INTRODUCTION. INSTRUCTED by experience in the legal dangers and penalties that attend the premature disclosure of historical truth, I do not nourish the intention of permitting these memoirs to see the light till I shall have been removed from the scene. I have done more: I have taken effectual precautions to prevent the possibility of their being published during the life of his present Majesty George the Fourth. In fact, the mention which I made of Count Woronzow, when relating the circumstances connected with the marriage of the Princess Royal to the late Duke of Wirtemberg, in the "Memoirs of my Own Time," published in April, 1815, constituted only the ostensible pretext for the judgment then pronounced against me. My real offence consisted in the facts or opinions respecting men and measures recorded throughout that work. Garrow, then attorney-general, who was retained by Woronzow, levelled his severest censures, not so much against the particular passage for which I was prosecuted, as against the memoirs themselves, which he depictured in colours the most calculated to produce a rigorous sentence. The court condemned me, for an unintentional fault, to six months' imprisonment, together with a fine of five hundred pounds. How averse Count Woronzow was that such a judgment should be carried into execution, he demonstrated in the most unequivocal manner. On the very same day, the 16th of May, 1816, when I was sent to the King's Bench, he applied in person to Lord Sidmouth, then secretary of state for the home department, to solicit the immediate remission of my whole sentence. He repeatedly urged the same request to the Earl of Liverpool, and to Lord Castlereagh. Nor did he stop at the ministers, but twice personally addressed the regent himself on the subject. Finding, nevertheless, that all his efforts were ineffectual, and that ministers treated with neglect every application in my favour, he sent his son-in-law, my friend the Earl of Pembroke, to inform me of the circumstances here related. That nobleman having called on me while I was walking in the marshal's garden, on the twelfth of July, expressed in the strongest terms Count Woronzow's concern at the inefficiency of his exertions to procure my liberation from imprisonment, as well as the remission of the fine. He at the same time disclaimed, on the part of the count, his having ever authorized the attorney-general to call for a vindictive judgment against me; his only object in the prosecution having been to clear up his diplomatic character, as minister of the Empress Catherine the Second at the British court. Some days, however, previously to Lord Pembroke's visit, as early as the sixth of July, I had received a verbal message from Viscount Sidmouth, delivered by General Manners, first equerry to the king. It informed me that if I would petition the regent for my liberation, Lord Sidmouth would lay it before his royal highness; which step would probably be productive of immediate and agreeable results. I instantly replied, that I preferred remaining in confinement until the 16th of the ensuing month of November, when the period of my detention would expire; and then to pay the fine, rather than submit to present a petition. I added, that having only wounded Count Woronzow's feelings, without malice or design of any kind, by the mention of an historical fact, for which unintentional offence I had made him the most prompt, public, and ample reparation in my power, I had already acquitted myself towards him; but that, nevertheless, I was ready to address a respectful letter to the regent, requesting him to remit my fine, and to abbreviate my imprisonment. Having received in the course of the same morning, from General Manners, Lord Sidmouth's assent to my proposition, I immediately drew up a short address to his royal highness. General Manners conveyed this letter to its destination, and the regent laid it before the chancellor, Lord Ellenborough, and the cabinet With their approbation, it was determined to remit my fine, and to liberate my person; but, not till towards the close of August. This resolution was communicated to me verbally from Lord Sidmouth, by General Manners, on Saturday the thirteenth of July, the day subsequent to Lord Pembroke's visit; which visit was probably no secret to ministers. Count Woronzow, it is apparent, was determined to prove, that though he had instituted a prosecution against me, in order to vindicate his official diplomatic conduct, yet he had made every effort to prevent the execution of the judgment. The government, however hostile towards me, then judged it proper to interpose by shortening the period of my detention. An event which took place in the month of August retarded during a few days my liberation. The regent was seized with so violent a disorder while at the Stud-house, Hampton Court, as to render impracticable his removal. On Tuesday, the 20th of August, his life was pronounced to be in the most imminent danger. He recovered, nevertheless, with surprising rapidity, and the remission arrived from Lord Sidmouth's office on the 30th of the same month. I did not, however, quit my residence before the afternoon of the ensuing day. My confinement, indeed, had been rendered so mild as to leave me little except the name of a prison. I occupied two airy, spacious apartments, situate over the vestibule contiguous to, but not within the inner walls. The Earl of Abingdon, who, as well as myself, had been sent to the King's Bench, for a libel, many years earlier, inhabited them during his detention; and they had been recently occupied by Lord Cochrane. Every possible indulgence and attention was shown me by Mr. Jones, the marshal, and by his subordinate officers, from the moment of my arrival, to the time of my departure. Never, I believe, did any literary work procure for its author a more numerous list of powerful and inveterate enemies, than were produced by those "Memoirs of my Own Time." The queen, the regent, and the princesses of the royal family, far from being satisfied with a portrait of George the Third, which, if it errs, can only be censured for presenting a 100 favourable likeness, were incensed at the freedom with which I had commented on the peace of 1763, as well as at the personal disclosures respecting the king himself, scattered throughout the memoirs. As little did the admirers or followers of Pitt approve my picture of that minister, though, in my opinion, rather a flattering resemblance: while Fox's partizans exhibited the most violent resentment at my strictures on his moral, as well as on his political character. The just and impartial likeness of Charles Jenkinson displeased the first lord of the treasury, his son, in the highest degree. Many of Lord North's friends or connexions, insensible to the justice that I had done to that most accomplished and amiable nobleman, expressed the utmost dissatisfaction at my remarks on his junction with Fox in 1783. I must except, however, from this observation, his two sons-in-law, Lord Sheffield and Lord Glenbervie. The descendants of the Earl of Bute were implacable. From the present Marquis of Lansdown, I was indirectly threatened through a high quarter (the late excellent and regretted Sir Samuel Romilly) with new prosecutions in the court of King's Bench, on account of the unavoidable reflections which I had made on the circumstances attending the resignation of his father, the Earl of Shelburne. Men in official situations, or enjoying salaries from the Crown, were disgracefully selected to compose the article of the "Quarterly Review," which held up the "Memoirs," not to fair and liberal criticism, but to general reprobation, as an imbecile and immoral work: while the "Edinburgh Review," in defiance of history, and substituting impudence to cover ignorance of facts, attacked me in the most virulent language. Such was the combination of assailants which my inflexible regard to truth assembled from the most opposite quarters. All these clamorous and calumnious efforts were nevertheless far overbalanced, in my estimation, by one testimony to its veracity which I received, and which I may now communicate to the world. The most prejudiced reader will contemplate it with respect. It was given by a gentleman of ancient descent, of high character, and of large property; a near relative of Lord North, who had held a place in George the Third's family, as one of the grooms of his bedchamber, during nearly forty years, from 1775, down to the King's final loss of reason. I allude to the late Sir George Osborn. In a letter which he addressed to me from his residence at Chicksands Priory in Bedfordshire, dated on the 2d of June, 1816, only eighteen days after my commitment to the King's Bench, he thus expressed himself:-"I have your first edition here, and have perused it again. with much attention. I pledge my name, that I personally know nine parts out of ten of your anecdotes to be perfectly correct. You are imprisoned for giving to future ages a perfect picture of our time, and as interesting as Clarendon." The last letter which I ever received from Sir George Osborn, written from his residence in Charles-street, Berkeleysquare, on the 8th of May, 1818, contains still stronger attestations to the accuracy and fidelity of my memoirs. He mentions in particular, with warm approbation, my character of Lord North, as well as my account of the peace of 1783, and of " the coalition;" adding, "Say with Milton, • Graiorum laus est suis potuisse placere, Sit mea temporibus displicuisse meis."" This letter may be considered as expressing his dying opinions. He expired on the following 29th of June. I cannot too highly value such recognitions, which outweigh a volume of invective. It required indeed no little manliness of mind, and independence of character, to deliver testimonies so strong under his hand, addressed to a person in my situation. N. WM. WRAXALL. Charlton, near Cheltenham, 15th of May, 1825. POSTHUMOUS MEMOIRS OF MY OWN TIME. April, 1784.-DURING the interval of near eight weeks which elapsed between the dissolution of the old parliament, and the time indicated for the convocation of the new assembly, all attention was directed to the general election. The successful exertions of the ministry, principally directed by Robinson, had gradually undermined the majority possessed by Lord North and Fox, till it sunk nearly to an equality; and the sovereign then interposing his prerogative, dissolved the parliament: but the people, and the people only, could sustain Pitt in his elevation. Never since the accession of the house of Hanover did the crown or the treasury make less pecuniary efforts for obtaining favourable returns to the house of commons, than in 1784! The general partiality felt towards government, throughout the country, which sentiment rose to enthusiasm; together with the condemnation which the coalition had incurred; these sentiments supplied the want of every other means. Corruption for once became almost unnecessary; and such was the violence of the popular predilection, that instances occurred in various boroughs, of men being forcibly stopped, detained, and finally returned as members to parlia ment, who were accidentally passing through the place of election, but whose known political principles constituted a sufficient recommendation. However productive of national benefit in the aggregate this spirit might be esteemed, yet there occurred partial and individual examples of exclusion, which all moderate persons regretted. It was difficult to see without concern a man of such integrity as Lord John Cavendish making way, at York, for Viscount Galway. I well knew the latter nobleman, of whom it would be difficult to commemorate anything very meritorious, and who, whenever he rose to address the house, as he sometimes did during long debates, at very late hours, was usually in a state which should have impelled him to silence. His exertions at York in opposing the Cavendish interest, when combined with his affinity to the Rutland family, placed him nevertheless about the person of the king, as comptroller of his majesty's household, decorated with the order of the Bath. Mr. Coke, whose descent, respectable character, immense landed estates, and agricultural pursuits or occupations, so beneficial in their tendency, had seated him as representative for the county of Norfolk, - a man relative to whom Sheridan many years afterwards observed, speaking in his place, that " Mr. Coke disdained to hide his head within a coronet when offered him,"—yet even he, overborne by the current, made way for Sir John Wodehouse, who has since been elevated by Pitt to the British peerage. George Byng, whose ardent devotion and indefatigable zeal, which rendered him highly useful to his party, induced Sheridan to exclaim, on hearing of Byng's ill success at Brentford, "I could have better spared a better man;" after a desperate contest maintained against Wilkes, for the county of Middlesex, yielded to his more popular antagonist. So strong was the general |