Memoirs of the Court of George IV. 1820-1830 Part 4

Wilberforce to Hannah More, repeating the observations of a friend who had ventured to approach the Queen's residence. He describes her retainers as "a most shabby a.s.semblage of quite the lowest of the people, about fifty in number, who every now and then kept calling out 'Queen, Queen!' and several times, once in about a quarter of an hour, she came out of one window of a balcony and Alderman Wood at the other, and she bowed to them; her obeisance, of course, being met by augmented acclamations. My friend," adds Mr. Wilberforce, "entered into conversation with a person present who argued for the natural equality of man, and that any other of the people present had as good right to be King as George the Fourth."[41]

[41] "Life," vol. v. p. 72.

The Duke of Wellington at this period took an anxious share in the proceedings against the Queen. "We fell upon the general situation of things," relates a confidential friend of his Grace, "which the Duke allowed was almost as bad as could be; nor could he see the remedy, if the upper and middle ranks would not stir. But all," he continued, with some sadness as well as indignation, "seem struck with panic--ourselves and all; and if the country is lost, it will be through our own cowardice. Everything," said he--"audacity and insolence on one side, and tameness on ours. We go to the House seemingly on purpose to be insulted; the Opposition know it, and act accordingly." I said, "I feared it was particularly so in the House of Commons, where the Ministerial bench, with the exception of Lord Castlereagh, seemed like victims."[42]

[42] Phipps's "Memoirs of Ward," vol. ii. p. 63.

The princ.i.p.al Ministers went in daily danger of their lives. Lord Sidmouth never drove out without a case of loaded pistols on the seat of the carriage, ready for instant use;[43] and when either of them was recognised in the public streets, he was sure to be greeted by groans and hisses, and sometimes with more formidable missiles.

[43] "Life," by Dean Pellew, vol. iii. p. 330.

The attempt to induce the Queen to adopt a more rational course, is here referred to:--

SIR BENJAMIN BLOOMFIELD TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Carlton House, June 20, 1820.

MY DEAR LORD,

As yet there is no certain information of the precise course to be taken by Mr. Wilberforce. I, however, collect that he has no intention to weaken the position of the Government, nor the basis, on the part of the King, upon which the late negotiation has broken off. The object, therefore, is to maintain that basis which was considered as the only safeguard to the preservation of all that's dear to man. To attain this there seems, under the present state of the public mind, no alternative but investigation, with as much publicity as the House can be induced to give to the question.

I need not reiterate to your Lordship the sense which is entertained of the affectionate attachment manifested by your Lordship in this most painful transaction.

With great respect, I have the honour to be,

My dear Lord,

Your Lordship's obliged and obedient humble Servant,

B. BLOOMFIELD.

But Caroline of Brunswick would not have been Caroline of Brunswick had she suffered this well-meant intervention to influence her purpose. The sad business, therefore, proceeded in the saddest possible way:--

LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

June 27, 1820.

All speculation is at fault in attempting to follow these daily changes of plans and operations.

Certainly, it is far more convenient and more becoming to let this matter be first investigated in the House of Lords. But how this is to be reconciled to the present state of the business in the House of Commons, it seems difficult to imagine; but by this time that difficulty will have been solved in one way or another, and I need not trouble myself about it.

As to popular impressions, the only way by which they can now be counteracted, is by bringing the matter as soon as possible into some regular form of proceeding.

What is to result from all this, it is impossible to conjecture; but he must be sanguine indeed who can hope that it will turn to good.

RIGHT HON. THOMAS GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Dropmore, June 28, 1820.

MY DEAR LORD B----,

When I came here I found an entire concurrence of opinion as to the extreme folly of Ministers pressing on the Secret Committee in the House of Lords, after they had pledged themselves in the House of Commons to bring forward a charge upon their own responsibility; I was therefore much gratified to see in your letter, just received, that if there was a question upon that subject, you should vote against the Secret Committee, though if the Committee were appointed, you might in that case continue your name upon it. The proceeding is become so odious and unpopular, that the general prejudice against it is in itself great ground of objection to it; and as the Ministers have already taken the charge upon their own responsibility, it seems now likely to answer no other end than that of furnishing to their adversaries a fund of clamour and of invective, on a topic by which, while Ministers gain nothing, they must lose much. But by this time the question must be already decided, and therefore it is useless to pursue it If the Committee is appointed, and if you do attend it, I am sure you will in that case feel the absolute necessity of your declining any confidential communication, either on foot or on horseback, with any person not upon that Commission, in reference to the business of it. Even the conversation of the table, and the ears of those who sit at it with you, must on every account be most cautiously guarded upon this peculiar topic. You must not start at these suggestions; you know the affectionate motives that prompt them; and nothing but the extreme importance of the nicest attention to them, under your particular position, could have called for them both from Lord G---- and me.

I would not unnecessarily prolong this letter, because you have enough to think of; but I feel confident that the more you reflect upon your own position, the more you must be confirmed in the persuasion that while, on the one hand, you have thought it necessary to withdraw from the Opposition, on the other hand, you will most effectually be enabled to support the const.i.tutional principles of the Monarchy by maintaining an absolute independence, and by taking care not to put yourself within the reach of the imputation of favouritism, which, once established against you, will render your means of real and effectual a.s.sistance useless, by discrediting your station in the country, and by depriving it of its best recommendation, its absolute independence.

It will be seen from the foregoing communication how extremely anxious were Lord Buckingham's uncles, at this crisis, that he should act with the utmost circ.u.mspection on every possible contingency.

THE MARQUIS WELLESLEY TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

MY DEAR LORD,

Many thanks for your note by Lord Ca.s.silis; I do not credit any of the rumours to which you refer. I believe that all is now quiet in those quarters. I understand that the Secret Committee is to meet in our House on Wednesday, and on its Report a Bill is to be introduced; in the Commons, a delay of ten days is to be proposed, for the purpose of waiting for our Bill. You have heard of the proceedings in our House to-night: a pet.i.tion from the Queen, praying against a Secret Committee, and for a delay of any proceedings, in order to enable her to collect her witnesses; Brougham and Denman called in and heard in support of the pet.i.tion, and the House adjourned until to-morrow, when Lord Grey is to make his motion for rescinding the order respecting the Secret Committee. When this motion is disposed of, Lord Liverpool will move that the Secret Committee shall meet on Wednesday. I cannot ascertain the temper of the House positively, but I perceive no alteration in it of any description.

Yours, my dear Lord, sincerely,

W.

LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Dropmore, July 2, 1820.

I am glad you are so near the end of your labours, though that end is to be the beginning of a fresh and very painful scene. I am clear, however, that in the state to which the matter is now brought, the course at last adopted was the only one which affords any hope of concluding it without the most alarming consequences.

And if the House of Lords manifests, as I trust it will, a temperate and truly judicial spirit in the conduct of the trial, I am sanguine enough to believe that much lost ground may still be recovered.

I am utterly at variance with Charles's notion, that such proceedings ought to commence in the House of Commons; and I am sure in this case it was of unspeakable importance that the matter should first undergo a judicial investigation, before it was brought any more under the cognizance of a body so liable to act on momentary impressions, in place of the settled rules and permanent principles of legal proceeding.

RIGHT HON. THOMAS GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Dropmore, July 5, 1820.

MY DEAR LORD B----,

I cannot help writing a line to say how well satisfied I am with the result which this post has brought us, and how glad I am that no secondary matter has been tacked on to that which is of primary interest. We neither of us can as yet collect by what precise course the matter is to be so charged as to give the proper notice so as to enable the party concerned to provide a reply. I should, of course, suppose that by this time the whole march of all the proceedings is foreseen and determined upon, if there was not such frequent occasion to remark that foresight and decision are much more frequently to be desired than to be found.

I should suppose that the Bill must contain specific charges, or that those charges must be communicated by a resolution of the House. What is most to be apprehended is that dexterous advocates may awaken new questions in so novel a proceeding, and may thereby prolong the discussion to a most inconvenient and dangerous length, by which this state of hazardous agitation of the public mind will be continued, and a feeling of commiseration will be excited by the length of the proceeding, although the prolongation of it will be owing more to the accused than to the accusers. You see every hour of every day that "the mountain" is dragging all that side of the house into an avowed party-protection, to be afforded before trial; that the answers to addresses are so many appeals made to the "soldiers and sailors;" and that the hypocritical lamentations over the ill-judged time of the Coronation, are indulged in for the obvious purpose of exciting the tumults which they affect to deprecate. All this is very disgusting, and not without real danger. I suppose your Committee, being now dissolved by its Report, you have nothing more to do in these odious abominations, which the Vice-Chancellor will probably have to manage.

LORD GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF BUCKINGHAM.

Dropmore, July 5, 1820.