The Creevey Papers
Lord Holland to Thomas Creevey, 19 January 1819
“St. James Square, 19th Jan., 1819.
“. . . I suspect that which you heard of the payment
of cash at the bank will not be fulfilled this year, tho’ an impression
has been made on the country by the executions for forgery, and on the great
body of retail traders by the forgeries themselves.* . . . Tierney moves on the subject on the 1st of
next Feby., and so changed is the opinion on the subject since you were among
us, that it is selected, and wisely selected, as the most popular question for
Opposition to begin with. The Annual Parliaments and Universal Suffrage men are
at a discount: Ministers worse than ever, and the Whigs, tho’ better than
I have remembered them for some years, far from being in a condition to lead
with any degree of certainty publick
* Between the suspension of cash payments by the Bank
in February, 1797, and February, 1818, three hundred and thirteen
persons were sentenced to death for forgery; whereas during the
fourteen years, 1783-96, preceding such suspension the convictions had
only been three in number. During the six years, 1812-18, no less than
131,361 notes, varying in value from £1 to £20, were detected as
forgeries on presentation for payment. |
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| 1819-20.] | LORD HOLLAND UPON THE SITUATION. | 293 |
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opinion and
confidence, though I think they are, of the three parties, that to which the
publick just now look most sanguinely for assistance in accomplishing their
object. What these objects are, it is difficult to conjecture or define, and
perhaps the very indistinctness of them will lead the publick to be
disappointed with parties and men. But that there is great expectation that
much can, ought and will be done in Parliament is clear beyond doubt, and
moreover that expectation, if uncertain and even impracticable in its
direction, is grounded on causes that lie too deep to be easily removed. . . .
There is a wonderful change in the feelings, opinions, condition, property and
relative state of the classes in society. The House of Commons hangs yet more
loosely upon parties, and certainly on the Ministerial party, than the last;
and the Ministers, exclusive of many grounds of dissension among themselves
(which are suspected, but may not be true),* are evidently aware and afraid of
the dispositions of the new Parliament. The Lords and Grooms of the Windsor
establishment have received notice to quit, and no notice of pensions. Some say
that they will muster an opposition to retrenchment in the Lords, which may
lead to a dispute between the two Houses. Had they any spirit or talent as well
as ill-humour, our Ultra’s might worry the Ministers on this subject not
a little; for what is more profligate than to resist all retrenchment at
Windsor during the Queen’s life, and on her death to abandon the establishment—so
necessary, as they contended, to his [the King’s] happiness? . . . Brougham is very accommodating, but not in such spirits as he
was. He feels (indeed who does not?) the loss of Romilly doubly as the session approaches. . . . That mad fellow
Verbyst promised to send over the Bipontine edition of
Plato and L’Enfant’s
Council of Pisa. He
received 144 franks for the first—so for the last. He wrote to say that
if he could not get the books, he would * Here speaks the old politician, wary from
experience. When was there ever a Ministry about which rumours of
internal dissension were not circulated and eagerly believed? In
Lord Liverpool’s Cabinet
the great question of Roman Catholic Emancipation continued to be
treated as an open one, and Ministers voted as they pleased. |
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| 294 | THE CREEVEY PAPERS | [Ch XIII. |
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return the money: he has done neither. I should prefer the
books. Pray see him and make him do one or other. . . .”
Henry Peter Brougham, first baron Brougham and Vaux (1778-1868)
Educated at Edinburgh University, he was a founder of the
Edinburgh
Review in which he chastised Byron's
Hours of Idleness; he
defended Queen Caroline in her trial for adultery (1820), established the London University
(1828), and was appointed lord chancellor (1830).
Jacques Lenfant (1661-1728)
French protestant divine who preached before Queen Anne in 1707.
Plato (427 BC-327 BC)
Athenian philosopher who recorded the teachings of his master Socrates in a series of
philosophical dialogues.
Sir Samuel Romilly (1757-1818)
Reformer of the penal code and the author of
Thoughts on Executive
Justice (1786); he was a Whig MP and Solicitor-General who died a suicide.
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.”
