The Creevey Papers
Henry Grey Bennet to Thomas Creevey, 24 September 1813
“Chillingham, 24th Sept., 1813.
“I have been looking out for a letter from you to
tell me all the news of the south, and your fêtes at the
Pavilion, at which I conclude you were, being in such favour with our
magnanimous Regent! In the 1st
place—is it true that Parliament is to be assembled on the 4th of
November? If so, I am in despair, as in town I cannot be, and to be out of it
will drive me wild. Money, I conclude, is the want, and as I feel disposed to
have a fight for every shilling, and to state a grievance for each vote in
supply, I am miserable at the chance of the campaign opening without me. To be
sure, affairs look better on the Continent, and the
* The Duke of
Norfolk. See vol. i. p. 50. † The Prince
Regent. ‡ The prediction was not fulfilled. Soult was driven across the Pyrenees
on 2nd August; San Sebastian fell on 31st; the battle of the Nivelle
was fought on 10th November; Wellington went into winter quarters early in December
on French soil; Napoleon abdicated
on 6th April, 1814. |
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| 1813-14.] | NAPOLEON ABDICATES. | 187 |
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capture of St. Sebastian is of the
greatest importance to the safety of our army. We grumblers can have nothing to
say, but the question of expence nothing can stave off. . . . To-day Ld. Grey was to have been in the chair at the
Fox dinner at Newcastle: this kept me from the dinner,
as Ld. Grey and the principles of Mr. Fox have long ago parted company. I looked
on the meeting as a beat up for political friends—as a sort of levee
where I shall always be the worst attender. . . .”
Charles James Fox (1749-1806)
Whig statesman and the leader of the Whig opposition in Parliament after his falling-out
with Edmund Burke.
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).
Emperor Napoleon I (1769-1821)
Military leader, First Consul (1799), and Emperor of the French (1804), after his
abdication he was exiled to Elba (1814); after his defeat at Waterloo he was exiled to St.
Helena (1815).
Nicholas Soult (1769-1851)
Marshal of France and commander in the Peninsular War.
