The Creevey Papers
Samuel Romilly to Thomas Creevey, 23 September 1805
“Little Ealing, Sept. 23rd, 1805.
“I have just received your letter. . . . It has indeed
very much surprised me, and I am afraid my answer to it will occasion as much
surprise in you. I cannot express to you how much flattered I am by the honor
which the Prince of Wales does me. No event
in the whole course of my life has been so gratifying to me. . . . I have
formed no resolution to keep out of Parliament; on the contrary, it has long
been my intention and is still my wish, to obtain a seat in the House, though
not immediately.* If I had been a member from the beginning of the
* He was elected member for Queenborough in 1806, on
taking office as Solicitor-General in “All the Talents.”
|
![]()
![]()
| 1805.] | ROMILLY DECLINES PARLIAMENT. | 41 |
![]()
present Parliament, my
vote would have been uniformly given in a way which I presume would have been
agreeable to the Prince of Wales. . . . Upon all questions I should have voted
with Mr. Fox; and yet, with all this, I
feel myself obliged to decline the offer which his Royal Highness has the great
condescension to make me. . . . When I was a young man, a seat in Parliament
was offered me. It was offered in the handsomest manner imaginable: no
condition whatever was annexed to it: I was told that I was to be quite
independent, and was to vote and act just as I thought proper. I could not,
however, relieve myself from the apprehension that . . . the person to whom I
owed the seat would consider me, without perhaps being quite conscious of it
himself, as his representative in Parliament . . . and that I should have some
other than my own reason and conscience to account to for my public conduct. .
. . In other respects, the offer was to me a most tempting one. I had then no
professional business with which it would interfere. . . . As a young man, I
was vain and foolish enough to imagine that I might distinguish myself as a
public speaker. I weighed the offer very maturely, and in the end I rejected
it. I persuaded myself that (altho’ that were not the case with others)
it was impossible that the little talents which I possessed could ever be
exerted with any advantage to the public, or any credit to myself, unless I
came into Parliament quite independent, and answerable for my conduct to God
and to my country alone. I had felt the temptation so strong that, in order to
fortify myself against any others of the same kind, I formed to myself the
unalterable resolution never, unless I held a public office, to come into
Parliament but by a popular election, or by paying the common price for my
seat. It is true that, when I formed this resolution, the possibility of a seat
being offered me by the Prince of Wales had never entered into my thoughts, and
that the rules which I had laid down to regulate my conduct ought perhaps to
yield to such a circumstance as this. But yet I have so long acted on this
resolution—the principles on which I formed it have become so much a part
of the system of my life, and that life is now so far advanced, that I cannot
![]()
| 42 | THE CREEVEY PAPERS | [Ch. II. |
![]()
convince myself—proud as I am of the distinction
which his Royal Highness is willing to confer upon me, that I ought to accept
it. The answer that I should wish to give to his Royal Highness is to express
in the strongest terms my gratitude for the offer, but in the most respectful
possible way to decline it; and at the same time to say that, if his R. H.
thinks that my being in Parliament can be at all useful to the public, I shall
be very glad to procure myself a seat the first opportunity that I can find.
But the difficulty is to know how to give such an answer with propriety. I am
fearful that it may be thought, in every way that it occurs to me to convey it,
not sufficiently respectful to his R. H., and from this embarrassment I know
not how to relieve myself. My only recourse is to trust that you will be able
to do for me what I cannot do for myself. . . .”
Thomas Creevey (1768-1838)
Whig politician aligned with Charles James Fox and Henry Brougham; he was MP for Thetford
(1802-06, 1807-18) Appleby (1820-26) and Downton (1831-32). He was convicted of libel in
1813.
Charles James Fox (1749-1806)
Whig statesman and the leader of the Whig opposition in Parliament after his falling-out
with Edmund Burke.
