The Greville Memoirs, Part 1 (of 3), Volume 2 (of 3): A Journal of the Reigns of King George IV and King William IVGreville, Charles
History
The Greville Memoirs, Part 1 (of 3), Volume 2 (of 3): A Journal of the Reigns of King George IV and King William IV
Greville, Charles
Great Britain -- History -- George IV, 1820-1830; Great Britain -- History -- William IV, 1830-1837
The last two or three days I have been settling everything for
the coronation,[7] which is to be confined to the ceremony in the
Abbey and cost as little money and as little trouble as possible;
and yesterday I was the medium of great civilities from Lord Grey
to the Duke. He desired me to go to the Duke and show him the
course of proceeding we mean to adopt, and request him to make
any suggestion that occurred to him, and to enquire if he would
have any objection to attend the Council at which it is to be
formally settled on Wednesday, to which Peel and Rosslyn are
likewise invited. I spoke to the Duke and Peel, and they will
both come. All this is mighty polite.
[7] [The arrangements for coronations are made by a
Committee of the Privy Council, which sits as a Court
of Claims.]
They have made a fine business of Cobbett's trial; his insolence
and violence were past endurance, but he made an able speech. The
Chief Justice was very timid, and favoured and complimented him
throughout; very unlike what Ellenborough would have done. The
jury were shut up the whole night, and in the morning the Chief
Justice, without consulting either party, discharged them, which
was probably on the whole the best that could be done. Denman told
me that he expected they would have acquitted him without leaving
the box, and this principally on account of Brougham's evidence,
for Cobbett brought the Chancellor forward and made him prove that
_after_ these very writings, and while this prosecution was
hanging over him, Brougham wrote to his son 'Dear Sir,' and
requesting he would ask his father for some former publications of
his, which he thought would be of great use on the present
occasion in quieting the labourers. This made a great impression,
and the Attorney-General never knew one word of the letter till he
heard it in evidence, the Chancellor having flourished it off, as
is his custom, and then quite forgotten it. The Attorney told me
that Gurney overheard one juryman say to another, 'Don't you think
we had better stop the case? It is useless to go on.' The other,
however, declared for hearing it out, so on the whole it ended as
well as it might, just better than an acquittal, and that is all.
July 11th, 1831 {p.158}
Dined with Lord Grey yesterday. In the middle of dinner
Talleyrand got a letter announcing that Leopold's conditional
acceptance of the Belgian throne had been agreed to by a great
majority of the Chamber; and a Mr. Walker, who brought the news
(and left Brussels at five o'clock the day before), came to Lord
Grey and told him with what enthusiasm it had been received
there. Lord Grey wrote to the Chancellor, with whom Leopold was
dining, to tell him of the event.
[Page Head: WELLINGTON AND THE GOVERNMENT.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account