The Creevey Papers
Thomas Creevey to Elizabeth Ord, 13 March 1832
“March 13th (my birthday).
“We had a great party in Downing Street last night,
the Tories being at least 3 to 1 to us Whigs. I had a most agreeable
conversation with Lord Grey, quite at his
ease in a corner, and I beg to record the substance of part of it, that we may
see how his predictions correspond with the event. I asked him now he felt
about this Bill of his—did he feel confident he could carry the 2nd
reading?—‘Oh certainly.
* Clerk to the Board of Ordnance. |
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| 242 | THE CREEVEY PAPERS | [Ch. X. |
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We shall be able to carry Schedule A—to give
members to the great towns, and to carry the £10 qualification clause without
any alteration. I said I trusted he was not too sanguine about it, for that I
never could believe it till I saw it; but that, if he proved to be right, he
need not care about the loss of Schedule B or anything else, because a new
Parliament would soon settle everything. . . . That he is under delusion in his
expectations, I cannot yet bring myself to doubt. . . . You know that
Earl Grey is 68 this day, and his faithful Treasurer
[Creevey] 64. I reckon it a great
honor to have been born on the same day of the year with him.”
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.
Charles Grey, second earl Grey (1764-1845)
Whig statesman and lover of the Duchess of Devonshire; the second son of the first earl
(d. 1807), he was prime minister (1831-34).
