Memoirs of the Court of George IV | Page 6

betraying apprehension, carried on the
business of the country with untiring vigilance and decision. Hunt and
five of his associates, after a long trial, were on the 23rd of March, at
York, found guilty of unlawfully assembling and inciting to hatred of
the Government. On the same day, Sir Francis Burdett was found guilty
of uttering a seditious libel. On the 10th of April, Sir Charles Wolseley
and Mr. Joseph Harrison were also found guilty of sedition. The most
guilty of the Cato Street heroes made their last public appearance at the
Old Bailey on the 1st of May; the remainder were expatriated to New
South Wales. Thus the supremacy of the law was vindicated; but there
still existed in the more populous districts feelings inimical to the
authorities, that might be restrained by coercive demonstrations, but
which only waited a favourable season for bursting through all control:
and as, on the 20th of April, Mr. Denman and Mr. Brougham had been
acknowledged by the Lord Chancellor, from his seat in the Court of
Chancery, the Queen's Solicitor and Attorney-General, the discontented
took heart, and saw in this admission of the Queen's position, a
prognostication of the struggle that was to create for them the
opportunity for which they were waiting.
The Court of the Monarch did not appear more apprehensive than his
Ministers. A day was fixed for the Coronation; and among those who
would have to assist in the ceremonial, no one ventured to hint on the
possibility of the Queen having any position in it. On the 3rd of May,
the King received addresses at Carlton House; and on the 10th, his
Majesty held his first Levee since his accession to the throne, at which
nearly 1800 persons of distinction were present, who testified their
attachment to his person in a manner that must have left him little to

desire. It was known that his consort intended to agitate the empire
from end to end, and her arrival was looked for in a few weeks; but the
families of the great political party that formed and supported the
Government, betrayed no uneasiness--indeed, the most influential
regarded, or affected to regard, the coming struggle with a quiet disdain,
that evinced their confidence in the loyalty and good sense of the nation.
"His Majesty's Opposition," however, talked and looked very
differently;--the Democratic party were vehement in their
denunciations of the Queen's wrongs, and the leading Whigs began to
come forward prominently as champions of her rights. This is about the
date of the following communications:--
RIGHT HON. THOS. GRENVILLE TO THE MARQUIS OF
BUCKINGHAM.
Cleveland Square, May 4, 1820.
MY DEAR LORD B----,
I have but little news to tell you. The general arrangement of the Civil
List, by replacing it as it stood in 1816, is so much better a bargain for
the public than I had expected, that I for one am well contented with it;
and if report be true, it was obtained by nothing but the most
determined refusal of the Ministers to do more. Still, however, I
understand that the Admiralty Droits are unpopular enough to threaten
the Government with a good deal of embarrassment; for undoubtedly,
if they have bargained with the King for the statement of 1816, when
he had the Admiralty Droits, they cannot in equity deprive him of that
part of his bargain. Brougham seems by his speech to have conceived
the notion of giving the King compensation for them; but it seems to
me to be but a bad bargain for the public, to make them, under the
present pressure, purchase out a remote contingent future revenue,
which can arise only out of a war that no Power in Europe is rich
enough to make, any more than ourselves.
Nobody knows what Brougham's motion will be to-morrow, or what
course the Opposition will take on Monday. I hope none of our friends
will disturb an arrangement which I believe the Government had some

merit and great difficulty in reducing to its present form.
The Coronation, which Lord G. Seymour told me ten days ago was
suspended, is now again in expectation, according to general belief; it
has revived in common report, because I fancy the Earl Marshal has
just been ordered to have an estimate made of the necessary expenses
attending it in his department; but it does not follow from that estimate
that the ceremony will take place, I think it more probable that it will
be put off, because the King will not like it unless it be expensive, and
Van knows not how to pay for it if it is. Clive told me yesterday, that
three naval peers are about to be made--Sir W. Young, Warren, and
Saumarez. This looks as if an Accession List was preparing; but