Part 23

For my part, I readily profess that in all cases I am disposed to have recourse to the old ways of our constitution for the redress of any pressing grievance. There was formerly a reasonable proportion between the representatives of Counties which were about 90, and those of Cities and great Towns which amounted to about 100, and those of lesser burroughs which returned about 70 deputies, these making in all about 256 members of Parliament. This proportion of representation lasted till the time of Q. Elizabeth: but since the beginning of her reign, it has been gradually destroying, and is now so entirely overturned, that the smaller burroughs, though they do not possess the thousandth part of the others property, can outvote them both in the House of Commons, there having been as many representatives for these paltry burroughs added to the Parliament, as it consisted of before that time. In one Session of Parliament in that Queen’s reign eight small burroughs in Cornwall were called upon to send Deputies, and the humour went on till the Parliament of 1641 made up the disproportion now complained of with so much reason. There does not therefore appear to me any means of rectifying this abuse and of restoring the ancient balance of our Constitution, so natural as the disfranchising at once of all those late created Parliamentary burroughs, whose constant corruption and bribery of late years so well known and so easy to be proved, call loudly for such a method to be taken.

If this should be thought too great a change, and the disfranchising of these burroughs should be deemed improper, their corruption may probably be prevented by allowing all the freeholders of 40s. a year within the hundred, in which such burrough is situated, to vote equally with the present electors or inhabitants in the burrough for the representatives thereof: and in case this method be taken, such Freeholders being allowed a right of voting for representatives, no wrong would be done them, if the right of voting in elections of Knights of the Shire were restrained to Freeholders that pay for 10£ a year to the land tax: which would render County elections much more easy and less expensive.

If neither of these methods should be approved, it may be considered whether all these burroughs should not be limited to one representative, and the choice of the other transferred to the several Counties of the kingdom in proportion to their payments towards the Land Tax; by which means the present number of representatives may be preserved. One or other of these methods seems necessary to be taken, or else the corruption, being grown so general and barefaced in these burroughs, will not admit of a cure: and unless it be cured, Parliaments that should naturally be the guardians of all our rights and liberties, will prove the worst of our grievances, and such an one as will make all the rest irremediable. If these great points, of the proportion of our representation, and the unbiassed freedome of elections were once secured, everything else will easily be secured by Parliament.

To establish this freedom and put a stop to the corruption or violence that destroy it, nothing appears at first sight more proper than the putting of Parliaments upon their ancient foot, allowing them to sit but one Session, and never to continue above a year. In such a case foreigners or strangers who have no merit or interest in a burrough but what their bribes and money purchase them, will never be able to carry elections against the Gentlemen of the neighbourhood, who have a natural interest in the place. For as the present circumstances of the Crown and Nation, so different from what they formerly were, require Parliament to be annually held for the granting of new supplies, no private purse can hold out for any length of time in furnishing those immense sums that are now squandered away by strangers in the expences of disputed elections: and as this evill is grown very rife, and all laws made to remedy it have hitherto proved ineffectual, it is scarce possible to be cured by any other method.

There is another practice in the House of Commons itself, that helps to destroy the freedome of Parliaments: I mean the method taken by the stronger party of thinning the House, and expelling such as are of different sentiments from themselves, however duely chosen; altering the rights of electors as they see fit and as will best furnish them a pretence for that purpose. Some method should therefore be taken in fixing the right of voting in elections on an invariable foot, so as not to be violated or altered by any determination of the House of Commons. If this were done by an Act of Parliament, and every person whose vote is refused by the returning officer, or whose right is infringed by the intrusion of a wrong member, had power to bring an action and to recover very great damages, from both of these, this scandalous and mischievous evill might possibly be prevented.

The iniquities of these late times suggest some other measures to be taken; such as the limiting of the number of officers and pensioners that sit in the House of Commons; and the disabling of all Excise men, Custom house officers, and soldiers, that are under command and consequently not free to vote according to their own inclinations and real sentiments, from having voices in elections, unless on account of their freeholds, when they have any.

In former times the Civil and Military power of the Nation lay entirely in the hands of Gentlemen of estates, and was incident to their tenures; but that face of things is now changed, and the exercise of the Civil power is at present vested in the Justices of the peace, as that of the military is in the Lord and Deputy Lieutenants. Very inconsiderable persons have of late years been put into both these commissions; and very ill consequences have either been found or are daily apprehended, to arise from thence. This makes it generally wished that none should be qualified for the office of a Deputy Lieutenant who has not £500 a year, or for that of a Justice of peace in any county, who has not £300 or at least £200 a year in such County. These methods for restoring in some degree such considerable branches of our old Constitution would at the same time advance the security of the Church.

There are penal laws enough already made, and I do not see any occasion there can be of adding to them unless that instead of receiving the Sacrament occasionally, the constant conformity of a person to the established Church, be made the qualification for any government, command or office of rank or profit: and that instead of a Certificate of a persons having received the Sacrament, another of his being a constant communicant with the Church of England be insisted on and given by the Minister and Churchwardens of the parish where such person usually resides six months at least in the year, before he shall be allowed to enter upon the exercise of his office.

Some such regulations as these, (which are but too much wanted at present,) would contribute equally to the security of the Church, and the happiness of the Nation.

At the end of this Memorandum there is appended the following autograph letter from the Pretender, which would seem to show that Sir Robert Walpole had personally authorised Mr. Carte to obtain a statement of his views. It runs as follows:—

ROME, _July 17, 1739_.

The Message you bring could not but appear verry singular and extraordinary to me because you deliver it only from second hand and that I have no sort of proof of your being authorised by the person in question, who cannot but feel that it is natural for me to mistrust what may come from him. It may be and I hope it is the case that he wishes me and my cause well, and I am sensible it may be greatly in his power to serve both.

If he hath realy my interest at heart, lett him send to me some trusty friend and confident of his to explain to me his sentiments and viewes; and if he pursues measures which manifestly tend to my Restoration, I shall be persuaded of his sincerity, and shall consider and reward him after my restoration proportionably to the share he may have had in bringing it about. But whatever may or may not be in this matter, I have no difficulty in putting it in your power to satisfy him authoritically on the two articles about which he is sollicitous, since independant of his desire, I am fully resolved to protect and secure the Church of England according to the reiterated promisses I have made to that effect, and shall be ready after my restoration to give all reasonable security which a first Parliament can ask of me for that end. As for ye Princes of the House of Hannover I thank God I have no ressentment against them, nor against any one living; I shall never repine at their living happily in their own Country after I am in possession of my Kingdomes and should they fall into my power upon any attempt for my restoration, I shall certainly not touch a hair of their heads.

I thought it proper to explain in this manner my sentiments on these heads not absolutely to neglect an overture which may be of great importance if well grounded, and if otherwayes no inconvenience can arise from what I have here said.

JAMES R.

At the back of this letter is written in Sir Robert Walpole’s writing—

This original letter wrote to Mr. Tho. Cart when at Rome, and given Him by the Pretender was deliver’d to me by the said Mr. Tho. Cart Sept. 15th. 1739 together with the Heads &c.

Whilst this correspondence would seem to show that Sir Robert was not altogether disinclined to enter into secret negotiations with the Pretender, it must be remembered that up to comparatively recent times statesmen at the head of affairs were much given to employing secret agents for the purpose of obtaining information—very often without the knowledge of the Government over which they presided. Cavour, I believe, was about the last to employ these methods, and it is said that though he was very much given to this sort of thing, he never obtained any good by it, as the agents he employed never reported anything of the slightest value, most of their communications being absolutely unreliable and untrue. Mr. Carte, however, appears to have really enjoyed the confidence of the Pretender, and the whole correspondence is somewhat interesting as showing the great amount of intrigue and love of secret negotiation which prevailed at the period of the eighteenth century when this memorandum was drawn up.

[2] The site of Sir Robert’s house in Chelsea is now covered by Walpole Street, which traverses the ground upon which his mansion stood.

INDEX

Advertisement, a curious, 305 Agnew, Sir William, 212 Aidé, Mr. Hamilton, and his paintings, 191 Ailesbury, Maria, Marchioness of, her appearance, economies, and one extravagance, 39 Ainsworth, Harrison, 42 Airlie, Countess of, and her garden of friendship, 244-245 Albert Gate, Hudson’s house at, 293; stone stags at, 164 Aldershot in 1860, Bernal Osborne’s criticism on, 66 Alexandra, Queen, 155; her dogs, 233 Algerian corsairs, a prisoner of, alive in 1854, 89 Algiers in 1861, a letter on, from Cobden, 240 Amelia, Princess, statue of George III. erected by, in Berkeley Square, 150 American girl, the, her conquest of English society, 33 invasion, the, 30, 33 Amusements and entertainments, recollections of, 246 _et seq._ Anglo-American marriages, 30, 33 Angoulème, Duchesse de, and her brother’s escape, 116, 119; her Memoirs, 119 Annesley, Lady (_née_ Grant), famous portrait of, 188 Apethorpe, needlework carpet at, 50 Apsley House entertainments, forbidden ground to the Press, 27-28 Aquarium, 249 Architecture in London, eccentricities of, 140-141, 144-145 Art in the Victorian era, 40 Artist acquaintances, 188 _et seq._ Ashburnham Iron Furnace, extinction of (1825), 282 Ashburton, Lord, the late, and the English truffle, 131 Ashley, Hon. Evelyn, and the _Owl_, 16 Astley, Miss, and the customs, 120 Atheism, Russian, story of, 302 Atkyns, Mrs. (_née_ Charlotte Walpole), her efforts to save the Dauphin (Louis XVII.), 110; ingratitude of Louis XVIII., 111; her Memorial at Ketteringham, a print of her in character, 112-113; a letter from her to Mr. Perceval, 113-114 Author, the, her bad handwriting, 71; her long ride in the ’thirties, 233; portraits of, and of her sister, 188, 189

Bagot, Bishop, discards the wig, 268 Bancroft, Sir Squire and Lady, souvenir of their retirement, 257 Banks, Lady, her art treasures, 197, 200 Bantling’s cure for fat, verses, etc., on, in the _Owl_, 17-18 Bardelin, Chevalier de, his life in exile, 79; before and after his marriage, and daughter, 80 Bartolozzi, engraved benefit tickets by, 200 Bath, Marquis of, and his election, 44-45 Marquis of (_late_), and his wife, as hosts, 44-45 Battersea Park, old nursery gardens near, 310 Battle Abbey, its owners, 55-57, 59; historical associations and surroundings of, 57; relics from, fate of, 282 Beaconsfield, Countess of (Mrs. Wyndham Lewis), 36, 72, 73, 155; her dinner-parties, 71; her bad writing, 70-71 — Earl of (Disraeli), 51, 190; letter from, on _Henrietta Temple_, 42; great ladies befriending him, 68, 69; early days of, 74; his Reform Bill, 75-76; his real views on politics and distrust of Gladstone, 75; his motto, 70; his friendship with the author and her brother, a letter showing, 73-74; his marriage and devotion to his wife, 72-73; his carelessness as to money, his tact, 73; his death in Curzon Street, 154 Bean, attack by, on Queen Victoria, 165 Beauclerk, Lady Diana, her riding dress, 170 Beaufort, Duchess of (a former), her “lover’s tragedy,” 169-170 Bedford, Duke of, duel of, in Kensington Gardens (1822), 173 — Paul, comedian, 256 Belgrave Square, art treasures in, 207 Belvoir Castle, lamps at, in former days, 272 Bentinck, Lord George, his good looks, 50-51 Berkeley Chapel, its famous incumbent, 150 — Square, associations of, and notable inhabitants, 145, 150, 151 Bernal, Mr., collection of, present-day value of, 184; tragic death of his wife, _ib._ Berri, Duchesse de, 98, 195 Berry, the Misses, in Curzon Street, 154 Bertall, caricaturist, 308 Bessborough, Earl of, 163 Best, Mr., duel of, with Lord Camelford, 174, 177-178 Bewick, Thomas, drawings by, of gibbets, 277 Bexhill, smuggling affray at (1828), 275 Bill-heads, engraved, author’s collection of, 200 Bird pets of the author, 234 _et seq._ Bismarck, Count, on non-indispensableness, 20 Blanchet, portrait of Prince Charles Edward by, its past and present owners, 194 Blarenberghe, Von, snuff-box painted by, 209 Blessington, Countess of, 179, 235 Blomfield, Bishop, two stories of, 268-269 Boileau, Sir Francis and Lady, Memorial set up by, to Mrs. Atkyns, 112 Bookbindings in human skin, 279-280 Bookplates, 257 Borghese, Princess Pauline, sister of Napoleon I., 81 Borrow family and the West Norfolk Regiment, 47 Bourbon family, devotion inspired by, instances of, 98 _et seq._ Bourgogne, Duchesse de, her portrait in a Sussex cottage, 183 Bradlaugh, Mr., and the House of Commons, 301 Braham, the singer, 39; his singing of “The Midnight Review,” 94; beauty of his voice, 262 Brick Street, associations of, 153 Bridge-playing, 298-299 Brienne, Napoleon I.’s early days at, 84 British Museum, Banks’ collection of engraved benefit tickets in, 200 Brocket, Lady Holland’s impertinence at, 63 Browne family of Cowdray, 183; the curse on, stories of, 282 _et seq._ “Brummell, Beau,” his house in Charles Street, 151 Buckingham, Duke of, duel of, in 1822, 173 Buckingham Palace, 165 Buckinghamshire, Earl of, and his unwelcome baby girl, 49 Buckner, portrait by, of the author, 189 Bulstrode, literary associations of, 42 Burdett, Sir Francis, 168 Burgess, Mr. John, and his collections, 216-217 Buried treasures in France, 102, 103, 105 Burke, Edmund, his snub to the youthful Fox, 288 Burney, Dr., and Nelson’s nightcap, 269-270 Burnham, Norfolk, a Walpole property, 174 Burton, Decimus, architect, 248 Byron, Lord (the poet), on the sham funeral of Harriet Webster, 61

Caldbeck Hill and the Battle of Hastings, 57 Camber Castle, smuggling affray at (1838), 275 Cambridge House, Lady Palmerston’s parties at, 65 Camelford, first Lord (Thomas Pitt), verses by, on the lovely Lepell (Lady Hervey), 178 — second Lord, his will preserved at Wolterton, occasion of its making, 174-178; his burial place, 178; his family, _ib._ Camoys, Sir John, and his wife, sarcophagus of, at Trotton, 286 Campbell, Sir Neil, 85 Cardigan, Countess of, her _vis-à-vis_ carriage, 172 Carnarvon, Earl of, Napoleonic relic owned by, 80-81; other treasures, 187 Carriages, former magnificence of, in Hyde Park, 172 Carte, Mr. Thomas, and the Pretender’s negotiations with Sir R. Walpole, 317 _et seq._ Casanova, stormy meeting with Lord Orford at Vienna, 47; his hasty temper, 48 Cassilis, Lord, quaint mistake concerning, 38 “Castle” rule in Ireland, Bernal Osborne’s views on, 77 Catherine II., Empress of Russia, 208 Cattermole, George, and John Burgess, 216 Cavour and his methods, 341 Caylus, Madame de, lines on her dog’s collar, 232 Cerito in social life, 254-255 “Chaff” and flippancy in modern gatherings, 23-24 Cham, caricaturist, 308 Chambers, George, and his paintings, 194 Chambord, Comte de (Henry V.), his appearance and character, 99 Changes and survivals, 265 _et seq._ Chantrey, Sir Francis, works done by, in Curzon Street, 153 Charles I. and Hyde Park, 162 Charles II., 285 Charles X. (Comte d’Artois), 83, 95; portrait of the old Pretender mistaken for, 195-196 Charles Street, curiosities of, 145, 152; derivation of the name, 151; notable inhabitants, 150-151 Chatham, Earl of, 198 Chelsea in 1826, 311 Cheltenham, a Sedan-chair used at, in the ’sixties, 128 Chesterfield, Lady, her friendship with Lord Beaconsfield, 69 Chinese Ambassador, mistaken for his own wife, 38 Chippendale, 212 _et seq._; characteristics of his work, 214-215 Church “restorations,” nineteenth-century effects of, 286-287 Churchill, Lord Randolph, and the Fourth Party, 18; association of, with the Primrose League, 19; as conversationalist, 19; his personality, portraits, and caricatures, what he really said at time of his political fall, 20-21 Cigars, when introduced into England, 138 Cigarettes, as making for temperance, 137, 138; origin of, 138 Cipriani, engraved tickets by, 200 Cleveland, Duke of (Sir Harry Vane), one-time owner of Battle Abbey, 55, 56, 59 — Duchess of (_née_ Paulet), her detestation of slang, 38 — Duchess, the late, and Battle Abbey visitors, public, 55; and personal, 57 — Duchess of, on her visit to Holland House in youth, 60-61 Clive, a dweller in Berkeley Square, 151 Cobden, Richard, 242; his dislike of Palmerston, 67; his discovery of a French painting, 182-184; his home in Sussex, 289 — letters from, on Algiers, 240-242; on the author’s silkworms, 243 “Coliseum,” the, and its attractions, 284 Comfort, rise in standard of, 311-312 Conjuring, Houdin’s feats, 259-260 Constitution Hill, and its associations, 165; old name of, 166 Continental travelling in old days, difficulties and discomforts of, 120, 126, 127, 130; the early days of railways, 129 Conversation a lost art, 23, 26-27 Conyngham, Marquis of, the late, 210 Cooper, Thomas Sidney, as scene-painter, 194 Corder, William, the “Red Barn” murderer, and his skin, 279 Corrigan, Tom, and Bernal Osborne’s repartee, 3, 4 Cortachy, “garden of friendship” at, lines on, by Lord Sherbrooke, 244-245 Cossé-Brissac, Due de, last lover of the Du Barry, his fate, 107 Costessey Hall, the Jerninghams of, 108 Couder, sketches by, of Napoleon I., 82 Country houses of England, a unique national possession, 41; utilised by authors, 42 — old-time self-dependence of, 266-267 Country houses as political forces in former days, 42, 44; why so no longer, 43 Coutts Bank, jewellery of _emigrés_ still unclaimed at, 109 Coventry, Earl of (husband of Miss Gunning), and the abolition of Mayfair, 152-153 Cowdray, ruins, stones and relics of, 183, 282 _et seq._ Cowley, Countess of (_temp._ William IV.), wedding of, 198-201 Cowper, Countess, her recipe for a successful ball, 152 Cox, David, as scene-painter, 194 Crayfish, author’s attempt to acclimatise, 132 Cremorne, 247-248, 311 Creevy, Mr., 168 Crinoline, 156 Croome, needlework carpet at, 50 Cruikshank, George, 143 Cumming, Miss Gordon, her conversation, an amusing example, 24-25 Curzon, Lady Georgiana, afterwards Duchess of Beaufort, a pet of William IV., 197-198; her story of a wedding, 198-199 Curzon Street, highway robbery in (1889), 149; notable inhabitants of, 153-154 Customs officers, 274-275; murder of, at Poole, 275

Dacheux, Mr. Peter Lewis, a schoolfellow of Napoleon I., at Lynn, 80 _Daily Telegraph_ founded, 304 Dance, Sir Charles, his steam cars, 294 Dandies of the past, 158 Dangstein, 238 Darwin, Mr. Charles, a talk with, 239 Davis, Mr. Frederick, and his son, 208-211 Day, Mr., of Norwich, a loyal banker, 114 Dayes, military prints drawn by, 205 Delane, Mr., of the _Times_, 28 Demidoff, Prince, and Napoleon’s old gardener, 87 Democracy, English, Lord Beaconsfield’s views on, 75 Devis, Arthur, paintings by, 181 Devonshire, Duchess of, 45 Duke of, 195 Dillon family and the Dauphin (Louis XVII.), 109 Dogs owned by the author, 229 _et seq._; their graves and epitaphs, 232 — of Queen Alexandra, 232-233 D’Orsay, Count, dandyism of, 171-172; lithographs after his drawings, 189-100; a match for Lady Holland, 62 Downing Street, historic scene in, 180 Drewitt brothers, story of, 277-278 Du Barry, Madame, her missing jewellery, 103-104; how she came to her end, 104 _et seq._ Dubois, famous table by, 208, 210 Duelling, slow extinction of, in England, 173 Dumb-bell gallery at Knole, 223 Duncannon, Lord, afterwards Earl of Bessborough, and the improvement in the Green Park, 163 Dunford, Cobden’s Sussex home, 289

East Anglian folklore, 314 Edward VII., 155, 232 Egan, Pierce, 143 Eglinton Tournament, 305; Napoleon III. present at, 306 Egmont, sixth Earl of, new house built by, at Cowdray, 284 Egypt, evacuation of, 76 Elba, Island of, Napoleon I. at, 84 _et seq._ Election souvenirs, political squibs, etc., 2, 4, 6, 7 Electric light, early days of, 144 Elizabeth, Princess, daughter of George III., her paper cuttings, 197 Elwin, Mr. Whitwell, on Thomas Carte, 317 English furniture, eighteenth-century, no representative public collection of, 211 Eridge Castle, Lady Holland’s visit to, 62; large silhouettes at, 186; mysterious passage from, 274; park, smugglers’ caves in, 274 Evans’ supper rooms, a visit to, 258 Evelyn, John, mention of stage scenery by, 195 Exhibition of 1851, 258