The Creevey Papers
Lord Holland to Thomas Creevey, [February? 1818]
[No date.]
“I have put off answering your very entertaining
letter and interesting communication to the last moment, and unfortunately to a
moment when I am full of business—trying to get up a Middlesex meeting
and to bring the great guns, called Dukes, to bear upon the question of Habeas
Corpus. That cursed business of Reform of Parliament is always in one’s
way. With one great man nothing is good unless that be the principal object,
and with another nothing must be done if a word of Reform is even glanced at in
requisition, petition or discussion. . . .
* The 3rd Earl
Fitzwilliam sat in the House of Commons as
Viscount Milton from 1807 to 1833. He was
strongly opposed at first to parliamentary reform; but became one of
its most ardent advocates, though his family held a number of pocket
boroughs. † Peel
was elected member for Oxford in this year, a seat which Canning had greatly coveted for
himself. |
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| 264 | THE CREEVEY PAPERS | [Ch XII. |
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They say the Prince has
left off his stays, and that Royalty, divested of its usual supports, makes a
bad figure. . . . I wish I had politics, tittle-tattle or book-news to send
you. Of the latter, Llandaff’s
memoirs are empty, but cursed provoking to the Court and the Church. Franklin’s life will be
curious, both for its information and style. Rob Roy is said to be good, but falls off at
the end. . . .”
George Canning (1770-1827)
Tory statesman; he was foreign minister (1807-1809) and prime minister (1827); a
supporter of Greek independence and Catholic emancipation.
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.
Richard Watson, bishop of Llandaff (1737-1816)
Regius Professor of Divinity, Trinity College, Cambridge and bishop of Llandaff (1782);
he published
Apology for Christianity (1776) in response to Gibbon,
and
Apology for the Bible (1796) in response to Paine.
