Memoirs of the Court of George IV. 1820-1830 Part 45

I should judge from the language of Tierney on general points, that he thinks the Government stronger and more likely to hold a firm and vigorous language and line of conduct by the introduction of Canning, than it was last year. I believe the latter is to name Frederick Lamb[100] his Under-Secretary, and Lord Clanwilliam to succeed Frederick Lamb.

The appointment of Lord Amherst, taking all things into consideration, is, I believe, as good a nomination as could have taken place; and as far as it regards our Board, I should think the best, for he has no intrigue, and will act straightforward with us.

Canning is gone down to Walmer, and you may rest a.s.sured that it will very soon end in his leading Lord Liverpool; if he can persuade him to get rid of Vansittart, it would be the best exercise he could make of such an influence.

Ever, my dear Duke,

Most a.s.suredly yours,

W. H. FREMANTLE.

Of course you know Sir Henry Wellesley is named to succeed Lord Londonderry; better accounts of the Duke of Wellington's health.

[100] Afterwards, in 1839, created Lord Beauvale; he was for some years Envoy-Extraordinary and Minister-Plenipotentiary at Vienna.

THE RIGHT HON. CHARLES W. WYNN TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.

East India Office, Nov. 6, 1822.

MY DEAR B----,

I thought it right to take down the approbation of Lord Amherst's appointment to Brighton myself on Sunday, and was most graciously received.

He [the King] complained much of flying gout, with which he had been extremely unwell during the last week, but was in excellent spirits, and kept me sitting with him more than an hour. He was lame, and moved with difficulty, and told me (at nine P.M.) that he had only been up for two hours. Not a soul in the palace but Lord Conyngham, Lord Francis, and Sir William K----n. His face was deeper sunk in the lines than I have yet seen it, but the colour was better than I expected--a dark brown, instead of the dead, tallowy colour which I have sometimes seen.

The Speaker has made the most stupid and unpardonable mess at Cambridge ever made by man. He wrote to Lord Liverpool, who answered him that he thought his situation created much difficulty, and advised his consulting Lord Sidmouth and Lord Colchester, both of them having, when in the Chair, been intended candidates for Oxford. He asked neither, but talked to the Attorney and Solicitor-General and his own clerks, declared himself a candidate without ever communicating with a single Minister in the House of Commons. As soon as I found that he had declared, I was convinced of the impossibility of his being re-elected Speaker if he vacated his seat, after the decision of the House in 1801 in favour of Pitt's objection to C. Dundas, and therefore went to Canning, who begged me to write to Liverpool, who in return wished Canning to write to the Speaker about it. Canning begged me to go to Peel.

There I met the Speaker, who had not in the least adverted to this difficulty, but allowed that it would be unreasonable to expect the Government to fight his battle against such an authority, and finally agreed to retire from the contest!

Fremantle tells me that he is quite in the hands of a sister of Lady B----, with whom he pa.s.ses all his time, so I suppose Miss H---- wears the willow.

Some suspicion had been excited by the numerous stacks burnt in Ireland, some of them the property of persons by no means obnoxious to the Rockites. A search was therefore made in a small district, in which no less than thirty were found prepared for the flames, the wheat having been threshed out and the straw re-stacked for the convenience of charging the barony for the bonfire.

You will see that Wellesley has, on the authority of the law officers, taken steps to prevent the dressing up Old Glorious on Monday at Dublin. I shall be curious to see the result, which I expect will be only some offensive speeches in the Quarterly a.s.sembly, &c.

Lloyd of Aston, after declaring himself a candidate for Shrops.h.i.+re, has again retired. The only candidates now are Childe and mad Cresset Pelham. I trust that the former will carry it, and that then B. Thompson will come in on Watkins's interest for Wenlock.

Ever affectionately yours,

C. W. W.

THE RIGHT HON. CHARLES W. WYNN TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.

East India Office, Nov. 12, 1822.

MY DEAR B----,

There is little at present going on, as everything is reserved till the latter end of this week, when we are to have ten days of Cabinets to consider the various subjects for the next session.

Among others we have the promise of a despatch from Lord Wellesley, on the subject of t.i.thes, by the 15th. C---- is civil (which for him is a good deal), but I cannot say cordial. I seem not to find it out, and mean to allow time for the little irritation which has arisen from the failure of his plan, to subside. No allusion was made to the subject during my visit of last week, and indeed the conversation was chiefly on Stuart Papers, Horace Walpole, &c. &c.

Notwithstanding the panic on the Stock Exchange, our news from Congress is still of a decidedly pacific tendency. The Spanish insurrection, we are told, gains strength, and the Greek loses; but on the latter head we have found our informants somewhat partial.

Ever most affectionately yours,

C. W. W.

THE RIGHT HON. CHARLES W. WYNN TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.

Nov. 22, 1822, half-past five P.M.

MY DEAR B----,

Your apprehensions relative to the issue of what is pa.s.sing at Verona certainly would derive more support from our last accounts than from the previous ones, and the way which had been made with France by exciting her political apprehensions, and with Russia by a representation of the military difficulties, seems now to be very much _en retrograde_.

Still, the language and a.s.surances of Villele and the King of France are perfectly pacific; and Montmorenci, who has adopted the other line at Verona, still states the necessity of his returning himself to Paris before any communication even of the nature of a threat is held out to Spain. Meantime he wishes France should be allowed to manage the interference entirely herself, and protests against Russia having any share in it, or marching a single regiment through her territory.

The only real object of Alexander is to ward off the present and pressing danger from his army, for whom he wants employment, and has proposed this Spanish campaign merely as a subst.i.tute for the Turkish.

Wellesley's despatch has, as I told you, arrived, but is not yet circulated.

We are about to recognise the S. American Republics and Brazil, and at the same time to adopt measures of reprisal against Porto Rico and Porto Cabildo, unless the Royalist Governors of those places will give up the Lord Collingwood, and cancel their orders for impeding our trade.

I have just been at Council, and thought that the K---- looked worse than at Brighton, but still his colour was tolerably good.

Ever affectionately yours,

C. W. W.

The proceedings of the French Government with relation to Spain, now began to excite a good deal of attention in this country; appearances being in favour of the supposition generally entertained, that the labours of Wellington in the Peninsula were about to be rendered nugatory by the presence there of a powerful French army, and the consequent return of Spain to the position she held as a French dependency before the war.

THE RIGHT HON. CHARLES W. WYNN TO THE DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.

Tuesday evening.

MY DEAR B----,

I do not believe that the French Cabinet is mad enough to entertain any view of the conquest of Spain. Experience must have taught even to them more wisdom, but Monsieur and the Ultra-Royalist party dread the intercourse with a _Republic_ on their frontiers, and besides, have revived the old notions of the family connexion, and their duty to protect a Bourbon monarch. This is fed by their communications with Spain, where for the last ten months they have been active in exciting, both by money and other means, the Royalist or insurgent party, and these designs are equally instigated by the Ultra-Royalist and Ultra-Liberal party in both countries. The former, with the view of re-establis.h.i.+ng the authority of the beloved Ferdinand; the latter, of raising by any means a war, which they calculate must end in the overthrow of both thrones.

We have no wish ourselves to take Cuba, but are inclined to give her the fair option of either continuing Spanish, becoming independent, or uniting with Mexico, positively resisting, however, even if necessary with arms, her occupation by any third power, _i.e._, North America.

I continue most completely separated from the rest of the Cabinet.

Whether they live at all together I know not, but believe they do.

However, we have all been in town now for more than a week, and I never have seen anything of any of them except in Cabinet. No one dinner have I been asked to since the conclusion of the Session, excepting one in the beginning of September at Robinson's. Now we all know that business can never be really settled in the meetings of so numerous a Cabinet, but that it must be _in fact_ arranged at more private meetings and dinners.

Canning is certainly not cordial, though there is nothing I have a right to complain of. Still I see that he is disposed to discuss the business of his own office, &c., with Lord Bathurst, Peel, or Robinson, but not with me. Peel is reserved in his natural manner, but I rather get on with him. What is Canning's object I cannot at all discover. His obvious policy would be to unite us to himself, but I am clear that is not in his view. His language to me on the Catholic question was in such a tone as to lead me to doubt extremely whether he can be relied upon. He dwelt to much on the disposition of the Duke of York, if he succeeded to the throne, to stake his Crown entirely upon opposition to it, and talked so much on the advantages of a compromise, which should secure everything except Privy Council and Parliament; professing willingness himself, if that was conceded, to oppose any agitation of the question for a considerable time, that I am myself convinced that he is disposed to consider it as a millstone, to which he is not absolutely pledged, and which he will for his own interest shake from off his neck. We have begun on Wellesley's plan, but as yet made no progress. Indeed it is so defective, that though it professes to rest upon two or three plain principles to be adopted or rejected, there are double that number not adverted to which must be previously understood and determined.