The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-01-07

| LEAF FROM GREvILLE'S DIARY.

A LEAF FROM GREvILLE'S DIARY.
Charles II had his Pepys; johnson his Bos-
well, and now George ~, miscalled "the first
gentleman of Europe" has found his Greville.
4 book has recently been published in Eng
land, purporting to be, and styled "a Journal
of the reigns Of King George ~ and King
William ", by Charles C. F. Greville, clerk
of the Council 10 both sovereigns. Mr. Gre
Vile was a member of the Portland and War
wick families, which relationship, added to his
own abilities, naturally brought him in con-
tact with persons high in power and influ-
ence, not limited even by the royal families Of
whom he has left us SO interesting and faith
full history. The work is not published by
himself, for he must have been dead ten or
twelve years, but by Mr.. Reeve, acting as
his literary executor.
He became clerk to the Privy Council in
1921, and retained his position for forty years,
during which time he kept diary, and in
that diary-in SO many respects like that OF
Pepys-we have q mirror of the times in
which he lived and photographs Of the promi-
to 1860, the public men of England were more
important, perhaps, than the events they con-
trolled, but there was an immensely of gos-
slipping interest connected with them, all of
which has served to make Mr.. Greville's mar
rative the most valuable work of biographical
information which has appeared since the
publication of the Horace Walpole letters.
Broughsm has written of the same time, and
SO has Lord Campbell, Sir Henry Holland and
Lord Gray, but none of these have so graph
ically presented the men of that day as they
rose and fell and passed away.
Mr.. Greville begins by telling US how
No~~co TIT blind old man of oiOhfv.fwO
wandered about the Windsor galleries sing
ing psalms, which were broken by occasional
fits Of madness. How George ~, regent for
many years, drove in the park with iveried
groom by his side and shocking men with
the indignity. Of how Sophia Charlotte, the
old queen, tainted, when two of her daugh-
ters embraced, because one of them had been
divorced. She was q virtuous old lady, was
"snuffy Charlotte" and she came near dying
from it, as she did in fact five months later.
The Duchess of York had "Hohenzollern
habits She walked out very late at night,
slept with open windows and was amused
with indecent jokes; and she hated the Prince
Regent.
The Duke of York was appo nted to take
care of the old blind King, and two days be-
fore his death he was one of a shooting party,
Of whom it is recorded that they killed 431
pheasants And yet he knew the King was
dying. George " came to the throne "des-
perately ill" He had cold at Brighton, and
Sir William Knighton, his physician, took
eighty ounces Of blood from him. Lady
Conyngham was his mistress, the Pompadour
of the day, and her husband was elevated to
the peerage of England when George became
King, as we'll as enjoyed other official privi-
rious Warehouses of Hartford, whose hus-
band stood for the original of Thackeray's
Lord Steyne. Singular enough, while the
people broke the windows Of Hartford,
Conyngham was not unpopular.
Some one asked the Hertford if she had
known of the Kings admiration for her rival,
to which she replied, s'that intimately as she
had known the king, he had never ventured
to speak with her about his mistresses." Per-
haps not When Hertford was buried, there
was quite crowd to see the funeral 60 by
William ~ sent all the royal carriages, as did
everybody else "a contemptuous piece Of
king, as the only claim she had was the honor
of being his brothers courtesan."
We are told that when the King visited
Drury Lane Theater a man in the gallery
cried out, ssWhere is your wife, George?"
George did not like the Duke Of Yelling
ton. They quarreled because the Duke
would not admit that the Russian and
French infantry were superior to the
British. He did not like Canning either,
because of that statesman's connection with
Queen Caroline's trial Canning, however,
afterwards became member of the Liver
pool Government George conceived that the
whole of his fathers property belonged to
him personally and not to the crown. So he
took possession Of the money and the jewels,
and his mothers jewels also. The Duke of
Wellington very boldly expressed his opinion
on the subject, which added another cause for
the Kings dislike.
He expressed his disgust at liberal opinions
and especially at Catholic emancipation. He
was great talker but has left nothing behind
him by which to be remembered. Lady Co.
nyngham, We are told, always appeared bored
to death in his presence. She, however,
made her complaisance pay, for through her
influence Sumner was made Bishop. OF all
men the King seemed to fear Sir William
Knighton, his physician. He hated him, and
said the most disagreeable things to him. One
day in the hearing Of the pages, he said, II
wish to God somebody would assassinate
Knighton." The King was SO indolent that
Knighton was the only person who could pre-
vail upon him to sign papers.
His delight was to make people wait for
him in the ante-roon, while he talked of
horses or any other trivial matter. "Sire,
Watson is waiting, said page. "Damn
Watson let him watt was the kingly re-
joinder. IA more contemplate, cowardly,
selfish, unfeeling dog does not exist than this
King" is the entry in the diary. The only
thing he feared was ridicule. Most of his
time he spent under opiates in the hands of
three doctors. When O'Connel came to his
levee, "the first gentleman in Europe would
not speak to him, and said to those around !:
"Damn the fellow what does he come here
for?"
In 1880 George ~ died. He was nearly
blind, and for months before his death those
who were near him were afraid to say word.
Lady Conyngham and her family went into
his room once day. He had no wife and no
child. He never had friend, and his SER
wants robbed him. At the funeral, William
Nv, as chief mourner. darted on one side to
shake hands with Shathaven, and then went
on, nodding to people on the right and left.
The Kings clothes were all sold in month,