Volume I Part 16 (1/2)

Yesterday the Duke dined with us, in very good spirits, and agreeable as he always is, though not so communicative and free as he used to be He had never told Francis Leveson about the Duke of Northumberland[26] till Sunday, when he wrote to announce the appointhtily pleased with it, and fancies that his figure and his fortune are ood Lord-Lieutenant He says he was obliged to coax hih, third Duke of Northumberland, was declared Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland on the recall of Lord Anglesey]

[Page Head: THE EMPEROR ALEXANDER I]

He said that he was on the best terms with France, talked of Russia and her losses in the war, adding that the notion of her poas at an end He believed that the Russians were nun, and they were much more numerous than they said: first, _because_ they said they were not so; and secondly, that he had other reasons for believing it; he thought they had begun the can with 160,000of St

Petersburg and its palaces The Duke said that the fortunes of the great Russian nobles--the Tolstoys, &c--were so direat palaces; but this ing to the division of property and the great military colonies, by which the Crown lands were absorbed, and the E the nobles by enormous donations as formerly When to these circumstances are added the aeneral ienerated by intercommunication with the rest of Europe, it is impossible to doubt that a revolution must overtake Russia within a short period, and probably the Eive vent to the restless hu to work I said so to Lord Bathurst, and he replied that 'he thought so too, but that the present Ereat firmness,' as if any individual authority or character could stem the torrent of deter and opinion He said the late Emperor was so well aware of this that he died of the vexation it had caused hireat measure himself the cause of it He was so bit by Liberal opinions, and so delighted with the effects he saw in other countries flowing froence and freedoerous exotics upon the rude and unprepared soil of his own slavish community When he went to Oxford he was so captivated with the venerable grandeur of that University that he declared he would build one when he got home, and it is equally true that he said he 'would have an Opposition' These follies were engendered in the brain of a very intelligent man by the mixture of such crudities with an unbounded volition, and the whole ferination and a sincere desire to confer great benefits on his country

[27] [This seems an extraordinary statement, but it shoell informed the Duke was In Major von Moltke's narrative of the cae force of the Russian army at 100,000 But from May 1828 to February 1829 no less than 210,108 h the hospitals, or died in them So that, as Moltke remarks, in the course of those ten months every man in his army ice in hospital Never did an army suffer more severely frolesey's departure froood I fancy George Villiers had so them The Duke when he dined with us the other day said that a Russian Extraordinary A here to overhaul Lieven, a M Matuscewitz He is the principal writer in their Foreign Office, a clever man Their despatches are more able than they used to be, but the Duke said that the Turkish offices are better conducted than any, and the Turkish Ministers extremely able Lord Bathurst told me he had lately read the minutes of a conversation between the Reis-Effendi and the Allied Ministers after the battle of Navarino, when they were ignorant whether the Turk had received intelligence of the event, and that his superiority over the This was the conference in which when they asked hi such an event had happened, what he should say to it,' he replied 'that in his country they never named a child till its sex was ascertained'

Everybody thinks the appointood one, and that the Duke is in great luck to get hio, but he probably likes to do soood sort of , an eternal talker, and prodigious bore The duchess is a ood-hus by her advice; he has no political opinions, and though he has hitherto voted against the Catholics, he is one of the people who pin their faith on the Duke, and who areas he may please to desire thereat noise, and it is generally believed that when Lord Anglesey refused to grant it the Duke got the King's sign manual for it, and the job was done

The truth is that Lord Anglesey had at first refused, or rather expressed his disapprobation, and asked the Duke if the King had coht have been sure he should not have reco's coranted four nac is gone to Paris, but the Duke thinks not to be Minister Polignac told hiht he could do e Head: THE STATE PAPER OFFICE]

Yesterday I ith Amyot to the State Paper Office to look afterto ister of the Council of State,'[28] which I mean to ask for, but which I suppose they will refuse Aests that as all the acts of the Council of State were illegal and of no authority they cannot be considered as belonging to the Council Office, and are merely historical records without an official character I shall try, however, to get thereat many curious papers When he first had the care of the State papers they were in the greatest confusion, and he has been diligently eht to light documents of importance and interest which as they are successively found are classed and arranged and rendered disposable for literary and historical purposes

[28] [Of the tiister' extends from the last years of Henry VIII to the present ti the Co to the Powder Plot alone sufficient to ly curious; all Garnett's original papers, and I hope hereafter they will be published[29] We saw the fale, of which Leht, discovered the author It has been attributed to Mrs Abington, Lord Mounteagle's sister, but he thinks it ritten by Mrs Vaux, as a friend of hers, and mistress, probably, of Garnett; it is to her that many of Garnett's letters are addressed It seereatof the conspirators at Hendlip, and he thinks that the latter, desirous of saving her brother's life, prevailed on Mrs Vaux to write the letter, for the handwriting exactly corresponds with so of hers which he has seen There is a re James with directions what questions should be put to Guy Faux, and ending with a recoently, and then ht be necessary Then the depositions of Faux in the Tohich had been taken down (contrary to his desire) in writing, and which he was conature ritten in faint and treth had evidently failed in the middle, for he had only written 'Guido' There is a distinct admission in the Plot papers in Garnett's own hand that he cae of the Plot otherwise than by the Sacraraph by which it is clear that the Pope knew of it; and a curious paper in which, having sworn that he had never written certain letters, which letters were produced when he was taxed with the false oath, Garnett boldly justifies hiht not to have questioned hi the letters in their hands, and that he had a right to deny what he believed they could not prove--a very remarkable exposition of the tenets of his order and the doctrines of equivocation

[29] [The substance of these papers has since been published by the late David Jardine, Esq, in his excellent 'Narrative of the Gunpowder Plot' (Murray, London, 1857) Some of the particulars here referred to by Mr

Greville are not strictly accurate, or at least have not been confiration It is not probable that the letter to Lord Mounteagle ritten by Mrs Abington or by Mrs Vaux, nor is it at all certain that either of these ladies had any knowledge of the Plot Mr Jardine ascribes the letter to Tresham ('Narrative,' &c, p 83) Garnett's ade of the Plot was derived from Greenway, a priest to whom Catesby had revealed it in confession

The Pope was probably not privy to the Plot The celebrated 'Treatise on Equivocation' was found in Tresham's desk The identical copy with Garnett's notes is still in the Bodleian; it was reprinted in 1851]

When I cae Dawson, and we had a long conversation about Irish affairs, froathered what is to be done The Catholic question is to be conceded, the elective franchise altered, and the association suppressed This latter is, I take it, to be a preli on Monday with the resolution of the Cabinet on the subject, and I think so the more because the Archbishop was sent for post-haste just before he went Dawson talked to reat deal about his speech at Derry, and said that so e in his opinions that he thought it more fair and manly to declare them at once in public than to use any dissiuessed at, as if he dared not own thereat sacrifice, for he had risked his seat, which was very secure before, and had quarrelled with Peel, with his family, and with all his old political friends and associates We talked a great deal about Peel, and I see clearly that he has given way; probably they have corees to the Emancipation part, in order to have the association suppressed and the 40s freeholders disfranchised Lord Anglesey always said that his removal would facilitate the business, for the Duke wished to have all the credit of it to himself, and had no lesey had remained the chief credit would have fallen to his share

[Page Head: NAVARINO]

I , and walked with hi to talk to the Duke about his Navarino business He is htily incensed, thinks he has been scandalously used both by Dudley and Aberdeen, is ready to tell his story and show his documents to anybody, and says he is resolved the whole matter shall come out, and in the House of Commons if he can produce it God kno his case will turn out, but I never saw a man so well satisfied with himself He says that the action at Navarino was, as an achieve to the affair at Patras, ith one line-of-battle shi+p, one frigate, and a corvette he drove before him Ibrahim and four Turkish admirals and a numerous fleet

February 4th, 1829 {p163}

Went to Middleton last Friday; very few people I returned by Oxford, and called on Dr Bandinell, who took me to the Bodleian

I could not find any Council books, but I had not much time to devote to the search Dr Bandinell promised to infor to my office I was surprised to find in the Bodleian a vast nued to Pepys I caht, and found that the concession of Catholic Eenerally known; the 'Times' had an article on Friday which clearly announced it The rage and despair of the Orange papers is very a took it all Glad as I a to be carried, the conduct of all those who are to assist in it (the old anti-Catholics) see opposed it against all reason and coton lifts up his finger they all obey, and without any excuse for their past or present conduct The reeable event, if it turns out to be true, is the defection of Dr Philpots, whose conduct and that of others of his profession will probably not be without its due effect in sapping the foundations of the Church All the details that I have yet learnt confirues approach this great , but a fearful sense of necessity and danger, to which they subnance and with thecompelled to adopt it The Duke and Peel wrote to Francis Leveson, co e Villiers[30] that they seriouslyhireatest degree! They are now exceedingly annoyed because it is discovered that Woulffe was once a ly have him turned out of the place of assistant-Barrister, which has just been given to him; but Francis is resolved to 's Speech to Lord Eldon

[30] [Mr George Villiers, then an Irish Commissioner of Customs (afterwards Earl of Clarendon), had cultivated the society of shi+el and invited hilish official to an Irish Catholic was at that time an unheard-of innovation shi+el told his host that he had never dined in a Protestant house before The Duke of Wellington took great ue at what he considered an unwarrantable breach of official decorue Head: CATHOLIC RELIEF BILL]