The Creevey Papers
Thomas Creevey to Elizabeth Ord, 8 May 1834
“8th.
“Our Government was in the greatest danger all
yesterday. John Russell’s gratuitous
opinion and declaration of secession in the House of Commons the night before,
if the revenues arising from the Irish Tithes Bill were not left to the
appropriation of Parliament, roused all the fire of those in the Cabinet who
contend that such revenues are to be applied exclusively to ecclesiastical
purposes. The indignation of the latter party was the greater, because it was
understood, and John Russell had particularly stipulated
not to raise that question. Stanley
actually resigned yesterday, and his bottle-holders are Pighead Richmond and Canting Graham. . . . However, at a Cabinet meeting, Lord Grey having announced his fixed intention of
retiring at once from publick life if the whole was not instantly made up, and
old Wickedshifts having made some very
judicious threats of opposing and exposing with all his might any Government
but the present one in its present formation, the thing was at last settled in
peace and harmony, and nothing more is to be said about appropriation, till there is something to appropriate, which
can’t be for a year at least. . . . Grey told them
that the conduct of the King had been so
uniformly kind and gracious
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| 1834.] | ROGERS’S DINNER-PARTY. | 275 |
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to him, and
Grey knew so well the difficulties he [the King] would
have to encounter in forming a new Cabinet, that he thought it would be very
dishonorable to desert him, if it could be avoided. . . .
Brougham said to Sefton:—‘I followed Grey,
and I observed that I was very differently situated from my friend
Lord Grey—that, while he considered his
political life as closing, I considered my own as only just
beginning—that I never felt younger or more vigorous—that, from
the moment the present Government was broken up, all my occupation and
resources should be devoted to destroying any other
one—that there was nothing I would not undertake to
accomplish that object—that I would attend all political meetings out
of Parliament, publick and private, and that from the present temper of the
publick, which I well knew, I was as sure as I was of my existence that no
Government but an ultra-Liberal one, both in Church and State affairs,
would be endured for a week. . . . Of course,’ he continued,
‘you will see my object was to frighten the damned idiots
Stanley and Co. from attempting by themselves, or
be coalescing with Peel and Co., to
set up a Church government; and I think I did so.’ . . . Was
there ever such a chap in the world as Wickedshifts? Who
do you think dined with him yesterday?—The Duke
of Gloucester, and no other man!”
Henry Peter Brougham, first baron Brougham and Vaux (1778-1868)
Educated at Edinburgh University, he was a founder of the
Edinburgh
Review in which he chastised Byron's
Hours of Idleness; he
defended Queen Caroline in her trial for adultery (1820), established the London University
(1828), and was appointed lord chancellor (1830).
Sir James Robert George Graham, second baronet (1792-1861)
Of Netherby, dandy, member of Brook's Club, Whig politician, and First Lord of the
Admiralty (1830); he published
Corn and Currency (1826) and was home
secretary (1841-46).
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).
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.
John Russell, first earl Russell (1792-1878)
English statesman, son of John Russell sixth duke of Bedford (1766-1839); he was author
of
Essay on the English Constitution (1821) and
Memoirs of the Affairs of Europe (1824) and was Prime Minister (1865-66).
