[118] Speech on vote of thanks to the Marquis of Wellington, July 7, 1813.
[119] See Appendix.
[120] Spence preached about the period of the French Revolution, and his doctrines were revived now by his follower, Evans.
[121] The accuracy of this story having been disputed, I asked Lady Palmerston, who was living in the same set as the lady in question, and also about this period residing at Brighton, whether she remembered hearing anything corroborating my information, and she said she perfectly well remembered hearing the anecdote I have narrated. But there is nothing in the Duke of Wellington’s letters to confirm it, and, like most tales of a similar nature, it probably had some foundation, but was not precisely correct either in details or dates.
The main fact, however, remains untouched, and is indeed proved by the Wellington correspondence, viz., that Lord Liverpool applied to the Duke of Wellington to obtain the King’s consent to Mr. Canning’s appointment, and that the Duke succeeded, though not without difficulty.
[122] This story was related by Sir Roundell Palmer in his address to the jury in the trial of Ryves v. the Attorney-General. I do not know whence Sir Roundell derived the anecdote, but I think it as well to say, in favour of its authenticity, that I heard it thirty years ago from a person who was present on the occasion, and that it has been recorded for twenty-six years in my MS.
[123] The correctness of this story has been questioned by a correspondent to the Times, who signs “A. W. C.” I heard it from a person much in the intimacy of George IV. and Mr. Canning, and noted it when I heard it as curious; but I give it as gossip, which, whether true or false, illustrates the notions of the time, and is not incompatible with what is said by “A. W. C.” himself.
[124] Lord Townsend being dismissed in 1717 from the Lord Lieutenancy of Ireland, at the instigation of Lord Sunderland, the whole of Lord Townsend’s party in the Cabinet at that time, including Walpole, resigned. They were attacked in much the same way as the Duke of Wellington was attacked in 1827, and thought it necessary to defend themselves in the same manner, though there is no doubt that they did resign expressly for the purpose of ousting a government which they thought could not go on without them. In the end they succeeded.—See Coxe’s “Memoirs of Sir Robert Walpole,” page 107.
[125] In the Memoirs of Sir J. Mackintosh, in the “Keepsake.” 1829.
[126] Lord Nugent was a remarkably large heavy man, with a head even larger than was required to be in proportion to his body.