The Sun.
London, England, 1865-01-20 00:00:00

Mr. Charles Greville.

By a large number of persons, placed in very
different walks and circles of society, the announce-

ment of the death of Mr. Charles Greville will be
received with something more than the regret they
bestow on an old and highly valued acquaintance.
In a circle more restricted in numbers, but compris-

ing the very heart and centre of the best society oi
England, this event will be deplored as the loss oi

a wise, constant, and zealous friend. For by the
peculiar quality of Mr. Greville's mind, while he
took a warm and active interest in everything that
was passing around him—in the amusements of the
world, in the sports of the turf, in the literature of
the day—he could at any moment throw off these
pastimes of the hour, and concentrate his vigorous
intellect on any grave and weighty matters which
he took earnestly in hand. Hence, while he con-
tinued during the greater part of his life to be one of

the most popular men of his time, he was not less
regarded by the first statesmen of the age as a dis-
passionate counsellor and a discreet friend.

Charles Greville was born in 1794. He had con-
sequently but just completed the 70th year of his
age. His father was the fifth son of the fifth Lord
Warwick; his mother was Lady Charlotte Bentinck,
the accomplished and amiable daughter of the third
Duke of Portland, a lady to whom in a very advanced
age it was the happiness of her children to pay every
mark of respect and veneration. This connection
with his maternal grandfather decided the life, and
in some degree the opinions, of Mr. Greville, for it
placed him in close propinquity to the great Whig
houses of Bentinck and Cavendish. By the influence
of the Duke of Portland, as First Minister of the
Crown, his grandson, then very young, obtained a
valuable sinecure office in the Island of Jamaica,
and the title of Clerk of the Council Extraordinary,
which implied in those days the reversion of the
office of Clerk in Ordinary to the Privy Council on
the next vacancy. He also was employed in early
life as private secretary to Lord Bathurst, and thus
initiated into official life.

Of a singularly refined and intellectual counte-
nance, of courteous manners, and of varied attain-
ments, and of a lively disposition, it is not surprising
that Mr. Greville was soon plunged into all the
gaiety of the Regency. He was one of the most
favoured guests at Oatlands, then inhabited by the
Duke and Duchess of York; and his connexion with
the turf, as well as his official positions, subse-
quently brought. him into frequent and intimate
communication with George IV. As years ad-
vanced he took a keener interest in the political
events of the time ; he lived in closer intimacy with
the men by whom those events were directed.
Without professing to be a party politician, he ar-
dently desired the success of the great struggle for
Catholic Emancipation, and one of the few literary
works he published in his lifetime was a volume on
the " Past and Present Policy of England towards
Ireland (1845), in which he contended for the com-
pletion of the measure of relief to the Catholics by
the payment of their clergy. In all the important
transactions which he subsequently witnessed, al-
though he professed no unrestricted confidence in
the leaders or the principles of the popular party,
yet his good sense and his love of justice ranged him
on the side of Liberal progress and Conservative im-
provement. His true position, partly from the pecu-
liar nature of the permanent office he held in the
Privy Council, and partly from his personal inti-
macies with men of opposite opinions, was a neutral

one; but he used that neutral position with consum-
mate
judgment and address to remove obstacles, to
allay irritation, to compose differences, and to pro-
mote, as far as lay in his power, the public welfare.
Contented with his own social eminence, he was
alike free from ambition and from covetousness.
No man was more entirely disinterested in his
judgments on public affairs, for he had long made
up his mind that he had nothing to gain or lose
by them, and in the opinions he formed, and
on occasion energetically maintained he cared
for nothing but their justice and their truth.
Hence it was that with no special authority, save
that of his own integrity and acuteness, the
opinion of Mr. Greville was sought and respected
by multitudes of persons ; he was in some sense the
general referee ; and his time and attention were
never wanting to the service of his friends. The
utility of a man standing thus unbiassed between
the two great parties in the State, and trusted
equally by the leaders on either side, could hardly
be overrated ; and when the more secret political
transactions of the last three reigns are recorded the
share taken in many of them by Mr. Greville will
be found not insignificant. At this moment, a
single anecdote, alike honourable to each of the
parties concerned in it, may suffice to give an idea
of the part he not unwillingly played. Lord Mel-
bourne resigned office in 1841, and Sir Robert Peel
was engaged in forming
the celebrated Cabinet
over which he presided for five years. On the eve
of the accession to power of his illustrious rival,
r ,rd Melbourne, meeting Mr. Greville at Stafford-
house, said to him in his accustomed language,
" Charles, can you take a message from me to these
chaps—a friendly one, I mean ?" The Clerk of
the Council assented. Upon which Lord Melbourne

pr needed to inform him with the utmost precision
of the manner in which the Queen liked the public
bt isiness to be carried on, of the habits her Majesty
ha d formed, of the subjects to which her attention
w; is chiefly directed—in short, he carefully marked
ou the best and nearest road to the Royal favour,
and then directed him to communicate these par-
tic %Liars to Sir Robert Peel. Mr. Greville performed
the =commission with his usual fidelity, and conveyed
to, the new Premier these invaluable hints for his
goidanc,e. Peel was beyond measure struck by the