The Creevey Papers
Lord Erskine to Thomas Creevey, 10 January 1811
“Reigate, Jany. 10, 1811.
“I send you the Act which you thought never could have
passed. . . . Lord Eldon told me he never
had heard of it and expressed his astonishment. He said that those gentlemen
who had served the King as foreign ministers at a period when the King had a
power by law to remunerate their services by a pension, if he chose to grant
it, had as good a right to it as he—the C[hancellor]—had to his
estate; and of that there can be no doubt.
“I observe Bankes has given notice to revive his Committee [on Public
Expenditure]. I have seen him, and he seems to justify his resolution; but
surely Martin and you, as lawyers, will not mix yourselves
as the author of the first ex post
facto law, touching the rights of subjects, that has ever
passed. . . . I really think that some step should be taken by those who, as
the friends of reform, ought to take care that it does not become odious.
“Bankes says
the act is Perceval’s, but I have
good authority for believing that Perceval would not
justify the ex post facto clause.
“Yours very sincerely,
Henry Bankes (1757-1834)
Of Kingston Lacy; educated at Westminster and Trinity College, Cambridge, he was Whig MP
for Corfe Castle (1780-1826).
Thomas Creevey (1768-1838)
Whig politician aligned with Charles James Fox and Henry Brougham; he was MP for Thetford
(1802-06, 1807-18) Appleby (1820-26) and Downton (1831-32). He was convicted of libel in
1813.
Thomas Erskine, first baron Erskine (1750-1823)
Scottish barrister who was a Whig MP for Portsmouth (1783-84, 1790-1806); after defending
the political radicals Hardy, Tooke, and Thelwall in 1794 he was lord chancellor in the
short-lived Grenville-Fox administration (1806-07).
Spencer Perceval (1762-1812)
English statesman; chancellor of the exchequer (1807), succeeded the Duke of Portland as
prime minister (1809); he was assassinated in the House of Commons.
John Scott, first earl of Eldon (1751-1838)
Lord chancellor (1801-27); he was legal counsel to the Prince of Wales and an active
opponent of the Reform Bill.
