Volume I Part 21 (1/2)

The Recorder's report--Manners of George IV--Intrigues of the Duke of cumberland--Insults Lady Lyndhurst--Deacon Hume at the Board of Trade--Quarrel between the Duke of cumberland and the Lord Chancellor--A Bad Season--Prostration of Turkey--France under Polignac--State of Ireland--Mr Windhaht--Junius--A Man without Money--Court- Journal'-- Physical Courage of the King--A Charade at Chatsworth--Huskisson and the Duke--Irish Trials--Tom Moore--Scott--Byron--fanny Kemble--Sir James Mackintosh--His Conversation--Black Irishe IV and Mr Deneance at Niagara--Count Woronzow--Lord Glengall's Play--The Recorder's Report

July 21st, 1829 {p221}

There was a Council last Thursday, and the heaviest Recorder's report that was ever known, I believe; seven people left for execution The King cannot bear this, and is always leaning to the side of mercy Lord Tenterden, however, is for severity, and the Recorder still more so It not unfrequently happens that a culprit escapes owing to the scruples of the King; sometimes he put the question of life or death to the vote, and it is decided by the voices of the ave audiences until half-past four He received Madame du Cayla, whom he was very curious to see She told ood looks, and seemed particularly to have been struck with his 'belles jaee;' and I asked her if she had ever seen him before, and she said no, 'mais que le feu Roi lui en avait souvent parle, et de ses belles manieres, qu'en verite elle les avait trouvees parfaites' There was a reigning Margrave of Baden waiting for an audience in the room we assembled in nobody took much notice of hiround, bow after bohen he went away nobody attended him or opened the door for him

July 24th, 1829 {p222}

The accounts fro but ot up by the Protestants, who desire nothing so much as to provoke the Catholics into acts of violence and outrage They want a y and determination ill cause the law to be respected and ilesey was there, it is very probable these outrages would not have taken place, but no one cares for such a e Head: INTRIGUES OF THE DUKE OF cu all he can to set the King against the Duke; he always calls hiry at first, and he desired he would not, but he calls hi sub alone; the duchess of Gloucester complains bitterly of his conduct, and the way in which he thrusts himself in when she is with his Majesty The other day Count Munster ca, and the Duke of cumberland was determined he should not have a private audience, and stayed in the rooham, and she him

They put about that he has been pressed to stay here by the King, which is not true; the King would ton told , and he said, 'I a fifty tioes at all, I have not the least idea'

He is now verywill not talk politics with him His Majesty wants to be quiet, and is tired of all the Duke's violence and his constant attacks

August 8th, 1829 {p222}

There is a story current about the Duke of cumberland and Lady Lyndhurst which is more true than rossly insulted her; on which, after a scrao away, but before he did he said, 'By God, madam, I will be the ruin of you and your husband, and will not rest till I have destroyed you both'

Vesey Fitzgerald has turned out the Chief Clerk in the Board of Trade, and put in Hume[1] as assistant Secretary He told me it was absolutely necessary, as nobody in the Office knew anything of its business, which is, I believe, very true, but as true of himself as of the rest Hume is a very clever man, and probably knows more of the principles of trade and commerce than anybody, but so it is in every departnorance on the part of the chiefs, and a few obscure men of industry and ability who do the business and supply the knowledge requisite, _sic vos non vobis_ throughout

[1] [Mr Deacon Hume, a very able public servant He remained at the Board of Trade many years]

O'Connell was elected without opposition; he was more violent and nity, and then they complain of his violence; besides, he must speak to the Irish in the strain to which they have been used and which pleases them Had he never been violent, he would not be the man he is, and Ireland would not have been ee Head: QUARREL OF cuust 18th, 1829 {p223}

Last Saturday I came back from Goodwood, and called on Lady Jersey, whom I found very curious about a correspondence which she told me had taken place between the Duke of curaph which had appeared in the 'Age,' stating that his Royal Highness had been turned out of Lady Lyndhurst's house in consequence of having insulted her in it She said she was very anxious to see the letter, for she heard that the Duke had much the best of it, and that the Chancellor's letter was evasive and Jesuitical The next day I was informed of the details of this affair I found that the Duke had called upon her and had been denied; that he had complained half in jest, and half in earnest, to the Chancellor of her not letting him in; that on a subsequent day he had called so early that no orders had been given to the porter, and he was let in; that his e had been equally brutal and offensive; that he afterwards went off upon politics, and abused the whole Administration, and particularly the Chancellor, and after staying two or three hours, insulting and offending her in every way, he took hi, when he attacked her again She treated hi to say to him

Yesterday I met the Chancellor at the Castle at a Council He took me aside, and said that he wished to tell me what had passed, and to show an, and said that after the Duke's visit Lady L had told the Chancellor of his abuse of hi it was better not to tell hi position, and contenting herself with saying she would never receive the Duke again upon the other grounds, which were quite sufficient; but that some time after reports reached her from various quarters (Lord Grey, Lord Durham, Lord Dudley, and several others) that the Duke went about talking of her in thethis, she thought it right to tell the Chancellor the other part of his conduct which she had hitherto concealed, and this she did in general terms, viz that he had been very insolent and ly incensed, but he said after ht it better to let thetime had elapsed since the offence was committed; all communication had ceased between all the parties; and he felt the ridicule and inconvenience of putting hih office he did) in personal collision with a Royal Duke, besides the annoyance which it would be to Lady Lyndhurst to become publicly the subject of such a quarrel There, then, he let the o he received a letter fro a newspaper to this effect, as well as I can recollect it, for I was obliged to read the letter in such a hurried way that I could not bring the exact contents aiththeir sense:--

'My Lord,--I think it necessary to enclose to your Lordshi+p a newspaper containing a paragraph which I have marked, and which relates to a pretended transaction in your Lordshi+p's house I think it necessary and proper to contradict this stateross falsehood, and I wish, therefore, to have the authority of Lady Lyndhurst for contradicting it

'I am, my Lord, yours sincerely, 'Ernest'

This was the sense of the letter, though it was not so worded; it was civil enough The Chancellor answered:--'The Lord Chancellor with his duty begs to acknowledge the favour of your Royal Highness's letter The Lord Chancellor had never seen the paragraph to which your Royal Highness alludes, and which he regards with theit as one of that series of calumnies to which Lady Lyndhurst has been for some time exposed froth learnt to regard with the conteht it better to let theany discussion on the subject, and that the Duke raph hiain:--'My Lord,--I have received your Lordshi+p's anshich is not so explicit as I have a right to expect I repeat again that the stateht to require Lady Lyndhurst's sanction to the contradiction which I think it necessary to give to it' This letter ritten in a more impertinent style than the other On the receipt of it the Chancellor consulted the Duke of Wellington, and the Duke suggested the following anshich the Chancellor sent:--'The Lord Chancellor has had the honour of receiving your Royal Highness's letter of ---- The Lord Chancellor does not conceive it necessary to annoy Lady Lyndhurst by troubling her upon the subject, and hat relates to your Royal Highness the Lord Chancellor has no concern whatever; but with regard to that part which states that your Royal Highness had been excluded from the Lord Chancellor's house, there could be no question that the respect and grateful attachment which both the Chancellor and Lady Lyndhurst felt to their Sovereign n should ever be turned out of his house' To this the Duke wrote another letter, in a very sneering and i to the _loose reports_ which had been current on the subject, and saying that 'the Chancellorto speak to Lady Lyndhurst on the subject;' to which the Chancellor replied that 'he knew nothing of any loose reports, but that if there were any, in whatever quarter they inated, which went to affect the conduct of Lady Lyndhurst in the matter in question, they were most false, foul, and calumnious' So ended the correspondence; all these latter expressions were intended to apply to the Duke himself, who is the person who spread the _loose reports_ and told the lies about her When she first denied him, she told Lord Bathurst of it, who assured her she had done quite right, and that she had better never let him in, for if she did he would surely invent some lies about her Last Sunday week the Chancellor went down to Windsor, and laid the whole correspondence before the King, who received him very well, and approved of what he had done; but of course when he saw the Duke of cumberland and heard his story, he concurred in all his abuse of the Chancellor I think the Chancellor treated the matter in the best way the case adned his office and called the Duke out, and what a mixture of folly and scandal this would have been, and how the woe Head: QUARREL OF cuust 22nd, 1829 {p226}

The day before yesterday Sir Henry Cooke called on me, and told me that he came on the part of the Duke of cumberland, who had heard that I had seen the correspondence, and that I had given an account of it which was unfavourable to hihness wished me, therefore, to call on him and hear his statement of the facts Cooke then entered into the history, and told inally acquainted the Duke with the reports which were current about him, and had advised him to contradict the it up till this paragraph appeared in the 'Age'

newspaper; that the Duke had given him an account of what had passed, which was that Lady Lyndhurst had begged him to call upon her, then to dine with her, and upon every occasion had encouraged hi on the Duke As I wished, however, that there should be no misrepresentation in what I said on the subject, I wrote a letter to Cooke, to be laid before the Duke, in which I gave an account of the circumstances under which I had been concerned in the business, stating that I had not expressed any opinion of the conduct of the parties, and that I did not wish to be in any way mixed up in it After I had seen Cooke I went to the Chancellor and readthe two last letters that had passed; and as Cooke had told o to Windsor the next day and lay the whole correspondence before the King, the Chancellor ier with the two letters which the King had not seen

The Chancellor has since circulated the correspondence anified a desire to subh at the

August 25th, 1829 {p227}