The Creevey Papers
Thomas Creevey to James Currie, 22 March 1804
“22 March, 1804.
“. . . With respect to the debate . . . nothing could
be . . . so unlike a case against Lord St.
Vincent: I really doubted the fidelity of my ears all the time I
listened to him (Fox), he was so very
unlike himself. His first reply was a great and striking display of his powers,
but the charge against the Admiralty derived little support or elucidation from
it. I confess I felt a wish that Fox would not have taken
the part he did, because I cannot reconcile it to my notions either of private
friendship or parliamentary justice to put a ![]()
| 1793-1804.] | THE BONDS OF PARTY. | 25 |
![]()
man upon his trial, because I am sure he is
innocent. There were, however, most powerful arguments urged by
Fox that in a great measure reconciled me to the vote
I gave, and indeed had they been much less and much weaker, I should most
readily have gone with him. A Leader of a Party has a most difficult part
imposed upon him on such an occasion. It is impossible he can be alone
influenced by the abstract question of merit or demerit of the motion but of
course must calculate in every way upon the effects of
his vote. As a private of a party there is nothing so fatal to publick
principle, or one’s own private respect and consequence, as acting for
oneself upon great questions. I am more passionately attached every day to
Party. I am certain that without it nothing can be done, and I am more certain
from every day’s experience that the leader of the party to which I
belong is as superior in talents, in enlightened views, in publick and private
virtues, to all other party leaders as one human being can be to another. He
must therefore give many, many votes that I may think are wrong, before I vote
against him or not with him.
“I scarcely know an earthly blessing I would purchase
at the expense of those sensations I feel towards the incomparable Charley!”
Charles James Fox (1749-1806)
Whig statesman and the leader of the Whig opposition in Parliament after his falling-out
with Edmund Burke.
John Jervis, earl of St. Vincent (1735-1823)
English Naval officer who defeated the Spanish fleet off Cape St. Vincent in 1797 and was
first lord of the Admiralty 1801-04.
