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* * * * *
The Greville Memoirs
A JOURNAL OF THE REIGNS
of
KING GEORGE IV.
and
KING WILLIAM IV.
By the Late
CHARLES C. F. GREVILLE, Esq.
Clerk of the Council to Those Sovereigns
Edited by
HENRY REEVE
Registrar of the Privy Council
IN THREE VOLUMES
VOL. II.
Second Edition
LONDON
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
1874
CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME
CHAPTER XI.
Accession of William IV.--The King's Proceedings--His
Popularity--Funeral of George IV.--Dislike of the Duke of
Cumberland--The King's Simplicity and Good-nature--Reviews the
Guards--The First Court--The King in St. James's Street--
Dissolution of Parliament--The King dines at Apsley House--The
Duke of Gloucester--The Quaker's Address--The Ordinances of
July--The French Revolution--Brougham's Election for
Yorkshire--Struggle in Paris--Elections adverse to Government--
The Duke of Wellington on the French Revolution--Duke of
Cumberland resigns the Gold Stick and the Blues--George IV.'s
Wardrobe--Fall of the Bourbons--Weakness of the Duke's
Ministry--The King at Windsor--The Duke of Orleans accepts the
Crown of France--Chamber of Peers remodelled--Prince Polignac--
The New Parliament--Virginia Water--Details of George IV.'s
Illness and Death--Symptoms of Opposition--Brougham--Charles X.
in England--Dinner in St. George's Hall--Lambeth--Marshal
Marmont--His Conversation--Campaign of 1814--The Conflict in
Paris--Dinner at Lord Dudley's.
Page 1
CHAPTER XII.
The Belgian Revolution--The Duke of Wellington and Canning--The
King's Plate--Gloomy Forebodings--Retreat of the Prince of
Orange--Prince Talleyrand--Position of the Government--Death of
Huskisson--His Character--The Duke of Wellington and Peel--
Meeting of Parliament--The Duke's Declaration--The King's Visit
to the City abandoned--Disturbances in London--Duchesse de
Dino--The Cholera--Southey, Henry Taylor, John Stuart Mill--
Dinner at Talleyrand's--The Duke of Wellington resigns--Mr.
Bathurst made Junior Clerk of the Council--Lord Spencer and
Lord Grey sent for--Formation of Lord Grey's Administration--
Discontent of Brougham--Brougham takes the Great Seal--
Character of the New Ministers--Prospects of the Opposition--
Disturbances in Sussex and Hampshire--Lord Grey and Lord
Brougham--Lord Sefton's Dinner--The New Ministers sworn at a
Council.
Page 40
CHAPTER XIII.
A Proclamation against Rioters--Appointments--Duke of Wellington
in Hampshire--General Excitement--The Tory Party--State of
Ireland--More Disturbances--Lord Grey's Colleagues--Election at
Liverpool--The Black Book--The Duke of Wellington's Position
and Character--A Council on a Capital Sentence--Brougham in the
House of Lords--The Clerks of the Council--Lord Grey and Lord
Lyndhurst--The Chancellor of Ireland--Lord Melbourne--Duke of
Richmond--Sir James Graham--Lyndhurst Lord Chief Baron--Judge
Allan Park--Lord Lyndhurst and the Whigs--Duke of Wellington
and Polignac--The King and his Sons--Polish Revolution--
Mechanics' Institute--Repeal of the Union--King Louis
Philippe--Lord Anglesey and O'Connell--A Dinner at the
Athenaeum--Canning and George IV.--Formation of Canning's
Government--Negotiation with Lord Melbourne--Count Walewski--
Croker's Boswell--State of Ireland--Brougham and Sugden--Arrest
of O'Connell--Colonel Napier and the Trades Unions--The Civil
List--Hunt in the House of Commons--Southey's Letter to
Brougham on Literary Honours--The Budget--O'Connell pleads
guilty--Achille Murat--Weakness of the Government--Lady Jersey
and Lord Durham--Lord Duncannon--Ireland--Wordsworth.
Page 73
CHAPTER XIV.
Introduction of the Reform Bill--Attitude of the Opposition--
Reform Debates--Peel--Wilberforce and Canning--Old Sir Robert
Peel--The City Address--Agitation for Reform--Effects of the
Reform Bill--Brougham as Chancellor--Brougham at the Horse
Guards--Miss Kemble--Vote on the Timber Duties--Lord
Lansdowne's Opinion of the Bill--Reform Bill carried by one
Vote--The King in Mourning--The Prince of Orange--Peel's
Reserve--Ministers beaten--Parliament dissolved by the King in
Person--Tumult in both Houses--Failure of the Whig Ministry--
The King in their Hands--The Elections--Illumination in the
City--The Queen alarmed--Lord Lyndhurst's View of the Bill--
Lord Grey takes the Garter--The King at Ascot--Windsor under
William IV.--Brougham at Whitbread's Brewery and at the British
Museum--Breakfast at Rogers'--The Cholera--Quarantine--Meeting
of Peers--New Parliament meets--Opened by the King--'Hernani'
at Bridgewater House--The Second Reform Bill--The King's
Coronation--Cobbett's Trial--Prince Leopold accepts the Crown
of Belgium--Peel and the Tories--A Rabble Opposition--A Council
for the Coronation.
Page 121
CHAPTER XV.
Preparations for the Coronation--Long Wellesley committed by the
Chancellor for Contempt--Alderman Thompson and his
Constituents--Prince Leopold goes to Belgium--Royal Tombs and
Remains--The Lieutenancy of the Tower--The Cholera--The Belgian
Fortresses--Secret Negotiations of Canning with the Whigs--
Transactions before the Close of the Liverpool Administration--
Duke of Wellington and Peel--The Dutch invade Belgium--Defeat
of the Belgian Army--The French enter Belgium--Lord Grey's
Composure--Audience at Windsor--Danger of Reform--Ellen Tree--
The French in Belgium--Goodwood--The Duke of Richmond--The
Reform Bill in Difficulties--Duke of Wellington calls on Lord
Grey--The King declines to be kissed by the Bishops--
Talleyrand's Conversation--State of Europe and France--
Coronation Squabbles--The King divides the old Great Seal
between Brougham and Lyndhurst--Relations of the Duchess of
Kent to George IV. and William IV.--The Coronation--Irritation
of the King--The Cholera--A Dinner at St. James's--State of the
Reform Bill--Sir Augustus d'Este--Madame Junot--State of
France--Poland.
Page 165
CHAPTER XVI.
Whig and Tory Meetings on Reform--Resolution to carry the Bill--
Holland--Radical Jones--Reform Bill thrown out by the Lords--
Dorsetshire Election--Division among the Tories--Bishop
Phillpotts--Prospects of Reform--Its Dangers--Riots at
Bristol--The Cholera at Sunderland--An Attempt at a Compromise
on Reform--Lord Wharncliffe negotiates with the Ministers--
Negotiation with Mr. Barnes--Proclamation against the Unions--
Barbarism of Sunderland--Disappointment of Lord Wharncliffe--
Bristol and Lyons--Commercial Negotiations with France--Poulett
Thomson--Lord Wharncliffe's Proposal to Lord Grey--Disapproved
by the Duke of Wellington--Moderation of Lord John Russell--The
Appeal of Drax _v._ Grosvenor--The Second Reform Bill--Violence
of Lord Durham--More Body-snatchers--Duke of Richmond and Sir
Henry Parnell--Panshanger--Creation of Peers--Division of
Opinion--Negotiation to avoid the Creation of Peers--Lord
Wharncliffe's Interview with the King--Opposition of the Duke
of Wellington--The Waverers resolve to separate from the Duke.
Page 197
CHAPTER XVII.
Measures for carrying the Second Reading of the Reform Bill in
the House of Lords--The Party of the Waverers--The Russo-Dutch
Loan--Resistance of the Tory Peers--Lord Melbourne's Views on
the Government--Macaulay at Holland House--Reluctance of the
Government to create Peers--Duke of Wellington intractable--
Peel's Despondency--Lord Grey on the Measures of Conciliation--
Lord Wharncliffe sees the King--Prospects of the Waverers--
Conversations with Lord Melbourne and Lord Palmerston--Duke of
Richmond on the Creation of Peers--Interview of Lord Grey with
the Waverers--Minute drawn up--Bethnal Green--The Archbishop of
Canterbury vacillates--Violence of Extreme Parties--Princess
Lieven's Journal--Lord Holland for making Peers--Irish National
Education--Seizure of Ancona--Reform Bill passes the House of
Commons--Lord Dudley's Madness--Debate in the Lords.
Page 237
CHAPTER XVIII.
Debate in the House of Lords--Lord Harrowby's Position--Hopes of
a Compromise--Lord Melbourne's View--Disturbances caused by the
Cholera--The Disfranchisement Clause--The Number '56'--Peers
contemplated--The King's Hesitation--'The Hunchback'--Critical
Position of the Waverers--Bill carried by Nine in the Lords--
The Cholera in Paris--Moderate Speech of Lord Grey--End of the
Secession--Conciliatory Overtures--Negotiations carried on at
Newmarket--Hostile Division in the Lords--Lord Wharncliffe's
Account of his Failure--Lord Grey resigns--The Duke of
Wellington attempts to form a Ministry--Peel declines--
Hostility of the Court to the Whigs--A Change of Scene--The
Duke fails--History of the Crisis--Lord Grey returns to
Office--The King's Excitement--The King writes to the
Opposition Peers--Defeat and Disgrace of the Tories--
Conversation of the Duke of Wellington--Louis XVIII.--Madame du
Cayla--Weakness of the King--Mortality among Great Men--
Petition against Lord W. Bentinck's Prohibition of Suttee heard
by the Privy Council--O'Connell and the Cholera--Irish Tithe
Bill--Irish Difficulties--Mr. Stanley--Concluding Debates of
the Parliament--Quarrel between Brougham and Sugden--Holland
and Belgium--Brougham's Revenge and Apology--Dinner at Holland
House--Anecdotes of Johnson--Death of Mr. Greville's Father--
Madame de Flahaut's Account of the Princess Charlotte--Prince
Augustus of Prussia--Captain Hess--Hostilities in Holland and
in Portugal--The Duchesse de Berri--Conversation with Lord
Melbourne on the State of the Government.
Page 274
CHAPTER XIX.
Foreign Difficulties--Conduct of Peel on the Resignation of Lord
Grey--Manners Sutton proposed as Tory Premier--Coolness between
Peel and the Duke--Embargo on Dutch Ships--Death of Lord
Tenterden--Denman made Lord Chief Justice--Sketch of Holland
House--The Speakership--Horne and Campbell Attorney- and
Solicitor-General--The Court at Brighton--Lord Howe and the
Queen--Elections under the Reform Act--Mr. Gully--Petworth--
Lord Egremont--Attempt to reinstate Lord Howe--Namik Pacha--
Lord Lyndhurst's Version of what occurred on the Resignation of
Lord Grey--Lord Denbigh appointed Chamberlain to the Queen--
Brougham's Privy Council Bill--Talleyrand's Relations with Fox
and Pitt--Negro Emancipation Bill--State of the West Indies--
The Reformed Parliament meets--Russian Intrigues--Four Days
Debate on the Address--Peel's Political Career.
Page 324
CHAPTER XX.
Appointment of Sir Stratford Canning to the Russian Embassy--
Cause of the Refusal--Slavery in the West Indies--The Reformed
Parliament--Duke of Wellington's View of Affairs--The Coercion
Bill--The Privy Council Bill--Lord Durham made an Earl--Mr.
Stanley Secretary for the Colonies--The Russians go to the
Assistance of the Porte--Lord Goderich has the Privy Seal, an
Earldom, and the Garter--Embarrassments of the Government--The
Appeal of Drax _v._ Grosvenor at the Privy Council--Hobhouse
defeated in Westminster--Bill for Negro Emancipation--The
Russians on the Bosphorus--Mr. Littleton Chief Secretary for
Ireland--Respect shown to the Duke of Wellington--Moral of a
'Book on the Derby'--The Oaks--A Betting Incident--Ascot--
Government beaten in the Lords on Foreign Policy--Vote of
Confidence in the Commons--Drax _v._ Grosvenor decided--Lord
Eldon's Last Judgment--His Character--Duke of Wellington as
Leader of Opposition--West India Affairs--Irish Church Bill--
Appropriation Clause--A Fancy Bazaar--The King writes to the
Bishops--Local Court Bill--Mirabeau.
Page 357
A JOURNAL
of the
REIGN OF KING WILLIAM THE FOURTH
CHAPTER XI.
Accession of William IV.--The King's Proceedings--His
Popularity--Funeral of George IV.--Dislike of the Duke of
Cumberland--The King's Simplicity and Good-nature--Reviews the
Guards--The First Court--The King in St. James's Street--
Dissolution of Parliament--The King dines at Apsley House--The
Duke of Gloucester--The Quakers' Address--The Ordinances of
July--The French Revolution--Brougham's Election for
Yorkshire--Struggle in Paris--Elections Adverse to Government--
The Duke of Wellington on the French Revolution--Duke of
Cumberland resigns the Gold Stick and the Blues--George IV.'s
Wardrobe--Fall of the Bourbons--Weakness of the Duke's
Ministry--The King at Windsor--The Duke of Orleans accepts the
Crown of France--Chamber of Peers remodelled--Prince Polignac--
The New Parliament--Virginia Water--Details of George IV.'s
Illness and Death--Symptoms of Opposition--Brougham--Charles X.
in England--Dinner in St. George's Hall--Lambeth--Marshal
Marmont--His Conversation--Campaign of 1814--The Conflict in
Paris--Dinner at Lord Dudley's.
1830.
London, July 16th, 1830 {p.001}
I returned here on the 6th of this month, and have waited these
ten days to look about me and see and hear what is passing. The
present King and his proceedings occupy all attention, and nobody
thinks any more of the late King than if he had been dead fifty
years, unless it be to abuse him and to rake up all his vices and
misdeeds. Never was elevation like that of King William IV. His
life has been hitherto passed in obscurity and neglect, in
miserable poverty, surrounded by a numerous progeny of bastards,
without consideration or friends, and he was ridiculous from his
grotesque ways and little meddling curiosity. Nobody ever invited
him into their house, or thought it necessary to honour him with
any mark of attention or respect; and so he went on for above
forty years, till Canning brought him into notice by making him
Lord High Admiral at the time of his grand Ministerial schism. In
that post he distinguished himself by making absurd speeches, by
a morbid official activity, and by a general wildness which was
thought to indicate incipient insanity, till shortly after
Canning's death and the Duke's accession, as is well known, the
latter dismissed him. He then dropped back into obscurity, but
had become by this time somewhat more of a personage than he was
before. His brief administration of the navy, the death of the
Duke of York, which made him heir to the throne, his increased
wealth and regular habits, had procured him more consideration,
though not a great deal. Such was his position when George IV.
broke all at once, and after three months of expectation William
finds himself King.
July 18th, 1830 {p.002}
[Page Head: KING WILLIAM'S ACCESSION.]
King George had not been dead three days before everybody
discovered that he was no loss, and King William a great gain.
Certainly nobody ever was less regretted than the late King, and
the breath was hardly out of his body before the press burst
forth in full cry against him, and raked up all his vices,
follies, and misdeeds, which were numerous and glaring enough.
The new King began very well. Everybody expected he would keep
the Ministers in office, but he threw himself into the arms of
the Duke of Wellington with the strongest expressions of
confidence and esteem. He proposed to all the Household, as well
as to the members of Government, to keep their places, which they
all did except Lord Conyngham and the Duke of Montrose. He soon
after, however, dismissed most of the equerries, that he might
fill their places with the members of his own family. Of course
such a King wanted not due praise, and plenty of anecdotes were
raked up of his former generosities and kindnesses. His first
speech to the Council was well enough given, but his burlesque
character began even then to show itself. Nobody expected from
him much real grief, and he does not seem to know how to act it
consistently; he spoke of his brother with all the semblance of
feeling, and in a tone of voice properly softened and subdued,
but just afterwards, when they gave him the pen to sign the
declaration, he said, in his usual tone, 'This is a damned bad
pen you have given me.' My worthy colleague Mr. James Buller
began to swear Privy Councillors in the name of 'King George
IV.--William, I mean,' to the great diversion of the Council.
A few days after my return I was sworn in, all the Ministers and
some others being present. His Majesty presided very decently,
and looked like a respectable old admiral. The Duke [of
Wellington] told me he was delighted with him--'If I had been
able to deal with my late master as I do with my present, I
should have got on much better'--that he was so reasonable and
tractable, and that he had done more business with him in ten
minutes than with the other in as many days.
I met George Fitzclarence, afterwards Earl of Munster,[1] the same
day, and repeated what the Duke said, and he told me how delighted
his father was with the Duke, his entire confidence in him, and
that the Duke might as entirely depend upon the King; that he had
told his Majesty, when he was at Paris, that Polignac and the Duke
of Orleans had both asked him whether the Duke of Clarence, when
he became King, would keep the Duke of Wellington as his Minister,
and the King said, 'What did you reply?' 'I replied that you
certainly would; did not I do right?' 'Certainly, you did quite
right.'
[1] [Eldest son of King William IV. by Mrs. Jordan, who was
shortly after the accession created an earl by his
father. The rank of 'marquis's younger children' was
conferred upon the rest of the family. The King had
nine natural children by Mrs. Jordan: 1, George, a
major-general in the army, afterwards Earl of Munster;
2, Frederick, also in the army; 3, Adolphus, a
rear-admiral; 4, Augustus, in holy orders; 5. Sophia,
married to Lord de l'Isle; 6, Mary, married to Colonel
Fox; 7, Elizabeth, married to the Earl of Errol; 8,
Augusta, married first to the Hon. John Kennedy Erskine,
and secondly to Lord John Frederick Gordon; 9, Amelia,
married to Viscount Falkland.]
He began immediately to do good-natured things, to provide for
old friends and professional adherents, and he bestowed a pension
upon Tierney's widow. The great offices of Chamberlain and
Steward he abandoned to the Duke of Wellington. There never was
anything like the enthusiasm with which he was greeted by all
ranks; though he has trotted about both town and country for
sixty-four years, and nobody ever turned round to look at him, he
cannot stir now without a mob, patrician as well as plebeian, at
his heels. All the Park congregated round the gate to see him
drive into town the day before yesterday. But in the midst of all
this success and good conduct certain indications of strangeness
and oddness peep out which are not a little alarming, and he
promises to realise the fears of his Ministers that he will do
and say too much, though they flatter themselves that they have
muzzled him in his approaching progress by reminding him that his
words will be taken as his Ministers', and he must, therefore, be
chary of them.
At the late King's funeral he behaved with great indecency. That
ceremony was very well managed, and a fine sight, the military
part particularly, and the Guards were magnificent. The
attendance was not very numerous, and when they had all got
together in St. George's Hall a gayer company I never beheld;
with the exception of Mount Charles, who was deeply affected,
they were all as merry as grigs. The King was chief mourner, and,
to my astonishment, as he entered the chapel directly behind the
body, in a situation in which he should have been apparently, if
not really, absorbed in the melancholy duty he was performing, he
darted up to Strathaven, who was ranged on one side below the
Dean's stall, shook him heartily by the hand, and then went on
nodding to the right and left. He had previously gone as chief
mourner to sit for an hour at the head of the body as it lay in
state, and he walked in procession with his household to the
apartment. I saw him pass from behind the screen. Lord Jersey had
been in the morning to Bushy to kiss hands on being made
Chamberlain, when he had received him very graciously, told him
it was the Duke and not himself who had made him, but that he was
delighted to have him. At Windsor, when he arrived, he gave
Jersey the white wand, or rather took one from him he had
provided for himself, and gave it him again with a little speech.
When he went to sit in state, Jersey preceded him, and he said
when all was ready, 'Go on to the body, Jersey; you will get your
dress coat as soon as you can.' The morning after the funeral,
having slept at Frogmore, he went all over the Castle, into every
room in the house, which he had never seen before except when he
came there as a guest; after which he received an address from
the ecclesiastical bodies of Windsor and Eton, and returned an
answer quite unpremeditated which they told me was excellent.
[Page Head: DISLIKE OF THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND.]
He is very well with all his family, particularly the Duke of
Sussex, but he dislikes and seems to know the Duke of Cumberland,
who is furious at his own discredit. The King has taken from him
the Gold Stick, by means of which he had usurped the functions of
all the other colonels of the regiments of the Guards, and put
himself always about the late King. He says the Duke's rank is
too high to perform those functions, and has put an end to his
services. He has only put the Gold Sticks on their former
footing, and they are all to take the duty in turn.
In the meantime the Duke of Cumberland has shown his teeth in
another way. His horses have hitherto stood in the stables which
are appropriated to the Queen, and the other day Lord Errol, her
new Master of the Horse, went to her Majesty and asked her where
she chose her horses should be; she said, of course, she knew
nothing about it, but in the proper place. Errol then said the
Duke of Cumberland's horses were in her stables, and could not be
got out without an order from the King. The King was spoken to,
and he commanded the Duke of Leeds to order them out. The Duke of
Leeds took the order to the Duke of Cumberland, who said 'he
would be damned if they should go,' when the Duke of Leeds said
that he trusted he would have them taken out the following day,
as unless he did so he should be under the necessity of ordering
them to be removed by the King's grooms, when the Duke was
obliged sulkily to give way. When the King gave the order to the
Duke of Leeds, he sent for Taylor that he might be present, and
said at the same time that he had a very bad opinion of the Duke
of Cumberland, and he wished he would live out of the country.
[Page Head: THE KING'S ODDITIES.]
The King's good-nature, simplicity, and affability to all about
him are certainly very striking, and in his elevation he does not
forget any of his old friends and companions. He was in no hurry
to take upon himself the dignity of King, nor to throw off the
habits and manners of a country gentleman. When Lord Chesterfield
went to Bushy to kiss his hand, and be presented to the Queen, he
found Sir John and Lady Gore there lunching, and when they went
away the King called for their carriage, handed Lady Gore into it,
and stood at the door to see them off. When Lord Howe came over
from Twickenham to see him, he said the Queen was going out
driving, and should 'drop him' at his own house. The Queen, they
say, is by no means delighted at her elevation. She likes quiet
and retirement and Bushy (of which the King has made her Ranger),
and does not want to be a Queen. However, 'L'appetit viendra en
mangeant.' He says he does not want luxury and magnificence, has
slept in a cot, and he has dismissed the King's cooks, 'renverse
la marmite.' He keeps the stud (which is to be diminished) because
he thinks he ought to support the turf. He has made Mount Charles
a Lord of the Bedchamber, and given the Robes to Sir C. Pole, an
admiral. Altogether he seems a kind-hearted, well-meaning, not
stupid, burlesque, bustling old fellow, and if he doesn't go mad
may make a very decent King, but he exhibits oddities. He would
not have his servants in mourning--that is, not those of his own
family and household--but he sent the Duke of Sussex to Mrs.
Fitzherbert to desire she would put hers in mourning, and
consequently so they are. The King and she have always been
friends, as she has, in fact, been with all the Royal Family, but
it was very strange. Yesterday morning he sent for the officer on
guard, and ordered him to take all the muffles off the drums, the
scarfs off the regimentals, and so to appear on parade, where he
went himself. The colonel would have put the officer under arrest
for doing this without his orders, but the King said he was
commanding officer of his own guard, and forbade him. All odd, and
people are frightened, but his wits will at least last till the
new Parliament meets. I sent him a very respectful request through
Taylor that he would pay L300, all that remained due of the Duke
of York's debts at Newmarket, which he assented to directly, as
soon as the Privy Purse should be settled--very good-natured. In
the meantime it is said that the bastards are dissatisfied that
more is not done for them, but he cannot do much for them at once,
and he must have time. He has done all he can; he has made Errol
Master of the Horse, Sidney a Guelph and Equerry, George
Fitzclarence the same and Adjutant-General, and doubtless they
will all have their turn. Of course the stories told about the
rapacity of the Conynghams have been innumerable. The King's will
excited much astonishment, but as yet nothing is for certain known
about the money, or what became of it, or what he gave away, and
to whom, in his lifetime.
July 20th, 1830 {p.007}
Yesterday was a very busy day with his Majesty, who is going much
too fast, and begins to alarm his Ministers and astonish the
world. In the morning he inspected the Coldstream Guards, dressed
(for the first time in his life) in a military uniform and with a
great pair of gold spurs half-way up his legs like a game cock,
although he was not to ride, for having chalk-stones in his hands
he can't hold the reins. The Queen came to Lady Bathurst's to see
the review and hold a sort of drawing-room, when the Ministers'
wives were presented to her, and official men, to which were
added Lady Bathurst's relations; everybody was in undress except
the officers. She is very ugly, with a horrid complexion, but has
good manners, and did all this (which she hated) very well. She
said the part as if she was acting, and wished the green curtain
to drop. After the review the King, with the Dukes of Cumberland,
Sussex, and Gloucester, and Prince George and the Prince of
Prussia, and the Duchess of Cumberland's son, came in through the
garden gate; the Duchess of Gloucester and Princess Augusta were
already there; they breakfasted and then went away, the Duke of
Gloucester bowing to the company while nobody was taking any
notice of him or thinking about him. Nature must have been merry
when she made this Prince, and in the sort of mood that certain
great artists used to exhibit in their comical caricatures; I
never saw a countenance which that line in Dryden's M'Flecknoe
would so well describe--
And lambent dulness plays around his face.
At one there was to be a Council, to swear in Privy Councillors
and Lords-Lieutenant, and receive Oxford and Cambridge addresses.
The review made it an hour later, and the Lieutenants, who had
been summoned at one, and who are great, selfish, pampered
aristocrats, were furious at being kept waiting, particularly
Lord Grosvenor and the Duke of Newcastle, the former very
peevish, the latter bitter-humoured. I was glad to see them put
to inconvenience. I never saw so full a Court, so much nobility
with academical tagrag and bobtail. After considerable delay the
King received the Oxford and Cambridge addresses on the throne,
which (having only one throne between them) he then abdicated for
the Queen to seat herself on and receive them too. She sat it
very well, surrounded by the Princesses and her ladies and
household. When this mob could be got rid of the table was
brought in and the Council held. The Duke was twice sworn as
Constable of the Tower and Lieutenant of Hants; then Jersey and
the new Privy Councillors; and then the host of Lieutenants six
or seven at a time, or as many as could hold a bit of the
Testament. I begged the King would, to expedite the business,
dispense with their kneeling, which he did, and so we got on
rapidly enough; and I whispered to Jersey, who stood by me behind
the King with his white wand, 'The farce is good, isn't it?' as
they each kissed his hand. I told him their name or county, or
both, and he had a civil word to say to everybody, inviting some
to dinner, promising to visit others, reminding them of former
visits, or something good-humoured; he asked Lord Egremont's
_permission_ to go and live in his county, at Brighton.
[Page Head: THE KING IN ST. JAMES'S STREET.]
All this was very well; no great harm in it; more affable, less
dignified than the late King; but when this was over, and he
might very well have sat himself quietly down and rested, he must
needs put on his plainer clothes and start on a ramble about the
streets, alone too. In Pall Mall he met Watson Taylor, and took
his arm and went up St. James's Street. There he was soon
followed by a mob making an uproar, and when he got near White's
a woman came up and kissed him. Belfast (who had been sworn in
Privy Councillor in the morning), who saw this from White's, and
Clinton thought it time to interfere, and came out to attend upon
him. The mob increased, and, always holding W. Taylor's arm, and
flanked by Clinton and Belfast, who got shoved and kicked about
to their inexpressible wrath, he got back to the Palace amid
shouting and bawling and applause. When he got home he asked them
to go in and take a quiet walk in the garden, and said, 'Oh,
never mind all this; when I have walked about a few times they
will get used to it, and will take no notice.' There are other
stories, but I will put down nothing I do not see or hear, or
hear from the witnesses. Belfast told me this in the Park, fresh
from the scene and smarting from the buffeting he had got. All
the Park was ringing with it, and I told Lady Bathurst, who
thought it so serious she said she would get Lord Bathurst to
write to the Duke directly about it. Lord Combermere wanted to be
made a Privy Councillor yesterday, but the Duke would not let it
be done; he is in a sort of half-disgrace, and is not to be made
yet, but will be by-and-by.
Grove Road, July 21st, 1830 {p.009}
I came and established myself here last night after the Duchess
of Bedford's ball. Lady Bathurst told me that the Queen spoke to
her yesterday morning about the King's walk and being followed,
and said that for the future he must walk early in the morning,
or in some less public place, so there are hopes that his
activity may be tamed. He sent George Fitzclarence off from
dinner in his silk stockings and cocked hat to Boulogne to invite
the King of Wuertemberg to come here; he was back in fifty-six
hours, and might have been in less. He employs him in everything,
and I heard Fitzclarence yesterday ask the Duke of Leeds for two
of his father's horses to ride about on his jobs and relieve his
own, which the Duke agreed to, but made a wry face. Mount Charles
has refused to be Lord of the Bedchamber; his wife can't bear it,
and he doesn't like to go to Windsor under such altered
circumstances. I hardly ever record the scandalous stories of the
day, unless they relate to characters or events, but what relates
to public men is different from the loves and friendships of the
idiots of society.
July 24th, 1830 {p.010}
Went to St. James's the day before yesterday for a Council for
the dissolution, but there was none. Yesterday morning there was
an idea of having one, but it is to-day instead, and early in the
morning, that the Ministers may be able to go to their fish
dinner at Greenwich. I called on the Duke yesterday evening to
know about a Council, but he could not tell me. Then came a Mr.
Moss (or his card) while I was there. 'Who is he?' I said. 'Oh, a
man who wants to see me about a canal. I can't see him. Everybody
will see me, and how the Devil they think I am to see everybody,
and be the whole morning with the King, and to do the whole
business of the country, I don't know. I am quite worn out with
it.' I longed to tell him that it is this latter part they would
willingly relieve him from.
I met Vesey Fitzgerald, just come from Paris, and had a long
conversation with him about the state of the Government; he seems
aware of the difficulties and the necessity of acquiring more
strength, of the universal persuasion that the Duke will be all in
all, and says that in the Cabinet nobody can be more reasonable
and yielding and deferential to the opinions of his colleagues.
But Murray's appointment, he says, was a mistake,[2] and no
personal consideration should induce the Duke to sacrifice the
interests of the country by keeping him; it may be disagreeable to
dismiss him, but he must do it. Hay told me that for the many
years he had been in office he had never met with any public
officer so totally inefficient as he, not even Warrender at the
Admiralty Board.
[2] [Sir George Murray was Secretary of State for the
Colonial Department.]
In the meantime the King has had his levee, which was crowded
beyond all precedent. He was very civil to the people, particularly
to Sefton, who had quarrelled with the late King.
[Page Head: THE KING GOES DOWN TO PARLIAMENT.]
Yesterday he went to the House of Lords, and was admirably
received. I can fancy nothing like his delight at finding himself
in the state coach surrounded by all his pomp. He delivered the
Speech very well, they say, for I did not go to hear him. He did
not wear the crown, which was carried by Lord Hastings. Etiquette
is a thing he cannot comprehend. He wanted to take the King of
Wuertemberg with him in his coach, till he was told it was out of
the question. In his private carriage he continues to sit
backwards, and when he goes with men makes one sit by him and not
opposite to him. Yesterday, after the House of Lords, he drove
all over the town in an open caleche with the Queen, Princess
Augusta, and the King of Wuertemberg, and coming home he set down
the King (_dropped him_, as he calls it) at Grillon's Hotel. The
King of England dropping another king at a tavern! It is
impossible not to be struck with his extreme good-nature and
simplicity, which he cannot or will not exchange for the dignity
of his new situation and the trammels of etiquette; but he ought
to be made to understand that his simplicity degenerates into
vulgarity, and that without departing from his natural urbanity
he may conduct himself so as not to lower the character with
which he is invested, and which belongs not to him, but to the
country.
At his dinner at St. James's the other day more people were
invited than there was room for, and some half-dozen were forced
to sit at a side table. He said to Lord Brownlow, 'Well, when you
are flooded (he thinks Lincolnshire is all fen) you will come to
us at Windsor.' To the Freemasons he was rather good. The Duke of
Sussex wanted him to receive their address in a solemn audience,
which he refused, and when they did come he said, 'Gentlemen, if
my love for you equalled my ignorance of everything concerning
you, it would be unbounded,' and then he added something
good-humoured. The consequence of his trotting about, and saying
the odd things he does, is that there are all sorts of stories
about him which are not true, and he is always expected
everywhere. In the meantime I believe that politically he relies
implicitly on the Duke, who can make him do anything. Agar Ellis
(who is bustling and active, always wishing to play a part, and
gets mixed up with the politics of this and that party through
his various connections) told me the other day that he knew the
Duke was knocking at every door, hitherto without success, and
that he must be contented to take a _party_, and not expect to
strengthen himself by picking out individuals. I think this too,
but why not open his doors to all comers? There are no questions
now to stand in his way; his Government must be remodelled, and
he may last for ever personally.
July 25th, 1830 {p.012}
Yesterday at Court at eleven; a Council for the dissolution. This
King and these Councils are very unlike the last--few people
present, frequent, punctual, less ceremony observed. Though these
Ministers have been in office all their lives, nobody knew how
many days must elapse before Parliament was summoned; some said
sixty, some seventy days, but not one knew, nor had they settled
the matter previously; so Lord Rosslyn and I were obliged to go
to Bridgewater House, which was near, and consult the journals.
It has always been fifty-two days of late.
In the afternoon another embarrassment. We sent the proclamations
to the Chancellor (one for England and one for Ireland), to have
the Great Seal affixed to them; he would only affix the Seal to
the English, and sent back the Irish unsealed. The Secretary of
State would not send it to Ireland without the Great Seal, and
all the Ministers were gone to the fish dinner at Greenwich, so
that there was no getting at anybody. At last we got it done at
Lincoln's Inn and sent it off. The fact is, nobody knows his
business, and the Chancellor least of all. The King continues
very active; he went after the Council to Buckingham House, then
to the Thames Tunnel, has immense dinners every day, and the same
people two or three days running. He has dismissed the late
King's band, and employs the bands of the Guards every night, who
are ready to die of it, for they get no pay and are prevented
earning money elsewhere. The other night the King had a party,
and at eleven o'clock he dismissed them thus: 'Now, ladies and
gentlemen, I wish you a good night. I will not detain you any
longer from your amusements, and shall go to my own, which is to
go to bed; so come along, my Queen.' The other day he was very
angry because the guard did not know him in his plain clothes and
turn out for him--the first appearance of jealousy of his
greatness he has shown--and he ordered them to be more on the
alert for the future.
July 26th, 1830 {p.013}
[Page Head: THE KING DINES AT APSLEY HOUSE.]
Still the King; his adventures (for they are nothing else)
furnish matter of continual amusement and astonishment to his
liege subjects. Yesterday morning, or the evening before, he
announced to the Duke of Wellington that he should dine with him
yesterday; accordingly the Duke was obliged, in the midst of
preparations for his breakfast, to get a dinner ready for him. In
the morning he took the King of Wuertemberg to Windsor, and just
at the hour when the Duke expected him to dinner he was driving
through Hyde Park back from Windsor--three barouches-and-four,
the horses dead knocked up, in the front the two Kings, Jersey,
and somebody else, all covered with dust. The whole mob of
carriages and horsemen assembled near Apsley House to see him
pass and to wait till he returned. The Duke, on hearing he was
there, rushed down without his hat and stood in his gate in the
middle of servants, mob, &c., to see him pass. He drove to
Grillon's 'to drop' the King of Wuertemberg, and at a quarter past
eight he arrived at Apsley House. There were about forty-five
men, no women, half the Ministers, most of the foreign Ministers,
and a mixture rather indiscriminate. In the evening I was at Lady
Salisbury's, when arrived the Duke of Sussex, who gave a short
account to Sefton of what had passed, and of the King's speech to
the company. 'You and I,' he said, 'are old Whigs, my Lord, and I
confess I was somewhat astonished to hear his Majesty's speech.'
I went afterwards to Crockford's, where I found Matuscewitz, who
gave me a whole account of the dinner. The two Kings went out to
dinner arm in arm, the Duke followed; the King sat between the
King of Wuertemberg and the Duke. After dinner his health was
drunk, to which he returned thanks, sitting, but briefly, and
promised to say more by-and-by when he should give a toast. In
process of time he desired Douro to go and tell the band to play
the merriest waltz they could for the toast he was about to give.
He then gave 'The Queen of Wuertemberg,' with many eulogiums on
her and on the connubial felicity of her and the King; not a very
agreeable theme for his host, for conjugal fidelity is not his
forte. At length he desired Douro to go again to the band and
order them to play 'See the conquering hero comes,' and then he
rose. All the company rose with him, when he ordered everybody to
sit down. Still standing, he said that he had been so short a
time on the throne that he did not know whether etiquette
required that he should speak sitting or standing, but, however
this might be, he had been long used to speak on his legs, and
should do so now; he then proposed the Duke's health, but
prefaced it with a long speech--instituted a comparison between
him and the Duke of Marlborough; went back to the reign of Queen
Anne, and talked of the great support the Duke of Marlborough had
received from the Crown, and the little support the Duke of
Wellington had had in the outset of his career, though after the
battle of Vimeiro he had been backed by all the energies of the
country; that, notwithstanding his difficulties, his career had
been one continued course of victory over the armies of France;
and then recollecting the presence of Laval, the French
Ambassador, he said, 'Remember, Duc de Laval, when I talk of
victories over the French armies, they were not the armies of my
ally and friend the King of France, but of him who had usurped
his throne, and against whom you yourself were combating;' then
going back to the Duke's career, and again referring to the
comparison between him and Marlborough, and finishing by
adverting to his political position, that he had on mounting the
throne found the Duke Minister, and that he had retained him
because he thought his Administration had been and would be
highly beneficial to the country; that he gave to him his fullest
and most cordial confidence, and that he announced to all whom he
saw around him, to all the Ambassadors and Ministers of foreign
Powers, and to all the noblemen and gentlemen present, that as
long as he should sit upon the throne he should continue to give
him the same confidence. The Duke returned thanks in a short
speech, thanking the King for his confidence and support, and
declaring that all his endeavours would be used to keep this
country in relations of harmony with other nations. The whole
company stood aghast at the King's extraordinary speech and
declaration. Matuscewitz told me he never was so astonished, that
for the world he would not have missed it, and that he would
never have believed in it if he had not heard it.
[Page Head: THE KING'S SPEECH AT APSLEY HOUSE.]
Falck[3] gave me a delightful account of the speech and of Laval.
He thought, not understanding one word, that all the King was
saying was complimentary to the King of France and the French
nation, and he kept darting from his seat to make his acknowledgments,
while Esterhazy held him down by the tail of his coat, and the
King stopped him with his hand outstretched, all with great
difficulty. He said it was very comical.
[3] [Baron Falck, Dutch Minister at the Court of St.
James's. M. de Laval was the French Ambassador. This
dinner took place on the day after the publication of
the ordinances of July. Three days later Charles X. had
ceased to reign. M. de Laval instantly left London on
the receipt of the intelligence, leaving M. de
Vaudreuil as Charge d'Affaires.]
July 27th, 1830 {p.016}
Review in the morning (yesterday), breakfast at Apsley House,
chapter of the Garter, dinner at St. James's, party in the
evening, and ball at Apsley House. I don't hear of anything
remarkable, and it was so hot I could not go to anything, except
the breakfast, which I just looked in to for a minute, and found
everybody sweating and stuffing and the royalties just going
away. The Duke of Gloucester keeps up his quarrel with the Duke;
the Duke of Cumberland won't go to Apsley House, but sent the
Duchess and his boy. The Queen said at dinner the other day to
the Duke of Cumberland, 'I am very much pleased with you for
sending the Duchess to Apsley House,' and then turned to the Duke
of Gloucester and said, 'but I am not pleased with you for not
letting the Duchess go there.' The fool answered that the Duchess
should never go there; he would not be reconciled, forgetting
that it matters not twopence to the Duke of Wellington and a
great deal to himself.
I have been employed in settling half a dozen disputes of
different sorts, but generally without success, trifling matters,
foolish or violent people, not worth remembering any of them. The
Chancellor, who does not know his own business, has made an
attack on my office about the proclamations, but I have
vindicated it in a letter to Lord Bathurst.
July 28th, 1830 {p.016}
Yesterday Charles Wynn and I settled the dispute between Clive
and Charlton about the Ludlow matters. Charlton agrees to retire
from the contest both in the Borough and Corporation, and Clive
agrees to pay him. L1,125 towards his expenses, and not to oppose
the reception of any petition that may be presented to the House
of Commons for the purpose of re-opening the question of the
right of voting. Both parties are very well satisfied with this
termination of their disputes. Met the Chancellor at Lady
Ravensworth's breakfast yesterday, who told me he had sent a
rejoinder to my letter to Lord Bathurst about the proclamations.
July 29th, 1830 {p.016}
Yesterday a standing Council at the levee to swear in Lord
Hereford and Vesey Fitzgerald, and to declare Lord Bathurst
President of the Council and the Duke of Northumberland
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. Previously the King received the
address of the dissenting ministers, and then that of the
Quakers, presented by William Allen; they were very prim and
respectable persons; their hats were taken off by each other in
the room before the Throne Room, and they did not bow, though
they seemed half inclined to do so; they made a very loyal
address, but without 'Majesty,' and said 'O King.' There was a
question after his answer what they should do. I thought it was
whether they should kiss hands, for the King said something to
Peel, who went and asked them, and I heard the King say, 'Oh,
just as they like; they needn't if they don't like; it's all
one.'
[Page Head: ORDINANCES OF CHARLES X.]
But the great event of the day was the reception of the King of
France's two decrees, and the address of his Ministers, who
produced them; nothing could surpass the universal astonishment
and consternation. Falck told me he was reading the newspaper at
his breakfast regularly through, and when he came to this the
teacup almost dropped from his hands, and he rubbed his eyes to
see whether he read correctly. Such was the secresy with which
this measure was conceived and acted on, that Pozzo, who is
quicker and has better intelligence than anybody, had not a
notion of it, as Matuscewitz told me. Aberdeen learnt it through
the 'Times,' and had not a line from Stuart. That, however, is
nothing extraordinary. I suspect somebody had it, for Raikes
wrote me a note the day before, to ask me if there was not
_something bad_ from France. Matuscewitz told me that Russia
would not afford Charles X. the smallest support in his new
crusade against the Constitution of France, and this he
pronounced openly _a qui voulait l'entendre_. I suspect the Duke
will be desperately annoyed. The only Minister I had a word with
about it was Lord Bathurst, whose Tory blood bubbled a little
quicker at such a despotic act, and while owning the folly of the
deed he could not help adding that 'he should have repressed the
press when he dissolved the Chambers, then he might have done
it.'
July 30th, 1830 {p.018}
[Page Head: REVOLUTION IN PARIS.]
Everybody anxious for news from France. A few hope, and still
fewer think, the King of France will succeed, and that the French
will submit, but the press here joins in grand chorus against the
suppression of the liberty of that over the water. Matuscewitz
told me he had a conference with the Duke, who was excessively
annoyed, but what seems to have struck him more than anything is
the extraordinary secresy of the business, and neither Pozzo nor
Stuart having known one word of it. Up to the last Polignac has
deceived everybody, and put such words into the King's mouth that
nobody could expect such a _coup_. The King assured Pozzo di Borgo
the day before that nothing of the sort was in contemplation.
This, like everything else, will be judged by the event--desperate
fatuity if it fails, splendid energy and accurate calculation of
opposite moral forces if it succeeds. I judge that it will fail,
because I can see no marks of wisdom in the style of execution,
and the State paper is singularly puerile and weak in argument. It
is passionate and not dexterous, not even plausible. All this is
wonderfully interesting, and will give us a lively autumn.
The King has been to Woolwich, inspecting the artillery, to whom
he gave a dinner, with toasts and hip, hip, hurrahing and three
times three, himself giving the time. I tremble for him; at
present he is only a mountebank, but he bids fair to be a maniac.
Brougham will come in for Yorkshire without a contest; his
address was very eloquent. He is rather mad without a doubt; his
speeches this year have been sometimes more brilliant than ever
they were; but who with such stupendous talents was ever so
little considered? We admire him as we do a fine actor, and
nobody ever possessed such enormous means, and displayed a mind
so versatile, fertile, and comprehensive, and yet had so little
efficacy and influence. He told me just before he left town that
Yorkshire had been proposed to him, but that he had written word
he would not stand, nor spend a guinea, nor go there, nor even
take the least trouble about the concerns of anyone of his
constituents, if they elected him; but he soon changed his note.
July 31st, 1830 {p.019}
Yesterday morning I met Matuscewitz in St. James's Street, who
said, 'You have heard the news?' But I had not, so I got into his
cabriolet, and he told me that Buelow had just been with him with
an account of Rothschild's estafette, who had brought intelligence
of a desperate conflict at Paris between the people and the Royal
Guard, in which 1,000 men had been killed of the former, and of
the eventual revolt of two regiments, which decided the business;
that the Swiss had refused to fire on the people; the King is gone
to Rambouillet, the Ministers are missing, and the Deputies who
were at Paris had assembled in the Chambers, and declared their
sittings permanent. Nothing can exceed the interest and excitement
that all these proceedings create here, and unless there is a
reaction, which does not seem probable, the game is up with the
Bourbons. They richly deserve their fate. It remains to be seen
what part Bourmont and the Algerian army will take; the latter
will probably side with the nation, and the former will be guided
by his own interest, and is not unlikely to endeavour to direct a
spirit which he could not expect to control. He may reconcile
himself to the country by a double treachery.
_At night._ To-day at one o'clock Stuart's messenger arrived with
a meagre account, having left Paris on the night of the 29th. The
tricoloured flag had been raised; the National Guard was up,
commanded by old Lafayette (their chief forty years ago), who
ruled in Paris with Gerard, Odier, Casimir Perier, Lafitte, and
one or two more. The Tuileries and the Louvre had been pillaged;
the King was at Rambouillet, where Marshal Marmont had retired,
and had with him a large force. Nobody, however, believed they
would fight against the people. The Deputies and the Peers had
met, and the latter separated without doing anything; the former
had a stormy discussion, but came to no resolution. Some were for
a republic, some for the Duke of Orleans, some for the Duke of
Bordeaux with the Duke of Orleans as Regent. Rothschild had
another courier with later intelligence. The King had desired to
treat, and that proposals might be made to him; all the Ministers
escaped from Paris by a subterranean passage which led from the
Tuileries to the river, and even at St. Cloud the Duke told
Matuscewitz that 'Marmont had taken up a good military position,'
as if it was a military and not a moral question. Strange he
should think of such a thing, but they are all terrified to death
at the national flag and colours, because they see in its train
revolutions, invasions, and a thousand alarms. I own I would
rather have seen an easy transfer of the Crown to some other head
under the white flag. There was Lady Tankerville going about
to-day enquiring of everybody for news, trembling for her brother
'and his brigade.' Late in the day she got Lady Jersey to go with
her to Rothschild, whom she saw, and Madame Rothschild, who showed
her all their letters. Tankerville, who is a sour, malignant
little Whig (since become an ultra-Tory), loudly declares Polignac
ought to be hung. The elections here are going against Government,
and no candidate will avow that he stands on Government interest,
or with the intention of supporting the Duke's Ministry, which
looks as if it had lost all its popularity.
August 2nd, 1830 {p.020}
Yesterday (Sunday) we had no news and no reports, except one that
Marmont was killed. I never believe reports. The elections still
go against Government. G. Dawson returned from Dublin; all the
Peels lose their seats. Fordwich beat Baring at Canterbury by 370
votes. It is said the King was in a state of great excitement at
Woolwich the other day, when it was very hot, and he drank a good
deal of wine.
[Page Head: WELLINGTON ON THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.]
_Evening._--This morning, on going into town, I read in the
'Times' the news of the day--the proclamation of the Provisional
Government, the invitation to the Duke of Orleans, his proclamation,
and the account of the conversation between Lafitte and Marmont.
It is in vain to look for private or official information, for the
'Times' always has the latest and the best; Stuart sends next to
nothing. Soon after I got to George Street the Duke of Wellington
came in, in excellent spirits, and talked over the whole matter.
He said he could not comprehend how the Royal Guard had been
defeated by the mob, and particularly how they had been forced to
evacuate the Tuileries; that he had seen English and French troops
hold houses whole days not one-fourth so strong. I said that there
could not be a shadow of doubt that it was because they _would_
not fight, that if they _would_ have fought they must have beat
the mob, and reminded him of the French at Madrid, and asked him
if he did not think his regiment would beat all the populace of
London, which he said it would. He described the whole affair as
it has taken place, and said that there can be no doubt that the
moneyed men of Paris (who are all against the Government) and the
Liberals had foreseen a violent measure on the part of the King,
and had organised the resistance; that on the appearance of the
edicts the bankers simultaneously refused to discount any bills,
on which the great manufacturers and merchants dismissed their
workmen, to the number of many thousands, who inflamed the public
discontent, and united to oppose the military and the execution of
the decrees. He said positively that we should not take any part,
and that no other Government ought or could. He does not like the
Duke of Orleans, and thinks his proclamation mean and shabby, but
owned that under all circumstances his election to the Crown would
probably be the best thing that could happen. The Duke of Chartres
he had known here, and thought he was intelligent. The Duke
considered the thing as settled, but did not feel at all sure they
would offer the Crown to the Duke of Orleans. He said he could not
guess or form an opinion as to their ulterior proceedings.
After discussing the whole business with his usual simplicity, he
began talking of the Duke of Cumberland and his resignation of the
command of the Blues. Formerly the colonels of the two regiments
of Life Guards held alternately the Gold Stick, and these two
regiments were under the immediate orders of the King, and not of
the Commander-in-Chief. When the Duke of Wellington returned from
Spain and had the command of the Blues, the King insisted upon his
taking the duty also; so it was divided into three, but the Blues
still continued under the Commander-in-Chief. But when the Duke of
Cumberland wanted to be continually about the King, he got him to
give him the command of the Household troops; this was at the
period of the death of the Duke of York and the Duke of
Wellington's becoming Commander-in-Chief. The Duke of Cumberland
told the Duke of Wellington that he had received the King's verbal
commands to that effect, and from that time he alone kept the Gold
Stick, and the Blues were withdrawn from the authority of the
Commander-in-Chief. The Duke of Wellington made no opposition; but
last year, during the uproar on the Catholic question, he
perceived the inconvenience of the arrangement, and intended to
speak to the King about it, for the Duke of Cumberland was
concerned in organising mobs to go down to Windsor to frighten
Lady Conyngham and the King, and the Horse Guards, who would
naturally have been called out to suppress any tumult, would not
have been disposable without the Duke of Cumberland's concurrence,
so much so that on one particular occasion, when the Kentish men
were to have gone to Windsor 20,000 strong, the Duke of Wellington
detained a regiment of light cavalry who were marching elsewhere,
that he might not be destitute of military aid. Before, however,
he did anything about this with the King ('I always,' he said, 'do
one thing at a time') his Majesty was taken ill and died.
On the accession of the present King the Duke of Cumberland
wished to continue the same system, which his Majesty was
resolved he should not, and he ordered that the colonels of the
regiments should take the Stick in rotation. He also ordered
(through Sir R. Peel) that Lord Combermere should command the
troops at the funeral as Gold Stick. This the Duke of Cumberland
resisted, and sent down orders to Lord Cathcart to assume the
command. The Duke of Wellington, however, represented to Lord
Cathcart that he had better do no such thing, as nobody could
disobey the King's orders gone through the Secretary of State,
and accordingly he did nothing. But the King was determined to
put an end to the pretensions of the Duke of Cumberland, and
spoke to the Duke on the subject, and said that he would have all
the regiments placed under the orders of the Commander-in-Chief.
The Duke recommended him to replace the matter in the state in
which it stood before the Duke of Cumberland's pretensions had
altered it, but he would not do this, and chose to abide by his
original intention; so the three regiments were placed under the
orders of the Horse Guards like the rest, and the Duke of
Cumberland in consequence resigned the command of the Blues.
August 3rd, 1830 {p.023}
[Page Head: WARDROBE OF GEORGE IV.]
Notwithstanding the above story, the King dined with the Duke of
Cumberland at Kew yesterday. I went yesterday to the sale of the
late King's wardrobe, which was numerous enough to fill Monmouth
Street, and sufficiently various and splendid for the wardrobe of
Drury Lane. He hardly ever gave away anything except his linen,
which was distributed every year. These clothes are the
perquisite of his pages, and will fetch a pretty sum. There are
all the coats he has ever had for fifty years, 300 whips, canes
without number, every sort of uniform, the costumes of all the
orders in Europe, splendid furs, pelisses, hunting-coats and
breeches, and among other things a dozen pair of corduroy
breeches he had made to hunt in when Don Miguel was here. His
profusion in these articles was unbounded, because he never paid
for them, and his memory was so accurate that one of his pages
told me he recollected every article of dress, no matter how old,
and that they were always liable to be called on to produce some
particular coat or other article of apparel of years gone by. It
is difficult to say whether in great or little things that man
was most odious and contemptible.
Nothing from France yesterday but the most absurd reports.
August 5th, 1830 {p.023}
Yesterday morning at a Council; all the Ministers, and the Duke of
Rutland, Lords Somers, Rosslyn, and Gower to be sworn Lieutenants.
Talked about France with Sir G. Murray, who was silly enough to
express his disappointment that things promised to be soon and
quietly settled, and hoped the King would have assembled an army
and fought for it. Afterwards a levee. While the Queen was in the
closet they brought her word that Charles X. was at Cherbourg, and
had sent for leave to come here; but nobody knew yesterday if this
was true or not. In the afternoon I met Vaudreuil, and had a long
conversation with him on the state of things. He said, 'My family
has been twice ruined by these cursed Bourbons, and I will be
damned if they shall a third time;' that he had long foreseen the
inevitable tendency of Polignac's determination, ever since he was
here, when he had surrounded himself with low agents and would
admit no gentleman into his confidence; one of his _affides_ was a
man of the name of Carrier, a relation of the famous Carrier de
Nantes. Vaudreuil's father-in-law had consulted him many months
ago what to do with L300,000 which he had in the French funds, and
he advised him to sell it out and put it in his drawer, which he
did, sacrificing the interest for that time. He had hitherto done
nothing, been near none of the Ministers, feeling that he could
say nothing to them; no communication had been made to him, but
whenever any should be he intended to reply to it. Laval ran away
just in time, and Vaudreuil was so provoked at his evasion that he
sent after him to say that in such important circumstances he
could not take upon himself to act without his Ambassador's
instructions. No answer of course. He thinks that if this had not
taken place a few years must have terminated the reign of the
Bourbons, and that it is only the difference between sudden and
lingering death; that when he was at Paris he had seen the
dissatisfaction of the young officers in the Guards, who were all
Liberal; and with these sentiments, what a condition they must
have been in when called upon to charge and fire on the people
while secretly approving of their conduct, 'entre leurs devoirs de
citoyens et de militaires!'
I had a conversation with Fitzgerald (Vesey) the other day about
the Government and its prospects. They want him greatly to return
to office, but he is going abroad again for his health, and I
suspect is not very anxious to come in just now, when things look
gloomy. He thinks they have acted very injudiciously in sending
down candidates to turn out their opponents, attempts which
generally failed, and only served to exasperate the people
interested more and more against them. Such men as the Grants, as
he said, cannot be kept out of Parliament. But they manage
everything ill, and it is impossible to look at the present
Ministry and watch its acts, and not marvel that the Duke should
think of going on with it. If he does not take care he will be
dragged down by it, whereas if he would, while it is yet time,
remodel it altogether, and open his doors to all who are capable
of serving under him (for all are ready to take him as chief), he
might secure to himself a long and honourable possession of
power. Then it is said he can't whistle off these men merely
because it is convenient, but he had better do that than keep
them on bungling through all the business of the country.
Besides, I have some doubts of his tender-heartedness in this
respect.
Goodwood, August 10th, 1830 {p.025}
[Page Head: THE KING GOES TO WINDSOR.]
On Saturday, the 7th, the King and Queen breakfasted at Osterley,
on their way to Windsor. They had about sixty or seventy people
to meet them, and it all went off very well, without anything
remarkable. I went to Stoke afterwards, where there was the usual
sort of party.
The King entered Windsor so privately that few people knew him,
though he made the horses walk all the way from Frogmore that he
might be seen. On Saturday and Sunday the Terrace was thrown
open, and the latter day it was crowded by multitudes and a very
gay sight; there were sentinels on each side of the east front to
prevent people walking under the windows of the living-rooms, but
they might go where else they liked. The King went to Bagshot and
did not appear. All the late King's private drives through the
Park are also thrown open, but not to carriages. We went,
however, a long string of four carriages, to explore, and got
through the whole drive round by Virginia Water, the famous
fishing-pagoda, and saw all the penetralia of the late King,
whose ghost must have been indignant at seeing us (Sefton
particularly) scampering all about his most secret recesses. It
is an exceedingly enjoyable spot, and pretty, but has not so much
beauty as I expected.
Came here yesterday and found thirty-two people assembled. I rode
over the downs three or four miles (from Petworth), and never saw
so delightful a country to live in. There is an elasticity in the
air and turf which communicates itself to the spirits.
[Page Head: FRENCH DEMOCRACY.]
In the meantime the French Revolution has been proceeding rapidly
to its consummation, and the Duke of Orleans is King. Montrond,
who was at Stoke, thinks that France will gravitate towards a
republic, and principally for this reason, that there is an
unusual love of equality, and no disposition to profit by the
power of making _majorats_, therefore that there never can be
anything like an aristocracy. We are so accustomed to see the
regular working of our constitutional system, with all its parts
depending upon each other, and so closely interwoven, that we have
difficulty in believing that any monarchical Government can exist
which is founded on a basis so different. This is the great
political problem which is now to be solved. I think, however,
that in the present settlement it is not difficult to see the
elements of future contention and the working of a strong
democratical spirit. The Crown has been conferred on the Duke of
Orleans by the Chamber of Deputies alone, which, so far from
inviting the Chamber of Peers to discuss the question of
succession, has at the same time decreed a material alteration in
that Chamber itself. It has at a blow cut off all the Peers of
Villele's great promotion, which is an enormous act of authority,
although the measure may be advisable. There is also a question
raised of the hereditary quality of the peerage, and I dare say
that for the future at least peerages will not be hereditary, not
that I think this signifies as to the existence of an aristocracy,
for the constant subdivision of property must deprive the Chamber
of all the qualities belonging to an English House of Lords, and
it would perhaps be better to establish another principle, such as
that of promoting to the Chamber of Peers men (for life) of great
wealth, influence, and ability, who would constitute an
aristocracy of a different kind indeed, but more respectable and
efficient, than a host of poor hereditary senators. What great men
are Lord Lonsdale, the Duke of Rutland, and Lord Cleveland! but
strip them, of their wealth and power, what would they be? Among
the most insignificant of mankind; but they all acquire a
factitious consideration by the influence they possess to do good
and evil, the extension of it over multitudes of dependents. The
French can have no aristocracy but a personal one, ours is in the
institution; theirs must be individually respectable, as ours is
collectively looked up to. In the meantime it will be deemed a
great step gained to have a monarchy established in France at all,
even for the moment, but some people are alarmed at the excessive
admiration which the French Revolution has excited in England, and
there is a very general conviction that Spain will speedily follow
the example of France, and probably Belgium also. Italy I don't
believe will throw off the yoke; they have neither spirit nor
unanimity, and the Austrian military force is too great to be
resisted. But Austria will tremble and see that the great victory
which Liberalism has gained has decided the question as to which
principle, that of light or darkness, shall prevail for the future
in the world.
London, August 14th, 1830 {p.027}
Stayed at Goodwood till the 12th; went to Brighton, riding over
the downs from Goodwood to Arundel, a delightful ride. How much I
prefer England to Italy! There we have mountains and sky; here,
vegetation and verdure, fine trees and soft turf; and in the long
run the latter are the most enjoyable. Yesterday came to London
from Brighton; found things much as they were, but almost
everybody gone out of town. The French are proceeding steadily in
the reconstruction of their Government, but they have evinced a
strong democratical spirit. The new King, too, conducts himself in
a way that gives me a bad opinion of him; he is too complaisant to
the rage for equality, and stoops more than he need do; in fact,
he overdoes it. It is a piece of abominably bad taste (to say no
worse) to have conferred a pension on the author of the
Marseillaise hymn; for what can be worse than to rake up the old
ashes of Jacobinism, and what more necessary than to distinguish
as much as possible this Revolution from that of 1789? Then he
need not be more familiar as King than he ever was as Duke of
Orleans, and affect the manners of a citizen and a plainness of
dress and demeanour very suitable to an American President, but
unbecoming a descendant of Louis XIV.
The new Charter is certainly drawn up with great moderation, the
few alterations which have been made approximating it to the
spirit of the English Constitution, and in the whole of the
proceedings the analogies of our revolution have been pretty
closely followed. But there has been a remarkable deviation,
which I think ominous, and I can't imagine how it has escaped
with so little animadversion here. That is the cavalier manner in
which the Chamber of Peers has been treated, for the Deputies not
only assumed all the functions of Government and legislation, and
disposed by their authority of the Crown without inviting the
concurrence of the other Chamber, but at the same time they
exercised an enormous act of authority over the Chamber of Peers
itself in striking off the whole of that great promotion of
Charles X., which, however unwise and perhaps unconstitutional,
was perfectly legal, and those Peers had, in fact, as good a
right to their peerages as any of their colleagues. They have
reconstructed the Chamber of Peers, and conferred upon it certain
rights and privileges; but the power which can create can also
destroy, and it must be pretty obvious after this that the Upper
Chamber will be for the future nothing better than a superior
Court of Judicature, depending for its existence upon the will of
the popular branch. There are some articles of the old Charter
which I am astonished at their keeping, but which they may
possibly alter[4] at the revision which is to take place next
year, those particularly which limit the entrance to the Chamber
of Deputies to men of forty, and which give the initiation of
laws to the King. But on the whole it is a good sign that they
should alter so little, and looks like extreme caution and a
dislike to rapid and violent changes.
[4] They are altered. The first translation of the Charter
which I read was incorrect.
[Page Head: POLIGNAC.]
In the meantime we hear nothing of the old King, who marches
slowly on with his family. It has been reported in London that
Polignac is here, and also that he is taken. Nobody knows the
truth. I have heard of his behaviour, however, which was worthy of
his former imbecility. He remained in the same presumptuous
confidence up to the last moment, telling those who implored him
to retract while it was still time that they did not know France,
that he did, that it was essentially Royalist, and all resistance
would be over in a day or two, till the whole ruin burst on him at
once, when he became like a man awakened from a dream, utterly
confounded with the magnitude of the calamity and as pusillanimous
and miserable as he had before been blind and confident. It must
be owned that their end has been worthy of the rest, for not one
of them has evinced good feeling, or magnanimity, or courage in
their fall, nor excited the least sympathy or commiseration. The
Duke of Fitzjames made a good speech in the Chamber of Peers, and
Chateaubriand a very fine one a few days before, full of eloquence
in support of the claim of the Duke of Bordeaux against that of
Louis Philippe I.
In the meantime our elections here are still going against
Government, and the signs of the times are all for reform and
retrenchment, and against slavery. It is astonishing the interest
the people generally take in the slavery question, which is the
work of the Methodists, and shows the enormous influence they
have in the country. The Duke (for I have not seen him) is said
to be very easy about the next Parliament, whereas, as far as one
can judge, it promises to be quite as unmanageable as the last,
and is besides very ill composed--full of boys and all sorts of
strange men.
August 20th, 1830 {p.029}
On Monday to Stoke; Alvanley, Fitzroy Somerset, Matuscewitz,
Stanislas Potocki, Glengall, and Mornay were there. Lady Sefton
(who had dined at the Castle a few days before) asked the King to
allow her to take Stanislas Potocki to see Virginia Water in a
carriage, which is not allowed, but which his Majesty agreed to.
Accordingly we started, and going through the private drives,
went up to the door of the tent opposite the fishing-house. They
thought it was the Queen coming, or at any rate a party from the
Castle, for the man on board the little frigate hoisted all the
colours, and the boatmen on the other side got ready the royal
barge to take us across. We went all over the place on both
sides, and were delighted with the luxury and beauty of the whole
thing. On one side are a number of tents, communicating together
in separate apartments and forming a very good house, a
dining-room, drawing-room, and several other small rooms, very
well furnished; across the water is the fishing-cottage,
beautifully ornamented, with one large room and a dressing-room
on each side; the kitchen and offices are in a garden full of
flowers, shut out from everything. Opposite the windows is moored
a large boat, in which the band used to play during dinner, and
in summer the late King dined every day either in the house or in
the tents. We had scarcely seen everything when Mr. Turner, the
head keeper, arrived in great haste, having spied us from the
opposite side, and very angry at our carriages having come there,
which is a thing forbidden; he did not know of our leave, nor
could we even satisfy him that we were not to blame.
[Page Head: GEORGE IV.'S ILLNESS AND DEATH.]
The next day I called on Batchelor (he was _valet de chambre_ to
the Duke of York, afterwards to George IV.), who has an excellent
apartment in the Lodge, which, he said, was once occupied by Nell
Gwynne, though I did not know the lodge was built at that time. I
was there a couple of hours, and heard all the details of the
late King's illness and other things. For many months before his
death those who were about him were aware of his danger, but
nobody dared to say a word. The King liked to cheat people with
making them think he was well, and when he had been at a Council
he would return to his apartments and tell his _valets de
chambre_ how he had deceived them. During his illness he was
generally cheerful, but occasionally dejected, and constantly
talked of his brother the Duke of York, and of the similarity of
their symptoms, and was always comparing them. He had been
latterly more civil to Knighton than he used to be, and
Knighton's attentions to him were incessant; whenever he thought
himself worse than usual, and in immediate danger, he always sent
for Sir William. Lady Conyngham and her family went into his room
once a day; till his illness he always used to go and sit in
hers. It is true that last year, when she was so ill, she was
very anxious to leave the Castle, and it was Sir William Knighton
who with great difficulty induced her to stay there. At that time
she was in wretched spirits, and did nothing but pray from
morning till night. However, her conscience does not seem ever to
have interfered with her ruling passion, avarice, and she went on
accumulating. During the last illness waggons were loaded every
night and sent away from the Castle, but what their contents were
was not known, at least Batchelor did not say. All Windsor knew
this. Those servants of the King who were about his person had
opportunities of hearing a great deal, for he used to talk of
everybody before them, and without reserve or measure.
This man Batchelor had become a great favourite with the late
King. The first of his pages, William Holmes, had for some time
been prevented by ill health from attending him. Holmes had been
with him from a boy, and was also a great favourite; by
appointments and perquisites he had as much as L12,000 or L14,000
a year, but he had spent so much in all sorts of debauchery and
living like a gentleman that he was nearly ruined. There seems to
have been no end to the _tracasseries_ between these men; their
anxiety to get what they could out of the King's wardrobe in the
last weeks, and their dishonesty in the matter, were excessive,
all which he told me in great detail. The King was more than
anybody the slave of habit and open to impressions, and even when
he did not like people he continued to keep them about him rather
than change.
While I was at Stoke news came that Charles X. had arrived off
Portsmouth. He has asked for an asylum in Austria, but when once
he has landed here he will not move again, I dare say. The
enthusiasm which the French Revolution produced is beginning to
give way to some alarm, and not a little disgust at the Duke of
Orleans' conduct, who seems anxious to assume the character of a
Jacobin King, affecting extreme simplicity and laying aside all
the pomp of royalty. I don't think it can do, and there is
certainly enough to cause serious disquietude for the future.
Sefton in the meantime told me that Brougham and Lord Grey were
prepared for a violent opposition, and that they had effected a
formal junction with Huskisson, being convinced that no
Government could now be formed without him. I asked him if
Palmerston was a party to this junction, and he said he was, but
the first thing I heard when I got to town was that a negotiation
is going on between Palmerston and the Duke, and that the former
takes every opportunity of declaring his goodwill to the latter,
and how unshackled he is. Both these things can't be true, and
time will show which is. It seems odd that Palmerston should
abandon his party on the eve of a strong coalition, which is not
unlikely to turn out the present Administration, but it is quite
impossible to place any dependence upon public men now-a-days.
There is Lord Grey with his furious opposition, having a little
while ago supported the Duke in a sort of way, having advised
Rosslyn to take office, and now, because his own vanity is hurt
at not being invited to join the Government, or more consulted at
least, upon the slight pretext of the Galway Bill in the last
Parliament he rushes into rancorous opposition, and is determined
to give no quarter and listen to no compromise. Brougham is to
lead this Opposition in the House of Commons, and Lord Grey in
the Lords, and nothing is to be done but as the result of general
deliberation and agreement. Brougham in the meantime has finished
his triumph at York in a miserable way, having insulted Martin
Stapylton on the hustings, who called him to account, and then he
forgot what he had said, and slunk away with a disclaimer of
unintentional offence, as usual beginning with intemperance and
ending with submission. His speeches were never good, but at his
own dinner he stated so many untruths about the Duke of
Wellington that his own partisans bawled out 'No, no,' and it was
a complete failure. His whole spirit there was as bad as
possible, paltry and commonplace. That man, with all his talents,
never can or will _do_ in any situation; he is base, cowardly,
and unprincipled, and with all the execrable judgment which, I
believe, often flows from the perversion of moral sentiment.
Nobody can admire his genius, eloquence, variety and extent of
information, and the charm of his society more than I do; but his
faults are glaring, and the effects of them manifest to anybody
who will compare his means and their results.
August 23rd, 1830 {p.033}
[Page Head: CHARLES X. IN ENGLAND.]
General Baudrand is come over with a letter from King Louis
Philippe to King William. He saw the Duke and Aberdeen yesterday.
Charles X. goes to Lulworth Castle. What are called moderate
people are greatly alarmed at the aspect of affairs in France,
but I think the law (which will be carried) of abolishing capital
punishment in political cases is calculated to tranquillise men's
minds everywhere, for it draws such a line between the old and
the new Revolution. The Ministers will be tried and banished, but
no blood spilt. Lord Anglesey went to see Charles X., and told
him openly his opinion of his conduct. The King laid it all upon
Polignac. The people of Paris wanted to send over a deputation to
thank the English for their sympathy and assistance--a sort of
fraternising affair--but the King would not permit it, which was
wisely done, and it is a good thing to see that he can curb in
some degree that spirit; this Vaudreuil told me last night. It
would have given great offence and caused great alarm here.
August 24th, 1830 {p.033}
Alvanley had a letter from Montrond yesterday from Paris. He was
with M. Mole when a letter was brought him from Polignac,
beginning, 'Mon cher Collegue,' and saying that he wrote to him
to ask his advice what he had better do, that he should have
liked to retire to his own estate, but it was too near Paris,
that he should like to go into Alsace, and that he begged he
would arrange it for him, and in the meantime send him some
boots, and shirts, and breeches.
The French King continues off Cowes, many people visiting him.
They came off without clothes or preparation of any kind, so much
so that Lady Grantham has been obliged to furnish Mesdames de
Berri and d'Angouleme with everything; it seems they have plenty
of money. The King says he and his son have retired from public
life; and as to his grandson, he must wait the progress of
events; that his conscience reproaches him with nothing.
The dinner in St. George's Hall on the King's birthday was the
finest thing possible--all good and hot, and served on the late
King's gold plate. There were one hundred people at table. After
dinner the King gave the Duke of Wellington's health, as it was
the anniversary of Vimeiro; the Dukes of Cumberland and
Gloucester turned their glasses down. I can't agree with Charles
X. that it would be better to '_travailler pour son pain_ than to
be King of England.'
I went yesterday all over Lambeth Palace, which has been nearly
rebuilt by Blore, and admirably done; one of the best houses I
ever saw. Archbishop Juxon's Hall has been converted into the
library of the Palace, and is also a fine thing in its way. It is
not to cost above L40,000. The Lollards' Tower, which is very
curious with its iron rings, and the names of the Lollards
written on the walls, is not to be touched.
[Page Head: CONVERSATION WITH MARSHAL MARMONT.]
_At night._--Went to Lady Glengall's to meet Marmont. He likes
talking of his adventures, but he had done his Paris talk before
I got there; however, he said a great deal about old campaigning
and Buonaparte, which, as well as I recollect, I will put down.
As to the battle of Salamanca, he remarked that, without meaning
to detract from the glory of the English arms, he was inferior in
force there; our army was provided with everything, well paid,
and the country favourable, his 'denuee de tout,' without pay, in
a hostile country; that all his provisions came from a great
distance and under great escorts, and his communications were
kept up in the same way. Of Russia, he said that Buonaparte's
army was destroyed by the time he got to Moscow, destroyed by
famine; that there were two ways of making war, by slow degrees
with magazines, or by rapid movements and reaching places where
abundant means of supply and reorganisation were to be found, as
he had done at Vienna and elsewhere, but in Russia supplies were
not to be had. Napoleon had, however, pushed on with the same
rapidity and destroyed his army. Marshal Davoust (I think, but am
not sure) had a _corps d'armee_ of 80,000 men and reached Moscow
with 15,000; the cavalry were 50,000 sabres, at Moscow they were
6,000. Somebody asked him if Napoleon's generals had not
dissuaded him from going to Russia. Marmont said no; they liked
it; but Napoleon ought to have stopped at Smolensk, made Poland
independent, and levied 50,000 Cossacks, the Polish Cossacks
being better than the Russian, who would have kept all his
communications clear, and allowed the French army to repose, and
then he would have done in two campaigns what he wished to
accomplish in one; instead of which he never would deal with
Poland liberally, but held back with ulterior views, and never
got the Poles cordially with him. Of the campaign of 1813 he said
that it was ill conducted by Napoleon and full of faults; his
creation of the army was wonderful, and the battle of Dresden
would have been a great movement if he had not suddenly abandoned
Vandamme after pushing him on to cut off the retreat of the
Allies. It was an immense fault to leave all the garrisons in the
Prussian and Saxon fortresses. The campaign of 1814 was one of
his most brilliant. He (Marmont) commanded a _corps d'armee_, and
fought in most of the celebrated actions, but he never had 4,000
men; at Paris, which he said was 'the most honourable part of his
whole career,' he had 7,500.[5] Napoleon committed a great fault
in throwing himself into the rear as he did; he should have
fallen back upon Paris, where his own presence would have been of
vast importance, and sent Marmont into the rear with what troops
he could collect. I repeated what the Duke of Wellington had once
told me, that if the Emperor had continued the same plan, and
fallen back on Paris, he would have obliged the Allies to
retreat, and asked him what he thought. He rather agreed with
this, but said the Emperor had conceived one of the most splendid
pieces of strategy that ever had been devised, which failed by
the disobedience of Eugene. He sent orders to Eugene to assemble
his army, in which he had 35,000 French troops, to amuse the
Austrians by a negotiation for the evacuation of Italy; to throw
the Italian troops into Alessandria and Mantua; to destroy the
other fortresses, and going by forced marches with his French
troops, force the passage of Mont Cenis, collect the scattered
_corps d'armee_ of Augereau (who was near Lyons) and another
French general, which would have made his force amount to above
60,000 men, and burst upon the rear of the Allies so as to cut
off all their communications. These orders he sent to Eugene, but
Eugene 'revait d'etre roi d'Italie apres sa chute,' and he sent
his aide-de-camp Tascher to excuse himself. The movement was not
made, and the game was up. Lady Dudley Stewart was there,
Lucien's daughter and Buonaparte's niece. Marmont was presented
to her, and she heard him narrate all this; there is something
very simple, striking, and soldierlike in his manner and
appearance. He is going to Russia.
[5] [This assertion of Marmont's is the more curious as it
was to his alleged treachery that Napoleon when at
Fontainebleau chose to ascribe his defeat.]
[Page Head: CRADOCK'S MISSION TO CHARLES X.]
He was very communicative about events at Paris, lamented his own
ill-luck, involved in the business against his wishes and
feelings; he disapproved of Polignac and his measures, and had no
notion the _ordonnances_ were thought of. In the morning he was
going to St. Germain for the day; when his aide-de-camp brought
him the newspaper with the _ordonnances il tomba de son haut_.
Soon after the Dauphin sent to him to desire that, as there might
be some 'vitres cassees,' he would take the command of the
troops. Directly after the thing began. He had 7,000 or 8,000
men; not a preparation had been made of any sort; they had never
thought of resistance, had not consulted Marmont or any military
man; he soon found how hopeless the case was, and sent eight
estafettes to the King one after another during the action to
tell him so and implore him to stop while it was time. They never
returned any answer. He then rode out to St. Cloud, where he
implored the King to yield. It was not till after seven hours'
pressing that he consented to name M. de Mortemart Minister, but
would not withdraw the edicts. He says that up to Wednesday night
they would have compromised and accepted M. de Mortemart and the
suppression of the edicts, but the King still demurred. On
Wednesday night he yielded, but then the communications were
interrupted. That night the meeting at the Palais Royal took
place, at which the King's fate was determined; and on Thursday
morning when his offers arrived, it was too late, and they would
no longer treat. Marmont said he had been treated with the
greatest ingratitude by the Court, and had taken leave of them
for ever, coldly of the King and Dauphin; the Duchess of Berri
alone shook hands with him and thanked him for his services and
fidelity. He says never man was so unlucky, that he was _marechal
de quartier_ and could not refuse to serve, but he only acted on
the defensive; 2,000 of the troops and 1,500 of the populace were
killed. The Swiss did not behave well, but the Lanciers de la
Garde beautifully, and all the troops were acting against their
feelings and opinions. Marmont said that Stuart had sent Cradock
to Charles X. to desire he would go as slowly as he could, to
give time for a reaction which he expected would take place.
Cradock did go to the King, but I rather doubt this story.[6]
[6] [Colonel Cradock (the late Lord Howden) was sent by the
Ambassador to the King, and had an audience at
Rambouillet, but it was at the request and instigation
of the Duke of Orleans. The proposal entrusted to
Colonel Cradock was to the effect that the King and the
Dauphin, having abdicated, should quit France with the
Princesses, but that Henry V. should be proclaimed King
under the regency of the Duke of Orleans. Louis
Philippe offered to support this arrangement, and to
carry on the Government as Regent, if Charles X.
sanctioned it. The King received the communication in
bed. The Duchess of Angouleme was consulted, and
vehemently opposed the scheme, because, said she,
speaking of the Orleans family, 'ils sont toujours les
memes,' and she referred to the preposterous stories
current at the time of the death of the Duc de
Bourgogne, and the regency of 1715. The offer was
therefore rejected. These facts were not known to Mr.
Greville at the time, nor till long afterwards, but
they confirm his information that 'Cradock _did_ go to
the King,'.]
August 27th, 1830 {p.038}
At Court the day before yesterday; Parliament was prorogued and
summoned. General Baudrand came afterwards and delivered his
letter, also a private letter 'from the Duke of Orleans to the
Duke of Clarence'--as the French King called them, 'anciens
amis.' He was well received and well satisfied. I never knew such
a burst of indignation and contempt as Polignac's letter has
caused--a letter to the President of the Chamber of Peers. As
Dudley says, it has saved history the trouble of crucifying that
man, and speaks volumes about the recent events. Such a man to
have been Prime Minister of France for a year!
August 29th, 1830 {p.038}
[Page Head: DINNER AT LORD DUDLEY'S.]
Dined with Dudley the day before yesterday to meet Marmont, who is
made very much of here by the few people who are left. He had been
to Woolwich in the morning, where the Duke of Wellington had given
orders that everything should be shown to him, and the honours
handsomely done. He was very much gratified, and he found the man
who had pointed the gun which wounded him at Salamanca, and who
had since lost his own arm at Waterloo. Marmont shook hands with
him and said, 'Ah, mon ami, chacun a son tour.' Lady Aldborough
came in in the evening, and flew up to him with 'Ah, mon cher
Marechal, embrassez-moi;' and so after escaping the cannon's mouth
at Paris, he was obliged to face Lady Aldborough's mouth here.
This was my first dinner at Dudley's, brought about _malgre lui_
by Lady Glengall. He has always disliked and never invited me, but
now (to all appearance) we are friends. He said he had been to see
an old man who lives near the world's end--Chelsea--who is 110
years old; he has a good head of hair, with no grey hairs in it;
his health, faculties, and memory perfect; is Irish, and has not
lived with greater temperance than other people. I sat next to
Palmerston, and had a great deal of conversation with him, and
from the tenour of his language infer that he has no idea of
joining Government. Agar Ellis assured me the other day that there
was not a word of truth in the reported junction between Lord Grey
and Huskisson. The Duke has got two months to make his arrangements,
but I am afraid he is not prepared for all the sacrifices his
position requires. It is now said that the exasperation against
the late Ministers (particularly Polignac) is so great in France
that it is doubtful whether they will be able to save their lives.