“Alas poor Cole!* I had always a misgiving she would get her death from me, and last night I fear the presentiment was nearly verified. It was a great deal too contemptible to hear the leader of the Whigs, with this damnable Bill of Pains and Penalties before his eyes, meet a question of adjournment with the ridiculous amendment of a shorter adjournment, and without uttering a syllable upon the Bill itself or the circumstances of the time. I was compelled, therefore, to take the field, as no one else seemed inclined to shew. I had not pronounced two sentences before one and all of his troops deserted him. The roar that resounded from every part of the benches behind him (which were very full) was as extraordinary to me as it must have been agreeable to him. . . . As to the speech itself, being right and absolutely necessary to be spoken were its principal merits. I lost my head in the middle of it, and thought I should have been obliged to sit down, tho’ I never was so cheered during any speech I have made in Parliament. Sefton overheard a conversation between Cole and Duncannon at night, in which the latter said—‘Had you come to town a day earlier, an arrangement might have been made, and all
* Note by Mr. Creevey.—“The reason I call Tierney by the name of ‘Cole’ is this. It used to be his constant practice in making his speeches in Parliament to bear particular testimony to his own character—to his being a ‘plain man,’ ‘ an honest man,’ or something of that kind. Having heard him at this work several times, it occurred to me that he had formed himself upon that distinguished model Mrs. Cole, an old lady in one of Foote’s farces, who presided over a female establishment in Covent Garden. Mrs. Cole was always indulging herself with flattering references to her own character.—‘For fourteen years,’ said she, ‘have I lived in the Garden, and no one has said black was the white of my eye. For fourteen years, did I say? Aye, for sixteen years come Lammas Day have I paid scot and lot in the parish of St. Bride’s, and no one has said, “Mrs. Cole, why did you so?” excepting twice I was taken before Mr. Justice Duval, and three times to the Round House.’ Brougham was for many years quite enamoured of the resemblance of the portrait. He christened Abercromby Young Cole, and the whole shabby party ‘the Coles;’ but he has become much more prudent and respectful of late.” |
| 328 | THE CREEVEY PAPERS | [Ch XIII. |
