Tuesday, 28th August.—Lord Melbourne then read me a letter from Lord John about all this Belgian business; he says that he won’t support Belgium in its new claims. Lord Melbourne said, “It’s very well of John saying he won’t support,” and so forth, but that it would be impossible for us not to take one side; our interests would compel us to do so; they lay so much with the Low Countries; England, he said, could never permit France to have possession of Antwerp, which was such a great Maritime place. He then read me a letter from Lord Minto relative to an alarm which prevails, and which was caused, Lord Melbourne says, by a speech the Duke of Wellington made in the House, about the weakness of our Naval force; which Lord Minto quite disclaims. Lord Melbourne sent him a paper of Sir Robert Inglis’s[576] about the Russian, French, and American Fleets; which Lord Minto says is quite erroneous; Lord Minto states that in a very few weeks, he could be quite ready for war; Lord M. says, what countries generally ruin themselves with, is, keeping up their Naval and Military Establishments during the time of peace; and he said, “Better be at War then.”[577] He owned that the Russians sending their fleet to the Black Sea “certainly is far from pleasant.” Then I spoke of Lord Ponsonby’s great alarm about Russian Influence, which Lord Melbourne said always was the case. Spoke of Queen Charlotte’s having been supposed to have had a great many presents which she was fond of, from Mrs. Hastings[578]; and Lord Melbourne said the King was thought rather to go with Hastings, who was accused and tried for misdemeanours in India. There was an ivory bed-stead Queen Charlotte got, which Lord M. believed was at Frogmore now. Spoke of Queen Adelaide’s having got all those Shawls which the King of Oude sent. This led us to speak of the Crown Jewels; of there not being many, yet more than I ever wished to wear, of my not liking those sort of things. Lord M. said he didn’t like a profusion of them, but thought a few fine ones the best. Spoke of the Jewels which Queen Charlotte left to her daughters. Lord Melbourne said the Queen Consort can do with her own things what she pleases; can make her own Will, and “is a femme seule,” for no other woman can—all is her husband’s. Lord Melbourne (in reply to my question when he first knew George IV.) said, as soon as he could remember any one; he was 4 when the King was 21, in ’83, when Lord Melbourne’s father was first put about the Prince of Wales. “He used to be at Whitehall, or Piccadilly[579] where we then lived, morning, noon and night,” Lord Melbourne said; and he used to come down to Brocket; he always was fond of children and took notice of them; I said he took notice of me; I observed how much more submissive we were to him than to the late King; Lord Melbourne said George IV. had more power. Lord Melbourne said none of the Royal Family could marry without the Sovereign’s leave since the Marriage Act, passed early in George III.’s reign, in consequence, Lord Melbourne believes, of the Duke of Cumberland’s marrying a Mrs. Luttrell[580] which was very much disliked; else the Duke of Sussex might have married Lady Augusta, and the late King Mrs. Jordan, Lord Melbourne said. The member of the Royal Family, Lord Melbourne continued, gives notice to the Privy Council of his intention to marry, and if they don’t disapprove, it’s supposed the King will consent. Lord Melbourne said it was a difficult subject the marriage of the Royal Family; marrying a subject was inconvenient, and there was inconvenience in foreigners; “It was very often done” (marrying subjects); “Kings did it; and I don’t know there was any harm in it,” said Lord Melbourne. Anne Hyde was the last who married a Prince who became King, and that was considered a dreadful thing. Lord M. said he had been looking at some of those letters [George III.’s] to Lord North which seemed to him very ill written,[581] both as to hand and style, and in bad English. Lord North was a great favourite of George IV.’s, Lord Melbourne said; “Lord North was a very easy, good-natured man,” and the King knew him “when he first came in to life.” Lord Thurlow, whom Mr. Pitt beat and turned out in ’93,[582] turned to George IV. and became also a great favourite of his. He was clever but ill-tempered, Lord Melbourne said.
Wednesday, 29th August.—Lord Melbourne said he had been looking at those letters to Lord North, and found on closer examination that they were written with much more practical knowledge and knowledge of men than he had at first thought. The letters he has been reading are relative to a Negotiation which the King entered into, with the Opposition, in order to strengthen the Government; and Lord Melbourne related several parts of it, which made him smile and which he said were true enough. Lord Melbourne said he (George III.) couldn’t bear Mr. Fox, for that he says in one of these letters that he (Lord North) might offer him any situation which did not bring him in immediate contact with the King, or into the Closet; and as he (Mr. Fox) never had any principles, he wouldn’t have any difficulty in changing. These letters prove, Lord Melbourne said, what strong personal dislikes the King had. These letters to Lord North, Lord M. thinks, were returned to George IV. by Mrs. Douglas on the death of her husband, who was the son of Lady Glenbervie, Lord North’s daughter; Lord North had three daughters, Lady Glenbervie, Lady Sheffield, and Lady Charlotte Lindsay (whom I know); all very clever, Lord M. says. He had 3 sons, George (who was a very pleasant, lively man and a great bon-vivant, Lord M. says), Frederic, and Frank; who were all in succession Earls of Guilford. The present Lord is son to Lord North’s brother[583] who was a Bishop, Lord M. told me. Lord North died in ’93, and Lord M. remembers seeing him (when Lord M. was a boy) led into the House of Lords, quite blind, at Hastings’ trial; he was Lord Guilford for a very short time.
Lord M. does not think that George III. was very fond of Mr. Pitt. Spoke of the violent dislikes George III. and George IV. had; William IV. had them also, but Lord M. said they were easily got over. Spoke of George III.’s hand-writing; of mine, which Lord M. thinks very legible and generally very good; of my inclination to imitate hand-writings, and people,—which Lord M. said, showed quickness, and was in the Family; of George IV.’s mimickry. I said I kept a journal, which, as Lord Melbourne said, is very laborious, but a very good thing; for that it was astonishing in transacting business, how much one forgot, and how one forgot why one did the things.
Thursday, 30th August.— ... I gave Lord M. this Pamphlet of Sir H. Taylor’s which Mamma lent me. We talked about many things, and in going home I asked Lord M. how long Lord North had been Prime Minister to George III.; “From ’70 till ’82,” he told me. “The Duke of Grafton” (who preceded him, and was the present Duke of Grafton’s father) “went away,” Lord M. continued, “without telling any body and without telling the King; they were difficult times, and he went away; I know why he went away, people are always doing those foolish things; and the King didn’t know what to do; he sent for Lord Gower”[584] (I forget what he was), who, I think Lord M. said, refused it; “and then he sent for his Chancellor of the Exchequer” (Lord North) “and made him his Prime Minister.” Lord M. spoke of Dr. Keate, and told me an anecdote of him and George III.; and then he said that Dr. Keate couldn’t bear to be reminded of his boyish days at Eton; somebody, who Lord M. knows, reminded Keate when he was walking across the School-Yard with him, of the window, pointing at it, out of which they had often jumped, upon which Dr. Keate said, “Don’t mention it; it’s a very foolish remark.”
Friday, 31st August.—Lord M. then said, that the French were going to send out a fleet to Mexico, with which State they have been in a quarrel for some time,—and that they meant to send the Prince de Joinville with it, to ask for reparation, and if not, to attack the fort of Aloa which commands the river, and which it would not be agreeable for us if the French were to possess; and Lord Palmerston proposes we should send a swift sailing Vessel to Mexico to apprize the Mexicans of what was to take place and to advise them to make reparation. And also, Lord P. proposes sending a Vessel to Guiana, where the French are making great encroachments, and to see what they are about.
H.R.H. The Duc de Nemours
from a portrait by Eugene Lami
Lady Cork[585] is 92, a very strange old woman; Lord M. knows her; she was clever, a great favourite of George III. and Queen Charlotte. She was a Miss Monckton, sister to Lord Galway, he said. Lord M. said in returning Dr. Hook’s sermon (which I sent him to read) when he came in, that it was eager, but nothing very particular, and able. Lady Holland seems “very fond of Senfft,” Lord M. observed; “she would settle that Embassy too, as she does every thing else,” he said laughing. Lord M. said, in speaking of Taylor’s pamphlet,[586] “There is no force in it; it isn’t pointed.” Taylor is very fond of writing, he says, and fancies he writes well. Spoke of Lady C. Bury’s book.[587] Lord M. says these things make less impression than people fancy; they “make a day’s noise; but nobody minds them much.” Spoke of Lady Anne Hamilton,[588] who attended Queen Caroline at her Trial; Lady Charlotte Lindsay gave evidence. “Lord Egremont said,” continued Lord M., “‘As for Guilford,[589] he twaddled like a waiting maid when he gave evidence; but his Sister lied like a man,’” which made us both laugh very much. Spoke of Kenney,[590] who is Author (Lord M. told me) of Love, Law, and Physic, and Raising the Wind, and is at Holland House. Spoke of my knowing Rogers and Moore; having seen Scott and Southey. Lord M. rather admires Southey’s works, and thinks his Life of Nelson very pretty. Spoke of his Life of Cowper. Spoke of a new book lying on the table, sent to me by Granville Penn,[591] which Lord M. looked at and said he thought might be curious; it is the Life of Sir William Penn, Admiral in Cromwell’s time, and who, with Venables, took Jamaica. Spoke of Mrs. Hutchinson’s Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson, which Lord M. thinks very curious; spoke of her violence; spoke of Clarendon’s book which Lord M. said “is a fine book.” I observed there were few books on the Parliamentary side; he replied few at the time, but a good many since. He mentioned one by Brodie, a Scotchman; Bishop Burnet’s Memoirs of his own time, during Charles II.’s reign; and he said, “There is a book which I think would amuse Your Majesty, and would be of use to you, and which isn’t long, which is Guizot’s account of the Revolution.” It’s only in 2 vols., and is a summary of whole thing, he said.
Lord M. said Lady Holland was a great friend of Pozzo’s, and that his first acquaintance with Pozzo was at Holland House. I asked if she knew Sebastiani; he said she did, but didn’t like him much, except from his connection with Napoleon “whom she adored.” She never knew Napoleon, Lord Melbourne added, but saw him at Paris at the Peace of Amiens. She used to send him things she knew he liked, said Lord M.; when he was at St. Helena she sent him gâteaux and chocolate, &c. “She was half on his side,” Lord M. continued, “if not more.” Spoke of Lady E. Wortley’s[592] admiration for Napoleon. Soult was no friend of Napoleon, Lord M. said; none of them, he continued, were to be compared to Napoleon himself; the two best after Napoleon, Lord M. said, were Dessaix who was killed at Marengo, and Kleber who was murdered in Egypt.
I asked Lord M. what Lord Gower, whom he mentioned to me before, was; that Lord Gower, he said, was the Duke of Sutherland’s grandfather; he was “Lord Privy Seal” when the King sent for him.[593] “He did not think himself equal to it” (being Prime Minister); “he was a man who took great part in politics.” Lord M. also told me that he believes the present Lord Bute to be the great-grandson of the Minister of George III. “George III. found the Duke of Newcastle and Mr. Pitt, and everything was going on very well, when he was advised to change; he couldn’t bear Mr. Pitt; who was afterwards Lord Chatham; and he took Lord Bute in his place; and then followed all that unpopularity.” I asked if these letters of George III. showed great confidence in Lord North; Lord M. said “they show a great liking for him, more than a great confidence.” That the King never seemed to think him strong enough; Lord North, all along, Lord M. continued, was pursuing a Policy contrary to what he himself approved, but which he was urged to by the King: and Lord North remonstrated very much with the King. The difference, Lord M. observed before, between George IV. and his father, was, that the former (which Knighton’s Memoirs show, Lord M. said) always required somebody to lean upon, whereas the latter always wished to act for himself, and only yielded, but said at the same time he disliked doing it. He never would have yielded on the Catholic Question, Lord M. continued, nor would the Duke of York; the late King was for it; but George IV. did it very unwillingly. George III. was deeply hurt at the loss of the American provinces, which I observed was no wonder; I said I thought it was his fault. Lord M. said most likely it was; but that it was impossible any longer to keep up the great Colonial Policy, namely that they should exclusively trade with England and make nothing for themselves; even Lord Chatham, Lord M. said, who all along advocated their cause, “said they shouldn’t drive one hob-nail for themselves.” The Separation was easily done, they had nothing to do but to declare it. Lord M. continued that the first settlers were composed of people who left England in discontent,—of dissenters &c., and consequently no loyal people could spring from them. Spoke of the people whom William III. ennobled, which I’ve no time to enumerate. He told a most absurd anecdote of a very fat little porter at Lansdowne House. “He is a leading man in all the Parish Debates,” said Lord M.; “and somebody told Albemarle, ‘He speaks very well; to tell you the truth he speaks very like my lord.’”