“I came home at half-past four that I might have time
to write to you, and Whishaw came
instantly after and has staid with me till five. . . . I went to dine at
Hutchinson’s and after all he
never came. He was kept at Carlton House till twelve at night, so Lord Donoughmore and I dined together, and he
was, as he always is, very pleasant. At Brooks’s I found Sheridan just arrived from Carlton House,
where the conclave has just broken up, and the Prince had decided against the pressing advice of all present
not to dismiss the Government. Sheridan was just sober,
and expressed to me the strongest opinion of the injurious tendency of this
resolution to the Prince’s character. Lord
Hutchinson said the same thing to me to-day, and added that
never man had behaved better than Sheridan. I said all I
thought to both Hutchinson and
Sheridan in vindication of
Prinny, but I presume I am wrong, as I stand single in
this opinion. I went, however, to Mrs.
Fitzherbert at twelve to-day, an appointment I made with her
yesterday in the street, and she and I were agreed upon this subject. The
Prince has written to Perceval a letter
which is to be sent to-morrow, stating to him his intention, under
| 1811.] | WHITBREAD’S PROPOSALS. | 139 |
“Now I do not see, under all the monstrous difficulties of his situation, any great impropriety of his present resolution, particularly as he means to have his letter made publick.
“Mrs. Fitz is evidently delighted at the length and forgiving and confidential nature of Prinny’s visits. She goes to-morrow and will tell you, no doubt, how poor Prinny was foolish enough to listen to some idle story of my having abused his letter to both Houses, and how she defended me. Poor fellow, one should have thought he had more important concerns to think of. I went from her to Whitbread, and he again conjured me to attach myself to the new Government by taking some situation, and went over many—the Admiralty Board again—Chairman of the Ways and Means, &c. I was very guarded, and held myself very much up, and said I would take nothing for which there was not service to be done—nothing like a sinecure, which I considered a seat at the Admiralty Board to be; but of course I was very good-humoured. He repeated the conversation between him and Lord Grey about me. He said my name was first mentioned by Miss Whitbread, and, having been so, Lord Grey replied—‘Although I think Creevey has acted unjustly to me, and tho’ in the session before last he gave great offence to many of my friends by something like a violation of confidence, yet on his own account, on that of Mrs. Creevey and of anybody connected with them, I had always intended, without you mentioning him, to express my wishes that he might be included in the Government.’ Upon which Whitbread stated from his own recollection of my speech that gave offence, his perfect conviction of its being no breach of confidence; and so the thing ended with their united sentiment in favor of my having some office.
“I am affraid you will be hurt at not seeing any
immediate provision for me in this new Government,
| 140 | THE CREEVEY PAPERS | [Ch. VII. |
