct and open reprimand to Darley ; and 
 you would have told him that if His Majesty had not been 
 unwilling to mark his visit in Ireland with any instance of 
 rigour, he would have taken a more serious notice of this 
 want of respect to his known wishes, if not to his positive 
 
 * [Who proposed at a public dianer tlie famous Orange toast "Tlio 
 glorious memory of King William."]
 
 216 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. VIL 
 
 commands ; and you would have allowed that reprimand to 
 have made its own way. The erecting Lord Fingal into a 
 fourth estate in these realms appears to me, as to you, highly 
 improper, not to say dangerous ; for the imndplc and admis- 
 sion which are deduceable from such a recognition may have 
 most perilous consequences. Lord Fingal is a very good 
 man, but I do not like any political Confessor for an English 
 King. 
 
 I shall visit you some of these days ; but we are all atthis 
 moment at our posts like an army drawn up in its position 
 to receive the attack of an enemy. The whole Cabinet is in 
 town to meet the King, who is certahily liighly displeased 
 with Lord Liverpool, and I believe desirous of just so much 
 change as would get liivi out. I do not think he noio looks 
 further, but I am architect enough to know how much the 
 removing a main wall shakes a house, and how little any one 
 can tell where such alterations may end. 
 
 For my own part, in the whole round of the political 
 compass there is no point to which I look with any interest 
 but yourself. I myself remain in office only because I doubt 
 my own strength of mind, and am afraid of the consequences 
 of idleness and of a change in that mode of life in which I 
 have spent all my best days ; but ambitious hope or wish I 
 have not ; and there is really nothing that royal or minis- 
 terial partiality could do for me that I would accept as a 
 favour ; and, moreover, there is not, in public life, any one 
 man in whose fortunes I feel that kind of interest which 
 gives a zest to political existence — for I do not look upon 
 you as now a public man. I confess I should like to see you 
 in high and effective office, for a hundred reasons which I have 
 before told you, and for some which I have not told you and 
 need not tell you ; but if I looked only to your own comfort 
 and happiness, I should never wish to see you within the 
 walls of Pandemonium. 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 To Mr. Peel. 
 
 November 12th, 1821. 
 
 Dear Peel, 
 We have no public news that is 'puUic, but the Ministerial 
 negotiations with the King are, I understand, to commence-
 
 1821.] Kl'JW MIXISTEBIAL PLANS. 217 
 
 to-d<ay. Lord Liverpool has consented to give up Canning 
 for the present, and Canning has consented to wait for Lord 
 Moira's old shoes as Governor General, and the Grenvilles 
 are to have the Board of Control and the Irish Secretaryship. 
 I have reason to believe that the King intends to propose, 
 perhaps to insist, that the Home Office should be ofiered to- 
 you. One thing seems certain, that the King and Lord 
 Liverpool ^^•ill come to an understanding. 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 To Mr. Peel. 
 
 November 13th, 1821. 
 
 My dear Peel, 
 Castlereagh saw the King yesterday, and found that some 
 seeds of accommodation sown at Hanover (I Ijelieve by 
 Blomfield) had fructified, and that all differences were likely 
 to be arranged. Lord Liverpool saw His Majesty to-day, 
 and the reconciliation was complete and cordial. Canning is 
 not to be pressed into the Cabinet, and Lord Conynghani 
 will probably be Lord Steward, vice Cholmondeley, but I 
 believe no details were entered upon, nor have I heard your 
 name mentioned. I only know that before Castlereagh saw 
 the King His Majesty expressed his opinion that you were 
 by a great variety of qualifications suited to the Home 
 department. I should not be surprised if you were by this, 
 post to hear from Lord Liverpool. 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 To Mr. Feel. 
 
 November 2Gtli, 1821, 
 
 DExVE Peel, 
 Lord Liverpool is gone down to Brighton to submit to-day 
 to the King his arrangements, and yet I do not find that the 
 arrangements are supposed to be finallij made. I believe you 
 will iind that I was right in my former information, and ^ I 
 reckon that to-murrow or the next day Lord Liverpool will 
 write to you. My belief is, as before, that lie will ofler you 
 the Home Department, all the formerly existing reasons for
 
 -218 THE CROKEB PAPERS. [Chap. VII. 
 
 wliicli are increased by the alarming state of affairs in Ireland. 
 Grant is certainly to be recalled, and I believe Lord Liverpool 
 will again apply to Goulburn (or has already) to succeed him. 
 Some think that Charles "VVynn would be still better, and 
 others think Fremantle would be better than Wynn ! You 
 and I will not be of these opinions. I have not heard dis- 
 tinctly what Plunket is to have, but I hear Attorney-General ; 
 Saurin being promoted to be a Chief Justice. I learn also 
 that old Norbury has been asked to retire, and that he has 
 declined — I daresay not without a jest. With all these 
 things unsettled, it seems odd that Lord Liverpool should be 
 prepared to lay his arrangements before the King. Oh ! I 
 forgot to say that Canning had accepted the reversion of India 
 when he thought that old ]\Ioira was not coming home ; that 
 is, as it would seem, he wished to hold on with the Govern- 
 ment and take the chance of the chapter of accidents, bvit lo ! 
 a letter arrives by the last ships stating that Lord Hastings 
 has had the misfortune to rupture himself, and therefore 
 wishes to return forthwith. Upon this they say that Canning 
 turns round, and is no longer ready to be the great Mogul — 
 he alleges some letter which he wrote to Lord Hastings, and 
 which he says would look as if he had wdshed to supplant 
 him, if he were now to accept his place. I know not the 
 rights of all this, but I tell you what I hear. The result, 
 however, is that Lord Liverpool has told Canning that he 
 may take it or leave it, for that he cannot now do anything 
 else for him and that Canning is supposed to have left town 
 again very sulky. 
 
 Yours ever, 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 Mr. Croher to Mr. Vcsey Fitzgerald. Extracts. 
 
 December 20th, 1821. 
 
 Canning has been shuffling about India, yes, no — no, yes. 
 The King will not have him at home. Canning hopes this 
 disgust is, like all the King's dislikes, placable and temporary, 
 and he therefore accepted India when it was not vacant, as a 
 kind of rope to hold on to the Administration by, but un- 
 luckily old Moira has had a double rupture, and is perhaps 
 already on his way home : this would clench Canning for 
 Indian exile, and he is now therefore punctilious about accept-
 
 1821.] CANNING'S GENIUS. 219 
 
 ing poor Lord Moira's place, before lie knows that it is 
 vacant — so folks talk ; and there is, I believe, some truth in 
 their talk. I am sorry to be obliged to confess that all 
 Canning's conduct gives a handle to this sort of imputation. 
 His genius is a bright flame, but it is 
 
 " Brillant comme le feu que les villageois font 
 Pendant 1' obscure nuit, sur le sommet d'un mont." 
 
 It is liable to every gust of wind and every change of 
 weather ; it flares, and it flickers, and it blazes, now climbing 
 the heavens, now stifled in its own smoke, and of no use but 
 to raise the wonder of distant spectators, and to warm the 
 very narrow circle that immediately surrounds it. If he does 
 not take care the Canning bonfire will soon burn itself out. 
 
 Londonderry goes on as usual, and to continue my similes, 
 like Mont Blanc continues to gather all the sunshine upon 
 his icy head. He is better than ever ; that is, colder, steadier, 
 more pococurante, and withal more amiable and respected. 
 It is a splendid summit of bright and polished frost which, 
 like the travellers in Switzerland, we all admire ; but no one, 
 can hope, and few would ^vish to reach. 
 
 The Conynghams carry, I think, their favour meekly and , 
 good-naturedly, and really excite no observation, but with • J 
 those who would observe ill-naturedly upon anything. You 
 will have heard of " their intrigues " and so forth for " station 
 and office" — all false. I know and can assure you they 
 asked for, wished for, nothing— and the King's kindness 
 towards Lord Conyngham, natural as it was, was not only 
 spontaneous upon His Majesty's part, but, I might almost 
 say, imposed upon him.
 
 220 THE CBOEER PAPEES. [Chap. VIIL 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 1822. 
 
 Peel and Canning enter tlie Cabinet — Mr. Croker's Belief in Peel — The 
 King's Objections to Canning — Assumed Eivalry between Peel and 
 Canning — Suicide of Lord Londonderry — His Funeral — Eeconstruction 
 of the Ministry — Political Eumours of the Day — " Prosperity " Eobin- 
 son and Huskisson — Peel as a Sportsman — The third Marquis of 
 Hertford — Mr. Croker's Intimacy with him — Lord Hertford's Cha- 
 racter — His Dependence for Political Information on Mr. Croker — His 
 Marriage with Maria Fagniani — Supposed Portraits of Lord Hertford 
 in "Vanity Fair" and " Coningsby "— And of "Mr. Eigby"— True 
 Nature of the Eelations between Lord Hertford and Mr. Croker — The 
 Hertford Estates — Character of the second Marquis — Examples of 
 Lord Hertford's Letters— Sir B. Blomfield — The " Court " at Brighton 
 — Lady Conyngham and the King — A Children's Ball at Carlton 
 House— The " Master of the Eobes." 
 
 Mr. Ceoker's confident expectation tliat Peel \vould not long 
 be allowed to indulge his preference for private life was this 
 year fulfilled, and he also saw, though with perhaps a less 
 lively degree of satisfaction, tlie appointment of Canning as 
 Foreign Secretary. His admiration for the abilities of Peel, 
 and his faith in his firmness of character and steadfastness 
 of principle, were at this time unbounded ; nor was his 
 confidence ever shaken until Peel took that course wliich 
 necessarily severed him from the great bulk of his party. 
 The resentment which was felt towards Sir Pobert Peel 
 by reason of the sudden reversal of his opinions in con- 
 nection with the Protectionist policy and the Corn-laws,
 
 1822.] PEEL AND CnOKEB. 221 
 
 was assuredly not confined to Mr. Croker. " That those 
 who had followed him," said Lord John Paissell in 1846, 
 " when they found lie had chanLi;ed his opinions, and pro- 
 posed measures different from those on the faith of which 
 they had followed him ; that they should exhibit warmth 
 and resentment, was not only natural, but I should have 
 been surprised if they had not displayed it." There was 
 never any personal bitterness in Mr. Croker's feelings 
 towards his old friend. He defended him warmly, long 
 after he had lost the confidence of most of the Tory 
 party ; and even when political differences had produced a 
 hopeless estrangement between them, he remained on friendly 
 terms with the members of Sir llobert's family, and indirect 
 messages of kindly interest were occasionally still exchanged. 
 In 1822, however, the separation was still far distant. There 
 was no one in whom Mr. Croker believed more firmly than 
 in Mr. Peel ; there was no one in whose judgment Peel had 
 greater confidence than in Mr. Croker's. He seldom took an 
 important step without first soliciting the opinion of his 
 friend at the Admiralty. Mr. Croker was under the im- 
 pression that Peel was a man of an unambitious and retiring 
 disposition, and thought that he needed a great deal of per- 
 suasion to force liim into public life. This was not the view 
 which many of his contemporaries took of his character. 
 Charles Greville, for instance, records in his diary,* that 
 Peel was seen to be preparing to throw over the Tories, and 
 seeking to gain popularity with the country at large. " He, in 
 fact," writes Greville, " means to open a house to all comers, 
 and make himself necessary and indispensable. Under that 
 placid exterior he conceals, I believe, a boundless ambition ; 
 and hatred and jealousy lurk under his professions of esteem 
 and political attachment." Piepeatedly after Peel had taken 
 
 * February 14th, 1833, vol. ii., p. 354.
 
 222 THE GROKER PAPERS. [Chap. VIII. 
 
 office, he talked miicli of retiring into private life for ever. 
 Mr. Croker evidently took all tliis quite seriously, as probably 
 it was meant to be taken at the time ; and it will therefore be 
 found that he constantly uses arguments to dissuade Peel 
 from an intention which seems, after all, never to have held 
 more than a temporary lodgment in his mind. 
 
 There was no obstacle to Peel's appointment to office as 
 Home Secretary, in 1822. But there was a difficulty with 
 regard to Canning which appeared likely to prove serious. 
 The King had then an invincible repugnance to him, founded 
 upon the sympathy and friendship which he had always shown 
 for the Queen. It had been arranged that he should become 
 Governor-General of India, and the King was not only 
 willing, but anxious, to see him undertake the duties of that 
 post, for he would then be out of the way of interfering any 
 further in English politics. But Lord Liverpool, who had 
 parted with Canning very reluctantly on a former occasion, 
 and who had always been greatly under the spell of his 
 genius, now much desired to secure his services at home, 
 and many attempts were made to overcome the King's objec- 
 tions. The Duke of Wellington essayed to make the conver- 
 sion ; but His Majesty told him that he had pledged his 
 honour as a gentleman never to receive Mr. Canning again as 
 one of his Ministers. " You hear, Arthur, ' On my honour 
 as a gentleman ! ' " The Duke, as Sir H. Bulwer relates,* 
 told the King that he was not a gentleman ; and upon His 
 Majesty starting back in surprise, the Duke added, that he 
 was " not a gentleman, but the Sovereign of England, with 
 duties to his people, and that those duties rendered it impe- 
 rative to call in the services of Mr. Canning." The King 
 
 * The story, however, must be received with doubt. The Duke, as it 
 appears from the ' Wellington Despatches,' did not have any interview 
 with the King at this time, though the conversation may have taken 
 place on some other occasion.
 
 1822.] CANNING AND PEEL. 225 
 
 drew a long breath, and said, "Well, if I must, I must."* 
 But although Canning was thus admitted to the Cabinet as 
 Foreign Secretary, he was not taken into favour by the King 
 until five years afterwards, when the Minister had found 
 out the short way to win the good graces of George the 
 Fourth. It was not very long before Canning's motives for 
 accepting office were represented in a distorted light to his 
 constituents ; and he had not yet won that popularity with 
 the masses which came to liim in so great a measure before 
 his death in 1827. Efforts were made in 1822 to foster a 
 rivalry between Peel and Canning ; but they never met with 
 much success. Mr. Canning makes the following reference 
 to this point in a letter to Mr. Croker of April 3rd, 1822 : 
 " As to the two great names whom you mention in your last 
 note,t be assured that my feelings towards both are exactly 
 what you wish them to me \sic in original, but doubt- 
 less lc\. To P. especially I feel it quite impossible to 
 do justice, for a frankness and straightforwardness beyontl 
 example, and for feelings for which I own I did not before 
 give him credit, but which I hope I know how to value and 
 to return. The other has this moment left me, after a con- 
 versation of two hours, which has cleared away a world of 
 misapprehension, and left all well." 
 
 The circumstance which j)laced it within the power of 
 Lord Liverpool to offer the Foreign Secretaryship to Mr. Can- 
 ning was the death of Lord Londonderry (Castlereagh), wlio 
 had outlived his popularity and usefulness alike. The facts 
 were described by Mr. Croker in a letter to Sir B. Blomfield, 
 who was then in disgrace witli' the King, but to whom 
 Mr. Croker never swerved in his fidelity. The ex-private 
 
 * Sir H. Bulwer's ' Historical Characters,' ii. 324. 
 
 t There is no note of Mr. Croker's to be found. The other "great name " 
 referred to was most probably that of the Duke of Wellington.
 
 "224 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. VIII. 
 
 Secretary was almost completely deserted by his old friends, 
 for the sufficient reason that he was out of favour at Court. 
 But Mr. Croker did not run with the fickle crowd, and amonjr 
 other little services that he had it in his power to render his 
 friend, he kept him constantly informed as to all that was 
 going on. 
 
 Mr. CroJccr to Sir B. Blomfield. 
 
 August 12th, 1822. 
 
 Dear B., 
 
 "With what horror and surprise will you hear that Lord 
 Londonderry is no more, and, alas ! dead by his own hand ! 
 That such a mind should break down ! I will endeavour, as 
 well as grief and astonishment will allow, to tell you this 
 lamentable, this distracting story. 
 
 ^x On Friday he had his parting audience with the King, and 
 his conversation towards the close became so incoherent and 
 unhappy, that the King that evening wrote to Lord Liverpool 
 at Coombe to come to him directly, but not to tell any one 
 that he was coming, and not to see any soul till he should 
 see him. You may judge of Lord Liverpool's surprise at 
 receiving such a note, and with what strange thoughts he 
 must have hastened to the King. His Majesty told him that 
 Londonderry's mind was gone, and that when so strong and 
 well-regulated an intellect was shaken, the consequences were 
 likely to be proportionably serious. Wliat more passed, or 
 what Lord Liverpool did upon this, I cannot tell, probably 
 nothing; as he certainly did not suspect the extent of the 
 danger. He found that Londonderry had left town with Lady 
 Londonderry for Cray, and had before he went appointed to 
 meet Lord Liverpool in town on Monday or Tuesday. I 
 understand that the Duke of Wellington, who left town on 
 Friday, had also observed something wrong, and had sent 
 Dr. Bankhead, Londonderry's favourite physician, to him. 
 Dr. Bankhead saw him in St. James's Square on Friday 
 evening, and now I shall give you Ids story. He found him 
 labouring under a strong mental delusion, accompanied with 
 fever. He had him cupped, which relieved him, and in the 
 quiet of the evening it was thought he might go down to 
 Cray with Lady Londonderry, Bankhead promising to follow 
 next morning and stay till his Lordship was quite well.
 
 1822.] DEATH OF LOUD LOyDOXDEnHY. 225 
 
 He remained in bed all Saturday, and was kept as tranquil 
 as possible. On Sunday (yesterday) he was much worse, a 
 good deal of fever, heat, thirst, and an increase of delusion 
 and wretchedness. He, however, grew less uncomfortable 
 towards night, and it would seem that his state was not such 
 as to prevent his sleeping as usual in Lady Londonderry's 
 chamber. Doctor Bankhead took leave of him aljout mid- 
 night, and retired to his own room, whicli was close to theirs. 
 About seven this morning Dr. Bankhead was called by Lady 
 Londonderry's maid, who said my Lord wished to see him. 
 The Doctor immediately rose and went into the bedroom, 
 when he found Lord Londonderry had just gone into the 
 dressing-room. He followed him, and saw him standing with 
 his face to the window (and of course his back towards the 
 Doctor) in his dressing-gown, witli his head leaned back, and 
 his eyes fixed on the ceiling. " My dear Lord," said he, 
 " why do you stand so ? " "0 Bankhead," he said, " I am 
 glad you are there, let me fall into your arms ; it is all over : " 
 and he fell back into Bankhead's arms, who then, for the 
 first time, saw clenched in his right hand a small-bladed 
 pen-knife, with which our unhappy friend had just divided 
 by a deep cut the carotid artery, and with a sudden effusion 
 of blood the body fell forward on the face, and Castlereagh 
 • expired without a struggle. 
 
 Precautions had been taken to remove liis pistols and 
 razors from his dressing-room, but with a little nail-knife 
 which he carried in his pocket-b(X)k, and which had escaped 
 their vigilance, he executed his fatal purpose with, they tell 
 me, anatomical accuracy. 
 
 We had all dined with him the other day at Cray, and so 
 happy did he appear, so amiable, so contented with all about 
 him, tliat we all congratulated him on having so well re- 
 covered from the fatigues of the session, which had evidently 
 pressed heavily upon him for the last weeks of our sittings. 
 Little could any of us see in that placid countenance, in that 
 playful smile, in those outstretched hands spread to welcome 
 us, the dreadful change that a few days were to make. Good 
 God ! what weak and wretched creatures are the wisest and 
 best of us ! I write, I fear, very incoherently. God bless 
 you. 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 226 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. YIIL 
 
 Lord Londonderry had long been an unpopular man, and 
 his friends dreaded that at his funeral there would be some 
 manifestation of the ill-feeling with which he was regarded. 
 These anticipations proved to be not altogether unfounded. 
 
 Mr. CroTccr to Sir William Knighton. 
 
 August 20th, 1822. 
 
 I am just come from poor Lord Londonderry's funeral. The 
 Foreign Ministers and all the members of the Government 
 (except the Cabinet and his lordship's more immediate con- 
 nexions) assembled in the Jerusalem Chamber, near the 
 Abbey. As I was in this situation, I did not see the pro- 
 cession ; but I have been told that the people behaved very 
 well. There were one or two observations made by indi- 
 viduals, such as 'Why did you not do as much for the 
 Queen ? " which Lord Maryborough heard ; but in general 
 there was no ill-disposition shown along the streets ; but I 
 am grieved and ashamed to say, that at the abbey door, 
 wdien the coffin was taken out of the hearse, there was a loitd 
 \ cheer, a hurrah of triumph ! In tone it M\as little different 
 from the applause with which Lord Londonderry was last 
 year received in the same place, when that which is now a 
 corpse was the second figure in the most splendid ceremony 
 that this country ever saw.* I had been all along appre- 
 hensive of some insults, and had used my little endeavour to 
 persuade the friends to have an earlier and more private 
 funeral ; but I confess I apprehended only a scattered disap- 
 probation, groans, or perhaps hisses ; but the loud acclama- 
 tion of joy from a considerable body of people I was totally 
 unprepared for ; and some persons within the abbey, deceived 
 by the sound, thought it was a shout for the Duke of 
 Wellington. 
 
 Ever youis, 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 A reconstruction of Lord Liverpool's Ministry was now 
 rendered necessary, but there was an interval of some days, 
 durino' which nothing could be done in consequence of the 
 
 * [The Coronation.]
 
 1822.] THE MINISTRY. 227 
 
 absence of the King, -who had sailed for Scotland, two days 
 before Londonderry's death. The history of the subsequent 
 negotiations is contained in Mr. Croker's letters : — 
 
 Mr. Crolccr to Mr. Peel. 
 
 August 14th, 1822. 
 
 I happened to meet Huskisson to-day, and as he and I 
 have had naturally a good deal of talk about Canning's going 
 to India, he began to allude to the possibility of that voyage 
 being defeated by cmijloymcnt at home. I need not attempt 
 to detail our conversation — or rather his, for I had httle to 
 say. He seemed to think that the King's determination was 
 likely to be most influenced by you, the more particularly as 
 you were now the only House of Commons Minister, and 
 must have a powerful voice in deciding who was to be your 
 assistant ; and this brings me to the real motive of my 
 writing to you, which is to say that Huskisson dropped, in 
 the most natural and unhesitating w^ay possible, that there 
 could be no doubt as to your being the leader, the only ques- 
 tion being whether Canning was or was not necessary to seeond 
 you, to enable you to carry on the public business. It would 
 be too tedious to explain to you the slight but sincere and un- 
 affected way in which this fell from Huskisson, as if it had 
 been already settled. Willing to ascertain whether this was 
 spoken in the very confiding way it appeared, I at the end of 
 our conversation asked the question direct, but in an idle 
 gossiping tone, whether Canning would give you the lead, 
 to which he answered, with plain frankness, that he had no 
 doubt of it, and the mode he answered my point-blank 
 question satisfied me that the first insinuation was what it 
 appeared, a casual hint of an opinion already formed. 
 
 Affectionately yours, 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 To Mr. Peel. Extract. 
 
 August 16th, 1822. 
 
 De.\jR Peel, 
 
 I have now to tell you that I find that Huskisson 's antici- 
 X^ation of Canning's opinion was not correct. Canning came 
 
 Q 2
 
 :^ 
 
 228 THE CROKEB PAPEBS. [Chap. VIII. 
 
 to town the day before yesterday, and yesterday Huskisson 
 saw him for two or three hours ; the result was, as H. tokl me 
 to-day, that " if it were fairly and frankly offered to Canning 
 to fill Londonderry' s place both in office and the House he 
 would accept it ; but if there was to be any higgling or any- 
 thing that showed suspicion of him, he owed it to himself to 
 reject it with scorn." I use the words, though not all the 
 words used to me. " He (C.) added that he had been five- 
 and-twenty years before you in the House, that you would 
 probably not have long to wait before he himself, who was 
 now fifty-three, would leave you the career open ; that he 
 thought he could not with honour take an inferior station in 
 the House, and if that were the alternative he must go to India." 
 In the meanwhile he is to go to Liverpool to visit his con- 
 stituents, and take leave, as if irrevocably destined for India. 
 I leave you to form your own judgment upon all this. I only 
 repeat (now, as in my last letter) what was said to me, and 
 of which I could not justify to myself the leaving you 
 ignorant. 
 
 I took care to-day to remind Huskisson of how much 
 mistaken he had been as to Canning's real sentiments, but 
 I did not do so in any way to imply that I had given any 
 more weight to what he had said than to a common con- 
 versation between two friends. What followed I think is 
 equally important. Huskisson laughed and said yes, but he 
 might also be mistaken in another point. He was sure 
 Canning liked India ; he always had looked at it as a great 
 object ; he had acquired parliamentary reputation enough, and 
 thought the station and consequent advantages of Governor- 
 General extremely suited to his political feelings and private 
 fortune, but Mrs. Canning was furious against it ; that her 
 opposition made him very uncomfortable (this I know is 
 quite true, and existed before the late catastrophe) ; that she 
 and several of his nearest friends always opposed his going, 
 and would do so now with ten times more violence and with 
 some colour of reason. He (H.) still thought he would go, if 
 not detained by the offer already stated, " but what are the 
 odds that in either case (viz. of the offer or no offer) he 
 will stay at home ? " I think the meaning of this clear ; 
 for my own part I have all along doubted that he would go ; 
 judge how much that opinion must be strengthened by the 
 late event. 
 
 Huskisson, both to-day and before, alluded to Van [Van-
 
 1822.] CANNING AND PEEL. 229 
 
 sittart], and said that he was the real Hot and sin of the 
 Government. I said frankly that Van, though not a very- 
 creditable Chancellor of the Exchequer, was a very useful 
 one. " For instance," I said, " if you had been in his office 
 this last year, we should have ijeen all turned out, for you 
 neither would nor could have eaten your words and given 
 up principles in the way he did." 
 
 Affectionately yours, 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 To Mr. Peel. Extract 
 
 August 25th, 1822. 
 
 My dear Peel, 
 
 Every one agrees that if the present Government is to go 
 on, you or Canning must lead the House of Commons. . 
 
 Canning has stated that he must have that duty -ei^ the a^f^<^ 
 Eorei"n Seals, or that he will not come in at all. The best - . p ,-■ 
 
 informed think tliat tlie objection to him for any Cabinet — 
 
 Office, and particularly for one of so much intercourse, is p 
 insuperable. I do not believe in the insuperability of ob- "il.^ .•^. h 
 jections of that class ; but it is certain there is strong disin- 
 clination, and that disinclination is likely to be reinforced by 
 some other minor circumstances, such as the feeling of the 
 Chancellor, &c. Those who build upon this foundation believe 
 further that Canning will go to India, and there are many good 
 reasons for such a supposition : yet I confess I incline to the 
 other opinion. Let us now look at the various alternatives. 
 
 If Canning is to come in on his own terms, with the con- 
 sent of the present Cabinet — all is said ; it will excite a good 
 deal of dissatisfaction amongst the subordinate office men, 
 and probably amongst some of the country gentlemen ; but 
 this will not break out into any flame, unless Canning shall 
 mismanage his power either by indiscretion or by intrigue. 
 But all this is futurity. 
 
 If Canning does not come in, can you carry on the business 
 of the country in the House of Commons — 1st, without him ; 
 2nd, against him ? Everybody says " Yes " to the former, 
 and almost everybody to the latter. 
 
 In the first case, you will be the only man of our party in 
 the House who has as yet shown himself equal to take the 
 great line of general debate, and even you are new in it.
 
 230 THE CBOKER PAPEBS. [Chap. VIII. 
 
 If you were ever so practised, it could not be expected that 
 human talents, health, spirits, could bear the whole weight of 
 such sessions as we are likely to have. You must therefore 
 have assistants. Who are they to be ? 
 
 I shall put out of the question in this particular view 
 Vansittart and Bragge Bathurst, because they are both ineffi- 
 cient for general debate. Tliere remain Eobinson * and 
 Charles Wynn. Our friends say that Eobinson must work, 
 and some even are of opinion that he would, with a little 
 practice, become an excellent and powerful debater. I myself 
 believe that the minds and talents of men are more generally 
 equal than is supposed and that most men are found, or at 
 least become, equal to what is expected from them. There- 
 fore if Eobinson will boldly throw himself into the stormy 
 current of debate, I think he may possibly be found to swim 
 very well ; but I doubt his making the effort. On this point, 
 however, you, I suppose, would see your way, for, although 
 it would be a delicate topic either of inquiry or convention, 
 it is one which ought to be understood. 
 
 From Plunkett, except on Irish affliirs, I do not think 
 much could be expected. I do not think he has either the 
 versatility, information, or boldness necessary for a general 
 debater. Besides, I hear he is dissatisfied ; and if he be 
 sulky, nobody is so sulky. In short, if he and Goulburn 
 manage Ireland and keep Spring Eice, Lord Wellesley, and 
 Kit. Hutchinsonj in check, it is as much as can be expected ; 
 but I ought to add that some of our friends here, and 
 particularly the peers, talk sanguinely of Plunkett's assistance. 
 
 As none of those I have mentioned, except Eobinson, are 
 looked to even to play second fiddle, many persons have 
 turned their thoughts to Palmerston, who they think as 
 powerful in intellect as Eobinson, and much more to be 
 relied on in readiness and nerve. I agree in the latter part 
 of this opinion, but not in the former. He himself was 
 yesterday expressing great expectations from Eobinson's 
 acuteness of mind and great natural eloquence of expression, 
 if he could be induced to take heartily to the work. I think 
 
 * [" Prosperity " Robinson, afterwards, as stated in a previous note, 
 created Viscount Goderich and Earl of Ripon. Pie became Chancellor of 
 the Exchequer in 1823.] 
 
 t [The Hon. Christopher Hutchinson, M.P. for Cork, son of Lord 
 Donoughmore.]
 
 1822.] CLAIMS OF IIUSKISSON. 231 
 
 Palmerston's deficiency is exactly that wliicli we are now 
 considering how to supply — that /o^y of ideas and language 
 which can run on for a couple of hours without, on the one 
 hand, committing the Government, or, on the other, lowering 
 by commonplaces or inanities the station of a Cabinet 
 Minister. No Government, I believe, was ever better 
 manned in the subordinate departments than ours. There 
 are, as Lord Londonderry often said to me, in each office, 
 persons able to repel any assailant on the details of the 
 particular office; and of these Palmerston was the very 
 ablest, but is he fit to be a lieutenant-general, and command 
 the right wing of the army ? If he be, and that His 
 Excellency General Bordotradovitz * will undertake the 
 responsibility of the left, xous voila au comijlct ! 
 
 Finally, and I have reserved this for the last, Huskisson's 
 claims to the Cabinet are by his acquaintances much insisted 
 upon.t He must feel that if Canning comes in on this 
 peculiar vacancy he cannot, and in honour need not, make 
 any stipulation for him. If Canning goes to India, Huskis- 
 son may think that you can hardly do without him ; and if 
 Canning stays, he probably foresees that he, H., will be 
 eventually dragged into opposition, which on every account 
 he would dislike. I believe public men are more often 
 candid and disinterested than people give them credit for, 
 and I believe H. is really anxious for Canning's success in 
 his object, on the score of friendship, as well as from his 
 belief that Canning's peculiar quality of Parliamentary 
 eloquence ought not to be exported to India like the skates 
 and warming-pans to Buenos Ayres. But if that fails, he 
 will, I dare say, have no objection to come himself into the 
 Cabinet, and is likely to be very much dissatisfied if he be 
 passed over ; though if Canning go to India, he will not 
 venture to throw up and go into opposition alone. At the 
 same time it must be recollected that all that Huskisson can 
 do for the Government he can do best in his present rank. 
 He is not a good debater, and is still worse at those great 
 speeches which I have before spoken of. He is aufait in all 
 official and financial details, and has a great deal of what the 
 French call administrative experience. But the defects of 
 
 * [A nickname for Eobinson, who was President of the Board of Trade.] 
 t [Among all these changes, Huskisson was made President of the 
 Board of Trade.]
 
 232 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. YIIL. 
 
 his manner and voice prevent his being a useful speaker, for 
 no one is useful whom the House merely tolerates — who, on 
 the contrary, does not force them to attend to him. From' 
 what I have before written to you, you will conclude that he 
 hankers after Van's gold gown ; but great as may be the 
 difference between the men, I almost doubt whether Van 
 is not as safe and as work-withable a Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer as Huskisson would be, and I think I may say 
 that the general opinion seems to leave Van in the quiet 
 possession of his dead weiglit and his small remnant of 
 sinking fund. 
 
 Mr. Crolccr to the Marquis of Hertford. 
 
 September 2nd, 1822. 
 
 \ Deae H., 
 
 Peel arrived yesterday about fifteen minutes before the 
 King. I had half an hour's conversation with His Majesty, 
 and an hour's with Peel. Neither knows any more of L.'s* 
 intention than you or I. K. [the King] is evidently averse 
 from Canning, and has made up his mind on that point ; 
 reste a voir whether he can hold his intention. Peel has 
 never opened his lips on the subject to King or Minister. 
 Even I do not know what he will do, though I can guess 
 Avhat he would wish. In truth, no one can any more tell 
 what he may in the course of a negotiation be brought to do 
 than one can foretell what will happen in a battle to be 
 fought to-morrow. One thing I am sure of, he would not 
 be very sorry if, with honour, he was out of his office. 
 
 The King asked me whether Lord L. was in a good 
 humour, almost as a boy after holidays asks in what temper^ 
 Dr. Busby may be. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 While all these speculations as to the future of the Cabinet 
 were going on so actively in London, Mr. Peel appears to have 
 been intent chiefly upon the enjoyment of his country life. 
 He had written to Croker from Edinburgh in Ausrust, giving 
 
 * [Lord Liverpool.]
 
 1822.] THIRD MARQUIS OF HERTFORD. 233 
 
 some account of the King's reception, and making a passing 
 remark only in reference to Lord Londonderry's deatli : 
 " There are some subjects on which one docs injustice to 
 one's feelings by saying anything, and our departed friend's 
 death is one of them. I bitterly deplore it." In Octoljer, 
 Mr. Croker wrote to Lord Hertford : " I hear from Peel that 
 he shot in one day to his own gun — pheasant, 1 ; rabbits, 8 ; 
 hares, 11 ; partridges, 41." 
 
 It will be observed that the last letter given above is 
 addressed to the "]\Iarfj[uis of Hertford," wdio has hitherto 
 appeared in this correspondence under the title of the Earl 
 of Yarmouth. In the year now under consideration, lie 
 succeeded to his father's title and estates. From this time, 
 down to about the year 1840, it will be found that some of 
 Mr. Croker's most interesting letters were written to Lord 
 Hertford; and there are various other circumstances wliich 
 tended to make his intimacy with this nobleman somewhat 
 remarkable. It will therefore be desirable to say a few 
 words upon that intimacy before going any further. 
 
 The Earl of Yarmouth had been one of the first to 
 recognise the undoubted abilities which Mr. Croker displayed 
 at the outset of his parliamentary career, and when he became 
 personally acquainted with the young member he was struck, 
 as was everybody else wdio knew him, with his great gift 
 of discretion, and his unfailing stock of common sense. 
 These may seem to be but homely qualities, after all, and yet 
 it falls to the lot of comparatively few persons to possess 
 them in an eminent degree. Moreover, Mr. Croker was a 
 man of great cj^uickness of spirit and acuteness ; his intel- 
 lectual powers were keen, and they were rapidly brought into 
 play when they were needed j his range of information on 
 political and literary subjects was wide ; his tact in dealing 
 with other men was always to be trusted; and in private
 
 234 THE CEOKEE PAPEES. [Chap. VIII. 
 
 society, no one could be more amusing or more gay. All wlio 
 knew him concur in giving substantially this account of 
 him — modified, of course, by personal likes or dislikes, but not 
 varying in any essential point. That he won the confidence 
 of everybody to whom he was attached is, however, the best 
 proof that could be afforded of Mr. Croker's superiority to 
 the common run of men in all the qualities just mentioned. 
 
 The Earl of Yarmouth, then, became a great friend of 
 Mr. Croker's. He was himself a man of superior ability, 
 and probably had he chosen to devote serious attention to 
 political life, he would have made a distinguished figure in 
 it. But he was essentially a man of pleasure, and no one 
 has ever yet succeeded in acquiring political distinction 
 who devoted the greater part of his time and ingenuity 
 to the indulgence of his own whims or propensities. Fox 
 can scarcely be called an exception to this rule, for, although 
 he was undoubtedly fond of pleasure, he always found ways 
 and means of bestowing an adequate degree of attention upon 
 political business. But Lord Yarmouth — or Lord Hertford — 
 studied nothing but his own desires. He lived the life of a 
 voluptuary, and was satisfied with it. Yet he always took a 
 lively interest in public affairs, and for many years he depended 
 almost exclusively upon Mr. Croker for giving him the means 
 of understanding that which was going on — for he spent no 
 small part of his time abroad, and very rarely read any papers. 
 He sought Mr. Croker's opinion on the management of his 
 estates, and gradually he came to place entire reliance upon 
 his judgment, and was more than once saved from very great 
 embarrassments by following the suggestions of his prudent 
 counsellor. Mr. Croker, in fact, exercised a kind of practical 
 superintendence over the property, just as Mr. James Loch, 
 M.P., did over the estates of the Duke of Sutherland and 
 Lord EUesmere — with this important difference, that Mr.
 
 1822.] LOBD JTEIiTFOnD'S MABBIAGE. 235 
 
 Croker received no salary. Frequently lie was urgent!}- 
 pressed to accept some compensation for his services, for they 
 involved the sacrifice of no small amount of time and atten- 
 tion ; but these offers were invarialjly declined. Lord Hertford 
 always declared that he would compel Mr. Croker to receive 
 part of the wealth which he had helped to preserve, under 
 the provisions of his will ; and that he was sincere in this 
 intention we shall hereafter have occasion to see. 
 
 In the year with which we are now dealing, Lord Hertford 
 was forty-five. In 1798 he had contracted a marriage which 
 did not turn out very happily, although there is no reason 
 to suppose that the fault rested with any one Ijut himself 
 His wife was Maria Fagniani, a young lady whom the 
 well-known George Selwyn had adopted as his daughter, 
 although his claims to this privilege were not entirely undis- 
 puted. It was said that the Duke of Queensberry, " Old Q.," 
 was equally willing to acknowledge Maria Fagniani as his 
 own child. According to Horace Walpole,* she was eight 
 years of age in 1779, and therefore at the time of her marriage 
 with tlie Earl of Yarmouth, she must have been twenty- 
 seven — six years older than her husband. "Walpole makes 
 two other allusions to her. In 1789, he %vrites : — " I have 
 such a passion for dogs that a favourite one is a greater 
 misery than pleasure, and to give me one is to sow me with 
 anxiety. I would as soon adopt Mademoiselle Fagniani." 
 In 1791, he tells us that George Selwyn had left his adopted 
 daughter thirty thousand pounds, the Duke of Queensberry 
 to be residuary legatee — a droll concession, apparently, t(j the 
 peculiar claims whicli the Duke felt himself entitled to make 
 at an earlier period. The Duke of Queensberry left her 
 
 * " La Signorina I liave not seen, and, in truth, did not not ask to see 
 her. I love David too well not to be peevish at an Abishag of eight 
 years old," (Letter to the Countess of Ossory, November 21, 1779.)
 
 2o() THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. YIII. 
 
 150,000/., and three houses, making her husband. Lord 
 Hertford, residuary legatee.* Tlien there was her other father 
 — or, at any rate, the husband of her mother — the Marquis 
 Fagniani. How much he left her is nowhere stated. Never 
 before did a lady have so many fathers, or derive so much 
 profit from them. 
 
 By this lady, the third Marquis of Hertford had two sons 
 and one daughter; the elder of the sons lived to become 
 the fourth marquis, and died in 1870. It does not appearV 
 that after the birth of the third child. Lord Hertford lived 
 with or saw much of his wife, and his occasional references 
 to her in his letters are not of a particularly affectionate or 
 cordial description. She survived him fourteen years — dying 
 in 1856 (one year before Mr. Croker) at the age of eighty-"^ 
 five. Lord Hertford himself died in 1842, at the age of 
 sixty-five. In the chapter dealing with the events of 1842 it 
 will be necessary to review certain circumstances which 
 arose out of his death. 
 
 In a reference to Lord Hertford, however brief, it would 
 be vain to ignore the fact that he has usually been 
 identified with the " Marquis of Steyne " of ' Vanity Fair,' 
 and with the " Lord Monmouth " of ' Coningsby ' — not to 
 enumerate many less celebrated and less vitriolic sketches. 
 These portraits, if such they really were intended to be, 
 extenuated nothing in the original ; in one case, indeed, 
 personal animosity towards Mr. Croker alone prompted 
 the introduction of Lord Monmouth, in order that there 
 might be linked with him an abject wretch named " Pagby," 
 one of the most repidsive objects in the whole range of 
 modern fiction. Wliy Mr. Disraeli hated Mr. Croker so bitterly 
 
 * " In 1810 he succeeded to the greatest part of the disposable property 
 of the rich and eccentric Duke of Queensberry — the putative father of his. 
 wife." AnmiAxl Register, 18-12, p. 255.
 
 1822.] iVT?. DISRAELI AND MB. CliOKEn. 2?,( 
 
 it would scarcely Le worth while now to discuss ) enough that 
 there were reasons for it, although they were not good reasons ; 
 and we need not the evidence of Mr. Croker's case to attest 
 that Mr. Disraeli paid off his personal grudges with no niggard 
 hand. In the first part of his life, especially, Mr. Disraeli 
 was a relentless, and it may almost be said, an unscrupulous 
 antagonist. It may be doubted whether any man was ever 
 so base as the Eigby of ' Coningsby ' is depicted ; it is a 
 conception which must inspire in the mind of every reader 
 contempt and detestation. And yet this vile creature is 
 supposed to have been Mr. Disraeli's portrait of Mr. Croker. 
 
 Whether the satire w^as just or unjust, every impartial 
 reader wdll be able to decide when he has come to the end of 
 the records of Mr. Croker's life. Before Mr. Disraeli's own 
 position became assured, he pursued all who seemed to cross 
 his path with the vindictiveness of a Eed Indian. j\Ir. Croker, 
 he believed, had once or twice stood in the way of his projects, 
 at a time when politics were less important to him than 
 literature. It has also been stated that Mr. Croker provoked 
 Mr. Disraeli's resentment by attacking liim in the Quartcrli/ 
 Hevieio and elsewhere ; but in reality Mr. Croker had never 
 written a single line against or about him. With Isaac 
 Disraeli he had always been on most friendly terms, and 
 when the ' Commentaries on Charles the First ' appeared, 
 it was found that the author had referred in grateful ami 
 eulogistic language to the object of Benjamin Disraeli's vin- 
 dictive lampoons. " To my ever kind and valued friend, 
 the Eight Hon. John Wilson Croker" — so wrote the elder 
 Disraeli — " whose luminous and acute intelligence is as re- 
 markaljle in his love of literature and art, as it has been in 
 the course of a long, an honoural)le, and distinguished public 
 life, I stand deeply indebted." The son did not share this 
 admiration for Mr. Croker's " acute intelligence." Apparently
 
 238 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. YIII. 
 
 it was too acute, and had been exercised with too much good 
 faith, to satisfy him. How deep was his resentment he showed 
 by a scurrilous attack upon Mr. Croker immediately after his 
 death, published in a newspaper which was known to be his 
 mouthpiece — the Press. This attack provoked an indignant , 
 remonstrance even from Puncli. " What," it exclaimed, 
 " the man who served the Conservatives before he gave them 
 that delicate name — when they were Tories — and was serving 
 them from his bed of sickness and pain until within a few 
 hours of his death ? The ablest advocate with tongue and 
 pen whom they have had during half a century ? The man 
 dies, and before he is laid in the tomb, the paper sacred to 
 his party and to their plebeian chief issues this spiteful and 
 ungrateful picture ? " So it was ; and the animosity and 
 injustice which Mr. Disraeli thus exhibited will always re- 
 main a blemish on his literary reputation. 
 
 What Lord Hertford's morals may have been is a different 
 question. Mr. Croker, it is to be presumed, was not responsible 
 for them. He did not make them, and he could not unmake 
 them. To suppose even that he had any influence over them 
 is preposterous, for Lord Hertford passed much of his life 
 in Paris, ISTaples, or Milan, and his amusements, such as they 
 were, could scarcely have been selected for him in England. 
 The strictest moralist will scarcely contend that it was Mr. 
 Croker's duty to decline any further acquaintance with Lord 
 Hertford, on account of liis irregular habits ; if that principle 
 were generally enforced, it is to be presumed that many men 
 would have to cut off one or more of their friends. The 
 Duke of Wellington, Sir Kobert Peel, Sir Walter Scott, Lord 
 Carnarvon, and other eminent men of the time were intimate 
 with Lord Hertford, and no one thought the worse of them on 
 that account. In Lord Hertford's letters there are a few free 
 expressions here and there ; men used rather free expressions
 
 1822.] LORD IIERTFOBD'S CHAR AC TEE. 239 
 
 to each other-^and not to each other only, but to women — 
 in the days of the Ilegency ; but there is no evidence in 
 these letters that the writer was a desperately immoral man. 
 There is other evidence which tells heavily against him ; the 
 evidence of his own acts which became only too notorious 
 in the end must be deemed absolutely ruinous. All sense of 
 decency and shame must at last have departed from liiiii. 
 The probability seems to be, as we shall see hereafter, that in 
 his last and worst days his mind was disordered. But on 
 points of morals, he never dreamt of consulting Mr. Croker, 
 and it is not very likely that he would have been guided by 
 his good counsel, had it been offered. The question wliich con- 
 cerns us is, what were the relations existing between Lord 
 Hertford and ]\Ir. Croker ? Were they those which prevailed 
 between "Mr. Pdgby" and "Lord Monmouth," or such as 
 might exist between honourable men? The correspondence 
 will enable any one who considers it fairly to arrive at a just 
 decision. 
 
 The father of the Lord Hertford with whom these pages 
 have to do, died in June 1822. The following letter explains 
 all the circumstances. 
 
 Mr. Croker to Sir B. Blomfield. Extract. 
 
 June 21st, 1822. 
 My dear B., 
 Poor old Lord Hertford is gone at last. The will is not yet 
 opened, but it is known by the report of his attorney that he 
 has tied up his real estates as tight as he could, and has left 
 all his personals to Lady Hertford. It cannot be denied 
 that he judged wisely and kindly in making Lady Hertford 
 an object of future attention from his family, and it was but 
 just that he should share with her accumulations to which 
 her great property no doubt contributed ; but on the other 
 hand it seems hard, considering that she has between thirty 
 and forty thousand a year, that she should have all the 
 personals, and that Yarmouth should not have even £20,000
 
 240 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. VIII. 
 
 for his " mise en campagne." After all, however, it is said 
 that the accumulation does not exceed £200,000, and the 
 best part of the other personals, such as plate, pictures, &c., 
 &c., are old family property and belong of right to Yarmouth. 
 The landed estate is said to be about £85,000 per annum, 
 viz: — Ireland, £57,000; Scotland, £3000; Warwickshire, 
 £15,000 ; and Sudbourne, £10,000 ; and Lord Hertford having 
 died a few days before Midsmiimer, the half year's rent now 
 falling due is his, and will, of course, give him £40,000 to 
 start with. As I dare say he will not begin, all at once, to 
 increase his expenses, he may enter upon the next year with 
 a clear income (including his own separate property) of at 
 least £90,000 per annum. The old lord is to be buried on 
 Monday next at Eagley. Beauchamp * is here, and I hope 
 Yarmouth, who felt the inconvenience of a narrow and jealous 
 system himself, will act handsomely by him. I have no 
 doubt that he will do what he thinks just and liberal, for in 
 all my life I never knew a man so fixed upon doing what he\ 
 considered his duty, but he has a little of a " neither more 
 nor less" disposition, which makes him sometimes appear 
 unamiable when he considers himself as doing all that can 
 possibly be expected of him. It was this temper which got 
 him the character of avarice in the world, although we who 
 know him well, know him to ho, one of the most generous 
 and most friendly of men, but he always stickled about right, 
 and while he was giving away hundreds as bounty and favour, 
 he would resist a claim of tivo-jicnce. I once saw an amusing 
 instance of this disposition. One day wdien he was out of\ 
 Parliament, he came all the w^ay from Seymour Place to the 
 Admiralty for a frank to his servant in the country ; it was 
 the depth of autumn, and there were no Peers or Members 
 in town, so that he was obliged to come to me, and the 
 object of his letter was to give orders for the reception of a 
 party of friends which cost him at least £500 — here he saved 
 sixpence, and if he had been tired would have got into a 
 hackney coach and paid half a crown fare in order to get 
 this said frank. His real character is, however, beginning to 
 be understood ; the world now sees that although he is 
 minute and strict in trifles, and though he has shades of his 
 family oddities, he is one of the highest minded, most 
 
 * [Horace Beauchamp Sej-mour, uepliew of the old Earl of Hertford, 
 and M.P. for Orford ; afterwards Sir Horace Seymour.]
 
 1822.] Sin R PEEL AXD LOUD nEBTFOTlD. 211 
 
 generous of men — " a 1 jitter foe but an unbounded friend " as 
 his relation, Horace Walpole, said of himself; and indeed, 
 after all, Yarmouth's friendships are much more warm than 
 his enmities. What a chapter of La Bruyere I have written, 
 and to you, tpo, who know the man as well as I do. 
 
 In a subsequent letter to Sir B. Blomfield, Mr. Croker 
 somewhat reduces the amounts given above — the total income 
 from the land and other sources Ijeing, he thinks, about 
 80,000Z. — and he says of the heir, "with his houses and 
 gardens and preserves, his wife, and his sons and his daugh- 
 ter, and all other claims upon him, I doubt whether he will 
 be really a richer man than he was, and I am sure not so 
 happy a one." Sir B. Blomfield, in his reply, remarks : " I 
 know acts of his bounty to a considerable amount, and which 
 he never willinoly allowed to meet the light." 
 
 Mr. Fed to Mr. Crolccr. Extract. 
 
 September, 1822. 
 
 I was really pleased at Lord Hertford getting the Garter. 
 I was pleased very disinterestedly, and for his own sake 
 merely, for I like him. He is a gentleman, and not an 
 6 very-day one. 
 
 We call him Lord Hertford now. He was Yarmouth with 
 his familiars. I dare say he has no curiosity to know what 
 he would have been with his brothers and sifters. 
 
 Lord Hertford's letters to Mr. Croker were generally in a 
 light and playful vein ; and his comments on passing events 
 were often marked by much shrewdness and discernment. 
 Few of them bear any date, superscription, or signature.* 
 
 * There are not many of Lord Hertford's letters among Mr. Croker's 
 papers. Probably most of tbem were returned to the writer before his 
 death. 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 242 THE CEOKER PAPERS. [Chaf. VIII. 
 
 Lord Yarmouth to Mr. Croher. 
 
 [No date, but marked Ly Mr. Croker " 1820."] 
 
 Dear Crokee, 
 
 I delight in your notes ; they are always musical to my 
 ears, though to me your language never has either of two 
 very essential harmonic sounds — the sliariJ and the flat. 
 
 I thought you were quite en gargon, or would have sent 
 you game. My father writes me word he sends me a huck for 
 my numerous party, and so as I have no party, I pray you 
 eat a liaunch, the Orbys will eat another, and the skinny 
 apothecary shall fatten his on its sides. And so God bless 
 you. 
 
 [Same period.] 
 
 Dear C, 
 Verily I have forgotten to tell you that a garret in my 
 stable contains several pheasants for Munster House. I hope 
 they are alive, pray take them away; and so no more at 
 present. 
 
 Aldborough, October, 1821. 
 
 Dear Croker, 
 
 How do you do ? What's going on in town ? I came to 
 Sudbourne the day after you all honoured me at dinner, and 
 stayed till my seat at table between my father and Lady , 
 William Gordon reminded me too plainly of my hereditary\ 
 right to a cell in Bedlam ; * and then I went to Eendlesham, 
 where there was a pleasant party, with Scappa, the opera 
 band leader, to make musical noises, and I return to Eend- 
 lesham next Sunday to meet the Duke of York ; meanwhile 
 I am come to eat shrimps, and look at the sea. 
 
 Tell me whether Peel's woods are near his castle or far 
 off — meaning whether I ought to send my cavalry or trust 
 to my legs, now in very good walking trim. I sent you 
 some sherry, which Colonel Hare got from some great friend 
 somewhere in Spain ; I hope it will be good, but I have no 
 hope it will (of its kind) be equal to wdiat you sent me. 
 
 The scene here is now gay — quia tnstc — wreck picking up, 
 and seven anchors fished out of the mighty deep, besides a 
 
 ■'' [This allusion derives a deeper significance from tlie events preceding 
 liis death. See Vol. II. Chapter XXII., pp. 415-419.]
 
 1822.] LORD EERTFOBD'S LETTERS. 243 
 
 Meniel timber ship knocked ashore. I wish you were to Ije 
 at Eendlesham to meet the Duke on Sunday, and then, 
 perhaps, you would come here for a day or two first, and 
 breatlie fresh air. And so God bless you. 
 
 :March, 1822. 
 
 All London saith B. B.* is restored — that ]\Iinisters ob- 
 jected to the Lady's f nomination, and tliat the K [ing] said, 
 " If I cannot please you by dismissing an old and faithful 
 servant, let me have him back." 
 
 And she answered, and said, " Yea." 
 
 The allusion in the last letter is to the downfall of Sir B. 
 Blomfield, which was ascribed to the influence of the person 
 then paramount at court — Lady Conyngham. On the other 
 hand. Sir B. Blomfield's administration of tlie king's private 
 purse does not appear to have been guided by very strict 
 principles of economy, and the King's suspicions were aroused.'' 
 But the deposed private secretary was soon consoled by obtain- 
 ing employment in the diplomatic service, and eventually by 
 receiving a peerage. 
 
 Mr. Croker did not believe that Lady Conyngham's hand 
 was in this intrigue ; but of her great power over the King, 
 he, like all the world, was fully assured. Some curious 
 glimpses of the inner life of the Court are given in a 
 diary of this year, and in certain parts of the corre- 
 spondence. 
 
 From Mr. Crol'cr's Diary. 
 
 Jaimary IWi, 1822. — Left town at 12 and arrived at 
 Brighton at 6. On our arrival the servants told us tliat we 
 were late and should have barely time to dress, as the King's 
 dinner-hour was six. We therefore made all possible haste, 
 and were accordingly the first of the inmates in the saloon, 
 except Lord St. Helens, the Lord-in-waiting. Mr. and Lady 
 
 * [Sir B. Blomfield.] f [Lady Convaaham.] 
 
 ^11 2
 
 244 THE CEOKEE PAPEES. [Chap. VIII, 
 
 Anne Becket were also there. The King came in about 20 
 minutes after 6, and dinner was served about half-past. 
 
 Lady Blomfield came in just before Lady Conyngham and 
 Lady Eliz., and was, I thought, to all appearance on the same 
 footing as heretofore. Sir B. himself came in after the King, 
 and no one could [fail to] see in his quiet and reserved 
 manner a difference from the kind oi factotum hustle in which 
 we used to see him. 
 
 The King was looking remarkably well and stout on his 
 legs ; he went round the circle as usual. I thought — perhaps 
 it was fancy — but I thought that his manner was somewhat 
 more hasty than usual, and that he expressed himself to his 
 family with more pettishness than I had ever seen, in public, 
 or, I should rather say, in his circle, where he was always, to 
 all persons and under all circumstances, particularly gracious. 
 To-day he had quite the air of scolding Paget. 
 
 Our dinner-party were the King, who sate between the 
 two Ladies Conyngham, in the centre of one side ; Lord 
 Conyngham and Lady Anne Becket, at the upper end ; Lord 
 Francis and Andrew Barnard at the other ; Blomfield exactly 
 opposite his Majesty, and Lady Blomfield, Lords Lowther 
 and St. Helens, Sirs William Keppel, Charles Paget, Edmund 
 JSTagle and Hilgrove Turner, Col. Thornton, Mark Singleton 
 and myself, rather too close, round the table. 
 
 The dinner was, I think, rather shorter than usual. I 
 thought the cuisine a shade inferior to what it used to be. 
 The king made us all eat some roast wild boar from Hanover. 
 It was very good, like pork with a game flavour ; lie asked 
 me what I thought of it. I said it was to pork what pheasant 
 was to fowl. " There I differ from you," said the King, 
 " nothing is so good as a fowl ; if they were as scarce as 
 pheasants, and pheasants as plenty as fowls, no one would eat 
 a pheasant." 
 
 When H.M. took a glass of wine with Lady C, he touched 
 glasses with her in the old-fashioned way. 
 
 I suppose I ought not to omit that she and Lady Eliz. were 
 dressed in rich cashmeres ; Lady C.'s a white, and Lady 
 E.'s a scarlet ; the wide borders of the shawls making the 
 flounce of the gown. They are very costly, as Conyngham y 
 told us, but they make no great show, and are not, I think, 
 very becoming. 
 
 At dinner some conversation arose about the King's being 
 expected to go to the play one of those evenings, and of the
 
 1822.] CONVEItSATIONS WITH THE KING. '245 
 
 manager's having announced it. He seems a good deal 
 annoyed ; he said tliat he had consented to give the poor man 
 "liis patronage, hut that meant a hundred pounds and not his 
 company." Lady C. insisted that tlie public expected liim ; 
 that it would be a great disappointment ; that 10 guineas 
 had been given for a box ; that whetlier ]3y mistake or other- 
 wise, the royal word was engaged, and so forth. The King 
 Avarmly denied the engagement and appealed to Blomfield, 
 who quietly and determinately said, " I not only told him, 
 but ivrotc to him that the King ivoulcl not go ; " but still 
 the ladies insisted, and at last Lady C. applied to Lord 
 Francis, who said that the man liad told him that he did not 
 expect the King, " but nevertheless liis jilacard gave out that 
 the play was l)y command, and everybody expected the Iving, 
 and that ten guineas had been given for a box." This went 
 on for some time, the King still on the defensive, and appeal- 
 ing to Blomtield's statement. 
 
 This brought him to the play at Calais, of ^^•hicll he gave 
 us an account, enlivened by Sir Ed. Nagle's admiration of one 
 of the opera dancers, who as Sir Ed. expressed it, " held her 
 leg up square with her shoidder in a wonderful manner ; " but 
 the best of all w^as the king's mimicry of the old Due de la 
 Chatre, explaining to him that these actors and dancers at 
 Calais were second-rate performers. I never heard anything 
 so perfect in the way of imitation of voice, matter, and 
 manner, as his re])resentation of the old mumljling Duke. 
 
 He talked of Tickell, tlie author of 'Anticipation,' and 
 praised his talents highly.* He said that Sheridan, his 
 brother-in-law, was a little " refroidi " towards Tickell after 
 the great success of ' Anticipation.' Tickell was in great 
 distress and committed suicide by throwing himself out of a 
 window of his apartments at Hampton Court ; the same Lord 
 Oeorge Seymour now has : " the fall was so violent, that 
 there was a hole a foot deep made by his head in the gravel 
 walk." The King did not, he said, know much of Tickell, 
 personally, but if he had known lie was in distress lie would 
 have, at least, saved him from the necessity of such a 
 catastrophe. 
 
 This led him to speak of ' Anticipation,' which he did ro)i 
 ctmore and quoted some of the speeches : by the way, it was 
 
 * [Richard Tickell, died in 1793. 'Anticipation' ajipearcd in 1778. 
 He was a contributor to the ' llolliad.']
 
 246 THE CEOKER PAPERS. [Chap. VIIL 
 
 this which introduced the mention of TickelL Tlie Kin^ 
 quoted from ' Anticipation ' Lord Lansdowne's ridiculous 
 quotation, and this brought on the rest of the conversation. 
 Lady Conyngham had never read ' Anticipation ; ' the King 
 said he would have it looked out for her. The events and 
 the piece were gone by, he said, but the wit and pleasantry 
 of it never could fade. I, myself, doubt whether Lady C. 
 will find either wit or pleasantry in it. She will read it like 
 an old parliamentary debate. 
 
 This led him to John Bull, which, he said, was the only 
 thing in political writing which ri\' ailed 'Anticipation' and 
 the ' EoUiad.' I admitted that Bull had force and sometimes 
 pleasantry, but that I thought he wanted taste, which the 
 others possessed in an eminent degree ; the King would not 
 agree in tliis, and went off into a dissertation on taste and 
 genius. Very clever but rambling. He made some really 
 just and critical distinctions, but then he, in some passages, 
 involved himself to a degree to be hardly intelligible. 
 \ He ended, however, by saying that neither he, nor his 
 -0) ministers, nor his parliament, nor his courts of justice all 
 together, had done so much good as John Bull; he stated 
 this in a way which surprised me from its force and vehe- 
 mence and, let me add, exaggeration. 
 
 He then fell upon Judge Bayley, for his sentence on the 
 editors of this paper,* and for his conduct at Nottingham two 
 years ago. Whereon, he said, they were obliged to recall 
 him. The King now intimated that Lord Liverpool agreed 
 that Bayley ought not to be left in the King's Bench, and 
 that on an expected vacancy in the Exchequer, Bayley would 
 be removed thither, where he could do much less mischief. 
 Both Becket and I attempted to say a word in mitigation, 
 but he would not hear a syllable ; indeed, I never saw His 
 Majesty so very impatient oi anything that looked like 
 contradiction as he now was. 
 
 In the beginning of dinner he again alluded to my not 
 having come down earlier, and was particularly kind in 
 lamenting that I had not brought down " that dear little girl 
 
 * [The proprietors of the John Bull newspaper were defendants in three 
 cases in 1821. First for a libel on Lady Jersey, when they obtained a 
 verdict of not guilty on a technical point, and subsequently for libels on 
 the Queen and on Alderman Waithman, in both of which cases they 
 were cast in heavy damages.]
 
 1822.] BINNEE WITH THE KING. 217 
 
 of mine" to his cliild's ball last Monday. He was very 
 good-natured and condescending on this topic, and desired 
 me to tell the little girl how angry he was with me on her 
 account. 
 
 AVhen we had had our coffee we followed His Majesty, and 
 found tlie company increased by old I<ord Eardley and Lady 
 Say and Sele and her daughter. Lord and Lady liavenswortli 
 and t^^•o daughters, Lady Ongley, Lady Wni. Bentinck, Prince 
 Ladoria, Count St. Antonio's brother, Lord Xewburgh and his 
 brother, and some other young man whom I did not know 
 (Lord Ongley, I believe) ; the King was at the forte piano 
 with the two Misses Liddell, and sang with them " Life's a 
 Bumper," " The Friar of Orders Grey," and two or three 
 Italian trios. They are pretty girls and sing well. 
 
 While all tliis music was going on, Lady C, and Lady 
 Elizabeth sat apart. I thought that they did not much 
 like it. 
 
 Afterwards the King took Barnard's arm and walked al )0ut 
 with him, treating him with marked affection ; after which 
 he sat down to a card-table with Barnard and Lady C. 
 and played at patience the whole night. Blonifield, never 
 spoken to nor taking any part in wliat was going forward, 
 made a party of whist with Lords Conyngham and St. Helens, 
 and Sir William. 
 
 The band was in the long gallery, and there, on a sofa, 
 sat old Michael Kelly,* whom the Kmg once went out to 
 speak to. Blomfield introduced me to the old man, who, but 
 for his gout, would not look so old. About lialf-past eleven 
 sandwiches were handed round, and the King wished us 
 good night. 
 
 He had for the last hour missed his snuff-box, and there 
 was quite a tumult about it, and a search high and law; 
 everywhere, in short, except in the King's own pocket; it 
 was quite a scene in a farce, all the actors in it looking 
 wonderfully grave. At last, as the King was going away, 
 after a vain hunt, which, as Lowther said, was like "hunt 
 the slipper," he turned severely to Blomfield and said, " re- 
 
 * [This incident is mentioned witli great pride in [Michael Kelly's 
 memoirs, published in 1S2G. Kelly was a well-known singer and actor. 
 At this period he suffered much from the gout, but, he says, " the chief 
 and dearest comfort remaining to me in this life, is the proud consciousness 
 that I am honoured by the patronage of my beloved monarch."]
 
 248 THE CROEER PAPERS. [Cuap. YIII. 
 
 member it must be found to-morrow," and this be repeated, 
 even sternly. Wben be was out of bearing, I called out to 
 Blomfield, " Blomfield, wbicli of the Ladies bave tbe Kings 
 hox for tbis evening ? " Tbis put us into good bumour again, 
 and in a quarter of an bour one of tbe pages came to tell 
 us tbat tbe King bad found tbe box bimself. Tbe King 
 would not say where, but we all knew from tbe page tbat 
 it was, as I expected, in bis own pocket. 
 
 Jidy 12th. — I walked about town witb Lady Anne Becket. 
 Tbere is quite an emeute about tbe King's not going to tbe 
 play ; I cannot guess bow it will end, but I see it is very 
 unlucky and indecent tbat tbe King's name sbould be used 
 to swindle people to take play-bouse tickets. It is wbis- 
 pered tbat Lady C. bad engaged to persuade tbe King 
 to go, and tbat sbe will be mortified if sbe fails. Lady 
 Anne, wbo sat near Lord C. at dinner yesterday, says 
 tbat be wbispered ber, tbat Lady C. w^as going to pro- 
 pose tbe King's going. " Ob," said bis Lordsbip, " she will 
 make him go." 
 
 Tbe Beckets tbiuk tbat Lady C.'s favour is, if not on 
 tbe decline, at least not at sucb a beigbt as it bas been. 
 If it were wbat it was a year ago, tbey tliink tbat tbe King 
 would not bave besitated to bave gone to tbis play. I do 
 not tbink mucb of tbis circumstance, but I tbink tbere may 
 be some reason for tbeir notion tbat tbe fever of affection is 
 gone by. Nous vcrrons. Lady Anne told me of a little pas- 
 sage at dinner yesterday wliicb I bad not observed. Tbe 
 King was recommending some kind of toddy, or negus, as 
 being very good. Becket said beedlessly, " yes, sir, tbere 
 can be no doubt of its being good, for it was introduced 
 bere ahoiit four years ago and it has held its ground." Lady 
 Anne says tbat Lady C. gave Becket an angry scowl for 
 tbus celebrating tbe glories of tbe last reign. 
 
 I am surprised to find tbe Eoyal Chapels in tbe Lord 
 Steward's department. Lord Conyngbam, to wbom I ex- 
 pressed my wonder, says it is because tbe cboir must eat, 
 and tbat as be furnisbes tbe table for tlie singing men, tbey 
 and tbe cbapels are " de son ressort." Tbe reason does not 
 seem satisfactory; for all men eat as well as tbe singing 
 men, yet all tilings are not in tbe kitcben department. 
 However it may be, Conyngbam was all day busy in pre- 
 paring tbe new Cbapel for to-morrow's service. It is only 
 fitted up in a very temporary manner, and even its more
 
 1822.] THE KING AT BRIGHTON. 210 
 
 permanent ornaments are plain even to a fault. The ceilhiL;;, 
 for instance, has not one bit of stucco, except a paltry little 
 rose for the screw that is to hold the lustre. Theu" chief 
 care seems to be how to make and to keep it warm enough. 
 Two great fire-places in tlie body of the room and a liussian 
 stove in the King's own tribune seemed not enough ; but in 
 the midst of all their debates and consultations I happened 
 to ask to what heat they had brought it ; and lo ! there was 
 uo thermometer, n-or had they thought of measuring the heat 
 that wa}'. 
 
 "What an atmosphere the King lives in ! He never, since 
 he has been at Brighton, has left his own room, except to 
 walk across at half-past three or four to Lady C.'s house, 
 and at six to walk back, he then dresses and comes down to 
 dinner, and that is the whole of his air and exercise. By-the- 
 bye, all the world, if they chose, might see this daily visit ; 
 for the King goes out at the south gate of the inclosure and 
 has a few yards of the common street to walk to reach the 
 steps of Lady C.'s house. 
 
 Dinner to-day was half an hour later than usual; the 
 King, it seemed afterwards, was trying on some new coats, 
 and he had sent for Sir Edmund Nagle to give him one in 
 which His Majesty did not feel uncomfortable. The King 
 amused liimself witli Nagle's attributing this " trouvaille " to 
 his being a v:cll-madc hian, but while His Majesty laughed at 
 ISTagle's pretence, he took care to let us know how ridiculously 
 ill the coat fitted oSTagle ; and Nagle who blunders " certa 
 ratione modoque," paid his court by sending the coat, which, 
 he said, fitted him so well, to London to he altered. 
 
 At dinner the King quoted one of Sir Charles Hanbury 
 "Williams's odes.* He attributed too much of the darkness of 
 Sir Charles's latter life to his poltroonery as to Hussey ; in 
 fact, the most brilliant part of his public life was after that 
 scandal. They now began to talk of Lady Hervey's letters, 
 and I owned to the King that I was the editor of them,t 
 
 * [Sir Chas. Hanbury Williams (1709-1759) wrote an insulting poem 
 called ' The Conquered Duchess,' addressed to his friend Mr. Fox, on the 
 marriage of the Duchess of Manchester with Mr. Hussey, an Irishman. 
 Sir C. H. Williams, whose courage was not equal to his wit, fled into 
 Wales to avoid a hostile meeting with Hussey, and was glad to leave the 
 country and accept the office of Envoy at Dresden in 1746. For an 
 account of his poems see Quarterly Review, xxviii. 40.] 
 
 t [See supra, p. 185.]
 
 250 • THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. VIII. 
 
 so far as adding a short life of lier Ladyship and a few 
 notes, in one or two of which I said His Majesty would 
 see that I had ventured to use some anecdotal information 
 which I had heretofore received from him. He was very 
 gracious on this point, and said that if I had consulted 
 him and let him into my secret, he would have afforded me 
 still more. He was, he said, a great reservoir of anecdote, for 
 he had lived not only with all the eminent persons of the last 
 fifty years, but he had had an early acquaintance with several 
 eminent persons of the preceding half century. 
 
 He spoke very highly of Mr. Bayle Walsingham, tlie son 
 of Sir 0. Hanbury's second daughter. He said he had more 
 wit and talents, and as much good sense and good nature as 
 any man he ever had known, and if he had not died early 
 would have been one of the most consideral)le men that 
 England had produced. 
 
 Our dinner party had been the same as the day before, 
 minus the Beckets ; they were now in the saloon with Lord 
 and Lady Eavensworth and the two musical daughters, and 
 Knyvett, Sale, and Hawes, with two of the boys of the Chapel 
 Eoyal, and the sub-dean Mr. Holmes. These latter ones came 
 to sing in the Chapel to-morrow, so the King takes advantage 
 of their being here to have a musical night. He never left 
 the pianoforte ; he sang in ' Glorious Apollo,' ' Mighty Con- 
 queror,' 'Lord Mornington's Waterfall' (encored), ' Non 
 nobis, Domine,' and several other glees and catches. His 
 voice, a bass, is not good, and he does not sing so much from 
 the notes as from recollection. He is, therefore, as a musician 
 merely, far from good, but he gave, I think, the force, gaiety, 
 and spirit of the glees in a superior style to the professional 
 men. Attwood was at the instrument. 
 
 The two Misses Liddell also joined in the concert, and old 
 Michael Kelly was wheeled in, in a gouty chair, and sang the 
 solo of " Sleep you or wake you," with all the force of a broken 
 voice, in which, however, there were the remains of better 
 than the other men could now produce. 
 
 Lady Conyngham and Lady Elizabeth did not conceal their 
 dissatisfaction at all this music, and particularly at the 
 Liddells. Lady Elizabeth asked me what title Mr. Knyvett, 
 the singer, clauned. I told her. " I suppose," said she, "he 
 beoins to hope to get it now that he sees that one musical 
 family has got the peerage." 
 
 The King, indeed, left liis music but one moment the whole 
 evening, and we had the unmusical ladies all to ourselves.
 
 1822.] A FASHIONABLE BALL. 251 
 
 At six o'clock I heard that the King had sent to have the 
 fire lighted in his box at the play-house ; so that I suspected 
 that Lady C. had accomplished her object. HoNvever, His 
 Majesty did not go, and the Conyngham and Blomfield 
 children and their governesses filled the box. Lowther, 
 Blomfield, and one or two others looked in ; the audience was 
 very loyal, and, I was told, applauded Blomfield. 
 
 The King expressed great satisfaction at Lord Wellesley's 
 conduct in Ireland. He told us that Lord Wellesley on 
 accepting the office, had made a kind of apology for his former 
 secession and expressed his gratitude to the King for re- 
 admitting him into favour and his devotion to his service ; 
 " in short," said the King, " I could not help exclaiming to 
 him, ' Eichakd's himself again.' " 
 
 Mr. Crolcr to Sir B. Blomfield. Extract. 
 
 :\ray 29tli, 1822. 
 
 I suppose you have heard about the tracasscrics on the 
 subject of the Irish ball. It was sillily mismanaged, and 
 almost became a crying scandal. The Duchess of liichmond 
 and Lady Hertford,* I hear, set the tiling afoot, and named a 
 committee. Lady Conyngham (and in her situation I do not 
 think she could have done more or less) sent to beg her name 
 might be added to the list. This the other ladies were so 
 ill-judging as to refuse. The consequence was, that the King 
 interfered with the Duke of York, stopped the first l)all, and 
 patronized another, which is to take place to-morrow, under 
 the auspices of a new set of ladies, that is, the old set, with 
 the omission of the Duchess of Eichmond and Lady Hertford, 
 and the addition of Lady Conyngham. The young men who 
 are the managers of the ball are doing a very foolish and I 
 think indecent thing, they are going to introduce tlie opera- 
 girls to dance quadrilles, in other words, as part of the com- 
 pany at the ball, and lest tins should not Ije indecent enough 
 each ha,ppy man selects his fair one, and furnishes her, at his 
 own expense, with a dress for the occasion. Yarmouth tricks 
 out Eoland ; Lowther, I believe, A^arenne ; Fife, of course, 
 Noblet, and perhaps in his magnificence, ]\Iercandotti. 
 
 * [The mother of the Lord Yarmouth who became, as jireviously stated, 
 Marquis of Hertford in this year. There was an old scandal afloat about 
 the relations between this Lady Hertford and the King.] 
 
 V
 
 252 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. YIII. 
 
 To Sir B. Blomfidd. Extract. 
 
 June 21st, 1822. 
 I was last night wdth my little girl at a child's l^all at 
 Carlton House. AYe arrived at the appointed moment (half- 
 past eight) and in two seconds after (there not being a dozen 
 people in the room) His Majesty entered, accompanied by 
 Sir William Knighton, who, I presume, had dined with him, 
 and dined alone, as they came in par les dcrriercs, and there 
 •was no other attendant. The King was gracious, as usual, 
 and appeared in excellent health and spirits, and much 
 amused with the children. He walked about, except for 
 about an hour and a half that he sat in the conservatory with 
 Lady Conyngham and Madame de Lieven, while the children 
 danced before him and the company stood around him. There 
 was no cliuckotcrie, like what we have formerly seen. 
 Lady Conyngham took little interest in the arrangement of 
 the ball, and Lady Elizabeth none at all. Graves and Lady 
 Morley were master and mistress of the ceremony. The 
 company was not numerous, and as usual rather a preponder- 
 ance of Whigs and Whiggesses, Dukes of Devon and Portland, 
 the latter in a full dress of deep mourning, every one else 
 being in frocks, looked quizzical even beyond Bentinck 
 uncouthness. Lord Lansdowne, the Jerseys, Cowpers, 
 Gwydyrs, Morpeths, Harrowbys, Bathursts, Morleys, Gren- 
 villes, Maryboroughs, Cholmondeleys, were, I think, all of 
 note, except the Court itself, in w^hich I include the Duke 
 and Duchess of Wellington. The King retired as soon as he 
 had seen them all at supper, which was about a quarter past 
 twelve. Knighton s'eclijmc very early ; indeed he walked in 
 with the King and walked out again, without, I think, 
 speaking to any one. I ought not to have omitted the Prin- 
 cess Augusta, and the Duchess of Kent and her daughter ; 
 the latter danced all night, and the royal ladies seemed to be 
 in high good humour, though they held their court ajmrt. 
 
 They have talked about gout in the elbow, but there is no 
 such thing. Paget saw him this morning in bed, in the old 
 style, with his papers, &c., about; but, what is not quite in 
 the old style, Frank Conyngham was in attendance en robe 
 dc cliainbre. This is being Master of the Kobes with a 
 vengeance! F. C. is a good-natured, well-meaning young 
 fellow, and the King is as fond of him as if he were his 
 son — probably a good deal more so ; for kings are not the 
 fondest fathers in the world, nor heirs apparent the most 
 dutiful sons.
 
 ( 253 ) 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 1823-4. 
 
 A new Club for Literary Men and Artists — Mr. Croker's original Plans — 
 Establishment of the " Athenajum"— Limitations as to Membership 
 — Letters from Sir Humphry Davy and Mr. Jekyll — !Mr. Croker's 
 Advice to the Architect — Imjirisonment of Theodore Hook — 
 Mr. Croker's Exertions in his Behalf — Gratitude of Mr. Hook's 
 Family — Benjamin Haydou — A Practical Suggestion — Mr. Babbage's 
 Calculating Machine — The King's Health — The Duke of Clarence — 
 Mr. Canning's Irish Tour in 1824: — Political Speculations of the Day 
 — Indictment of O'Connell — Lord Liverpool and Mr. Croker on Horace 
 Walpole — Proposal to bring Cleopatra's Needle on a Raft, in Tow — 
 Church and State. 
 
 A PEOJECT had long been in Mr. Croker's mind which he 
 now endeavoured to bring into some practical shape. This 
 •was the foundation of a club especially designed for men of 
 letters and artists. " I thought of it," he says, in a note 
 written on the margin of a biographical sketch before referred 
 to, " because the University Club, the Travellers', the United 
 Service, and other sueh clubs, had superseded and destroyed 
 the old coffee-houses, and I considered that literary men and 
 artists required a place of rendezvous also. Many have got 
 in who would have been more eligiljle for other clubs, but 
 still the predominant character of the club is literary." 
 Having once thoroughly understood what he meant to do, he 
 lost no time in setting about doing it. The first person
 
 254 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Cuap. IX. 
 
 wliom lie approached on the subject was Sir Humphry Davy, 
 then the President of the Eoyal Society. " We must lay 
 down clearly and positively as our first rule," he wrote,* 
 " that no one shall be eligible except gentlemen who have 
 either published some literary or professional work, or 
 a paper in the ' Philosophical Transactions ' ; members of 
 the Eoyal Academy; Trustees (not official) of the British 
 Museum ; hereditary and life governors of the British Insti- 
 tution. The latter will open our doors to the patrons of the 
 arts. I do not see any other classes which could be admit- 
 ted, unless bishops and judges, who are ^Jfw^ etat literary men, 
 although they may not have published any work." He went 
 on to suggest the appointment of a Committee to invite 
 certain gentlemen to join the club, and he proposed that 
 there should be an entrance fee of ten guineas, and an annual 
 subscription of five, " which would enable us to provide 
 a tolerable house until we grow rich enough to build one." 
 
 Such was the origin of the " Atheuceum " Club, an institu- 
 tion in which Mr. Croker took the greatest interest down to 
 the last day of his life, and wliich he had the satisfaction 
 of seeing reach a height of prosperity and distinction he 
 could scarcely have anticipated in 1823. No doubt the 
 express object of the club, as defined in Mr. Croker 's words, 
 and in the declaration which is still prefixed to the rules, 
 has been found capable of considerable expansion; but if 
 the " Athenteum "is no longer a purely literary and artistic 
 association, it remains, what it has always been, one of the 
 most famous clubs in the world. Its excellent library would 
 alone cause admission to it to be much sought after and 
 highly valued. It is understood, indeed, that so great is the 
 throng of applicants for membership, that an interval of 
 nearly twenty years has now to elapse between the entry 
 
 * November 23rd, 1823.
 
 1823-1824.] THE ATHENJEUM CLUB. 255 
 
 of a candidate's name in the books and the decision of Ids 
 fate at the ballot-box. But even from the first, the honour 
 of belonffimj to the " Athenseum " was much coveted. 
 Among Mr. Croker's papers there are scores of letters 
 desiring his support for various candidates, and it is evi- 
 dent from his answers to some of them that he was very- 
 chary about promising this support. He selected the ori- 
 ginal Committee, and it does not appear that his first plan 
 was materially altered, although perhaps it was somewhat 
 extended, by the suggestions of those whose co-operation 
 he invited. Sir Humphry Davy took up the idea with 
 enthusiasm, and it will 1)e seen that he recommended the 
 admission of Members of Parliament, for a reason wliich 
 must strike many legislators of the present day as rather 
 quaint, namely, that their duties could not properly be 
 performed without " a competent knowledge of literature." 
 
 Sir Humfliry Davy to Mr. Crolccr. 
 
 November 23rd, 1823. 
 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 "We should lose no time in drawing up the " Prospectus." 
 I think members of the Poyal and Antiquarian Society, and 
 of the Linnean, ought to be admitted by ballot ; for my idea 
 is that it should be a scientific as well as a literary clul). 
 Lord Aberdeen, with whom I have had a good deal of 
 conversation on the suljject, has taken it up warmly. 
 
 I know already more than 100 persons who ^vish to belong 
 to it, and many, most of their names will be attractive — 
 Mr. Heber and Mr. Hallam, jNIr. Colebrooke, Dr. Young, 
 Mr. Chantrey, Mr. Hatchett, I\Ir. Brande, Mr. Herschel, and 
 a number of other men of science, will give their names. 
 
 When I talked to Lord Spencer on the subject, he did not 
 seem to take an interest in it ; and Dr. Wollaston says lie is 
 not a man of clubs. But we are certain of success. The 
 difficulty will be in a short name, and one not liable to any 
 Shandean objections. We can talk of this when I have the 
 pleasure of seeing you to-morrow.
 
 256 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. IX. 
 
 I do not think it would be going too far to make members 
 of the corporate scientific and literary bodies eligible by 
 ballot. I see no reason for excluding Judges, Bishops, and 
 Members of both Houses, none of whom can perform their 
 high duties witliout a competent knowledge of literature. 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 H. Davy. 
 
 In less than a month, Mr. Croker had provided the club 
 with a name, had produced a prospectus, and had circulated 
 it among the persons whom he desired to bring together. He 
 objected to the reception of one gentleman as a member, on 
 the ground that he was " so notorious a bore ;" but this 
 principle, like the rule relating to authors and artists, may 
 possibly have been found difficult of rigid application since 
 the early days of the club. Mr. Croker also writes, on the 
 9th of February, 1824 : " I have ventured to add Lord Pal- 
 merston's name ; he is a patron of the arts, and to my know- 
 ledge a person of literary powers." A letter from Mr. Jekyll 
 seems to show that when Mr. Croker was absent from any of 
 the Committee meetings, not a great deal of business was done : 
 
 Mr. Croker to Sir Hum^phry Davy. 
 
 December 13th, 1823. 
 
 Dear Sir Humphry, 
 
 I enclose you a few prospectuses of our new Club. I have 
 ^\Titten the names that I should wish to see of the Com- 
 mittee. In all cases founders, as you and I are, must decide- 
 who are to be on the Committee ; and this is a matter of so 
 great ultimate importance that I would beg of you not to 
 decide on any new name without a consultation. My 
 experience in these matters is considerable, and I assure you 
 that all depends on having a Committee with a great many 
 good nanus and 2. few working hands. 
 
 I am going out of town for one week, but your list of 
 Committee-men may be sent to the Admiralty, and it will 
 reach me in time. I have applied to no one but to Lord
 
 1823-1824.] THE ATHEXJEUM CLUB. 257 
 
 Lansdowne, Sir Walter Scott, and Thomas ]\Ioore. I wisli 
 you would apply to any persons who are in my list wlioni 
 you may know ; but to avoid mistakes, I shall not apply to 
 anybody else till I hear from you. My list contains about 
 twenty-eight names ; the Committee should be of about 
 thirty-six; and we should have four or five practical and 
 practicable people who would attend and help the business. 
 Perhaps a few more artists and a musician should l)e on the 
 Committee ; and what do you say to Charles Kemble ? 
 I shall be at home till four. 
 
 Yours ever, 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 Mr. Jchjll to Mr. Croher. 
 Spring Gardens, Wednesday, April 28th. [1824.] 
 
 Dear Croker, 
 
 We did as mucli yesterday at the Committee as coidd be 
 done in the absence of such a lyrimv.m mobile as yourself. 
 Elections and nominations were expedited. We liave now, 
 I should think, 380 members, and above 100 invitations 
 remain unanswered. Verging so closely on our 400, we 
 suspended 50 invitations suggested by a list sent in by 
 Heber, and containing many eligible names. 
 
 Saturday next, many of us dine with tlie Eoyal Acade- 
 micians, so the Committee will meet again on Monday, 
 May 3rd. 
 
 If our candidates overflow, Davy said the Society might 
 extend its numbers to COO. 
 
 Burton said the house might 1)e ready in a fortnight. By 
 Heber's direction Chalie sent in a wine estimate. Wine and 
 servants seem at present the principal desiderata ; and except 
 yourself, I think we have no active meml)er for those details. 
 Chalie's wines are high priced. If you desire to inspect his 
 paper before Monday, I will send it to you. 
 
 Yours ever, 
 
 Joseph Jekyll. 
 
 The members met at first in temporary quarters, but by 
 
 the month of October, 1824, the new club seems to have 
 VOL. I. s
 
 258 THE CROKEB PAPEES. [Chap. IX. 
 
 been pretty well established.* Mr. Croker is able to report 
 of it to Lord Hertford that " it is said to sliine in Irish stews 
 and pancakes." From that time the reputation of the club 
 steadily increased, and many of the most famous names in 
 literature and art have been inscribed upon its roll of 
 members. While the permanent building was in course of 
 construction, Mr. Croker continued to watch vigilantly over 
 the interests of the members, as may be seen from the 
 following letter — one of many — to the architect. 
 
 Mr. Croker to Mr. Decimus Burton. 
 
 August 12th, 1829. 
 
 My dear Mr. Burtox, 
 
 Excuse the liberty I take — prompted entirely by my 
 regard for you — of requesting your serious attention to the 
 excess of the expenses of the Athenaeum over the estimates. 
 You are a young man, just making your way in your 
 profession. You have many rivals, and, I dare say, a few 
 wdiom I might almost call enemies. They will all watch 
 with critical care your proceedings in this your first great 
 work in town ; and I need hardly tell you that in public 
 opinion the worst character an architect can get is that he 
 exceeds his estimates. All the excess may be not only 
 excusable, but lyroper and right to have been incurred; but 
 the world will not enter into details, and you will be gene- 
 rally spoken of by the thousand mouths of the Athenaeum, 
 and by the ten thousand mouths that will echo them, as 
 *' one who exceeds his estimates " — a reputation, I repeat, the 
 most likely of all others to be injurious to a young architect. 
 
 I therefore implore you to exert all your ingenuity and 
 influence in curtailing all possible expenses, not merely for 
 the Club's sake, but for your own. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 * The club, when opened, consisted of 506 members, of whom one 
 only, Mr. John Lettsom Elliot, still survives. (1884.) 
 
 I
 
 1823-1824.] THEODOBE HOOK. 259 
 
 There were two other matters in which ]\Ir. Croker exerted 
 himself at this period — one was an attempt to extricate 
 Theodore Hook from the difficulties in which he had become 
 entangled; the other was an earnest effort to turn Benjamin 
 Haydon, the painter, from the course upon which lie had 
 entered, and which ended in the tragedy of 1846. With 
 regard to Theodore Hook, it need only be said briefly that he 
 was arrested in 1823 for a debt of 12,000/. due to the 
 Government on account of defalcations which had been 
 discovered in his accounts as Treasurer and Accountant- 
 General of the Mauritius. A part at least of these defalcations 
 seems to have been owing to the misconduct of a person 
 employed by ]\Ir. Hook. Tlie system of filling offices of 
 this kind by deputy was not a great success, either in 
 Hook's hands or Thomas Moore's. Both appealed to Mr. 
 Croker for advice or help, and neither went to him in vain. 
 Throughout his life, indeed, Theodore Hook was indebted for 
 a thousand acts of kindness to Mr. Croker. He lent him 
 money ; he induced others to subscribe for the relief of his 
 necessities ; the brilliant humourist repaired to him in 
 trouble, as a weak nature will always fly, if it can, to a 
 strong one. Mr. Croker has been accused of ill-nature, but 
 his good-natured acts seem to have exposed him to more mali- 
 cious misrepresentation than those of the other kind. One 
 of his most recent assailants, who declares that Mr. Croker's 
 "chief pleasure in life" was "to cause mental suffering to 
 his fellows," insinuates that he was guilty of some unkindness 
 towards Hook's family.* The fact is that but for Mr. Croker, 
 Hook's family would very often have been in a sorrowful 
 
 * The assailant in question is Mrs. Houstoun, a daughter of Mr. 
 Edward Jesse, who was an old friend of Mr. Croker's. Mr. Croker had 
 sho^vn many kindnesses to the Jesse forailj', and even obtained a situa- 
 tion in the Admiralty for one of Mrs. Houstouu's brothers. Ilence, 
 perhaps, her resentment. 
 
 s 2
 
 260 • THE CBOKER PAPERS. [Chap. IX. 
 
 plight. The following is one of the appeals which he made 
 for Hook at this period : — 
 
 Mr. Crohcr to Mr. B. Lushington.* Extract. 
 
 January 2nd, 1823. 
 
 Dear Lushington, 
 
 Eead the enclosed note.f 
 
 Excuse this trouble, for I assure you I am as unwilling as' 
 possible to give it you, but common charity and compassion 
 obliged me to endeavour to do something for a poor persecuted 
 fellow, whom I believe to be quite innocent of the charge 
 made against him, and whom it is sought to punish for 
 other reasons — to be sure, as he says, when it is recollected 
 how other and greater defaulters have been treated, he does 
 seem to receive severe measure. I well know that it 
 cannot be helped. I well know that the Treasury 
 dare not do for him what they would do for a Whig, 
 and I am aware of the delicacy of your position, but as I 
 believe in my soul that he is persecuted because he is sus- 
 pected of being the ^mter of ' John Bull,' that alone is with 
 me a sufficient motive to do all I can to defeat the unjust 
 persecution. If you are in town pray let me see you on. 
 Friday or Saturday, if not write me a line. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 The appeal was at this time unsuccessful ; but, as we shall 
 see, Mr. Croker never desisted from his kindly interference 
 until he had rescued Theodore Hook from gaol. Some years 
 afterwards, when he was in one of the financial straits which 
 were of periodical occurrence in his affairs, Mr. Croker again 
 hastened to assist him. These were among the incidents 
 which writers who complain of Mr. Croker's " asperity " have 
 been pleased to torture into evidences of his mean and' 
 envious spirit. Not thus, apparently, were they regarded by 
 Mr. Hook or his family. 
 
 * [One of the Secretaries to the Treasury.] 
 f [Letter from Theodore Hook.]
 
 1823-1821.] THEODORE JIOOK ASD HAY DON. 261 
 
 From the Rev. W. F. Hooh * to Mr. Crohcr. 
 
 Vicarage, Leeds, August 27tli, 1841. 
 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 Altlu»ngh you have been duly informed of my poor uncle 
 Tlieodore's death, I cannot refrain, as the eldest of his sur- 
 viving relatives, from writing to you to say that I remember 
 with gratitude that he was indebted to you for almost every- 
 thing in life. Wlien he was under circumstances of the 
 deepest depression, you were the person who helped him ; 
 and when all the world was frowning upon him, in you he 
 found a patron and a friend. Many years liave passed since 
 these things occurred, but my grateful admiration of your 
 conduct was strongly excited in my youth, and I have not 
 forgotten those feelings now that I am past my meridian. 
 Your name is sometimes remembered in my prayers as the 
 benefactor of one most dear to nie. 
 
 Although of late years my uncle shrunk from our society, 
 still I am sure he loved me, and I know he loved you ; and 
 you will be glad to hear that he died penitent and praying. 
 i hope, I think, he was awakened. My very dear brother 
 acted with the pious wisdom of a most judicious Divine, and 
 perhaps my uncle listened to him the more readily, as he is 
 u layman. 
 
 If you would like to read the affecting details of his last 
 days, I will forward to you the confidential letters of my 
 brother to me. With kindest respects to Mrs. Croker, 
 
 I remain, my dear Sir, 
 
 Your grateful friend and servant, 
 
 W. F. Hook. 
 
 With referenee to Haydon, it is clear, from the correspond- 
 ence, that the unfortunate artist had written to Mr. Croker 
 in reference to his peculiar craze of " historical painting," 
 and in reply he received a letter suggesting the important 
 <luestion whether it might not be possible that he was on the 
 wrong tack altogether? No one can now doubt that it 
 
 * [Afterwards the -vvell-kuown Dean of Chicliester.]
 
 262 TEE CROEER PAPERS. [Chap. IX. 
 
 would have been well for Haydon if he had pondered this 
 more carefully. 
 
 Mr, Crolccr to Benjamin Haydon. 
 
 July 7th, 1823. 
 SiK, 
 I regret that your opinion of the relative value of portrait 
 and poetical painting seems to differ so much from mine, and 
 I regret it the more because I fear that your difficulties may 
 in some degree be owing to the view you have taken of this 
 subject. But it would be an idle waste of time to enter into 
 a discussion of who may be right or wrong. One thing 
 we should probably be all agreed in, that the excellent in 
 any class of the fine arts is better than mcdiocritij in any 
 other, and that a Dutch kitchen from the hand of Teniers is 
 in every respect preferable to a whole Olympus of the Gods 
 and Goddesses of Verrio. I therefore candidly confess that I 
 think you would do well to consider whether it be not 
 possible that the neglect of historical painting may in some 
 instances arise from the failure of the artists themselves, and 
 whether in aspiring after objects which they consider of more 
 dignity young men do not often neglect the {ImmUer in their 
 opinion, though not in mine) walks in which they might have 
 attained a respectable degree of success. 
 
 I am, Sir, your most obedient humble servant, 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 While dealing with the correspondence of this character, it 
 may be as well to introduce here a couple of letters concern- 
 ing a mechanical device of which a good deal was heard some 
 years ago, but which never answered to the expectations that 
 were formed of it — Babbage's " Calculating Machine." 
 
 Mr. Fed to Mr. Croker. 
 
 Whitehall, March 8th, 1823. 
 
 My dear Ceoker, 
 You recollect that a very worthy seafaring man declared 
 that he had been intimate in his youth with Gulliver, and
 
 1823-1824.] THE CALCULATING MACHINE. 2G3 
 
 that he resided (I believe) in the neighbourhood of Blackwall, 
 Davies Gilbert lias produced another man who seems to be 
 able to vouch at least for Laputa. Gilbert proposes that I 
 should refer the enclosed to the Council of the Eoyal Society, 
 with tlie view of their making such a report as shall induce 
 the House of Commons to construct at the puljlic charge a 
 scientific automaton, which, if it can calculate what Mr. 
 Babbage says it can, may be employed to the destruction of 
 Hume. I presume you must at the Admiralty have heard of 
 this proposal — 
 
 " Aut ha2c in vestros fabricata est macliina muros, 
 Aut aliquis latet error." 
 
 I should like a little previous consideration before I 
 move in a thin house of country gentlemen, a large vote for 
 the creation of a wooden man to calculate tables from the 
 formula ./r+A-f-il. I fancy Lethbridge's face on being called 
 on to contribute. 
 
 Ever affectionately, 
 
 EoB. Peel. 
 
 Mr. Crohcr to Mr. Peel. 
 
 March 21st, 1823. 
 
 My dear Peel, 
 
 Mr. Babbage's invention is at first sight incredible, but if 
 you will recollect those little numeral locks which one has seen 
 in France, in which a series of numbers are written on a suc- 
 cession of wheels, you will have some idea of the first prin- 
 ciples of this macliine, which is very curious and mgenious, 
 and which not only will calculate all regular series, but also 
 arranges the types for printing all the figures. At present 
 indeed it is a matter more of curiosity than use, and I believe 
 some good judges doubt whether it ever can be of any. But 
 when I consider what has been ah-eady done by what were 
 called Napier's bones and Gunter's scale, and the infinite and 
 undiscovered variety of what may be called the mechanical 
 pmvers of numbers, I cannot but admit the possibility, nay 
 the probability, that important consequences may be ulti- 
 mately derived from ]\Ir. Babbage's principle. As to Mr. 
 Gilbert's proposition of having a new machine constructed, I 
 am rather inclined (with deference to his very superior
 
 264 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. IX. 
 
 judgment in such matters) to doubt whether that would be 
 the most useful application of public money towards this 
 object at present. 
 
 I apprehend that Mr. Babbage's present machine, which 
 however I have not seen, answers the purposes which it is 
 intended for sufficiently well, and I rather think that a sum 
 of money given to Mr. Babbage to reward his ingenuity, 
 encourage his zeal, and repay his expenses would tend 
 eventually to the perfection of his machine. It was pro- 
 posed at the Board of Longitude to give him 500/. out of 
 the sum placed at our disposal for the reward of inventions 
 tending to facilitate the ascertaining the Longitude. But the 
 Board doubted that the invention was likely to be practically 
 useful to a degree to justify a grant of this nature. 
 
 I tliink you can have no difficulty in referring the matter 
 to the Council of the Eoyal Society (of which, although 
 unworthy, I have the honour to be one), which by the assist- 
 ance of its scientific members will give you the best opinion 
 as to the value of the invention, and when that is obtained, it 
 may be considered whether another machine should be made 
 at the public expense, or whether Mr. Babbage should receive 
 a reward either from Parliament or the Board of Longitude. 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 It is now necessary to compile a selection from the general 
 correspondence of these two years. 
 
 Mr. Crohcr to Sir B. Blomficld. Extracts. 
 
 March 21st, 1823. 
 
 My dear Blomfield, 
 
 The King has had two or three relapses of gout and is, I 
 hear, much weakened by them — naturally — but as he told 
 me, laughingly, eleven years ago at Brighton that he was 
 going down hill fast, such repeated attacks cannot but alarm 
 those who love him, as we do. I believe his interieur is very 
 comfortable ; he sees fewer strangers than ever, and even 
 of old friends, those only who are about him. 
 
 The Duke of Clarence, you see, is General of the Marines, 
 £5 per diem, but as he had a half pay of £3 per diem as
 
 .1823-1824.] THE DUKE OF CLARENCE. 265 
 
 Admiral of the Fleet, which is not receivable with the full 
 pay of the Marines, he gets but £700 a year by the cliange. 
 I doubt whether he was aware of tliis. If he expected to 
 have the wliole £8 per diem it will be a great disappointment. 
 His IJ.H.'s chance of being Kiiuj begins to mend — do you 
 remember my little discussion with him at Brighton eight 
 years ago, when he told me that when he became King, / 
 should not be Secretary of the Admiralty ? I told him "a 
 bird in the hand was worth two in the bush." He had just 
 before told me that he would in that event declare himscli" 
 Lord High Admiral, and asked me " wliat objection I c(juld 
 start to that." I replied, with a low bow, " none ; that there \l 
 was a case in point — James II. had done the same." This 
 was a little bold, to say no worse, on my part, but he 
 had been, for half an hour before, giving me provocation 
 beyond all endurance, siich as abusing Lord Melville, Sir Geo. 
 Hope, and the rest of the Board, and though I begged of him 
 to recollect my situation with them and spare me the mortifi- 
 cation of liearing such attacks made on my friends and 
 colleagues, he went on with still more violence. By the time 
 he comes to be King, however, he will be a good deal more 
 quiet and reasonable than he was eight years ago. 
 
 I must take a scrap of paper to tell you a joke attributed 
 to tlie King, and 1 tliink a good one. You know Wm. Peel 
 married Lady Jane Moore, and his younger brother has lately 
 married Lady Jane Lennox. " The Peels," said H.M., " have 
 still a liankerincf after the Jennies." 
 
 Mr. Croker to Sir B. Blomfidd. 
 
 May lOth, 1824. 
 
 Politics look fair and smooth ; but the old knowmg 
 ■ones mutter something about " ignes suppositos cineri doloso." 
 Their hints lead one to think that they suspect Canning 
 of a design to get rid of some of his colleagues, and 
 they dwell upon the compliments bandied backwards 
 and forwards between him and the Opposition. Such 
 a suspicion is, of itself, likely to accomplish its own 
 prophecy, and although I am slow to believe the existence 
 of intriyues, I think it not unlikely that if anything was to 
 induce Lord Liverpool to retire we should have what is 
 vulgarly called a blow-up, and Lord Liverpool is certainly 
 
 v/
 
 266 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. IX. 
 
 far from well. His pulse is so low as 50 and they cannot 
 raise it, and this state, even if it has no worse effect, must, if 
 it lasts, incapacitate him from exertion of any kind. If he 
 were to go now, I think the King would be inclined to send 
 for the i)uke of Wellington ; but he, too, is far from well — 
 he looks very iU, and really before the recess looked extremely 
 ill, withering and drying up ; but he is better. In any case, 
 however, no doubt Canning would try for the first place, and 
 it is not impossible that Lord Lansdowne, Mackintosh, and the 
 more moderate part of the Opposition, might join him ; but 
 that could only be on a resolution to carry the Catholic 
 question, and what the effect of such a coalition for such a 
 purpose might be who can tell ? Canning's going to Lord 
 Mayor Waithman's dinner excited a good deal of surprise in 
 the world, but still more in the Ministerial circles who knew 
 that the Cabinet had come to an understanding not to go. 
 This event was rendered more important by Waithman's not 
 being invited to Peel's birthday dinner, which took place 
 some time after. As Lord ]\Iayors have been, I understand, 
 invariably invited by the Home Secretary on such occasions, 
 the omission, following Mr, Canning's visit to the Mansion 
 House, was supposed to be a strong and not a well-judged 
 expression of Mr. Peel's dissent from the conduct of his- 
 colleague, and I, for one, was not a little surprised at it. 
 But I have since heard that although tlie fact proves a 
 difference of opinion, it does so in a way which nobody 
 suspected. It turns out that Peel's resolution to exclude 
 Waithman was taken and communicated to his colleagues 
 hefore the dinner at the Mansion House, and it is surmised 
 that this determined Canning to go to the dinner whither he 
 might not otherwise have gone. This dcssous des cartes is not 
 known, or at least has attracted no attention, and it was 
 probably some disapprobation of Peel's exclusion which 
 induced Lord Liverpool to authorize Canning to say that he 
 would also have dined at the Mansion House had he been in 
 town — certain it is that Lord Liverpool had previously deter- 
 mined with the rest of the Cabinet not to attend.* 
 
 * [The King wrote to the Duke of Wellington, May 1, 1824, with 
 reference to these incidents : " The public life of the individual filling the 
 office of the chief magistrate of the City of London has been marked by 
 a series of insults to the Government, to the monarchy, and, above all, 
 personally to the King himself," &c. &c. Wellington Desp., N. S., ii. 251.]
 
 1823-1824.] FBEJUDICES AGAINST CANNING. 2G7 
 
 To these circumstances are to be added Canning's uncalled 
 for eulogy on Sir liobert Wilson in his speech on the Spanish 
 question, and several other panegyrics pr(jnounced Ijy him on 
 individuals of the Opposition Nvliich were repaid by the 
 Opposition in the same coin — all this is indicative of any- 
 thing but cordiality amongst the Ministers, and their union 
 is, in my opinion, precarious. Canning has never been 
 averse to coalitions of this nature — he has twice or thrice been 
 on the point of junctions with the Opposition ; but whenever 
 he accomplishes such an union he will find, if I am not nmcli 
 mistaken, not strength but weakness. The public never has- 
 liked these combinations, and Canning has (whether justly 
 or not) a character for intrigue and insincerity which will 
 expose whatever he does to peculiar suspicion. In all this I 
 give you no opinion of my own, but I lay before you the 
 data on which you may form yours ; and, situated as you are, 
 these visions, if even visions they be, cannot fail to be inte- 
 resting to you. Perhaps, so variable is the political sky, that 
 my next letter may tell you that all these clouds are 
 dissipated and that some unexpected tornado has sprung up 
 from another quarter of the heavens. 
 
 You will see in the papers a story of Lord Londonderry's 
 having fought Battier, but the papers have not the whole 
 truth.* After Battier had declared himself satisfied, Hardinge 
 addressed him and said, " now that you are satisfied, I am 
 desired by Lord Londonderry to say that your published 
 letters contain two falscJioods, and his lordship is here ready 
 to support that assertion." After some hemming and hawing, 
 Mr. Battier declared that he was still satisfied, and with this 
 exquisite satisfaction left the ground. To sum up the whole,, 
 it seems that when Sir Henry Hardinge wanted to find Mr. 
 Battier to arrange the final meeting he was obliged to follow 
 him to the ' Swan with two Necks ' in Lad Lane, where this 
 worthy lodged. 
 
 Canning was now beginning to be regarded with distrust 
 by his old political associates, and his visit to Ireland, in 
 September, 182-4:, was made the occasion of a thousand 
 
 * [The )Earl of Londonderry had succeeded his half-brother, the late 
 Foreign Secretary, In consequence of some dispute in the mess-room in 
 Dublin in Nov. 1823, he fought a duel with. Lieutenant Battier. See 
 * Wellington Despatches,' N. S., ii. 2-47, 2G5, seq.']
 
 268 . THE CEOKER PAPERS. [Chap. IX. 
 
 conjectures. Some supposed that he had gone there to 
 concert measures with the Eoman Catholic leaders; others 
 that he was preparing liimself for a dissolution of Parlia- 
 ment. He was rising so rapidly in the public favour that 
 ■all his acts were watched, and whether deservedly or not, 
 many of them were watched Avith suspicion. Mr. Croker, 
 however, never believed that the visit to Ireland was 
 anything more than a pleasure trip. " It is Canning's 
 '^ misfortune," he wrote to Mr. Goulburn, in October, " that 
 nobody will believe that he can take the most indifferent 
 step without an ulterior object, nor take his tea without a 
 stratagem." Affairs in Ireland were then, as they have been 
 ever since, in a more or less disturbed state, but it is clear 
 now that Mr. Canning's visit had no special reference to 
 them. In December, Mr. Croker wrote to Sir B. Blomfield, 
 " Parliament will meet on the 1st February and if things 
 remain in their present state, we never met under better 
 auspices. Everything seems prosperous but Ireland." Eng- 
 land was perhaps a little too prosperous ; a passion for wild 
 speculation set in, the whole country seemed to be smitten 
 with it, and the train was laid for the great commercial panic 
 of the following year. 
 
 One element in England which excited alarm was the 
 Catholic Association, " a lever," as Mr. Croker said in a 
 letter to Mr. Goulburn, " by which the disaffected hope to 
 overthrow the Government itself Out of the proceedings 
 of one meeting of this body at Dublin, an unwise prosecu- 
 tion of Daniel O'Connell was instituted by the Government. 
 O'Connell had used the words, ' If Parliament will not attend 
 to the Eoman Catholic claims, I hope that some Bolivar will 
 arise to vindicate their rights.' " Mr. Croker was strongly 
 opposed to the prosecution, and its utter failure proved the 
 justice of his views.
 
 1823-1824.] FROSECUTION OF O'CONNELL. 2G1> 
 
 Mr. Crokcr to Mr. Fed. 
 
 Kensington, December 24th, 1824. 
 
 Dear Peel, 
 
 I have seen in the Courier the accounts from the Irish 
 papers of O'Connell's affair. I must say to you in confidence 
 they alter my first impression; the words, as given, are 
 guarded by conditions " your if is an excellent peace-maker." 
 Would not you or I say that " if Ireland were, which God 
 forbid, to be persecuted and oppressed, we hoped she might 
 find a Hampden, a Paoli, a AVashington, and why not a 
 Bolivar?" Nay, Bolivar is the innocentest name of all, for 
 he is not what can be called a rebeL 
 
 But the words are denied. Who will prove them ? AVho 
 of the gentlemen of the press will, when urged, negative the 
 possibiSty of some slight error, of the omission of an " if," a 
 " but," a " let us suppose," a " for argument sake." 
 
 Distant as we are, and ignorant of their proofs, can we at 
 present give the Irish Government more than a vote of con- 
 fidence ? If the Law Officers of Ireland thought the words 
 seditious, if the Government thought the words provalile, 
 they have done right in prosecuting. But I doubt both. I 
 admit, however, that their intentions are right, and deserve 
 support and approbation so far ; but, I own, I should hesitate 
 before I gave unqualified approval, and I should be reluctant 
 to emltark myself, tuto eorprrre, with what looks to me a little 
 like the haste which often follows an undue supineness. When 
 a sentinel has fallen asleep on his post, and is suddenly 
 awakened, he always fires his musket, but with so much 
 haste and want of thought that if he wounds any one, it is 
 probably himself or his friends. 
 
 Your affectionate 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 Towards the close of this year, ]\Ir. Croker resolved to 
 publish Horace Walpole's letters to Lord Hertford, and he 
 wrote to Lord Liverpool requesting his opinion and advice. 
 Lord Liverpool's father was Secretary of the Treasury about 
 the period comprised in Walpole's letters. This request led 
 to the following correspondence.
 
 270 TEE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. IX. 
 
 Lord Liverpool to Mr. Crohcr. 
 
 Walmer Castle, August 23rd, 1824. 
 
 My dear Sir, 
 I am very much obliged to you for the specimen which 
 you have sent me of Horace Walpole's letters to Lord Hert- 
 ford, wliich I return. I have been much amused by it, but I 
 own I look at most things which come from this quarter 
 with great prejudice. I believe Horace Walpole to have been 
 A -as bad a man as ever lived ; I cannot call him a \dolent party 
 man, he had not virtue enough to be so ; he was the most 
 sensuous and selfish of mortals. If there could have been 
 any doubt about this, the last publication of what was left to 
 Lord "Waldegrave would prove it. I do not therefore look to 
 any publication of any letters of his as likely to be of much 
 service to history, and think they will rather mislead than 
 instruct the rising generation. The works of Burke with his 
 letters (if a good collection of them should be made) will 
 contain the whole strength and secret of the Whig cause 
 during the last reign. You see I am not uncandid ; I differ 
 Avith him on many points, but I look to him as one of the 
 great oracles of my country. I wish the Tory cause had 
 found as good an expositor. Dr. Johnson is admirable as 
 far as he goes. It would do you good to take down his 
 volume of political pamphlets (they are all in one volume of 
 his works), and read them cle suite, but he stopped at a most 
 important period. I regret Lord Glenbervie * did not begin 
 liis ' Life of Lord North ' sooner ; he had all the late King's 
 original letters, and he would have executed his purpose 
 temperately and respectably. The American War having 
 been a losing cause, it is not likely to find now even an 
 apologist; aU that will be written will be written with a 
 strong bias the other way; Glenbervie's work would have 
 been, therefore, a desideratum for the cause of truth. 
 
 Who is Mr. Prior ? I have read his ' Life of Burke ' with 
 the greatest satisfaction, and have told Payne that he may 
 recommend it, if he pleases, on my authority. There are very 
 few things in it which I should wish to alter, and it is a most 
 important addition to our literature. 
 
 With respect to Lord Camden,t his object was to set liim- 
 
 * [Son-in-law of Lord Nortli.] 
 
 f [Mr. Croker had asked in his letter, " What disappointment made 
 Lord Camden such a patriot ? "]
 
 1823-1824.] HOB ACE WALPOLE. 271 
 
 self up against Lord Mansfield under the shield of Lordy 
 Chatham ; he became, therefore, the patriot lawyer of the 
 day. They hotli got into a scrape afterwards upon the Corn 
 Embargo, of which Lord Mansfield very successfully availed 
 himself. Lord Camden's conduct was very bad upon the 
 Middlesex election ; you will see the particulars in the Par- 
 liamentary history. 
 
 The real cause of the continued agitated state of men's \/ 
 minds for the first few years of the late King's reign, was 
 that the Government was changed almost every year, and 
 perpetual changes had the effect naturally of destroying all 
 confidence. No one knew on what he had to rely. This 
 continued till Lord North came to the head of Govern- 
 ment. Lord North, though a man of very considerable 
 talents, was by no means qualified for the situation, and 
 never wished to have been in it ; vet he had a very strong 
 Government when the American War began in 1774, and it 
 continued so for several years. 
 
 It is a curious historical fact, that Queen Elizabeth, who 
 bears the character of a capricious woman, was the most . 
 steady Sovereign in her politics that ever filled a throne ; she y 
 knew when she was well served, and kept the same Minister 
 for more than forty years. 
 
 I have been led on further than I intended. 
 
 Believe me to be, my dear Sir, 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 Liverpool. 
 
 Mr. Croher to Lord Liverpool. 
 
 October 13th, 1824. 
 
 My dear Lord, 
 
 I entirely agree in your lordship's opinion of Horace 
 Walpole — there never lived a more selfish man ; a more 
 factious politician, a more calumnious writer. It is because 
 I think him so, that I am anxious to prevent as far as I can 
 his poisoning the sources of history. His descent, his name, 
 his station, the force and vivacity of his style, his perpetual 
 professions of disinterestedness, his apparent carelessness for 
 office, have all contributed to give him considerable auth(.)rity, 
 and I have no hesitation in saving that his ' Memoirs ' and
 
 272 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. IX, 
 
 letters, already voluminous, and of which I know that a great 
 deal more is forthcoming, have given and will give a most false 
 colour to the transactions and characters of his day. "With 
 regard to his ' Memoirs ' published two years ago, I think I 
 may flatter myself that I did something, by a review in the 
 Quarterly* towards exposing his errors and defeating his per- 
 sonal malevolence ; and I am glad that the possessor of the 
 letters, now about to be published, has permitted me to add 
 such notes as I may think necessary to sift his truth from his 
 falsehood, and to mix some grains of doubt and allowance into 
 the mixture which his partiality has brewed, and which with- 
 out some such corrective will poison the minds of posterity. 
 I may be told, then why publish these letters at all ? I 
 •answer that it does not depend upon me. Walpole seems to 
 have taken care that all his remains shall be published, and 
 I am confident that Lord Waldegrave's whole collection will 
 (and that in obedience to Walpole's own wishes) be succes- 
 sively produced, and be probably edited (as the ' Memoirs ' 
 were by Lord Holland) without one word to explain or cor- 
 rect the grossest errors and injustice. 
 
 I also perfectly agree with your lordship as to the causes 
 of the otherwise unaccountable unpopularity of the early 
 years of George III., and this judgment will be forcibly 
 strengthened by some avowals made by Walpole in the very 
 letters before me. Nothing can be more different than two 
 modes of conducting Government affairs in this country, 
 which are often confounded — I mean 'party and faction. 
 Godolphin, Harley, Walpole, and latterly Mr. Pitt and his 
 Tory successors and his Whig opponents, aU proceeded on 
 the principles of party . Newcastle, the elder Pitt, and Pox, 
 the Grenvilles, Lord Bute, and all their underlings, the Dod- 
 dingtons, Eigbys, Sandwiches, Ellises, Legges, &c., &c., con- 
 ducted their administration by a balance of factions, and the 
 alternate purchase and dismissal of little political coteries. 
 The fate of the Coalition was the deathblow of that system. 
 A long peace and great internal prosperity, by not affording 
 great rallying points on which 2M7'ties may be formed, will 
 perhaps rovixe factions, and whenever that happens we shall 
 see played over again all the lamentable scenes of the last years 
 of George II. and the early ones of George III. If to these 
 causes be added, a rapid succession of sovereigns and a minority 
 
 * IQuarterly Review, No. 53, July, 1822.]
 
 1823-1824.] . WALPOLIPS LETTERS. 273 
 
 or two, those who live to see such events will find subjects 
 for a new ' Doddington's Diary ' and ' Junius's Letters.' 
 
 I will just state here, en passant, that I have strong reason i 
 to suspect that Lord George Sackville was the author ofV 
 'Junius.' He maij have had a literary assistant, but I am 
 convinced by a great variety of reasons, that he was substan- 
 tially Junius : as I have also little doubt tliat Walpole found 
 the sarcasm and libel, and Mason the poetry of the celebrated 
 ' Heroic Epistle.' 
 
 Mr. Prior, in his ' Life of Burke,' of which your lordship 
 thinks so highly, takes on all the subjects (which, of course, 
 Mr. Burke did not) the same view as the author of the 
 ' Sketch,' though I do not tliink he had seen this pamphlet. 
 In reply to your inquiry, I am sorry not to be able to give 
 you any account of Mr. Prior. I am not acquainted with him, 
 nor did I ever hear of him till his book appeared. He is 
 evidently an Irishman ; and perhaps may be some connexion 
 of ]\Ir. Burke's, though I doul3t this ; because my family was V 
 closely connected with Mr. Burke, and I never heard of any 
 relationship with any one of the name of Prior. His book, in 
 spite of many and great errors, I had almost said barbarisms of 
 language, is all you say of it, and in some of his characters 
 and p«ra//c/s he is very able in his views and happy in his 
 expressions. I shall endeavour to make his acquaintance ; he 
 resides in one of the villages in Surrey, near town. 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 Loi'd Liverpool to Mr. Crolcer* 
 
 Walmer Castle, October 21st, 1824, 
 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 I shall be happy to receive and look over the sheets 
 of "Walpole's Letters, as it may be convenient to you to 
 send them. 
 
 I am surprised, after the dedication, that you have no 
 personal knowledge of ]\Ir. Prior. I agree with you, that his 
 style is in many respects full of errors, and even of bar- 
 ])arisms, but I think it a most valuable addition to our 
 biography ; and every person to whom I have recommended 
 
 * [This letter appears iu Yonge's ' Life of Lord Liverpool,' but it is 
 printed here from the original, to render Mr. Croker's own letters more 
 intelligible.] 
 
 VOL. L T
 
 274 THE CBOKEIt PAPERS. [Chap. IX. 
 
 it, concurs in this opinion. There is real mind in the book, . 
 and some originality of thmking. Now, any drayman could\ 
 have written as good a life of a public man, with the ad- 
 vantage of the letters and the parliamentary debates, as my 
 old friend the Bishop of Winchester has written of Mr. Pitt. 
 The only defects in Prior's work, as a piece of history, are 
 
 \the following : 
 He makes Burke more the leader of a party in the House 
 of Commons than he ever was. He was undoubtedly the 
 oracle of the Marquis of Ptockingham, and of all the pure 
 Bockinghain imHy, but the House of Commons never did, nor 
 ever would, have submitted to him as a leader of any i^arty ; 
 and this his best friends knew. Prior has likewise too much 
 overlooked his defects. Wliy, it may be asked, being gifted 
 with acquirements beyond all other men perhaps, living or 
 dead, and surpassing all his cotemporaries in the highest fliglits 
 of eloquence, was he not the leader of his party ? First, because 
 he wanted taste ; and secondly, because he was the most im- 
 practicable of men. He never knew when not to speak ; he 
 never knew when to speak short. He never consulted the 
 feelings and prejudices of his audience. I remember hearing 
 Lord thurlow say of him and Fox that the difference between 
 them during the American controversy was, that Pox ahvays 
 spoke to the House, and Burke spoke as if he was speaking to 
 himself. 
 
 I cannot agree with you in the opinion that Lord George 
 Sackville was the author of ' Junius.' I am quite satisfied 
 that he was incapable of being so ; and even his political life 
 does not correspond at all with the real opinions of Junius. 
 
 The only clear fact as to ' Junius,' is, that he must have 
 been a friend of Mr. Grenville, and under some considerable 
 obligation to him or to his family. Mr. Grenville is the only 
 public man whom Junius really protects. If he had not had 
 some particular or mysterious connection with him, he would 
 \ have been one of those whom he would have most abused. I 
 A have heard Lord Grenville say, more than once, that he knew 
 a great deal about it, but that he never could tell what he 
 knew. 
 
 Lord George SackvUle was in decided opposition to 
 Mr. Grenville's Government, The party that took him up 
 after his disgrace was the Eockinghams. They restored him 
 to the Privy Council upon their coming into office in 1765. 
 He continued in opposition after they went out in the fol-
 
 1823-1824.] CLEOPATBA'S NEEDLE. 275 
 
 lowing year, till the troubles in America took a serious turn. 
 He then took a line of his own, and threw out some ideas 
 respecting America which happened to hit the feelings of the 
 House ; and it is a most singular fact, that this very indi- 
 vidual, who had been condemned by a court-martial for 
 cowardice, and stinick out of the Privy Council, was appointed 
 War Secretary of State to conduct the American War, with the 
 acclamation of the great majority of the House of Commons. 
 I have heard persons who remembered the transactions of 
 both times say, that his station in the House of Commons in 
 1774 and 1775 was very much the same as Wyndham's was 
 in 1792 and 1793, at the beginnmg of the French Kevolu- 
 tionary War. 
 
 Believe me to be, my dear Sir, 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 Liverpool. 
 
 The great interest taken by Mr. Croker in the preservation 
 of ancient works of art, and his anxiety to secure as many of 
 them as possible for his own country, were shown by his suc- 
 cessful exertions to induce the Government to buy the Elgin 
 marbles. He was always on the watch for treasures of a like 
 kind. In 1822 reports arrived in England that the Turks 
 were destroying part of the Parthenon. Mr. Croker wrote at 
 once to the admiral commanding the station : " If this be so," 
 he said, " I would entreat of you to write to any captain who is 
 likely to go near Athens, to endeavour to save all that he 
 can of sculpture that these barbarians may have pulled down ; 
 and any expense he may be at in purchasing or moving the 
 fragments, I shall most cheerfully pay, and he may draw 
 upon me for the amount." In 1824, he endeavoured to get 
 Cleopatra's Needle moved to England, and he proposed to do 
 it by means very similar to those which were actually employed 
 in 1877. 
 
 T 2
 
 276' THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. IX. 
 
 Mr. Croker to Sir B. Martin, K.C.B. 
 
 December 16th, 1824. 
 
 My deak Sir. Byam, 
 
 In reference to our former communications, public and 
 private, on the subject of the transport to England of Cleo- 
 patra's Needle, I wish to call your attention to an idea which 
 has struck me on the subject. 
 
 The difficulties which formerly deterred us were principally 
 the expense of moving the Needle into the ship, and the 
 necessity of building a pier out into the deep water, where 
 the ship must lie to receive it, to say nothing of the prepara- 
 tion of the ship itself to receive so cinnbrous a freight. 
 
 Now it occurs to me that as you bring home a large quan- 
 tity of Adriatic timber, it might be possible, and would not be 
 any great increase of expense, to have a raft composed of the 
 timber which else would come home as freight ; on this raft the 
 Needle would be placed with comparative facility, and the 
 raft being roughly shaped into the best sailing form that the 
 circumstancesNvill admit might be towed by a steam vessel, 
 during a favourable season. I suppose the formation of the 
 raft would cost less than the freight of the timber, and if so 
 the expense would be little more than the expense of the 
 steam vessel for the two or three months she might be 
 employed on this service. 
 
 Believe me to be, my dear Sir Byam, 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 The following letter, on a very different theme, was written 
 early in the ensuing year : — 
 
 Mr. Croker to Eohcrt SoidJmj. Extract. 
 
 January 3rd, 1825. 
 
 My dear Southey, 
 
 I am delighted at your idea of a ' Book of the State.' If 
 
 you execute it with the same spirit and success as the ' Book 
 
 of the Church,' you will have created the two most valuable 
 
 standard works in our language — works which will become
 
 1823-1824.] TUE STATE AND RELIGION. 277 
 
 (and it is the greatest praise and prognostication of useful- 
 ness which I can give) school books, and will lead future 
 generations to good principles and right feelings in matters of 
 Church and State. Do you remember my once saying to you 
 that " Westminster Abbey was part of the British Constitu- 
 tion " — that vague metaphor expresses more vividly, than 
 perhaps more distinct explanation could do, my feelings on 
 this subject, and as I know that they are in accordance witli 
 yours, you may judge how glad I am that you are inclined 
 to contriljute another tie to that union. I do not mean the 
 mere j^olitical connexion of Church and State; but that 
 mixture of veneration and love, of enthusiasm and good 
 taste, of public liberty and self-control, of pride of our 
 ancestors and hopes for our posterity, which affects every 
 patriot and Christian mind at the contemplation of that 
 glorious system, which unites in such beautiful association 
 and such profitable combination our civil and ecclesiastical 
 constitutions, our ambition and our faith; the one tiling 
 needful and the all things ornamental ; our wellbeing in 
 tliis world and our salvation in the next. I am as satisfied 
 that no political State can exist without some connexion with 
 religion as I am that the hod)/ cannot be kept in heat and 
 motion vrithout the soul. Civil sanctions which cannot reach 
 the liody will never sufficiently affect the mind, so as to 
 regulate the conduct of that complex machine, man ; there 
 must be a higher and more sacred influence to operate upon 
 that ethereal portion which seems as if it aspired above all 
 human laws, as fire while consuming its earthly materials 
 and fenced in on five sides by human guards, escapes on 
 the sixth towards Heaven, But I am losing myself in 
 metaphors and metaphysics, and shall return to imploring 
 you to go on with the good work you have promised me.
 
 278 TEE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. X. 
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 1825. 
 
 The Eoman Catholic Claims — Proposed Provision for the Irish Clergy — 
 Mr. Canning's Opinions — Mr. Croker on the " Emancipation " Policy 
 — View taken by the Duke of Wellington — Mr. Peel's Opposition — 
 Mr. Henry Drummond — The Irish Problem — Theodore Hook — Mr. 
 Croker procures his Eelease from Gaol — Moore's Life of Sheridan — ■ 
 Misstatements in the Work — Annoyance of George IV. — Narrative 
 dictated by the King to Mr. Croker — His Intercourse with Sheridan 
 — His Course on the Catholic Question — The reported Marriage with 
 Mrs. Fitzherbert — The Regency Question — Sheridan's Extravagance — 
 Receives £20,000 from George IV. — Moore's Conduct towards his 
 " Patrons " — The alleged Neglect of Sheridan — The Story of Sheridan's 
 Last Days — Notes of Conversations with the Duke of Welhngton — 
 Anecdotes of Talleyrand, Bonaparte, &c. 
 
 It must have been evident in 1825 to every shrewd observer 
 that a final settlement of the Eoman Catholic claims could 
 not be much longer postponed. In some form or other, the 
 question had been a cause of excitement and agitation ever 
 since 1778, and successive statesmen had been anxious to clear 
 it out of their path ; but the resistance of the King was fatal 
 to every effort they made. It has long been admitted that the 
 proposal made by Mr. Pitt in 1801 would have prevented 
 much bitterness and many serious misfortunes, and his ideas 
 were cordially adopted by Mr. Croker, who, until the subject 
 was disposed of once for all in 1829, never swerved in his 
 support of every well-directed measure for Catholic relief. 
 He saw clearly that violent controversies, and the lawless-
 
 1825.] THE CATHOLIC CLAIMS. 279 
 
 iiess to which they so frequently gave rise, could not be 
 brought to an end by such measures as the suppression of the 
 Catholic Association or by prosecutions of O'Connell. In 
 this respect, as it has already been pointed out, he was heartily 
 in accord with Canning. There is a rough draft in Canning's 
 handwriting of a resolution in favour of making provisions 
 for the priests, but it was probably put aside for the time 
 on account of the introduction of Sir Francis Burdett's Bill. 
 At a later period of tlie session, however. Lord Francis 
 Leveson Gower proposed to provide a State endowment of 
 the Eoman Catholic clergy to the amount of 250,0U0Z. a 
 year. Canning's resolution mentioned no sum, l)ut merely 
 declared the wisdom of " making provision for the mam- 
 tenance and support of the Eoman Catholic clergy of Ire- 
 land." Mr. Croker wrote to him about the same time — 
 namely, in the month of February — avowing that he would, 
 if he could, " pass to-night the Bill we carried some years 
 ago, with the addition of a take-it or leave-it provision for 
 their clergy." In the following letters he adheres to the 
 same opinions : — 
 
 Mr. Crohcr to the Bislioi^ of Ferns. 
 
 March 2nd, 1825. 
 
 I was glad last night to have an opportunity of bringing 
 on the tapis my favourite topic of paying the popish clergy. 
 I forget whether you approve of that jDlan. I am convinced 
 that if it be not adopted a rebellion and massacre will go 
 near to pull the cstaUisliment about our ears. I am a high 
 churchman, and think the best assistance that ever can be 
 given to the Church of Ireland is the making a provision for 
 Ihe Catholic clergy out of the general funds of the State. I 
 do not say that this will altogether cpiiet them, and wholly 
 tranquillize Ireland, but you may depend upon it it will go a 
 great way towards it; and wdiat is of great importance, if 
 they afterwards stir a finger we shall know their real object, 
 and the universal and undivided voice of England will put
 
 280 TEE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. X, 
 
 them down. Now, they assist the Church under cover of 
 poverty and grievances, but let us take away that pretence, 
 and instead of 247 Members voting for them they will not 
 have 7. I was delighted to find that Plunket and Brougham 
 both considered the plan as practicable, and likely to be 
 accepted by the priests ; nor was I much less pleased to find 
 that the laity who are here Catholic Associators, and others, 
 look upon it with great jealousy — to be sure it would spoil 
 their trade. 
 
 Mr. CroJccr to the Bight Hon. W. PlunJcett. 
 
 March 12th, 1825. 
 
 My deak Pluxkett, 
 
 After the best consideration which I have been able to give 
 to your suggestion of getting my proposition relative to a 
 provision for the Eoman Catholic clergy into an ostensible 
 shape immediately, I find that the forms of the House oppose 
 difficulties which are, I fear, insuperable. It cannot be done 
 without the consent of the Crown, and I do not think until 
 the Emancipation Bill shall have been read a second time, we 
 could ask the Government to give the King's consent even 
 2')ro forma. It seemed to me on the former occasion, and I 
 am still inclined to be of the same opinion, that the proposi- 
 tion for the provision of the clergy will not have fair play if 
 it be moved before the principle of the Emancipation Bill be 
 decided by the second reading ; this might have excited 
 a doubt on the expediency of any immediate step, but the 
 insuperable technical objection renders any consideration of 
 the former point unnecessary. 
 
 "What I therefore would, with your concurrence, propose 
 would be, the day after the second reading (which I take for 
 granted will be carried) to move resolutions for a provision 
 for the clergy ; and in the meanwhile we may be bringing 
 our measures into such form as to be enabled to produce 
 them on the instant, if the House should agree in the reso- 
 lutions. 
 
 The Eelief Bill passed the Commons, but was thrown out 
 by the Lords, the Duke of York making a speech against it, 
 in presenting a petition, which added much to the anger and
 
 1825.] PBOPOSED DISSOLUTION. 281 
 
 irritation then prevailing. He ascribed his father's " severe 
 ilhiess " to the pain and annoyance the Catholic agitation liad 
 caused him, and he declared, with an oath, that he would 
 never relax his opposition to the Bill. The measure was, as 
 is well known, so unpopular out of doors that its rejection by / 
 the Peers caused great rejoicings, and Lord Liverpool was 
 strongly urged to seize the propitious moment and dissolve 
 Parliament. The Duke of Wellington was earnestly in favour 
 of this course, and he expressed liis opinions freely in a con- 
 versation with Mr. Croker, of which some account is given 
 in a letter written in the midst of the events. 
 
 Mr. Crohcr to Lord Hertford. Extract. 
 
 September 22nd, 1825. 
 
 We then talked of the dissolution. He is decidedly for it, 
 the most so of all the Government. He thinks it would 
 strengthen the Ministry, by weakening, in some degree, the 
 Catholic interest, and Ijy damping the ardour of the Catholic 
 majorities in our House — for he says, "the Government 
 cannot go on, in its present frame, if there are decided and 
 active majorities on different sides in the two houses. The 
 Duke of York may say, ' so much the better, form a Pro- 
 testant Government,' but those who know the case are well 
 aware that a Protestant Government could not be formed, nor 
 could a Catholic one. In short, all that can be done is to get 
 over this crisis, and by-and-by look at the question at large, 
 and with great deliberation." To this end he thinks a disso- 
 lution this year will tend. " Not," said he, " that I would 
 raise a No-Popery cry, nor that I should refuse Mr. Huskisson 
 all the influence of Government at Liverpool, or IMr. Canning 
 wherever he may go, but if I were First Lord of the Treasury 
 I should take care that none of the boroughs in ni}- disposal 
 should be given by these gentlemen to their followers, and 
 that all the Government seats should be filled by good men 
 and true. This would make a sufficient alteration in the 
 House to damp, if it did not break down, the Catholic 
 majority." 
 
 The Cabinet is at this moment sitting on the question. I
 
 \ 
 
 282 TEE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. X. 
 
 have heard the opinions of such as are guessed at stated to 
 be, Canning, Huskisson, Melville, Bexley, against ; Welling- 
 ton, Bathurst, Westmoreland for — Liverpool, Peel,_ and 
 Harrowby I have not heard classed either way, and Eobinson 
 is of both opinions. 
 
 The Duke asked me about your shooting, as if he should 
 like to see a little of it. He told me that there never was 
 seen such a day's shooting as he had had with the King of 
 France — they killed upwards of 1700 head to 4 guns; the 
 King, the Dauphin, the Duke, and the Captain of the Guard. 
 The King walked like a tiger and shot amazingly well. The 
 Duke killed 280 pieces to his own share, I cannot say to his 
 own gun, for he had ten guns and ten Swiss soldiers to load 
 them — his shoulder was all contused, and his hand and fingers 
 cut, and he says the force of practice was so great that latterly 
 he could not miss a shot. 
 
 It must be remembered that a large portion of- the public 
 firmly believed that the cry for " Emancipation " was a mere 
 pretext, intended to conceal designs of a much more formi- 
 dable and far-reaching character. Most persons, in England 
 at least, held that the removal of political disabilities would 
 never satisfy the Catholics or give peace to Ireland, That 
 view was entertained by Peel,* who voted against Mr, 
 •Canning's resolution in 1812, against Grattan's Bill in 1813, 
 and agai]!st Sir F. Burdett's Bill in 1825. On the last 
 occasion he threatened to resign because the House of 
 Commons had passed the Bill, and with difficulty he was 
 induced to change his decision. He had little idea at that 
 time that tliis was to be among the questions on which he 
 was destined to undergo a series of the most remarkable con- 
 versions recorded in political history, and that his would be 
 the hand which would at last render that justice to the 
 Catholics which he had done so much to withhold from them. 
 Among the friends with whom Mr. Croker corresponded at 
 this time, and for many years afterwards, was Mr. Henry 
 
 * ' Memoirs by the Eight Hon. Sir Robert Peel,' vol. i. p. 4 et seq.
 
 1825.] HENEY DEUMMOND. 283 
 
 Drummoml, whose sui)port of the Irviiigite sect caused him 
 to be regarded by many persons as a man remarkable chiefly 
 for his eccentricities, whereas there can be no doubt that he 
 possessed an unusually large fund of common sense. The 
 church which he built on his estate at Albury for the fol- 
 lowers of Mr. Irving cost him 16,000/., and it is well 
 attended to this day. Mr. Drummond always took a pro- 
 found interest in politics, and his letters to Mr. Croker are 
 written in a dry humorous vein which sufficiently accounts 
 for his popularity among the friends who were delighted to 
 meet in his house at Albury. " He had eyes," as Sir Henry 
 Holland said of him, " and understanding peculiar to himself 
 for all he saw, and language and manner as original as his 
 thoughts." Another of his acquaintance has told us that his 
 "conversation, always rich, animated, sparkling, suggestive > 
 and desultory, resembled a kaleidoscope in the brilliancy and 
 heterogeneous character of the materials ; whilst liis perfect 
 breeding and exquisite refinement of tone gave the last finish 
 to its charm."* It is to be regretted that the letters of this 
 original and interesting man are few and far between in Mr. 
 Croker's papers ; but care has been taken to preserve all tliat 
 <;ould be found of the slightest public interest. In a short 
 letter, containing a reference to the Catholic question, there 
 is a passage which shows that Mr. Drummond substantially 
 held the same view as Mr. Peel, together with some opinions 
 which are more familiar to modern Eadicalism. 
 
 Mr. Henry Drummond to Mr. Crohcr. Extract. 
 
 February 26tli, 1825. 
 
 Wliat madness it is to think that the miseries of the Irish 
 people will be alleviated by emancipation. Carry over there 
 
 * Quarterly Revieiv, Vol. cxxxii. p. 184.
 
 284 THE CBOEER PAPERS. [Chap. X. 
 
 the English Poor Laws, and abolish the Lord Lieutenancy (not 
 [that] this last affects the potato-eaters) and you will do more 
 to give happiness to the many than all the toleration that can 
 be devised. I much err if the enemies to the happiness of 
 the Irish people are not the Irish gentlemen and nobility : 
 but this [is] a truth that well-conditioned people like you 
 dare not utter. 
 
 Mr. Crolcer to Mr. Drummond. Extract. 
 
 March 4th, 1825. 
 
 Alas, poor Ireland! But I think we shall carry the 
 Catholic question, which I look upon as the best chance 
 for her. While that question affords a furnace to heat the 
 people, and to light the firebrands of demagogues, there will 
 be no peace ; but I look upon the measure only as a seda- 
 tive under the influence of which other and more effective 
 machines may have opportunity of operating. 
 
 Irish affairs, however, by no means occupied the whole of 
 Mr. Croker's attention during this year. In the first place, 
 he found time to intercede once more for Theodore Hook. 
 On this occasion he wrote to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
 begging him most earnestly to release the prisoner from 
 confinement. 
 
 Mr. Crokcr to the Bight Hon. F. Eohimon. Extracts. 
 
 March 26th, 1825. 
 
 My dear Eobinson, 
 
 If I believed Mr. Hook to be guilty oi jycmdation, I should 
 never have interested myself for him. / believe him vjliolly 
 innocent ; but, if he were guilty, I doubt whether he has not 
 been sufficiently punished. 
 
 Twice over has he surrendered all he had in the world, 
 even to his dressing-case ; and the second time the value of 
 accumulated riches was under 601. 
 
 Six-and-twenty months has he been in confinement : ten 
 months imder circumstances of great misery and danger, and
 
 1825.] A PLEA FOR THEODORE HOOK. 285 
 
 the last sixteen months under circumstances of discredit and 
 disgrace. 
 
 For many, the best, years of his life lie has been prevented 
 following any business or providing in any other way for 
 present or future subsistence by the cruel occupation of 
 endeavouring to explain to those who, he says, have as 
 assiduously endeavoured not to understand. 
 
 He has lost a valuable office ; and with it all hopes of an 
 establishment in the line of life he liad adopted, and he is too 
 old to begin anew. 
 
 If he be a criminal, show me a criminal of his class who 
 has been more punished ! but if, as I believe the fact is, his 
 imprisonment is not, and cannot legally be, meant for punish- 
 ment, then, I ask you, have you a doubt that you have twice 
 over gotten all that he liad ? Have you an expectation that, 
 Ijy breaking his spirit and destroying his health by protracted 
 confinement,*he will become better able to discharge his deljt. 
 Look at other defaulters ; think of the sums they have 
 abused ! Have they pined in prison ? Have they been 
 deprived of the necessaries of life even down to a razor case ? 
 and why tliis savage virtue against ]\Ir. Hook alone ? I can 
 tell you ; like a blockhead (which many a man of talent is) he 
 7nixed himself with politics, and what between low people on 
 our side, wishing to curry favour with opposition, and high 
 people on our side, not wishing to be attacked for favouring 
 a person politically odious to their antagonists, he is visited 
 ■with a severity which, if he had not been suspected of being 
 a Tory writer, would never liave been dreamt of, and which, 
 if he had been an avowed Whig, would not have been 
 tolerated. 
 
 He interested me in his case before he ever was suspected 
 of writing a word of politics, and what he may have done in 
 that way has been without my knowledge, and knowing his 
 position, I should if I had known or suspected it anxiously have 
 dissuaded him from doing anything to mix himself in politics. 
 He neither asked my advice nor gave me any opportunity of 
 offering it, and I therefore speak without any personal pre- 
 judice when I say that wdiat he has been suspected of doing 
 has been done in general (I speak not of individual passages 
 or topics) with good intentions and with great aliility, and 
 .that he has been (thougli not always with the weapons we 
 CDuld liave wished emjdoyed for us) a strenuous and a power- 
 ful supporter of His Majesty's present Government; and this
 
 286 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. X, 
 
 is the cause, I will venture to assert, the sole cause, of liis 
 receiving from the hands of that Government a measure of 
 severity of which there is, I believe, no other instance. 
 
 If the Government mean to keep him still longer in 
 prison, I beg of you in mercy to say so, and to affix what time, 
 one, two, three, or four years is deemed necessary to his 
 expiation of his peculiar offences and his singular misfortune 
 — a certainty, though so cruel, would be less so to his spirits 
 and infinitely so to his pocket (he supports himself solely by 
 his pen) than the state of agitation and deferred hope in which 
 he is now perplexed. Follow the dictates of your own judg- 
 ment, but decide. If you are disposed to think he ought to be 
 enlarged, enlarge him in the name of God, and let not another 
 Easter pass over him in prison ; if you think he ought still 
 to be hept in gaol — pray say so. He will then know his fate, 
 and will bear it better, I hope, than you or I should probably 
 do in like circumstances. 
 
 Yours ever, 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 This appeal accomplished its purpose. It took some weeks 
 to complete the business, but in the month of May, Theodore 
 Hook was set free.* Mr. Croker's kindly services to him were 
 called into requisition more than once at a later period. 
 
 In the course of this year, Moore published liis 'Life of 
 Sheridan,' and a very warm controversy was immediately 
 stirred up over many passages in which the author of the 
 ' Irish Melodies ' had displayed a remarkable lack of discre- 
 tion, in reference alike to the dead and the living. It was 
 scarcely probable that the public estimation of Sheridan's 
 character would be improved by the revelations made by his 
 friend and biographer. His amours, liis debts, the miserable 
 expedients to which he was reduced to raise money, his utter 
 disregard of all the conditions which go to make up a well- 
 regulated, or even what the world would consider a decent, 
 life: all these failings were brought out into full relief by 
 
 * See Dean Hook's letter, su^ra, p. 261.
 
 1825.] OEOnGE IV. AND SHERIDAN. 287 
 
 Moore. One of his statements attracted particular attention 
 in the inner circles of society at that time. It was to the 
 effect that Sheridan had been allowed to lin<:,'cr in want for 
 weeks together, although his dreadful situation was well 
 known to tlie King, who, when Prince Eegent, was never tired 
 of associating with the wit. Some money, it apjieared, had 
 been sent to Sheridan, through a Mr. Vaughan, then known 
 as " Hat " Vaughan, and it was said to come from the King ; 
 but Moore affected to disbelieve this story. It woukl 
 be difficult to suppose, he pretended, "that so scanty and 
 reluctant a benefaction was the sole mark of attention 
 accorded by a gracious Prince and master to the last death- 
 bed wants of one of the most accomplished and faithful ser- 
 vants that royalty ever yet raised or ruined by its smiles." 
 
 This insinuation at the expense of the King was promptly 
 met and disposed of at the time in the Quarterly Bcvicw* 
 but it continued to cause a great deal of discussion in the 
 press and in private circles. In November, Mr. Croker was 
 sent for to dine with the King at Windsor, and he very soon 
 found that Moore's accusations were rankling deeply in His 
 Majesty's mind. What occurred at this interview was 
 placed upon record by Mr. Croker, and it is quite ob\dous, 
 from his preliminary statement, that the King intended it to 
 be made public at some future time. The record touches 
 upon many topics of greater interest and importance than 
 those which relate to Sheridan's affairs, and therefore, it is 
 here printed in its entirety. It wUl be observed that the 
 King once more treated his reported marriage with Mrs. 
 Pitzherbert as an idle story. The portion of tins curious 
 narrative which relates to Catholic Emancipation presents the 
 conduct of the King when Prince Eegent in a somewhat new 
 light ; and it seems to dispose in a very effectual manner of 
 
 * Vol. xxxi. pp. 588-591.
 
 288 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. X. 
 
 Moore's charge against George the Fourth of treating Sheridan 
 with a want of generosity. 
 
 From Mr. Crokcrs Note Book. 
 
 On the 25th November, 1825, I went by His Majesty's 
 invitation to dine and sleep at the Eoyal Lodge in Windsor 
 Park. His Majesty had intended to have shown me his 
 plantations and improvements made during the autumn, but 
 it snowed heavily in the night, and next morning the weather 
 was so exceedingly bad that there was no possibility of 
 stirring out, and His Majesty admitted me to his dressing- 
 room, and conversed \\dth me for a considerable time — indeed 
 all the morning. Mr. Moore's ' Life of Sheridan ' was lying 
 on the table, and in allusion to the variety of misstatements 
 made in that work with regard to His Majesty's conduct, he 
 took up the book to point out to me particularly some of 
 these errors. 
 
 After some desultory remarks of this kind on this or that 
 passage, he entered into a more extensive and regular liistory 
 of some circumstances of his political life, and seeing that I 
 listened with great interest to what he related, he guessed 
 the desire which certainly I should not have ventured to 
 express, and he handed me a sheet of paper, and successively 
 others, and permitted me to make notes of what he said, and 
 he even moderated the flow of his narration when he saw 
 that I had any difficulty in following him. These notes I 
 that evening and the next morning transcribed into the fol- 
 lowing statement, in which I have, as nearly as I was able, 
 preserved everything that fell from His Majesty in his own 
 words and order of statement, and I have occasionally under- 
 lined expressions to which he gave peculiar emphasis. Some 
 incidental topics which, however interesting and agreeably 
 narrated, did not appear necessary to the historical course of 
 the statement, I omitted to note at the time, and I have not 
 thought fit to supply them from my unassisted recollection. 
 Much, no doubt, that fell from his Majesty in so long a con- 
 versation I must, even mth the assistance of my notes, have 
 lost ; but I can be quite confident of not having written one 
 statement and hardly an expression which did not come 
 from his Majesty's lips. 
 
 His Majesty narrated, or I may almost say dictated, to me
 
 1825.] STATEMENT BY GEORGE THE FOURTH. 289 
 
 for some hours without interruption (except by a few inter- 
 locutory observations on my part and several anecdotical 
 episodes on his), and with a clearness, grace, and vivacity of 
 which my notes can supply but a very inadequate idea. The 
 qvx)tatioiis of the sentiments of the several persons mentioned 
 were generally enforced and illustrated by a slight degree of 
 mimicry of their voices and manner, while his Majesty's own 
 narration was at once fluent and precise in recollection, and 
 accurate in expression, to a degree which I never had before 
 witnessed in any similar statement, and for which, notwith- 
 standing my long acquaintance with his IMajesty's readiness 
 in conversation, I confess I was not entirely prepared. 
 
 Bex Loquitur. 
 
 I must begin by telling you some anecdotes of the first 
 Eegency question. 
 
 The quarrel between Mr. Burke and Sheridan was not what 
 Mr. Moore represents it to be ; it arose out of the celebrated 
 letter to Pitt which ]\Ir. Burke wrote for me, and which I 
 think one of the most beautiful and noble compositions that 
 ever was penned, but in the original draft there were some 
 passages of great violence. I showed the draft to Sheridan, 
 who made a few alterations in pencil, some of which I 
 adopted, and others I did not ; those that I adopted I wrote 
 in with my own hand, tlie others I erased. 
 
 I know not how Burke knew that Sheridan had thus 
 revised this work of which he was proud, and very justly ; 
 but he never forgave him. I believe that Burke guessed it 
 from the warmth with which, at a meeting at the Duke of 
 Portland's, Sheridan supported my amendments of tbe original 
 draft, and I even believe that they had some warm discussion 
 on that point, which was rendered more offensive to Burke by 
 Fox's agreeing with Sheridan. 
 
 Wlien my father's recovery put an end to this affliir, Burke 
 was so inveterate that he would not let it die away, and he 
 insisted that we ought to draw up a kind of manifesto to be 
 addressed to the King, to put his Majesty in possession of the 
 real conduct of the Queen and of the Ministers as contrasted 
 wnth that of me and my brother* and our friends. 
 
 At that period we had a kind of Cabinet, with whom I 
 
 * [The Duke of York.] 
 VOL. I. U
 
 290 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. X. 
 
 used to consult. They were the Dukes of York, Portland, 
 Devonshire, and Northumberland, Lord Guilford (that was 
 Lord North), Lord Stormont, Lords Moira and Fitzwil- 
 liam, and Charles Fox. Burke's proposition having been 
 communicated to us, the Duke of Portland summoned us for 
 a certain evening at nine o'clock to hear Burke's paper read. 
 We met at nine — no Burke ; ten, eleven — no Burke ; till, at 
 last, near twelve, he wrote to say that the paper was not 
 finished, and that with all his diligence it could not be done 
 that night, and he begged the meeting to adjourn till next 
 day ; which we did, to Carlton House at one o'clock ; but 
 before we broke up I proposed that we should consider, while 
 Burke was absent, the prudence of presenting any such paper 
 at all. 
 
 This I stated to be, in my opinion, a very doubtful policy, 
 as we certainly had great prejudices against us, that the 
 King's mind was in a very delicate state, and that if he had 
 anything like a relapse, the fault would be laid on us and our 
 paper. 
 
 Lord Stormont supported this view, even more decidedly 
 than I had advanced it, and expatiated on the danger to the 
 King ; but it was finally settled that we should meet next day 
 to hear Burke's paper, and that until we had heard it, it 
 would be premature to discuss it. 
 
 Accordingly we met next day, with the addition of Burke 
 and Sir Gilbert Elliot, who, at Burke's request, was admitted 
 to read the paper, which I believe he had copied out from 
 Burke's rough drafts. 
 
 The paper took two hours in reading, it was exceedingly 
 eloquent and violent. I have strong in my mind's eye the 
 effect it made on the audience. The Duke of Portland looked 
 more stupid than usual. [Here the King interjected, " Not 
 that he was at all as stupid as he looked — he had very good 
 sense."] He was really in a maze ! Lord North kept up a 
 perpetual noise between a cough and a growl ;* and Fox kept 
 digging his fingers into the corner of his eye, a trick he had 
 when anything perplexed him. 
 
 After it was read, there was a silence for some moments ; 
 
 * \_Note hy Mr. Croker. — Here the King acted all this, and actually 
 made himself look like the parties. So he did all along, and there were 
 a hundred little touches which showed how vividly he remembered what 
 he was relating.]
 
 1825.] STA TEMENT B Y GEOR OE THE FO UR 777. 291 
 
 at last Lord Stormont repeated what lie had said the night 
 before ; adding that he saw nothing in the temper and expres- 
 sions of the paper to remove the disinclination which he had 
 the niglit before avowed to any paper at all. The paper was 
 drawn up, he admitted, with great force and effect, but was, 
 he thought, for that very reason the less proper to be laid 
 before the King, who would be forced by it to one of two 
 alternatives (both, he thought, equally disastrous), viz., either 
 to take the Queen's part and to banish me and my brother 
 from his presence for ever, or else to separate himself puljlicly 
 from the Queen ! There would be, he said, no possible 
 medium. 
 
 Burke answered all this with his usual ability and ^iolence,\/ 
 and at last we were actually driven to divide upon it. Burke, 
 however, and one other person only, were for this perilous 
 proceeding — I and the rest were against it. Who do you 
 think of all our Cabinet was the person who divided with 
 Burke? why [laughing heartily] my brother, the Duke of 
 York. A fact, upon my honour — strange, considering his 
 subsequent conduct, you will say — but a fact ! 
 
 Out of deference to him and Burke, the negative upon the 
 paper was softened down to a statement that it was not to be 
 acted upon at jjrcsent, and it was delivered to me " en depot," 
 to be reserved for any occasion, if any such should occur, 
 when we might find ourselves driven to make use of it. 
 
 "VMien this meeting was over. Fox told Sheridan what had 
 passed, and described the paper as having, I remember the 
 words as Sheridan repeated them to me, " all Burke's bitter- 
 ness." He also told Sheridan that he quite approved the part 
 I had taken, and the manner in which I had conducted the 
 discussion, and that the Duke of Devonshire (as was natural 
 for his quiet good sense and easy temper) perfectly agreed in 
 the suppression of Burke's passionate invective. Sheridan 
 came to me with this statement of Fox's opinion, and his 
 (Fox's) desire that Sheridan might read the paper. He did 
 so in my presence — every now and then exclaiming, " fine, 
 very fine, mad, furious, admirable," and so on ; and when he 
 had done he gave it to me, saying that, if it were to get to the 
 public, people in future, instead of saying of anything violent 
 that it out-Hcrodcd Herod, would say that it out-Burked 
 Burhe ! 
 
 Tlie paper was then given into the custody of Jack Payne, 
 who at that time kept all my papers. 
 
 U 2
 
 292 THE CBOKER PAPERS. [Chap. X. 
 
 After some time, Sheridan came to me one day and begged 
 to read the paper again ; he was writing, he said, something 
 that would be extremely useful to us, and that he thought he 
 coidd pick something valuable out of the paper. I told him 
 carelessly enough, and not believing that he was writing (in 
 which I am sure I was right) that he might go to Jack Payne 
 and read the paper. 
 
 He, however, with an inaccuracy not unusual to him, poor 
 fellow, told Payne that he had my authority to take away the 
 paper, which he did. Of course he never wrote anything, 
 and when I heard accidentally that he had taken the paper, I 
 desired him to return it. This he postponed and delayed 
 year after year, on a thousand pretences, and at last, a couple 
 of years before his death, he fairly confessed that he had 
 either absolutely lost the paper, or that it was buried in what 
 he called the " chaos of his papers," which he had no hope of 
 being ever able to arrange. 
 
 This is the paper which Mr. Moore mentions in his ' Life 
 of Sheridan,' and which I must try to regain possession of; 
 I dare say that they will have made copies of it, and that it 
 will become public, which I should be sorry for, particularly 
 out of the respect I feel towards my mother's memory, who is 
 certainly not favourably represented in the paper ; but under 
 any circumstance Mrs. Sheridan's friends can have no right 
 to it, for it is mine, and, even if it had been fairly lent to him, 
 s ought to be returned to me. 
 
 "^ On the subject of my supposed marriage with Mrs. Fitz- 
 herbert, and the debate upon Mr. Rolle's observations, some 
 false statements have been made. When Pox mentioned it 
 to me, I contradicted the supposition at once, with "pooh," 
 " nonsense," " ridiculous," &c., upon which Pox, in the heat of 
 debate, and piqued by Ptolle, was induced, not merely to con- 
 tradict the report, which was right enough, but to go a little 
 further and to use some slighting expressions which, when 
 Mrs. Pitzherbert read them in the paper next morning, deeply 
 afflicted her, and made her furious against Pox. Mr. Moore 
 states that I applied to Mr. Grey to set the matter right, and 
 that when he refused, I said, " Then we must bring Sheridan 
 into play." There is not a word of truth in this. I had no 
 kind of communication with Mr. Grey on the subject, and 
 Sheridan's interference was, so far as I was concerned, per- 
 fectly accidental. 
 
 Calling that morning at Mrs. Pitzherbert's he found her in
 
 1825.] STATEMENT BY GEORGE THE FOURTn. 293 
 
 an agony of tears. Her beauty, her deep affliction affected 
 him ; he was also,- as he afterwards said, afraid that the great 
 power she had over me would be turned to make a breach 
 between me and Fox, against whom she was exasperated, and 
 he (Sheridan) therefore endeavoured to conciliate and console 
 her, and, amongst other topics, he assured her that Mr. Fox was 
 misreported, and that he (Sheridan) would take the earliest 
 opportunity of correcting any impression which might be 
 made to her prejudice, by saying in his place what he, as 
 well as Mr. Fox, and every one else must feel towards her. 
 
 He accordingly made that celebrated eulogium on Mrs. 
 Fitzherbert, in which, however, I never could discover, what 
 other folks fancied they found there, any confirmation of that 
 absurd story of my supposed marriage. I looked upon it as 
 gallantry to the lady, and as an effort to keep Fox and her on 
 good terms, which no doubt was my feeling also. 
 
 When the Whigs came into the Government after the death . 
 of Mr. Pitt, I, of course, saw a great deal of Mr. Fox, and was V 
 consulted by him on all public affairs ; indeed I may say that 
 I was the only person to whom he could unburthen his mind. 
 He had not even a private secretary* whom he could trust, 
 concerning which I will tell you a curious anecdote, which 
 perhaps you may know, for it got wind. 
 
 Fox had intended Adair for that office — he was a person, 
 in whom he had great confidence, as indeed he showed in 
 the Russian affairs, but he was prevented from appointing 
 Adair by a very singular circumstance. 
 
 Adair had married a French woman, with whom Andreossy, 
 when here as Buonaparte's ]\Iinister, intrigued. This, I sup- 
 pose, led to what I am going to tell you. 
 
 I happened to call one morning on the Duchess of Devonshire, . / 
 whom I found evidently discomposed and agitated. As I knew ^ 
 that she had pecuniary difficulties and a good deal of vexation 
 about her own affairs, I fancied that tliis was some trouble of 
 that nature, but I soon saw that it was something of a 
 different character. She exclaimed two or three times that 
 the most shocking, the most cruel thing had just happened to 
 her, and at last she told me that Mrs. Adair had been with 
 her, and had offered her a bribe ! — a bribe of 10,000/. down, 
 and as much more whenever she might want it — if she would 
 
 * \_Note by Mr. Croher. — His Majesty said private secretary ; I suspect 
 he meant Under-Secretary of State.]
 
 294 THE CHOKER PAPERS. [Chap. X. 
 
 comnmnicate the Cabinet secrets with which the French 
 thought she coukl not fail to he acquainted, through her 
 intimacy with all the leaders of the Government. She said 
 that she had dismissed the negotiatrix abruptly, and had 
 sent off instantly for Mr. Fox to tell him of the circum- 
 stance, which indeed seemed to overwhelm her with shame 
 and vexation. I, of course, could only say that she had 
 taken the best possible course in sending for Mr. Fox. 
 
 Mr. Fox was equally astonished and vexed at a discovery 
 which, besides its other effects, placed him in great personal 
 difficulty with respect to Adair. He could not think of 
 placing Mm in the station of confidence he had intended for 
 him, and yet how was he to excuse his not doing so ? He 
 could not clear himself without telling Adair not only that 
 his wife was a spy, but also that she was something worse. 
 He was obliged at last to tell Adair that an obstacle which he 
 could neither reveal nor overcome, but which did not affect 
 or alter Fox's personal regard for liim, prevented his appoint- 
 ment, and with this mysterious excuse Adair was obliged to 
 content himself till he was sent abroad. 
 
 This accident left Fox without one personal friend to whom 
 he could open himself, and contributed I dare say to increase 
 the confidence which existed between us. 
 
 Soon after the change of Government (perhaps six weeks). 
 Fox came to talk to me on their general position, and to con- 
 sult me as to the public measures of the new Administration. 
 
 We discussed the three principal points which pressed for 
 the earliest consideration, and I gave him my opinion on 
 each. 
 
 First, as to the Abolition of the Slave Trade, I said that the 
 King, my father, had a strong opinion of the impolicy and 
 inefficacy of that measure, and that I owned that I a good 
 deal agreed with His Majesty, and had never given it my sup- 
 port ; but that as it was a case of public interest in which 
 the Ministers were not only the responsible advisers, but 
 really perhaps the best judges, I hoped that this question 
 might, by a little moderation and prudent management, be 
 arranged to their satisfaction. 
 
 Second, as to an attempt to make a peace with France, I 
 knew the Ministers were pledged to it, and neither the Xi n g 
 nor I could possibly have any other objection to it than our 
 conviction that the attempt would fail. Fox replied that he 
 feared so too — that he had no hopes from Buonaparte [to
 
 1825.] STATEMENT BY GEORGE TEE FOUnrn. 295 
 
 whom he applied a very harsh term — indeed, he always hated 
 A him] ; but that it. was indispensable to make the exjjerimeut. 
 
 The third point was tlie Catholic Question. Upon that 1 
 was convinced that the King would not listen to any overture 
 whatsoever, that my own sentiments coincided with my 
 father's, but that, even if they had not, I should equally 
 have deprecated the stirring of a question which had already 
 once disturbed the King's mind, and might endanger liis life. 
 " You may call," I said, " his Majesty's sentiments what you 
 please, whether, as I think it is, a sense of duty ; or whether, 
 as others may term it, obstinacy, prejudice, bigotry — insanity 
 even — call it what you will, the feeling cannot be denied to 
 exist ; and, after all the calumny wliich you and I have 
 suffered in the former regency question, would it not be 
 madness on our part as well as a gross want of duty, to 
 sanction any proceeding wliich might renew the King's 
 malady ? The world would accuse me, and not unjustly I must \1 
 say according to appearances, of having sacrificed my father's 
 feelings in order to get the regency into my hands — possibly, 
 even the crown on my head. But even supj)osing the thing 
 to take a less lamentable turn, the best that could happen 
 would be that the ]\Iinisters would be turned out in a week." 
 
 All these topics I urged upon Fox, and I entreated him to 
 repeat them to the Cabinet, and to endeavour to persuade them, 
 for my sake, for the King's sake, and even for their own, to drop 
 all intention of moving this question — that as to this year, they 
 had quite excuse enough, as they were hardly warm in their 
 seats, but that even next year it could not be brought forward 
 with propriety or any hope of success ; and that, in fact, it 
 should be put off sine die, or at least during the King's life. 
 I was con\i.nced, I added, that whenever it should be pro- 
 posed to the King, the first result would be to break up the 
 Government. 
 
 Fox admitted tliat there was a great deal of weight in these 
 considerations, and told me that he would mention them to 
 the Cabinet that night. Next morning he called upon me in 
 high spirits, and said he had brought over the Cabinet to my 
 view of the question, but that there still remained the minor 
 difficulty of the mode in which the postponement was to be 
 brought before the public. I said I thought he had nothing to 
 do but to collect those who were considered as more particularly 
 the heads of the Catholic party, and explain to than the real 
 state of the case — the King's immovable resolution, my disin-
 
 296 THE CJROKEB PAPEBS. [Chap. X. 
 
 clinatiou, the certainty of breaking up the Government if 
 the question was persisted in, and then appeal to them 
 whether they would force on a question big with such disas- 
 trous consequences. 
 
 Fox shook his head. They were, he said, the proper argu- 
 ments, but it would not do that the Government should use 
 them. Who then ? I asked. Why you, he replied ; you have 
 really suggested them, ive adopt them on your suggestion, and 
 we think we have some right to claim the assistance of your 
 influence to make them go down with others. 
 
 To this I had no answer, and I consented, provided that 
 His Majesty, to whom I should mention my intentions, did 
 not object. 
 
 I accordingly wrote to the King that letter which Mr. 
 Moore says that Sheridan wrote for me; which is false — 
 I wTote it myself ! After I had written it, indeed, I showed 
 it to Sheridan as I also did to Fox. .Sheridan suggested the 
 alteration of a word or two, and of the turn of one sentence, 
 but these alterations were in no way substantial, and I have 
 to this hour my rough draft on which you would see these 
 alterations. The letter itseK was to state to the King the 
 advice I had given to Mr. Fox — its success, and my willing- 
 ness, though otherwise reluctant, to make the proposed com- 
 munication to the heads of the Catholic party, if it would at 
 all contribute to His Majesty's ease and comfort. 
 
 To tliis letter I received a very cold answer — very cold 
 indeed — expressing a great and general distaste to the ques- 
 tion, or any stu'ring of it. But as His Majesty did, not dis- 
 approve of my proposal (though it was plain he did not 
 like the thing in any shape) I determined to avail myself of 
 his silence, and to do him what I considered an essential 
 service, in spite of his teeth ! 
 
 Accordingly, I assembled in the bow room of my little red ^ 
 house in Pall Mall, the Duke of Bedford, who was going as 
 Lord Eieutenant to Ireland, Lord Moira, Lord Hutchinson, 
 and I think his brother Kit, the late Lord Ponsonby, Mr. 
 George Ponsonby, the Irish Chancellor, Mr. Grattan, and I 
 believe some others, and I stated to them the view of the 
 subject which I had already opened to Mr. Fox. 
 
 In this they all acquiesced ; and on this footing matters 
 stood till Mr. Fox's death, when I determined to retire from 
 the prominent situation which I occupied with the Ministers. 
 I was a kind of sleeping partner, but a sleeping partner who
 
 1825.] STATEMENT BY GEORGE THE FOURTH. 297 
 
 unluckily had a great deal of the business to do, and ulti- 
 mately much of the risk to run. I had no longer any friend 
 in the Government except Lord Holland, perhaps I ought to 
 add Lord Ellenborough. Lord Moira, to be sure, was still in 
 office, but he was dissatisfied, had little weight, and thought, 
 I believe justly, that he was not treated with confidence. 
 
 As to my own personal position, I foresaw that one or other 
 of two things would happen — either that I must submit to 
 the Grenvilles' nomination of the persons who were to come 
 in, and so connect myself subordinately with persons and a 
 party I did not like, or else place myself at once at the head 
 of the general party, lial)le to all its chances, accidents, and 
 variations. I did not like either alternative, and resolved to 
 retire as civilly as possible. I therefore wrote to Lord Gren- 
 ville to state that I should retire from any direct participation 
 in the management of affairs, but that I wished well to his 
 Majesty's existing Government, and as a proof of doing so I 
 made some suggestions as to the pending arrangements. This 
 letter of mine crossed, as I believe, one from Lord Grenville, 
 stating the arrangements which he had made, and with wliich 
 he stated that everybody concerned was satisfied. I, in reply, 
 expressed also my satisfaction, and begged that the sugges- 
 tions which I had made in my former letter might be con- 
 sidered as non avcnus. 
 
 [Here his Majesty told me something of a visit he made to the 
 King at Windsor on some occasion, but the note is so imper- 
 fect (having been accidentally rubbed and blotted, as well as 
 being originally short and straggling) that I do not venture to 
 make any use of it. The visit itself could hardly have occurred 
 about this period, as the Prince does not seem to have seen 
 the King between his two \dsits to the north.* — J. W. C] 
 
 I was at this time on a tour in the north, and I came to 
 town for the purpose of attending Fox!s funeral, but the King 
 sent me a message through Lord Grenville to forbid my 
 doing so. 
 
 I therefore returned to the north, and made a long round of 
 visits, and came late to town. 
 
 About the month of March in that year, Lauderdale, whom 
 I had not seen since Fox's death (indeed, he had been at 
 Paris) sent to offer to wait upon me ; I appointed him the 
 next morning at eight o'clock. He came and breakfasted 
 
 • [October, 1806.]
 
 298 ■ TEE CROEER PAPERS. [Chap. X. 
 
 with me ; of course we talked about his late negotiations and 
 generally on public offairs. At last, he said that he did not 
 much like that hill. " ^Vliat biU ? " I asked. " Wliy," he 
 said, " the alteration in the Mutiny Bill, which, after all, will 
 not satisfy the Cathohcs, though it cannot but embarrass the 
 Ministers, for I hear that the bishops and the King's friends 
 will all come down to oppose it." 
 
 I, who had never before heard a syllable of the matter, 
 expressed, as I well might, the greatest surprise at this. I 
 said it was directly contrary to the pledge which I was autho- 
 rised to give to the King, and I expressed my indignation at 
 the scandal that would be created, if the King should be 
 obliged to send down Ms personal friends to vote against his 
 Ministers. " Depend upon it," I told him, " if they thus 
 break faith with his Majesty and me they will not be 
 Ministers a week." 
 
 Lauderdale undertook to see the Ministers that forenoon, 
 and requested to see me again in the course of the day ; but, 
 " as the Grenvilles are already inclined to be jealous/' he wished 
 to avoid coming to Carlton House, and begged that I would 
 meet him at the Duke of York's at one o'clock. 
 
 I accordingly went at one to my brother's (who, of course, 
 was absent ; he knew nothing of my conversation with Lauder- 
 dale, and was indeed_fixed against the question in any shape or 
 way). 
 
 Lauderdale came and told me that he had seen Grenville 
 and Grey, that they told him that all was right and smooth, 
 that Grey had seen the ELing, and had his Majesty's consent 
 to the bill ; but I don't know how it is, continued Lauder- 
 dale, I do not like the state of the affair ; as to the Ministers 
 themselves, they are so pig-hcadcd (that was his very phrase) 
 that there is no managing them. 
 
 All this surprised and a Little alarmed me, and I desired 
 Lauderdale to come to me with Lord Holland and Lord Grey 
 at eight o'clock next morning — Lauderdale and Lord Holland 
 came at eight. Lord Grey not till nine. 
 
 When he came I stated how contrary this measure was to 
 the pledge which I had conveyed to the King. Lord Grey, 
 \in his high and mighty way, was proceeding to make light 
 of aU this, and to pooh-pooh his Majesty's objections. I in- 
 terrupted him, and said that I did not want to hear his 
 reasons, which could have no effect with me, after a promise 
 made ; that I wished, on the other hand, to make him aware
 
 1825.] STATEMENT BY GEORGE THE FOURTH. 299 
 
 of ray fixed opinions. I appealed to Lord Holland that these 
 opinions were not new, that the course I had pursued had had 
 not merely the sanction of Mr. Fox, but was taken by his 
 advice and request ; that I was convinced that they were 
 utterly mistaken if they thought the King indifferent to 
 the question, and equally so if they thought his opposition 
 was to be disregarded ; that I was satisfied that they would 
 be turned out, and that I must state distinctly that if they 
 were, they were not to expect that I was to follow them into 
 opposition to my father's and to my own opinion ; that I 
 would do no such thing ; and that, therefore, I thought their 
 first and indeed only endeavour now should be to prevent 
 a rupture, and that, I thought, could only be accomplished 
 by respecting the King's feelings. 
 
 This declaration on my part seemed to startle Lord Grey, 
 who undertook to see Lord Grenville and convey my senti- 
 ments to him. 
 
 That evening I had intended to go to the play, and had 
 ordered an early dinner with Tyrwhitt and Blomfield. 
 
 We dined in the little room on the left hand as you enter 
 Carlton House, where you have sometimes dined with me, 
 and during dinner I saw the gate open and a carriage drive 
 in. I knew the black and white liveries, and said, " Here's 
 Moira coming to join us, lay a cover for him." 
 
 In came Moira and Erskine ; I invited them to sit down, and 
 take share of my dinner, and then come with me to the play. 
 
 Moira said no, that the Cabinet were to dine with him 
 that day, and that he and Erskine had come to speak to 
 me about some very particular business before they met the 
 Cabinet ; upon this Tyrwhitt and Blomfield walked out into 
 the hall with their napkins in their hands, and Moira began 
 by congratulating me on the good service I had done — tliat 
 Grey had been in to the King — that the bill was to l^e with- 
 drawn, and that all was settled on the footing wliich I had 
 recommended. 
 
 Erskine repeated the same story in great glee and highly 
 delighted. He expatiated on the ruin that must have befallen 
 the country if this lucky conciliation had not been accom- 
 plished. It was amusing, I remember, to hear him describing . 
 the national calamitij wliich would have inevitably followed y 
 a rupture, it being quite evident that the national calamity 
 which he deprecated was no other than his ceasing to be 
 Lord Chancellor !
 
 300 THE CROEER PAPERS. [Chap. X. 
 
 They left me to go to the Cabinet dinner, and Moira begged 
 leave to call on me in the morning to enter with me into the 
 details of what had passed. I appointed him at seven o'clock 
 next morning. 
 
 Accordingly next day at seven he came. I was in bed in 
 that great bedchamber which I had on the lower floor at 
 Carlton House. When he came in he made no great haste to 
 commence his history. I soon observed that he was uneasy ; 
 he went over to the chimney and rearranged the cards, and 
 handled the china which was on it ; in short, it was clear that 
 he had something to say which he did not like to begin 
 upon. 
 
 At last, he told me that the Cabinet had sat at his house 
 till three o'clock tliat morning ; that they had all signed a 
 paper, to be presented to the King, saying that in obedience 
 to his Majesty's scruples the bill was withdrawn, but that the 
 consequence would be that the Catholic question would be 
 brought forward, and in that case they must, in consistency 
 with their declared opinions, support it. 
 
 " Then," said I, " you are out ; and have you signed it ? " 
 
 " Why," replied he, " I certainly do not approve it, and I did 
 all I could to prevent their doing so. I think it both foolish 
 and wrong, but I was persuaded to add my name, by this 
 consideration that it would have been' considered dishonour- 
 able to have separated myself from them at the moment they 
 were going out." 
 
 I said that I could see no such thing, when they were going 
 out on a point on which I differed from them, and that I 
 must own that I thought it tasted a little of the jwtato that 
 he should sign a paper which he disapproved of, with no 
 better reason for doing so than that the evils which he attri- 
 buted to it were likely to be realised ; however, the thing was 
 done, and I could only repeat that, as I was no party to it, so 
 neither should I be to the consequences of it. 
 
 All this while, the investigation about the Princess had 
 been lingering on without coming to a conclusion, in spite of 
 all I could do to have a decision one way or the other, and 
 the attempts of Moira, Erskine, and Ellenborough to get the 
 Cabinet to dispose of the matter. However, the matter was 
 now ripe for the final decision, but the very day after they 
 had sent their papers to the King, they resolved to throw on 
 their successors, for they saw that they were gone, the diffi- 
 culty of that case.
 
 1825.] STATEMENT BT GEOROE THE FOUBTII. 301 
 
 Mr. Perceval now saw the King, and received his com- 
 mands for a new Ministry, but he made the reception of the 
 Princess a sine qua, non of his undertaking the negotiations. 
 The King was obliged to acquiesce, and his acquiescence was 
 communicated to me. I thought it rather hard that while I 
 was doing all I could to keep the King easy, and had decided 
 not to oppose his new Government, that my peace and honour 
 were to be the first sacrifice to that new Adminstration. I 
 therefore requested an audience of the King, which was 
 appointed for the next day at Buckingham House at ten 
 o'clock. His Majesty came to me out of my mother's 
 dressing-room, he was a good deal flurried, and began in 
 a way that showed that he would not suffer himself to be 
 interrupted. 
 
 He began upon the Catholic question and the conduct of 
 the late Ministers. He reminded me of the letter I had 
 written him, of my interview with the Ministers, and that 
 with the Catholic leaders in Pall Mall, and finally of my 
 pledge that the question should not be pressed upon him, and 
 that if the Ministers were to go out on it, or any part of it, 
 that I was not to follow them into opposition. He said that 
 if Mr. Fox had lived, this, he was sure, never could have hap- 
 pened. I must here observe that my father was perfectly 
 satisfied, and was pleased, I may say, with Mr. Pox, in all 
 their intercourse after lie came into office. 
 
 I got an opportunity of just saying that I would keep my 
 pledge, and that 1 would not go into opposition. His Majesty 
 was greatly struck ; he took me in his arms, said I was a good 
 son, and a man of honour; that we had had enemies who 
 kept us asunder ; that they were, he foimd, more his enemies 
 even than mine, but that this conduct on my part wiped 
 away all past misunderstandings, and established us on that 
 footing of confidence and affection which was natural to both 
 of us. 
 
 While he was going on in this way I interposed to say that 
 I had heard that he was to see the Princess. 
 
 He replied, hastily, "Yes, 1 have seen that infamous 
 woman, but what could 1 do ? 1 consulted Lord Hawksljury 
 what 1 was to do in the circumstances in which the ]\linisters 
 had placed me. He sent ]\lr. Perceval to me. Mr. Perceval 
 stated that the first step must be the reception of the Princess ; 
 I answered," continued His Majesty, " that it was a cruel 
 alternative, that I had early reason to be dissatified with the
 
 THE CROKEB PAPERS. [Chap. X. 
 
 Princess, that she was a firebrand in the family, and that 
 besides she had a disposition to be, the thing I most hated in 
 the world, a female politician." 
 
 Mr. Perceval, however, was steady. He told me plainly 
 that without this point there would be no adminstration. 
 My situation was in the last degree perplexing— on one 
 side the Catholic question, on the other side the vain cere- 
 mony of a Court reception — the latter, disagreeable as it was, 
 I thought it my duty to adopt as the less of two evils. I 
 told Mr. Perceval, therefore, that I woTild receive her for 
 form's sake any public day, but that I should forbid the 
 Queen and my daughters to have any intercourse whatsoever 
 with her except on that one occasion, " and now," he said, 
 " go up to your mother, and see if she does not confirm what 
 I have told you." 
 
 I went accordingly to the Queen, and found that every- 
 thing had passed just as his Majesty had stated it, and she 
 repeated to me her resolution that neither herself nor my 
 sisters should ever hold any manner of communication with 
 the Princess, except the single reception at the Drawing- 
 room. 
 
 And this promise their Majesties religiously kept, for 
 although the Duchess of Brunswick contrived on two occa- 
 sions to get her into the house, the King would not speak to 
 her, and%oth times sent to apprise me of the circumstance, 
 that no rumour might lead me for a moment "to believe that 
 he had forgotten his engagement to me. 
 
 A few days after this, Moira and MacMahon came to report 
 to me that Mr. Tierney was taking great freedoms with my 
 name, and that he had in terms accused me of hctraying the 
 late Government, and of having sold myself to Mr. Perceval, 
 and that the Princess was to be sent off. Upon this I thought 
 it due to myself to write a letter to Moira, which I begged of 
 him to show to every member of the late Cabinet. Mr. 
 Tierney had not been of the Cabinet, and I certainly did not 
 mean to offer him any explanation. 
 
 This is the letter which Mr. Moore says Sheridan wrote for 
 me. Mr. Sheridan never saw it. I wrote it with my own 
 hands, and I have the rough draft which I can show you. 
 
 This letter states that I could not go into opposition as the 
 Ministers had broken the pledge, that I respected several of 
 them, and that I had a strong individual friendship for 
 some, &c., &c.
 
 1825.] STA TEMENT B Y OEOR GE THE FO UR TH. 303 
 
 ' Mr. Moore says that he read this letter, but was not 
 allowed to take a copy. Now Moira states to me that he 
 does not believe that he ever showed the letter to Moore. 
 Indeed, it seems to me extraordinary conduct on his part if 
 he did. I therefore do not believe it, and must think he has 
 had his information in some other way. 
 
 With regard to Mr. Moore himself, he got acquainted with 
 me through Lord Moira and the Harringtons. , 
 
 The Harringtons have a passion for tea drinking. Whether y 
 it be taste or insanity I cannot say, but the drinking of tea in 
 that house was most extraordinary. It began naturally 
 enough at breakfast, but it extended very w?maturally through 
 the whole day and night. I have seen them drink tea just 
 before dinner, I have even seen them drink tea after supper, 
 and the whole family, old and young, were possessed with this 
 slipslop propensity. 
 
 A consequence of this system was that they never could 
 find tea enough abroad, and that the old lady used to spend her 
 evenings at home and at tea, and it was a custom that, come 
 qui voudrait to her evening parties, whatever else they 
 might or might not find, they were at least sure of tea. 
 
 Sometimes in spring they opened the doors into St. James's 
 Gardens, and made a little kind of alfresco of it, and after 
 the opera Lady Harrington was very glad to have the young 
 men about town drop in to amuse her daughters. In such a 
 society as this Mr. Moore was very welcome ; he talked small 
 talk, and sang little madrigals and love songs, and made him- 
 self very agreeable. 
 
 I used to go sometimes to Lady Harrington's, and there I 
 saw him, but he had also some special acquaintance with 
 Moira, and had been recommended as a countryman to 
 MacMahon, who took a good deal of notice of him, and was 
 anxious that / should take some notice of him also. I shall 
 here only say that the return he made was to libel both of us, 
 for immediately after tliis change of Government, MacMahon 
 observed some things in the newspapers which he had traced 
 to his guardian [quondam ?] friend Moore, who, I know not 
 why,* chose to take a great interest in the Catholic question. 
 Afterwards it became worse, and he wrote that series of libels 
 called the ' Penny Post Bag,' in which he introduced in the 
 
 * [It is odd, but certain, that the King did not know, or, at least, did 
 not recollect, that Moore was himself a Komau Catholic. — J. W. C]
 
 THE CROEER PAPERS. [Chap. X. 
 
 ost ungentlemanlike, and, I will even say, unmanly way, 
 the names of Lady Hertford and other ladies. 
 
 While he was employed in this way, MacMahon, indignant 
 at his duplicity and ingratitude, told Moira of it. (I forgot 
 to say that we had amongst us got him a place.*) Moira, 
 equally indignant, sent for him, and began to reproach him 
 with this- scandalous conduct. Moore swore to him, as Moira 
 told me, that he had not written a line of these libels, and 
 that he was too much indebted to him, to MacMahon, and to 
 me to be guilty of any ill-natured observations on us, much 
 less such atrocious libels. I believe he persuaded Moira — I 
 knew little of the man or his libels, and took the thing as 
 they represented it to me ; but noiv, I am told, that he avows 
 all those things that he then swore were not his. 
 
 When I withdrew myself from the opposition, Sheridan 
 certainly became less forward in that party, but not solely 
 out of any deference to me ; he had been on bad terms with 
 them from the very formation of their Government, and had 
 increased their ill-humour towards him by those sentiments, 
 which he afterwards condensed into the celebrated joke that 
 he had known men knock their heads against walls by acci- 
 dent, but that these Ministers were the first persons he ever 
 had heard of who huilt the wall to knock their heads agamst. 
 Moreover, Lord Grey and Mr. Whitbread were become the 
 leaders of the party, and he did not like either ; of Mr. WMt- 
 bread he had an actual hatred ; even before Drury Lane 
 affairs had brought them into almost personal conflicts. He 
 therefore naturally, and for every reason, disapproved of Mr. 
 Whitbread's taking up the cause of the Princess, and they 
 had warm words about it ; and Sheridan always thought that 
 Whitbread wished afterwards to keep him down, and above 
 all out of Parliament, lest he should interfere with the 
 scheme of ambition which he had begun to build on the 
 Princess. I remember Sheridan's telling me with great satis- 
 faction that Whitbread having alluded to Sir John Douglas 
 in some injurious way, Sir John had required an explanation 
 which Whitbread thought fit to make to tliis officer, who 
 was supposed to be a very determined man, and whose con- 
 duct in the breach of Acre under Sir Sidney Smith has gained 
 him a reputation for courage which Whitbread knew was not 
 to be trifled with. 
 
 * [This was the office at the Bermudas, which Moore filled by deputy.]
 
 1825.] STATEMENT BY GEORGE TEE FOURTH. 
 
 I don't like mentioning such things, but I must now tell 
 you in confidence that all through our intercourse I had 
 aided Sheridan to an enormous amount. I can venture to 
 say that he has had above 20,000/. from me. I gave 1000/. 
 to him the day before he failed. 
 
 I need not tell you all the circumstances of the last regency 
 question, nor the motives tliat made me keep my father's 
 jMinisters. You knew it all at the time as well as any one. 
 In fact, there was little or nothing, either first or last, that 
 was not pretty puljlicly known, and I believed printed ; at 
 least stated in Parliament. But you recollect the strange 
 figure Sheridan made in the del^ate when it appeared that he 
 liad concealed from his party the fact that my household were 
 Teady to resign. This completed the coolness, I might say 
 breach, between them, though he still affected to belong to 
 them. 
 
 At last the Parliament was dissolved in, I think, 1812 * or 
 1813, and Sheridan was left without a seat, unless he could 
 get once more returned for AYestminster, which there was no 
 chance of, unless he could have the support of the Govern- 
 ment. When he mentioned this to me, I saw at once the 
 difficulty of applying the Government interest to the success 
 of a person who had held the principles which Slieridan had 
 formerly professed ; but as I knew that he was anything but 
 a Jacobin or democrat, and tliat in general he agreed in my 
 politics, I thought that if he professed generally Mr. Fox's 
 principles, and abstained from pledging himself to the new 
 questions of the day, of which he thought as I did, he might 
 keep most of his old friends ; and that friends of the Govern- 
 ment might, without inconsistency, prefer him to those who 
 were going great lengths to which it %vas notorious that Mr. 
 Sheridan was really adverse, and would give him their second 
 votes. In truth, I saw no objection to Sheridan and ]\Ioira's both 
 coming into office, and was desirous that they should do so. 
 
 On the subject of the Westminster election I desired 
 Sheridan to see Arbuthnot, who was prepared to give him all 
 the assistance he could on the fair grounds that I had stated. 
 But Sheridan's natural indolence and procrastination, added 
 perhaps to some feeling that he might risk his popularity, 
 prevented his taking any decisive step. He also had some 
 hopes of Stafford, but there he failed at last, and found him- 
 
 * [It was in 1812.] 
 VOL. I. X
 
 THE CEOKER PAPERS. [Chap. X, 
 
 'self, as I had feared, out of Parliament, without any chance of 
 getting in. 
 
 He came to explain to me his failure at Stafford,* of which 
 he had laid all the blame upon Whitbread, of whom he spoke 
 with perfect fury, and called him, I well recollect, a scoundrel ! 
 He said that Whitbread was already building a scheme of 
 ambition on the Princess ; that he was afraid of Sheridan in 
 Parliament on that point ; and had determined to keep him 
 out. This induced him, Sheridan said, to refuse to pay him 
 2000/. which Sheridan had a clear right to, and, as he told 
 me the story, I thought he had. 
 
 Some time after this, just before Moira went to India, f he 
 came to me and said that it was a pity that poor Sheridan at 
 the close of such a life as his had been, should be out of 
 Parliament. 
 
 I told him that Sheridan's own indolence and indecision, 
 and his being neither on one side nor the other, were the 
 causes of his being thus left out, but that I had always been 
 ready, and was still, to do all that I could to bring him into 
 Parliament ; and that, without exacting any dependence on 
 one or any allegiance to the Ministers. 
 
 Moira said that he so understood my intentions, or he 
 should not now have approached me with the proposition he 
 had to make, which certainly went rather to place Sheridan 
 again in opposition. 
 
 The Duke of Norfolk had a seat to dispose of, for which he 
 expected 4000/., but he consented, as he called it, to subscribe 
 1000/. towards bringing Sheridan into Parliament ; or, in 
 other words, to accept from Sheridan 3000/. for the seat. As 
 even the payment of this sum was not to leave Sheridan per- 
 fectly independent, the Duke expecting that he should vote 
 with him, I did not consider the offer quite so noble as 
 the offer of subscribing 1000/. towards bringing Sheridan in 
 seemed to affect to be ; but I nevertheless told Moira that I 
 should find some way to get 3000/., and that Sheridan should 
 have it. 
 
 This affair, however, did not proceed, from I forget Avhat 
 misunderstanding. Sheridan, however, soon came with a 
 new plan ; he had found, he said, a young gentleman who 
 had bought a seat with a right of vacating for another,| and 
 
 * [In October 1812.] 
 
 t [Lord Moira was appointed Governor-General, December 18th, 1812.] 
 
 % [Mr. AttersoU ; tbe borough was Wootton Bassett.] 
 
 I 
 I
 
 1825.] STATEMENT BY GEORGE THE FOURTH. 
 
 that he had settled with this gentleman (whose name he tul f 
 us, though I forget) to be elected in his room on payment 
 the 3006/. 
 
 It happened that Moira had 3000/. of MacMahon's in his 
 liand as a trustee, and it was agreed that this should be 
 advanced to Sheridan, and that Moira and I sliould be re- 
 sponsible for it, and in the event I had, as might have been 
 expected, to pay the whole sum. 
 
 ]^ot that we advanced the sum to Sheridan himself; we 
 knew him too well for that ; but the money was lodged in 
 the hands C)f ]\Ir. Cocker, a respectable solicitor named by 
 Sheridan, who was to pay it over to the young man in (pies- 
 tion when the transfer of the seat should be made. Sheridan 
 took a world of trouble to convince MacMahon that all this 
 transaction was bond fide. The day before he was to go, he 
 called and took leave of MacMahon, saying he was going to 
 set out early next morning. Late that evening he wrote a 
 note to ]\Iac]\Ialion to say that he had forgotten to say some- 
 thing to him, and that as he was to set out at nine next day, 
 he would call in Pall Mall at eight, and begged to have some 
 breakfast. ]\IacMahon laughed at the notion of Sheridan's 
 calling on hun at eight ; but he came. What he had to say 
 to him I forget, but it ended in urging jMacMahon to deposit 
 the money with Mr. Cocker, which MacMahon promised 
 should be done. At last Sheridan said " Come, it is time to be 
 off My carriage is at the door, and Mr. (whatever his name 
 was) is waiting for me." 
 
 I do not know whether by invitation from Sheridan or 
 from some lurking suspicion of his own, but MacMahon 
 walked up with Mm to where he lived, George Street or 
 Savile Row, or that neighbourhood ; where, to be sure, there 
 was a travelling carriage at the door, and servants packing it. 
 Sheridan asked where the horses were. The servants said 
 they were put up till he was ready. " Very well," said he, 
 
 " put them to as soon as Mr. arrives." But Sheridan was 
 
 quite on the fidget. MacMahon went into the house, and 
 found breakfast laid, and after a little, Sheridan still very 
 
 fussy ; a message came from Mr. to say that he was 
 
 detained a few minutes, but would be with Mm in a quarter 
 of an hour. Then appeared Mrs. Sheridan, and MacMahon 
 feeling he was de imp, took his leave, and left the carriage at 
 the door ready to set off when Mr. should arrive. 
 
 The money, of course, was deposited, and he expected that 
 
 X 2
 
 308 TEE CBOKEB PAPERS. [Chap. X. 
 
 Sheridan, as lie promised, would write us an account of liis 
 reception and his success. The borough, I think, was in Wilt- 
 shire, and about eighty or ninety miles from town. Three days 
 after I was on horseback in Oxford Eoad, and I thought I saw 
 Sheridan at a distance. The person, whoever he was, tm-ned 
 down into Poland Street, or one of those streets, as if to avoid 
 me. 
 
 AVhen I came home I sent for MacMahon, and asked him 
 if he had heard of Sheridan. "No," said MacMahon, "not 
 since I saw him off," for he had seen him so nearly off that he 
 looked on it as the same thing. 
 
 " Damn me," I said, " if I believe he is gone ! " " Not 
 gone ? " " No. I believe I saw him to-day in town." " Im- 
 possible ! " "I will not be too confident, but I am almost 
 sure that I saw him in Oxford Eoad this evening." 
 
 MacMahon was thunderstruck. Next morning, however, 
 came a note to him from Sheridan to say that he was still in 
 town, and would come to explain why, and soon after another 
 note to say that he was coming immediately. 
 
 He was this time as good as liis word — he came ; laid all 
 
 the blame on the man, Mr. , whom however, he only 
 
 accused of a mistake. He had gone to a coffee house 
 when Sheridan had written to his lodgings, and the note of 
 appointment followed him to liis lodgings when he had come 
 back to the coffee house. Sheridan, on the other hand, 
 having written the note which was to say he was waiting for 
 him, thought he might as well look after some business which 
 
 he had, so he walked out, leaving word that if Mr. came 
 
 or sent an answer, it was to be brought to him at Brooks's, 
 or at Drury Lane. If he ever wrote such a note at all, he 
 took good care never to receive any answer ; " but," he con- 
 tinued to MacMahon, " all these makntcndus are rectified, and 
 we are to set out to-morrow at the dawn of day." 
 
 Next day, or the day after, a new note from Sheridan; 
 sorry to say that the negotiations had failed, but he had the 
 pleasure to assure us that a still more satisfactory arrange- 
 ment was on foot. 
 
 IMacMahon, however, now became seriously alarmed about 
 the money, and he wrote to Mr. Cocker to say that the plan 
 for which the money had been advanced was at an end, and 
 he desired that it might be returned. 
 
 Cocker answered that this question of a seat in Parliament 
 was quite new to him ; that Mr. Sheridan when he desired 
 him to receive the money never hinted at any such object,
 
 1825.] STATEMENT BY GEOUGE THE FOURTU. 309 
 
 that it was paid to him on Mr. Sheridan's account, and that 
 he had disposed of it according to Mr. Sheridan's directions ; 
 viz., to pay certain pressing debts, and particularly a debt 
 to himself, Cocker, Avliich he was obliged to press j\Ir. 
 Sheridan for, and which Mr. Sheridan directed him to take 
 out of the sum so lodged. 
 
 I was, as I told you, obliged to repay this money, Init I 
 never saw Sheridan (to speak to) after ; not that it was much 
 worse in principle than other things of his, nor that I had given 
 orders to exclude him, but it was felt by Sheridan himself to 
 be so gross a violation of confidence — such a want of respect 
 and such a series of lies and fraud, that he did not venture to 
 approach me, and, in fact, he never came near me again. 
 
 He, however, came to MacMahon, and again endeavoured 
 to lay all the l.)lame on Wliitbread, who, he said, had got him 
 into all the difficulty; first, by refusing to pay him his 2000/., 
 and afterwards by paying it upon a hard condition which he 
 forced upon Sheridan. " In sliort," said Sheridan, throwing 
 off the air of shame and contrition with which he began the 
 conversation, and taking up a kind of theatrical tone and 
 manner ; " in short," said he, " I went to see that scoundrel 
 Whitbread, and it was like the scene of Peachum and Lockit. 
 I told liim that I came to tell him that I did not want his 
 assistance, that I retracted the intreaties which my necessities 
 had obliged me to make to him, that I could wait for the 
 2000/. which he had refused to let me have to get into Par- 
 liament, for that I had got 3000/. without being under any 
 obligation to hira, and that I should be in Parliament next 
 week. ' My dear Sheridan,' replied Whitbread, ' it is true that 
 I would not give you 2000/. to get into Parliament, and in 
 your circumstances I am sure I acted the part of a true 
 friend, but did I ever refuse you 2000/. to stay out of Par- 
 liament ? ' In short, he paid me my 2000/. on condition I 
 should not come in, and when I came to ask for the 3000/. 
 which you, my dear friend, had advanced, for the purpose of 
 returning it to you I found that that fellow Cocker had chosen 
 to apply it to his own debt, and that it was not forthcoming." 
 
 MacMahon listened to all this, but with no good-will to- 
 wards Sheridan, and came immediately to report it to me, 
 but after that Sheridan never came near either of us. 
 
 I sometimes, however, heard of him, and I once saw him 
 by accident, as I shall tell you presently. He now took io 
 live in a very low and obscure way, and all he looked for in 
 the company he kept was brandy and water. He lived a 
 
 /
 
 310 THE CROKEB PAPERS. [Chap, X. 
 
 good deal with some low acquaintance lie had made — a 
 harness-maker ; I forget his name, but he had a house near 
 Leatherhead. In that neighbourhood I saw him for the last 
 time, on the 17th August, 1815.* I know the day from this 
 circumstance, that I had gone to pay my brother a visit at 
 Oatlands on his birthday, and next day as I Avas crossing over 
 to Brighton, I saw in the road near Leatherhead old Sheridan 
 coming along the pathway. I see him now in the black 
 stockings and blue coat with metal buttons. I said to 
 Blomfield, " There is Sheridan ; " but, as I spoke, he turned off 
 into a lane when we were within about thirty yards of him, 
 and walked off without looking behind him. That was the 
 last time I ever saw Sheridan, nor did I hear of or from him 
 for some months, but one morning MacMahon came up to my 
 room, and after a little hesitation and apology for speaking 
 to me about a person who had lately swindled me and liim so 
 shamelessly, he told me that ]\Ir. A^'aughan, Hat Vaughan 
 they used to call him, had called to say that Sheridan was 
 dangerously ill, and really in great distress and want. I 
 think no one who ever knew me Avill doubt that I imme- 
 diately said that his illness and want made me forget his 
 faults, and that he must be taken care of, and that any money 
 that was necessary I desired he would immediately advance. 
 He asked me to name a sum, as a general order of that nature 
 was not one on which he would venture to act, and whether 
 / named or he suggested 500/. I do not remember ; but I do 
 rememl)er that the 500/. was to be advanced at once to Mr. 
 Vaughan, and that he was to be told that when that was gone 
 he should have more. I set no limit to the sum, nor did I say 
 nor hear a word about the mode in which it was to be applied, 
 except only that I desired that it should not appear to come 
 from me. 
 
 I was induced to this reserve by several reasons. I thought 
 that Sheridan's debts were, as the French say, " la mer a boire," 
 and unless I was prepared to drink the sea, I had better not 
 be known to interfere, as I should only have brought more 
 pressing embarrassments on him ; but I will also confess that 
 I did not know how ill he was, and after the gross fraud he 
 had so lately practised upon me, I was not inclined to forgive 
 and forget so suddenly, and without any colour of apology or 
 explanation ; for the pretended explanation to MacMahon 
 was more disrespectful and offensive to me than the original 
 
 * [He died July 7th, 181 G.]
 
 1825.] STATEMENT BY GEORGE THE FOURTH. 311 
 
 transaction, for he had before told me v:hy Whitbread wishetl 
 to keep him out of Parliament, namely, lest he should serve 
 me in the object nearest my heart, and yet he had suffered 
 Wliitbread to bribe him out of my ser\dce with his own 
 money, and had then swindled me out of mine. 
 
 And, finally, there is not only bad taste but inconvenience 
 in letting it be known what pecuniary favours a person in my 
 situation confers, and I therefore, on a consideration of all 
 these reasons, forbid my name being mentioned at present, 
 but I repeated my directions that he should want for nothing 
 that money could procure him. 
 
 MaclMahon went down to ]\Ir. Yaughan's and told him 
 Avliat I had said, and that he had my directions to place 500/. 
 in his hands. ]\Ir. Vaughan, with some expression of surprise, 
 declared that no such sum was wanted at present, and it was 
 not without some pressing that he took 200/., and said that if 
 he found it insufficient he would return for more. He did 
 come back, but not for more ; for he told MacMahon that he 
 had spent only 130/. or 140/., and he gave the most appal- 
 ling account of the misery which he had relieved with it. 
 
 He said that he found him and Mrs. Sheridan both in their 
 beds, both apparently dying and both starving. It is stated 
 in Mr. Moore's book that Mrs. Sheridan attended her husband 
 in his last illness. It is not true ; she was too ill to leave 
 her own bed, and M'as, in fact, already suffering from the 
 disease (cancer of the womb) of which she died in a couple 
 of years after. They had hardly a servant left. ]\Irs. 
 Sheridan's maid she was about to send away, but they could 
 not collect a guinea or two to pay the woman her wages. 
 
 When he entered the house he found all the reception 
 rooms bare, and the whole house in a state of fdtli and stench 
 that was quite intolerable. Sheridan himself he found in a 
 truckle bed in a garret, with a coarse blue and red coverlid, 
 such as one sees used as horsecloths, over him ; out of this 
 bed he had not moved for a week, not even for the occasions 
 of nature, and in this state the unhappy man had been 
 allowed to wallow, nor could Vaughan discover that any one 
 had taken any notice of him, except one old female friend — 
 whose name I hardly know whether I am authorised to 
 repeat — Lady Bessborough, who sent 20/. Some ice and 
 currant water were sent from Holland House — an odd con- 
 tribution ; for if it was known that he wanted these little 
 matters, wliich might have been had at the confectioner's.
 
 312 TEE CROKEB PAPERS. [Chap. X. 
 
 it might have iDeen suspected that he was in want of more- 
 essential things. 
 
 Yet, notwithstanding all this misery, Sheridan on seeing 
 Mr. Vaughan appeared to revive ; he said he was quite well, 
 talked of paying off all his debts, and though he had not 
 eaten a morsel for a week, and had not had a morsel to eat, 
 he spoke with a certain degree of alacrity and hope. 
 
 Mr. Vaughan, however, saw that this was a kind of bravado, 
 and that he was m a fainting state, and he immediately pro- 
 cured him a little spiced wine and toast, which was the first 
 thing (except brandy) that he had tasted for some days. 
 
 Mr. Vaughan lost no time in next buying a bed and bed 
 clothes, half-a-dozen shirts, some basons, towels, &c., &c. He 
 had Sheridan taken up, and washed, and put into the new 
 bed. He had the rooms cleaned and fumigated. He dis- 
 charged, I believe, some immediately pressing demands, and, 
 in short, provided as well as circumstances would admit for 
 tlie ease and comfort, not only of Sheridan, but of Mrs. 
 Sheridan also. 
 
 I sent the next day (it was not till next day that Mac- 
 Malion repeated this melancholy history to me) to inquire 
 after Sheridan, and the answer was that he was better, and 
 more comfortable, and I had the satisfaction to think that he 
 wanted nothing that money and the care and kindness of so 
 judicious a friend as Mr. Vaughan could procure him ; but 
 the next day, tliat is two days after ]\Ir. Vaughan had done 
 all this, and actually expended near 150^., as I have stated, 
 he came to MacMahon with an air of mortification, and stated 
 that he was come to return the 200/. 'The 200/.," said Mac- 
 Mahon, with surprise. Why, you had spent three-fourths of 
 it the day before yesterday ! " " True," returned Vaughan, " but 
 some of those who left these poor people in misery have now 
 insisted on their returning this money, which they suspect 
 has come from the Prince. Where they got the money, I 
 know not, but they have given me the amount, with a 
 message that Mrs. Sheridan's friends had taken care that 
 Mr. Sheridan wanted for nothing. I," added Mr. Vaughan, 
 " can only say that this assistance came rather late, for that 
 three days ago I was enabled by his Royal Highness's bounty 
 to relieve him and her from the lowest state of misery and 
 debasement in which I had ever seen human beings." 
 
 [Here His Majesty concluded. — J. W. C]
 
 ( 313 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 1826. 
 
 The Panic of 1825 — Course taken by the Ministry — One pound Notes — 
 The Scotch Banks — Excitement in Scotland — Controversy between 
 Sir Walter Scott and Mr. Croker — Letters from Scott — The Corn 
 Laws — Canning on the Spanish Difficulty — Intervention in Portugal 
 — Illness of the Duke of York — Mr. Croker on the Loss of Mr. Robin- 
 son's Son — Advice to a j'oung Naval Officer — Anecdotes of Madame 
 de Stael — Capture of Napoleon Buonaparte — Mr. Croker's Plan — 
 Anecdotes of the Duke of Gloucester and Theodore Hook — Conversa- 
 tions with the Duke of Wellington — The Duke offered an Estate — 
 The Grandees of Spain — Talleyrand — Battle of Vittoria — The Duke's 
 Generals — Buonaparte as a General — His system of Secrecy — The 
 Priest of St. Pe — The Duke and the Horse Guards — "Dry Nurses" — 
 The Convention of Cintra — Mr. Gleig and the " Subaltern " — Intrigues 
 against the Duke — An Enigma in Buonaparte's Career. 
 
 In the autumn of 1825, even the Catholic question and 
 Ireland were forgotten in the presence of a danger which 
 threatened to entail severe misfortunes on all classes of the 
 community. There had been a period of wonderful prosperity 
 after the great wars, and it led to a rage for public gambling, 
 by which " promoters " and stock-joljbers reaped a rich harvest. 
 It prepared the way for tlie inevitable crash whicli over- 
 took so many country banks and commercial houses towards 
 the close of the year. Mining shares, on whic.h small sums 
 of money had been paid, were run up to four, five, or even 
 thirteen hundred pounds each. When the blow fell, it ruined 
 thousands of men all over the country, and among the most
 
 314 TEE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. XL 
 
 memorable of the sufferers was Sir Walter Scott. Wlien tlie 
 worst of the panic was over, Mr. Croker sent to the Duke of 
 Wellington, who was then travelling on the Continent, an 
 account of the proceedings of the Ministry, and of the excite- 
 ment which broke out in Scotland when the circulation of 
 bank notes below the value of 5/. was prohibited. The 
 proposal was denounced by Sir Walter Scott in the " Letters 
 of Malaclii Malagrowther," to which replies were hastily 
 written hj Mr. Croker in the Courier newspaper, also under 
 an assumed name. In the end, the Ministry withdrew its 
 scheme, so far as it applied to Scotland, and the victory 
 rested with the author of ' Waverley ; ' but after 1826, one 
 pound notes were no more heard of in England. 
 
 Mr. Croker to the Duke of Wellington. Extract. 
 
 Marcli 20tli, 1826. 
 
 I dare say you have heard the whole story from day to day 
 by better informants, yet you may like to see my view of it. 
 I need not tell you all the reasons (very good ones) why the 
 Government did not like to undertake an issue of Exchequer 
 Bills, but as soon as the whole mercantile body, as soon as 
 Tierney at the head of the opposition, and as soon as every 
 man of the old Pitt party expressed a unanimous concurrence 
 in that measure, we all thought that it would do no great 
 harm to adopt it as a special remedy in a special case.* But 
 Lord Liverpool, influenced as the world said by his pledge 
 and prophecy of last year relative to the evils of overtrading, 
 would not listen to it, and on the evening on which the 
 petition of the London merchants for the advance of Ex- 
 chequer Bills was to be presented, he at half-past four sent 
 for Canning, and told him, as Canning himself told me, that 
 he would resign if such a measure was forced upon the 
 Administration, and he not only authorized, but desired 
 Canning to say so. 
 
 Canning, a good deal surprised, and taken on the sudden, 
 
 * [In 1793 Pitt had issued Exchequer Bills, and so had Mr. Perceval in 
 1811.]
 
 1826.] FINANCIAL PANIC. 315 
 
 still felt that he could not leave Lord Liverpool in the lurch, 
 and lie accordingly came down resolved to pledge, as I sup- 
 pose he was authorized to do, the whole Government to make 
 common cause with Lord Liverpool. I heard in the House 
 that the Government was resolved to abide by its decision, 
 though I did not know that they intended to place the exist- 
 ence of the Administration on that narrow question, and 
 during the del)ate on the I'etition I went up to Canning and 
 said, " For God's sake take care what you say a1)0ut this issue 
 of Exchequer Bills, for the whole House is against us, and 
 our best friends are mutinying at our backs." He replied 
 with considerable nervous excitement, " So much the better ; 
 it will bring matters to a point sooner." I really at the 
 moment did not understand the whole meaning of this phrase, 
 but he soon cleared it up by declaring on his legs, in a very 
 bold and uncompromising tone, that if the House chose to 
 adopt the proposed measure they must also l)e prepared to 
 find Ministers to execute it, for that they loould not ; and this 
 he repeated very steadily, and to the ears of some of the 
 country gentlemen, offensively. 
 
 I know not why or how the Opposition failed to take 
 advantage of this pledge, for if they had driven us to a vote 
 on the point that night (which they might easily, and even 
 fairly have done), they would have beaten us by about 140 
 to 80 ; or if the whole numbers were smaller (as they pro- 
 bably would have been, as people would have slunk off on 
 one side, and rallied on the other), in a still greater propor- 
 tion. Canning has since told me that he acted in this matter 
 under Lord Liverpool's immediate impulse, and from a sense 
 of a colleague's duty towards him. I could not help saying 
 that the difference between the advance of the money from 
 the Exchequer and from the Bank guaranteed by the Ex- 
 chequer, was so trivial that if we went out upon that, we 
 should be like the poor lady shown in Westminster Abbey 
 who died of pricking her finger with a needle. This device 
 of calling in the Bank was. Canning told me, his own. Liver- 
 pool was pledged not to advance the money directly, but he 
 was not pledged, it seems, to prevent the Bank's doing it ; and 
 an obsolete clause of their Charter being discovered which 
 afforded a pretence for this arrangement, a negotiation was 
 commenced, which, after a deal of squabljling both in private 
 and in public between the Bank and the Government, was 
 arranged, and we all keep our places a little longer.
 
 316 TEE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. XL 
 
 This was altogether the most ridiculous political intrigue, 
 if it may be so called, I ever saw, and indeed all that is- 
 visible of it to me is so very absurd that I cannot but suspect 
 that there were some better, or at least more important, 
 reasons at bottom. There was a moment, I am convinced, 
 in which the Government was on the point of dissolution, 
 and I could collect that Mr. Canning, as certainly was 
 very natural, was considering how it could be recomposed. 
 If you had been here this could not have happened. "What- 
 ever Cabinet secrets there may be at the bottom of the affair, 
 which of course I do not pretend to guess, I can assure you 
 that the Government was only saved by the supineness, con- 
 nivance, or ignorance (I know not which) of the Opposition, 
 and finally by the reluctance of the Bank to go to extremities 
 with us, and take on themselves the responsibility of turning 
 out the jMinisters. It is not very comfortable to think, nor 
 very creditable to have it known, that the Administration 
 was for four or five days at the mere mercy of the Opposition 
 and the Bank. 
 
 We had hardly got out of our scrape with the Bank when 
 all Scotland, with the spirit of the ancient Caledonians, rose 
 upon us in defence of their One iwund Notes. AValter Scott, 
 who, poor fellow, was ruined by dealings with liis booksellers, 
 and who had received courtesy and indulgence from the 
 Scotch bankers, thought himself bound in gratitude to take 
 the field for them, which he did in a series of clever but 
 violent and mischievous letters, as he attacked with great 
 violence and injustice the administration of Lord Melville, 
 and indeed of our party in general. I was easily induced to 
 take up my pen against him, and I scribbled away a reply to 
 Sir Walter in the same style (as far as I could imitate 
 so superior a genius), which he had used. 
 
 That matter is, however, fast subsiding, and I will only add 
 that from the best information I can collect I am led to fear 
 that my suspicions of the Jiollouiicss of the Scotch banks are 
 but too well founded. It is thought that they were already 
 in difficulties before they began this discussion, and such a 
 discussion was certainly not likely to make their position 
 more comfortable. It would not surprise me if you were to 
 find us in very serious financial difficulties on your return, 
 and though I have fought the Government battle against 
 Walter Scott, and though I honestly believe that whatever is 
 done in England must be ultimately done in Scotland, yet I
 
 1826.] SIE WALTER SCOTT AND CROEEIt. 317 
 
 have very serious doubts whether we are quite right here. 
 We have a debt, and of course a fictitious income so much 
 greater than we had, when we had cash payments before, that 
 I cannot think that the same quantity of gold currency will 
 suffice for the ti\ansaction of business. For every purpose of 
 lilc we now carry about twice as much cash as we used to do 
 thirty or forty years ago, and of course I think that we shall 
 require twice as much circulating medium, and if so, I doubt 
 whether we shall be able at any expense to keep a sufficient 
 quantity of gold for our domestic uses. But this is a subject 
 on which I am a very bad judge. 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 The little controversy between Sir Walter Scott and Mr. 
 Croker caused no interruption to their friendship, although it 
 was represented by Miss Martineau, and repeated blindly l)y 
 others upon her authority, that they had a deadly quarrel, 
 brought about, of course, by the violence and injustice of 
 Mr. Croker, and healed only by the magnanimity of Scott. 
 There could not be a greater tissue of misrepresentations. 
 The following correspondence explains all that needs ex- 
 planation on the subject. A portion of one of the letters 
 — with a few variations in the text — was published in Lock- 
 hart's ' Life of Scott,' but it is necessary here to show the 
 true state of Scott's feelings, and a letter of 1827 is added 
 for the same reason : — 
 
 Sir Walter Scott to Mr. Croher. Extract. 
 
 March 19th, 1826. 
 
 My dear Ceoker, 
 
 I received your very kind letter with the feelings it was 
 calculated to excite, those of great affection mixed with pain, 
 which, indeed, I had already felt and anticipated before 
 taking the step which I knew you must all feel as unkind, 
 ■coming from one who had been honoured with so much 
 personal regard. I need not, I am sure, say that nothing but 
 an honest desire of serving this country by speaking out what
 
 318 THE CHOKER PAPERS. [Chap. XI. 
 
 is generally felt here, especially among Lord Mehdlle's 
 wannest and oldest friends might have some chance, howso- 
 ever slight. Depend upon it, that if a succession of violent 
 and experimental changes are made from session to session, 
 with bills to amend bills when no want of legislation had 
 been at all felt by the country, Scotland will, within ten or 
 twenty years, perhaps much sooner, read a more fearful com- 
 mentary on poor Malachi's epistles than any statesman 
 residing out of the country and strange to the habits and 
 feelinffs which are entertained here can possibly antici- 
 pate. ° My head may be low — I hope it will — before the time . 
 comes. But Scotland, completely liberalized, as she is in aV 
 fair way of being, will be the most dangerous neighbour to 
 England that she has been since 1639. There is yet time to 
 make a stand, for there is yet a great deal of good and genuine 
 feeling left in the country. But if you imscotch us you will\ 
 find us damned mischievous Englishmen. The restless and 
 yet laborious and constantly watchful character of the people, 
 their desire for speculation in politics or any thing else, only 
 restrained by some proud feelings about their own country, 
 now become antiquated and which late measures will tend 
 much to destroy, will make them, under a wi-ong direction, 
 the most formidable revolutionists who ever took the field of 
 innovation. 
 
 With respect to your own share in the controversy, it 
 promised me so great an honour, that I laboured under a 
 strong temptation to throw my hat into the ring, tie my 
 colours to the ropes, cry, "Hollo there. Saint Andrew for 
 Scotland," and try what a good cause would do for a bad, at least 
 an inferior, combatant. But then I must have brought forward 
 my facts, and as these woidd have compromised friends in- 
 dividually concerned, I felt myself obliged, with regret for 
 forfeiting some honour, rather to abstain from the contest. 
 Besides, my dear Croker, I must say that there are many and 
 too direct personal allusions to myself, not to authorize and 
 even demand some retaliation dans Ic menu genre, and however 
 good-humouredly men begin this sort of " sharp encounter 
 of their wits," their temper gets the better of them at last. 
 Wlien I was a cudgel player, a sport at which I was once an 
 ugly customer, we used to bar rapping over the knuckles, be- 
 cause it always ended in breaking heads ; the matter may be 
 remedied by baskets in a set-to with oak saplings, but I know 
 no such defence in the rapier and poniard game of wit. So I
 
 1826.] SCOTT AXD CROKER. 319 
 
 thought it best not to endanger the loss of an old friend for 
 a bad jest, and sit quietly down with your odd hits, and the 
 discredit which it gives me liere for not repaying them or 
 trying to do so. I can assure you, ]\Ialachi's spirit lias been 
 thought meanly of for his silence, and this ought to be evidence 
 in my favour that my temper at least is imconcerned in this 
 unhappy dispute. 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 Walter Scott. 
 
 March 26th, 1826. 
 
 My dear Croker, 
 
 I have your kind letter, and can assure you that when 
 putting a more personal interpretation on some passages of 
 your letter than I ought to have done, I did not consider 
 them offensive, and if I had replied under the impression I 
 had adopted, I would have taken particular care not to have 
 executed the modcrameii inculpatcc tutelce. But it is much 
 better not, and so transeat cum ccdcris errorihus. 
 
 I enclose a letter for your funny namesake and kinsman,* 
 whose work entertains me very much. 
 
 Believe me always, 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 Walter Scott. 
 
 April 25th, 1827. 
 
 My DE.ui Croker, 
 
 As I trouble you with a packet for Lockhart, I cannot but 
 add my sincere gratulation upon your keeping a good house 
 over your head in this stormy weather which has bared so 
 many biggings. The numerous rumours which reach me in 
 this quarter are so varying that had I time, I believe I 
 would come to London merely to see how the cat jumped. 
 And I am as well where I am, since the present disputes seem 
 to have divided most of my personal friends. The disposition 
 seems as if some Yankee general had given the command, 
 Split and Squander. My own feeling is much that of an old 
 Scotch Judge called Lord Elchies, who when he heard a case 
 keenly debated, and foreseeing it w^as to give him some trouble 
 
 * [T. Crofton Croker, who had just puhlished the first volume of hxa 
 ' Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland.']
 
 320 THE CHOKER PAPERS. [Chap. XI. 
 
 in deciding it, used to exclaim to the lawyers on each side 
 most piteously, " Oh, Sirs, gar them gree — gar them gree— 
 canna ye for God's sake gar them gree ? " But his Lordship's 
 cTOod wishes were usually as useless as mine would be on the 
 present occasion, Well ! God's above all, and so concludes 
 a letter which need never have [been written ?] I send the 
 Portefeuille de Buonaparte which you wished to have ; but to 
 my tliinking there ought to be two parts, and there may be 
 one lost at binding, I suppose. As the volume contains some 
 tracts which are now not of every day occurrence I will 
 thank you to preserve it, as it would break a pretty large set 
 of things of the kind, but if the Portefeuille be of interest to 
 you, do not hesitate to break the binding and return the 
 others. 
 
 Always, my dear Sir, 
 
 Yours truly obliged, 
 
 Walter Scott. 
 
 p.S. — You are aware that Mr. Canning has forfeited all pre- 
 tensions to the character of a statesman by the manner in 
 which he has behaved to Lockhart. For Dean Swift, you [are] 
 aware, says that if a true statesman is led by circumstances to 
 suspect an individual of something of which he is innocent, no 
 species of explanation should remove his dislike, because that 
 would be to acknowledge the possibility of a failure in judg- 
 ment. It is a sad thing for a premier to commit such a 
 blunder in the outset of his career, and I am afraid it will be 
 a poor counterpoise that I recognise in the frankness, candour, 
 and nobleness of his proceeding the man of high honour that 
 my regard so long thought him. 
 
 Confidence was gradually restored to the markets, but the 
 country remained in an agitated condition. There was great 
 distress among the poor, and already a loud and general out- 
 cry had arisen against the corn laws. Lord King anticipated 
 Mr. Cobden by declaring that these laws were maintained 
 exclusively in the landed interest, and were the "most\ 
 cricrantic job in the whole history of misrule." In May, a 
 measure was passed permitting the importation of 500,000 
 quarters of foreign corn, without any limitation as to price.
 
 1826.] SPANISH AQGRESSION. 321 
 
 This, however, did not suffice to allay popular discontent. 
 " The political sky looks very cloudy," wrote Mr. Croker to 
 Lord Hertford, in October. " The three C's — Corn, Currency, 
 and Catholics — will perplex, if not dissolve, the Government. 
 If the Catholic question has a majority next session, I do not 
 think the Cabinet will stick together. The Chancellor [Eldon] 
 and Peel will go, and Westmoreland and Liverpool must 
 follow, and all will be at sea." 
 
 But there Avas still another great question which required 
 public consideration, and it was brought forward once more 
 by Canning in a celebrated speech. The Spanish aggressions 
 and intrigues of France had always been regarded by Canning 
 with impatience, but the public mind was filled with apathy, 
 and Canning knew that nothing could be done until this was 
 shaken off. Hence he made speeches from time to time with 
 the design of getting a strong force of popular opinion to 
 support him in the course he desired to take, and each one of 
 these speeches undoubtedly produced a great effect. French 
 influence had been highly prejudicial to Englisli interests in 
 Portugal ; and when the intelligence was received that troops 
 which had been organised in Spain were marching upon 
 Portugal, it was generally perceived that the long-expected 
 crisis had come. The Portuguese government formally 
 requested assistance from England, to enable it to repel in- 
 vasion from Spain; and Canning announced on the 12th of 
 December, that the request had been granted, and that British 
 troops were actually on their way to Portugal. " We go," he 
 said, " to plant the standard of England on the well-known 
 heights of Lisbon. Where that standard is planted, foreign 
 dominion shall not come." It is to these circmnstances that 
 the next letter relates. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 322 THE CEOKEB PAPERS. [Chap. XL 
 
 Mr. Crolxcr to Lord Hertford. 
 
 December 13th, 1826. 
 
 My dear Lord Hertford, 
 
 Cl-' I am sorry that I cannot be with you till Sunday at dinner. 
 
 As the troops for Portugal are all to be sent by this Depart- 
 ment, I have my hands full of work and shall have till the 
 end of the Aveek. 
 
 Canning made a brilliant and warlike speech last night, 
 but he AA'as outdone in his warlike flourishes by Baring, and 
 above all Brougham, who made a most tedious repetition of 
 what Canning had said so much better. 
 
 I do not expect ivar. De deux cJwscs I'une — cither Spain 
 will submit, or Portugal will have exhibited a unanimous 
 desire for the absolute Don Miguel. 
 
 Despatches arrived last night, while we were in the House, 
 which lead me to adopt the latter supposition. The Consti- 
 tutioncd Chambers are, it seems, not unanimous in approbation 
 of the Constitution under which they exist. If this be the 
 case, and if, as we have heard, the people are averse to it, I 
 contemplate the possibility of all being settled before our 
 troops can get out, and then we shall be in rather a puzzling 
 position. We shall know in a day or two how the royal 
 army feels : there are strong apprehensions about it ; if it 
 fails, adieu i^aniers, xcndanges sont f elites. 
 
 Yours ever, 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 It is only necessary to add in this place that the despatch 
 of troops at once answered the purpose which was intended. 
 The Spaniards were rpiickly driven out of Portugal, Ferdinand 
 recognised the Portuguese Government, and France ceased to 
 instigate Spain to a policy of aggression. The British force, 
 however, Avas not withdrawn until 1828. 
 
 The other letters of this year are of a more miscellaneous 
 character, and sufficiently explain themselves.
 
 182G.] THE DUKE OF YORK. 323 
 
 Mr. Crul-cr to Mr. Hairy Goidhurn. 
 
 August 30th, 1820. 
 
 Since I wrote to you of the Duke of York's very alarming 
 state* he has made a turn, and continued for a week or ten 
 days mending in a very unexpected way ; but I fear that the 
 amendment is but temporary and fallacious, for although his 
 appetite, liis spirits, and his strength are all improved, the 
 disease does not decrease, and when I saw him the day he 
 came to town, he said : " I am (jenerally better, but you see 
 my body is more swollen than it was." He knows his situa- 
 tion, and looks at it like a hero. I doubt whether lie has any 
 hope, but he mamtains a decent cheerfulness, and a very 
 unaffected composure. I have reason to hope that his mind 
 has been employed in serious and, I trust, satisfactory con- 
 templations, l)ut there is no outward show of any alarm : the 
 aide-de-camp at Brighton did not know what was the matter 
 with him ; the public has not as yet any notion of his danger, 
 and as little of what his disease is. The sad truth will come 
 upon them by surprise, for though they know that there is 
 something wrong, they have no distinct apprehension about 
 him. 
 
 Yours, my dear Goulburn, most affectionately, 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 Mr. CroJccr to the Bight Hon. F. BoUnson. 
 
 November 1st, 1826. 
 
 When we were heart-broken by a calamity similar to 
 YOurs,t our first relief was by escaping from the scenes which 
 reminded us of our lost happiness. If yours and poor Lady 
 Sarah's feelings be the same, Mrs. Croker's apartments at 
 Kensington, or mine at tlie Admiraltg, are ready to receive 
 you without the slightest inconvenience to us. You need not 
 write — no answer will be a negative ; and if you accept, send 
 your people to say which house you will have, and to make 
 your arrangements — both houses are completely furnished. 
 
 * [He died on the 5th January, 1827.] 
 
 t [Referring, of course, to the loss of a son.] 
 
 Y 2
 
 324 TEE CBOEER PAPERS. [Chap. XL 
 
 You will judge how sincerely Mrs. Croker and I sym- 
 pathise with you and Lady Sarah ; your affliction revives all 
 our own. 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 Mr. Crolccr to a young Naval Opccr* Extract. 
 
 November 13th, 1826. 
 
 IsTow, "my dear Follett, attend to my advice. Do not gallop 
 through my letter and throw it aside, but read it over and over 
 again, and recollect that I am your best friend, and resolve to 
 repay all I have done for you by strict attention to what I 
 write, and go over each particular item of my advice until 
 you have executed those which are temporary, or fixed in your 
 mind those which are of more general application. 
 
 1st. — Your conduct on board tlie Gyrene f will, I hope, be 
 modest, and you will take care not to hurt the feelings of the 
 officers whom you leave behind by any assumption of your 
 new rank. Captain Campbell (as the Gyrene will probably be 
 detached from the Admiral) will, I have no doubt, facilitate, 
 as far as his duty will allow, your joining the Admiral or the 
 Fly. Make him my compliments, and thank him for the 
 kind mention he has made of you to General Campbell. 
 
 2nd. — When you join the Fly your conduct must be 
 still more cautious, and, if possible, more modest. You are 
 very young, very fortunate ; you will come over the head of 
 senior officers, who cannot be expected to receive you with as 
 much good humour as if you had been their senior. I know 
 the custom of the Naval Service reconciles these ways of 
 getting over one another's heads ; they, probably, were made 
 over the heads of their own seniors ; but nevertheless such an 
 advancement must always give a certain degree of pain to 
 those who suffer in the individual instance ; and good taste, 
 good manners, and good sense require you to do all you can 
 to soften the mortification which those officers must feel. Be, 
 therefore, very kind and civil to them — not cringing, nor 
 
 * [Lieutenant Follett Pennell, who was promoted to the rank of Com- 
 mander in 1826.] 
 
 t [The ship which Captain Pennell was about to leave ; the Fly was 
 the vessel to which he was ajDpointed.]
 
 1826.] ADVICE TO A NAVAL OFFICES. 325 
 
 giving up your station or authority, or seeming to feel that 
 you were not worthy of your rank, but as one who, liaving 
 had good fortune, treats others as he would wish to be treated 
 ]iad the superior good luck been theirs. 
 
 Your first lieutenant is an old officer for the first of a sloop. 
 You will, of course, pay him all the deference which his 
 length of service entitles him to ; to respect others in their 
 several ranks and stations is the surest mode of being 
 respected in your own. 
 
 3rd. — Alter as little as possible the routine which Captain 
 "Wetherell had adopted. Make no sudden changes — confirm, 
 in the first instance, all his orders. Desire that everything 
 may go on as in his time ; if, in practice, you find that 
 alterations be necessary, introduce them slowly, by silent 
 degrees, and as occasion may occur. 
 
 4th. — At the Admiralty we consider that much punisli- 
 ment is a proof that the captain does not understand tlie true 
 discipline of the service. You will succeed to the command 
 of a well-disciplined and orderly ship ; you must endeavour 
 to keep her so ; an increase of punishment will convince us 
 that you do not know how to manage a ship's company. 
 Moderation towards your men, good humour with your 
 officers, and a command oxer yourself , are the three essentials 
 towards your being a respectable officer. 
 
 Let me repeat to you that economy — that is ' the living 
 u'itliin one's income, ivhatcver it may he — is the foundation of all 
 true respectability ; and I shall not think well of you if you 
 have not saved at the end of two years two or three hundred 
 pounds. Captains on other stations contrive to live, and 
 some even to save, out of their pay ; you may surely do so 
 when your pay is double. 
 
 As to writing, I beg of you to take pains with your hand, 
 and learn to write like a gentleman. jSTothing gives a more 
 unfavourable impression than an ill-written, ill-spelled, ill- 
 folded, ill-sealed letter. 
 
 3Ir. CroJcer to a Consul Suspected of Jobbery. 
 
 December 18tli, 1826. 
 
 I have already had to complain of your indiscretion, Init I 
 can hardly suppose you mad enough to meddle in such an 
 affair as this ; I only warn you that I shall go to the foreign
 
 326 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. XI. 
 
 Office immediately on my return to town, and if I find there, 
 any traces of your recommending one of your relations to be 
 Vice Consul at JMorlaix, I shall submit to Mr. Canning tlie 
 expediency of immediately appointing another consul. 
 
 I shall personally regret the ruin of you and your family 
 which I am aware will follow this step •; but I will do my 
 public duty ; and as I placed you in your present office for 
 public benefit, so I shall take care to have you removed the 
 moTiicnt I learn that you are meddling with private jobs. 
 
 I am, yours, 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 Anecdotes and Conversations from Mr. Crol:crs Note Boohs. 
 
 October 24tli, 1825. 
 
 Moore in his lately published 'Life of Sheridan' has 
 recorded the laborious care with which he prepared his Ions- 
 mots. Madame de Stael condescended to do the same. The 
 first time I ever saw her was at dinner at Lord Liverpool's 
 at Coombe Wood. Sir James Mackintosh was to have been 
 her guide, and they lost their way, and went to Addiscombe 
 and "some other places by mistake, and when they got at last 
 to Coombe "Wood they were again bewildered, and obliged to 
 get out and walk in the dark, and through the mire up the 
 road through the wood. They arrived consequently two 
 hours too late and strange draggled figures, she exclaiming by 
 way of apology, " Coombe par ci, Cooml^e par la ; nous avons 
 ete par tons les Coombes de I'Angleterre." During dinner she 
 talked incessantly but admirably, but several of her appa- 
 rently spontaneous mots were borrowed or prepared. For 
 instance, speaking of the relative states of England and tlie 
 Continent at that period, the high notion we had formed of 
 the danger to the world from Buonaparte's despotism, and the 
 high opinion the Continent had formed of the riches, strength, 
 ami spirit of England ; she insisted that these opinions were 
 both just, and added with an elegant elan, "Les etrangers 
 sont la posterite contemporaine." This striking expression I 
 have since found in the journal of Camille DesmouUns. 
 
 The conversation turned on the Court of Berlin, and Lord 
 Liverpool asked if M. de Segur, then ambassador there, was 
 related to the old family of Segm-, of whom his lordship men-
 
 182G.] MADAME DE ST A EL. 327 
 
 tioned one whom he had known. She answered hmghin.c^dy 
 that they were related " du cr)t(^ des syllabes," meaning that 
 they were not related, though their names were the same. 
 Lord Liverpool did not see what she meant, and repeated liis 
 inquiry in the form of asking whether they were of the same 
 family. She replied with great readiness, " Milord, ils sont 
 du memo alphahet." Nothing could appear more extempo- 
 raneous than this double jest, yet it must have been prei)ared, ^ 
 for every one now knows that the M. Segur of Berlin was one 
 of the old Segurs, and he was in fact the very man that Lord 
 Liverpool was inquiring about. Madame de Stael had the 
 phrase, cut and dry, as the expression is, ready to be used on 
 any of the occasions, then very frequent, when strangers 
 in(|uired if such or such of Buonaparte's chamberlains or 
 diplomatists were of the old stock whose names they bore ; 
 and the phrase of " du meme alphabet " I have since seen 
 somewhere in print. 
 
 She was ugly, and not of an intellectual ugliness. Her 
 features were coarse, and the ordinary expression rather 
 vulgar, she had an ugly mouth, and one or two irregularly 
 prominent teeth, wliich perhaps gave her countenance an 
 habitual gaiety. Her eye was full, dark, and expressive ; 
 and when she declaimed, which was almost whenever she 
 spoke, she looked eloquent, and one forgot that she M'as 
 plain. On the whole, she was singularly unfeminine, and if 
 in conversation one forgot she was ugly, one forgot also that 
 she was a woman. 
 
 Some one was laughing one day at the titles of the Ilayiian 
 Empire, the Count de Lemonade and the Duke de ]\Iarmalade. 
 " This would come," said ]\Iadame de Stael, " with a bad grace 
 from us French, who see nothing ridiculous in the titles of 
 the ]Marquis de Bouille and the Duke de Bouillon. N"or ought 
 the English to be very facetious on tliat point, who see nothing 
 absurd in Lord Boijlc and Mrs. Fry." 
 
 October 20tb. 
 
 ^ General Becker was an Alsatian, and, I know not why, in 
 the confidence of Fouche, who at the second abdication 
 placed him as superintendent of Buonaparte's movements, 
 and I have no doubt that the General had orders to get 
 Buonaparte out of France hon gre mat gre. I visited I'aris 
 between the Battle of Waterloo and the embarkation of 
 Buonaparte, and was at one or two meetings with Lord
 
 328- TEE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. XI. 
 
 Castlereagh, the Duke of Wellington, Fouclie, Talleyrand, and 
 M. de Jaiicourt, Minister of Marine, wlien we discussed the 
 best method of laying hold of Buonaparte. I took the liberty 
 to advise an order to our Admiral to advance suddenly under 
 the white flag, and in concert with the King's officers to seize 
 the ex-Emperor. I calculated that it would take ten minutes 
 before the authorities could be induced to fire on the white 
 flag, and in that time our sailors and marines would be in pos- 
 session of the town. This was finally agreed to, and a letter 
 to Sir C. Hotham, who commanded our squadron, was pre- 
 pared to that effect, with this remarkable notification that it 
 was very desirable to take Buonaparte alive, and with as 
 little violence or even inconvenience to him personally as 
 possible, hut that he was to he taken; and that the life of 
 any British sailor was as dear to the King of England as that 
 of Buonaparte. This was the way I stated it at the meeting, 
 and it was in substance implied in the despatch, but not so 
 crudely, but we were anxious to frighten Fouche, whom we 
 suspected still of some intrigue with Buonaparte, and we 
 thought it likely that he would apprise him of our violent 
 resolutions — or something to this effect. This despatch was 
 entrusted, as well as the corresponding powers on the part of 
 France to Captain de Bigny. There seems every reason to 
 suppose that Eouche, by the telegraph or some other means, 
 communicated to Buonaparte these determined measures, for 
 he immediately after these resolutions were taken, but before 
 the arrival of De Bigny, suddenly changed all his plans, and 
 gave himself up to Sir C. Hotham. 
 
 General Becker returned to Paris as soon as he had gotten 
 rid of his perilous charge, and the day he arrived I met him 
 at dinner at M. de Jaucourt's. He, it seems, had had little 
 previous knowledge of Buonaparte, and was certainly not 
 much impressed with reverence or even with ordinary respect 
 for his character or conduct. The vulgar familiarity of his 
 manners was still known only to a narrow circle, and Becker 
 was greatly surprised, and not much flattered, to find his 
 imperial prisoner pinching his ears as they walked in the 
 grounds of Malmaison. He found him, he told us, very 
 ■■^ unlike what he had expected, a great gourmand, very anxious 
 about his dinner ; lazy, apathetic, and sensual. Whether it 
 was really the General's opinion, or whether he thought it a 
 safe prophecy to make I cannot tell, but he more than once 
 told us that the ex-Emperor was apoplectic, decidedly apo-
 
 1826.] LA PLACE. 329 
 
 plectic, and that on the journey he more than once thought 
 lie ^voukl have died of an apoplectic stroke. I could not help 
 whispering to Madame de Jaucourt that I suspected the 
 General had had " I'apoplexie dans sa poche," and I was after- ^ 
 wards assured that Fouche's orders \vere that Buonaparte*^ 
 should Le got rid of, coute que coiite. The General, I think, 
 told us that he had pistols in his pockets the whole time. 
 
 The day Becker arrived there was a gi-eat review of the 
 Austrian Cavalry. I asked him whether he had come to town 
 in time to see it, and what he thought of the Austrian 
 Cuirassiers. " lis sont," said he, " les plus beaux autocratcs 
 de I'Europe." 
 
 A crowd of people came in the evening to hear the news — 
 amongst others, La Place, the savant. He was so civil as 
 to recognise me as a colleague, because. I w^as an F.E.S. God 
 knows liow he knew that ; we got into conversation ; his was 
 certainly not brilliant, nor was there, I ought to add, any 
 opportunity for brilliancy, but a little trait of character 
 escaped him. We talked of the Iving's administration before 
 the Cent Jours. He cUd not approve of the tone which had 
 been adopted and still less of the measures, but there was one 
 thing which was so gross a blunder and folly, that it exceeded 
 all the rest, and was indeed the chief cause of the return of 
 Buonaparte. I pricked up the ears of curiosity at this exor- 
 dium, and felt no small interest to hear what this portentous V 
 blunder had been. It was that instead of making Buona- 
 parte's senators all licrecUtary peers, some of them had tlie 
 peerage for the same term they had their senatorship only, 
 viz., for life. M. le Comte de la Place was only a peer' for life. 
 The King, however, soon adopted this new system, and made 
 all the peers hereditary, and never did a more unwise thing. 
 La Place, for instance, is as fit to be a peer of Prance as he is 
 to be drum-major of a regiment of the line. He was,^ how- 
 ever, a respectable man, and the thing was tolerable in his 
 personal case, but it is different when his sons and all the La 
 Places to the end of the chapter must be the colleagues, not 
 of F.R.S.'s like me, but of tlie ISToailles, Montmorencies, 
 and Birons. A peerage without either gold or blood ! 
 
 Sudbourne, September, 1826. 
 
 The Duke of Glo'ster is a great asker of questions. He 
 asked the Duke of Grafton who, though sLxty-six, does not
 
 330 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Cuap. XI. 
 
 look above fifty, " liow old he was," before a large company 
 in a country house. The Duke of Grafton did not like the 
 inquiry, but answered. Some time after the Dukes met again, 
 and the Duke of Glo'ster repeated this question, to which the 
 Duke of Grafton dryly replied, " Sir, I am exactly three weeks 
 two days older than when your Eoyal Highness last asked 
 me that disagreeable question." 
 
 May 6th, 1826. 
 
 The Duke of York, Duke of Wellington, Lord Huntly, and 
 some others dined with me at the Admiralty. 
 
 Some discussion arose as to the value of cuirasses ; whether 
 the confidence they gave to the individual soldier counter- 
 balanced their weight and other obvious disadvantages. The 
 Duke of Wellington thovight it might in single men or in 
 small bodies, but in great masses the confidence and spirit of 
 the men arose from other considerations. On the whole he 
 did not like the cuirass. Some one asked whether the French 
 Cuirassiers had not come up very luell at Waterloo ? " Yes," 
 he said, " and they went doion very well too." He then went 
 on to tell us of a regiment of Cuirassiers that had charged up 
 the great high-road at Quatre Bras, and had turned into a 
 farmyard or inclosure which had no exit on the other side. 
 The Duke was not aware of tliis, else he could have taken 
 them all ; they immediately came out again, but on their 
 retreat along the same road, the British, who were in line 
 along the cross-road, and " particularly your regiment " (the 
 92nd), said tlie Duke, turning to Lord Huntly, " gave them 
 a couple of volleys which brought them all to the ground, and 
 there tliose that were not killed were so encumbered by their 
 cuh-asses and jackboots that they could not get up, but lay 
 sprawling and kiclcing like so many turned turtles." 
 
 Sudbourne, December, 1826. 
 
 Every one knows the story of a gentleman's asking Lord 
 North who " that frightful woman was ? " and his lordship's 
 answering, that is my wife. The other, to repair his blunder,, 
 said I did not mean her, but that monst^er next to her. " Oh," 
 said Lord North, " that monster is my daughter." AYith this 
 story Frederick Eobinson, in his usual absent enthusiastic 
 way, was one day entertaining a lady whom he sat next to 
 at dinner, and lo ! the lady was Lady Charlotte Lindsay — the 
 monster in question.
 
 182G.] ANECDOTES. 331 
 
 N "When Hnskisson was attached to Lord Stafford's embassy 
 in 1792,* he and Mr. Fergiisson (tried afterwards with Lord 
 Thanet), since a barrister at Calcutta, and now M.P., used to 
 dine at Beauvilhers's, where there was a smart young waiter, 
 whom, however, these two Englishmen used to roio exceed- n 
 ingly. At last Beauvilliers told them one day that they hud ^ 
 driven the pauvre gargon au descspoir, and he had gone and « 
 enlisted. It was a lucky persecution for him. The young 
 waiter made rapid advances in his new profession — he was 
 Joachim ]\Iurat, King of Naples. This Huskisson told us. 
 
 Mr. Fergusson after the ]\Iaidstone affair,t was to have gone 
 with Lord^Lauderdale to India, and at last, though Lauder- 
 dale did not go, Fergusson did. He has made more money 
 than it was thought was ever before made at the bar. For the 
 last years he was Attorney-General to the Company, and this 
 business with his private practice produced one year 25,000/. 
 He has brought home, they say, near half a million. He 
 went the other day into the House of Lords, and the Lord 
 Chancellor, who was Attorney-General in the Maidstone 
 trials, good humouredly recognised him, and congratidated 
 him on this good fortune. 
 
 SudbourDC. 
 
 In the Peninsular War, infantry officers not allowed forage, 
 used to buy forage for their mules and horses. They could 
 always buy forage from our cavalry, and even from the 
 stables of the staff; but the German Legion never could be 
 tempted to part with their forage, every man made common 
 cause with his horse, and nothing could induce the honest 
 Germans to defraud their fourfooted colleagues of their due 
 provision. Comparisons are odious ! 
 
 <\ Count Staremberg, when he was in England, used to play 
 at the Union. His English was not quite so good as his luck. 
 
 * [Mr. Huskisson was Trivate Secretary to tlie British Ambassador in 
 Paris, Lord Gower.] 
 
 t [The Earl of Thanet, a Whig nobleman, and Mr. Cutlar Fergusson, 
 were tried before Lord Kenyon, in 1799, for a riot in attempting to 
 facilitate the escape of Arthur O'Connor before his trial at Maidstone. 
 They were found guilty and condemned to a year's imprisonment, and a 
 fine of £1000 in Lord lliauet's case, and £100 in Mr. Fergussou's. The 
 prosecution was conducted by Sir John Scott (afterwards Lord Eldon), 
 Attorney-General, the defence by Mr. Erskinc.]
 
 332 THE CEOKEB PAPERS. [Chap. XL 
 
 Playing one night at trentc ct mi, the late Lord Barrymore was 
 at the table, and not much delighted with the success of the 
 Count. His Excellency was not very nice in his person, and it 
 was ludicrous to hear him proclaim the state of his hand by 
 saying, " I am dirty ! I am dirty ! " At last, when he had 
 achieved the best possible hand, he was so elate, that he almost 
 embraced Barrymore, exclaiming, " I am dirty, I am dirty- 
 one, I am dirty-one." Barrymore, who lost by the Count's 
 success, and had no liking for the nasty embrace, said, 
 "Damn it, sir, so you are; but that's no reason why /should 
 be dirty too" 
 
 Conversations v:ith the Duke of Wellington. — Mr. Croker*s 
 
 Notes. 
 
 I shall here set down what I remember of a visit to Sud- 
 bourne,* as nearly as I can in his own words, from the notes 
 that I made every evening. — J. W. C. 
 
 TJie Duke offered an Estate in France. 
 
 I will tell you an odd story of the old King (Louis XVIIL). 
 One day, after the restoration, when I waited on him at the 
 Tuileries, he paid me some compliments on my share in the , 
 events which brought it about, and he took the ribbon of theV 
 St. Esprit off his own body and put it on me. I, of course, 
 expressed my thanks, but I said that before I could venture 
 to accept or wear this mark of his royal favour, I must liave 
 the consent of my own sovereign ; and added that I should 
 write that evening, and had little doubt that the Prince Eegent 
 would signify his approbation. Shortly after I returned home, 
 the Duke of Richelieu, then Prime Minister, followed me, 
 and after alluding to the affair of the St. Esprit, said that as 
 I was going to write about that, the King wished me to take 
 the same opportunity of writing about another matter upon 
 which he supposed I should also require my sovereign's 
 consent ; this was. His Majesty's intention to present me 
 with a more solid and lasting mark of his gratitude, in an , 
 estate in France. Grosbois was the place intended, and the\ 
 
 * [The seat, it will be remembered, of the Marquis of Hertford, with 
 whom the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel were on terms of quite 
 as close an intimacy as Mr. Croker.]
 
 182G.] TEE BUKE OF WELLINGTON. 333 
 
 Duke stated some of the afjremcns which that seat particularly 
 possessed, and some circumstances which made the Kin.i; 
 think it a proper reward for my services to France. This took 
 me quite by surprise, and was for the moment rather eniliar- 
 rassing, for I could not decently refuse point blank fr(jm 
 Louis XVIII. what I had accepted from King Ferdinand ; 
 but a little consideration sufficed to convince all parties tliat 
 the cases were essentially different, and above all, in the spirit 
 and temper of the two nations and the circumstances of the 
 two cases. In Spain I had been the victorious general of 
 their own armies. In France, my merit with the King was 
 that I had beaten their army. It would have been imi^ossible 
 to have made a falser step, and so there was an end of 
 Grosbois; when I look back at this offer I am still more 
 surprised tflian I was at first, that it should have been 
 thought of. 
 
 Tlic Grandees of Spain. 
 
 I am a Grandee of Spain ! They have the privilege of 
 being covered in the King's presence. Formerly there was 
 but one class ; there now are three, which differ from each other 
 by some such forms as these — all referring, as you will see, to 
 the covering. The first class enter the royal presence already 
 covered ; the second, I think, enter uncovered, but cover un- 
 bidden, after they have advanced a few steps ; the third do not 
 cover till the King desires them ; but when covered, I believe, 
 all are equal, though not all hereditary. It is strange for a 
 grandee of Spain not to know all these distinctions quite 
 accurately, but I was some years a gi-andee without knowing 
 even so much. When Ferdinand returned to Madrid, he, on 
 one occasion, showed himself to the people from the balcony 
 of the palace ; his suite, and amongst the rest myself, stood 
 in the room behind ; the people, I believe, called for me, and 
 the King desired me to come forward, which I did, bareheaded, 
 of course. The King immediately said to me, be covered, 
 and of course I should have immediately done so any- 
 wiiere else, but in the face of all his people I could not at 
 once bring myself to do it ; but the people about us hastened 
 to remind me that I w^as a grandee of the first class, and that 
 I ought not to have been uncovered. 
 
 My grandeeship, title, and estate, were given me by the 
 Cortes, but the King confirmed them in the most liberal way.
 
 334 THE CBOKER PAPEB8. [Chap. XI. 
 
 At his first court on his return, when the grandees--some 
 newly created, others having succeeded during the usurpation — 
 were to be solemnly admitted to the royal presence, we all 
 assembled in an ante-room ; when the door of the presence- 
 chamber w^as opened they allowed me, in consideration, I 
 suppose, of my military situation, to go in first ; and the 
 Duke of Alajen, as Captain of the Guards, next; after which 
 they all rushed in pele-meU in a riotous confusion, and in 
 the scuffle San Carlos, who was one of the juniors in date 
 of grandeeship, turned up one of the foremost ; some one 
 end'eavoured to moderate the tumult, and l^egged tliem to 
 place themselves in order, but they cried out that " there vxis 
 no order there, they were all ecpial." This confusion is a part 
 of the dignity, for they do not even recognise the original 
 date of a° grandeeship even in the highest class, wdiich is 
 liereditary, 
 
 Ferdinand is by no means the idiot he is represented. He 
 is a good natured man, not deficient in sense. It is his 
 political position, and the state of the Spanish Government 
 and people themselves, which are to blame for what those 
 intelligent gentlemen, the correspondents of the English news- 
 papers, all lay to the account of the poor King. 
 
 Talleyrand. 
 
 \ It may seem odd to confess, but I never could discover on 
 what grounds Talleyrand's great reputation as a Minister was 
 built. * I never found him a man of business, nor, I must say, 
 able in affairs. When things were returning, after the 
 anarchy, to a more settled state, the Directory were glad to 
 get any one of the old school who had any reputation to give a 
 kind of respectaljihty to their Administration. Buonaparte 
 did the same. To have been a member of the Constituent 
 Assembly, and to have outlived the Eevolution, was itseli 
 a merit in those days. The Eevolution was a kind of tontine 
 and Talleyrand, Touche, and half-a-dozen others, accumulated 
 all its advantages on their own heads by mere benefit oi 
 .sur\T.vorship. 
 
 It is easy enough to be a successful Minister for Foreign 
 Affairs to a government which has military possession of 
 Europe. As to his ministry under Buonaparte, it was almost 
 a sinecure ; the chef de Vetat major was the real Minister of 
 Foreign Affairs, and what he did not do, Buonaparte did
 
 1826.] CONVERSATIONS WITH WELLINGTON. r!35 
 
 liimself, and Talleyrand often received applause and censure 
 for tilings that he never saw nor heard of till they were 
 brought to him for signature. Witness, amongst many other 
 instances which I could give you, that paper which I ga^'e 
 Lord Whitworth, and which he gave to Peel, in which 
 Buonaparte does not trust Talleyrand literally to v:alh alone, 
 but prescribes how far he sliall follow Lord Whitworth, and 
 when he shall turn on his heel. 
 
 \AVlien Talleyrand was discussing with Louis XVIII. the 
 question whether the Deputies should not have an official 
 .salary, the King wished that the honour should be its reward, 
 and that tlie functions should l)e graUntcs. " G-ratuitcs ! " 
 said Talleyrand, " mais ce serait trop clicr." 
 
 But what amazes one most in him is the boldness of his , 
 duplicity. Would you believe it, that at Erfurth, where y 
 Buonaparte met the Emperor of Eussia, to persuade him to 
 join in overwhelming Austria, Talleyrand, the Minister for 
 Foreign Affairs, who, all day long, laboured under Buonaparte's 
 vigilant eye to carry this object, used to visit Alexander 
 secretly at night, and furnish him with every argument, 
 reason, or pretence which he could discover or invent against 
 Buonaparte's plan. 
 
 This Talleyrand himself told me, but I should not have 
 believed it from him alone, but the Emperor confirmed it to 
 me, and I had it also from the Princess of Tour and Taxis, 
 at whose house these conclaves took place. When a foreign 
 woman once gets a taste for these kinds of intrigues she never 
 gives it up. This good princess, having played a part in the 
 congTess at Erfurth, has contrived also to have a share in all 
 tlie other congresses. 
 
 TJie Battle of Vittoria. 
 
 During the movements that j)i'eceded the battle of Vittoria, 
 we had heard of the armistice * in Germany. All my staff 
 
 * [The armistice was signed at Plesswig the 4th June, 1813 — to last to 
 the 20th July; it was afterwards extended to the 10th August. The 
 battle of A'ittoria was fought the 21st Jime. On the 28th June took 
 place the interview between Buonaparte and Mettemich at Dresden, which 
 produced the continuation of the armistice. Buonaparte received the in- 
 telligence on the 30th June. Bubna, then with Buonaparte, heard it a 
 few days after, and it caused the resolution to denounce the armistice on 
 the appointed day. — J. W. C]
 
 336 THE CHOKER PAPERS. [Chap. XL 
 
 were against my crossing the Ebro * ; they represented that we 
 had done enough, that we ought not to risk the army and 
 what we had obtained, and that this armistice would enable 
 Buonaparte to reinforce his army in Spain, and we therefore 
 should look to a defensive system. I thought differently. 
 I knew that an armistice could not affect in the way 
 of reinforcement so distant an army as that of Spain. I 
 thought that if I could not hustle them out of Spain before 
 they were reinforced, I should not be able to hold any position 
 in Spain when they should be, and above all, I calculated on 
 the effect that a victory might have on the armistice itself. 
 So I crossed the Ebro and fought the battle of Vittoria. The 
 event showed I was right in my military expectations, and 
 I found afterwards that I was equally right in my political 
 speculations. The victory excited a great sensation in Ger- 
 many, and particularly at the head-quarters of the allies. 
 Metternich told me that Stadion f (I think) woke Mm in the 
 middle of the night with his tumultuous joy at the news, " Le 
 
 roi Joseph est en Espagne " was one of the softest terms 
 
 used, and their transports subsided into a determination to 
 denounce the armistice, and to pursue the war till Napoleon 
 
 liimself should be . 
 
 I hastened my movements at Vittoria because I knew that 
 a reinforcement of 20,000 men was advancing under Clausel, 
 while I had only 6000 coming up under Packenham. Their 
 outposts met, but Clausel did not dare attack him, and I had 
 made arrangements for falling on Clausel with my whole 
 force; and I shoidd probably have overtaken and defeated 
 him and his army, but that, in spite of my positive orders that 
 there should be no wandering, a certain officer of dragoons 
 chose to be taken prisoner while he was at dinner in a country 
 house, and Clausel became thus aware of my movements, and 
 hurried away so fast and in sucli a direction that I did not 
 choose to follow him. On what slight accidents events turn, 
 
 * [See a repetition of tliis incident, 17tli January, 1837. On this occa- 
 sion, he said, " All my staff, including the two next in command." The 
 two nest in command were Graham and Hill, but I think he mentioned 
 Murray on this occasion ; my note does not give any name. — J. W. C] 
 
 f [He also said something of Hardenberg, but I did not exactly collect 
 -^vhat — perhaps that Stadion first called up Hardenberg, and that both 
 called up the rest. On another occasion he repeated the story without 
 any mention of Hardenberg. — J. W. C]
 
 1826.] THE DUKE AND HIS GENERALS. 337 
 
 Tlic Duke's Generals. 
 
 I look on Lord Beresford as tlie best officer we have for 
 the command of an army. To command a division and to 
 command an army are as different as chalk and cheese — 
 they require quite different qualities, though the greater will, 
 of course, include the less. Sir George Murray is a very able 
 man, an admirable Quartermaster- General ; but he is not au 
 fait of the actual handling of troops — the meclianical process 
 of bringing them into play. He is clever enough to have 
 felt this liimself, and had a mind to leave the staff to 
 practise this branch of tactics in the management of a 
 division ; but it is necessary to begin still lower. One must 
 understand the mechanism and power of the individual 
 soldier ; then that of a company, a battalion, or brigade, and 
 so on, before one can venture to group di\dsions and move an 
 army, I believe I owe most of my success to the attention I 
 always paid to the inferior part of tactics as a regimental 
 officer.* There were few men in the army who knew these 
 details better than I did ; it is the foundation of all military 
 knowledge. When you are sure that you know the power of 
 your tools and the way to handle them, you are able to give 
 your mind altogether to the greater considerations which the 
 presence of the enemy forces upon you. 
 
 * [He told me, on an earlier occasion, that within a few days after joining 
 his first regiment (I think he said the 73rd) as an ensign, he had one of 
 the privates weighed in his clothes only, and then with all his amis, 
 accoutrements, and kit in full marching-order, with the view of comparing 
 as well as he could the power of the man with the duty expected from 
 him. I said that this was a most extraordinary thought to have occurred 
 to so young a man. He said, " Why, I was not so young as not to know 
 that since I had undertaken a profession I had better try to vmderstand 
 it." When I repeated this to Colonel Shawe, a great friend of both him 
 and Lord Wellesley, he told me that in the Duke's early residence in 
 India, and before he was in command, his critical study of his profession 
 afforded a marked contrast to the general habits of that time and country. 
 IShawe also added another early anecdote. The Duke inherits his father's 
 musical taste, and used to play very well, and rather too much, on the 
 violin. Some circumstances occurred which made him reflect that this 
 was not a soldierly accomplishment, and took up too much of his time 
 and thoughts ; and he burned his fiddles, and never played again. About 
 the same time he gave up the habit of card playing. — J. W\ C] 
 
 VOL. I. Z
 
 338 THE CEOKER PAPERS. [Chap. XL 
 
 Tlie Archduke (JliarUs. 
 
 [He quoted the Archduke Charles's book, and I asked 
 whether the Archduke was really a great officer ?] 
 
 A great officer ? why, he knows more about it than all of 
 us put together. 
 
 Croker. What, than Buonaparte, Moreau, or yourself ? i 
 
 Aye ! than Buonaparte or any of us. We are none of us y 
 worthy to fasten the latchets of his shoes, if I am to judge 
 from his book and his plans of campaign. But his mind or 
 his health has, they tell me, a very peculiar defect. He is ad- 
 mirable for five or six hours, and whatever can be done in 
 that time will be done perfectly ; but after that he falls into 
 a kind of epileptic stupor, does not know what he is about, 
 has no opinion of his own, and does whatever the man at his 
 elbow tells him. 
 
 Buonaparte as a General. 
 
 If I ani to believe S^gur's and, indeed all the other 
 accounts of the Eussian campaign, Buonaparte committed 
 the most egregious faults of generalship and conduct. Time 
 was everything, and I can show on paper, out of his own 
 reports and returns, that he lost seven weeks in point of time 
 in the advance to Moscow, He made also a false movement 
 in changing liis line upon Minsk, which had, inter alia, the 
 disadvantage of bringing him nearer to the South Eussian 
 army, when he might have attained his object in another 
 way [which the Duke explained, but wliich I cannot pretend 
 to follow], without these disadvantages. He lost a good deal 
 also by what looks like indolence ; he was often absent when 
 he ought and might have been present, for instance, at Valon- 
 tina, I think it was, when he heard the firing, and sent orders 
 and might have come up ; if he had, he would have put an end 
 to a dispute between his generals, and probably have had a 
 decided success. His personal proceedings previous to and 
 during the battle of Borodino are .inexplicable. Some of his 
 apologists attribute it to sudden illness, but that does not 
 account for the details, unless the illness could be supposed 
 so serious as to derange his understanding. His conduct in 
 all these cases is not easily accounted for. I believe he was 
 in more awe of his marshals than was generally supposed —
 
 1826.] BUONAPARTE'S CHARACTER. 
 
 he acted as if lie was not sure of their obedience; for 
 instance, he would order one of tliem to take another under 
 his command, but he never ventured to tell tlie other to obey 
 him (of course the two fellows got into a quarrel directly) ; or 
 was he afraid that any of them, if too successful, might 
 eclipse him ? But there were none of them that I know any- 
 thing about, except Massena, who had any pretensions to a 
 comparison with him. 
 
 Buonaparte's mind was, in its details, low and ungentle- 
 manlike. I suppose the narrowness of his early prospects 
 and habits stuck to him ; what ive understand by gentleman- 
 like feelings he knew nothing at all about ; I'll give you a 
 curious instance. 
 
 I have a beautiful little watch, made by Breguet, at Paris, 
 with a map of Spain most admirably enamelled on the case. 
 Sir Edward Paget bought it at Paris, and gave it to me. 
 What do you think the history of this watch was — at least the 
 history that Breguet told Paget, and Paget me ? Buona- 
 parte had ordered it as a present to his brother, the King 
 of Spain, but when he heard of the battle of Vittoria — he 
 Tvas then at Dresden in the midst of all the preparations and 
 negotiations of the armistice, and one would think sufficiently 
 busy with other matters, — when he heard of the battle of 
 Yittoria, I say, he remembered the watch he had ordered for 
 one whom he saw would never be King of Spain, and with 
 whom he was angry for the loss of the battle, and he WTote 
 from Dresden to countermand the watch, and if it should be 
 ready, to forbid its being sent. The best apology one can 
 make for this strange littleness is, that he was offended with 
 Joseph ; but even in that case, a gentleman would not have 
 taken the moment when the poor devil had lost his chdteatix 
 en Espagne, to take away his watch also. 
 
 All those codicils to his will in which he bequeathed millions 
 to the right and left, and amongst others left a legacy to the 
 fellow who was accused of attempting to assassinate me, is 
 another proof of littleness of mind ; the property he really 
 had he had already made his disposition of. For the payment 
 of all those other high-sounding legacies, there was not the 
 shadow of a fund. He might as well have drawn bills for 
 ten millions on that pump at Aldgate. [We had on our way 
 driven })ast it.] While he was writing all tliese magnificent 
 donations, he knew that they were all in the air, all a false- 
 hood. For my part, I can see no magnanimitv in a lie ; and I 
 
 z 2
 
 340 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. XI. 
 
 onfess that I think one who could play such tricks but a 
 shabby fellow. 
 
 Jonathan Wild the Great. 
 
 I never was a believer in him^ and I always thought that 
 in the long-run we should overturn liim. He never seemed 
 himself at his ease, and even in the boldest things he did 
 there was always a mixture of apprehension and meanness. 
 I used to call him Jonathan Wild the Great, and at each 
 new coiip he made I used to cry out " Well done Jonathan," to 
 the great scandal of some of my hearers. But, the truth was, 
 he had no more care about what was right or wrong, just or 
 unjust, honourable or dishonourable, than Jonathan, though 
 his great abilities, and the great stakes he played for, threw 
 the knavery into the shade. 
 
 Buonaparte's System of Secreey. 
 
 I am not sure that the greatest pleasure I ever felt in my 
 military life was not the evening of the day we crossed the 
 Nivelle. We took a kind of redoubt, in which was a French 
 battalion and its lieutenant-colonel. I had a mind to be ci\alto 
 him, and asked him to dinner. He came, but was very sulky. 
 My staff were pressing him with questions, to which he gave 
 no answers, or very dry ones. I, however, interfered quietly, 
 and whispered to them to let him alone, and that after a good 
 dinner and a few glasses of Madeira, our friend would mend. 
 So in the course of the evening I saw he was in better 
 humour, and then I apologised for the fare I was obliged to 
 give him, and still more for the apartment in which it was 
 served — it was a wi-etched kind of barn ; " But you," I said, 
 " who have served all over the world, have probably been 
 used to such things, and indeed your Emperor himself must 
 of late had some hard nights' lodging himself; and, by 
 the way," I added, " where was his quartier general, when 
 you last heard of him ? " " Monseigneur " said our man, with 
 a tragic grimace, " iZ ny a plus de quartier general." He 
 alluded to the rout of Leipsic, and I then saw my way 
 clearly to Bordeaux and to Paris ; for besides what the ofi&cer 
 could tell, I calculated that the disaster must have been very 
 great to have reached him at all : for it is truly astonisliing in 
 what a degree of ignorance as to all that was passing he
 
 1826.] BUONAPARTE AND THE FRENCH. 
 
 [Buonaparte] contrived to keep all France. We found peopl 
 wlio had never heard of the battle of Trafalgar ; and the south 
 of France could hardly believe tlieir eyes when they saw us 
 come down the Pyrenees ! but he kept tlie rest of the world 
 in the same ignorance of what was going on in France. I 
 confess the first light I ever received on that subject was 
 from Faber's book,* which was reviewed in the Quarterly 
 Review, and which I think you [Croker] sent me. It was a most 
 able, and, at the time, valuable work. It has been doubted 
 whether there was such a person as Faber, though nobody 
 doubted the truth of the facts ; but there certainly was such a 
 person as Faber liimself He was a German or Alsacian, who 
 liad got to St. Petersburg. I think I have heard from some 
 one that they knew him there. The book was of considerable 
 use to me when I entered France, and, as far as I had an 
 opportunity of putting it to the test, I found it true. 
 
 Posterity will hardly believe the success and extent of that 
 system of darkness which Buonaparte spread over France, 
 but it was so complete that even I, who had been for so 
 many years in contact with his armies, and was now, for 
 months, on his frontier, was glad to glean from any precarious 
 and humble sources some knowledge of the real state of the 
 interior. 
 
 The Priest of St. PS. 
 
 There is a little village called St. Pe, where I was stopped 
 a day or two by very bad weather; I was lodged at the 
 Cure's, a good old man, from whose conversation about the 
 state of France I received lights which had important 
 results. He was very clever and well informed, and took not 
 only 7ight, but large views of things ; he confirmed all I had 
 read in Faber, and gave me such valuable intelligence as to 
 the state and spirit of the whole south of France, that I 
 repeated it in a dispatch to Government at home, and I read 
 the dispatch to the Duke de Guiche, then an officer in our 
 army, whom I purposely sent home with it, and whom I 
 authorized to tell the contents to Monsieur (Charles X.). I 
 concluded by suggesting the appearance of one of the princes 
 with my army. This dispatch, all founded on my conversa- 
 
 [* ' Notices sur I'lnterieur de la France, e'crites en 1806, par M. Faber,' 
 St. Petersburg, 1807. Reviewed by Mr. Croker in the Quarterly, August, 
 1811, vol. vi. p. 235.]
 
 342 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. XT. 
 
 tions with this old priest, appeared so satisfactory and con- 
 vincing that the Duke of Angouleme, now Dauphin, came 
 out immediately. When the business was done, I did not 
 forget the old priest. He w^ould not quit his little parish, 
 but the King did something for him which made him happy. 
 He did not, however, live long to enjoy it. He was a man of 
 superior talents and sagacity ; he had in his early life lived in 
 good society. I think he had even been about Versailles, 
 and my meeting him in that remote and muddy village, and 
 spending two rainy days with him, had perhaps some in- 
 fluence on the destinies of the House of Bourbon. 
 
 The Duke and the Horse Guards. 
 
 I can't say that I owe my successes to any favour or con- 
 fidence from the Horse Guards ; they never showed me any, 
 from tlie first day I had a command to this hour. In the 
 first place, they thought very little of any one who had served 
 in India. An Indian victory was not only no ground of 
 confidence, but it was actually a eauise of suspicion. Then 
 because I was in Parliament, and connected with people in 
 office, I was a politician, and a politician never can be a 
 soldier. Moreover they looked upon me with a kind of 
 jealousy, because I was a lord's son, " a sprig of nohilitij" 
 who came into the army more for ornament than use. 
 [N.B. — He more than once in the course of conversa- 
 tion with me mentioned this reproach of his having been " a 
 sprig of noUliti/." I have no doubt that the phrase had been 
 applied to him at some early part of his career by some one 
 from wdiom it had made an impression, but unluckily I 
 omitted to ask him about it.] They could not believe that I 
 V was a tolerable regimental officer. I have proof that they 
 \ thought I could not be trusted alone with a division, and I 
 suspect they have still their doubts whether I know anything 
 about the command of an army, for I dare say you will be ^ 
 surprised to hear that in all the changes made since the war > 
 in the regulations of the army, I have never been in the most V 
 trifling or distant degree consulted on any point. As to the 
 dress, I say nothing ; though that is a matter on which one 
 who had dressed so large an army for so long might have 
 some experience, and an opinion as to what w^ould wear best, 
 and be most convenient and healthy. But upon any change 
 in the arms and accoutring, on the establisliing cuirassiers or
 
 1826.] THE DUKE ON " DRY NUBSES." 343 
 
 lancers, and on things of this sort, you would have thought 
 that I had had a good deal of practical knowledge, having had, 
 as you know, something to do with lancers in Spain and 
 cuirassiers at Waterloo. Well, I never knew that the Blues 
 or any other regiment were to have cuirasses till they were 
 actually in them. Then there was published a new book of 
 manceuvres and movements ; as it had been my luck to 
 move and manoeuvre a gi'eater portion of the British army 
 than any officer in the service, and in the field too, you would 
 hardly credit, what I nevertheless assure you is the fact, that 
 I never heard any more about it than you did. 
 
 TJie " Dry Nurses " of the Horse Guards. 
 
 Wlien the Horse Guards are obliged to employ one of those 
 fellows like me in whom they have no confidence, they give 
 him what is called a second in command — one in whom they 
 have confidence — a kind of dry nurse. AVhen I went to 
 Zealand they gave me General Stewart as second in command, 
 that is, in reality intended for first in command, though I was 
 the first in name. Well, during the embarkation, the voyage 
 out, and the disembarkation, General Stewart did everything. 
 I saw no kind of objection to anything he suggested, and all 
 went a merveille. At last, however, we came up to the 
 enemy. Stewart, as usual, w^as beginning his suggestions 
 and arrangements, but I stopped him short with " Come, 
 come, 'tis my turn now." I immediately made my own 
 dispositions, assigned him the command of one of the wings, 
 gave him his orders, attacked the enemy, and beat them. 
 Stewart, like a man of sense, saw in a moment that I under- 
 stood my business, and subsided with (as far as I saw) good 
 humour into his proper place. But this did not cure the 
 Horse Guards ; when I went to Portugal they gave me Sir 
 Brent Spencer as second in command, but I came to an im- 
 mediate explanation with him ; I told him I did not know 
 what the words " Second in command " meant, any more than 
 third, fourth, or fifth in command ; " that I alone commanded 
 the army, that the other general officers commanded their 
 divisions ; that if anything happened to me, the senior surnvor 
 would take the connnand ; that in contemplation of such a 
 possibility I would treat them, but him in particular, as next 
 in succession, with the most entire confidence, and would leave 
 none of my ^dews or intentions unexplained ; but that I would
 
 344 TEE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. XI. 
 
 have no second in command in the sense of his having any- 
 thing like a joint command or superintending control ; and 
 that, finally and above all, I would not only take but insist 
 upon the whole and undivided responsibility of all that 
 should happen while the army was under my command. 
 
 The Convention of Cintra. 
 
 After the Convention of Cintra, there was a pretty general 
 desire in England that a general should be shot, after the 
 manner of Byng, and as I was a politician, I was, of course, 
 the person to be shot, which would have been rather hard, as 
 I was the winner of the two battles which had raised the 
 public hopes so high, and had nothing to do with the subse- 
 quent proceedings but as a subordinate negotiator under 
 orders of my superior officers. Even the Government were 
 inclined to give me up. Wlien I came back, the old King was 
 to have one of his weekly levees ; I asked Lord Castlereagh 
 to carry me " as I must present myself on my return from , 
 abroad " and happened to have no carriage in town. Castle- y 
 reagh hemmed and hawed, and said that there was so much 
 ill-humour in the public mind that it might produce inconve- 
 nience, and, in short, he advised me not to go to the levee. 
 I said, " Wlien I first mentioned it, I only thought it a matter 
 of respect and duty to the King ; I now look upon it as a 
 matter of self-respect and duty to my own character, and 
 I therefore insist on knowing whether this advice proceeds in 
 any degi-ee from His Majesty, and I wish you distinctly to 
 understand that I will go to the levee to-morrow, or I never 
 will go to a levee in my life." Castlereagh immediately 
 withdrew all opposition. I went, and was exceedingly well 
 received by His Majesty. 
 
 I had several fellows in the army who misbehaved. One 
 
 in particular, a Captain ; * he was ordered for the ^ 
 
 storming party at St. Sebastian [I am not quite sure whether 
 the Duke said St. Sebastian or Badajos]. Though it was 
 very dark, we perceived that one of the parties was not 
 moving on, and was suffering accordingly from the enemy's 
 fire. There was a cry amongst the men in front for the 
 captain ; there was no captain to be found, he had run away ; 
 at last, the lieutenant, who was at the tail of the party, heard 
 
 * [The Editor has struck out the name.]
 
 1826.] THE DUKE'S CONVERSATIONS. 345 
 
 that the captain was not to be found, and he ran to the front 
 and led the company fi^rward. Next morning-, of course, I 
 gave him the command of it. That captain is now in London, 
 and he complains that he is an injured man, and wants 
 to be restored ; he is a protege of Dick Martin's, but if such a 
 fellow were to be forced back into the army I would leave it 
 myself. Yet I know tliat I am abused for what his friends 
 call my hard-heartedness to this poor fellow. 
 
 After this excursion, I met the Duke of AVellington at 
 Teddesley, Beaudesert, Mansfield, and Strathfieldsaye, but I 
 only noted a little of his conversation at Beaudesert. — 
 
 Lord Hopetoun. 
 
 The late Lord Hopetoun was too rash — over brave — so 
 much so as to be hardly trustworthy. He was always at the 
 outpost, and whenever there was firing he was sure to be in 
 it. Accordingly he was always wounded, and his capture w^as 
 really a disgraceful affair, and all from too much bravery. On 
 one occasion on which he was wounded and defeated, I came 
 up and rallied the men, and I then was obliged to tell him 
 plainly that such boyish impetuosity would not do. He was 
 a fine fellow, and as amiable as he was brave. 
 
 Mr. Gleig and the ' Subaltern.' 
 
 ' The Subaltern ' [Mr. Gleig's book, which I had brought 
 with me and lent the Duke, who had not before seen it] is all V 
 true enough. Two points which fell under my own personal 
 view are quite so. I mean the scene in which he describes 
 my meeting his regiment, and my rallying the army after Sir 
 John Hope was wounded. But the Subaltern talks too much 
 of his own personal comforts, and too little of his men ; if you 
 believe him implicitly, you would imagine that he thought of 
 nothing but his own dinner ; but this is the usual fault 
 of journalizers, who are naturally struck by what immediately 
 concerns one's self ; and in fact, a subaltern in an army can 
 in general have little else to tell. I hope, and indeed know, 
 that the regimental officers were in general much more atten- 
 tive to the comforts of their men than the Subaltern tells us ; 
 but he is a clever, observing man, and I shall inquire about 
 him.
 
 346 THE CROEEB PAPERS. [Chap. XI. 
 
 Bringing an Adjutant-General to reason. 
 
 Charles Stewart (third Marquis of Londonderry) was a sad 
 Jyrouillo7i and mischief-maker. I was obliged to get rid of 
 him. He used to harass the cavalry to death by constant 
 patrols and reconnaissances. This I was obliged to forbid, 
 but he did not obey me; but this 'was not the real cause of 
 my rupture with him. It was produced by a foolish preten- 
 sion he set up as Adjutant- General of the army, that the 
 examination of prisoners belonged exclusively to him. It 
 happened one day that some prisoners were taken, and my 
 aide-de-camp, happening to be on the spot, examined them 
 immediately, and, to save time, brought me the result. But 
 in consequence of this, Stewart refused to execute the rest of 
 his duty as to these prisoners, and declined to take any charge 
 or care of them whatsoever ; and he left them to escape or 
 to starve as far as his department was concerned. Tliis was 
 too much ; so I sent for him into my room. We had a long 
 wrangle, for I like to convince people rather than stand on 
 mere authority ; but I found him full of the pretensions of 
 this department of his, altliough he and it and all of them 
 were under my orders and at my disposal. It was in vain 
 that I showed him that an accidental interference under 
 emergent circumstances with what was ordinarily his duty 
 could not be considered as any affront to him. At last 
 I was obliged to say that, if he did not at once confess his 
 error, and promise to obey my orders frankly and cordially, 
 I would dismiss him instanter, and send him to England in 
 arrest. After a great deal of persuasion, he burst out crying, 
 and begged my pardon, and hoped I would excuse his 
 intemperance. 
 
 Intrigues against the Duke. 
 
 After this he intrigued in the army against me, and with 
 the assistance of Robert Crawfurd, had turned every one of 
 the general officers against me, except Lord Beresford, who, 
 like a good soldier and honest fellow as he is, discountenanced 
 all these petty intrigues. You will be surprised to hear that 
 all this was gTounded on a project of poor Castlereagh's going 
 into decided opposition. His ground was to be the impossi- 
 bility of doing anything in Spain, and the expediency of 
 withdrawing the army, and this doctrine Charles Stewart
 
 1826.] THE DUKE'S RECOLLECTIONS. 3^7 
 
 s 
 
 preached, it seems, amongst the officers. It was therefore ^ 
 impossil)le to keep him in the army, and when he was going 
 to Enghind he imparted to me this notable scheme of ojjposi- 
 tion, in which his brother was about to emljark. I tokl him 
 that I had no right to advise him or his brother, but that, as 
 I had a regard for both, and particularly for Castlereagh, I 
 charged him to tell him that I looked on any such project of 
 opposition as alike unworthy in its object and ' unfounded 
 in iact, and that, like all pretences— for it was only a pre- 
 tence — it would recoil on those who adopted it. However, 
 Castlereagh soon after joined Mr. Perceval, and the threatened 
 opposition was no more heard of. I cannot believe that this 
 was the project of Castlereagh's own mind. I suspected 
 always that it was suggested, or perhaps only attributed to 
 him, by Charles. It is'wonderful wliat inlluence he had over 
 him, and not only influence, for that might 1)0 produced by 
 brotherly love, but Castlereagh had a real respect for Charles's 
 understanding, and a high opinion of his good sense and dis- 
 cretion. This seems incomprehensible to us, who know the 
 two men, but the fact was so. 
 
 Poor Crawfurd was a dissatisfied, troublesome man, who 
 fell quite naturally into this sort of intrigue, and I believe 
 he pushed it to a very blameable extent, for when he was 
 mortally wounded he sent for me, and there, in the way one 
 has read of in romances, he solemnly asked my forgiveness 
 for injuries of that kind which he had done or endeavoured 
 to do me. 
 
 I believe there was a good deal of this sort of spirit at one 
 time, before I had laid hold of the public opinion, both in the 
 army and the country, but I kept never-mindmg it, quite sure 
 that all would come right in good season. You have expressed 
 this in your poem about me in better language, but however 
 expressed, the fact was that I paid so little attention to this 
 small malice, that there was, I have no doubt, much that I 
 never knew, and almost all I ever did hear, I have forgotten. 
 
 One evening at Beaudesert, when we were talking of 
 Quatre Bras, some matters of fact were mentioned upon 
 which, to my surprise, I found that the Duke and Lord Angle- 
 sey entirely ditiered. Such differences invalidate all history. 
 Their two aides-de-camp, Lord March and Fitzroy Somerset, 
 who were playing billiards in the next room, were called in
 
 348 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. XI. 
 
 and appealed to ; they also differed, but each, I think, was 
 against his own general. In the course of this discussion 
 Lord March stated that three colours were taken at Quatre 
 Bras. The Duke had never heard of it. Lord March saw 
 them, and had them, but could not tell what became of them. 
 A French officer of cavahy had lost his head (not his cwput, 
 but his capacity), and had rode through our line, and was 
 galloping wildly about in our rear. Our soldiers began to 
 fire at him. Fitzroy Somerset tried to ride up to him and to 
 save him, but he could not catch him. Lord March and 
 Curzon made a similar attempt, but before they could reach 
 him he was shot. They, however, caught the horse. Curzon, 
 who was on foot, jumped up on him, but in a few minutes 
 was himself killed. March then succeeded to the fatal horse, 
 but no more mischief happened ; he rode him to Paris, and 
 there sold him for forty-five dollars. 
 
 \ Duke. — The best of all the pubhcations [about Buonaparte] 
 V \ is that of Baron Fain. All the dictations to Montholon, 
 Gourgaud and Las Casas are of Httle real autliority. They 
 are what Buonaparte on after consideration thought it 
 expedient to represent things to have been, and not what they 
 were. Any accurate reader will find them to be what made- 
 lip stories always must be, full of contradictions, but we who 
 know the affairs of our time know that they are full of false- 
 hoods; but Fain's book, if not absolutely true, is at least 
 sincere ; that is. Fain may be mistaken in some facts, but he 
 is generally correct, and bating a little natural leaning to 
 Buonaparte, very fair. That is the real look, the rest are all 
 fabricated apologies. 
 
 Sir Sidney Smith. 
 
 Of all the men whom I ever knew who have any reputa- 
 tion, the man who least deserves it is Sir Sidney Smith. 
 During my embassy at Paris (where he was li\dng to avoid 
 his creditors in England) I saw a good deal of him, and had 
 eternal projects from him as long as I would listen to them. 
 At first, out of deference to his name and general reputation, 
 I attended to him, but I soon found he was a mere vaporizer. 
 I cannot believe that a man so silly in all other affairs can be 
 a good naval officer.
 
 1826.] SIR SIDNEY SMITH. 349 
 
 While our expedition against Algiers, under Lord Exmouth, 
 was going forward, Sir Sidney asked an audience of the old 
 King, Louis XVIIL, and after some delay obtained it. His 
 business was to acquaint the King that the expedition must 
 fail ; that the force was insufficient, and l)ad of its kind ; but 
 that, above all, the commander was ill-selected ; that he 
 knew Lord Exmouth well, having served with him, and that 
 whatever qualities he might have as a mere sailor, he was the 
 most unfit man in all other respects to command such an 
 enterprise ; that he himself was, from a variety of considera- 
 tions, the only person who ought to have been selected ; and, 
 finally, by this omission an affair so \itally important to the 
 civilised world must, to an absolute and demonstrative cer- 
 tainty, fail. The old King was sly, and had a quiet kind of 
 humour ; he listened to Smith without interruption ; and 
 when he had concluded a very long speech, he told Sir Sidney 
 that he was very much obliged to him, for the information 
 that he was so good as to give him, that he quite appre- 
 ciated his lumieres and his motives, but, he added, I am sure 
 it will give you additional pleasure, as it has done to me since 
 I have heard your opinion, to learn that we have this morn- 
 ing heard, through Marseilles, that what you fear is impracti- 
 cable has been accomphshed with the most complete success ! 
 
 C. — But has not Sir Sidney the merit of enthusiasm — a 
 main ingredient towards making a great man ? 
 
 Duke. — No, not even enthusiasm ; but a degree of egotism 
 and vanity that looks like enthusiasm ; but he has no enthu- 
 siasm in the world except for what relates to Sir Sidney Smith. 
 
 [N.B. — I myself knew Sir Sidney Smith, and though I 
 thought him, as most people did, a little crazy — perhaps with 
 vanity — I, though with some difficulty, prevailed with Lord 
 Melville to employ him as second in the Mediterranean Fleet, 
 which was, I thought, due to his former distinguished services, 
 and the noise he had made in the world, and I thought that, 
 having been so long unemployed, he had a peculiar claim to 
 be brought forward at that time. The seamen at the Board 
 were rather averse ; for certainly he was not what is called a 
 sailor. I must add that the Duke only knew him at Paris, 
 when his eccentricity, or levity, or vanity, or whatever it may 
 be called, had grown so remarkable that I am not surprised 
 at the unfavourable impression he made on the Duke. Wlien 
 I first went to the Admiralty, Sir lioger Curtis, then com- 
 mander-in-chief at Portsmouth, who had previously been an
 
 350 THE CROEER PAPERS. [Chap. XI. 
 
 acquaintance of mine, tlirough the Howes and Lady Sligo, and 
 was so kind as to favour me with his advice, said to me, " My 
 dear friend, beware of Heroes — the more you come to know 
 tliem, the less you will think of them ; " and certainly he was 
 right as far as my experience went with many who set up for 
 heroes. The grand exception was the real hero — the Duke — 
 who in mind and manners was the same, exactly the same, 
 when I first knew him in 1806, as he is now, and rose in my 
 admiration every hour that I saw him — always simple and 
 always great. — C] 
 
 Louis the Eighteenth. 
 
 I said that Louis XVIII. understood English, but I did not 
 think that he spoke it readily — at least, not very willingly. I 
 had had the management of the embarkation at Dover on his 
 first restoration, and though he had numberless occasions to 
 speak to the English, he never did so in English, and I 
 remember that having said something to one of the people of 
 the yaclit, who did not understand him, I was obliged to 
 repeat it in English. 
 
 Duke. — That only proves that he did not like speaking 
 English ; but I assure you he has often spoken it to me, and 
 very well too. He was clever, and well informed, and a 
 diseur de mots. 
 
 I said that on that occasion at Dover one of the giroucttes, 
 who came over to salute the King, was the Duke de Lian- 
 court, but the King would not receive him. M. de Liancourt 
 applied to me for a passage back. I did not know that the 
 King had refused to see him, but as I knew something of the 
 Duke's career, I was not sure whether the King would wish 
 for his company on this occasion. So I went to the King, 
 and asked him what he wished. The King answered, sharply, 
 " Yon may put him where you will, Mr. Croker, except in the 
 same ship with me." This was in the cabin of the yacht, at 
 the door of which the Due de Duras was exercising his old 
 office of Premier Gcntilhomme de la Chamhre, and as I was 
 going out he told me that the King had declined to see M. de 
 Liancourt. M. de Duras's own appearance there in that 
 office was sufficiently singular. He had held it before the 
 Eevolution, and was in attendance on Louis XVI. when the 
 mob prevented his going to St. Cloud. He had emigi^ated, 
 and had been appointed to the same oiiice by Louis XVIIL,
 
 1826.] THE DUKE IN SPAIN. 351 
 
 but he returned to France, and lived in retirement till this 
 great change of circumstances called him to resume his duty 
 at the King's door at Grillon's Hotel, and here again in the 
 yacht, which he seemed to fall into as naturally as if there 
 had been no interruption since the 18th Ai)ril, 1791. 
 
 Duke. — I remember M. de Liancourt's haste to kiss the King's 
 hand was much ridiculed, and, I think, caricatured. It was a 
 strange escapade for him, for the King and he had an old 
 grudge. I fancy he had always been eccentric and over busy. 
 
 The Duke in Simin and Portugal. 
 
 Strathfieldsaye, October 20th, 1825. 
 
 TJie 2)wZ,u — Batalha, like Battle Abbey, was founded by 
 King John I. of Portugal to commemorate his great victory over 
 the King of Spain. He, like our Conqueror, was illegitimate, 
 but the founder of the reigning family. My army encamped 
 there on the very anniversary of tlie battle [14tli August, 
 1385].* There was also some nominal similarity in the circum- 
 stances, for there was then an alliance between the Portuguese 
 and English against the French and Spaniards. The monks 
 were not as cordial as I expected. He then mentioned some 
 remonstrances and opposition on their parts which I omitted 
 to note. 
 
 He told us the history of the blowing up of Almeida and 
 Brenier's t escape. It was a great disgrace. Col. Bevan % too 
 late, Col. Douglas too soon,.§ General Campbell's || regiment of 
 
 * [His army encamped there the night between the 13th and 
 14th August. I think he said that himself and staff lodged within the 
 abbey. His dispatch of the 14th August is dated Alcobaca, and says 
 the army had arrived there that morning. A later dispatch states that 
 he marched from Leyrias to Calvarie on the 13th, and on the 14th to 
 Alcobaca ; Calvarie, 1 suppose, was adjacent to the abbey, probably the 
 Calvary.— :i. W, C] 
 
 t [Brenier had been made prisoner at Vimiera; I think the Duke 
 added that he was a very impudent fellow, and on his caj^ture asked the 
 Duke to lend him 500Z,— C] 
 
 X [Colonel of the 4th Eegiment. — C] 
 § [Lieut.-Colonel Douglas, of the 8th Portuguese, — C] 
 II [They called him " Jingly Pat" or some such name ; I forget why, 
 unless it was from a trick he had of whistling, which he would do inter- 
 jectionally in the midst of serious matters, I had more than once busi- 
 ness to do with him, and there was always an accompaniment of whistliu"'. 
 The Duke was not satisfied with him about Almeida. — C]
 
 THE CROEER PAPERS. [Chap, XI. 
 
 "aragoons taken, freed by an infantry picket. Albuera — 
 Blake's vanity, arrogance, and insufficiency. He claimed the 
 post of honour and lost it. " Not write history because truth 
 cannot be told ? " So I said to Jomini, and so I wrote to 
 you when I told you that a battle was like a ball — that one 
 remembered one's own partner, but knew very little what 
 other couples might be about ; nor, if one did, might it be 
 quite decorous to tell all he saw. So that, besides almost 
 inevitable inaccuracy, there was the risk — indeed, the cer- 
 tainty — that you could not tell the whole truth without 
 offence to some, and perhaps satisfying nobody. 
 
 He repeated the arguments in favour of the Convention of 
 Cintra in the great and urgent advantage of getting_ the 
 French out of Portugal at once, which by battles and sieges 
 might not have been accomplished in a whole campaign ; and 
 all direct and forward movements in favour of Spain would 
 have been paralysed. 
 
 TJie First Portuguese Campaign. 
 
 General Toy's history of the Peninsular War, which just 
 includes the first of the Duke's Portuguese campaigns, was 
 mentioned — [here unluckily my note was interrupted, which 
 is much to be regretted, for I recollect that his exposure of 
 Toy's presumption in matters of opinion, and of his gross 
 misstatements of matters of fact was very complete, though 
 very good humoured and candid as to Foy's talents]. He 
 concluded : — 
 
 But after all, though I admit neither his conclusions nor his 
 statements of facts, he was a very distinguished officer. He 
 was only a colonel at Vimiera, though he had seen a great 
 deal of service. I fancy his politics kept him back. ^ He was 
 made a general, I think, immediately after. His wife was a 
 handsome woman, keeping a salon and faisant les delices a 
 Lisbon. She can have nothing to do with the book, though 
 her name is on the title-page. 
 
 TJie Guards and " White's Window." 
 
 The Duke often expressed a high opinion of what we call 
 the gentlemanly spirit. After some pleasantries on Cooke, and 
 dandyism, and so forth, to which Cooke replied with great 
 readiness and good humour ; he said the Guards (meaning 
 the officers) were the most troublesome people in the army
 
 1826.] " WHITE'S WINDOW:' 353 
 
 when there was nothing to be done, and he had constant 
 occasions to be vexed with them when in quarters and in tlie 
 intervals of active operations, but when these recommenced, 
 the Guards were the best soldiers in the army. None of 
 them, he said, ever misbehaved when there was any duty to 
 be done. JVliite's vniulovj ivould not 'permit it. [X. 15. Whites 
 vjimlaw was at this time the fashionable triljunal of the 
 dandies.] 
 
 National Clmractei^tics. 
 
 The national character of the three kingdoms was strongly 
 marked in my army. I found the English regiments always 
 in the best humour when we were well supplied with beef; 
 the Irish when we were in the wine countries, and the Scotch 
 when the dollars for pay came up. This looks like an epigram, 
 but I assure you it was a fact, and quite perceptible ; but we 
 managed to reconcile all their tempers, and I will venture 
 to say that in our later campaigns, and especially when 
 we crossed the Pyrenees, there never was an army in the 
 world in better sph-its, better order, or better discipline. AVe 
 had mended in discipline every campaign, until at last 
 (smiling) I hope we were pretty near perfect. 
 
 TJie Ford ai Assaye, 
 
 It was on this occasion that he gave me an instance of the 
 importance of a very ordinary degree of thoughtful common 
 sense. He described his very critical position on the march 
 before the battle of Assaye, when his small force was 
 threatened by an overwhelming deluge of native cavalry, and 
 his only chance, not of \Tjctory only, but of safety, was his 
 getting to the other bank of the river (Kistna), which was 
 a few miles on his right. He had some of the best native 
 guides that could be had, and he made every possible effort to 
 ascertain whether the river was anywhere passable, and all his 
 informants assured him that it was not. He himself could 
 not see the river, and the enemy's cavalry was in such force 
 that he could not send out to reconnoitre. At last, in extreme 
 anxiety, he resolved to see the river liimself, and accordingly, 
 with his most intelligent guides, and an escort of, I think he 
 said, all his cavalry, he pushed forward in sight of the river 
 in the neighbourhood of Assaye, which stood on the bank of 
 
 VOL. I. 2 A 
 
 ^
 
 354 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. XL 
 
 another stream that ran nearly parallel to that which he 
 wished to cross. When they came there, he again questioned 
 his guides about a passage, which they still asserted not to 
 exist ; but he saw through his glass, for the enemy's cavalry 
 were so strong that he could not venture to get closer, one 
 village on the right, or near bank of the river, and another 
 village exactly opposite on the other bank, and " I immediately 
 said to myself that men could not have built two villages so 
 close to one another on opposite sides of a stream without 
 some habitual means of communication, either by boats or a 
 ford — most probably by the latter. On that conjecture, or 
 rather reasoning, in defiance of all my guides and informants, 
 I took the desperate resolution, as it seemed, of marching for 
 the river, and I was right. I found a passage, crossed my 
 army over, had no more to fear from the enemy's cloud of 
 cavalry, and my army, small as it was, was just enough to 
 fill the space between the two streams, so that both my 
 flanks were secure, and there I fought and won the battle of 
 Assaye, the bloodiest, for the numbers, that I ever saw ; and 
 this was all from my having the common sense to guess that 
 men did not build villages on opposite sides of a stream 
 without some means of communication between them. If I 
 had not taken that sudden resolution, we were, I assure you, 
 in a most dangerous predicament." 
 
 All Enifjma in Buonapartes Career. 
 
 There was somethmg in Buonaparte's hasty return out of 
 Spain [in December and January, 1808-9] that I have never 
 understood. When Moore retreated, he followed him closely 
 as far as Benevento and Astorga. He had a greatly superior 
 force, two to one he gave out ; and I should have thought, as 
 he was afterwards so anxious de se frotter against me, he 
 would at that time have been still more anxious to have per- 
 sonally performed his threat of driving the leopards into the 
 sea ; but he stopped, all of a svidden, committed the command 
 of the armies to Soult, who pushed Moore as hard as he 
 could, while Buonaparte returned to Valladolid, where he 
 remained a week or ten days, doing nothing that we know of 
 while Soult was following Moore ; and I think it was about 
 the very day that the battle of Corunna was fought that Buona- 
 parte set out from Valladolid for France, riding post through 
 Spain, and making a wonderfully rapid journey to Paris. 
 
 1
 
 1826.] BUONAPARTE AT VALLADOLID. 355 
 
 The reason given for all this was that he had received 
 news of the bad disposition of Austria, which rendered his 
 presence in Paris very urgent ; Lut that does not explain 
 his quitting his army at Astorga, at the moment that it liad 
 come in contact with Moore, and it was clear they must soon 
 liglit a regular battle ; and his returning to waste, as far as I 
 can ^ see, ten days or a fortnight Ijefore he set out for Paris. 
 Was he disinclined de se f rotter against Moore ? Did he wisli 
 that Soult should try what stuff our people were made of 
 before he risked his own gTcat reputation against us ? or did 
 he despair of driving us out of Corunna ? and was the bad 
 news from Vienna (he generally kept bad news a profound 
 secret) now invented or promulgated to excuse his evident 
 reluctance to follow us up ? I cannot account for his not 
 ha^ing subtracted from the three weeks he spent in Spain 
 after his return from Astorga, and the three months that, 
 I think, he spent at Paris, half-a-dozen days for so great an 
 object as a victory over the English won by himself in person. 
 My own notion is that he was not sure of the ^■ictory. He 
 was certainly at that time greatly displeased with Talleyrand, 
 and made liim a scene on his arrival in Paris ; and it is possible, 
 and even probable, that the extreme haste of his return may 
 have had some political cause, foreign or internal ; but even 
 this does not explain my difficulty of why he did not in 
 person attack Moore, or, at all events, why he Avas not rather 
 with the army the ten days that he lingered at Valladolid. 
 
 2 A 2
 
 356 TEE CROKEB PAPERS. [Chap. XIL 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 1827. 
 
 Lord Liverpool's last Illness— Death of the Puke of York— Canning's 
 Accession to Power — Political Events in 1827 — George IV. and 
 Canning— The Conynghams— Catholic Emancipation— Peel and Can- 
 ning— The Corn Laws— Wellington and Peel— Power of the Aristocracy 
 in Politics— Canning's Independence— Mr. Croker's Anxiety to effect a 
 Junction with the moderate Whigs— Jealousy of Peel— Mr. Croker is 
 elected for Dublin University— Fete at Boyle Farm— The summer of 
 
 1827 Illness and Death of Canning— Subsequent Negotiations — Lord 
 
 Goderich and his Ministry— Early Predictions of its Failure. 
 
 The year 1827 marked at once the culminating point and 
 the close of Canning's career. Scarcely had he realized the 
 most aml)itious of his dreams when death summoned him 
 to relinquish the power which he had attained, by means 
 that his warmest admii^ers were not always prepared to 
 defend. For years previously, he had looked forward with 
 confidence to filling the office of Prime Minister of England, 
 and when Lord Liverpool was seized with the illness from 
 which he never recovered, Canning saw that his oppor- 
 tunity had come. The Eldon section of the Tory party, 
 with Peel and Wellington, were opposed to his plans, but 
 with equal art and determination, he swept aside every 
 impediment in his path to success. The narrative of the 
 political events of that time has often been written, though 
 never perhaps with all the clearness and fulness that could
 
 1827.] CANNING AND CATHOLIC EMANCIPATION. 357 
 
 be desired. Mr. Croker's letters contain nmcli tliat will l.e 
 of value to the' historian who may hereafter undertake the 
 task. He was consulted on almost all sides at every stage 
 of the negotiations, and he could see, from his peculiarly 
 advantageous point of view, a good deal that was hidden from 
 the persons more directly and more nearly concerned in 
 the moves that were being made. He was, it will be 
 observed, very anxious that Canning should bring himself 
 to act cordially with Wellington and l*eel, but this Avas 
 impracticable for many reasons, the chief of which was that 
 Canning was resolved to be in the foremost place, while 
 neither "Wellington nor Peel was willing to see him there. 
 Canning's superior generalship carried the day — thanks, 
 ]iartially, to the influence he had already acquired over tlie 
 King. 
 
 The Conynghani family were, on their side, rendered 
 friendly to Canning by the appointment which he secured for 
 Lord Conyngliam of the Chamberlainship, and for Lady 
 Conyngham's son of an Under-Secretaryship in the Foreign 
 Office. He had also shown a most friendly disposition 
 towards Mr. C. E. Sumner, the tutor of Lady Conyngham's 
 son, who was afterwards made Bishop of Winchester. At 
 the same time, he was careful to gain the good will of 
 Madame de Lieven and Sir William Knighton. With these 
 powerful forces in his favour, unpopularity at Court was no 
 longer an element which it was requisite for him to take into 
 account. 
 
 The question of Catholic Emancipation M\as embarrassing, 
 l)ut it seems to have occurred to Canning that this also misht 
 be disposed of without difficulty. For his own part, he was 
 prepared to undertake not to bring the subject forward during 
 the lifetime of the King, but he began by advising the King 
 to form an Administration based upon his own views, of
 
 358 THE CEOKER PAPERS. [Chap. XII, 
 
 opposition to the Catholics, believing, as a critic who is 
 usually allowed to be impartial* has said, " such a Govern- 
 ment to be impossible, and also convinced that if possible it 
 would be ruinous to the State." Few of Canning's avowed 
 assailants have pronounced upon him a harsher sentence than 
 this. The result of the carefully considered series of steps 
 was that Canning became First Lord of the Treasury, and 
 Wellington and Peel, acting with the anti-Catholic party 
 generally, resigned their offices. Special efforts were made 
 by Mr. Croker to persuade Peel to remain with Canning, and 
 Peel was at one time disposed to take that course ; but, as 
 Mr. Disraeli remarked,! "between Mr. Canning and Mr. 
 Peel there existed an antipathy : they disliked each other ; 
 Mr. Canning was jealous of Mr. Peel, and Mr. Peel was a 
 little envious of Mr. Canning." Thus repulsed by his old 
 political associates. Canning sought support from the Whigs 
 and found them ready enough to join him, with the impor- 
 tant exception of Lord Grey, who remained hostile, and dis- 
 charged barbed arrows at the new Prime Minister, every one 
 of which rankled deeply in the wound. The Tories attacked 
 him severely, and the reproaches which he had to endure for 
 treachery towards his former friends undoubtedly affected 
 him deeply, and increased the ill-health from which he had long 
 been suffering. " He could not possibly disguise from him- 
 self," remarked an acute political observer of the time,t " the 
 humiliating truth that he had formed a coalition with that 
 party and those persons against whom he had been sincerely 
 and victoriously engaged during his whole political life upon 
 
 * Sir George Cornewall Lewis ; the ' Aclmiuistrations of Great Britain,* 
 
 p. 443. 
 
 t 'Life of Lord George Bentiuck' (1852), p. 286. 
 
 X In the Quarterhj Review, vol. xliv. 1831, p. 282. This article, it 
 may be as well to state, was not written by Mr. Croker.
 
 1827.] LORT) GODERICn. 550 
 
 every question of importance, the single one excepted, upon 
 which neither he nor they deemed it prudent to try their 
 strength against the known opinions of the King, and the 
 undoubted feeling of the country." 
 
 In four short montlis, tlie rule of Canning was ended by 
 death, and for a little more than five months, his successor, 
 Lord Godei"ich passed a harassed life, amid perpetual brawls 
 and disagreements ; dissatisfied with his colleagues, his col- 
 leagues dissatisfied with him ; a perpetual cloud of resignations 
 in the air, and a battle incessantly raging over personal 
 " claims " which the Premier was too weak a man either to 
 quell or to reconcile. There is scarcely a more pitiable figure 
 to be seen in the whole of political history. "Wlien, at last, 
 fairly badgered out of office, Lord Goderich went to take leave 
 of the King, it was said that he burst out crying, and that 
 the King offered him his pocket handkerchief* — an incident 
 which brought this ludicrous entr'acte to an appropriate 
 termination. 
 
 Mr. Croker's diary and letters explain in detail much that 
 has hitherto been in doubt, or has been known only in 
 a general form. His record of the year begins with the 
 death of the Duke of York, who was attacked with gout and. 
 dropsy in December, 1826. The King went to see his 
 brother twice, and was much affected. 
 
 Mr. CroJccr to Lord Hertford. 
 
 January 4th, 1827. 
 
 He sent to-day for Taylorf and Stephenson, who had not 
 seen him for some days, and said, " I feel I am dying and 
 have sent for you to bid you good bye." He then appeared 
 
 * ' Colchester Correspondence,' iii. 540. 
 
 t [Sir Herbert Taylor, who had been the Duke of York's military 
 secretary, and had also acted as amanuensis for George III. when blindness 
 first overtook him.]
 
 3G0 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. XII. 
 
 to move liis lips as if in prayer, and then made a motion with 
 his head as if to bow them away ; so, at least, his servant 
 interpreted the gesture, and tliey retired. He did not take 
 their hands. 
 
 Princess Sophia is, they say, confined at home by illness. 
 Ill she may be, poor thing, but I believe she stays away 
 because it is painful, and useless, and injurious to both that 
 she should see her brother. She saw liim yesterday, and he 
 held her hand half an hour without speaking. 
 
 The Dukes of Clarence and Sussex are constantly in the 
 house, but have not seen him these two or three days. 
 
 To Lord Hertford. 
 
 January 6th, 1827. 
 
 The scene is closed, and the most kind and best natured of 
 Princes is no more. I need not tell you any particulars — the 
 papers are full of them. 
 
 He was fully sensible to noon at least, as at that hour he 
 insisted that his legs should be dressed, and expressed some 
 impatience at the delay wldch, he saw, was intentional. • 
 
 The Dukes of Clarence and Sussex were in the ante-room, 
 and both showed very much of good feeling. Taylor went off 
 to the King with the melancholy tidings, and is not yet come 
 back, so that we are in doubt what his Majesty will do about 
 the mourning. 
 
 A few weeks after the Duke's death, his guns and pistols 
 were sold at Christie's. Mr. Croker estimated that they had 
 cost about 4000/., for there were " four-score fowling-pieces 
 and as many cases of pistols." Wliat they brought in the 
 auction room he does not state. The Duke of AVellington 
 succeeded the King's brother as Commander-in-Chief, but 
 \ the King himself desired to fill that position, and was only 
 deterred from his purpose by the unusually vigorous remon- 
 strances of Lord Liverpool. George IV. was far from being in 
 vigorous health, and there seeemed a probability that the Duke 
 of Clarence, liis brother, would soon be called upon to succeed 
 him. " He had" wrote Mr. Croker to a friend, " some affec-
 
 1827.] THE CORN LAWS. 3G1 
 
 tion in liis legs, ami the itching is so tronblesonie that he 
 cannot lielp scratching himself to pieces. His legs, from his 
 ankles to his knees, are sore (not hrolcn) from the operation 
 of his own nails." 
 
 The Corn Laws were again hrouglit hefore the House Ly 
 Canning, who i^roposed to adopt a sliding scale, the duty on 
 ^orn Ijcing increased or diminished as the price fell or rose. 
 Huskisson had suggested the device, and before Lord Liver- 
 pool's illness he had fully approved of it. But it was not 
 thought advisable to allow Huskisson to bring in the Bill, in 
 consequence of tlie opposition he had aroused among the 
 country party. In writing to Peel, Mr. Croker speaks of 
 " your " resolutions, but in reality Peel opposed them. His 
 iinticipation with regard to the opposition the Bill would have 
 to meet with was, of course, fully borne out hy subserpient 
 events. 
 
 Mr. Crohcr to Mr. Peel. 
 
 March 1st, 1827. 
 
 Dear Peel, 
 
 I should have seen you had I not been confined ever since 
 Sunday, Init my cold is better, and I shall go to the House to- 
 morrow, or to-night if wanted. 
 
 I hear from the people wdio have called upon me that the 
 opposition to your Corn Eesolutions {if they are to make any 
 sensible alteration) will be very great, particularly in the 
 Upper House, where anything under 70s. will be, they say, 
 rejected ; this may be an exaggeration, but, depend upon it, 
 there is a spirit of opposition gathering in the Lords which 
 will be formidable. 
 
 I dare say that your Ptesolutions are reasonable, but you 
 will find your noble auditors -li^ireasonable. 
 
 I think it right that you should know this ; although I do 
 not think that it can have any effect on your measures, it 
 may have on your speeches. 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 J. W. C.
 
 362 THE CROEER PAPERS. [Chap. XIL 
 
 Lord Liverpool was first incapacitated l3y an attack of 
 paralysis and apoplexy on the 17th of February, and for 
 several weeks the Government remained with only a nominal 
 head. 
 
 From Mr. CroJccrs Diary. 
 
 / Saturday, Feb. Vlth, 1827. — Lord Liverpool was this morn- 
 / ing struck with an apoplectic or paralytic attack at Fife 
 House. He had received his post letters at the usual hour, 
 and had opened them with his two private secretaries — 
 a few wliich he wished to consider he took away with him 
 into the room where he generally breakfasted. This was a 
 little after ten. The servant who took in breakfast observed 
 that he was sitting in rather an unusual way, and had .not 
 spoken to him, but did not suspect that anything was amiss, 
 and he left the breakfast, but a considerable time having 
 elapsed, the servant went in again, and found him extended 
 on the floor without sense or (apparently) life. It happened 
 that his physician, Dr. Driver, was in the House at the time. 
 He was immediately called in and bled him. Sir Henry 
 Halford was also sent for. Dubious whether the disease was 
 of a fatal character or a mere temporary attack, those about 
 Lord Liverpool resolved to keep the matter secret as long as 
 they could, and succeeded wonderfully, for it was not known 
 even to the Ministers till between one or two. 
 
 Sir William Knighton has been some days seriously ill in 
 Hanover Square, and the Duke of Wellington and Arbuthnot 
 went to him to consult as to the mode of conmiunicating this 
 melancholy event to the King. Sir W., and indeed every one 
 else, was very anxious that the Duke should go, but he posi- 
 tively refused. He said it was not his business, and that on 
 no occasion did he wish to do what was not his business, but 
 particularly he would not so in a case like this. He proposed, 
 and it was settled by such of the Ministers as were at hand, 
 that Peel, as Secretary of State for the Home Department, was 
 the fittest person to go down. A messenger was despatched 
 to Brighton about half-past two to break the matter to the 
 King, and Peel followed about five. 
 
 I "dined at the Speaker's second official dinner, where there 
 \ was not only no grief, but not even a decent pensiveness. In 
 ^ short, no one seemed to think or care about poor Lord Liver- 
 pool., I sat next Wilmot Horton. He seemed to think that
 
 1827.] THE DUKE AND POLITICS. > 365 
 
 Canning's health, habits, and taste would all render it inipos-\ 
 sible for liini to ])e First Lord of the Treasury and Chaneellf)r ^ 
 of the Excheciuer. For my own part, I cannot see how he 
 can be anything else, or how anybody else can be placed in 
 these offices as things are now circumstanced. Two months 
 ago, l)efore the Duke of Wellington had accepted the com- 
 mand of the army, he might have been made First Lord of 
 the Treasury, l)ut I look upon it as now quite out of the 
 question. Some weeks ago, when some one, I forget wlio, 
 was expressing how nnich the Duke's appointment (to the 
 Horse Guards) had increased his weight and diminished that 
 of Canning, 1 said, what I am now confirmed in thinking, 
 that it was quite the reverse, as it removed Canning's only 
 rival for the situation of I'rinie Minister to a place which was 
 so appropriate to him, that he could not leave it even to be 
 First Minister. 
 
 Lord Liverpool had spoken the night before in the House of 
 Lords, and was not so clear as usual. Lady Isabella Blachford, 
 who called to pay Mrs. Croker a morning visit at Kensington 
 before the thing was hiovm, said that Lord Liverpool had made 
 a strange speech the night before about the Duchess of 
 Clarence, and had called her " a M'orthy and deserving object." 
 I daresay that he was already a little confused, yet next 
 morning, half an hour before he fell, his secretaries did not 
 see any difference in his mind or manner. 
 
 Sunday, Feb. 18th, 1827. — As I came into town from Ken- 
 sington, I called on the Duke of Wellington, whom I found 
 at breakfast. After a few words aljout some other l)usiness^ 
 we began to talk of the state of affiiirs. He was quite open 
 and confidential, and his views were, what they always are, 
 clear, moderate, and generous. He said that all he wanted 
 was to keep the Government together, not merely for their own 
 sakes, Ijut for that of the country, for that " after them comes 
 chao-^." I said that a few weeks ago that would have been 
 conq)aratively easy, as all pretensions might have been per- 
 suaded to give way to him, and all parties in the Cabinet 
 might without dishonour have united under him, but that I 
 could not l)ut feel that his late appointment seemed to render 
 any arrangement of that kind inq)0ssible. 
 
 He said at once, and in his frankest manner, " Yes, yes, I 
 am in my proper place, in the place to which I was destined 
 by my trade. I am a soldier, and am in my place at the head 
 of the army, as the Chancellor, who is a lawyer, is in his place
 
 5^4 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. XII. 
 
 / 
 
 on tlie woolsack. We have each of us a trade, and are in our 
 proper position when we are exercising it." This encouraged 
 ine to say that I thought the way — the best way — I feared 
 the only way — of keeping us together was to make Canning 
 Minister, and to give Eobinson the Foreign Office, with, if 
 they wanted assistance in the Lords, a peerage. This, I 
 said, would make the least change, and would, I thought, 
 answer all expectations, provided Mr. Canning should engage 
 to take the Government on the same terms and in the same 
 spirit in which Lord Liverpool had held it. 
 
 The Duke seemed to assent to what I said about Mr. 
 Canning, but to doubt about Eobinson ; and he asked, gene- 
 rally and without making any distinction as to the points of 
 my proposition, whether I thought Peel would assent to that 
 arrangement ? I said I did not know, but that I thought lie, 
 ought ; that I was sure it was the course which would ensure 
 his becoming ]\Iinister in due time. The Duke spoke hand- 
 somely of Canning in all their personal intercourse, and 
 seems inclined if possible to go on with him, but I see that 
 he doubts Canning's prudence, and fears the restlessness of his 
 disposition. 
 
 I said that I agreed with him that the Foreign Office would 
 be a severe trial, and perhaps too high a step for Eobinson, 
 and that I threw it out only because it would make the least 
 displacement, as he and Canning would only have to change 
 sides of Downing Street. Palmerston, I thought, would be 
 a better Secretary of State, but he had not yet been in the 
 Cabinet ; Eobinson, after being Chancellor of the Exchequer, 
 could not be well postponed to Palmerston, and as he, 
 Palmerston, had made no difficulty about Eobinson's present 
 position, I thought it likely that he would make none as to 
 my proposed arrangement, which would be the nearest possible 
 approach to the dcdiis quo. If once we began a general move, 
 I agreed with him that chaos was not far off. 
 
 Some time after this, while matters were still in suspense, 
 Peel called on me at the Admiralty (as he often did) to ask 
 me to take a w\alk. I had told him all along of what I had 
 said to the Duke of Wellington on the above occasion, and 
 some other accidental meetings, and though he never made any 
 direct declaration, I had no reason to doubt that he would 
 acquiesce, if the Duke did, in Canning's promotion. This was 
 strongly confirmed during this walk. Huskisson, who was 
 Canning's alter ecjo, had been ill and confined to liis house,
 
 1827.] rEEL AND CANNING. 365 
 
 \ 
 
 and reel proposed that we should Ite^iii l)y paying him a 
 visit at Somerset House, -which we did, and nothing could be 
 more cordial ; and to those who know Peel's rcry ^wyif/iVo- 
 manners, this volunteered visit and cordiality at that moment 
 will Ije conclusive that lie had then no idea of separating him- 
 self from Canning. After we had paid a long and cheerful 
 visit to Huskisson, we pursued our walk over Waterloo and 
 Westminster Bridges, and through the parks, talking of 
 various matters, and now and then of the crisis in which we 
 were. Just as we got two-thirds of the way up Constitution 
 Hill, our talk ahout the latter liad grown more exidicit, and 
 we were discussing in a light proMematical way the course 
 that different members of the Cabinet might take if Canning- 
 was placed at the head. I mentioned Lord Westmoreland as 
 likely to resist. Peel pooh-poohed that difficulty. We were 
 just then o])posite to Lord Eldon's, and pointing to his house, 
 I said, "Would he stay," upon which Peel s(|ueezed my arm 
 tightly under his, and said, " he v:iU if I do." I had, and 
 could have, no longer any doubt that Peel had no disinclina- 
 tion to such an arrangement — the squeeze of the arm seemed 
 to say, " I have settled all that." I never heard, and Canning- 
 told methathe never knew, what had changed Peel's disposition 
 — for a change he, like me, thought it was. Peel never again 
 spoke to me on the subject, and I was as ignorant of and asmucli 
 sur])rised at his resignation, indeed more so than the public, 
 and up to that time I had taken no part in the affair, and I 
 don't think I had even seen Canning in private. I never 
 mentioned the subject to the Duke because I did not think h& 
 had treated me with confidence in not telling me his change 
 of oi)inion ; Imt his kindness to me continued not only un- 
 altered, l)ut I might say was increased, and I really l)elieve- 
 that he did not wish that I should resign, which if he liad 
 mixed me up in the matter I probably must have done, though 
 certainly not for Peel's reasons, as / could not object to 
 Canning's former inclination to Catholic emancipation, as I 
 was in the same category. So was Lord Melville; and why 
 ?ie went I never could guess — I suspect that there nuist ha\e- 
 been some old grudge between him and Canning. 
 
 3Iarch IGth. — Dined with Mr. and Mrs. Peel. I fear that 
 he is quite indisposed to serving under, not Canning he says, 
 but a Catholic l^remier. He would like the Duke or Lord 
 Bathurst, or even Lord IMelville. I observed to him that 
 Lord Melville was a Catholic.
 
 S66 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. XIT. 
 
 Mr. Crokcr to Lord Hertford. 
 
 Marcli 27th, 1827. 
 
 On Friday evening Lord Liverpool showed tlie first 
 symptoms of political recollection, and again on Saturday 
 evening. He asked after the result of the Catholic Question, 
 and then added in a faint voice, " who succeeds ? " Lady 
 Liverpool told him of the King's forbearance, and expressed 
 her own hope that he would be soon able to do business. He 
 said, " No, no, not I — too weak — too weak."* After this he 
 relapsed into unconsciousness. This, however, relieves 
 Ministers from the silence to which delicacy to Lord L. 
 had imposed upon them, and I have no doubt that the King 
 will be spoken to in a day or two. Canning and Lord and 
 Lady Granville and the Lievens go to Windsor to-day. 
 
 Mr. Huskisson to Mr. Crohcr. 
 
 Somerset Place, April 12tli, 1827. 
 
 My dear Ceoker, h p.m. 
 
 I was at your door about half an hour ago, but found no 
 admission. I therefore conclude that you are gone to Ken- 
 sington, and your servants to bed. 
 
 Canning has so many engagements to-morrow (besides the 
 probability of having to wait upon the King) that he cannot 
 name any time ; but he desired me to say that, if you will 
 call in Downing Street, taking your chance, he will be very 
 glad to see you. 
 
 He does not ask to see Lord Hertford (though it would V 
 afford him great pleasure to have an opportunity) for two 
 reasons : 1st. He is under so much uncertainty as to the dis- 
 posal of his time ; and 2nd. He does not wish to do anything 
 which might be misconstrued into an attempt to canvas in 
 support of the King's right to name the individual who is to 
 be at the head of the Administration. It is against this right 
 that the present effort is directed. • The King, you may rely 
 upon it, feels this, and not the Catholic Question, to be the 
 only question at issue in the present struggle ; and they will 
 find themselves much mistaken who expect to overcome that 
 
 * [" He had been exceedingly harassed for the whole of the last two 
 years by the intrigues then carrying on." — Colchester Diary, iii. p. 477.]
 
 1827.] CANNING'S MINISTRY. 367 
 
 impression, or to dictate to the feelings Ly which it has been 
 so strongly excited. When C. left the King this evening, 
 H.M. was apprized of the full extent of the difficulties thrown 
 in his way. This knowledge has only confirmed the King's 
 determination not to yield to them ; and I think you will 
 agree with me that with the King resolved to l)e firm, Mr. C. 
 is" not likely to desert the duty which H.]\I. has imposed upon 
 him. 
 
 Every truly yours, 
 
 W. HUSKISSON. 
 
 Mr. Canning's efforts to create a Ministry were impeded by 
 many circumstances, and Mr. Croker was apparently desirous 
 that he should not increase his difficulties by disregarding the 
 influence of the great territorial lords, who exercised so great 
 a sway in the House of Commons, and consequently over the 
 Government, before the Eeform Bill of 1832. It was with a 
 view of reminding him of this power, which necessarily had 
 to be reckoned with, that the next letter was wTitten. The 
 allusion in the latter part of Canning's letter was probably 
 aimed at the Duke of Wellington, but it has always been 
 understood that " insult," if there were any, was offered by 
 Canning to Wellington. 
 
 Mr. Croker to Mr. Canning. 
 
 April 3rd, 1827. 
 
 Dear Me. Canning, 
 Some gentlemen and particularly our friend Sir George, 
 talk so slightingly of Blue -ribbands that I think it right to 
 send you a memorandum which will show you, in one view, 
 how impossible it is to do anything satisfactory towards a 
 Government in this country without the help of the aristo- 
 cracy. I know that you must be well aware of this, yet the 
 following summary may not be useless to you, though I know 
 that it is imperfect. 
 
 Yours, dear Canning, 
 
 Most truly, 
 
 J. W. C.
 
 368 THE CEOKEB PAPERS. [Chap. XII, 
 
 Number of members returned to the House of Commons by 
 
 , the influence of some of the Peers : — 
 
 . \ Tories — Lord Lonsdale 9, Lord Hertford 8, Duke of Paitland 
 
 ^-^ 6, Duke of Newcastle 5, Lord Yarl)ro' (for W. Holmes) 5, 
 
 Lord Powis 4, Lord Falmouth 4, Lord Anoiesey 4, Lord 
 
 Aylesbury 4, Lord Piadnor 3, Duke of Northumberland 4, 
 
 Duke of Buccleuch 4, Marquis of Stafford 3, Duke of Bucks 
 
 (2) 3, Lord Mount-Edgcumbe 4 — 70 ; besides at least twelve or 
 
 fourteen who have each two seats, say 26 — 96. 
 
 WJiiffs — Lord Fitzwilliam 8, Lord Darlington 7, Duke of 
 Devon 7, Duke of Norfolk 6, Lord Grosvenor 6, Duke of 
 Bedford 4, Lord Carrington 4 — 42 ; with about half a dozen 
 who have each a couple of seats, 12 — 54. 
 
 3£r. Canning to Mr. Crol'cr. 
 
 April 3rd, 1827. 
 
 Am I to understand, then, that you consider the King as 
 completely in the hands of the Tory aristocracy as his father, 
 or rather as George 11. was in the hands of the Whigs ? If so, 
 George III. reigned, and Mr. Pitt (Ijoth father and son) 
 administered the Government in vain. 
 
 I have a better opinion of the real vigour of the Crown when 
 it chooses to put forth its own strength, and I am not with- 
 out some reliance on the body of the people. 
 
 And whether in or out of office (an alternative infinitely 
 more indifferent to me than you perhaps imagine, and with the 
 inclination of my choice, if anything to the latter) I will not 
 act (as I never have acted) as the tool of any confederacy, 
 however powerful ; nor will I submit to insult (without 
 resenting it according to the best of my poor ability) from 
 any member of such confederacy, be he who he may. 
 
 There are my opinions. They are purely defensive ones, 
 but there are limits beyond which defence cannot be purely 
 passive. 
 
 Yours, 
 
 C. 
 
 Mr, Croher to Mr. Canning. 
 
 [Same date.J 
 
 I really did not mean to attach any importance to the list 
 of the aristocratical members, nor do I surmise that they have.
 
 1827.] THE LANDED INTEREST. 3G9 
 
 at this moiiient, any peculiar influence M'itli the Kin^j-, fur I 
 positively know nothing- of any of the opinions exce])t wliat I 
 hear in the streets, into whicli I seldom ,no, andexce])tini4' also 
 those of one person whom I mentioned to you. All I meant 
 to do was to show, in one view, how poM'erful the aristocracy 
 is, and how necessary it is to have a fair proportion on the 
 side of a Government. You will oljserve tliat 1 included tlie 
 AVhigs as well as the Tories, and I reckon Lord Seaford's and 
 Lord Wharncliffe's interests, as well as those of the older 
 jieers, and I arrive at this conclusion, and a very important 
 one it is, that the old Tonj and the steady Wldg aristocracies 
 have at least 150 members in the House of Conunons, not by 
 influence or connection, but by direct nomination, and that 
 no Government which did not divide them could stand for 
 any length of time. I think the peers, &c., who are not 
 either ohl Tories or old Whigs may have al>out a dozen 
 members. 
 
 I assure you, on my honour, that I never heard anything 
 like insult or even disrespect towards you, but I really know 
 little of what folks are saying or doing ; for except "the one 
 jierson I have already alluded to, I have not had a conversa- 
 tion, nnich less any confidential comnuniications as to the Ihie 
 of politics that any one was likely to adopt ; my regard and 
 gratitude to the Duke of Wellington, who first Ijrought me 
 forward in }niblic life — my private love for Peel — and my 
 respect and admiration for you, made and make me most 
 anxious that you should all hold together. Neither political 
 gratitude nor private friendship Ijlind me to the fact that in 
 such a union your present and relative station entitles you to 
 exj)ect the lead, and that such an arrangement would afibrd 
 the best chance of keeping the Government together. At 
 least, so I think ; and these have been long my opinions ; 
 but I feel that it is almost presumptuous in mc to have opinions 
 on such subjects. I have no political weight, either personal 
 or official ; and although I am most anxious to see my friends 
 kept together, and would do anything within ni}' humble 
 means to effect so desirable an object, I have not the vanity 
 to suppose that I can conduce to it, otherwise than by sa}-ing 
 as I always have done, that in my 2:)rivate intercourse with 
 each, I had never seen any thing but good-will and generous 
 sentiments towards the other two. 
 
 I have been betrayed into tliis rather ri(jmaroU>ih. note by 
 an expression in your note which seemed to imply tliat 1 knew 
 
 VOL. I. 2 b
 
 370 THE CROKEB PAPEB8. [Chap. XII. 
 
 or appreliendecl some liitcli in the progress of the arrange- 
 ment which I most wish to see — and I hope you will forgive 
 my tediousness. 
 
 Yours, dear Mr. Canning, 
 
 Most truly, 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 Mr. Canning to Mr. Croker. 
 
 April 4tli, 1827. 
 
 Your list is good for nothing without commentary. Add 
 therefore, if you can, to these names the frice that GTOvern- 
 ment pays for their support, in Army, Navy, Church, and 
 Law, Excise and Customs, &c. 
 
 And then calculate what number of unconnected votes the 
 same price distril)uted amongst others would buy in the 
 market if the Crown were free ? 
 
 [^Enclosed in the forcgoinrj letter.'] 
 
 Lord Lonsdale 9, Duke of Eutland 6, Duke of Newcastle 5, 
 Lord Powis 4, Lord Falmouth 4, Lord Anglesey 4, Lord 
 Aylesbury 4, Duke of Northumberland 4, Duke of BuccleucK 
 4, Lord Mount-Edgcumbe 4 — 48, 
 
 3Ir. Crohcr to Mr. Canning. 
 
 April 6th, 1827. 
 
 I send you a memorandum which, I think, will surprise 
 you. The aristocracy, powerful as it is, does not enjoy any 
 great share of political office in the House of Commons. So 
 that, in fact, a Government has less to give to them, or take 
 from them, than at first thoughts one would have supposed. 
 Depend upon it, the aristocracy is the unnm nccessarium, or, 
 at least, an indisixnsaUe ingredient, and that in order to con- 
 ciliate and manage it, the union of the Duke, Peel, and your- 
 self is absolutely necessary. 
 
 I know very well that many of these grandees are very 
 unreasonable, and I believe there has been too much indis- 
 creet and even offensive talk (though I have not myself heard 
 ^ny), but indiscretions and offences are, I suppose, inseparable
 
 1827.] 
 
 POLITICAL POWER OF NOBLEMEN. 
 
 371 
 
 from th'e excitement ■which a state of things like the present 
 naturally produces. If you, Peel, and the Duke are once 
 agreed, all the rest will soon subside into their accustomed 
 channels, and flow along without even a murmur, which God 
 grant. 
 
 Yours most sincerely, 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 Patrons. 
 
 Xumber 
 of Members. 
 
 Number of such Members holding 
 Political Office. 
 
 Lord Lonsdale 
 
 Lord Hertford 
 
 Duke of Rutland 
 
 Duke of Bucks 
 
 Holmes's Trustees . . 
 
 Duke of Newcastle 
 
 Duke of Beaufort 
 
 Duke of Northumberland 
 
 Lord Powis 
 
 Lord Aylesbury 
 
 Lord Falmouth 
 
 Lord Anglesey 
 
 Lord Shaftesbury 
 
 Lord Bath 
 
 Lord St. Germains 
 
 Lord Somers 
 
 Lord Mount-Edgcumbe 
 
 The Bullers 
 
 Lord Strartbrd 
 
 Lord Sandwich 
 
 Johnston Trustees 
 
 Lord Huntingtower 
 
 Lord Beverley 
 
 Dorset Trustees 
 
 Lord Pembroke 
 
 Lord Westmoreland 
 
 Lord Exeter 
 
 Lord Radnor 
 
 Duke of Leeds 
 
 Lord Londonderry 
 
 Lord Harrowby 
 
 Lord Donegal . . . . 
 
 Bridgewater Trustees 
 
 9 
 
 8 
 
 6 
 
 6 
 
 5 
 
 5 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 4 
 
 3(24) 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 3 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 2 (Becket). 
 
 2 (Croker). 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 2 (Canning, Phillimore). 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 1 (Holmes). 
 
 1 (Nichol). 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 1 (Cockburn). 
 
 1 (Arbuthuot). 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 (Calvert). 
 
 1 (WaUacc). 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 (Strathaven). 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 (Harding). 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 116 
 
 18 
 
 So that of 116 members, returned l)y the Tory aristocracy, 
 only 18 hold political office, and of those 18 no less than 12 
 
 2 B 2
 
 372 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. XIL 
 
 are persons on whom the patrons confer that favour at the 
 request of the Government. 
 
 There are about 30 Tory Peers, who have each one seat. 
 Two Tory Commoners have each 4. Sixteen Tory Commoners 
 have each two seats, and about seventeen Tory Commoners 
 who have one seat each. Total, 203 ; in the hands of what 
 may be called the Tory aristocracy. The Whig seats are 
 about 73. 
 
 Mr. Canning to Mr. Crokcr. 
 
 Foreign Office, April 18tli, 1827. 
 
 1. I have written to North * to offer him a seat, without con- 
 test or expense. What can I say more ? 
 
 2. It is a little too much to leave us aground ; and then to 
 make our not calling for other help the condition of coming 
 back to us. 
 
 I will however suspend everything till to-morrow. 
 
 Ever yours, 
 
 G. C. 
 
 Mr. Crolccr to Lord Loivthcr.^ 
 
 April 14th, 1827. 
 
 Dear Lowtiier, 
 
 I hasten to tell you that Mr. Canning has received a proof 
 of his ]\Iajesty's determination to support him, which will 
 lead to most important results. The Duke of Clarence is 
 declared Lord High-Admiral, and the whole of the late Board, 
 Protestants and all, remain with his Eoyal Highness as his 
 Council. 
 
 No true Tory will like to commit himself in opposition for 
 two generations, and I hope and trust that most of them will 
 consent to go on in the King's service. I am anxious that 
 you should know this important event as soon as possible, as 
 I cannot doubt that such a mark of the King's personal feel- 
 
 * [Mr. North had been a candidate for Dublin University against Mr. 
 Croker, dividing the Conservative vote.] 
 
 f [Lord Lowther appears frequently at a later date in this corre- 
 spondence as the Earl of Lonsdale. He resigned his office in 1827, 
 declining to serve under Mr. Canning.]
 
 1827.] CANNING'S ADMINISTRATION. 373 
 
 ings will have some effect on you. It <:jrieves me to think 
 that in addition to so many other afflictin<i; disunions I should 
 have any — even ijolitical differences with you — ^9c;-6'o?ia^ I 
 hope there never will l»e 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 Mr. Ci'ohcr to Lord Lowther. 
 
 April IGth, 1827. 
 
 Dear Lowtiier, 
 
 Your letter is a most sensible and able one, and states the 
 case with great fairness.* I will only make one observation, 
 that dreading as you do Whig-men and ultra-Li l)eral measures, 
 you ought not (in strict argument) to contril)ute to force Mr. 
 Canning to such men and such measures. j\Ir. Canning is 
 making, they say, every effort to obtain Tories and I'rotestants 
 to join his Administration. If so, what can Tories and Pro- 
 testants want more ? and if they will not help to assert their 
 own principles, who is to blame but themselves ? I am a 
 Tory as sincere, though not so important, as you are ; and if I 
 Avere as important, I should think I best served my principles 
 by asserting them in council, and maintaining them in practice. 
 
 My only hope now is that Mr. Canning may be able to 
 form such a Government, and be able to pursue such measures, 
 as may ol)tain your approbation. 
 
 Your friend Copley is Lord Chancellor ; Lord Anglesey, they 
 say, Master-General; Tindal, Attorney-General. I have not 
 hea"rd that Beckett or Granville Somerset have resigned — nor 
 Macnaghten, nor Herries, nor Holmes ; so that there is a 
 sprinkling of Protestants. 
 
 I have not heard of any Opposition man being applied to, 
 although it is evident that if none of the Tories can be pre- 
 vailed upon to come, recourse must be had to some of the 
 moderate Whigs. Pulilic opinion has pronounced most loiully 
 for Mr. Canning. You know how I despise popularity, and I 
 set no store upon so fugacious and hollow a support, but it 
 will in this instance probably last long enough to enable 
 Mr. Canning to form a Government strong enough to forfeit 
 it with impunity. 
 
 For myself, I have no motive or object, but a desire to 
 
 * [This letter is not to be found.]
 
 374 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. XIL 
 
 keep my public friends together, and to keep my private 
 friends still indulgent to me. 
 
 I lament that I am not now addressing the First Commis- 
 sioner of Woods and Forests,* but I do not the less love you 
 because you do not take the same view of that subject that 
 
 I do. 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 Mr. Crohcr to Mr. James Daly, M.P. 
 
 April ITth, 1827. 
 
 My dear Daly, 
 
 The turn things have taken is indeed extraordinary, and to 
 me, in respect of Peel and the Duke, most afflicting ; but I 
 suppose it could not be helped. His Eoyal Highness the Duke 
 having offered me his confidence, I have consented to remain 
 not merely out of respect to him and out of duty to the office, 
 but, I will add, out of regard to the new Government itself, 
 which I think has been a little hardly dealt with by having 
 such a burst of resignations showered on it at once. 
 
 My chief consolation is that no one raises even a whisper 
 of reproach against Peel, whose conduct has been, comcnsio 
 omniuiii, most admirable. 
 
 Yours most smcerely, 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 During the progress of these negotiations, it happened that 
 Peel became distrustful of Mr. Croker, without the slightest 
 cause, as he subsequently discovered. It is evident from the 
 foregoing letters that Mr. Croker acted with entire loyalty 
 towards his friend, but Peel's suspicions were aroused, and for 
 some few months there was a coldness on his part toward Mr. 
 Croker. " Peel will not believe," wrote the latter, " that all 
 my communications with Canning were not directed against 
 his interests." Before the close of the year, however, tliis 
 misunderstanding was cleared away, although Peel's letter of 
 
 * [Lord Lowther was again appointed to this office in 1828.]
 
 1827.] FEEL AXD CliOKEJ}. 375 
 
 reconciliation scarcely made amends for the unnecessary 
 .suspicions wliicli lie had entertained. 
 
 Mr. Fed to Mr. Croker. 
 
 Drayton Manor, October 3rd, 1827. 
 
 My dear Ckokeii, 
 
 The suspension of my intercourse with you was caused hy 
 the part which I had reason to lielieve you were takinp; in 
 those arrangements which were connected with the dissolution 
 of the late Government. In consequence of unreserved com- 
 munications ^vith you, you were in possession of my opinions 
 and fixed intentions in certain contingencies, and I certainly 
 think that under all the circumstances I might have expected 
 from you at least a total abstinence from any interference, 
 direct or indirect, in what was passing at the time of which I 
 speak. 
 
 Mr. Canning declared to more than one person that there 
 was no one to whom he was so much indebted for su^'fjes- 
 tions as to the course which he should })ursue as he was 
 to you. 
 
 Such an avowal l)y him, or indeed the fact of your l)eing 
 in confidential comnmnication mth lum at the period in 
 ([uestion, was a sufficient reason for my declining to' hold any 
 intercourse with you on matters of a public nature. 
 
 I am perfectly ready to bury in complete oblivion the 
 -causes of misunderstanding and alienation, and it is clear that 
 nothing can more contribute to this — particularly considering 
 the relations in which we respectively stand to the present 
 Government — than a total oljlivion when we meet, of politics 
 also. 
 
 Believe me, my dear Croker, 
 
 Ever very faitlifully yours, 
 
 Egbert Peel. 
 
 It is quite certain that throughout this period Mr. Croker 
 neither sought nor desired to gain any advantage for himself. 
 The foregoing letters prove how thoroughly disinterested he 
 was, and what was the real nature of his advice. He had in 
 •every way sought to bring Peel into prominence rather than
 
 376 THE CBOKEB PAPEIIS. [Chap. XII. 
 
 to keep him down. Had he desired promotion to higher 
 office, he couUl easily have secured it. " I was so satisfied,'* 
 he wrote in after years, "with my post at the Admiralty 
 that I twice refused Privy Councillor's office. ]\Ir. Canning 
 offered me any that I should choose, but I peremptorily 
 declined. I preferred remaining at the Admiralty, where I 
 was master of my business, and not unacceptable to the 
 public, I thought it my duty to remain with and support 
 Mr. Canning on public grounds." On public questions his 
 views had undergone no change. He was engaged in a 
 contest for the representation of Dublin University — an 
 honour which he had much coveted for years past, and which 
 he soon had the satisfaction of obtaining. He took occasion 
 once more to declare his views concerning Catholic Eman- 
 cipation, and avowed that they were the same as they had 
 ever been. On the Corn Law Bill he was less in sympathy 
 with the views of Canning than with those of Wellington. 
 In the Upper House, the Opposition was very strong, and 
 the Ministry was not greatly strengthened by the elevation of 
 Mr. Eobinson to the Peerage under the title of Viscount 
 Goderich, The " sliding-scale " scheme was twice defeated 
 in the Lords, to the great vexation of Canning. The following 
 letters touch upon this subject, and upon certain topics of 
 social interest, such as the account of the two fetes which 
 enlivened the sunnner of 1827. 
 
 Mr. Crolcer to Lord Hertford. 
 
 June 26th, 1827. 
 
 The messenger is still embargoed, and I shall therefore des- 
 patch two packets more : one to St. Petersburg,* containing 
 only a note and a newspaper ; the other to wait at Berlin 
 with any addition Ward may have to make. Our House is 
 
 * [Lord Hertford was at this time Ambassador at St. Petersburg.]
 
 1827.] FETE AT BOYLE FAIiM. ol *■ 
 
 adjrjiirned, and ^^■c are to be x^rorogued on Saturday or 
 Monday. 
 
 You will lie sorry at all the bother about the Duke of W.'.>^ 
 auiendiiient to the Corn Bill. 
 
 The King, they say, conies to town on Friday or Saturday 
 to settle the Speech { but he will not g() in person, though he 
 is quite equal to do so in point of health. 
 
 The Speaker has had a fall from his horse— his face much 
 bruised and disfigured. He was hardly able to speak on 
 Saturday, but he ^\■ould get into the Chair for ten minutes to- 
 forward the business ; he is Vietter, but will look for a fort- 
 night to come as if he had been a performer at :Moulsey 
 
 Hurst.* 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 It will be obser\-ed that in the next letter there is the first 
 allusion to Canning's rapidly failing health. 
 
 3fr. Crohcr to Lord Hertford. 
 
 The great " Carousal " of the year has been the fete at Boyle- 
 Farm t on Saturday last. It would fill three letters to give 
 you any account of this entertainment, and of all the imper- 
 tinences wliich preceded and accompanied it. It was ex- 
 clusive to the last degree ; the founders of the feast, Alvanley, 
 Chesterfield, Castlereagh, H. de Eos, and Eobert Grosvenor 
 ballotted, it is said, for every name proposed for invitation. 
 The wags say that Lord and Lady Grosvenor had four black 
 balls ; on wliich Eobert Grosvenor said that really he could 
 not be of it if he were not to ask papa and mamma. Upon 
 this he was allowed to invite them, but on an eiu/cr/cmcnt that 
 they should not come. People who were shaljliy enough to 
 ask for invitations were well served in the answers they 
 usually got ; the men were rejected because they were old 
 or vulgar, and the ladies because they were ugly. It was 
 really amusing to hear at the Opera the reasons which the 
 excluded ladies gave for being seen at so unfashionable a 
 
 * [Where the prize-fights were usually hekl.] 
 
 t [Boyle Farm was the residence of Lord Henry Fitzgerald, and after- 
 wards of Lord St. Leonards. The fete here referred to was celebrated iu 
 verse Ly Thomas Moore and by Lord Francis Egerton.]
 
 :378 TEE CROEER PAPERS. [Chap. XIL 
 
 place as the Opera was that night. I will not make you 
 stare with all the fables which are reported ; roads watered 
 with Eau de Cologne — 500 pair of white satin shoes from 
 Paris to counteract the damp of the green turf. ]\Iore gallons 
 of Eoman punch than Lleux's great brewing vats would hold. 
 Fireworks ordered on this scale — the Vauxhall man was 
 asked what was the greatest expense he conld go to, and then 
 ordered to double it ; and so I need hardly add that I was 
 not invited ; but it really, and without exaggeration, was a 
 most splendid fete. Alex. Baring calculated the expense at 
 15,000/. ; but no one else that I have heard carries it higher 
 than 3000/. or 3500/. 
 
 Canning looks tired, Ijut his intimates say that he is o»/// 
 tired ; the Opposition say that he is really ill. The Duke of 
 Devonshire has lent him Chiswick, as his father did to Mr. 
 Fox. I hope it may not be ominous. 
 
 People are staying longer in town than usual, I think, and 
 are therefore prolonging what they call the pleasures of the 
 season; breaktasts andVater parties which, (on account, I 
 presume, of the chief motives of such gatherings,) find so little 
 countenance from the heavens above, that every day that has 
 been fixed for one of these things, down goes the mercury, 
 and down comes the rain. The Speaker made us laugh by a 
 practical illustration of these (really) " contretemps." _ While 
 he was dressing, the other morning, in a bright sunshine and 
 perfect white-trousers-weather, he heard a noise of music on 
 the river, and on inquiry from his servant found that the 
 Corporation were going on the water for a day's pleasuring. 
 " Are they so ? " said the Speaker, " then give me a pair of 
 cloth pantaloons," and, to be sure, the day changed to as dirty 
 a one, as the sailors call it, as ever drenched silk or blew 
 away feathers. 
 
 To-day has been tolerably fine, although there is a pic-nic 
 breakfast at Putney— a real pic-nic. They have hired or 
 borrowed a lawn for the occasion, and each person brings a dish 
 and a bottle. The Duchess of Leinster is the founder of the 
 feast — 'tis a mighty economical mode of entertaining the town. 
 Her Grace needs only bring a cheese-cake and a bottle of 
 soda-water — that fulfils the 'requisites ; and then one might 
 hope that her Grace of St. Albans would bring a round of 
 beef and a bottle of brandy. This fete chcimpetrc was held, or 
 I should say more truly, is now holding, at a villa at Putney 
 called the Cedars, from some large trees wliich you may remem-
 
 1827.] CANNING'S LAST ILLNESS. 379 
 
 ber ; but those who either would not go, or were not asked, 
 are called the scccders, so that it looks like a party thin,tr. 
 They say that Lady Gleng-all lias persuaded Leach to attempt 
 ix kind of Vauxhall l)arty in the liolls garden — a place about 
 ten feet square at tlie l)ack of Meet Street. It will ])q more 
 fruitful of jokes than of anything else: they talk already of 
 light let into Chancery — smelling of the oil — that the garden 
 is really the couj^t — and " hot rolls in the month of July." I 
 spare you many more. ]\Irs. Fox was saying the other day at 
 dinner that tlie Master of the Eolls liad given a dinner-party 
 to Lady Glengall, ]\Irs. Fox herself, and half a dozen other 
 women. " And really," said Lord Dudley, " were tliere no 
 men but the ]\Iaster of the liolls and Lady (Uengall ? " 
 
 I forget whether the ladies had burst out into Hower belbre 
 you went ; they now wear bouquets like our grandmothers, 
 and not merely in their bosoms, but they carry them about in 
 their hands as large as brooms, and when they sit doM-n to 
 dinner tliey stick their nosegays into the water glasses and the 
 table looks like a bed of flowers. Some ony was saying that 
 young Lady Londonderry has relays of them, and that when 
 she dines out a page follows her with a fresh bouquet. They 
 talk of reviving the fountains in which our grandmothers 
 used to carry their flowers about their ])ersons. If they 
 succeed, we may repeat Horace Walpole's jest and say, 
 " What a number of sore throats there will be from the over- 
 setting of tlie fountains." But all this lasliion will be gone 
 before you return ; at least, it is to be hoped so. This foun- 
 tain-spilling would be dreadfully inconvenient. 
 
 In the month of August, as a passage in the above letter 
 states, Canning went to the Duke of Devonshire's villa at 
 Chiswick only to die — in the same room, as is well known, 
 where Fox breathed his last. It was " a small low chamber, 
 once a kind of nursery, dark, and opening into a wing of 
 the building, which gives it the appearance of looking into 
 a courtyard." The circumstances are fully described in the 
 subjoined letters : —
 
 380 THE CROKER PAPEBS. [Chap. XIL 
 
 Mr. Crol'cr to the Duke of Clarence* Extract. 
 
 August Gth, 1827. 
 
 I must not conceal from your E.H. that I hear from 
 private information that there are no hopes whatsoever of 
 Mr. Canning's outliving the day. It is said that mortification 
 has advanced — that he is, and has been, for some hours insen- 
 gi]jle — that his breathing is difficult, and that, in short, there 
 are all the symptoms of approaching dissolution. 
 
 Mr. Crol-er to Lord Hertford. 
 
 August 7tli, 1827. 
 
 Mr. Canning is still alive, but that is all. I saw Sir W, 
 Knighton to-day, who says that he looks on recovery as next 
 to, if not impossible, and has of course no hope. 
 
 Mr. Canning has not Ijeen well ever since the Duke of York's 
 funeral. He there caught cold, and was teased, as you know, 
 for some months with rheumatism and lumbago ; this lumbago 
 has some peculiar symptoms, being accompanied by obstruc- 
 tions arising from intestinal inflammations and his mode of 
 life (for he "ate and drank too heartily), which kept these bad 
 symptoms alive. He also changed his doctor, and got one 
 
 Mr. , who has now a great vogue ; this was all 
 
 his life a naval surgeon, and as the majority of his cases in 
 that practice had required mercury, he has got accustomed to 
 that remedy, and he gave ]\Ir. C. so much that he actually 
 salivated him : this, it is thought, added to the disorder and 
 indisposition, and dining about ten days ago at the Chancellor's 
 at "Wiml)ledon, he sat in a draught and caught cold again, and 
 about this time I saw him, and he said, with a strong 
 expression of melancholy, that he had not been well or had 
 one day's health since the beginning of the year. 
 
 Sunday, the 29th, Warrender spent with him. He thought 
 him weak, languid, and out of sorts, but nothing serious. On 
 Monday he went to Windsor. On Tuesday he came to town 
 and did business. He was looking very ill, but still nothing 
 very serious appeared. Sir William Knighton saw him that 
 day, and told him that he looked ill, but Mr. Canning answer- 
 
 * [Whom Canning liad made Lord High Admiral, to please the King.]
 
 1827.] DEATH OF CANNING. 381 
 
 iiig that lie had seen Maton tliat morniiifr, Sir William sup- 
 ])Osed that all that -was necessary would be dune, and inter- 
 i'ered no further. 
 
 On Thursday Sir William Knii^diton called at Chiswick, and 
 observed Mr. Canning so nnich altered for the worse that hu 
 insisted on his calling in some additional advice, and he him- 
 .self good-naturedly drove to town and lirought back Sir 
 jMatthew Tierney, and either Holland or Farre, I know not 
 which. They found positive inflammation so far advanced 
 .and the ])atient so reduced by four months' alternate 
 <{uacking and indulgence, that he was unable to undergo the 
 sudden reduction which they thouglit necessary. It seems as 
 if the real seat of the original disease was not well ascer- 
 tained, but it now had spread to the lungs, and by noon on 
 Friday his life was evidently in danger ; that night the danger 
 l)ecame innninent, but the medical measures had had some 
 effect, and he was better on Saturday morning ; perhaps I 
 shoidd say easier, for better I doubt that he was, as ulceration 
 of the lungs was proceeding rapidly. 
 
 ]\Ir. Canning was not sensible for the last eighteen hours, 
 and for some days had been a little wandering at times. I 
 told you that he had finished a long paper on Portugal on 
 Thursday. On Friday, in an interval of quiet, he called to 
 Stapleton* and desired him to send the paper (it had Iteen sent 
 the day before) to Goclerieh and Eubinson, and to desire them 
 to cut it up and not to spare it — and he desired Stai)leton t<> 
 write this down that he might make no mistake. Stapleton 
 saw that this was a wandering of his mind, and j^retended to 
 write, and Canning desired to have what he had written read 
 to him ; upon which Stapleton began, " Send that paper to 
 Goderich and lloljinson," upon which Canning said " Goderieh 
 iind Dudley. Xow 3'ou see how necessary it was to malce }-ou 
 write it down, you would else have thought that I was talking- 
 nonsense." 
 
 On Saturday he walked across his room, and when the 
 ■doctors offered to help him into bed, he said, " N"o, no, not 
 so bad yet ; I think I can do that without help ; and 
 when he got into bed he said rather gaily, " Well, I feel 
 that if I can get through to-day I shall do." But later on 
 that day he said to Sir Matthew Tierney that he had 
 
 * [Canning's private secretary, and afterwards tlie historian of the official 
 part of his life.]
 
 382 THE CBOKEB PAPERS. [Chap. XIL 
 
 struggled with the disease for a long while, but that he now 
 felt that it had quite mastered him. 
 
 To Lord Hertford. 
 
 August 8th. 
 
 I sent you a long letter yesterday to tell you of Mr. 
 Canning's increased illness,. and a short one this morning to 
 acquaini; you with his death ; but as the Austrian courier does 
 not go till this evening, I shall add a few lines which he will 
 deliver if he should chance to come upon you chemin faisant. 
 
 Mr. Canning is no more * — and that is all I can tell you ; 
 though the event must have consequences that will be felt all 
 through England, and all through Europe, no one is as yet 
 composed enough to contemplate the probable results. Eor 
 my own part, I do not doubt that the King ydW eventually 
 give his chief confidence to the Duke of W., and then, 
 whether he will himself take the first post, or give it to Peel's 
 younger hands, or aga-ee on a farjot, under whom all may 
 serve without renouncing individual pretensions, no one I 
 think can foresee. I think the first course the most pro- 
 bable and the most easy. Some people think that Dudley, 
 Sturges, and the Duke of I*ortland, who only stayed in t_o 
 oblige Mr. Canning, will be glad to be released, and that their 
 vacancies, with Bexley's, would leave room enough for the 
 Tories ; but will the Tories act with Lansdowne and Carlisle, 
 or they with the Tories ? But all these are speculations 
 quite en Vcdr ; for my own part, I expect a complete Tory 
 Government, with which I wish Lord Carlisle could act, nay 
 I should not be sorry for Lord Lansdowne ; l)ut I do not think 
 they can well coalesce with the Duke and Peel — it will then 
 come to the old Administration, minus Mr. Canning — but 
 query whether ■;»m^^s Mr. Cannings friends — that \^il\ depend 
 mainly on the Catholic Question. An exclusive Protestant 
 Government cannot, I am satisfied, stand ; there would be an 
 Opposition of 250, which would stop all public business. If 
 Lord Liverpool's Government can be patched up, with the 
 Catholic Question open, the Administration may go on. Wliy 
 should I tease you with these ifs, wMch you, in Poland, are 
 just as capable of suggesting as I in Wliitehall. 
 
 I suppose the IsAng will, out of respect to his present 
 
 * [Mr. Canning died on Wednesday morning, tlie £tli of August.]
 
 1827.] CAXNING'S FUNEHAL. "83 
 
 Ministers, send for some of them before he takes any other 
 step. The Chancellor seems to be the natural person to send 
 to, but I have just heard that Goderich has uone down to 
 Windsor — that may perhaps be as an amljassadur fruni tlie 
 Cabinet. 
 
 Everyljody happens to be in town except Lord ]\Iel\ille and, 
 I believe. Lord Bathurst, and we shall have all the intricacies 
 of April to unravel again. 
 
 Yours e^'er, 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 Mr. Crol'cr to Lord Lou-tlicr. 
 
 Augu-st 16th, 1827 
 
 Dear Lowther, 
 
 I am just returned from following ]\Ir. Canning to his 
 grave. Nothing could be more solenni or affecting — the 
 people in the street behaved with great decency, though there 
 was nothing like a general wearing of Ijlack ; but the crowd 
 was respectful in its demeanour. The Dukes of Clarence and 
 Sussex attended — the latter voluntarily, the former (but this 
 is a great secret), on a suggestion that he ought. Lord 
 Conyngham and 'Knighton also attended. The Duke of Devon- 
 shire was remarked as Ijeing particularly affected. 
 
 Some surprise and dissatisfaction is expressed that Peel, at 
 least, did not attend the funeral }'esterday. I own that I 
 \\ish he had, even though he, of the late Ministers, had been 
 alone. 
 
 On the death of Mr. Canning, ]\Ir. Croker hoped to see the 
 Duke of Wellington form a Ministry, with Peel leader of the 
 House of Commons. But the King sent for Lord Goderich, 
 and Mr. Herries was eventually appointed Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer, " with the consent of Lord Lansdowne and his 
 friends," as Mr. Croker wrote to the Duke of Clarence ; but 
 this appears to have been a mistake, for Lord Lansdowne at 
 first resigned, and the Whigs were evidently offended at ]\Ir. 
 Herries' appointment. On the lltli of August, Lord Goderich 
 consulted Mr. Croker as to the formation of his Ministry, and 
 the latter once more urged the adoption of the plan to which
 
 384 TEE CEOKER PAPERS. [Chap. XII. 
 
 he had so pertinaciously adhered — the introduction of Wel- 
 lington and Peel into the Government, and the coalition of 
 the Tories with the moderate Whigs. To effect this arrange- 
 ment, he offered, as it will be seen, to resign his own office — 
 \ worth " 3200/. per annum, with one of the best houses in 
 London." His fidelity to Peel, and to his political opinions, 
 needs no greater proof than his willingness to make this 
 sacrifice. It will be remembered, however, that Lord 
 ■Goderich chose to pursue a different course, and his Govern- 
 ment was doomed almost from its birth. 
 
 Mr. Crohcrs Memorandum of a convcrsatioii loith Lord 
 Goderich. 
 
 Admiralty, August lltli, 1827. 
 
 I began by saying that the King's having sent for him to 
 be his adviser in the formation of a new Cabinet, had imposed 
 upon him a most difficult and complicated task, and that 
 every information which he received, though perhaps not 
 available, or of much importance at the moment, might in the 
 course of events be turned to some account. I said that I 
 understood, and could not help saying, regretted that consider- 
 able difficulties existed in the way of a reunion of the late 
 Ministers with a portion of Mr. Canning's Cabinet ; that it was 
 thought (I did not inquire how truly) that the King felt some 
 degree of displeasure against them — for thcd of course I could 
 have no remedy, but that we had abundant exami^les that royal 
 displeasure was not inexorable, and that I was sure that due 
 explanations and proper representations of the advantage to 
 his Majesty's quiet, of a strong government would overcome 
 all difficulties of that nature. 
 
 But it might also be surmised that Lord Lansdowne and 
 his friends niight be unwilling to see the return of the Duke 
 of Wellington and Mr. Peel ; to this I should say that, even 
 if it came to that, there ought to be no difficulty in making a 
 choice between the two sets of men ; but it occurred to me 
 that there was a point on wliich the wishes of Lord Lans- 
 downe and the Duke might unite, and which might contribute 
 to an approximation between them — I meant the accession of 
 Lord Grey to office. Lord Lansdowne, whatever he might
 
 1827.] LORD QODERICH. 385 
 
 privately feel about Lord Grey, was so far connected with 
 him in puWic opinion that a junction with him would be, in 
 the eyes of the public, a sufficient price for his uniting with 
 the Duke and Mr. Peel ; while, on the other hand, I could 
 not but believe that in the late short cam})aign there had 
 been enough of co-operation between the l)uke and Lord 
 Grey to make the Duke not only willing but desirous to 
 introduce Lord Grey into any Cabinet of which he should 
 form a part. 
 
 Lord Goderich here said that he had no reason to suppose 
 this ; that no doubt Lord Lansdowne and his friends could of 
 course not object, and would even be pleased at the accession 
 of Lord Grey, which would appear to give additional strength 
 to their party ; that Lord Grey himself professed not to be in 
 opposition, nor to have any connection whatsoever with the 
 Outs, and that he (Lord Goderich) knew that the Duke of 
 Wellington disclaimed, with warmth, any kind of connection 
 with Lord Grey. 
 
 I repUed that he might be better informed, but that I could 
 not help thinking that if ever he came into details of this 
 nature with the Duke of Wellington, he would find Lord 
 Grey not disagreeable to the Duke, which I conceived rather 
 fortunate, because Lord Grey was, no doubt, a very able man, 
 and the chief objection that could be made to his coming into 
 office would be obviated by the concurrence of the Duke in 
 that measure. I added that if the Duke, Peel, and Lord Grey 
 could be introduced into the present Cabinet it would make one 
 of the most powerful and, as far as I could foresee, the most 
 popular Governments that could be formed. Lord Goderich 
 said that he had no communication whatever with Mr. Peel, 
 but he doubted whether it was possible that he couhl come in 
 after having stated that his sole reason for not serving under 
 Mr. Canning was, not any personal objection, but because he 
 could not act under any person voting for the Catholics ; and 
 indeed in the discussion which Lord Goderich himself had 
 with Mr. Peel previous to his resignation, he understood from 
 Peel himself, he thought in distinct terms, that I'eel would 
 have objected to serve under him (Godericli), or any other 
 person professing the same Catholic principles. I said that 
 we were not yet arrived at the consideration of who should 
 be under or over, and that as to the rest, of course I was not 
 in Mr. Peel's confidence, and still less could I contradict Lord 
 Goderich's impression of what had passed between them ; 
 
 VOL. I. 2 c
 
 386 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. XII. 
 
 but I had formed in my own mind a different opinion. I 
 believed that if it had been brought to that point, Mr. Peel 
 would not have gone out on the mere question that the head 
 of the Government should be a Protestant. He would, I had 
 no doubt, have taken into consideration the personal qualities 
 and character of the individual proposed, and the degree of 
 security which that personal character might give for his im- 
 partiality with respect to the Catholic question. Lord Goderich 
 said that he had understood that Peel's declaration in the 
 House of Commons had been explicit on that subject in the 
 sense in which Lord Goderich had himself understood him. 
 I said that passages in his speech had certainly that aspect, 
 but that there was one remarkable part which I observed 
 particularly (though I had not heard it much noticed since), 
 which appeared to me to afford the true key of Peel's present 
 position. He had stated that " there was a general objection to 
 having any but a Protestant at the head of the Government ; 
 but,"he added, " that that objection was peculiarly strong in 
 his individual position, for that the Secretary of State for the 
 Home Department not only had the responsibility of all Irish 
 affairs, but he was, from official forms, the instrument by 
 which all the patronage of the first Minister was exercised." 
 He went on to say that " it might be objected to this motive for 
 his resignation that he might have got rid of the difficulty by 
 changing his office, but," he said, " the public were so ready 
 to suspect the reasons wliich persons might have for adhering 
 to office that he feared such a change would seem to be a 
 mere trick or evasion, the imputation of which would be 
 derogatory to the character of fairness and sincerity which he 
 felt he deserved." 
 
 I showed Lord Goderich that it flowed as a corollary from 
 tliis passage, that Mr. Peel felt and admitted that any other 
 than the Home Office would have been less inconsistent with 
 his feelings on tliis point; and that if he were placed in 
 such an office without anything that could raise an imputation 
 of trick or evasion, he would not have felt any insurmount- 
 able difficulty in having a moderate Catholic head to the 
 Government ; and that I had even heard that there had been 
 some overture made in April for placing Lord Melville there. 
 I begged of Lord Goderich to recollect that, however smooth 
 his course would be in the House of Lords as to the distribu- 
 tion of business, that in the House of Commons he would 
 have great difficulty in finding a leader — that at last he
 
 1827.] LORD GOD ERICH'S ADMINISTRATION. 387 
 
 would find himself driven to the alternative of Peel or 
 Brougham ; and .that if he now so played his cards as to be 
 forced to take the latter, every thing like a Tory, even down 
 to so insignificant a person as myself, would immediately 
 quit the (iovernment, and the great majority of tlie House 
 would, I thought, mutiny. 
 
 Lord Goderich admitted that Brougham would never do. 
 
 I then went on to say that Huskisson's health, I thought, 
 as well as his disposition and habits would prevent his 
 accepting — certainly his executing satisfactorily — so laborious 
 a task. Tierney also had not health, nor, I think, any desire 
 to become so prominent. Palmerston was better, but I 
 doubted whether he would or could undertake it ; and, in 
 short, I came back to what I said that he would find at last 
 that he was in a dilemma between Peel and Brougham. 
 
 Lord Goderich dropped some expressions as if his Whig 
 colleagues would not consent to admit Peel, and he said that 
 honour and gratitude and good faith required that he should 
 maintain the principles and persons of Mr. Canning's Govern- 
 ment. I replied that I could not presume to say to what his 
 honour pledged him, but on the other hand, I must plainly tell 
 him that without a junction with the Duke and Mr. Peel he 
 would never make a Kind's Speech ; and as there were vacancies 
 which must be filled up, I saw no inconsistency or impropriety 
 in filling up from those with whom Mr. Canning and himself 
 had so long acted, and whom Mr. Canning had so strenuously 
 endeavoured to keep in his Cabinet. I repeated that he 
 would soon discover that it was utterly impossible that he 
 and his "VMiig colleagues could go on as they were — that he 
 and they ought to be delighted if any arrangement could be 
 made under which the Duke and Mr. l*eel might be induced 
 to return to ofl&ce — that I saw that his own position might be 
 a difficulty with them, but that, considering that they had 
 off'ered to arrange with Mr. Canning on the footing of a kind 
 of elected head to the Government, I thought that his own 
 conciliating disposition, and the important fact of his being 
 already in the King's confidence, might probably get over that 
 difficulty. On the whole, I ventured, as an old and disin- 
 terested friend, to press upon him the expediency — the 
 necessity — of endeavouring to induce the King to send for 
 the Duke of Wellington to offer him the army, to request of 
 him to undertake the trouble of the Ordnance and the Cabinet, 
 and if he listened to the proposition of continuing Lord 
 
 2 c 2
 
 388 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. XII. 
 
 Goderich at the head, to promise him in the Cabinet all that 
 deference which his rank, his talents, and his experience 
 entitled him to. He should also, simultaneously, write to 
 Peel to acquaint him of the proposition to the Duke, and to 
 offer him the Chancellor of the Exchequer, or anything else 
 which he might prefer, and which could be offered to him ; 
 and to both I advised him to say that Lord Melville might 
 come to the Colonies, and that on all minor arrangements, he 
 would be glad to discuss what they might have to propose 
 with a cordial desire of doing whatever was possible to reunite 
 the various subordinate claims. 
 
 Lord Goderich here rather interrupted me by saying that 
 there were no minor arrangements to make — that there were 
 no vacancies. To which I replied that that was not quite the 
 case, that when I recommended Sir Edward Owen as Sur- 
 veyor-General of the Ordnance, I did so because, in addition 
 to his fitness for the oifice, he had the advantage of being 
 removable with very little difficulty, as a professional com- 
 mand would always be an honourable retreat for him ; that 
 Clerk would probably follow Lord Melville as Under-Secretary 
 to the Colonies. Thus there would be room for Hardinge and 
 another of the Duke's friends. 
 
 "But what," asked Goderich, "would you do with 
 Horton ? Besides, only two Under-Secretaries can be in 
 Parliament." I replied that if the great points of a union 
 with the Duke and Peel could be arranged, all the rest was 
 trash and lumber which might be easily disposed of — that the 
 only things which, in the first instance, pressed were the 
 Ordnance Board, and room in the Treasury for Peel's personal 
 friends ; that if we were to descend to the consideration of 
 minor points, I could myself help the arrangement, for which 
 purpose I, without any reserve or affectation, begged to place 
 my office at his disposal ; that I did not want to retire, but 
 that I had been at the Admiralty a long while, and should 
 under any circimistances have easily consoled myself if I were 
 to be put out ; but for so great an object, and one which I had 
 so much at heart as the bringing back the Duke and Peel, 
 who could not come with honour if they did not replace in 
 office some of the friends who had resigned with them, I 
 should resign with more real pleasure than I felt even when 
 I came in. I begged him not to think that I spoke lightly or 
 loosely, that I spoke advisedly, and that my office was high 
 both in emolument and confidence, and one which might, I
 
 1827.] GODERTCH AND PEEL. 389 
 
 thought, be likely enough to become useful in helping to 
 satisfy some of the pretensions which he might have to deal 
 with. 
 
 He answered me with personal kindness on this point, but 
 seemed to me not to contemplate the possibility of his making 
 any arrangement which would require such a sacrifice on my 
 part. 
 
 I then reverted to Peel, and said that there was one point 
 on which he would feel so strongly, both publicly and 
 privately, that I thought it would induce him to sacrifice a 
 great deal to bring it about — that was the appointment of 
 Mr. Saurin to the Irish Seals. Lord Goderich stopped me at 
 once ; he said that his colleagues would never listen to that — 
 that indeed they could not without dishonour ; that after what 
 had passed with regard toLordPlunkett,it was quite impossible. 
 I said I was sorry to find him so fixed, that I admitted there 
 was much in what he said, but I did not think the difficulty 
 insuperable; that some move might be made amongst the 
 Irish Chief Judges which would make room for Saurin, and 
 that, at all events, I thought, that any arrangement for 
 Saurin (who was really deserving attention on his own 
 account) would be a great step towards an accommodation 
 with Peel. 
 
 But he said, "AVe have nothing to offer Peel but the 
 Chancellor of* the Exchequer, which I suppose he would not 
 take." 
 
 I replied that I could not tell, but that ]\Ir. Peel was a 
 reasonable man, and that I thought he would be — or, at least, 
 ought to be — contented to take that if there were nothing 
 else arrangeable ; that moreover that office, with the lead of 
 the House of Commons, was a very prominent station — one 
 in which we recollected how Mr. Perceval had distinguished 
 himself; and, finally, that at all events the offer to Mr. Peel 
 would satisfy the Tories and me in particular (if amongst 
 such great interests I could venture to name myself), but I 
 did so, not only on account of the familiarity of our old 
 friendship, but because I knew that many persons connected 
 with the Government thought as I did on the subject, and 
 that without such an arrangement, the Ministry could not 
 meet Parliament, and that I myself individually felt that my 
 own position would become untenable. Ptemember, I added, 
 these my last warning words — without the accession of the 
 Duke and Peel, you will never make the Kings Speech.
 
 B90 THE CROKEli PAPERS. [Chap. XIL 
 
 Here we ended. I, all tlirough, endeavoured to prevent 
 Lord Goderich making me any confidence — I only asked him 
 to listen to my suggestions, and not to answer them. 
 
 I laughed a little at such a perplexity falling on him^ of all 
 men, and he in return heartily wished that I was in his 
 place, and was lamenting his difficulties very pathetically, 
 when I said, laughingly, that " If I had the misfortune he 
 wished me of being in his difficulties, I knew one or other of 
 two ways out of them — the first, a junction with the Duke 
 and Peel ; and, if that failed, my own resignation." 
 
 Mr. CroTcer to Lord Goderich. 
 
 My deae Goderich, 
 I think it right to repeat to you, in this more formal way, 
 what I told you in the course of our conversation this morn- 
 ing, that so convinced am I of the importance to the interests 
 of the country and to the King's own quiet and satisfaction, 
 of having the Duke of Wellington and Mr. Peel in the 
 Government, that if my office can be in any way disposed of 
 to facilitate that object, it is most freely and frankly at your 
 service. If my personal fondness for office were stronger 
 than it is, I should feel it due to such vital national objects to 
 sacrifice my private feelings, but I assure you these private 
 feeHngs are not so strong as to make the sacrifice so great as 
 it would have been some years ago ; and I promise you that 
 I shall, out of office, give you as zealous and, I feel, a much 
 more useful support than I could do in my present position. 
 \ As my office is 3200/. per annum, with one of the best 
 houses in London, it might satisfy tolerably high claims ; and 
 although I cannot well spare so great a loss of income, I shall 
 not think it any hardship to be obliged to practise a little 
 economy when I see, on the other hand, so important and, in 
 my opinion, so essential a public benefit as the re-union of 
 the Tory party and its junction with the moderate Whigs 
 under the auspices of one whom I have loved so long and 
 sincerely. 
 
 Yours ever, 
 
 J. W. C.
 
 1827.] AJn. BERItlES. 391 
 
 Mr. Croker to Lord Hertford. 
 
 September 3rd, 1827, 
 
 At first Goderich's Government seemed to go on swim- 
 mingly. The Duke of Wellington accepted the army, 
 Huskisson was to lead the House of Commons. No more 
 Whigs were to be admitted, and all was quite prosperous, 
 when a little black speck arose on the horizon, whicli soon 
 swelled into a thunder cloud that threatened for the last fort- 
 night the whole with destruction. 
 
 Eobinson as First Minister, as well as the head of the 
 immediate department, had fixed on Herries to be his 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer. He liad, however, neglected to 
 obtain the consent of his colleagues to this step, and on the 
 day, and at the hour, when Herries was waiting in the ante- 
 room to come in and receive the seals, Lansdowne and 
 Tierney objected, and said that they would resign if sucli an 
 insult were put upon them. This quite bewildered poor 
 Eobinson, who is as firm as a bulrush, and he was obliged to 
 desire Herries to refuse what he had just settled that the 
 King should offer him. Herries, greatly vexed and perplexed, 
 went in to the King, and resisted manfully tlie King's pressing 
 offer of the seals, wliich were lying on the table, and which 
 H.M. over and over endeavoured to put into Herries's hand. 
 The King then sent for Goderich, who mumbled some excuses, 
 but said that the Government would be dissolved if Herries 
 were appointed, so the King had no resource but to submit to 
 a delay, for he pledged himself that he would not ultimately 
 give up the point, and of his oivn accord ordered Herries to be 
 sworn of the Privy Council. 
 
 The mezzo-termiroe agreed upon was to suspend the armnge- 
 ment till Huskisson should arrive, and that then the seals 
 of the Exchequer should be offered to him. I ought 
 to tell you that Herries very modestly declined the place 
 when Godericli first offered it. He said he was too young in 
 political life, that it w^ould be too great a jump for liim, &c., 
 and he rather pressed to be Vice-l*resident of the Board of 
 Trade under Charles Grant, and Goderich had actually oflered 
 the Exchequer to Palmerston, who had accepted it ; but after 
 all he veered round again, got the King to write with his own 
 hand to insist on Herries t«aking the office, and took down
 
 392 THE CROEER PAPERS. [Chap. XII. 
 
 Herries in his carriage to Windsor to kiss hands, when the 
 extraordinary scene I have just described took place. 
 
 Upon all this, the Morning Chronicle published an article 
 grounding the opposition of the Whigs on Herries's connec- 
 tion with Rothschild. This made matters irreconcilable. 
 Herries now said that though he had not wished for the 
 office, and had rather have had a humbler one, his honour was 
 now attacked, and though ready to have no office at all, lie 
 would accept no other office but that of Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer. The Wliigs — that is Tierney and his immediate 
 friends — talked equally big, and up to this morning the 
 public, who saw the King pledged on one side and the Wliigs 
 on the other, were of opinion that the Government must 
 necessarily fall to pieces. However, after a world of shifts 
 and discussions, Huskisson and Sturges Bourne having both 
 declined positively to be Chancellor of the Exchequer, it was 
 settled that there was no other person who could be, but 
 Herries ; and the King undertook to see Lord Lansdowne 
 yesterday, and talk him over, which he did, and the Wliigs 
 remain in, with, however, it must be admitted, no great 
 accession of character. There are a thousand details, all more 
 extraordinary than could have been believed, of the vacillation 
 and wavering of Goderich, and of the firmness of the King ; 
 but the substance is as I have told you.* 
 
 To Loi'd Hertford. 
 
 December 31st, 1827. 
 
 Goderich, I hear, still continues in the fool's paradise of 
 fancying that he is Minister. " On the contrary quite the 
 reverse," as he himself says. Neither Whigs nor Tories will 
 go on with him, and he will find himself like the hat in the 
 fable, he will not be admitted either as a beast or a bird. 
 They talk to-day that the Wliigs are obtaining an ascendency 
 at Windsor, that Lord Holland is to come in, that Brougham 
 is to be Attorney-General, and Scarlett Chancellor. Palmer- 
 ston and Charles Grant are to profess to be Whigs, and, what I 
 more regret, Huskisson ! 
 
 * [The negotiations which ended in the appointment of Mr. Herries as 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer, are fully narrated in the ' Memoir of the 
 Public Life of John C. Herries,' by his son, Edward Herries.]
 
 1827.] LOBD OOD ERICH. 393 
 
 It does seem strange, but I assure you tliat this report 
 meets some degree of credit amongst the Ijest informed. It 
 seems certain that the King is exceedingly vexed at the 
 outgoers, and will not take them Ijut on compulsion. 
 
 My own private opinion is that the King will not try a 
 pure Wliig until he shall have failed to make a mixture, and I 
 think the first shop he will go to for his mixture will be Lord 
 Wellesley. 
 
 What fools, fools, fools, our Tory friends have been ! 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 The end of Lord Goderich's experiment was clearly foreseen 
 by others besides Mr. Croker, but the Ministry lingered on 
 till the first days of the follomng year, when the Prime 
 Minister fulfilled the prediction contained in the following 
 letter : — 
 
 Lord Lowtlier to Mr. Croker. 
 
 August 14th, 1827. 
 
 My dear Croker, 
 
 I cannot write all I feel or think upon the late events, but 
 from your letter I conclude the present Cabinet will hobble on 
 upon crutches till the meeting of Parliament, when Lord 
 Goderich will be frightened and bolt. Some of the Cabinet, 
 like old Tierney, will stick to the last, as they have little 
 chance of again gaining six months' salary or patronage. 
 
 In my humble judgment Lord Goderich has not talent, 
 nerve, or audacity to conduct or regulate so large a machine. 
 Tierney or Huskisson have not health for every night's 
 work; a long night debate has afflicted both with illness 
 the last three or four years, and 1 think Huskisson will 
 not like a visit to Liverpool. I agree with you, and I 
 understand Brougham has announced it on the circuit, that 
 either himself or Peel must have the Commons. The King 
 has vowed Brougham shall never kiss his hand, but he is 
 very forgiving. The Tories would really muster against 
 Brougham. Brougham's vanity, I suppose, would induce 
 him to give up his profession for a seat in the Cabinet, but
 
 394 THE CHOKER PAPERS. [Chap. XII. 
 
 Pollock has beat him two to one in the number of briefs on 
 the circuit. 
 
 The King seems to be taking his revenge upon his late 
 refractory Tories. It must mortify them to be overlooked, 
 and yet, at the same time, it does not appear the King feels 
 very keenly on the Catholic question. 
 
 I wish the world to go on. I thought once I should like 
 office, but I doubt whether my digestive powers are suffi- 
 ciently active to combine business with the feasting conse- 
 quent upon an official station, and I begin to like being my 
 own master as well as I did at twenty-one. 
 
 I have been at Carlisle with the exception of a few hours 
 ever since I left London, and as the weavers seem inclined to 
 create riot and confusion, it is not improbable that I shall be 
 detained here ten days longer. 
 
 Truly yours, 
 
 L.
 
 CHAPTEK XIII. 
 
 1828. 
 
 Fall of Lord Goderich— Administration of the Duke of "Wellington— The 
 " Great Rock " of the Catholic Question— The Prospects of the Whigs 
 —Anecdote of Lady Holland— Ministerial Difficulties— The Duke of 
 Wellington and Peel— Crockford's " Fairy Palace "— ISIr. Herries and 
 the List of the New Ministry— Burke's Dagger Scene — Mr. Croker's 
 Proposals for Gradual Eeform— The Vaults of St. Martin's Church- 
 Dinners with Sir Walter Scott, Lord Lyndhurst, and Charles Grant— 
 The Eoyal Academy Dinner of 1828 — Debates on the Catholic 
 Question— The Duke of Wellington and Mr. Husk isson— Madame de 
 Lieven— Mr. Croker appointed Privy Councillor — The Duke of Clarence 
 at the Admiralty— Anecdotes of the Duke of Wellington and Talley- 
 rand. 
 
 Whex the tottering Administration of Lord Goderich fell to 
 pieces, it was generally believed that the Duke of Wellington 
 was the only man likely to succeed in forming a Government 
 containing any element of stability. It was a responsibility 
 which, as the world has been told on his own authority, he 
 did not covet. He " detested politics," and, as he wrote to 
 the Prince of Orange, the duties which he was asked to 
 undertake were " very disagreeable to him." But the King 
 desired him to place himself at the head of an Administra- 
 tion, and he felt bound to make the attempt. His first step 
 was to entreat the " co-operation " of Peel in " this interesting 
 commission." " I have declined," he wrote, " to make myself 
 the head of the Government unless upon discussion with my
 
 396 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. XIII. 
 
 friends it should appear desirable."* Peel states that he 
 obeyed this summons, " though not without great reluctance," 
 for he foresaw great dif&culties in connection with the state 
 of Ireland and the Catholic question. The King stipulated 
 that no attempt should be made to construct a Cabinet with 
 especial view to the Catholic question. In the end, Peel 
 accepted of&ce as Home Secretary, Mr. Goulburn being made 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer, while Mr. Herries accepted the 
 office of Master of the Mint. Mr. Huskisson acted as 
 Colonial Secretary for a few months, and then resigned with 
 the other " Canningites " — including Lord Palmerston — under 
 circumstances which are described in the various papers 
 contained in this chapter. Mr. Croker's own opinions were 
 expressed in a short form in an article which he wrote for the 
 Quarterly Review in 1831.t "At first sight no Ministry 
 could look stronger ; the confidence in the Duke was uni- 
 versal and unbounded; and he was seconded by men who 
 stood deservedly high in public opinion for integrity, sound 
 principles. Parliamentary talents, and of&cial habits. But 
 the seeds of disunion existed, and sooner or later must have 
 grown to disastrous fruit. . . . There was the great rock of 
 the Catholic question, upon which it was easily foreseen that 
 the Ministry must eventually be driven and wrecked." The 
 defeat of Mr. Vesey Fitzgerald at Clare by O'Connell was the 
 decisive stroke which convinced the Ministry that the ques- 
 tion which had so long stood in the way must at last be 
 frankly dealt with. But decisive measures were necessarily 
 postponed till the following year. 
 
 Mr. Croker's letters were supplemented in 1828 by a 
 journal, which he begins with this note : " I have always 
 regretted the not having kept a regular diary, though I have 
 
 * ' Memoirs by Sir Eobert Peel,' vol. i. p. 12. 
 t Vol. xlv. p. 523.
 
 1828.] A NEWSPAPER PAP AGE APE. 397 
 
 often attempted to do so. I have, however, not been able to 
 persevere. I hope I may be able to succeed a little better 
 in this fresh attempt." The diary was kept in a fairly 
 methodical way till towards the end of the year, when it 
 became intermittent. The entries were evidently hurriedly 
 wi'itten, in a small and scratchy handwriting, often closely 
 " crossed ; " and they are exceedingly hard to decipher. A 
 selection will here be made from the most interesting passages. 
 
 From the Diary. 
 
 Januanj 1st. — I called on Herries, and had a long confiden- 
 tial talk with him on the embarrassing situation of the 
 Government. We have been in a good deal of confidence 
 since he, as well as I, consented to stay with Mr. Canning, 
 and having both been originally attached to Mr. Perceval, we 
 have an additional ])ond of intercourse. He thinks the Wliig 
 party in the Cabinet, instigated and guided by Brougham, 
 will attempt (and perhaps for a time succeed) to make a 
 Whig Administration. He thinks that Huskisson has been 
 looking to be himself Premier, and has for this object cliimed 
 in with the ^^^ligs, and that the Chancellor, Bexley, Ch. 
 Grant, and he must go out. Goderich perplexed between 
 them, but more perplexed by Lord Holland and Brougham. 
 
 Jannanj 2nd. — Saw Herries again. We talked about 
 a paragraph in the Standard newspaper of about ten days 
 ago, which proclaimed that the Tories could not come in 
 without stipulating for the dismissal of the Lord Steward 
 [Lord Conyngham]. We agreed as to the mischievous effect 
 of that paragraph, as it was known that the Duke of 
 Wellington and Peel countenanced that paper, and he told 
 me that a certain person took care that it should go down 
 express to Windsor the very night it was published. I had 
 seen the paragraph at Sudbourne, and had shown it both to 
 Lord Hertford and the Duke of Wellington. The former 
 agreed with me that it looked like a manifesto of the party, 
 and one which would defeat all their hopes. The latter said : 
 " Wliat can we do with these sort of fellows ? " (meaning the 
 newspaper editors). " We have no power over them, and, 
 for my part, I will have no comnmnication with any of
 
 398 THE CHOKER PAPERS. [Chap. XIII. 
 
 them." Yet his grace had desired Lord Hertford to take in 
 that very paper, which Hertford did reluctantly. 
 
 In the evening with Nony at an assembly given by the 
 Duchess of Clarence to Dom Miguel, who seems a civil, 
 modest, and unaffected young man, short and slight in figure, 
 not unlike Lord Marcus Hill. All the people in town at 
 this assembly. I whispered the Duke of Wellington that 
 the paragraph had, as I feared it would, gone to Windsor. 
 
 January drd. — Planta [Mr. W. Planta, Secretary of the 
 Treasury] called on me. Agrees that Goderich cannot stand. 
 His vacillation has lost him both sides, and there would be 
 an absolute majority against him in the Lords. Planta 
 hopes that Goderich' s eyes are at last opened to this, and 
 that he will take some early step to get out of so false 
 a position. Planta had endeavoured to dissuade him from 
 revoking liis former resignation. The Chancellor and Angle- 
 sey are going down to Windsor to state to the Eang the 
 perilous circumstances in which the Administration is placed. 
 The difference between Huskisson and Herries has acquired 
 such solidity that it will force one or other out. 
 
 In the evening with Nony to Princess Esterhazy's ball for 
 Dom Miguel. He had dined with his own ambassador, 
 Palmella, and came about eleven. The ball began with 
 a waltz. Prince Esterhazy and the Duchess of Clarence, 
 Dom Miguel and Princess Esterhazy. I came away very 
 soon. Prince and Princess Lieven not there. Duke of 
 Clarence says they were not invited, but Lieven himself told 
 me that he had a previous engagement to Claremont, and 
 that Prince Leopold could or would not put off his party. 
 Eothschild introduced to the Duke of Clarence, and asked 
 him whether there would be a war. "Upon my word, 
 Mr. Piothschild," answered the Duke, " I must give to you 
 the same answer Lord North did to such an inquiry. Not 
 having had time to read the newspapers to-day, I cannot tell 
 you." 
 
 Mr. Croker to Lord Hertford. 
 
 January 1st, 1828. 
 
 The prospect of a pure Whig Administration (if anything 
 Whig can be called pure) becomes more distinct. I do not 
 profess to understand how it is to be brought about, but some 
 of the best informed and the most interested think that it is
 
 1828.] POLITICAL RUMOURS. 399 
 
 the most probable result of the present crisis. The King 
 is so displeased with Peel, and so indignant at that paragraph 
 in the Standard which I pointed out to you, that he is, they 
 say, resolved to try the \\T:iigs, that is, resolved to continue 
 what he calls a mixed Government, but from which aJl Tories 
 will secede. We hear no more of Lord Wellesley. The King 
 is for him, the Lady contra. Lord ^Mountcharles is a decided 
 Tory, and will resign if another Whig comes into power. In 
 the meanwliile Brougham boils the pot and keeps stirring up 
 the ingredients, and is, in fact, at the bottom of all the intrigues. 
 Huskisson I do not understand. He has declared that he wdll 
 not serve under Wellesley, but, I learn, is quite disposed to 
 go on with the Whigs, though the Chancellor and Herries 
 should go out — in short, that he looks to be first himself. 
 I cannot believe all this, but I tell you what I hear. 
 
 Yours ever, 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 January 2n(i. 
 
 The rumouts of a change more favoui-able to the Whigs 
 continue, and I know that the Tories in the Cabinet believe 
 that they are entitled to some credit; but upon what can 
 they be founded ? The Wliigs are certainly not stronger 
 (not, I believe, so strong) either in Lords or Coimnons than 
 they have been for some years. The country is at least as 
 hostile as ever — on what, then, can they ground their hopes ? 
 I can see notliing but the supposed personal favour of the 
 Crown, but it is only a fortnight since Lord Goderich was 
 forced to resign because His Majesty would not listen to his 
 proposition of even a single ^\^ug. His Majesty, I fear, is 
 very angry %vith all the seceders, and specially with Peel and 
 the Duke of Wellington. He is also, I know, a good deal 
 affected at that unlucky paragraph in the Standard and the 
 Lady (either by that paragraph or some other concurrent 
 cause) is indisposed to the ex-Tories ; but it seems to me 
 quite incredible that even these motives should overcome the 
 King's resolution against Lord Holland, and liis personal 
 antipathy to Brougham. Yet such is the complexion of the 
 day's news. Perhaps His Majesty hopes that by the accession 
 of Lord Wellesley he may without danger be in a condition 
 to assent to the admission of Lord Holland, but that would
 
 400 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. XIII. 
 
 be very shortsighted, because Lord Holland will not now 
 come alone. Be assured he will have Brougham at his tail. 
 
 January Srd. 
 
 I am enabled to tell you to-day something that I think 
 may be depended upon, and something also that, though not 
 absolutely to be depended upon, may be possible enough. 
 I think I know that Goderich has opened his eyes to 
 his situation, and has nearly made up his mind to resign. 
 He is gone with his wife to Blackheath, but returns to- 
 morrow, and I hope and believe that he will to-morrow tell 
 the King that he cannot go on. It is surmised that to save 
 his honour he may take advantage of a new incident which 
 has just occurred, and which worse confounds the confusion. 
 
 Old Tierney, under the authority of Goderich and Huskis- 
 son, undertook to negotiate with Lord Althorp and the Spencer 
 family that Althorp should be Chairman of the Finance 
 Committee. There was a good deal of delay and discussion 
 about this arrangement, and at last Althorp consented, and 
 it was after this that the matter came accidentally to the 
 knowledge of the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Herries), who 
 remonstrated with Goderich on the slight put upon him as 
 the Finance Minister. Goderich threw it all on Huskisson. 
 Huskisson disclaimed all intention of slight to Herries, but 
 insisted that he, as leader of the House of Commons, was 
 solely responsible for the nomination of the Committee. 
 Herries replied that at least he should be previously con- 
 sulted as to a Committee which so nearly touched his own 
 office as the Committee of Finance. Huskisson adheres to 
 his nomination, and Herries adheres to his opposition, and 
 one or other will, it is said, resign. If Huskisson were to go, 
 the Government is broken up at once. If Herries goes, Bexley 
 will follow, and perhaps the Chancellor, and certainly Tindal, 
 and then Brougham comes in, and then out go all the rest 
 of the Tories, and there will remain a Whig Administration. 
 
 Lady Holland was saying yesterday to her assembled 
 coterie, "Wiry should not Lord Holland be Secretary for 
 Foreio-n Affairs — why not as well as Lord Lansdowne for the 
 Home Department ? " Little Lord John RusseU is said to 
 have replied, in his quiet way, " Why, they say, Ma'am, that 
 you open all Lord Holland's letters, and the Foreign Ministers 
 might not like that ! "
 
 1828.] THE DUKE OF CLAIlEXCE. 401 
 
 From the Diary. 
 
 Januanj 6/f7i.-^Tlie Duke of Clarence tells me that 
 Huskisson is actually out, and that Lord Wellesley has 
 understood from the King that he is to be the head of his 
 Oovernment. There cannot be at this moment the least 
 ground for either of these reports. Huskisson and Herries 
 are no doubt at variance, and I am sorry for it, and prolialjly 
 one or other will retire, Init matters are not yet advanced to 
 this point. As to the latter statement, I never can believe 
 it. Goderich must go, and the Duke of Wellington must 
 either be, or designate who shall be the Ministers. 
 
 His lioyal Highness talked t(j me of his own political 
 feelings, and particularly on the Catholic question. He says 
 that it is not ripe for full concession — that he would be ready 
 to grant all even now, but that public opinion is not so 
 far advanced — that what he would do therefore at present 
 Avould be, 1st, to place the English Catholics on the same 
 footing with the Irish ; 2nd, to introduce a bill to legalise 
 intercourse witli tlie Court of Eome, with a view to negotia- 
 tion. His Ifoyal Highness said that as long as the Duke of 
 York lived he had, out of respect for his judgment as well as 
 for that of the King, refrained from voting on that question ; 
 but he was always, as he still is, satisfied that the concession 
 must and ought to be made. His Eoyal Highness is for./* 
 a Government founded on a union of parties. He says the 
 names Whigs and Tories meant sometliing a Inmdred years ago, 
 but are mere nonsense nowadays. I agreed with His Eoyal 
 Highness that Whigs in power soon assimilated themselves 
 to Tories, and that Tories in opposition would soon become 
 AVhigs, but that I still thought that there were two marked 
 and distinct parties in the country, which might for Ijrevity 
 be fairly called Whig and Tory. 
 
 January 8th. — The Duke of Clarence's news of yesterday 
 was, as I expected, quite unfounded. Goderich is gone down 
 to Windsor to resign, and he will find the King, if not 
 unprepared, at least unprovided. 
 
 The King, as soon as he had seen Goderich, sent off an 
 express for tlie Chancellor, who went immediately to Windsor. 
 Goderich's resignation is therefore at last fait and imrfait. 
 His real friends never wished him in the situation of First 
 IMinister. We shall now have all tlie uncertainties and 
 anxieties of last Ai)ril over again, lait there is liut one exit, 
 
 VOL. I. 2 D
 
 402 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. XIII. 
 
 viz., the Duke of Wellington and Peel ; but the Duke will 
 be reluctant to leave the army, and Peel alone will not be 
 able to re-unite the Tories ; and I therefore expect that it 
 will be rather accession on their parts than an entire new 
 frame of Government. 
 
 January 9th. — The Chancellor returned from Windsor in 
 the night, and went back at nine this morning, in company 
 ■ftdth the Duke of Wellington. 
 
 The Duke of Wellington came back about six o'clock, and 
 immediately sent an express for Peel, who was at the 
 Wilderness these last two or three days, but is by this time, 
 I suppose, gone back to Maresfield. It seems incredible, but 
 is quite true, as I hear, that the Duke and Peel have been so 
 ill-informed of what has been going on as to be taken quite 
 by surprise. 
 
 Mr. Crol'cr to Lord Hertford. 
 
 January lO'tli, 1828. 
 
 The Duke, who went down with the Chancellor yesterday 
 morning, returned from Windsor last night, and immediately 
 sent an express for Peel, who came to town this morning, 
 and at ten had an interview with the Duke. What passed 
 can be as yet, of course, kno-oai only to the initiated, of whom 
 I am not one ; but that Peel was disposed to enter into the 
 negotiation may be inferred from the fact of his having 
 consented to see the Chancellor, after his interview with the 
 Duke; and this fact came to my knowledge by a very 
 ludicrous adventure, which, as an episode in these dry 
 political discussions, may amuse you. An acquaintance of 
 Peel's and mine was invited to be at Maresfield to-day — a 
 man (whom you do not know) of no politics or party, but 
 rather a droll fellow. He went on this visit in his gig, and 
 slept last night at Godstone, halfway to Maresfield, intending 
 to • drive on this morning. At breakfast, however, the land- 
 lord of the inn told him that Mr. Peel had passed up to town 
 very early in the morning. Upon this intelligence my man 
 thought it most prudent to put about ship and return to town 
 also ; but on his return, al^out noon, he thought it right to 
 call at Peel's house to inquire whether he had done right, or 
 whether he was expected to go back to Maresfield. On 
 knocking at Peel's door, it was opened by a servant, who, it 
 seems, did not know our friend's person. (I suppose all the
 
 1828.] MINISTERIAL CHANGES. 403 
 
 old servants are in the country.) To tlie inquiry of wliether 
 Mr. Peel was at home, the man re])lied tliat he was out of 
 town, " Oh no," said the visitor, " I know he came to town 
 this morninri;." This altered the porter's note, who imme- 
 diately, in a most respectful whisper, asked, " Sir, are you 
 the Lord Chancellor ? " Our waggish friend (meaning no 
 mischief) answered, " Why — no — not yet — but I hope to he 
 so soon." " Oh, sir, in that case, my master has desired that 
 you should be admitted." And admitted he was, to the 
 great astonishment of tlie politician, and the great amuse- 
 ment of the friend, wlio lost no time in calling over here to 
 tell us of the state secret into which he had so unwittingly 
 fallen.* 
 
 But glad as I am on every account that the Duke of 
 "Wellington and the Chancellor are called upon to advise the 
 King, I cannot but foresee great difficulty in making a satis- 
 factory arrangement. Who are to be the orators in the 
 Lords or in the Commons ? Peel in the latter, helped by 
 Herries and Goulburn (supposing even Herries to stay), will 
 hardly be a match for the vehemence of an exasperated 
 Opposition in which it is thought that Mr. Canning's own 
 j)arty will enrol itself; but in the Lords what is to be done 
 if, as I understand. Lords Grey and Lauderdale are (as 
 a basis) to be excluded ? WHio is to stand up in that House 
 against those Lords and Lansdowne, Holland, &c. ? 
 
 January 21.st, 1828. 
 
 The J)uke and Peel satisfy all my pri^■ate and public 
 feelings, but if we lamented that Mr. Canning was driven to 
 coalesce with Lord Lansdowne, what shall we say of the 
 introduction of Lord Ellenborough ? 
 
 Herries is at the Mint — reluctant and feeling, I believe, 
 that he is degraded, but with no alternative between that 
 and standing quite and utterly alone. 
 
 I am afraid that the Duke means to keep the army with 
 the Treasury. That will not do ! 
 
 I met I'eel and Goulburn yesterday, mighty cordial. I have 
 heard the appointment of Goulburn to an office, for which he 
 is thought incapable, extolled as a masterstroke of policy in 
 Huskisson. I cannot suspect Huskisson of such an inten- 
 
 * [The hero of this incident was Alexander Cockburn.] 
 
 2 D 2
 
 J 
 
 404 TEE CEOEER PAPERS. [Chap. XIII. 
 
 tion, but I mention the fact to show you what people think 
 of Goulburn's appointment. 
 
 WestmoreLand and Eldon have been put into the dirty 
 clothes Ijasket with Wynn and Bexley, and throivn overboard 
 — thrown overboard for Lord EUenborough. 
 
 January 24th, 1828. 
 I have seen the Duke, and this is what passed : a friendly 
 greeting, and then he wished to see me to express his hope 
 that the arrangement he had formed was such as to conciliate 
 my confidence and support. I replied that I had never 
 ceased to wish that his Grace were in the Cabinet, and that 
 knowing, as I did, his opinions on the subject, I presumed 
 that the force of circumstances alone obliged him to be at the 
 head of it * * * He stated how he was beset and plagued 
 with importunities and remonstrances, and compared himself 
 to a doG; with a canister tied to his tail. " There," he said, 
 pointing to a formidable heap of green bags and red boxes, 
 " there is the business of the country, which I have not time 
 to look at — all my time being employed in assuaging what 
 gentlemen call their feelings. In short, the folly and un- 
 reasonableness of people are inconceivable." He then let out 
 the true secret of his arrangements by saying that — "Wliat 
 Peel said is perfectly true — those who are for forming an 
 exclusive Ministry, expect that I am to go into the House of 
 Commons with half a party, to fight « 'party and a half." 
 
 Lord Yarmouth is in town — ^,just come. I saw him yester- 
 day evening with John King when I went into Crockford's 
 to look at his fairy palace, which certainly beats the drop- 
 scene of a pantomime. The lamp in the staircase cost £1200, 
 and so in proportion. The whole house is as splendid as 
 marble, scagiiola, gilding, and glasses can make it. I cannot 
 think that it has cost less than £50,000. Wlio's to pay ? 
 
 From the Diary. 
 
 January 11th. — They have a report that it is intended to 
 place Lord Melville nominally at the head. This would 
 appear to me quite monstrous if I did not recollect my 
 conversation with Peel last year, in which he said he would 
 serve under Melville. The necessity of getting over Hus- 
 kisson, and the difficulties he makes, may have suggested
 
 1828.] ANECDOTE OF BUEKE. 405 
 
 this mezzotermine, as he has always kept up a friendly inter- 
 course with Melville ; but what is to become of Peel's 
 speeches and pledges about the head of the Government 
 being Protestant ? Pesides, the country will not bear a man 
 of straw ; and j\Ielville himself, though not bright, has too 
 much good sense to undertake it. The difficulties are very 
 great, but this expedient will not solve them. 
 
 One day this last week, talking with the Duke of Clarence 
 about Mr. Purke's manifesto against the Queen after the 
 Eegency — (the whole history of wliicli the King himself 
 had told me) — His Eoyal Highness said that so much 
 violence was a little inconsistent with Mr. Purke's conduct 
 in a particular that regarded himself (Duke of Clarence) 
 about the same time. His Eoyal Highness was ad^^sed to 
 apply for an increased allowance, and Mr. Purke was selected 
 to pen the demand. While he was writing the letter in the 
 Duke's presence, he stopped, and, looking up at His Eoyal 
 Highness, said, in his Irish accent and quick manner, "I vowy 
 to God, sir, I wish that instead of writing letters of this kind, 
 you would go every morning and breakfast with your father 
 and mother. It is not decent for any family, but above all 
 the Eoyal family, to be at variance, as you all unhappily are." 
 
 January 20fh. — It is reported that the list circulated on 
 Friday e^'ening, and which was in the Morniiuj Chronicle 
 of Saturday, was communicated by Herries to INIaberley. 
 The new Cabinet is in a fury, and the Duke of Wellington 
 has required an explanation from Herries. There is some 
 gi'ound for this complaint. Herries's confidential clerk, it 
 seems, saw the list, and did communicate it. Tliis is very 
 unlucky for Herries, as it seems to accredit complaints of the 
 same kind which some of his late colleagues made against 
 him. I can say that though I have had a great deal of 
 confidential conversation with liim, he never in the slightest 
 way gave me any information of a Cabinet nature. 
 
 I called on him about this, and to tell him that we had 
 iiad the list as early as four on Friday, which was two hours 
 before Maberley saw his clerk ; but I since learn that the 
 list we saw came also from the said clerk (Shearman). 
 I regret all this. 
 
 I scolded him also for taking the Mint, and told him tliat 
 in quitting liis finance he had surrendered his Martello-tower. 
 He agreed in all I said, but he showed me that he nuist be 
 what he was or notliing ; that he alone could not set up
 
 V) 
 
 A 
 
 406 THE CROKEE PAPERS. [Chap, XIII. 
 
 a Tory Opposition, and that he could not join the Wliigs. 
 All true enough. 
 
 I met Peel and Goulburn accidentally at Hyde Park 
 Corner — the first meeting Avith Peel on friendly terms since 
 April — very cordial. 
 
 Jamiary 28th. — Dined with Peel, to hear the Speech. 
 Thirty-two at dinner in his gallery, which looked very hand- 
 some, and thus accomplished one of the purposes for which 
 I designed it originally. I sat next to Hardinge, and had 
 a great deal of confidential chat with him. Fitzgerald and 
 Wilmot, who sat opposite, w^ere very pleasant. Talking of 
 the Times newspaper, and the paragraphs supposed to have 
 lieen furnished to it by the late Ministers, and which had 
 done them so much harm in public opinion, Wilmot, in his 
 candour, said that he really believed that it was none of 
 their doing. " At all events," replied Fitzgerald, " it has been 
 their undoing." I was the only person present in George III. 
 Windsor uniform, which I always wear on these occasions 
 — the only occasions on which one could nowadays wear the 
 fashion of the last reign. 
 
 January 29th. — Cecil Jenkinson moved the address very 
 badly. Eobert Grant seconded it very well ; but nothing 
 remarkable. Brougham diffuse and weak, but, when com- 
 pared with those about him, he is a giant. Calcraft said 
 a few words in his ordinary neutral style ; and I could see 
 that Normanljy, Dr. Lusliington, and Brougham interchanged 
 sneers at what he said. He is, as he has so long been, only 
 waiting an opportunity to leave the Opposition side of the 
 House. The House was full ; all except the rows behind the 
 Treasury Bench. It is evident that the minds of Members 
 are not made up, and that a strong floating squadron could be 
 easily erected, and, indeed, perhaps will not lie easily prevented. 
 
 February 10th. — A curious anecdote, which explains several 
 particulars in the conduct and feelings of the Hanover family 
 since their accession. Princess Augusta said lately to a 
 private friend : " I was ashamed to hear myself called 
 Princess Augusta, and never could persuade myself that 
 I was so, as long as any of the Stuart family were alive ; but 
 after the death of Cardinal York, I felt myself to be really 
 Princess Augusta." Yet, after all, the Modena family has as 
 good a title to the throne of England as the Stuarts had, and 
 Princess Augusta's title is no better now than it was while 
 the Cardinal was alive ; indeed, it is rather worse, for the
 
 1828.] LONDON LIFE. 407 
 
 Modena title is antecedent to James II.'s abdication, and, if 
 tliey were Protestants, would be consistent with all that was 
 done at the Eevblution. 
 
 February 22nd. — Examined for near three hours before 
 the Finance Connnittee. Baring and Stanley showed intelli-^ 
 gence and good sense. Parnell is a pedant, thinking of 
 nothing but political economics, and of them very confusedly. 
 Hume and Maberley are two blockheads. The latter asked 
 me if the entry books and records of the office could not 
 be copied by a macJiine to save clerks ! And all his other 
 questions were of the same force. 
 
 Dined with Lord Hertford with Duke of Wellington, 
 Count and Countess Ludolf, Mr. and ]\Irs. Arbuthnot, Lord 
 and Lady Londonderry, Mr.,* JNIrs., and Miss Mitchell, ]\Irs. 
 George Fox, Lords Lauderdale, Chesterfield, and Shafteslniry, 
 Col. Armstrong, Sir H. Coote, Sirs George Warrender, 
 J. Shelley, and "j. Beresford. Vesey Fitzgerald was kept in 
 the House of Commons in attendance on the army estimates. 
 I sat next to Lord Londonderry, and we talked of his forth- 
 coming work on the Peninsular War up to 1813. 
 
 Fcbruarij 22>rcl. — The town has it that in consequence of 
 observations made in the House of Commons as to his 
 intrigues (of which Herries is supposed to be the instrument) 
 to effect the dissolution of the late Administration, Sir Wm. 
 Knighton has suddenly gone abroad. He certainly is gone. 
 But" he went before these explanations, and he has f(n- the 
 last few years made several similar excursions, all of which 
 (except one when he went to the poor late Mountcharles) 
 were enveloped in mystery. His last and the present journey 
 have been, by tliose"^ who tliink they know best, attributed to 
 the state of the Duke of Cumberland's health. But the town 
 chooses to fancy tliat it is the result of Tom Duncombe's 
 having denounced him in the House of Commons. He was 
 gone before. 
 
 February 29th. — Eenew^ed del)ate on Brougham's motion 
 relative to the state of the law. Solicitor-General made 
 a clear but feeble answer, disproving thoroughly, but with 
 little effect, some of Brougham's cardinal cases. Scarlett, 
 jealous that Brougham shouhl run away with all the honour 
 of these amendments, which have been in discussion in West- 
 
 * [A well-known Russian merchant of the day, living in Charles Street, 
 Berkeley Square. He was famous for going nowhere without his sister.]
 
 408 TEE CHOKER PAPERS. [Chap. XIH. 
 
 minster Hall these some years, sneered at the length and 
 infinite extent of Brougham's speech. It seems that Lord 
 Tenterden has had two bills ready drawn for remedying some 
 of the grievances complained of by Brougham. This the 
 Solicitor rather let out than stated triumphantly, as he should 
 have done. Brougham, as apj)eared by his grimaces and 
 gesticulations, was furious with Scarlett ; but the latter left 
 the House, rather shabbily, I think, before Brougham replied, 
 and Brougham had time to cool. Had he spoken at once„ 
 there would have been hot work. 
 
 March 2ncl. — The King is obliged to be carried to and from 
 his carriage ; and instead of the open railed gate to the 
 Garden of St. James's, through which His Majesty has driven 
 of late years from the Park, they have in the last tw^o days 
 substituted a close gate to prevent the people's seeing the 
 operation of moving His Majesty in and out of his carriage. 
 
 Vyvyan, who is one of His Majesty's equerries, tells me 
 that he thinks that this will be his last visit to London. A 
 bill is to be brought in to enable him to hold a council for 
 the Eecorder's Eeport out of Middlesex. This may be neces- 
 sary in compliance with established practice, but in principle 
 I believe the King's consent to execution is only necessary 
 when the King happens to be present. The old proverb says 
 " the King's face gives grace ; " and I believe that when His 
 Majesty is at Windsor, criminals in London may be executed 
 without his consent, and in Windsor not. 
 
 March Uh. — The King came to town at ten o'clock last 
 night — w^ell, except the weakness in his knees and ankles. 
 
 Sir Thomas Thompson, Treasurer of Greenwich Hospital^ 
 died yesterday. He commanded the Leandcr in the battle of 
 the Nile, but was taken on his way home with the dispatches, 
 after an action in which he was so badly wounded in the leg 
 that he had a pension for the injury. At the battle of Copen- 
 hagen this same leg (which gave him a deal of trouble and 
 pain) was carried clean off, to his great happiness, and he had 
 another pension for the loss of the leg. He was Comptroller 
 of the Navy when I came into office. He was a good-natured, 
 single-hearted fellow, and by no means a bad Comptroller. 
 
 Dined at Warrender's with Lord Chancellor and Lady 
 Lyndhurst, Sir S. and Lady Sheppard, Lords Chandos, Lauder- 
 dale, and Dudley, Mr. William Adam, Quintin Dick, William 
 Courtney, and old Jekyll. The latter was very agi'eeable, 
 and he and Lauderdale gave us many anecdotes of Fox, Burke„
 
 1828.] BURKE AXD THE DAGGEIi. 409 
 
 Hare, and above all Fitzpatriek. Luid Lauderdale told us 
 lie was in Parliament in 1780, before I was born, so that he - 
 must be at least sixty-nine. Jekyll described IJurke's conductV 
 the ni.uht of the dagger scene. He had since his quarrel with 
 Sheridan sat in the place on the floor below the gangway on 
 the left side, where old Baukes has sat of late years. Jekyll, 
 coming a little late, saw a place vacant next Burke, and took 
 it. When Fox spoke, Jekyll cheered violently. Burke told 
 him that he was nervous, and begged him not to cheer so 
 loud, as it agitated him. He had bundles of paper, and the 
 dagger ^\Tapped up in paper beside him, and apologised to 
 Jekyll for the inconvenience they caused him. When he 
 threw down the dagger the House laughed, and some asked 
 where the fork was. It quite failed. Jekyll, of course, 
 thouglit so, but Lord Sidmouth told me the contrary. I said 
 that " I had heard from some one, but could not recollect 
 whom, but it was one who knew Fox, Burke, Sheridan, and 
 Fitzpatrick intimately, that he thought Fitzpatrick the Jirst i /' 
 of all of them. Jekyll replied : " Well, and I should say so *' 
 too, but his delivery in the House of Commons was so 
 inefficient that he never made any figure there." 
 
 March Qth. — Went from the House of Connnons to dine 
 impromptu with Holmes. We were, besides Lady Stronge and 
 Miss Tew, Colonel Cuffe, Capt. a'Court, Mr. Harrison of 
 Liverpool, a young officer of the name of Browne, and 
 Holmes's brother. As we were going to dinner through 
 Cockspur Street, Holmes caught a pickpocket with his hand 
 in his pocket. The poor devil had no shirt, and was so 
 humble and penitent that he let him off. He was a mild- 
 looking young man, in squalid misery, 
 
 March 14:th. — House of Connnons. Peel and I went up to 
 dine at Kerr's, but were interrupted by a call for a division 
 on Penryn Disfranchisement Bill, on which Peel ran down to 
 speak. He had had a meeting in the morning at the Home 
 Office of Palmerston, Huskisson, Goulburn, Herries, Fr. Lewis, 
 Fitzgerald, Planta, Dawson, Wm. Peel, and myself, to consider 
 how to deal with these bills, and he proposed (as I had 
 suggested to him by letter in the morning) to postpone 
 a decision on Penryn Bill till we knew whether we should 
 have also to dispose of the franchise of Pietford, and if we had 
 both, to satisfy the agricultural and manufacturing classes l)y 
 giving two members to the hundred, and two members to one 
 of the great towns.
 
 410 THE CROKEE PAPERS. [Chap. XIII. 
 
 Mr. Crokcr to Mr. Peel. 
 
 Marcli 14th, 1828. 
 
 Dear Peel, 
 
 There is a great feeling /or and against Eetford, and there- 
 uill be about Penryn. The High Tories will be exceedingly 
 reluctant to transfer the franchise of the former to any other 
 place ; on the other hand, there will be a considerable feeling 
 against throwing the borough into the hands of two or three 
 freat landowners. I have always been (as an anti-reformer) 
 inclined to give the representations which might fall in by 
 disfrancliisenient, to the great towns having populations of 
 100,000, and I should, individually, be glad to see l:)oth 
 Eetford and Penryn transferred to Birmingham and Man- 
 chester ; but I fear that would be thought too reforming, 
 though / am sure that, in fact, it would tend to stave off 
 reform. If, as they tell me, a case can be made for the 
 hundred in which Eetford is situated (from the riches and 
 population of the district, and there being only eight members 
 for the whole county, and no contiguous borough) — if, I say, 
 a case can be made for Eetford, why not try a compromise, 
 and give Eetford to the hundred, and Penryn to one of the 
 great towns ? I know something also may be said for Penryn 
 hundred, as it includes the considerable unrepresented town 
 of Falmouth ; but as Cornwall has forty-two members and 
 Notts but eight, and as Falmouth and Penryn are surrounded 
 with boroughs, there does seem to be some difference in the 
 cases; and I therefore think the proposition I have made 
 worth consideration, even on a mere view of the two cases. 
 
 But it seems to me to have other and less obvious advan- 
 tages. If the hundred system is to be maintained in both 
 cases, we shall have a great and, I think, not unfounded out- 
 cry. The crowd in *and out of the House will exclaim that the 
 popular side has no longer any hope of gradual reform, and 
 will renew the cry for radical reform with the more effect ; 
 and those who look deeper will say that in order to evade a 
 proper reform, you are in truth maldng a real innovation on 
 the Constitution, which had apportioned the representation 
 between town and county — between freemen and burgesses 
 on one hand, and freeholders on the other ; and you are now, 
 when the manifest evil is that great town population is inade- 
 quately represented, about to transfer four members from town 
 election to county or freehold election ; on the other hand, if
 
 1828.] THE STUDIOS IN 1828. 411 
 
 both l)oroii,f,'lis be transferred to gi-eat towns, the Tories in 
 general Avill be dissatisfied, and I'arHament will be, I think, 
 concluded in all future cases by precedent. Having luckily 
 now two ])oroughs to dispose of, you may, if not satisfy, at 
 least eonciUate botli parties, and, which is still more hnportant, 
 you will kee]) open the future power of Parliament to adopt 
 one or the other course on a view of the incUvidual circum- 
 stances of each respective case. 
 
 It does not seem to me of any great importance, but I may 
 as well mention that Manchester did once send members to 
 Parliament. 
 
 Yours ever, 
 
 J. W. Ceoker. 
 From the Diary. 
 
 3farch lG/7i.^Lord Hertford left town this morning to 
 spend a few days at Brighton. I called on Sir Thomas 
 Lawrence to look at his picture of the Duke of Clarence, and 
 the others he is finishing for the exhibition. 
 
 I also called on Mr. Briggs about the picture he is painting 
 for the Institution, of the King visiting the fleet after the 
 1st June. 
 
 I also called on 'My. AVood, a young painter whom Sir T. 
 Lawrence has recommended to me, to make some copies 
 I wanted. I find lie has taken to portraits, and paints them 
 miserably. 
 
 I ended my tour of painters by a visit to ]\Ir. Shee, where 
 I saw an old picture of Chief Baron Lord Yelverton — I think 
 the best I ever saw of Mr. Shee's. It is left on his hands. 
 
 Dined at Lord Camden's with Lords Sidmouth, Colchester, 
 Elliot, and Brecknock, Sir Geo. Cocklnirn, Sir Edward Owen, 
 Sir Ptowland Hill, Sir H. Hardinge, Sir Ed. Knatchbull, Sir 
 George Clerk, Mr. Duncombe of Yorkshire, and Mr. Barrow. 
 A very good dinner — like the house, a little old-fashioned, 
 but of a stately old fashion. 
 
 March 11th.- — I attended the funeral of my old friend 
 Mr. Bicknell. I observe that there are three degrees of 
 mournhig on these occasions — cloaks, with crape hat-bands ; 
 crape scarves and hat-bands ; and silk scarves and hat-l)ands. 
 His remains were neither buried nor interred, but deposited 
 in the vaults of St. Martin's. The coffins are placed in 
 irregular piles on the floor of the vaults, five or six over each
 
 412 TEE CHOKER PAPERS. [Chap. XIII. 
 
 other. The greater part of the service was read in the 
 Church (as it was at Kensington the other day), after which 
 we descended into the vault. When the minister came to 
 " dust to dust," one of the undertaker's men stepped up on 
 the lower coffin of the pile, to enable him to throw a handful 
 of dust on poor Bicknell's. This looked very irreverent, and 
 the sight of these piles of mouldering coffins excited most 
 disagreeable ideas. Some of them were falling to pieces, and 
 I almost dreaded to see them burst open and lay bare the 
 awful secrets of our dissolution. 
 
 March 18th. — Dispatches by express from Portugal. Dom 
 ]\Iiguel is about to make himself absolute King. The 
 Constitutionalists and the English are in danger, as they 
 think, and Sir Fred. Lamb, the ambassador, has stopped the 
 final return of our ships and troops. I saw the Duke of 
 Wellington upon this subject. Prince Lieven was with him 
 when I went in. When Lieven was gone he told me that 
 the Greek and Turkish questions were in a sad mess. Eussia 
 persists in her design, and the Duke does not see his way out 
 of it. He laid the blame on the treaty of London. I could 
 not help hinting at the Protocol. As to Portugal, he dis- 
 approved of Lamb stopping the troops, and he wishes we 
 were out of that scrape too. 
 
 In the House of Commons Peel has given up the Test and 
 Corporation Acts for a declaration, which means nothing, and 
 which will never be taken by any one. This is another step 
 to Catholic Emancipation. The Duke of Clarence asked me 
 about the Duke of Wellington's opinion on the Catholic 
 question. I said that I supposed, and indeed believed, his 
 Grace was convinced that something must be done. His 
 Eoyal Highness said that he hncw that the Duke was 
 making inquiries on the subject from some of the Foreign 
 Ministers, and His Eoyal Highness further observed on the 
 inconsistency of the King's refusing in Ireland what he 
 granted in Hanover. I said the cases were not quite the 
 same. The King held Hanover by hereditary right, but 
 England only by the Protestant Settlement. 
 
 The Duke of Clarence frequently harps upon a notion 
 that Prussia is to take the first opportunity of seizing 
 Hanover, and he does not seem so much adverse to it as 
 might be supposed. He has never liked Hanover, perhaps 
 because his education was exclusively English, but I tliink 
 that I see the jealousy of the sons of his two brothers of
 
 1828.] PASSAGES FROM THE DIAnV. 413 
 
 Cumberland and Cambridge, who are the heirs presumptive 
 of Hanover. He, like Macbeth, repines at the Ijarren sceptre 
 to which no son of his is to succeed. 
 
 March 19th. — We have been in a bustle all day with the 
 Greek and Portuguese questions. The King, that is Hus- 
 kisson, has directed that Codrington shall receive orders direct 
 from the Secretary of State. Tliere are many precedents, 
 even as late as the last Copenhagen expedition ; and if it had 
 been done in July last, no one could have objected, but doing 
 it now does look like disapprobation of the conduct of the 
 Lord High Admiral, and he so feels it. Orders are gone that 
 the army should evacuate Lisbon ; but a line-of-battle sliip, 
 a couple of frigates, and the Marines to garrison Fort 
 St. JuHen, remain a little longer. Two or three sloops go to 
 Oporto. I was to-day ten hours at my desk without inter- 
 mission, except to see people on the business I was engaged 
 in. 
 
 March 21st. — Saw Peel about the dispute between our and 
 the French fishermen at Jersey, and besouglit him not to 
 allow this jnmj^^c to be scratched into a so7'c. Talked of East 
 Eetford. He complained that the Tories and country gentle- V 
 men cared about nothing but the Corn question ; tliat they 
 complained if Ministers yielded, complained more if Ministers 
 were in a minority, but would not take the trouble of attend- 
 ing to put them into a majority. He showed me a fine 
 picture of a lion devouring a w^ild boar, which he has lately 
 got from Spain. It is very good of its kind, but I don't like 
 the kind. 
 
 March 2Srcl. — Had a long conversation with Herries about 
 the Greenwich pensions. He wishes me to state to the 
 Finance Committee what I have stated to him. 
 
 Dined at the Lord Chancellor and Lady Lyndhurst's with 
 Lord and Lady IMorley, Mr. and Mrs. Sidnev, Lord Dudlev, 
 Sir F. Burdett, J\lr. Luttrell, Jekyll, Pt. Ward, Wranghani, 
 Wm. Ptussell, and the Knight of Kerry. A very agi-eeable 
 day. Talked of the arts and the stage, but of course no 
 politics. From the heat of the room, which is a small one, 
 with only light from the ceiling, Pob Ward was obliged to 
 retire before the ladies ; but after a walk round Hanover 
 Square he came back again ; but when we got up to go to 
 the ladies, ]\Ir. Wm. Pussell fainted twice. The first time he 
 fell and cut his head ; when he fainted again, I held him. 
 I afterwards took him to his doctor's, and afterwards home to
 
 414 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. XIIL 
 
 Lincoln's Inn, in my carriage. I was unwilling to let him go 
 alone, as I was afraid that he might have fainted a third 
 time, 
 
 March 2Qth. — Cecil Jenkinson gives me a melancholy 
 account of both Lord and Lady Liverpool. He is rather 
 worse than better, less intelligible, and more irritable. He is 
 sensible, and his great annoyance is the not being able to 
 make himself understood. He has had of late a kind of 
 monthly relapse, in one of wdiicli he will probably go off. 
 Lady Liverpool has, from her anxiety and attendance, been 
 dangerously ill. 
 
 March 29th. — Mrs. Croker and ISTony left Kensington for 
 Windsor at half-past twelve to-day, in our carriage. I fol- 
 lowed them at three, in one of Hutton's coaches, and I arrived 
 about an hour after them ; and at a quarter-past six we put 
 up at the Castle Inn, which is worse than ever. They went 
 by Datchett ; I came by Englefield Green. Before I left 
 town I attended a meeting of the subscribers to Mr. Can- 
 ning's monument. About fifty met. Agreed to the two 
 statues — one colossal in bronze, one in marble for the Abbey. 
 Stapleton was ready to show fight for Chantrey. Several 
 persons, and particularly Lord Harrowby and Spring Eice, 
 begged me to use my influence with Chantrey to make him 
 take the marble statue. I will try. 
 
 March oOth. — We attended divine ser^^ce at St. George's 
 Chapel at eleven. Any well-dressed persons obtain seats 
 in the stalls. I suppose they all pay something. I gave the 
 sexton half-a-crown. Servants and inferior persons seemed 
 to sit in the lower seats and benches on the floor, without 
 any special leave. More of the service chanted than is usual 
 in cathedrals. Most of the prayers and the Nicene Creed. It 
 was all very well done, but very long — about two and a half 
 hours. Dr. Clarke and Mr. Proby the canons present. The 
 latter preached tolerably — a sermon appropriate to the 
 season. 
 
 We afterwards called on Mr. Wyattville, and walked over 
 the new works of the Castle with him. They are in many 
 respects handsome, and not inconvenient, but the repairs, &c., 
 have already cost £500,000, and I confess I do not see more||/' 
 than I should have thought one-fifth of the sum might have 
 produced. It is true that all- the external work has been 
 done so exactly in the old style, and with stone and mortar 
 so stained to assimilate, that there is no great show of new
 
 1828.] DIXXEIl PABTIES. 415 
 
 work. After all, the rooms are by no means what they oiif^ht 
 to he ; they are very handsome, and even noljle, l)ut tliey are 
 neither in number and size what might have been pro- 
 duced for much less expense. They are, moreover (except 
 the corridor and dining-room), in the style of Louis XIV., 
 which does not accord with the general character of "Windsor. 
 The King's stairs too rich and massive for its size. The 
 dimensions are almost mean, and the labour of workmanship 
 extravagant. Mr. Wyattville told me that it would cost(y 
 £700,000 more. He has committed some gross faults, such 
 as machicolations over inclined bases and over inferior 
 buildings, and the sameness and meanness of the masonry 
 has a bad effect on so large a front. 
 
 March Zlst. — Grant opened the Corn resolutions in the 
 Commons in a very apologetical speech, in which his prin- 
 cipal oljject was to justify liis resolutions by a supposition 
 that Mr. Canning, if he had lived, would have consented to 
 such a modification, and he concluded with a studied pane- 
 gpic and tribute to his memory, which was not well taken 
 by the ultra-Tories, though cheered by the rest of the House. 
 The country gentlemen seem but half pleased, although they 
 have got the good price of 64$., which they proposed last year, 
 and were Ijeaten. 
 
 April 12th. — Nony and I dined with Mr. and Mrs. Lock- 
 hart in Sussex Place, to meet Walter Scott. We had besides 
 Miss Scott and Lady Davy, Mr. Henry Ellis and ]\Ir. Charles 
 Scott. In the evening some ladies came whom we did not 
 know. After dinner one of the pipers of the 72nd Eegiment 
 (which is to eml)ark on Monday for the Cape), who had been 
 Sir AValter's piper, came to take leave of him — a fine fellow 
 (of the name of Bruce), in full uniform, who played his pipes 
 walking up and down the room. They are sad discordant 
 things, and I believe every one, even the Scotch themselves, 
 was glad when he had done. 
 
 Ajjril 21st. — Dined with us at Kensington, Sir Walter 
 Scott and Mr. Lockhart, the Knight of Kerry, Sir H. 
 Hardinge, Mr. Hook, Mr. Locker, Mr. Chantrey, A very 
 agreeable day. Hardinge told us the circumstances of Sir J, 
 JNIoore's wound and death. He was speaking to liim when 
 he was sliot. IMoore's countenance assumed a great severity, 
 and it was evident he made a great effort over himself to 
 avoid showing the anguish he felt. He also told us of the 
 Duke of Wellington's visit to Blucher's army just at the
 
 416 TEE CBOKER PAPERS. [Chap. XIIL 
 
 beginning of the battle of Fleurus,* and the Duke's foreseeing, 
 fi'om the errors of the Prussian disposition, that they were 
 sure to be beaten. The day month on which his [Hardinge's] 
 arm was amputated in a wood in Flanders he was sleeping in 
 Marie Louise's state bed at St. Cloud. Blucher had selected 
 and insisted on his using this apartment. 
 
 Sir Walter said he hoped never to hear a friend of his 
 tell a ghost story, as the only two persons on whom he could 
 rely, and who had told him such stories, had put an end to 
 themselves. One w^as Lord Londonderry, and his story was 
 that of the " radiant boy." 
 
 Ajyril 23rd. — The King's drawing-room. Mrs. Peel was to 
 have presented Nony, but she is ill, and Lady Anne Beckett 
 presented her. The King recognised her, and spoke affec- 
 tionately to her, and told me as I passed by afterwards that 
 he had had a great curiosity to see his " little friend " after 
 so long an interval. 
 
 The Duke of Cumberland was there, and his son Prince 
 George. This little pickle is about nine, and was dressed in 
 the uniform of the 10th Hussars. He looks intelligent, and 
 they tell me is so. He was surprised into screams of laughter 
 at the Judges' wigs, nothing like what he had ever before 
 seen. He has a slight cast in his eye, and has a strong 
 resemblance to his grandfather the late King. He is what 
 every one would call a fine boy. 
 
 A^great crowd at the Drawing Pioom, and the absence of 
 hoops brings the ladies into such close contact that some of 
 them quarrelled, and were near pulling one anotlier's feathers. 
 
 Dined at Charles Grant's with the House of Lords. There 
 were Lords Cassilis, Wicklow, Grantham, Sydney, Goderich, 
 Farnborough, Malmesbury, Stanhope, Clare, and Falmouth. 
 The only Commoners were the host, Vesey Fitzgerald, Ptobt. 
 Clive, and I. 
 
 Fitzgerald told us that when one of Plunkett's friends was 
 lamenting how little he had got, Burke said : " Come, come ; 
 he has not had all he deserved, but he has done 2}rctti/ well 
 for a failure." 
 
 April 21th. — Dined with me at the Admiralty, the Duke of 
 Wellington, Lord Aberdeen, Lord Dudley, Lord Lowther, 
 Huskisson, Wilmot-Horton, Vesey Fitzgerald, Sir George 
 Warrender, Jekyll, Walter Scott, and Holmes. Scott was not 
 
 * [Better known as the Battle of Ligny.]
 
 1828.] MADEMOISELLE SON TAG. 417 
 
 in force, Init the Duke was, and very frank and amusing. > 
 He said all troops ran away — that he never minded ; all he V 
 cared about was whether they would come back again, and 
 he added that he always had a succession of lines for the 
 purpose of rallying fugitives. 
 
 April oOfh. — Dined at Lord Hertford's with Lord and Lady 
 Salisbury, Lord and Lady Tanker\-ille, Sir J. and Lady Anne 
 Beckett, j\Ir. and Mrs. Agar Ellis, :Mr. and :Mrs. Parnther,* 
 and Countess St. Antonio, Lords Clare and Glengall, Sir G-. 
 Warrender, Messrs. Eogers and Luttrell, Poodle Byng, and 
 Col. AValpole. Went in the evening to Warrender's, to a 
 concert. The great curiosity of the day is Mademoiselle 
 Sontag. How she got famed for hcauty I cannot guess. She 
 is short, stumpy, with a very common set of features, and a 
 rather vulgar expression. The face is, like most others, a little 
 better when she smiles ; but Clanwilliam must have been 
 already mad before he could fall in love with this face or 
 figure. 
 
 May 2nd. — Test and Corporation Picpeal Bdl passed, our 
 House agreeing to the Lords' amendments. I said a few 
 words against the Bill, as likely inconveniently to affect the 
 members of the Church of England.f 
 
 May 3rd. — Dined with the Koyal Academy. Sat between 
 
 * [Then of Grafton Street. ' The Parntliers were great friends of the 
 Duke of Wellington.] 
 
 t [Mr. Croker said he regretted that the Bill was not returned to them 
 in the same state in which it was sent up to the Lords. He did not think 
 that those who made the present alterations saw the results to which they 
 were likely to lead. He felt confident that the consequence of them 
 would be to render an annual Act of Indemnity still necessary, though the 
 great object proposed by the measure was to get rid of that necessity. It 
 would have been better if this declaration had been allowed to be taken at 
 the same time and in the same places as the other oaths and declarations 
 required from persons admitted to office. Six months were allowed by 
 this Bill, whereas the other oaths, connected with the holding of office, 
 were to be taken within three mouths. Why might not the declaration 
 be made in His Majesty's Courts of Exchequer or Common Pleas? AVhen 
 the measure came into operation he had no doubt it wt)uld be found 
 impossible to stand by the provisions of it, and that Indemnity Acts 
 Avould be still necessary. So much confusion would arise from the present 
 provisions of the Act that no declaration at all w^ould be taken, and an 
 Act of Indemnity would be the very first measure it would be necessary 
 to pro^xtse next session.] 
 
 VOL. I. 2 E
 
 418 THE CHOKER PAPERS. [Chap. XIII. 
 
 Mr. Eogers and Sir A. Hume on one side, and Lords Farn- 
 borough and Cawdor on the other. Opposite were Herries, 
 Walter Scott, Davies Gilbert, and the Speaker. We had 
 a good deal of talk and laugh in our circle. Lawrence 
 made a speech in praise of Turner and Danby. He and 
 Scott made a neat short speech on the toast of the latter's 
 health. Prince Leopold spoke, or rather croaked, out some 
 broken English, the chief point of which was that in a 
 hundred years the English school of to-day would rival the 
 Dutch School of a hundred years ago. Aberdeen, honestly 
 enough, mentioned nothing but Lawrence's own works as 
 worthy of notice. It is a very poor Exhiljition. After the 
 dinner was on the table, we waited a good half hour for the 
 Dukes of Clarence and Sussex, who did not come, and never 
 intended to come. 
 
 May 4:th. — The Duke of Clarence treated me with his 
 usual dish of Catholic question politics. His chief subject of 
 anxiety now is about Sir J. Newport's notice of a motion for 
 repealing the Acts forbidding intercourse with the See of 
 Eome. 1 got tired to death of his confidences and questions. 
 I wish I could get back to distance and mere civility. 
 
 May 6th. — Dined at Lord Hertford's with the Duke of 
 Cumberland, Prince and Princess Esterhazy, Dowager Lady 
 Salisbury, Lord and Lady Lonsdale, Lady A. Beckett, the 
 Duke of Wellington, Lord Beresford, Lord Eldon, Baron 
 Bulow, Sir H. Cooke, M. de Neumann, and Capt. and ]\Irs. 
 George Seymour. The Duke of Cumberland was very 
 gracious and tiresome, and kept us sitting till eleven o'clock, 
 so that the operatists (of whom he was one) got there very 
 late. Esterhazy told, and Neumann confirmed, an account of 
 the Prince's (Esterhazy's) having magnetised by the mere 
 motion of his hands a German lady, who immediately fell 
 asleep, and did not wake for twenty-four hours, and was only 
 recovered by slow degrees and medical means from this 
 nervous stupor. It happened at a villa the Esterhazys had 
 near town. 
 
 May 9th. — Catholic question — adjourned debate. Young 
 Villiers Stuart was fluent, and showed some talent. Brownlow 
 had a few brilhant and many absurd passages, and occa- 
 sionally talked almost insanely. Mackintosh was long and 
 laborious, and puzzled himself and tired us with references 
 to papers. Peel made a good argument on the treaty of 
 Limerick, but really one might as well, at this time of day
 
 1828.] THE DliAPEnS" HALL. 419 
 
 talk of Noah's flood as of the treaty of Limerick. Lord 
 William I'aget said a few words to explain his couversion, 
 which were "very well conceived, and delivered with modesty 
 and taste. Lamh made a short and fine burst for concilia- 
 tion and harmony ; after which the House would hear no 
 more, and Lord Sandon moved an adjournment, on which 
 every one got up and walked away. 
 
 Saturdcn/ 10^/t.— Dined with the Drapers' Company in 
 their fine hall. The building I should guess to be of the 
 days of Anne or George I. The ceiling and other ornaments 
 of the hall are, I think, by Sir W. Chambers, or out of his 
 school. They do not assort very well with the original design 
 of the room. The ceiling, the twelve signs, and then a kind 
 of architectural circumllex, including under each of the four 
 seasons its three proper signs. A very good dinner, and very 
 tolerably served, except that the tin covers marked with the 
 name of the adjoining tavern were not equal to the rest. 
 Dreadful tedious toasts and speeches ensued, even down to 
 me, and the poor University of Dublin was hooked in to 
 afford an excuse for the latter. 
 
 May 15th. — Our melancholy anniversary. I stayed at 
 home. Mrs. Croker paid her sad visit to Wimbledon. 
 
 The King had a childs' ball, to which Nony, hccvinff hccii 
 2rrcscntccl as out, was not asked — nor, indeed, if she had been, 
 could we have gone this day. 
 
 Maij IGth. — Xa^7 Estimates. A long and tiresome Com- 
 mittee squabl)le. The Finance Committee attacked by 
 Calcraft and Knight of Kerry, but more damaged by them- 
 selves. We see now the folly, as we before saw the cowardice, 
 of letting Hume and Maberley on this Committee. They 
 are more trouljlesome than ever, because being placed on the 
 Committee has redeemed their characters, and increased their 
 information. I whispered this to Peel, whose act it was, and 
 he was very little pleased with the remark. " II n'y a que 
 la verite qui blesse." But it is the turn of his mind to 
 endeavour to get over adversaries by concession. He always 
 gives more importance, and weight even, to a public enemy 
 than to his own supporters. 
 
 Mai/ 18^A.— Dined with us Mrs. T. Chaplin, Capt. and 
 Mrs. Fleetwood I'ellew, Col. Shawe, Sir Thomas Hardy, 
 I^Ir. Hook, Col. Ellison, ]\Ir. Lambert of Galway. A very 
 agi-eeable dinner. Both Mrs. Chaplin and Mrs. Pellew are 
 gay and clever in conversation. Col. ElUson has great good 
 
 2 E 2
 
 420 TEE CROEER PAPERS. [Chap. XIII. 
 
 sense, a very good tone, and a neat expression. Hook is 
 always excellent, and though he did not shine 'peculiarly this 
 evening, we had a very pleasant day, except that we discussed 
 Nash and his architectural monstrosities a little too much. 
 
 May 19 th. — The rest of the Navy Estimates voted with 
 little trouble. I went home, expecting nothing important on 
 the East Eetford bill, on which I was resolved not to vote, 
 altogether disapproving of it. But in a division on it, 
 Huskisson and Palmerston (Charles Grant absent) divided 
 with the Opposition against Peel and the rest of tlie Govern- 
 ment. This created a great sensation. In the debate Peel, 
 they tell me, had the worst of it, from young Stanley parti- 
 cularly; and he certainly was inconsistent in some degree, 
 but Huskisson ought to have avoided an open abandonment 
 of the leader. 
 
 Ifay 20th. — Huskisson has sent in his resignation. This 
 is known only to a most select few, but the general state of 
 the case is notorious enough, and creates great sensation. 
 I know the Duke took his letter to the King in order to have 
 His Majesty's authority to end the negotiation as he might 
 think best, before he entered into it. This His Majesty 
 granted. Palmerston did not send in his resignation, but he 
 is in the same boat. They both came late into the House, 
 and it was reported that they had both been dismissed, but 
 notliing has been settled. I hope and believe that matters 
 will be arranged,' for there really are excuses both for Peel 
 and Huskisson. 
 
 3Iay 27th.— Wrote to the Duke of Wellington. Had 
 a great deal of conversation with Hardmge. He had seen the 
 Duke, and told Mm that he understood from me that I was 
 willing to make way for Wilmot-Horton, if that would 
 facilitate his arrangements, as Wilmot cannot, they say, 
 vacate. He added that he had mentioned that he (Hardinge) 
 thought that I would accept Ireland, and that he thought me 
 very fit for it. I said I ratified both his suggestions. We 
 had a great deal of very confidential conversation on aU men 
 and all places. I think less favourably of the Duke's position 
 than he appears to do. I told Hardinge the motives that 
 now would induce me to accept the Secretaryship in Ireland, 
 which I would not formerly have done. 
 
 Lord Hertford advised me to ask the Duke for Ireland, but 
 I would rather not move. 
 
 May 28th. — I wrote to Hardinge that, as we heard that
 
 1828.] A VISIT TO IRELAND. 421 
 
 Dudley, Grant, and F. Leveson were gone, I thought the 
 political weather looked very bad ; but on that very account, 
 I was the more ready, if the Duke of WellinLrton wislied it, 
 to go on with his Grace for better or worse. The Duke was 
 my first, and is my natural, if not only, ■poUtiml connection ; 
 and as Lord Hertibrd will adhere to the Duke, this will place 
 all my public and private feelings in unison. But I have 
 repeated, what I said before, that I would not change my 
 office. I regret Huskisson's resignation. I think he was 
 somewhat hardly dealt with ; and even if I wished for 
 a change of office (which I do not), I should be sorry tc 
 obtain it in consequence of his removal. 
 
 May 29th. — Left town for Ireland in the coach called the 
 Wonder. AVe left the turnpike at Islington at six precisely, 
 and, breakfasting at ]\Iarket Street, and dining at Birming- 
 ham, reached Shrewsbury at twenty minutes past eleven. 
 Slept at the Lyon Inn. 
 
 Jtme Isf, Duhlin. — Attended service and received the holy 
 sacrament in the College. The anthem from Handel's 
 'Messiah.' I did not like it. A sermon from Dr. Singer 
 on the Trinity. I did not much like it either. He said the 
 mystery of the Trinity, like many operations of nature, was 
 inexplicable, though in a different degree. Is not this a bull ? 
 
 Drove to the I'lioenix Park to call on the Lord Lieutenant. 
 He was not returned from Church, so I went on and saw 
 Gregory, and told him my London news, viz. that "Wilmot 
 and Calcraft have declined office, that F. Lewis * and Francis 
 Leveson had resigned, and that Courtenay and Twiss had been 
 brought forward. Gregory was delighted to have escaped 
 Lewis as Secretary here. 
 
 Lord Anglesey was very glad to see me, and entered into 
 the whole "of the political game with me. He had on his 
 table open a letter he had just received from the Duke of 
 Wellington, with copies of the correspondence. He read me 
 the Duke's letter, which said little more than that he sent 
 them for his Lordship's iirivate information, and that he did 
 not expect in return any ol)servations on them. Lord 
 Anglesey had not read the correspondence, but he was (piite 
 aware of their contents, and he thought that there had l)een 
 too much haste on l)Oth sides. He told me that Huskisson, 
 Lamb, Sir Geo. IMurray, and the Duke had all written to 
 him, and then he went fully and most confidentially into 
 
 * [Rt. Hon. T. Frankland Lewis, Vice-President of the Board of Trade, 
 father of Sir G. C. Lewis.]
 
 422 TEE CBOEER PAPERS, [Chap. XIII. 
 
 all the circumstances of his own position and views, and he 
 read me copies of his letters to the Duke, to Lamb, and to 
 Lord HoUand, in which latter he seems to put the liighest 
 confidence — so high, indeed, as to leave him the arbiter of 
 whether he is to stay in office or not. The sum of his various 
 statements is this, that he is happy here, and not only well 
 with both parties, but in their confidence ; tliat the Catholics 
 had agreed, out of deference to him, to moderate the Associa- 
 tionists, and to stop the simultaneous meetings ; and on the 
 other side Sir H. Lees had given up, from the same motive, 
 his Orange meetings in the North. 
 
 June ith. — They say there are no nightingales in Ireland, 
 but a bird with a note very like a nightingale (I suppose 
 a thrush) woke me at half-past one in the morning, and sang 
 till daybreak. No nightingale could have been more un- 
 timely. Mr. Fitzpatrick came down to Howth with me, 
 where we breakfasted with Sir Harcourt and Lady Lees. 
 I started on board the Harlequin, Capt. Davies, at half-past 
 eight, and landed at Holyhead in six hours and six minutes. 
 The wind and tide were favourable, but the water was not 
 smooth, and the vessel rolled a good deal. I dined with 
 Capt. Da^des, and left Holyhead about twelve o'clock. I had 
 waited there to get back my IMonday's letters, which had 
 gone to Dublin by the morning's mail, and whicli now came 
 back to me by the afternoon mail, which arrived by half-past 
 ten. Travelled in the mail coacli. 
 
 June 7th. — As I was coming out of Huskisson's, I met a 
 'messenger from the Duke of AVellington desiring to see me. 
 I went across, and met Lord Beresford in the anteroom, 
 who says that he thinks Dom Miguel will be beaten in 
 Portugal. When I went in to the Duke he told me that 
 Lord Anglesey had written to hmi to the same effect as his 
 note to me, occasioned by the rumours which had reached 
 Dublin of my appointment. His Grace said civil things of 
 me, but added that he was afraid my appointment would not 
 do. He was proceeding to give me reasons, but I stopped 
 him, saying that his opinion was enough, and that I was 
 satisfied he was right ; but then I said I must ask him as 
 a private friend, if he would allow me to call him so, and 
 a man of honour, whether he thought I could remain at the 
 Admiralty. He looked startled. He said that he looked on 
 the Admiralty to be, after Ireland, the most important place 
 out of the Cabinet, much superior to the Pri\7 Councillor's 
 office, which had little or no official duties. He added tliat
 
 1828.] THE DUKE OF CLABENCE. 423 
 
 ^the income also was so much Letter. I agi'eed also to tliat. 
 and said that I was aware of, and concurred in, all he said, but 
 that public opinion must be the guide, as it was the best 
 reward of public men, and that Privy Councillor's office Ijeing 
 considered the post of lionour, I could not, with a due regard 
 to my lionour, acquiesce in my official inferiors and juniors 
 being thus put over my head, without affording me the 
 option ; that I knew that by any change I must lose income 
 and official importance, and would certainly have a reluctance 
 about any change, but that I would lose both rather than lose 
 character, if I submitted to the slight of not having been 
 even thought about. We talked it over long without arriving 
 at any conclusion, exce])t that he l)egged of me not to resign 
 hastily, and to wait at all events a few days. 
 
 The Duke entered fully into Huskisson's affliir. He said 
 that he had no doubt that he meant seriously to resign, until 
 Dudley's visit next day induced him to wish to recall it : that 
 he had been goaded by Planta and others, as he went home 
 the night of the division, and had made what he considered 
 a complete resignation. Tlie Duke was quite ready to permit 
 him to withdraw the letter, Ijut would not invite him to 
 remain. " In short, I told Dudley and Palmerston that I had 
 no objection, nay, I wished, that they and Huskisson could 
 get out of the scrape, but that I begged on my own part to 
 decline taking a roll in the rnud with them. This was not 
 a very elegant expression, l)ut it was a sincere one." 
 
 The Duke of Clarence is again, or rather still, confident 
 that there is to be a war. He told me to-day that j\Ime. de 
 Lieven had said to the King the other day : " Sire, vous voulez 
 la jTuerre : eh bien, vous aurez votre contentement." I do 
 not l)elieve it, but it is certain that she said a much more 
 offensive thing to the Duke of Cumberland the other day. 
 She was talking with His Poyal Highness of our domestic 
 jioUtics, and of the Catholic question, and supposing that 
 there should be a majority in the House of Commons against 
 the Ministers ; and replied the Duke, " Nous les renverrons." 
 " Eh puis ? " said Madame de Lieven, " si la majorite vous 
 soit encore contraire." " Nous les renverrons encore." " Eh 
 puis ? " asked the lady, in her gentle, res])ectful way. " Nous 
 les renverrons^' encore !" " Eh puis ? " " Nous les renverrons 
 encore ! " " Eh puis ? " This went on till the Duke saw the 
 absurdity of his position, and stopped, after uttering his last 
 " Nous les renverrons encore," with a certain tone of com-
 
 424 TEE CBOKER PAPEBS. [Chap. XIII. 
 
 mancl ; on which Madame Lieven, sinking her voice to the 
 lowest possible tone of gentleness and humility, whispered, as 
 a finale, " Eh puis — I'Hanovre ! ! ! " She, I hear, endeavoured 
 to give this mot all possible misinterpretations ; but it is too 
 clear and clever to be misunderstood, and I suppose it has 
 given rise to the report that the Lievens are about to be 
 recalled. 
 
 Jiine 9th. — They say that Madame de Lieven did really say 
 something to the King about the change of his Ministry, and 
 •that His Majesty answered her that if his ambassador at 
 St. Petersburg should presume to criticise the conduct of the 
 Emperor in the interior affairs of his empire, His Majesty 
 would instantly recall him. 
 
 Peel tells me that the Duke of Wellington has seen the 
 Duke of Clarence, who makes no kind of difficulty about my 
 being sworn of the Privy Council, and the Duke of Welling- 
 ton went to St. James's to propose it and the other arrange- 
 ments to the King, and that there should be a Council on 
 ]\Ionday. 
 \ Jii7ic 15. — Eeceived a letter from the Duke of Wellington 
 explaining his reasons for not having offered me other office, 
 but proposing that I should be of the Privy Council. 
 
 June 16. — Kissed His Majesty's hand, and then shook 
 hands with each Privy Councillor at the table. 
 
 June 17th. — The Duke of Clarence's answer to mine, very 
 civil and congratulatory, reached me by post, and w^as the 
 first letter I received by my new title. 
 
 Courtenay made a miserable figure in the House of Com- 
 mons on General Gascoigne's motion about the decrease of 
 seamen and shipping. He said that his mind, as well as 
 Mr. Fitzgerald's, was on that great subject a " sheet of blank 
 paper." He meant to say unprejudiced, but folks laughed at 
 an expression which w^as in the injurious sense fully borne 
 out by his sj)eech. 
 
 Mr. Croker to Mr. Doyle, Dublin. 
 
 June 16th, 1828. 
 
 ]\Iy dear Doyle, 
 
 You w^ill 1)6 pleased to hear that I have been this morning 
 sworn of the Privy Council. This mark of his Majesty's 
 favour and of the confidence of his Government has been
 
 1828.] PnRENOLOGY. 425 
 
 given to me rather than remove me to one of the usual 
 Privy Councillor's offices, all of wliich are in income and 
 official imim-tancc inferior to that which I hokl, and wliicli 
 now, l)y tliis additional rank, is all that I could possibly desire. 
 I should feel real gratification if my dear father had lived to 
 see me in a situation which he would have considered so 
 exalted ; but alas ! the circle of those who are personally 
 interested in me is sadly narrowed. It is some satisfaction, 
 however, to me that you, the oldest and one of the dearest of 
 the friends of my father and myself, still survive to enjoy 
 whatever gi-atification this increase of lionour can give us. 
 
 Believe'me to be, my dear old friend, with great sincerity, 
 most affectionately vours, 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 From the Diary. 
 
 June 24:fh. — I went with :Mrs. Croker and Nony to look at 
 a cottage and farm at West ]\Iolesey which Mr. Jesse recom- 
 mends me to take — a pretty place, but much neglected and 
 dilapidated. He thinks I can have the cottage and fifteen 
 acres of land for £50 or £60 a year. If so, I think we shall 
 take it, though it is rather farther than I should have wished, 
 viz., fifteen miles. 
 
 Jime 2oth. — Dined at Lord Farnborough's with Sir Geo. 
 Cockburn, P. Courtenav, S. Perceval, Sir Robt. Inglis, Sir 
 W. Gordon, Col. Trench, Col. Wood, Mr. Twiss, Mr. Eolit. 
 Ward. Dull enough. Perceval and Ward * were preaching 
 craniology, and Ward gave instances of Deville's guessing 
 from his hm^ijys details of his character without knowing who 
 he was, so absurd as that he was orlir/ious but 7iot a ]\Iethodist. 
 These nice moral distinctions are, I think, quite beyond the 
 powers of expression by bumps. Perceval, who is an 
 enthusiast, took my head in hand, and found that I was 
 a lover of ghost stories — the only stories, if I know myself, 
 which I do not care about ! 
 
 June 27th. — We had a long and useless debate about East 
 Ptetford. As the bill cannot by possibility pass this year, 
 I do not see why we need have fought the postponement as 
 we did. All the reason I could gather from the Cabinet 
 
 * [Plumer "Ward, as before explained— author of ' Tremaine,' and other 
 works.]
 
 426 THE CROEER PAPERS. [Chap. XIIL 
 
 Ministers was that they did so for the sake of impression — 
 hut impression may he good or had. I regret the whole 
 thing. 
 
 The accounts from Ireland that O'Connell means to stand 
 for Clare make a great sensation. 
 
 The Duke of Clarence, in allusion to an unreasonahle 
 request made to him hy Lord Wellesley, told me a story 
 which I had not heard before, of old Provost Hutchinson. 
 When Lord Townshend was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, he 
 one hot day asked for a cool tankard, and when he had drank, 
 and the cup was placed on a side table, the aide-de-camp in 
 waiting came in to announce that the Provost was in the 
 anteroom, and requested an audience. "Ah," said Lord 
 Townshend, " he is coming to ask something which I dare say 
 I can't give him, so take away the tankard, for if he can get 
 nothing else, he will ask for that, which I could not decently 
 refuse." This is almost as good as the Isle of Man for 
 a cabbage garden. 
 
 June 28th.— We hear a curious story, almost like a scene 
 in a novel. Lady Londonderry gives a fancy Ijall on the 
 xj most extravagant scale, both of design and expense, on 
 Monday ; but they are so distressed, notwithstanding the 
 union of their immense fortunes, that their horses and car- 
 riages were taken in execution yesterday/, and it is thought 
 that executions are actually in the house, and that the 
 splendid gala of Monday will be held under the special (but 
 modestly concealed) patronage of the Sheriff's officers. This 
 surprises me. I thought Londonderry was very rich. He 
 has nominally £60,000 a year ; but as he is strictly tied up, 
 it is possible that having spent, as they say, £200,000 on 
 Wynyard, and £100,000 on the house in town, besides 
 several other follies, he may be in want of ready money, but 
 hardly, I should have thought, to such an extremity as is 
 reported. 
 
 July 1st. — I hear that Lady Londonderry's fete last night 
 was splendid, but dull. The first coiip cVceil was very gay, 
 and as long as it looked like a pageant it was well enough. 
 When, however, the Leicesters and the Burleighs began to 
 move about, the velvets and embroidery made but poor 
 amends for the want of ease and vivacity. We heard of 
 a lady of quality who asked to be allowed, as one of the 
 characters of Queen Elizabeth's Court, to appear as Lady 
 (Eachel) Eussell.
 
 1828.] THE DUKE OF CLARENCE. A21 
 
 ■ July 9fJi. — Fitzgerald writes to me that tlie Sheriff has 
 made a special return, ^^z., that O'Connell liad most votes, 
 Lilt that he had declared himself to be a lioman Catholic. 
 
 Jubj lltJi. — The Duke of Wellington sent for me to read 
 me a letter to the King * which he had drafted, and on the 
 facts of which he wished my opinion. He talked of Irish 
 affairs, and said that though of a sangiune temper, and not 
 used to despair, he confessed that he was at last puzzled what 
 to do or wdiat to think. He lays great stress on the power 
 of the Eoman Catholic clergy, and says it is the same 
 everywhere — in France, in Spain, in Portugal. The case of 
 O'Connell is, he says, the least part of his difficulty. It is 
 l)ad enough, hut the state of things whicli it proves is the real 
 anxiety. 
 
 The Duke sent to me again in the evening to read me the 
 final letter to the King, in which he had made use of the 
 suggestions and facts I had furnished him with. It is 
 wonderful with what facility and accuracy he scanned all 
 those flicts, and with what clearness and force he emltodied 
 them in his letter. 
 
 Jid?/ 12th. — The Duke of AVellington sent for Cockliurnf 
 and me, to read to him his Grace's letter to the King of 
 yesterday, and to both of us the King's answer. The King 
 answered on the moment, quite agreeing with the Duke of 
 "Wellington, and saying that an extinguisher must innne- 
 diately be put on the Duke of Clarence's attempts at rendering 
 himself imlependent of all authority. J He read to us also 
 a draft of liis letter to the Duke of Clarence on the subject in 
 which I ventured to suggest that he should be a little more 
 explicit on His Eoyal Highness's assumption of a military 
 command. I had hardly got back when Peel sent to beg to 
 see me. It was on O'Connell's case. He seems not to 
 see his way, and is unwilling to commit the House with 
 
 * [This letter is printed in the ' Wellington Despatches,' New Series, 
 vol. iv. p. 514.] 
 
 t [Admiral Sir G. Cockburn, Lord of the Admiralty.] 
 % [Mr. Croker had strongly resented the undue interference of the Duke 
 of Clarence in his department. " I have heard my father say," writes one 
 of Mr. Croker's relations, "that the Duke of "Wellington came out to 
 Kensington Palace at this time, and that he and ^Ir. Croker walked up 
 and down the broad walk for a couple of hours in earnest conversation, 
 when it was decided that the Duke of Wellington or the Duke of Clarence 
 must resign." Mr. Croker's conduct all through this affair suffices to 
 prove that he was no time-serving politician.]
 
 428 THE CItOKEB PAPERS. [Chap. XIII. 
 
 O'Connell, and on the whole would wish to postpone the 
 question to next Session. I said that if the law officers were 
 clear as to the state of the law, I thought that the return, by 
 stating O'Connell to have declared himself a Eoman Catholic, 
 obliged the House of Commons to vindicate the law ; that 
 I thought a timid or temporising course would create great 
 dissatisfaction and future difficulty ; and that his own 
 personal character would suffer by it ; and that I did not see 
 what was to be got by postponement, as the case would be 
 just as embarrassing at the opening of the next Session as at 
 the close of this. While we were but entering on the subject, 
 the Duke of Wellington sent for both of us. It was to read 
 to me the alteration which, in consequence of my suggestion, 
 he had made in his letter to His Eoyal Highness, which 
 perfectly agreed with what I had said. There were present 
 at this conversation Lord Bathurst, Peel, and Goulburn. 
 
 July 13^7i.. — I called on Peel by appointment at ten, and 
 we resumed our conversation on O'Connell's case. We were 
 each of the same opinion as yesterday, but both agreed that 
 Pitzgerald's report and opinion as to the state of feeling in 
 Ireland would have great effect in swaying our judgment on 
 the question. l*eel seemed to me to wince at my expression 
 of a timid and temporising policy, which I could not help 
 repeating to him. 
 
 Juljf 2?>rd. — Dined at Sir H. Hardinge's, wdiere, besides 
 Lady Emily, we had Lords Brecknock, Lowther, and Downe, 
 Sirs H. Taylor, Eobt. Farquhar, Messrs. Calcraft, Planta, 
 Holmes, Col. Cradock. Talking of beautiful women, I told 
 the anecdote that I had separately asked the King and 
 Sir Thomas Lawrence, who they thought the most beautiful 
 woman they had ever seen, and before I gave their answer 
 I asked the present company to guess whom they had named. 
 Sir Herbert Taylor and Holmes both agreed in saying Lady 
 Charlotte Campbell ; and it was Lady Charlotte that both 
 His Majesty and Sir Thomas had selected. I have never met 
 any one, except the Duke of York, who had known her in 
 their youth, who did not represent her as the most beautiful 
 creature they had ever seen. 
 
 July 24:th. — Dispatched orders to the senior officers in the 
 Tagus and Douro to return five days after the receipt of my 
 letter with all the ships to England. This gives me gi'eat 
 pleasure. I think the whole of our policy as to Portugal has 
 been wrong for ourselves, wrong for the Portuguese, and 
 wrong with reference to the laws of nations.
 
 1828.] DIFFERENCES AT THE ADMIRALTY. 429 
 
 Mr. Croker to the Duke of Wellington. 
 
 August 14th, 1828. 
 
 My dear Duke, 
 
 The Duke of Clarence came to the (."nuiuil to-day, and did 
 the usual business ; after that was over, lie made us a speech, 
 under the influence of a good deal of ill-suppressed agitation, 
 stating that he had resigned ; and only carried on tlie Imsiness 
 till another arrangement could he made. He said that he 
 looked upon himself as a military officer — that if he were a 
 civil officer like a Eirst Lord of the Admiralty, he would have 
 many observations to make on the cause of liis resignation, 
 but that, in his military character, he could only say that he 
 had resigned and would give no reason for it. 
 
 This speech was very confused, and we did not, and do not, 
 very well see what H.R.H. meant by his civil and military 
 distinction. I believe his idea was to assert his right to lioist 
 the military flag, and so maintain his point ; and at the same 
 time to hint that his silence as to the cause of liis retirement 
 was the consequence of liie military oljedience to the King. 
 
 H.li.H. spoke with an eager look and an impassioned voice, 
 and it was doubtful whether anger or a feeling of regret was 
 prominent in his mind. 
 
 He afterwards sent for me into his room, and there said, 
 he wished to say to my face what he had often said behind 
 my back, that he was unexceptionably pleased with my con- 
 duct, &c., &.C. He mixed his praise of me with violent com- 
 plaints against others, and pointed clearly at Sir George 
 Cockburn, and when I was about to express my regret at 
 what had happened, and particularly at the view he thus 
 stated himself to have of the causes of it, he interrupted me 
 (though not at all uncivilly) and put an end to our inter- 
 view. 
 
 He subsequently came into the Board Eoom and did busi- 
 ness as if nothing had happened. At his first appearance he 
 treated Sir G. Cockburn with marked displeasure, but at the 
 second interview he was more civil, and charged him with 
 some communications to the different departments. 
 
 Believe me to be, my dear Duke, 
 
 Most faithfully yours, 
 
 J. W. C. 
 
 X
 
 430 THE CROKEE PAPEBS. [Chap. XUI. 
 
 From the Diary. 
 
 August 2oth. — Dined with me at Kensington Mr. and 
 ]\Irs. Lockhart, Mr. Strode, Sir A. Grant, :Mr. Horace Twiss, 
 Mr. Hook, Mr. Wilkie — an agreeable day. Hook was talking 
 of his bribing postilions to go a great pace; Sir A. Grant 
 said, " But, Mr. Hook, don't the ghosts of murdered horses 
 come to disturl) your slumbers ? " " You mean nightmares, I 
 suppose," rejoined Hook. 
 
 August 26th. — The Duke of Clarence came to town, and 
 did business with remarkable good humour and affability to 
 everybody, which seems to me to portend some new attempt 
 on his part to find a salvo for staying in office. 
 
 The Chancellor sent to me for Prince George's portrait as 
 L.H.A., in order to compare it with the D. of C.'s ; this also 
 \ looks like what I have hinted at above. 
 
 \ September 1st. — Got up early, and met Lowther at Lord 
 Hertford's to shoot in the Eegent's Park. He killed two 
 hares and a pheasant, shooting very ill. I killed four hares, 
 shooting very little better. We saw, I suppose, thirty hares 
 and a good many pheasants, and but one partridge — a stray 
 red one, I believe, from Lord Hertford's. 
 
 Septcmhcr 17th. — I called on the Duke of W. to settle about 
 his visit to Sudbourne, which we fixed for the 12th October. 
 His Grace promised to WTite to Sii' F. Wilson to get the 
 King's signature to the w^arrant and bill for the new patents. 
 H.M. is not well, and at all times has a great aversion to 
 arguing. The Duke told us that when His JMajesty went to 
 Hanov'er, the Eegency signed upwards of 10,000 papers, and 
 that the King has not signed an army couimission since. I 
 know he signs all our papers and commissions very regularly. 
 The Duke "talked to me of the necessity of appointing an 
 officer to affix some kind of signet wliich should 1 je equivalent 
 to, and supersede the royal signature. I said this was the 
 origin of the Tiirj Seal, and that that officer might be 
 entrusted with this duty. " Oh, Lord, no," said the D. 
 " The King would not admit Lord Ellenbro' or Lord West- 
 moreland into his presence freely enough for that — it must 
 be some one of those familiarly about him who should be 
 sworn never to affix the signet but in His jMajesty's presence, 
 and by his special and instant command. This seems as if 
 he had Lord Westmoreland in his mind for Privy Seal. His
 
 1828.] A TOUR IN THE CITY. 431 
 
 Grace appointed to call on me at five o'clock, to walk up to 
 Hyde I'ark Corner to look at the alterations of his lujuse. 
 \\ii walked u]) the i)ark, and as we went talked of the Ivin^- 
 and of his wonderful knowledj^e of character and liis art of 
 guessiny; wliat any one is about to say to liini. The Duke 
 told nie that when he went with the Chancellor on tlie 0th of 
 January to the King to accept the Government, His Majesty 
 was in bed, and when they first went in was groaning and 
 appeared very miserable and unhappy, but as the conversa- 
 tion went on he grew better, sat uj) in the bed, and l)egan to 
 tell all his communications with his late Ministers, mimicking 
 them all to the life, and exhibiting such a drama, so lively, so 
 exact, and so amusing, that the L). never saw anything like 
 it. — Goderich, Lansdowne, and, alcove all, Anglesey, whom 
 he positively made himself look like. I myself had seen 
 many similar exhibitions, and though I have seen better 
 mimics than the King as to tlie mere voice and manner, I 
 never saw any wlio exhibited the niceties of character witli 
 so much discrimination. As a mere imitator the King has 
 some superiors, but I have never seen his equal for a combi- 
 nation of personal imitation, with the power of exliibiting the 
 mental character. 
 
 Scptcmljcr 18^/t.— Mr. Hook and I took boat at ^\liitehall 
 at three o'clock and went a tour into the City. We visited 
 St. Paul's, and were shocked at the abundance and ill-taste of 
 the modern monuments there. Johnson and Howard, Ijoth 
 by Bacon, and the figure of Lord Eodney, by Flaxman, as I 
 think, are the only tolerable ones ; the rest are in various 
 degrees contemptil)le. We then went to Christ's Hospital, 
 and saw the fine new hall that they are just finishing there ; 
 thence to the Charterhouse, where they seem to be re- 
 building almshouses ; thence to St. John's Gate and Clerken- 
 well Green, and back by the Post Office, which is a most 
 unsightly structure in my judgment, and the two side 
 porticoes, or colonnades, are mere excrescences, which were 
 much better away. We dined at Dolly's on beefsteak and 
 toasted cheese, and in order not to derogate from the primitive 
 simplicity of the place, drank port. After dinner we walked 
 home over Blackfriars and AVestminster Bridges, and went 
 into the Coburg Theatre for an hour, where we saw a vulgar 
 but in some parts droll piece, called ' Wives by Advertise- 
 ments.' The house was crowded in a most extraordinary 
 degree, and there were, I think, twice as many women as
 
 432 THE CROKER PAPERS. [Chap. XIIL 
 
 men, and the piece created a curiosity and an enthusiasm in 
 the audience very unlike England. The audience seemed 
 exclusively tradespeople of various degrees. 
 
 September 21st. — Left town at half-past seven in the blue 
 coach for "Woodbridge, where I arrived at quarter-past four, 
 and at a quarter before six arrived at Sudbourne. 
 
 Lord Hertford is better in general health and spirits, but . 
 cannot even attempt to walk. Eaikes was amusing us aftery 
 dinner with some stories of the laxity of the world in 
 pecuniary matters, and mentioned particularly one gentle- 
 man to whom a creditor (after in vain appealmg to his 
 honour and generosity for the repayment of a debt which 
 partook of the nature of a debt of honour), mdiscreetly wrote 
 at last that he would put it mto the hands of an attorney to 
 recover. The gentleman took advantage of this, and imme- 
 diately wrote back to say that, as a debt of honour, this sum 
 had stood high on his list for early payment, but that as the 
 creditor had chosen to make it a matter of business, he had 
 struck it out of the post of honour, and placed it at the 
 bottom of the list to await the fate of all the other affairs of 
 business. This story, which was well told, excited a good 
 deal of merriment ; and when that had subsided a little, 
 John King exclaimed, " Yes ! and I'll tell you who the party 
 was — you yourself, Tom Eaikes ! " I never saw a surprise 
 in a farce make more effect. We hardly knew how to look,, 
 and not at all what to say. Eaikes stammered and hesitated, 
 and seemed to doubt whether he ought not to take it seriously • 
 but King stuck to his point manfully, and added that the 
 other party was Crockford, the blackleg, and we were all glad 
 to drown the altercation in bursts of laughter, wliich, indeed, 
 we could no longer have suppressed. 
 
 October 5th. — It was about this tune that by a letter from 
 Broadstairs I authorized Mr. Jesse to conclude for a lease 
 of the cottage at Molesey which we had been to see in June,^ 
 and which I at first called Eose Lodge, as I could not find 
 that it had hitherto had any distinctive name, Ixit I smce 
 find that it was commonly called Molesey Grove. Lord 
 Hotham's father, when Col. Hotham, resided in this cottage, 
 and Lord H. was born here. I wonder how, in the state it 
 then was, any gentleman's family, however smaU, could have 
 been stowed away in it, as there are but two best bedrooms, 
 and they are small. I intend to add three bedrooms. 
 
 October 11th. — Called on the Duke of Wellington : he
 
 1828.] INCIDENTS OF WAI?. 433 
 
 comes to-morrow to Sudbourne. We liad a long and con- 
 fidential talk on public aflairs. He is very much perplexed 
 what to do about Ireland. He speaks to me unreservedly 
 and with the most entire confidence on all points. 
 
 The Duke is in excellent spirits, and very entertaining. 
 He told us to-day that having once expressed to Isquicrdo his 
 wonder at the enormous number of charlatans that there were 
 in the world, Isquierdo quietly said, " I beg your pardon ; Iv 
 do not think there are cnour/h — mi p-opor^io?! to the numher of 
 dupes." 
 
 Oct. 17^/t— The Duke began to talk of incidents in tlie 
 'Pei>insular War. . . . 
 
 The French and English armies, as they became better 
 acquainted by frequent "contact, gTew to be very civil to each 
 other, particularly after we had passed the Pyrenees, and the 
 advance posts and picquets were on the most friendly terms. 
 There was a small pul)lic-house l)eyond the Adour, where 
 the English used to cross over and sup with the French 
 officers ; and in the line before Bayonne, a French officer came 
 out one day to our advance posts, and, saluting the officer, 
 inquired whether one of our parties had not possessed them- 
 selves of three muskets and three sets of accoutrements of a 
 French party. Inquiry was made, and the arms, &c., were 
 found. It appeared that the English soldiers had given tlie 
 French some dollars to buy them some bottles of brandy, 
 but, not trusting entirely to the honour of the enemy, had 
 insisted on keeping three muskets, &c., as a pledge that the 
 brandy should be forthcoming. The dollars were returned, 
 and the Frenclnnen got their accoutrements again. 
 
 The advance posts always gave notice to each other when 
 they were in danger. On one occasion, when the French 
 army was advancing suddenly and in force, the French posts 
 suddenly cried out \o ours, " Courez vite, courez vite, on va 
 vous attaquer." 
 
 " I always encouraged this ; the killing a poor fellow of a 
 vidette or carrying oft' a post could not influence the battle, 
 and I always when I was going to attack sent to tell them to 
 get out of the way. 
 
 " Lambert once carried off a post, but he had given them 
 warning that they had come too far, and that if they did not go 
 he should be obliged to carry them off; they did not take the 
 hint, and he next day did as he had threatened, and the 
 lYench said it was all fair. 
 
 VOL. I. 2 F
 
 ^ 
 
 < 
 
 434 THE CHOKER PAPERS. [Chap. XIII. 
 
 "When Gozau came to me before Toulouse from Soult, 
 I said I was glad to see him, for that I was just going to 
 attack him again, and that I felt the arrangements would 
 come on his part with a bad grace if it was to be made after 
 the attack had actually commenced. ' Oh, yes/ said Gozau, 
 ' I knew that you were going to attack us, for I saw that you 
 were bringing up ' la ligne, la sixieme ' [and a couple of other 
 divisions, whose numbers I forget]. In short," said the Duke, 
 " he knew as well as I did the corps that were coming on." 
 
 Dcccmlcr 6th. — To town. Went with Cockburn and 
 Lowther to Guildhall to meet the New London Bridge 
 Committee on the subject of the approaclies — a very difficult 
 one. I suggested carrying on the level of the arch over 
 Thames Street as far as Fish Street Hill and Miles Lane, and 
 having also arches at those streets. This seemed to meet 
 most people's ideas, and Mr. Eennie, who immediately 
 approved of it, was ordered to make plans and estimates 
 accordingly. 
 
 I showed them that even if the shape of the ground did 
 not suggest this mode of crossing Thames Street, it was on 
 pinciplc better that two such immense thoroughfares should 
 not meet on the level. 
 
 Decemhcr 26th. — The publication of a letter from the D. of 
 W. to Dr. Curtis on the CathoHc question makes a good deal 
 of sensation, though it really says little, and absolutely 
 nothing which the Duke has not said in Parliament, viz., that 
 he v-ishcs something could be done, but sees no prospect of it. 
 And if there be any chance, it would be to leave the question 
 to rest awhile, so that party animosities might have time to 
 subside, and arrangements could be considered. But on the 
 whole this letter is favourable to the Catholic claims, because 
 it admits the princiijle, and the difficulties alluded to are of a 
 temporary nature. 
 
 END OF THE FIEST VOLUME. 
 
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