The Creevey Papers
Thomas Creevey to Elizabeth Ord, 17 February 1827
“Feb. 17.
“. . . Here’s a business for you. Liverpool has had a paralytic stroke, so says
Croker; but Westmorland only admits that he is not well.
However I have no doubt Croker’s account is the true
one. . . .
* Lieut.-General Benjamin
Bloomfield, R.A., was successively gentleman-attendant,
marshal, and chief equerry and private secretary to George IV. as Prince of Wales and Prince
Regent. He succeeded Sir John
McMahon in 1817 as keeper of the privy purse, went as
Minister to Stockholm in 1824, and was created an Irish peer in 1825.
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| 106 | THE CREEVEY PAPERS | [Ch. V. |
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It is quite true about Ld.
Liverpool. He had a fit of apoplexy at ten this morning. He is a
little better, but politically dead. Canning is better, but has some extraordinary violent pain over
one eye, nor will he be the better for this new excitement. He’ll be beat
as well as Liverpool. . . . Did you ever see a more
disgraceful thing under all the circumstances of the country than this plunder
of £9000 a year for our Billy,* after
having got £3000 a year by the Duke of
York’s death. Who would be in a place, without the
possibility of stopping such villainy? Yet the division was respectable,
altho’ Mother Cole the leader and
Jack Calcraft and others did vote
for the job. Holland was under the gallery
all the time, canvassing openly in the most disgusting manner on behalf of his
dear and illustrious connection.”
Benjamin Bloomfield, first baron Bloomfield (1768-1846)
After serving in the 10th Hussars he was chief equerry, clerk marshal, and private
secretary to the Prince Regent; he was MP for Plymouth (1812-17) and raised to the Irish
peerage in 1825.
John Calcraft the younger (1765-1831)
The illegitimate son of John Calcraft (d. 1772), he was educated at Harrow and Eton and
was a member of the Whig Club and MP for Wareham (1800-06, 1818-31), Rochester (1806-18),
and Dorset (1831). He cut his throat after betraying the Tories and voting for the Reform
Bill.
George Canning (1770-1827)
Tory statesman; he was foreign minister (1807-1809) and prime minister (1827); a
supporter of Greek independence and Catholic emancipation.
John Wilson Croker (1780-1857)
Secretary of the Admiralty (1810) and writer for the
Quarterly
Review; he edited an elaborate edition of Boswell's
Life of
Johnson (1831).
John Fane, tenth earl of Westmorland (1759-1841)
Tory peer; he was lord lieutenant of Ireland (1789-94) and lord privy seal (1798-1827).
Charles Macfarlane described him as “proud, punctilious, starch, and grim, expecting
more deference and peer-worship than he always obtained.”
Henry Richard Fox, third baron Holland (1773-1840)
Whig politician and literary patron; Holland House was for many years the meeting place
for reform-minded politicians and writers. He also published translations from the Spanish
and Italian;
Memoirs of the Whig Party was published in 1852.
Frederick Augustus, Duke of York (1763-1827)
He was commander-in-chief of the Army, 1798-1809, until his removal on account of the
scandal involving his mistress Mary Anne Clarke.
Sir John McMahon, first baronet (1754 c.-1817)
Irish politician who was MP for Aldeburgh (1802-12); he was a friend of Sheridan and
secretary to the Prince Regent.
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.”
