The Creevey Papers
Henry Brougham to Thomas Creevey, [July] 1814
“Monday.
“. . . Mrs.
Prinny comes into court this day. She sent St. Leger to see the Ld. Chamberlain about St. Paul’s, who wd. not see him. A
letter then was written to which she got an answer last night. She was told
there was no place for her. So the game is alive once more. Sefton is in high spirits, and Sam and Brougham are to see her this day, and get, if possible, a
letter or message from her upon the subject, setting forth this new indignity,
and I trust spurning the money upon such terms. So we shall recover from the
scrape she placed us all in. . . . What think you of Cochrane setting all at defiance, refusing to solicit a pardon
from the pillory, maintaining his innocence, &c.?—that it is the
sentence, not the infliction that he minds; and as for pardon, he will die
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| 1813-14.] | LORD COCHRANE’S CASE. | 203 |
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sooner than ask it.*
Burdett takes the field for him. I
find many people take the field for him as to innocence, or at least have
doubts, tho’ the doctrine is that the conviction is a sufficient reason
to send him back to his constituents.”
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).
Sir Francis Burdett, fifth baronet (1770-1844)
Whig MP for Westminster (1807-1837) who was imprisoned on political charges in 1810 and
again in 1820; in the 1830s he voted with the Conservatives.
Queen Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1768-1821)
Married the Prince of Wales in 1795 and separated in 1796; her husband instituted
unsuccessful divorce proceedings in 1820 when she refused to surrender her rights as
queen.
John Cartwright (1740-1824)
Political reformer who advocated the abolition of slavery and the emancipation of Greece;
he was the brother of the poet and inventor Edmund Cartwright.
Thomas Cochrane, tenth earl of Dundonald (1775-1860)
After an adventurous naval career in the Napoleonic wars he was caught up in financial
scandal and dismissed; he secured the independence of Chile and Peru (1819-22) but was less
successful as admiral of the Greek navy (1827-28); he was MP (1806, expelled 1814) and
succeeded to the earldom in 1831.
Anthony Butler St. Leger (1758 c.-1821)
The son of Maj. Gen. John St. Leger and younger brother of John Hayes St. Leger, the
rakish friend of the Prince of Wales; he was a companion of Queen Caroline called to
testify at her trial.
Samuel Whitbread (1764-1815)
The son of the brewer Samuel Whitbread (1720-96); he was a Whig MP for Bedford, involved
with the reorganization of Drury Lane after the fire of 1809; its financial difficulties
led him to suicide.
