Volume I Part 18 (1/2)
[Page Head: DIVISION ON THE CATHOLIC RELIEF BILL]
March 8th, 1829 {p185}
Yesterday the list came out of those who had voted on the Catholic question, by which it appeared that several people had voted against the Government (particularly all the Lowthers) ere expected to vote with them, and of course this will be a test by which the Duke's strength and absoluteness ht that if he permits them to vote with i that Lowther and Birkett had resigned, but Lord Aberdeen, whom I met at dinner, said they had not at five o'clock yesterday evening It is, I think, iainst hiar Ellis's and ht Peel's speech extremely able and judicious He said that Lord Eldon had asserted that Mr Pitt's opinions had been changed on this question, which was entirely false, for he had been much more intimate with Mr Pitt than Lord Eldon ever was, and had repeatedly discussed the question with hihtest alteration in his senti it on because at thatreat deal of Fox and Pitt, and said that the natural disposition of the former was to arbitrary power and that of the latter to be a reformer, so that circumstances drove each into the course the other was intended for by nature Lord North's letter to Fox when he dis has ordered a new commission of the Treasury to be made out, in which I do not see your name' How dear this cost him and what an influence that note may have had on the affairs of the country and on Fox's subsequent life! They afterwards talked of the 'Cateatonenses' written by Canning, Frere, and G Ellis Lady Morley has a copy, which I am to see[4]
[4] [The 'Musae Cateatonenses,' a burlesque narrative of a supposed expedition of Mr George Legge to Cateaton Street in search of a Swiss chapel Nothing can be more droll The only copy I have seen is still at Saltram
This _jeu d'esprit_ (which fills a volu and his friends one Easter recess they spent at Ashbourne]
March 9th, 1829 {p186}
It was reported last night that there had been a compromise with Lowther, who is to retain his seat and to vote for the Bill in all its other stages But he dined at Crockford's, and told sonation and had received no answer I do not understand this indecision; they hly
'Thorough,' as Laud and Strafford used to say, _--I asked Lord Bathurst to-day if Lowther, &c, were out, and he said nothing had been done about it, that there was plenty of time Afterwards met Mrs Arbuthnot in the Park, and turned back with her She was all against their being turned out, from which I saw that they are to stay in We met Gosh, and I walked with them to the House of Commons We renewed the subject, and he said that he had been just asreat object was to carry the Bill, and if the Duke did not act with the greatest prudence and caution it would still be lost He hinted that the difficulties with the King are still great, and that he is in a state of exciteo mad It is pretty clear that the Duke cannot venture to turn them out In the meantime the Duke of cumberland continues at work Lord Bathurst told me that he went to Windsor on Saturday, that he had assured the King that great alarm prevailed in London, that the people were very violent, and that the Duke had been hissed by theto the House of Lords, all of which of course he believes The Duke is very unwell I think e Head: CATHOLIC RELIEF BILL]
March 11th, 1829 {p186}
The Duke was ood and stirring speech in answer to Lord Winchelsea, who disgusted all his own party by announcing himself an advocate for reform in Parliament It is now clear that Lowther, &c, are not to quit their places unless so supports them, and that the Duke does not venture to insist on their disot an idea that the Whigs want to make him quarrel with his old friends in order to render him more dependent upon them, and he is therefore anxious (as he thinks he can) to carry through thewith anybody, so that he will retain the support of the Tories and show the Whigs that he can do without the both unwise and illiberal He has already given some persons to understand that they _rant a dispensation to others, nor is there any necessity for _quarrelling_ with anybody Lowther himself evidently felt that he could not hold his office and oppose the ht accept his resignation with a very friendly explanation on the subject; eventually he would be certain to join Governain, for to what other party could he betake hi Lords have no taste for opposition Arbuthnot told , and when I told Mrs
Arbuthnot what a bad moral effect the Duke's lenity had, she said, 'Oh, you hear that froht in his speech, when he said he had the cordial support of his Majesty, he turned round with energy to the Duke of cumberland Several Peers upon one pretext or another have withdrawn the support they had intended to give to the Duke's Bill Fourteen Irish bishops are coainst this Bill, and lish bishops may by possibility be sincere and disinterested in their opposition (not that I believe they are), but nobody will ever believe that the Irish think of anything but their scandalous revenues The thing o; the only question is when and how The Kent petition to the King is to be presented, I believe, by Lords Winchelsea and Bexley; they would not entrust it to Peel Lord W wanted to march down to Windsor at the head of 25,000 men
March 14th, 1829 {p188}
Arbuthnot told the Duke as said about not turning out the refractory members, and he replied, 'I have undertaken this business, and I ah with it nobody knows the difficulties I have in dealing with my royal master, and nobody knows him so well as I do I will succeed, but I aht it out my oay' This would be very well if there were not other s and a desire to keep clear of theain when this is over Herries told Hyde Villiers that _their_ policy was conservative, that of the Whigs subversive, and that they never could act together All false, for nobody's policy is subversive who has reat reat body of the aristocracy of the country nobody seems to doubt that the Bill will pass The day before yesterday the Duke of Newcastle went to Windsor and had an audience Lord Bathurst toldhis own senti had made no answer
But as nobody was present they could not depend on the truth of this (which they had froed ave of it
March 15th, 1829 {p188}
The Duke of Newcastle ith the King an hour and a half or two hours After he had presented his petitions he pulled out a paper, which he read to the King His Majesty made him no answer, and desired him if he had any other coh the Duke of Wellington I dare say this is true, not because he says so, but because there has been no notice taken of the Duke's visit in any of the newspapers They now talk of thirteen bishops, and probablywith Governe Head: PERSONAL HABITS OF GEORGE IV]
March 16th to 17th, 1829
I received a , to tell me that he was sorry I had not dined with him the last time I was at Windsor, that he had intended to askthat all the Ministers dined there except Ellenborough, he had let ht not be the only h ever should dine in his house' I asked Lord Bathurst afterwards, to whoh, and he said that soiven the Kingcomplains that he is tired to death of all the people about him He is less violent about the Catholic question, tired of that too, and does not wish to hear any ets up till six in the afternoon
They come to him and open thecurtains at six or seven o'clock in the ; he breakfasts in bed, does whatever business he can be brought to transact in bed too, he reads every newspaper quite through, dozes three or four hours, gets up in tioes to bed between ten and eleven He sleeps very ill, and rings his bell forty tih a watch hangs close to him, he will have his _valet de chambre_ down rather than turn his head to look at it The salass of water; he won't stretch out his hand to get it His valets are nearly destroyed, and at last Lady Conynghaement by which they wait on him on alternate days
The service is stilltheir labours are incessant, and they cannot take off their clothes at night, and hardly lie down He is in good health, but irritable, and has been horribly annoyed by other matters besides the Catholic affair
March 18th, 1829 {p189}
I was at Windsor for the Council and the Recorder's report We waited above two hours; of course his Majesty did not get up till ere all there A small attendance in Council--the Duke, Bathurst, Aberdeen, Melville, and I think no other Cabinet Minister I sent for Batchelor, the King's _valet de cha conversation with him; he talked as if the walls had ears, but was anxious to tell 's life, and said he was nearly dead of it, that he was in high favour, and the King had given hie and some presents His Majesty has been worried to death, and has not yet made up his mind to the Catholic Bill (this man knows, I'll be bound) But what he hton I said to hiht not; he thought he was afraid of nobody but of Knighton, that he hated him, but that his influence and authority ithout any li could be done; that after hiham was all-powerful, but in entire subserviency to him; that she did not dare have anybody to dine there without previously ascertaining that Knighton would not disapprove of it; that he knew everything, and nobody dared say or do a thing of any sort without his permission There was a sort of hton, mixed with dislike, which was curious He is to call on me when he comes to London, and will, I dare say, tell ht, and heard of Sadler's speech[5] and read it It is certainly very clever, but better as reported than as it was delivered He sent the report to the 'Morning Journal' his and omitted others, and thereby improved it He is sixty-seven years old, and it is his maiden speech; certainly very remarkable and indicative of reatly struck by it
[5] [Mr Sadler, who had never sat in Parliament before, was returned by the Duke of Newcastle at this ti the Catholic Relief Bill, which he did with considerable ability]