The Creevey Papers
Thomas Creevey to Elizabeth Ord, 20 January 1837
“20th.
“. . . What a figure Peel makes with his Scotch sentiment, his scenery, his young
shepherd who was so instructive to hear! The poor Spinning
Jenny has acquired great power both of thinking and speaking,
but his works of fancy betray his origin. They are as like his father as ever they can be. I heard the father
once say:—‘I say, Mr. Speaker, Britannia is seated on a
rock!’ Here they are, you see, both alike in their clumsy capers
after sentiment. Only think of old Peel and Sheridan! and yet oh dear, oh dear! the
difference of their deaths. I should like to have heard old
Sherry’s comments upon young
Peel’s speeches. . . . I am happy to say that
the mischievous crew—Sir Wm.
Molesworth, Roebuck, my Napier and
Co.—are becoming quite blown upon by their brother Radicals, which will
be a monstrous relief to the Government in the approaching session. . .
.”
Sir William Molesworth, eighth baronet (1810-1855)
Son of the seventh baronet (d. 1823); educated at St John's and Trinity Colleges,
Cambridge, he was a Radical MP and publisher of the
London Review
and
Westminster Review.
Sir William Francis Patrick Napier (1785-1860)
British general; served in Spain and Portugal (1808-13); author of
History of the War in the Peninsula and in the South of France, from the Year 1807 to
the Year 1814, 6 vols (1828).
Sir Robert Peel, first baronet (1750-1830)
The son of Robert Peel (1723–1795); he was a Lancashire textile manufacturer, MP for
Tamworth (1790-1820), and father of the Prime Minister.
John Arthur Roebuck (1801-1879)
English MP for Bath (1832) born at Madras and educated in Canada; he was a member of the
Reform Club (1836-64) who published in
Westminster Review and
Edinburgh Review.
Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816)
Anglo-Irish playwright, author of
The School for Scandal (1777),
Whig MP and ally of Charles James Fox (1780-1812).
