London
19 Feb. 1834
My Dear Mr F.
Yesterday was the most lively debate we have had this session, the ministers were very earnest in their request to their friends to attend, knowing that there was a considerable probability of being left in the minority on a question of this kind – Peel & Stanley <1> put forth their choicest eloquence but their exertions only produced a majority of 8, so many are the members who are afraid of their constituents – Mr Harvey <2> is a very formidable opponent, he is the best speaker the radicals <3> possess and on this occasion he exceeded himself, I suppose from being animated with the hopes of success –
Some fun was created by Spring Rice’s <4> addressing Sir Samuel Whalley <5> the M.P. for MaryleBone as one of his constituents, and calling him my representative – But what do I hear my representative say? I am astonished at the opinion, of my representative! I will give you an extract from Peel’s speech.
Peel. There is nothing I should desire so much, were it consistent with my public duty, as a full and fair enquiry into every part of this Pension List! <6>
Voices. Enquire! Enquire! Enquire!
Peel, (passionately) No I won’t enquire!
(hear, hear, hear, hear)
Harvey made a capital hit in producing that quotation from one of Ld Grey’s <7> early speeches – I will read to the House, he said, the [illegible deletion] language of Lord Howick, <8> on such & such an occasion, which if I were to use it would be called low vulgarity, radical insolence, &c. &c.
The Times <9> has made strange work of part of Rice’s speech when he boasts of a pension having been so worthily conferred, upon a man who may be called the Newton <10> of the present day, upon Mr John Moore (so we understood the Hon. Member) that most celebrated Mathematician.
Now I can’t help thinking the Times had got running in its head the name of Francis Moore, <11> physician author of Vox Stellarum or a loyal almanac
Your affe
Henry
Notes:
1. Sir Robert Peel (1788–1850), Prime Minister and Edward Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby (1799–1869), English statesman, entered Parliament as a Whig, joined Conservative opposition in 1835.
2. Daniel Whittle Harvey (1786–1863), radical politician.
3. General term covering those who supported the movement for parliamentary reform.
4. Thomas Spring Rice (1790–1866), Whig politician.
5. Sir Samuel Whalley (1800–1883).
6. Reference to pensions on the Civil List: Perpetual or Hereditary Pensions were freely granted either to favourites or as a reward for political services from the time of Charles II onwards. Such pensions were very frequently attached as “salaries” to places which were sinecures, or, just as often, posts which were really necessary were grossly overpaid, while the duties were discharged by a deputy at a small salary. The three pension lists of England, Scotland and Ireland were consolidated in 1830, and the civil pension list reduced to f75,000.
7. Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey (1764–1845), statesman.
8. Henry George, 3rd Earl Grey (1802–1894), Under-Secretary for Home Affairs 1834.
9. The Times (London).
10. Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727), English physicist and mathematician, central figure of the 17th century scientific revolution.
11. Francis Moore (1657–1715?), astrologer, physician and almanac maker who had an astrological practice in Lambeth, later in Southwark. 1699, published an almanac prophesying the weather. 1700 he published Vox Stellarum, The Voice of the Stars, an Almanac for 1701 with astrological observations, known as Old Moore’s Almanac. It sold extremely well throughout the 18th and 19th cents, and continues to be popular today.