The Greville Memoirs, Part 2 (of 3), Volume 1 (of 3) / A Journal of the Reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1852

Transcriber’s Note: In this work, all spellings and punctuation were reproduced from the original work except in the very few cases where an obvious typo occurred. These typos are corrected without comment. In the original volumes in this set, each even-numbered page had a header consisting of the page number, the volume title, and the chapter number. The odd-numbered page header consisted of the year of the diary entry, a subject phrase, and the page number. In this set of e-books, the year is included as part of the date (which in the original volume were in the form reproduced here, minus the year). The subject phrase has been converted to sidenotes located below the relevant page number. In the original book set, consisting of three volumes, the master index was in Volume 3. In this set of e-books, the index has been duplicated into each of the other volumes. Navigation links were created to the entries for the current volume.
‘PLERAQUE EORUM, QUÆ RETULI QUÆQUE REFERAM, PARVA FORSITAN ET LEVIA MEMORATU VIDERI, NON NESCIUS SUM; SED NEMO ANNALES NOSTROS CUM SCRIPTURA EORUM CONTENDERIT, QUI VETERES POPULI ROMANI RES COMPOSUERE. INGENTIA ILLI BELLA, EXPUGNATIONES URBIUM, FUSOS CAPTOSQUE REGES, AUT, SI QUANDO AD INTERNA PRÆVERTERENT, DISCORDIAS CONSULUM ADVERSUM TRIBUNOS, AGRARIAS FRUMENTARIASQUE LEGES, PLEBIS ET OPTIMATIUM CERTAMINA, LIBERO EGRESSU MEMORABANT. NOBIS IN ARTO ET INGLORIUS LABOR.... NON TAMEN SINE USU FUERIT, INTROSPICERE ILLA, PRIMO ADSPECTU LEVIA, EX QUIS MAGNARUM SÆPE RERUM MOTUS ORIUNTUR.’ TACITUS, Ann. iv. cap. 32.
OF THE EDITOR
TO THE SECOND PART OF THIS JOURNAL.
When the first portion of the Memoirs of the late Mr. Charles Greville, consisting of a Journal of the Reigns of King George IV. and King William IV., was given to the world in the autumn of the year 1874, it was intimated that the continuation of the work was reserved for future publication. Those volumes included the record of events which Mr. Greville had noted in his Diary from the year 1818 to the accession of Her Majesty Queen Victoria in the year 1837, a period of nineteen years. As they were published in 1874, an interval of thirty-seven years had elapsed between the latest event recorded in them and the date at which they appeared. The reigns of George IV. and William IV. already belonged to the history of the past, and accordingly I did not conceive it to be my duty to suppress or qualify any of the statements or opinions of the Author on public men or public events. I am still of opinion that this was the right course for a person charged with the publication of these manuscripts to pursue. I have seen it stated that the first edition of these Journals contains passages which have been suppressed in the later editions: but this is an error. The first edition contained a good many mistakes, which were subsequently pointed out by criticism, or discovered and corrected. Two or three sentences relating to private individuals were omitted, but nothing which concerns public personages or public events has been withdrawn.