Volume II Part 15 (2/2)
The Chancellor said, 'Sir, I believe there is soht not to have half of it, as he was Chancellor at the ti, 'then I will judge between you like Solo the Seal round and round), now do you cry heads or tails?' We all laughed, and the Chancellor said, 'Sir, I take the botto opened the two compartments of the Seal and said, 'Now, then, I ee, my silversmith, and desire him to convert the two halves each into a salver, with my arms on one side and yours on the other, and Lord Lyndhurst's the saive him the other, and both keep them as presents from me' The duchess of Kent will not attend the coronation, and there is a report that the King is unwilling to make all the Peers that are required; this is the current talk of the day
September 5th, 1831 {p189}
At Gorhambury since Saturday; the Harrowbys, Bathursts, Frankland Lewes's, Lady Jersey, Mahon, Lushi+ngton, Wortleys; rather agreeable and lively; all anti-Reforh Lord Harrowby is ready to squabble with anybody either way, but furiously against the Bill
Septeton yesterday; thirty-one people, very handso all dinner ti I never saw before I sat next to Esterhazy and talked to hiian affairs He said Talleyrand had given positive assurances that the French troops should be withdrahenever the Dutch retired, that the other Poere aware of Perier's difficulties, and were ready to concede much to keep him in power, but that if he had not sufficient influence to repress the violent war faction there was no use in endeavouring to support him Our Govern in their ree Head: ANECDOTES OF GEORGE IV]
After dinner I had ood deal about the late King and the duchess of Kent; talked of his extravagance and love of spending, provided that it was not his own money that he spent; he told an old story he had heard of Mrs Fitzherbert's being obliged to borrow money for his post-horses to take hi to h's[7] entreaty he allowed some box to be searched that 3,000 was found in it He always had money When he died they found 10,000 in his boxes, and old There were about 500 pocket-books, of different dates, and in every one uineas, one pound notes, one, two, or three in each There never was anything like the quantity of trinkets and trash that they found He had never given away or parted with anything There was a prodigious quantity of hair--woths, so to theot at balls, and with the perspiration still ers, notes and letters in abundance, but not much that was of any political consequence, and the whole was destroyed Of his will he said that it was made in 1823 by Lord Eldon, very well drawn, that he desired his executors acies as he ht bequeath in any codicils he should ot all as heir-at-law Knighton had ood deal of h theof his love of ordering and expense, said that when he was to ride at the last coronation the King said, 'You must have a very fine saddle' 'What sort of saddle does your Majesty wish ly Cuffe went to him, and the Duke had to pay so and Queen with their _cortege_ are passing down to Westrand procession, a fine day, an ireat acclaed his race-horses; he was e Head: THE ducheSS OF KENT]
We then talked of the duchess of Kent, and I asked him why she set herself in such opposition to the Court He said that Sir John Conroy was her adviser, that he was sure of it What he then told ht upon her ill-hu-headedness In the first place the late King disliked her; the Duke of cureat a despot as ever lived, was always talking of taking her child from her, which he inevitably would have done but for the Duke, ishi+ng to prevent quarrels, did all in his power to deter the King, not by opposing hi the thing off as well as he could
However, when the duchess of cumberland came over, and there was a question how the Royal Faht reconcile the cu her to be civil to the duchess of cumberland, so he desired Leopold to advise his sister (as in the country) froly to write to the duchess of cu absent on her arrival, and so prevented fro on her The duchess sent Leopold back to the Duke to ask why he gave her this advice? The Duke replied that he should not say why, that he knew ave her this advice for her own benefit, and again repeated that she had better act on it
The duchess said she was ready to give hih he would not say what his reasons were, and she did as he suggested This succeeded, and the Duke of cumberland ceased to blow the coals Matters went on quietly till the King died As soon as he was dead the duchess of Kent wrote to the Duke, and desired that she er Princess of Wales, with a suitable incoht be treated as Heiress Apparent, and that she should have the sole control over the allowance to be ether inad anything for her till the 's Civil List were settled, but that she ht rely upon it that no measure which affected her in any way should be considered without being iiven her At this it appears she took great offence, for she did not speak to hiency Bill was fra's leave to wait upon the duchess of Kent and show it to her, to which his Majesty assented, and accordingly he wrote to her to say he would call upon her the next day with the draft of the Bill She was at Claremont, and sent word that she was out of town, but desired he would send it to her in the country He said she ought to have sent Sir John Conroy to hio to her at Claremont, which he would have done, but he wrote her word that he could not explain by letter so fully what he had to say as he could have done in a personal interview, but he would do so as well as he could In the ht on the measure in the House of Lords, and she sent Conroy up to hear him He returned to Claremont just after the duchess had received the Duke's letter Since that he has dined with her
[Ito announce his arrival at the Abbey, andeleven; at eleven it was announced that he would be there]
His Majesty, I hear, was in great ill-humour at the levee yesterday; contrary to his usual custoave no audiences, but at ten minutes after one flounced into the levee room; not one Minister was come but the Duke of Richmond
Talleyrand and Esterhazy alone of the _Corps Diplomatique_ were in the next roo his cap on his head, and sent for the officer on guard, as not arrived, at which he expressed great ire It is supposed that the peerages have put hi about theh their patents are not made out, and the new Peers are no more Peers than I am, he desired thee Colonel Berkeley askedhad desired of hi, and he said he would go to the Chancellor and ask hi in Westh it is not yet acknowledged if it be so There has been a battle about that; they say that he got his boroughs to be ot rid of theton had been made Marquis of Cleveland in 1827, and was raised to the dukedom in January 1833]
September 17th, 1831 {p193}
The coronation went off well, and whereas nobody was satisfied before it everybody was after it No events of consequence The cholera has got to Berlin, and Warsaw is taken by the Russians, who appear to have behaved with n of clubs and mobs and the perpetration of massacres at Warsaw, the public syood deal fallen off The cholera, which is travelling south, is less violent than it was in the north It is remarkable that the coe belief that possessed those of St Petersburg that they have been poisoned, and Chad writes to-day that they believe there is no such disease, and that the deaths ascribed to that malady are produced by poison administered by the doctors, who are bribed for that purpose; that the rich finding the poor becooverned have adopted thisthe population, which was en doctors are the delegates of a central cos, and sie Head: A DINNER AT ST JAMES'S]
The talk of the town has been about the King and a toast he gave at a great dinner at St Jauests--all his Ministers, all the great people, and all the foreign A speech in French, and ended by giving as 'a sentiment,' as he called it, 'The land we live in' This was before the ladies left the rooone he made another speech in French, in the course of which he travelled over every variety of topic that suggested itself to his excursive mind, and ended with a very coarse toast and the words 'Honi soit qui mal y pense' Sefton, who told it me said he never felt so ashamed; Lord Grey was ready to sink into the earth; everybody laughed of course, and Sefton, who sat next to Talleyrand, said to him, 'Eh bien, que pensez-vous de cela?' With his unmoved, immovable face he answered only, 'C'est bien remarquable'
In the meantime Reform, which has subsided into a cal its terets near the period of a fresh caitation is a little reviving The 'Ti heaven and earth to stir up the country and intih already The general opinion at present is that the Peers created at the coronation will not be enough to carry the Bill (they are a set of horrid rubbish most of them), but that no more will be made at present; that the Opposition, if united, will be strong enough to throw out the Bill, but that they are so divided in opinion whether to oppose the Bill on the second reading or in Committee that this dissension will very likely enable it to pass Up to this tireed upon, but there would have been one convened by the Duke of Wellington but for Lady Mornington's death, and this week they will arrange their plan of operations Froham and Grey direct him) I conclude that the Government are resolved the Bill shall pass, that if it is thrown out they will do what the Tories recommended, and make as many Peers as may be sufficient, for he said the other day he would rather it was thrown out on the second reading than pass by a sone so far is not unwise) and the feeling out of doors, pass it un to divide the counties, and have set up an office with clerks, maps, &c, in the Council Office, and there the Committee sit every day
Stoke, September 18th, 1831 {p194}
I came here yesterday with the Chancellor, Creevey, Luttrell, ha I got a letter fro for a copy of the proceedings in Council on the usta Murray The Chancellor told ustus d'Este had behaved very ill, having filed a bill in Chancery, into which he had put all his father's love letters, written thirty years ago, to perpetuate evidence; that it was all done without the Duke of Sussex's consent, but that D'Este had got Lushi+ngton's opinion that the e Act only applied to es contracted here, whereas this was contracted at Roreat authority, but that he had no doubt he rong The King is exceedingly annoyed at it
September 19th, 1831 {p195}