The Creevey Papers
Thomas Creevey to Elizabeth Ord, 19 February 1828
“19th.
“. . . I was well pleased with the hearty effusion
of my ingenuous friend Sir Colin
Campbell* yesterday, whom I met for the first time since his
return from Ireland.—‘Well,’ says I,
‘Sir Colin, so we’ve got the Beau at the top of the tree at
last.’—‘Yes, but sorely against his will. I can
assure you, Mr. Creevey, he would
much rather have remained at his own post as head of the Army; but, by God,
sir! nobody else would take the office, and he could do no other than he
did. But, sir, you may rely upon it, he’ll make an excellent
minister. . . . I can assure you the old Tories are already frightened out
of their senses of him.’ . . . In my way back from Lady Elizabeth Whitbread’s this morning
I was stopt by Burdett, who got off his
horse and would walk back with me across the Park, his object being to deplore
the times. . . . With all his admiration of Brougham’s talents in publick and his social ones in
private, his opinion was that the world would be benefited by his being out of it.”
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 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.
Sir Colin Campbell (1776-1847)
After service in the Peninsular War and Waterloo he was governor of Nova Scotia (1833-39)
and Ceylon (1839-47). He was a friend of the Duke of Wellington.
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.
Lady Elizabeth Whitbread [née Grey] (d. 1846)
The daughter of General Charles Grey, first Earl Grey; in 1788 she married the brewer and
politician Samuel Whitbread. Maria Edgeworth described her as “in one word,
delightful.”
