The Creevey Papers
Thomas Creevey to Elizabeth Ord, 6 February 1821
“Brooks’s, 6th Feb.
“. . . On Sunday morning our grandees, or some of
them, had a meeting upstairs here to consider the practicability of making a
provision for the Queen by raising from
£200,000 to £300,000 by subscription. You will easily imagine I had no business
there,* but Sefton and Lord Thanet sent Lambton to bring me there by force, so I heard what passed, and
such a game chicken as Fitzwilliam I never
beheld. Let me do justice, too, to Alec
Baring, who smoothed away the least suggestion of any
difficulty; and, in short, it was decided in two minutes to do the thing.
* Seeing that he was such a poor man.
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| 12 | THE CREEVEY PAPERS | [Ch I. |
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Old Fitzwilliam went off directly to the Duke of Devonshire, who is quite as eager to
start as the rest, provided it is not done till the H. of Commons shall have
decided this day week, on Smith’s motion, not to
restore the Queen’s name to the Liturgy. Then a kind
of State paper is to come out from our people, shewing the absolute
impossibility of the Queen, situated as she is, accepting the provision from
the Crown and Parliament, and proposing their plan, with
the names annexed to it, of making a voluntary provision; and no one seems to
entertain a doubt of the success of the measure. . . .
“Never was there such an exhibition as that of
yesterday by the defenders of the Ministers. Brother Bragge could scarcely be heard, in which he was highly
judicious; Bankes might have been hired
for Mackintosh to flog; Peel was as feeble as be damned, and the
daring, dramatic Horace Twiss made his
first, and probably his last appearance on the stage.* On the other hand, I am
sorry to say that Tavistock was infinitely
below himself. . . . Lambton’s was a
very pretty, natural and ornamental speech, delivered with singular grace and
discretion, and a beautiful voice withal. But old ‘Praise
God’ Milton in a short
speech handled a couple of points in a much more powerful manner than anything
Lambton did. . . . Nothing but the general and
overpowering distress can keep the country steady to the Queen against the
Court Ministers. . . . It is said that the appointment of Sir Lowry Cole to be governor of Sheerness was
made out, and immediately cancelled after his vote on Friday, and that it is
now given to Lord Combermere.† . .
.”
Henry Bankes (1757-1834)
Of Kingston Lacy; educated at Westminster and Trinity College, Cambridge, he was Whig MP
for Corfe Castle (1780-1826).
Alexander Baring, first baron Ashburton (1773-1848)
London financier who made a fortune in the United States; he was MP for Taunton
(1802-26), Callington (1826-31), Thetford (1831-32), and North Essex (1833-35); he was
president of the Board of Trade (1834) and raised to the peerage in 1835.
Charles Bragge Bathurst (1754-1831)
Originally Bragge; educated at Winchester and New College, Oxford, he was a Tory MP who
held high offices as the brother-in-law of Henry Addington.
Queen Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1768-1821)
Married the Prince of Wales in 1795 and separated in 1796; her husband instituted
unsuccessful divorce proceedings in 1820 when she refused to surrender her rights as
queen.
Sir Galbraith Lowry Cole (1772-1842)
The second son of William Willoughby Cole, first earl of Enniskillen; he was a brigade
commander in the Peninsular war and MP for Inniskillen (1798-1800) and Fermanagh (1803-23),
and governor of the Cape Colony (1828-33).
Stapleton Cotton, first viscount Combermere (1773-1865)
Educated at Westminster School, he served as an officer in India and in the Peninsular
Campaign, was MP for Newark (1806-14), and was commander-in-chief in Ireland (1822-25) and
India (1825-30).
William Wentworth Fitzwilliam, second earl Fitzwilliam (1748-1833)
The nephew of the Marquis of Rockingham and lifelong friend of Charles James Fox and Lord
Carlisle; he was president of the Council (1806-07) and lieutenant of the West Riding from
1798 to 1819 when he was dismissed for his censure of the Peterloo massacre.
Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832)
Scottish philosopher and man of letters who defended the French Revolution in
Vindiciae Gallicae (1791); he was Recorder of Bombay (1803-1812) and
MP for Knaresborough (1819-32).
Francis Russell, seventh duke of Bedford (1788-1861)
Son of the sixth Duke (d. 1839); he took an MA from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1808
and served as Whig MP for Peterborough between 1809 and 1812 and for Bedfordshire between
1812 and 1832. He succeeded to the title in 1833.
Horace Twiss (1787-1849)
Lawyer, poet, and biographer; he was MP for Wootton Basset (1820-30) and Newport
(1830-31) and author of
St Stephens Chapel: a Satirical Poem
(1807).
