No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Political Memorandums, 1792
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009
Extract
This part of the Memoranda refers to a supposed attempt at coalition between the followers of Pitt and Fox. The main object was to oppose a more united front to the internal disturbances resulting from the French Revolution, and to intervene with more effect in case England was forced to take part in the European war. Historians have generally taken their information with regard to these matters from Lord Malmesbury's Diary; but it will be found, on close examination, that most of Lord Malmesbury's statements rest solely on the authority of Lord Loughborough, who was himself very eager for office. His trustworthiness has not been borne out by the verdict of succeeding generations.
On Thursday, July 19th, in the afternoon, I received an Express at Minis from Sir Ralph Woodford with a letter from him inclosing one to me from the Duke of Portland wishing to call upon me in Grosvenor Square if in town. I returned for answer I would come up the next morning and should be happy to see his Grace either at my own house or at Burlington House or anywhere else most convenient to him.
- Type
- Political Memorandums
- Information
- Camden New Series , Volume 35: The Political Memoranda of Francis Fifth Duke of Leeds , January 1884 , pp. 175 - 206
- Copyright
- Copyright © Royal Historical Society 1884
References
page 175 note 1 We find in Lord Malmesbury's Diary, vol. ii. p. 470, under date July 25,1792: “At Burlington House, in the evening, Duke of Portland told me that the Duke of Leeds had through Kolleston expressed a wish to see him. On the 26th they met at the Duke of Leeds in Grosvenor Square; and after strong expressions of his sincere wish for an arrangement the Duke of Leeds offered to speak to the King at Windsor.
page 180 note 1 Lord Malmesbury's entry under this date is, “The Duke of Portland, although he placed no great faith in the intervention of the Duke of Leeds, in consequence of Fox's promoting it, acquiesced in the Duke of Leeds seeing the King."
page 182 note 1 Lord Malmesbury's account gives a very different impression of the interview (Diaries, vol. ii. p. 471). He concludes that “the Duke of Leeds was in earnest, but, as he always is, carried away more by his imagination and sanguine hopes, in which his string of toad-eaters encourage him, than by reason and reflection."
page 183 note 1 This is printed in the Malmesbwry Correspondence, p. 473, and may with advan tage be compared with the entry in the Diary of July 30, in p. 472. Evidently Fox was not sanguine abont any arrangement being possible.
page 185 note 1 The King and Royal Family always walked upon the Terrace on Sunday.
page 186 note 1 The Duchess of York was the daughter of the King of Prussia. The Duke refers to the English desertion of Prussia on the question of the Russian armament.
page 189 note 1 Lord Loughborough, as a matter of fact, became Lord Chancellor a few months later.
page 189 note 2 This had taken place, August 5, 1792, nine days previously. Lord Guilford was better known as Lord North; he was an intimate friend and a connection of Lord Loughborough.
page 191 note 1 Mr. Aust was Under-Secretary in the Foreign Office, and one of his Grace's “toad-eaters.”
page 197 note 1 The mistake appears to hare been that Lord Malmesbury and others put too much confidence in Lord Loughborough's reports of interviews at which he was present with one or two others. Lord Loughborough was probably extremely desirous of office for himself, and objected to no steps which were likely to secure that end.
page 205 note 1 This was most probably on the question of going to war with France. Pitt was ready to make any reasonable sacrifice in fayour of peace.