Letters and Journals of Lord Byron
Lord Byron to Francis Hodgson, 5 March 1812
“8, St. James’s-street, March 5th, 1812.
“We are not answerable for reports of
speeches in the papers, they are always given incorrectly, and on this occasion more so
than usual, from the debate in the Commons on the same night. The Morning Post should have said eighteen
years. However, you will find the speech, as spoken, in the Parliamentary
Register, when it comes out. Lords Holland and
Grenville, particularly the latter, paid me some
high compliments in the course of their speeches as you may have seen in the papers, and
Lords Eldon and Harrowby answered me. I have had many marvellous eulogies repeated to me
since, in person and by proxy, from divers persons ministerial—yea, ministerial!—as well as oppositionists; of
them I shall only mention Sir F. Burdett. He says it is the best speech by a lord
since the ‘Lord knows when,’ probably from a
fellow-feeling in the sentiments. Lord H. tells me I
shall beat them all if I persevere, and Lord G. remarked that the construction of some
of my periods are very like Burke’s!! And so much for vanity. I spoke very violent
sentences with a sort of modest impudence, abused every thing and every body, and put
the Lord Chancellor very much out of humour; and if I may believe what I hear, have not
lost any character by the experiment. As to my delivery, loud and fluent enough, perhaps
a little theatrical. I could not recognise myself or any one else in the newspapers.
* *
*
“My poesy comes out on Saturday. Hobbouse is here; I shall tell him to write. My stone is gone for the
present, but I fear is part of my habit. We all talk of a visit
to Cambridge.
“Yours ever,
“B.”
Sir Francis Burdett, fifth baronet (1770-1844)
Whig MP for Westminster (1807-1837) who was imprisoned on political charges in 1810 and
again in 1820; in the 1830s he voted with the Conservatives.
Edmund Burke (1729-1797)
Irish politician and opposition leader in Parliament, author of
On the
Sublime and Beautiful (1757) and
Reflections on the Revolution
in France (1790).
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.
William Wyndham Grenville, baron Grenville (1759-1834)
Educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, he was a moderate Whig MP, foreign secretary
(1791-1801), and leader and first lord of the treasury in the “All the Talents” ministry
(1806-1807). He was chancellor of Oxford University (1810).
John Cam Hobhouse, baron Broughton (1786-1869)
Founder of the Cambridge Whig Club; traveled with Byron in the orient, radical MP for
Westminster (1820); Byron's executor; after a long career in politics published
Some Account of a Long Life (1865) later augmented as
Recollections of a Long Life, 6 vols (1909-1911).
Francis Hodgson (1781-1852)
Provost of Eton College, translator of Juvenal (1807) and close friend of Byron. He wrote
for the
Monthly and
Critical Reviews, and was
author of (among other volumes of poetry)
Childe Harold's Monitor; or
Lines occasioned by the last Canto of Childe Harold (1818).
Dudley Ryder, first earl of Harrowby (1762-1847)
Tory MP; Pitt's second in the duel with George Tierney (1798), he was friendly towards to
abolition of the slave trade and to Catholic emancipation.
John Scott, first earl of Eldon (1751-1838)
Lord chancellor (1801-27); he was legal counsel to the Prince of Wales and an active
opponent of the Reform Bill.
Morning Post. (1772-1937). A large-circulation London daily that published verse by many of the prominent poets of
the romantic era. John Taylor (1750–1826), Daniel Stuart (1766-1846), and Nicholas Byrne
(d. 1833) were among its editors.
