Volume I Part 1 (1/2)

The Greville Memoirs

by Charles C F Greville

VOL 1

PREFACE

BY THE EDITOR

The Author of these Journals requested me, in January 1865, a few days before his death, to take charge of them with a view to publication at some future ti that Meht not, in his opinion, to be locked up until they had lost their principal interest by the death of all those who had taken any part in the events they describe He placed several of the earlier volu brother and executor, Mr Henry Greville, his desire that the reiven me for this purpose The injunction was at once complied with after Mr Charles Greville's death, and this interesting deposit has now remained for nearly ten years in h to remove every reasonable objection to the publication of a contemporary record of events already separated froer interval, for the transactions related in these volumes commence in 1818 and end in 1837 I therefore commit to the press that portion of these Me Willia with the Accession of her present Majesty

In accepting the trust and deposit which Mr Greville thought fit to place in my hands, I felt, and still feel, that I undertook a task and a duty of considerable responsibility; but from the time and the manner in which it was offered me I could not decline it

I had lived for more than five-and-twenty years in the daily intercourse of official life and private friendshi+p with Mr

Greville Sir George Cornewall Lewis, to whom he had previously intended to leave these Journals, died before hiretted on so many accounts, Mr Greville did me the honour to select me for the performance of this duty, which was unexpected by ratitude to him for numberless acts of kindness and marks of confidence bound me by every consideration to obey and execute the wishes of e of this trust I have been guided by no other motive than the desire to present these Memorials to the world in a manner which their Author would not have disapproved, and in strict conformity with his oishes and injunctions He hireat care He had studiously o to private persons or affairs, which could only serve to gratify the love of idle gossip and scandal The Journals contain absolutely nothing relating to his own fa to his private life In a passage (not now published) of his oritings, the Author re, should be written without the slightest reference to publication, but without any fear of it: it should be the transcript of aI always contemplate the possibility that hereafter ard with alar matters about myself which nobody will care to know' (January 2nd, 1838)

These notes were designed chiefly to preserve a record of the less known causes and details of public events which came under the Author's observation, and they are interspersed with the conversations of many of the eminent men hom he associated

But it must be borne in mind that they are essentially what they profess to be--a _contemporary_ record of facts and opinions, not altered or made up to square with subsequent experience Hence soiven in the shape they assus are at variance (as he hies and points out) with those at which the writer afterwards arrived on the sa around us vary so rapidly and so continually, that a contemporary record of opinion, honestly preserved, differs very widely froment of history must be based upon contemporary evidence It was remarked by an acute observer to Mr Greville himself, that the _nuances_ in political society are so delicate and nuht at the ain That is the charenuine conte qualities in the mind of Mr Greville were the love of truth and the love of justice His natural curiosity, which led hireat eagerness, was stiin, and to award to everyone, with judicial impartiality, what appeared to him to be a just share of responsibility

Without the passions or the motives of a party politician, he ardently syress and Conservative improvement, or, as he himself expresses it, with Conservative principles on a Liberal basis He was equally opposed to the prejudices of the old Tory aristocracy, aht up, and to the ie which achieved in his time so many vast and various triumphs His own position, partly from the nature of the permanent office he held in the Privy Council, and partly from his personal intimacies with men of very opposite opinions, was a neutral one; but he used that neutral position with consument and address to remove obstacles, to allay irritations, to compose differences, and to promote, as far as lay in his power, the public welfare Contented with his own social position, he was alike free from ambition and fro ain or to lose by theeticallybut their justice and their truth I trust that I do not deceive myself in the belief that the impressions of such aaround hiht to possess a peroverned by no party standard will appear to a certain extent to be fluctuating and even inconsistent I have not thought it consistent with my duty as the Editor of these papers to suppress or modify any of the statements or opinions of their Author on public men or public events; nor do I hold myself in any way responsible for the tenor of theht harsh and severe, and soated by himself But those who enter public life subment of their contemporaries and of posterity, and this is especially true of those who fill the most exalted stations in society Every act, alht home to them leaves its mark, and those who come after them cannot complain that this mark is as indelible as their faht toto persons and occurrences in private life, in which I have sought to publish nothing which could give pain or annoyance to persons still alive

It will be observed that these Journals begin in the year 1818, when Mr Greville was barely twenty-four years of age, and indeed I possess soht desirable to include in this publication At that age Mr

Greville had but a short experience of life, without the opportunities of information which he subsequently enjoyed; consequently the first two or three chapters of the first volume are of secondary interest, and the political value of the work begins with the retirement of Lord Liverpool But it is by his own express desire that these chapters are retained to co to the Duke of York and to the Queen's trial are not without interest As the Author advanced in life his narrative increases in value both in substance and in style, and the most important portion of it is that which must at present be reserved for future publication

Of the Author of these Journals it may suffice to say that Charles Cavendish Fulke Greville was the eldest of the three sons of Charles Greville (as grandson of the fifth Lord Warwick), by Lady Charlotte Cavendish Bentinck, eldest daughter of Williareat offices of State He was born on the 2nd of April, 1794 Much of his childhood was spent at his grandfather's house at Bulstrode

He was educated at Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford; but he left the University early, having been appointed private secretary to Earl Bathurst before he enty

The influence of the Duke of Portland obtained for him early in life the sinecure appointment of the Secretaryshi+p of Ja performed by deputy, and likewise the reversion of the Clerkshi+p of the Council He entered in 1821 upon the duties of Clerk of the Council in Ordinary, which he discharged for nearly forty years During the last twenty years of his life Mr Greville occupied a suite of rooms in the house of Earl Granville in Bruton Street, and there, on the 18th of January, 1865, he expired I ith hi until he retired to rest; from that sleep he never woke

No additions whatever have been es occasionally interposed in a parenthesis, at a later date, to correct or comment upon a previous statement, are all by the hand of the Author So likewise are the notes distinguished by no mark For the notes included in brackets []

the Editor is responsible

Henry Reeve

October 1st, 1874