“. . . There is much truth in your complaints of the present state of public affairs. But how is the evil to be corrected? There is a want of popular feelings in many individuals of the party. Others are exasperated with the unjust and uncandid treatment they have received, and are every day receiving, from the modern Reformers. Another set are violent anti-Reformers, and alarmed at every speech or measure that has the least tendency towards reform. There is but one measure on which the party are unanimously agreed, and no one man in the House of Commons to whom they look up with that deference and respect to his opinion which is necessary to have concert and co-operation in a party. . . . It is a state of things, however, which cannot possibly last. Before next meeting of Parliament, the Prince must either have changed his Ministers, or he must lay his account with systematic opposition to his government. Even though the old leaders of the party* should be unwilling to break with him, they will not be able to prevent their friends from declaring open hostility against his government. If such a rupture should take place, many would of course desert the party; but those who remained, agreeing better with one another in their opinions, and consisting of more independent men, would in fact be a more formidable opposition than the present. . . . ”]

“. . . I wish you would come to town and let us have a few mischievous discussions. . . . A report is very prevalent that the siege of Badajos is raised, previous to another fight. I daresay this will prove true. . . . I am assured that the Ministers have private letters from Welln., preparing them for a retreat.”

“. . . Prinny’s attachment to the present Ministers, his supporting their Bank Note Bill, and his dining with them, must give them all hopes of being continued, as I have no doubt they will. . . . The folly and villainy of this Prinny is certainly beyond anything. I was forcibly struck with this as I passed Perceval’s* kitchen just now, and saw four man cooks and twice as many maids preparing dinner for the Prince of Wales and Regent—he whose wife Perceval set up against him in open battle—who, at the age of 50, could not be trusted by the sd. Perceval with the

* The Right Hon. Spencer Perceval, became Prime Minister on the death of the Duke of Portland in October, 1809, and was assassinated by Bellingham in the lobby of the House of Commons, 11th. May, 1812.

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unrestrained government of these realms during his father’s incapacity—he who, on his last birthday at Brighton, declared to his numerous guests that it was his glory to have bred up his daughter in the principles of Mr. Fox—he who, in this very year, declared by letter to the said Mr. Perceval, and afterwards had the letter published as an apology for his conduct, that he took him as his father’s Minister, but that his own heart was in another quarter—by God! this is too much. We shall see whether he does dine there or not, or whether he will send word at 5, as he did to poor Kinnaird, that he can’t come. I have been walking with Kinnaird, and this excuse that came too late from Prinny, the Duke of York and the Duke of Clarence has evidently made a deep impression upon his lordship’s mind against the Bank Note Bill, and everything else in which the Regent takes a part.”

“July 12th, 1811.—. . . We are prorogued till the 22nd of next month only, but the general opinion is the King will die before that day, and then of course Parliament meets again. Publick opinion, or rather the opinion of Parliamentary politicians, is that, in the event of the King’s death, Lords Grenville and Grey will be passed over and the present ministers continued, with the addition of some of the Prince’s private friends, such as Lords Moira and Hutchinson and Yarmouth and old Sheridan. The latter is evidently very uneasy at the present state of things. He sat with me till 5 o’clock on Sunday morning at Brooks’s—was very drunk—told me I had better get into the same boat with him in politicks—but at the same time abused Yarmouth so unmercifully that one quite perceived he thought his (Yarmouth’s) boat was the best of the two. Apparently nothing can be so base as the part the Prince is acting, or so likely to ruin him. . . .

“Brighton, Oct. 30th.—The Prince Regent came here last night with the Duke of Cumberland and Lord Yarmouth. Everybody has been writing their names at the Pavilion this morning, but I don’t hear

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of anybody dining there to-day. . . . I presume we shall be asked there, altho’ I went to town on purpose to vote against his appointment of his brother the Duke of York to the Commandership-in-Chief of the Army.

Oct. 31st.—We have got an invitation from the Regent for to-night and are going. I learn from Sir Philip Francis, who dined there yesterday, the Prince was very gay. . . . There were twenty at dinner—no politicks—but still Francis says he thinks, from the language of the equerries and understrappers, that the campaign in Portugal and Lord Wellington begin to be out of fashion with the Regent. I think so too, from a conversation I had with one of the Gyps to-day—Congreve, author of the rocketts, and who is going, they say, to have a Rockett Corps.* He affects to sneer rather at Wellington’s military talents. The said Congreve was at the same school with me at Hackney, and afterwards at Cambridge with me; after that, a brother lawyer with me at Gray’s Inn. Then he became an editor of a newspaper . . . written in favour of Lord Sidmouth’s administration, till he had a libel in his paper against Admiral Berkeley, for which he was prosecuted and fined £1000. Then he took to inventing rocketts for the more effectual destruction of mankind, for which he became patronised by the Prince of Wales, and here he is—a perfect Field Marshall in appearance. About 12 years ago he wrote to me to enquire the character of a mistress who had lived with me some time before, which said mistress he took upon my recommendation, and she lives with him now, and was, when I knew her, cleverer than all the equerries and their Master put together.

“Nov. 1st.—We were at the Pavilion last night—Mrs. Creevey’s three daughters and myself—and had a very pleasant evening. We found there Lord and Lady Charlemont, Marchioness of Downshire and

* Afterwards Sir William Congreve, Bart., M.P., F.R.S. Wellington disapproved of Congreve’s invention when it was first brought to his notice. “I don’t want to set fire to any town, and I don’t know any other use of rockets.” But he changed his opinion after witnessing their effect in action at the passage of the Adour in 1814.

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old Lady Sefton. About half-past nine, which might be a quarter of an hour after we arrived, the Prince came out of the dining-room. He was in his best humour, bowed and spoke to all of us, and looked uncommonly well, tho’ very fat. He was in his full Field Marshal’s uniform. He remained quite as cheerful and full of fun to the last—half-past twelve—asked after Mrs. Creevey’s health, and nodded and spoke when he passed us. The Duke of Cumberland was in the regimentals of his own Hussars,* looked really hideous, everybody trying to be rude to him—not standing when he came near them. The officers of the Prince’s regiment had all dined with him, and looked very ornamental monkeys in their red breeches with gold fringe and yellow boots. The Prince’s band played as usual all the time in the dining-room till 12, when the pages and footmen brought about iced champagne punch, lemonade and sandwiches. I found more distinctly than before, from conversation with the Gyps, that Wellington and Portugal are going down.

“The Prince looked much happier and more unembarrassed by care than I have seen him since this time six years. This time five years ago, when he was first in love with Lady Hertford, I have seen the tears run down his cheeks at dinner, and he has been dumb for hours, but now that he has the weight of the empire upon him, he is quite alive. . . . I had a very good conversation with Lord Charlemont about Ireland, and liked him much. He thinks the Prince has already nearly ruined himself in Irish estimation by his conduct to the Catholics.

“Nov. 2nd.—We were again at the Pavilion last night. . . . The Regent sat in the Musick Room almost all the time between Viotti, the famous violin player, and Lady Jane Houston, and he went on for hours beating his thighs the proper time for the band, and singing out aloud, and looking about for accompaniment from Viotti and Lady Jane. It was curious sight to see a Regent thus employed, but he seemed

* This was a German volunteer regiment, which disgraced itself at Waterloo by deserting the field at the very crisis of the French cavalry attack.

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in high good humour. . . . There is nothing like a Minister about him, nor yet any of his old political friends or advisers—no Sheridan, Moira or Hutchinson. Yarmouth and the Duke of Cumberland are always on the spot, and no doubt are his real advisers; but in publick they are mute, and there is no intercourse between the Regent and them. Sir Philip Francis is the only one of his old set here, but he is not here on the Prince’s invitation, nor in his suite, and is evidently slighted. Tom Stepney and I last night calculated that Francis and Lord Keith made out 150 years of age between them, and yet they are both here upon their preferment with the Regent—the first, one of the cleverest men one knows, and the other, one of the richest. What a capital libel on mankind! Francis said to me to-day:—‘Well, I am invited to dinner to-day, and that is perhaps all I shall get after two and twenty years’ service.’ What infernal folly for such a person to have put himself in the way of making so humiliating a confession.

“Nov. 3rd.—. . . I have heard of no one observation the Regent has made get out of the commonest slip-slop, till to-day Baron Montalembert told me this morning that, when he dined there on Friday with the staff of this district, the Prince said he had been looking over the returns of the Army in Portugal that morning, and that there were of British 16,500 sick in Hospitals in Lisbon, and 4,500 sick in the field—in all, 21,000. It might be indiscreet in the Prince to make this statement from official papers, but he must have been struck with it, and I hope rightly, so as to make him think of peace. . . .

“Nov. 5th.—We were at the Prince’s both last night and the night before (Sunday). . . . The Regent was again all night in the Musick Room, and not content with presiding over the Band, but actually singing, and very loud too. Last night we were reduced to a smaller party than ever, and Mrs. Creevey was well enough to go with me and her daughters for the first time. Nothing could be kinder than the Prince’s manner to her. When he first saw her upon coming into the drawing-room, he went up and took hold of both her hands, shook them heartily,

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made her sit down directly, asked her all about her health, and expressed his pleasure at seeing her look so much better than he expected. Upon her saying she was glad to see him looking so well, he said gravely he was getting old and blind. When she said she was glad on account of his health that he kept his rooms cooler than he used to do, he said he was quite altered in that respect—that he used to be always chilly, and was now never so—that he never had a fire even in his bedroom, and slept with one blanket and sheet only. . . .

“Nov. 6th.—We were again at the Pavilion last night . . . the party being still smaller than ever, and the Prince, according to his custom, being entirely occupied with his musick.

“Nov. 9th.—Yesterday was the last day of the Prince’s stay at this place, and, contrary to my expectation, I was invited to dinner. We did not sit down till half-past seven, tho’ I went a little past six. The only person I found was Tom Stepney: then came Generals Whetham, Hammond and Cartwright, Lords Charlemont, Yarmouth and Ossulston, Sir Philip Francis, Congreve, Bloomfield and others of the understrappers, and finally the Regent and the Duke of Cumberland. We were about sixteen altogether. The Prince was very merry and seemed very well. He began to me with saying very loud that he had sent for Mrs. Creevey’s physic to London. . . . At dinner I sat opposite to him, next to Ossulston, and we were the only persons there at all marked by opposition to his appointment of his brother the Duke of York, or to the Government generally, since he has been Regent. He began an old joke at dinner with me about poor Fonblanque, with whom I had dined six years ago at the Pavilion, . . . [when] the Prince and we all got drunk, and he was always used to say it was the merriest day he ever spent. However, it was soon dropped yesterday.

“The Duke of Cumberland and Yarmouth never spoke. The Prince was describing a pleasant dinner he had had in London lately, and was going over each man’s name as he sat in his order at the table, and giving to each his due in the pleasantry of the day. Coming to Col. [Sir Willoughby] Gordon he said:

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‘To be sure, there’s not much humour in him!’ upon which Ossulston and I gave both a kind of involuntary laugh, thinking the said Gordon a perfect impostor, from our recollection of his pompous, impudent evidence before the House of Commons in the Duke of York’s case; but this chuckling of ours brought from the Prince a very elaborate panegyric upon Gordon which was meant, most evidently, as a reproof to Ossulston and myself for quizzing him.

“We did not drink a great deal, and were in the drawing-room by half-past nine or a little after; no more state, I think, than formerly—ten men out of livery of one kind or other, and four or five footmen. At night everybody was there and the whole closed about one, and so ended the Regent’s visit to Brighton.”

“. . . I suppose you have heard that Mr. Canning has entirely disbanded his little Troop. He dismissed them, desiring they would no longer consider him as the leader of any Party in the House of Commons. Various reasons are assigned for it. C. Ellis says that a gentleman whom he did not name, but who is supposed to be W[illegible] suspected an immediate negociation with Ministers, and implied that he was the mouthpiece of the party; upon which Canning, in a moment of pettishness, set them all adrift. There are various conjectures, but the only fact is that they are released from their allegiance. Ward says it is hard to serve a year without wages, but he hopes to get a good character from his last place. The story is that Huskisson has been off some time and is coming in. . . . All Canning’s friends are very sore at this last move; but more because the chief sensation it excites

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is laughter, and tho’ jokers themselves, they cannot endure any ridicule against their own lot. . . . The Regent went to the Dandy ball last night, and only spoke to M. Pierrepont, one of the four who invited. He fairly turned his back upon the others. He sent a message to Sr. Harry Mildmay, saying he wished to speak to him; who replied that it must be a mistake, because His R. H. had seen him and took no notice whatever of him. . . .”