The “Pope” of Holland House
John Whishaw to Thomas Smith, 30 March 1822
March 30, 1822.
The town is occupied by a duel in Scotland between Mr. Stuart, a zealous Whig, and Sir Alex. Boswell, the son of Dr. Johnson’s biographer, in which the
latter was mortally wounded. It was occasioned by various libels which have
appeared in the Scotch journals (the Beacon and Centinel) which have been
established on the model of John Bull. Sir Alex., who was a great
Tory and had an unfortunate talent for lampooning, wrote very much in those
journals, and is supposed to have contributed, when in London last year, very
largely to John Bull.
It is certain that he was well received at the Pavilion, and was
made a baronet at the Coronation. He had libelled so many people that, after the
late detection, he could not possibly escape a duel. Lord Archibald Hamilton and Lord
Duncan, who had been much calumniated in the Scotch papers, had
determined to challenge him; and Lord Duncan was actually on his way to Scotland
for the purpose.
Canning’s1
notice of motion was a great surprise upon the House, and most of all on his late
colleagues.
1 Canning was again Foreign Secretary. On the 29th he moved
for leave to bring in a Bill to repeal the Act of Charles II. debarring
Roman Catholic Peers from exercising their right of sitting and voting in
the House of Lords. Plunkett said that he had not been
able to make up his mind on the subject. When pressed by Tierney on this important subject, he
repeated that “he was not yet able to bring his mind to any
definite conclusion.” |
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| The Edgeworths |
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Plunkett made a wretched figure, and has
lost character greatly by his conduct since his acceptance of office. Lord Wellesley, too, seems unlikely to be a gainer.
James Boswell (1740-1795)
Scottish man of letters, author of
The Life of Samuel Johnson
(1791).
George Canning (1770-1827)
Tory statesman; he was foreign minister (1807-1809) and prime minister (1827); a
supporter of Greek independence and Catholic emancipation.
Lord Archibald Hamilton (1770-1827)
The second son of Archibald, ninth duke of Hamilton (d. 1819); a Whig MP for Lanarkshire
from 1802, he was a supporter of Charles James Fox and radical causes.
James Stuart of Dunearn (1775-1849)
Scottish politician and book-collector who killed Alexander Boswell in a duel over
slanderous material in the
Glasgow Sentinel; he was editor of
The Courier in the 1830s.
George Tierney (1761-1830)
Whig MP and opposition leader whose political pragmatism made him suspect in the eyes of
his party; he fought a bloodless duel with Pitt in 1798. He is the “Friend of Humanity” in
Canning and Frere's “The Needy Knife-Grinder.”
Richard Wellesley, first marquess Wellesley (1760-1842)
The son of Garret Wesley (1735-1781) and elder brother of the Duke of Wellington; he was
Whig MP, Governor-general of Bengal (1797-1805), Foreign Secretary (1809-12), and
Lord-lieutenant of Ireland (1821-28); he was created Marquess Wellesley in 1799.
The Beacon. (1821). A Tory newspaper partly funded by Sir Walter Scott that ceased publication after its
financial backers objected to the scandals its contributors were raising.
Glasgow Sentinel. (1821-1823). A Tory newspaper edited by Robert Alexander and William Murray Borthwick.
John Bull. (1820-1892). A scurrilous Tory weekly newspaper edited by Theodore Hook.
