The Edinburgh Review (Volume 110) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Aet. III. Memoirs of the Court of George IV., 18201830. From original family documents. By the Duke of BuckIngham and Chandos, K. G. London: 1859. 2 vols. 8vo. Cincje the appearance of our article on the first period of Lord Liverpool's administration (Jan. 1859), two more volumes have been published from the family papers in the possession of the Duke of Buckingham, which comprise the ten years of the reign of George IV. In continuing our review of events from the death of Lord Castlereagh in 1822, to the accession of the Reform Ministry in 1830, we shall avail ourselves of the materials contained in these volumes. At the same time we must express our opinion that the editor has shown a culpable disregard of the feelings of living persons in publishing at length the private and confidential letters addressed to the late Duke of Buckingham, by his near relations and intimate friends; many of those letters contain passages relating to events in private life, of a comparatively recent date, which it was improper and unbecoming to give to the public, and which are utterly valueless for any question of political and historical interest. Adopting an American metaphor, we may say that the administration of Lord Liverpool, after the second and final downfal of Napoleon, began the peace with a large balance of popularity at their banker's in their favour, formed out of their accumulations during the last years of the war; while the account of the Opposition had been overdrawn, and exhibited a balance against them. Owing to their policy respecting the war with Napoleon, the latter party had an arrear of unpopularity to cancel, before they could set themselves straight with the country; but this object was gradually effected, and before long they converted their deficiency into a...