nobody has ever before dared to mention those whom he dragged forward. To the ignorant majority of the world he appears a man of great promise, of boldness, quickness, and decision, and the uproar that is made about him cannot fail to impress others as well as himself with a high notion of his consequence. aggerated; it is not mentioned by the [not) of having thrown the enemy's camp into Times and its tendency is misunder-greater confusion by the boldness of his lanstood. The telling shots were not fired guage than anybody has ever done, because at Herries. They were fired at higher game; at sundry influences behind the throne, the existence of which Duncombe declared to be matter of notoriety: They are known (he continued) to have been too busy in the underplot of the recent revolution. 66 I belieye their object to be as impure as the means by which their power has been acquired, and I denounce them and their agents as unknown to the British Constitution and derogatory to the honour of the crown." He trusted that the Duke of Wellington and the right hon. secretary for the home department would not allow the finances of this great country to be controlled any longer by a Jew (Rothschild), or the distribution of the patronage of the crown to be operated upon by the prescriptions of a physician (Knighton). (Loud laughter.) Greville's recklessness of statement, or gobemoucherie, is still more remarkable in his account of the (so-called) second speech. Knighton is gone abroad, I have very little doubt, in consequence of what passed, and as nobody inquires very minutely into the real causes of things where they get apparent ones with ease, it is said and believed at once that Duncombe is the man who has driven him out, and that he has given the first blow to that secret influence which has only been obscurely hinted at before and never openly attacked. These are great and important matters, far exceeding any consequences which the authors of the speech anticipated from its delivery at the time. And what are the agents who have produced such an effect? A man of ruined fortune and doubtful character, whose life has been spent on the race-course, at the gamingtable, and in the greenroom; of limited ca. pacity, exceedingly ignorant, and without any stock but his impudence to trade on, only speaking to serve an electioneering purpose, and crammed by another man with every thought and every word that he uttered. man of The ignorant majority of the world were right. Duncombe was a capacity, boldness, quickness, and decis Duncombe's speech on the second night was got up precisely in the same manner, and although it appeared to arise out of the debate and of those which preceded it, the matter had been all crammed into him by his invisible mentor. The amusement to him and to me (especially at the honours that have been thickly poured upon him and the noise which he has made in the world) is indescrib-ion. If his private life was to be held ably pungent. up to reprobation, we have yet to learn that his habits and pursuits differed materially from those of Greville and Lord de Ros. Nor is there anything extraordinary in the production of important men of ruined fortune. What were Mirabeau and Wilkes? But the journal teems with proofs that no such effects were produced on this occasion; that Knighton was not driven out; and that the secret influence continued unimpaired.* The subject had been dropped till what Greville calls the second night (Feb. 21st), when there was no debate, and no question before the House. Herries hav-effects through the instrumentality of ing risen to answer a question about the malt tax, said that "while he was on his legs, he might as well take the opportunity of removing one or two erroneous impressions that had gone abroad as to part of a statement he had made on a preceding evening." This brought up Duncombe, who briefly pointed out the disagreement between the explanation just given by Herries and the preceding one. The two or three sentences spoken by the "hero of the night" would be incorrectly described as a speech: the ministerial explanations were considered at an end; and no one could have guessed that Herries would reopen them on that or any other night to stultify himself. Now for the philosophical deduc-"Dear Friend, tion and the moral : Thus Duncombe and his speech have made what is called a great sensation, and he has the reputation (no matter whether justly or See vol. ii., pp. 144 and 154, quoted ante, p. 520. Knighton had started on one of his numerous foreign missions the day before Duncombe's speech. He returned shortly afterwards, and the attack is mentioned in his "Memoirs" as "having proved the means of establishing him still more firmly in the estimation of his sovereign and his friends." The letters to him from George IV. and the rest of the royal family printed in the Memoirs" materially vary the impression which Greville's entries convey. For example, during Knighton's illness: "For God's sake, for all our sakes, pray, pray take care of yourself, and do not think, upon any account, jaded and quite worn, and writing from my bed, where of stirring until to-morrow morning. It is true, I am I have lain down for a little; but to-morrow will te quite time enough. Little or no advance, I regret to An unsafe guide through the mazes of were to be their guide, and I had said, Gentlepolitical intrigue and supplying no trust-men, I shall use the following words, "Make worthy materials for history, Greville cannot be accepted as an authority for these episodes in our social annals, to which he recalls attention; at all events, the judgments he passes on the actors in them should be carefully collated with the facts. ready! Fire!"; when Mr. O'Connell, thinking that I had given the signal, through mistake, discharged his pistol. I then had a light in which that shot was to be considered, short discussion with Colonel Hodges as to the when Lord Alvanley desired me to waive the right I conceived he had to return the fire. May 17th, 1835. An exchange of shots then took place These elections and the without effect. O'Connell did not fire in affair between Alvanley and O'Connell have been the chief objects of attention; all the the air, as he should have done, and newspapers are full of details, which I need Damer then said that the affair should not put down here. Alvanley seems to have stop; but Hodges insisted on an apology behaved with great spirit and resolution. or another exchange of shots, to which There was a meeting at De Ros's house of Damer consented, to avoid (he said) all De Ros, Damer, Lord Worcester, and Dun- possibility of misapprehension. Having combe to consider what was to be done on the once agreed to regard the first shot as a receipt of Morgan O'Connell's letter, and nullity, he was obviously precluded from whether Alvanley should fight him or not. reverting to it; and the whole question Worcester and Duncombe were against fight-turns on whether he should have withing, the other two for it. Alvanley at once said that the boldest course was the best, and drawn his man after the first shot. he would go out. There was no such meeting. There was neither occasion nor time for it. According to Colonel Hodges' printed I was proceeding (writes Damer) to instruct the gentlemen concerned, as to the signals that say, has as yet been made amidst, almost perhaps, un ravelable perplexities. "Yours affectionately, St. James's Palace, Damer (writes Greville) seems to have been a very bad second, and probably lost his head : he ought not to have consented to the third execrated him in his heart when he found he shot upon any account. Alvanley says he had consented to it. Hodges acted like a ruffian, and had anything happened, he would have been hanged. The late Sir Robert Peel defined a good second to be one who would bring you off with flying colours or make you fight. Would Lord Alvanley have been brought off with flying colours had he been withdrawn? On the contrary, he would have been exposed to every sort of taunt and misrepresentation. This was a party duel, a class duel, a duel of defiance, and both he and his second judged rightly that, if it was to be fought at all, the boldest and most uncompromising mode of conducting it was the best. In the autumn of 1843, Lord Alvanley, Colonel Damer, and an English friend, were breakfasting in the public room of the Hôtel de Flandre, at Brussels, when Lord Alvanley quizzed Belgian officer so unmercifully, that the brave Belge "That fellow," left the table in a huff. said the friend, "will call you out." "And if he does," was the reply, “I'll have you for my second; for Damer and be d-d to him- let Morgan O'Connell have three shots to two." This possibly is the sort of execration which was uttered to Greville. In the course of the ensuing conversation Lord Alvanley expressed his high satisfaction at the manner in which the affair had been carried through. The House was in committee, and in a "The value of every story depends on Paul Methuen, Esq., M.P. for Wiltshire. its being true. A story is a picture of an It was to him that O'Connell made the memindividual, or of human nature in gener-orable, but somewhat profane retort, "Paul, al: if it be false, it is a picture of noth- Paul, why persecutest thou me?" ing." This was a favourite axiom of Johnson's, which seems to have had no weight with Greville or Mr. Reeve: Greville seldom, if ever, taking the trouble to verify a story or anecdote, whilst the editorial notes afford little aid in the correction or elucidation of the text. Lord Holland told stories of Lord Thurlow, whom he mimicks, they say, exactly. When Lord Mansfield died, Thurlow said, "I hesitated a long time between Kenyon and Buller. Kenyon was very intemperate, but Buller was so damned corrupt, and I thought upon the whole that intemperance was a less fault in a judge than corruption, not but what there was a damned deal of corruption in Kenyon's in temperance. half-sleepy state, when Kearsley, Tory member for Wigan, a coarse humourist, flustered with drink, began a rollicking defiance. Methuen, who had also the speech, setting all rules of decorum at appearance of having dined, rose repeatedly to call him to order, till Kearsley, who was short-sighted, put his glass to his eye, shook his head with mock solemnity, stretched out his arm to its full length, and spoke the words in a hollow sonorous tone. One of the most extraordinary scenes ever witnessed ensued: during several minutes the House was so convulsed with laughter that all serious Inglis, shocked by the profanity, being business was at a standstill; Sir Robert What added to the effect was the conthe only member who looked grave. and rotund, looked like a retired tallowtrast. Some one said Kearsley, short chandler, which he turned out to be. I hesitated long between the corruption of Methuen was a fine gentleman of the ReBuller and the intemperance of Kenyon. Not gency, with a shade of pomposity. Such but what there was a damned deal of intem-a retort from O'Connell, who, moreover, perance in Buller's corruption and a damned sat on the same side of the House as deal of corruption in Kenyon's intemperance. Methuen, would have excited a very difIn reference to the dispute between ferent feeling from laughter. Sir John Malcolm, governor of Bombay, and the judges of the Supreme Court, Mr. The vacancy (of the chief-justiceship) was created by the resignation of Lord Mansfield, who lived nearly five years afterwards, and the words which Lord Holland must have repeated, if he adopted the authentic version, were these: Reeve states: Lord Ellenborough took Malcolm's part with great eagerness, and said of the chief justice, Sir J. D. Grant, that "he would be like a wild elephant between two tame ones." This expression was long remembered as a joke against Lord Ellenborough. The joke must be unintelligible to those who do not know that Lord Ellenborough had just been sending out two new judges when he wrote, "Sir John Grant will be like a wild elephant led away between two tame ones.' "" Greville (January 12th, 1831) happening to set down that an envoy had been sent here from the Poles, Mr. Reeve appends this note: a This envoy was Count Alexander Walewski, natural son of the Emperor Napoleon, who afterwards played a considerable part in the affairs of France and of Europe, especially under the Second Empire. During his residence in London in 1831 he married Lady Caroline Montagu, a daughter of the Earl of Sandwich, but she did not live long. I remember calling upon him in St. James's Place, and seeing cards of invitation for Lady Grey's assemblies stuck in his glass. The fact is he was wonderfully handsome and agreeable, and soon became popular in London society. In a note on Sir Robert Adair, Mr. Reeve says: "It was he whom Canning Would it not have been more to the puronce called Bobadare-a-dool-fowla." It pose to state simply that the envoy was was he who was ridiculed in a celebrated Count Walewski, afterwards French amjeu d'esprit of the Anti-Facobin, entitled,bassador at the British court? Translation of a Letter (in Oriental Greville having mentioned the "Cateacharacters) from Bawba-dara-Adul-Phoola tonenses," Mr. Reeve has this note: (Bob Adair, a dull fool) to Neek-awlAretchid-Kooez (Nicholl, a wretched goose)." The "Muse Cateatonenses," a burlesque narrative of a supposed expedition of Mr. George Legge to Cateaton Street in search of Note on Paul, the first Lord Methu a Swiss chapel. Nothing can be more droll. The only copy I have seen is still at Saltram. en: T This jeu d'esprit (which fills a volume) was composed by Canning and his friends, one Easter recess they spent at Ashbourne. If this jeu d'esprit fills a volume, why is that volume called "Muse Cateatonenses?" Because, in addition to the narrative, it contains from twenty to thirty sets of verses on the expedition, which was undertaken by Lord Boringdon (the first Earl of Morley) and the Hon. and Rev. A. G. Legge, in search of a Swiss preacher; Canning having mystified them by saying that they would find one in Cateaton Street. The expedition was real, although the narrative was supposititious; and the whole point turns on its being joint. In explanation of Serjeant Spankie's repartee to the elector of Finsbury, Mr. Reeve says: Wakley's house was burnt, and he brought an action against the insurance office, which declined to pay his policy. I forget what was the result of the trial, but that of the evidence was a conviction of his instrumentality. The action was tried on the 21st June, 1821, before Lord Tenterden and a special jury, and the result was a verdict for the plaintiff for the full amount claimed, which was paid by the office with costs. On the 14th July, 1844, Mr. Wakley made so effective a reply to the imputation in the House of Commons, that the late Sir Robert Peel pronounced a decided opinion of its groundlessness. The charge having been revived in a medical journal, Mr. Wakly brought an action for libel, which (June, 1854) ended in a verdict, by consent, for the plaintiff and an apology. Note. - Hon. Frederick Byng, formerly of the Foreign Office, universally known at this time (1829) as "the Poodle," probably because he once kept a fine animal of that breed. Universally known to this hour under that name, notoriously because, when tilburys were the fashion, he used to drive one with a poodle seated by his side. A different but erroneous solution has gained currency from a comic French epitaph, in which he is mentioned as surnommé Poodle à cause de sa chevelure et sa fidélité." Speculating (June, 1829) on the causes which had kept Lord Palmerston back for twenty years, Greville says: The office he held was one of dull detail, and he never travelled out of it. He probably stood in awe of Canning and others, and was never in the Cabinet; but having lately held higher situations, and having acquired more confidence, he has launched forth, and with astonishing success. Lord Palmerston had been in three cabinets - Canning's, Lord Goderich's, and the duke's; and retained the same office, the secretaryship of war, the only office he ever held prior to 1830, under each. Mr. Reeve gives lists of five cabinets, or administrations, as he indiscriminately calls them; and four of his lists are wrong. His list of Canning's omits Lord Palmerston and includes Tierney; of the duke's (as originally constituted) omits Lord Palmerston; of Lord Grey's (as originally constituted) includes Lord John (Earl) Russell and the late Lord Derby, and omits Lords Holland and Carlisle; of Lord Melbourne's (1834) includes Edward Ellice. We should like to know where Mr. Reeve gets his lists. We are content with the Annual Register. The strangest of Mr. Reeve's notes is the one relating to Madame du Cayla which we cannot allow to grow into an authority, since we believe it to be uncharitable and unjust. Greville has told all that required to be told of this lady; her birth, her introduction to Louis XVIII., and the nature of their connection, saying no sexual expressly that "there was question in the matter, as what the king wanted was merely some one to whom he could tell everything, consult with on occasions, and with whom he could bandy literary trifles.” * But this does not sat isfy Mr. Reeve, whose note begins : Madame du Cayla had been the soi-disant mistress of Louis XVIII., or rather the favourite of his declining years. Il fallait une Esther, to use her own expression, à cet Assuérus. of Béranger, supposed to be addressed to the lady under the name of Octavie. One will suffice: Peins-nous ces feux, qu'en secret tu redoutes, The second line is printed in italics by Mr. Reeve. We have not a notion what it means; but the feux of the gouty old epicure could hardly have alarmed the lady or scandalized the arches. The note ends with what is meant for a philosophical reflection: It is curious that in 1829, the last mistress of a king of France should have visited London under the reign of the last mistress of a king of England. It is not usual, nor in accordance with the convenances, to apply this term to ladies who retain their position in society. Madame du Cayla came to England with the Duchesse d'Escars, and was received in all the best houses. It was not (as we have seen) Lady C. alone, but the whole C. family (husband, son, and daughter) that were domesticated in her royal friend's palaces. To point a story against George IV., Greville calls Lord Bathurst stone blind," knowing very well that he was only short-sighted. Twice over (uncorrected by Mr. Reeve) he calls Louis Philippe the descendant of Louis XIV. May 29th, 1829. - The day before yesterday there was a review for the Duke of Orleans; and the Marquis of Anglesey, who was there at the head of his regiment, contrived to get a tumble, but was not hurt. Last night at the ball the king said to Lord Anglesey, "Why, Paget, what's this I hear? they say you rolled off your horse at the review yesterday." The duke as he left the ground was immensely cheered, and the people thronged about his horse and would shake hands with him. It was the Duke of Wellington who got the tumble. He was riding at the head of his regiment, the Grenadier Guards, wearing the bearskin cap, which embarrassed him and led to the accident. At the next levée, the king, who was not sorry to have a hit at the duke, addressed Lord Anglesey loud enough for every one to bear: "Anglesey, you are not the man to fall off at the head of your regiment." The incident obtained great "Vous savez que je suis tombé de cheval, mais la même chose est arrivée à votre fameux Duc de Wellington." cliffe, culminating in the peerage and The career of Lord Stratford de Redthe Garter, is one of the most distinguished in the annals of diplomacy; and the refusal of the Russian court to receive him as resident ambassador in 1833 was really a compliment to his well-known firmness and sagacity. A similar compliment had been paid to Lord Macartney after a special mission to Russia, during which he was not found so pliable as could have been wished. The Emperor Nicholas distinctly stated that he had no personal objection to Lord Stratford, and the difficulty notoriously originated with Count Nesselrode and Ma dame de Lieven. This lady was, after all, the principal sufferer from the intrigue, being obliged to leave England whilst the Russian embassy was withdrawn. A story against Lord Stratford, told by her on the authority of a third person and dressed up by Greville, will hardly Elchee has no recollection of the dracommand implicit assent, and the great matic colloquy with M. Dedel of which the scene is laid in the ante-room of the Foreign Office. It was a rule with Lord Palmerston, from which he never deviated, to admit visitors in the order of arrival, without regard to rank, and it is not unlikely that this was explained by Lord Stratford to M. Dedel. We have the authority of another eminent diplomatist for denying what Greville has set down regarding him : Both the letters (which are extant in notoriety, and was long remembered. the French king's handwriting) are adWhen, in 1847, Lord Ponsonby pre-dressed as from king to king. sented his credentials to Ferdinand I. October 25th, 1830.-I told him (Arbuthnot) of Austria, the emperor said to him: to give a notion how meanly Aberdeen was |