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The Creevey Papers
Thomas Creevey to Eleanor Creevey, 2 June 1812
INTRODUCTION & INDEXES
DOCUMENT INFORMATION
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Introduction
Vol. I. Contents
Ch. I: 1793-1804
Ch. II: 1805
Ch. III: 1805
Ch. IV: 1806-08
Ch. V: 1809
Ch. VI: 1810
Ch. VII: 1811
Ch. VIII: 1812
Ch. IX: 1813-14
Ch X: 1814-15
Ch XI: 1815-16
Ch XII: 1817-18
Ch XIII: 1819-20
Vol. II. Contents
Ch I: 1821
Ch. II: 1822
Ch. III: 1823-24
Ch. IV: 1825-26
Ch. V: 1827
Ch. VI: 1827-28
Ch. VII: 1828
Ch. VIII: 1829
Ch. IX: 1830-31
Ch. X: 1832-33
Ch. XI: 1833
Ch. XII: 1834
Ch XIII: 1835-36
Ch XIV: 1837-38
Index
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“Richmond Hill, June 2nd.

“Very large paper this, my precious, but we must see what we can make of it. As the day is so charming and the country so inviting, I have resolved to stay over the day, and accordingly my cloaths have gone to be washed. I leave, therefore, this eventful day in London to all the heart-rending anxieties of politicians, who, I think, have as hopeful a prospect of disappointment as ever politician had. I cannot bring myself to regret that I am not to serve under

* Not the Scottish peer of that name, but the eldest son of the 6th Earl of Granard by a daughter of the 1st Earl of Moira. He was father of the present Lord Granard.

162 THE CREEVEY PAPERS [Ch. VIII.
Marquis Wellesley or Mr. Canning. . . . We shall now see what this singular association of statesmen will be able to do. Canning is for Orders in Council, Grenville considers them as the source of all the existing national distress. Grenville thinks the country incapable of sustaining the expenditure of the war: Wellesley thinks such war to be starved by our penury. Grey is against all secret influence; Prinney says he will part with his life rather than his household. Prinney, Wellesley and Canning have each betrayed everybody they have had to do with—pretty companions for a man of honor like Grey! . . . Prinney will not strike yet to Grey and Grenville without conditions to which they will not submit. What is to be done, too, on minor subjects? What is Jack Horner to do with his notice of motion on McMahon’s salary, or how is Bankes’s bill to be permitted to pass, which, besides abolishing patent places of all kinds as they become vacant, goes immediately to strike off our Paymaster-Genl., our Postmaster, our Mustermaster, &c., &c., &c., all of which said places so to be abolished are doubtless looked up to with great affection and anxiety by the young friends and by the old Whigs, by the Vernons, Wards and McDonalds, &c., or by the Ponsonbys, Freemantles, &c., &c. I flatter myself both Tierney and Huskisson are to be Cabinet Ministers, which, considering that Burke and Sheridan, Dunning and [illegible] used to be considered as not elevated enough in rank to be admitted into such high company, will be well enough.

“I must, upon the whole, condemn Grey as acting most unwisely in putting himself forward as a candidate for power under all the circumstances of the country. He would have done much better to wait till Grenville’s death or some other event dissolved the fatal connection with that family. He ought to have let Wellesley and Canning perish in their own intrigues, and he ought to have permitted the old and feeble Government to conduct the country so near its ruin that men could no longer doubt either its condition or the authors of its calamities. In such a case, which would have inevitably arrived, the country and the Crown would have called for his assistance, and in such case only, my belief is, could he have done
1812.]LORD GREY STANDS ALOOF.163
permanent good to the country with honor to himself. . . . Grenville I consider a dead man, and Prinney, Wellesley and Canning are both madmen and villains. . . . In the meantime, we must have sport. Amongst other things, we must have the Bank made to pay us in specie . . . which would give you and me £700 per annum more than we have. This would be something like, so we shall see what we shall see.”