Part 19

The _séjour_ of this place has little to recommend it in the way of drives or walks, as the confinement of a garrison town is inconvenient for either, and indeed the whole neighbourhood more or less partakes of the stir and din of war. We see a few naval and military persons. General Whetham, the Lt.-Governor, a sprightly man, who talks good French, and has a superficial smattering of the light reading in that language; he was wounded in Flanders, and is a great favourite upon the Terrace at Windsor. Capt. G. Moore,[355] the brother of the General, whose good sense seems to have been bestowed in a fair division upon him, is a pleasing, well-informed, manly, gentlemanlike person. They are an affectionate, united family, and full of amiable qualities; he alluded to Sir John with feeling, his eyes were full of tears when in the course of some conversation he mentioned the narrative written by his brother James.[356] He told me that had the General lived to return and lay aside his command, it was his opinion that an explanation must have taken place with Frere, as the gross personality and insulting language in his correspondence must have been apologised for or determined(?) in some decisive manner. Capt. Moore was at Lisbon when the Court embarked for the _Brésils_, and accompanied the Portuguese squadron thither, having on board many of the attendants and dependants of the Prince Regent.

_21st Sept., 1810._--Capt. Moore told us that one day at Rio Janeiro when Sr. Sidney Smith presented Capt. Schomberg to the Prince Regent, the Prince said he was exceedingly happy to see Capt. S. again, as he was the first Englishman he had seen after he left Lisbon.[357] This was said by the Prince in a particularly marked manner, as if he meant it to convey an indirect contradiction of Ld. Strangford’s account in the Gazette of what passed on that occasion. Capt. Schomberg was Sir S. Smith’s Captain when the Portuguese Court embarked for _Brésil_, and was sent in a boat to the Prince’s ship, on board of which he went after it was on the outside of the bar. Sir S. Smith and Ld. Strangford went afterwards on board the P.’s ship together. Capt. Moore is persuaded that Strangford never saw the P. R. till he went on board of his ship with Sir Sidney. Capt. Moore saw the _Confiance_, on board of which was Ld. S., attempting the night before to get over the bar, and observed to someone near him that Yeo (the commander of the _Confiance_) would not get to Lisbon before it was dark. The Prince weighed anchor next morning before it was light. We knew from Setaro how Strangford passed that night, and that the Prince had left his palace and embarked with an intention of sailing with the first fair wind two days before.

We have also seen Don Tomaso Blanco, the 2nd-in-command on board the _Algescias_; he is the cousin of the author of the _Español_. He gave me the news of Mde. Ariza having returned to Madrid, where she was acting a considerable part owing to the influence she possesses over Urquijo.[358] He was a dependent originally of the Alba family, and owed his station in life to their favour and influence, which she now avails herself of by claiming in return his protection. The Town Major, who is under our roof, dined with us. Ld. Amelius Beauclerk,[359] a nephew of Ld. Bessboro’s, and very like a Cavendish in his appearance and demeanour. Capt. Irwin, the commander of the _Puissant_, a sheer hulk, on board of which Charles was mustered during the period of his residence at Dr. Burney’s at Gosport.

[Sidenote: THE FRENCH PRISONERS]

Great alarm prevails amongst those military in office, such as General Whetham and Sr. Roger Curtis,[360] in regard to the French prisoners. There are 17,000 at Gosport, and, in the hulks 4000 convicts lie very close to them, and Governt., by some strange mismanagement, has allowed French officers on their parole to live in this neighbourhood. They say there is a general system of organisation, that each officer has his corps, that a correspondence is maintained between them and Napoleon’s Govt., and that it is his policy to keep them in this country so that they might assist him in the case of an invasion. There was in the winter 40,000 prisoners; the number is increased to 70,000 at present.

We drive and walk out in the morning, and our evenings are usually employed in reading or hearing Mr. Dumont read French. The _Lively_ was wrecked on the rocks near Malta; the fault is ascribed to the Lieut. of the watch and the Master. The former neglected his official duty of apprising the captain when they made land. This accident happened early in Sept.; it made my heart ache, notwithstanding Charles is safely deposited in another ship. Capt. Stewart, of the _Seahorse_, now stationed at Palermo, to whom Charles was recommended by Gen. Fox and Ld. Keith (it being our intention that he should join him in the Mediterranean), being apprised of his sailing in the _Lively_, immediately upon hearing she was wrecked sent express to Malta to order him a supply of money and proper equipment, and also to secure a speedy passage from thence to him. All this was done in a most obliging and gentlemanlike manner, so as to leave a strong desire upon my mind of returning the civility whenever any opportunity should occur.

He describes the situation of Sicily as insecure, and the prospect of a speedy and inglorious termination to our career in it.[361] The Queen is hostile to the English; which she manifests in every way by opposing all propositions for the defence of the Island, by influencing the inhabitants in ascribing to their profuseness and extravagance the high prices of all the articles of life, and by maintaining a correspondence with the enemy’s Courts in Italy. Murat, with his 40,000 men, was encamped within sight, and whenever the Toulon fleet can assist him a descent may be expected upon the Island, and already the blockading fleet has been driven twice from Toulon as far down as Nice. I have also a letter from Lady Amherst[362] written in great trepidation.

Miss Fox and Miss Vernon came to us; we lodged them in a tolerable apartment in the High Street; they arrived on the 10th October.

On Saturday, 13th, we set off to spend a few days at Mr. Beauclerk’s. Slept one night in our way at Arundel Castle. The alterations are not completed, the whole is done upon a grand scale, but without much taste, and without any comfort. The party was very numerous and far from select, a _mêlée_ of neighbours and various dependents. Sr. Arthur Pigott[363] was the only person I was acquainted with. Met at Beau.’s, Major Capel. He was in the Galician campaign, and considered the retreat as so disgraceful, that had the Commander survived many general officers, for their own justification, would have insisted upon inquiry.

News of the brilliant repulse of the French at Busaco brought by the _Apollo_ in 100 hours from the Tagus.[364]

Slept a night on our return at Worthing, to see Lord and Lady Lansdowne. Returned to Portsmouth on Saturday, 20th October; remained till 27th, and went to St. Anne’s, where we spent two nights. Returned home on the 30th, and went to the play.

The King’s illness declared; it has long been suspected that the physicians were detained as much on the account of the _father_ as on that of the daughter.[365]

[Sidenote: BATTLE OF BUSACO]

In the _Apollo_, General Simon, who was made prisoner at the affair of Busaco, came home. He tells a story of his having accompanied Masséna to reconnoitre the position of Busaco, and that upon his observing _que la position était forte_, Masséna with some asperity replied, ‘Yes, but I have seen many stronger forced.’ Simon construed this retort into a reproof, and answered only by requesting that if any attack was to be made, he might be entrusted to lead on that occasion. Accordingly he commanded a division on that day; the ascent was so steep that he was compelled to dismount, and was soon surrounded, and made prisoner.[366]

The King being incapable of affixing the sign manual to the Act for the further prorogation of Parliament, the two Houses met in consequence of the prorogation expiring on Nov. 1st. It being an unexpected meeting, very few persons, especially of Opposition, were present. Ministers, however, had foreseen the event for a day or two, and Treasury Notes were issued and messengers sent to Cheveley and other Ministerial houses in the country. Ld. H. supported the proposal of adjournment and deprecated all discussion, adding that he could have wished the adjournment had been from day to day only. Sheridan flourished, and affected to speak the sentiments of the Prince. He had artfully fortified Tierney in his unsettled feeling upon the occasion, and Tierney had injudiciously, in consequence of some strange crotchet, abstained from going down. The Prince resides at Windsor, and conducts himself with very unusual discretion; he has not seen or sent to any person whatever. Sheridan has attempted to see him, but hitherto without success.

_2nd Nov._--Pss. Amelia died. She was the youngest, the prettiest, and the most beloved of all the Princesses; her life had been artificially prolonged but to suffer, as her complaints were incurable and of excruciating pain. Previous to her receiving the Sacrament, in compliance with the earnest entreaty of the Prince, she consented to see the Queen, with whom she had inflexibly refused to have an interview, saying that she ascribed the misery she had undergone for 10 years, and perhaps her actual hopeless situation, to her hardness of heart. After seeing her, she dictated a letter to the Prince telling him that his _eloquence_ had prevailed, and taught her to survive resentment, the last feeling in the human breast.

The P. and D. of Cambridge are joint executors to her will, which the Prince has determined shall not be proved. The P. behaved throughout with the greatest tenderness, and previous to her death facilitated their interviews. The P. is behaving with the utmost circumspection and decorum, owing partly to the occupation of fulfilling his sister’s wishes and ordering the ceremonial of the funeral with which he is entrusted. He has not seen any of the Opposition.

[Sidenote: THE KING’S ILLNESS]

Ld. Grenville, who came to town yesterday (9th Nov.), has had two visits from Tommy Tyrwhitt.[367] He represents the first as an inspection of his state of mind and body (reports being current that he was bad and dying). He smiled and said he had passed muster very well. The 2nd visit was to state the condition of the King, but the communication was verbal, and the channel not such as to lead to anything very confidential. If the bulletins between this and Tuesday should be favourable, the news from Portugal good, and their nerves strong, it is supposed Ministers will hazard the attempt of an adjournment; if not, a summons for the meeting of the Privy Council will be issued, and an examination of the physicians take place on Wednesday, and their report be brought before the House and taken into consideration on the day following that which is fixed for the meeting. Probably even amongst themselves they are as yet undecided how to proceed. Ld. G. Leveson (who speaks the language of Ld. Harrowby probably, but does not adopt his views or sentiments) is of opinion that if the Regency should be proposed, it will be clogged with limitations and every species of restriction, and that any artifice will be resorted to likely to incense the Opposition and impel them to utter some rash expressions which will ruin them with the public.

_14th Nov._--Our leading Lords are each to maintain their former doctrines in ’88. Ld. Grenville grounds his line upon the course he adopted when he was Speaker, and refers to his speech, or rather book, published with his authority. He even goes the length of consistency so far as to hint that he would advise the P. to suggest himself the limiting his powers as Regent; _par parenthèse_, if he were to drop such an opinion at C. house, his favour would vanish instantly. On the other hand, Ld. Grey is equally firm in maintaining his own opinion, which he urged so strongly formerly. If this difference between them should transpire before to-morrow, Ministers would avail themselves of it and get them debating amongst themselves. Grey and Lauderdale came up last night; I have been with them, and sitting for two hours by the bedside of the latter, who is ill, and will hardly be able to attend to-morrow. It is one of the few occasions when his absence will perhaps be an advantage, as he would proclaim opinions I fear he has imbued his companion with already too much, viz., that it would be manly and due to the country to express the necessity of the King’s abdicating even if he should recover from this temporary derangement, for the loss of sight and increasing deafness are infirmities incompatible with the performance of the kingly functions. This uttered in public will completely ruin their cause; for, strange as it may appear, the increasing maladies of the K. endear him to the country.

[Sidenote: THE KING’S ILLNESS]

The jokers say that the K. reigns upon the _sense of taste and touch_, having outlived the others. On Saturday he had a lucid interval; he asked what had been done, for ‘I know my situation!’ Poor, wretched man, these returns of reason are most melancholy. Ld. Moira was hurt and angry at not being sent for; he wrote up to C. H. to know the reason. He was answered that the P. had neither written nor sent to anybody. Such is Court favour! For who so favoured as he was? Ld. Grenville says he _knows_ that the K. was ill several days before it was imparted to Perceval, but who knew it, or who caused it to be kept secret, he does not know. The D. of York is behaving ill to the P., taunting him with old allusions, and when there is a favourable symptom exulting in a manner which denotes his joy that they have a chance of escaping his dominion. The sending for Reynolds and Willis was without the knowledge or consent of the R. family. Ld. Grey shakes his hopes by his fears as to Portugal; he considers the case as desperate, and Ld. Wellington’s army quite ruined. This belief is grounded upon Ponsonby information, and none of that family can be credited, especially _Snouch_[368] and Ld. Ponsonby.

On the 15th Parlt. met in the Lords. The Chancellor and Ld. Liverpool held out great hopes of a recovery. Ld. Grey worked skilfully upon very tender ground, no other than in plain English saying that if the King recovered it was only to a state of dotage, and that the loss of sight and hearing disqualified a man, without even the loss of reason, from fulfilling the functions of a sovereign.[369] The Ministers were not in spirits, else they might have replied and done him great mischief in the country. Ward, who is a _friend_, sneeringly observed that the _Whig_ earl would make few proselytes to the doctrine deposing the Monarch. Ld. Grenville spoke, but, I was sorry to hear, in a feeble, disorganised state. Ld. Moira took a line of his own in favour of adjournt., affecting to speak the language of the P. Indeed, with much affectation, he told Lds. Grey and Lansdowne that his speech he was conscious was _bad_, but that was always the case when a person spoke contrary to their own opinion; but he was compelled by instructions from a quarter he was bound to obey, designating as distinctly as possible the Prince. In the Commons Burdett provoked a division, in which persons voted as they liked. Grey, Lauderdale, Ld. Ponsonby, Jersey, and Tierney came here after the debate and dined. The King is certainly worse, and the Ministers are puzzled.

_27th Nov._--Ld. Grenville quitted town the day after the adjournt., _oppressed_ by the recollection of his former opinions delivered when Speaker; but since, whether the continued illness of the King or other equally cogent reasons have convinced him that he may relax, it seems he has written to Ld. Grey, to inform him that upon reflection he does not feel the necessity so imperious of urging these opinions, for tho’ he maintains the same principles, yet expediency qualifies them at present. It is expected that the summons for the convoking the Privy Council will be issued this evening indiscriminately to all Councillors.

[Sidenote: AFFAIRS AT CADIZ]

Mr. Adair, _alias_ the melancholy Jaques, arrived here a few days ago, and still continues our inmate in his way from Constantinople. He stopped at Cadiz, and brings very interesting accounts of the first meeting of the Cortes.[370] Arguelles, Capmany, Gallego, Torneros are the leading speakers. I know very little upon these matters, but it strikes me that they have been guilty of great impolicy in excluding the Grandees from their body, as it must make them feel irritated at the slight. Were I one of that class, shut up upon that dreary causeway, my sole occupation would be to quit them and join any party where my territorial influence would be considered; for these Grandees, with scarce any exception, fled with the Patriots, and sacrificed their _all_ to what they considered was the _common cause_, but which to their consternation and mortification they now find was only the cause of a few; not to say that it would be some satisfaction to assist in overthrowing the _patriotic Junta_, created upon principles far different from the former practice when the Cortes used in ancient times to be assembled. By this scheme of exclusion they create in the heart of the little community a strong interest against themselves. Formerly the _bravo Militar_, which was the nobility, were an integral part of the Cortes; now they are not called. Mr. Stuart, of Lisbon, and Ld. Wellington write home against them as having a Jacobinical tendency, and being merely a _réchauffé_ of the French Revolution.

The latest Governt. accts. are to the 12th from the Tagus, Sr. Robt. Wilson[371] _en debite_ news of the 15th, with the story of Drouet having joined with 15 _bataillons_, which makes about 9000 men. Sr. Robt. is greatly and justly offended at having been dismissed officially the Portuguese service; this naturally enough tinctures all his opinions and disposes him to view _au noir_ both Wellington’s and Beresford’s campaign. The enemies of Wilson accuse him of having taken great credit to himself for resistance in the _Puerto de Baños_ after the battle of Talavera, whereas Ld. W. has recently discovered that he did nothing whatever there.[372] Also there is another charge, which, if substantiated, is serious, but from his general reputation is considered as highly improbable, viz., peculating in his transactions about raising the Lusitanian Legion. He is a very active officer, and whatever blemishes he may have in rhodomontading, I know from experience, having been in the country at the time, that when every other English officer took to his heels, he alone remained, and by setting a good face upon matters kept in check at Salamanca a French corps of 6000 men, when he was in Ciudad Rodrigo with only a few half dismounted cannon and some of his miserable Legion.

Bulletins bad; Ministers defer till the latest hour issuing the summons of the Privy Council. Great failures at Liverpool. Huskisson’s pamphlet upon the report of the Finance Committee, a very general topic of conversation.[373] L., a little jealous, accuses him of stealing some of his own best observations and disfiguring them for concealment.

_28th._--Hurrah! Huzza! A long and delightful letter from Charles, and a copious journal of all that has occurred since he sailed from Cadiz Bay, 7th August! He writes from Gibraltar Bay, 5th November, then in quarantine on acct. of symptoms of fever. Inquires if the ex-pigs are likely to have a little suck. Seems not so keen for Navy as before; thank Heaven, if he should at the end of a year sicken of it! _Oxala!_

The Privy Council is called to-day for the examination of physicians. Baillie remains at Windsor to attend the K. during the absence of the others, but comes for examination to-morrow. Great rumours of adjournt. being again intended.

_29th, Thursday._--Evidence of the medical men favourable as to amendment, but nothing said as to the time for recovery.

[Sidenote: THE PRINCE OF WALES’ CONDUCT]

_Dec. 6th._--There has been a communication with the Prince; the complection of the business is not very favourable. It seems that in consequence of a trivial expression dropped accidentally in a conversation Ld. Grey held with Mr. Tucker, the latter gentleman conceived it to be sufficiently important to induce him to _repeat_ it to Col. McMahon[374] to report to the Prince. The expression was that affairs were in that state that, ‘if the Prince were to hold up his finger he would have every thing his own way.’

The Prince, who sees Adam frequently, had talked to him frankly enough in general. One day during their conversation the Lord Chancellor solicited an audience: the P. desired he might be admitted, and at the same time begged Adam to wait, as he should soon close his conference with the C. It was, however, of some duration, but when Adam returned, he assured him the visit was merely one of form respecting some circumstances connected with the Pss. Amelia’s will; that he had listened and made no reply beyond a very formal bow. This might, or might not be true; Adam had his doubts. The Prince then began saying (which astonished Adam) that he had received a communication from Ld. Grey, who implied that he had not taken part enough in the business of the K.’s illness. That he might be right or wrong, but that he was resolved upon remaining quiet; that he esteemed both Lords Grenville and Grey, but could not see them; that if they wished to serve him they ought to ask Ministers in Parlt. whether any official notification had been made to the Prince of the condition in which H. Majesty was; also that if he were compelled by circumstances to maintain them, yet if they got into minorities by their mismanagement, he might then be enabled to follow his inclination and call them,--Opposition, to his Council. He desired Adam to communicate this to Lds. Grenville, Grey, and Mr. Ponsonby; Tommy Tyrwhitt also told Ld. Grenville. It was agreed that a respectful answer should be conveyed to the Prince, couched in all the usual proper terms; the substance, however, declining to adopt any line of conduct expressed through a secret understanding, as it would be doing exactly what they had so much deprecated during their own Administration--that of the King ostensibly employing them, but, at the same time, consulting with his secret advisers. Ld. Grenville said that the position of affairs might be such that were the Prince to consult him, he did not know but that he might recommend him to keep the present Ministers; but having done that he must withdraw and act upon his own principles until he was publicly called as an adviser. The expression which put Ld. G. upon the alert was that of the possibility of minorities, which he construed into a determined plan of Prince’s betraying those he openly supported. Ld. Grey was compelled to leave town on acct. of Ly. Grey’s lying-in.