227—to Francis Hodgson
8, St. James's Street, March 5, 1812.
My Dear Hodgson
,—
We
are not answerable for reports of speeches in the papers; they are always given incorrectly, and on this occasion more so than usual, from the debate in the Commons on the same night. The
Morning Post
should have said
eighteen years
. However, you will find the speech, as spoken, in the Parliamentary Register, when it comes out. Lords Holland and Grenville, particularly the latter, paid me some high compliments in the course of their speeches, as you may have seen in the papers, and Lords Eldon and Harrowby answered me. I
have
had many marvellous eulogies
repeated to me since, in person and by proxy, from divers persons
ministerial
—yea,
ministerial!
—as well as oppositionists; of them I shall only mention Sir F. Burdett.
He
says it is the best speech by a
lord
since the "
Lord
knows when," probably from a fellow-feeling in the sentiments. Lord H. tells me I shall beat them all if I persevere; and Lord G. remarked that the construction of some of my periods are very like
Burke's!!
And so much for vanity. I spoke very violent sentences with a sort of modest impudence, abused every thing and every body, and put the Lord Chancellor very much out of humour: and if I may believe what I hear, have not lost any character by the experiment. As to my delivery, loud and fluent enough, perhaps a little theatrical. I
could
not recognize myself or any one else in the newspapers
.
I
hire
myself unto Griffiths, and my poesy
comes out on Saturday. Hobhouse is here; I shall tell him to write. My stone is gone for the present, but I fear is part of my habit. We
all
talk of a visit to Cambridge.
Yours ever,
B.
Footnote 1:
For Byron's speech, February 27, 1812, see
.] Grenville said,
"There never was a maxim of greater wisdom than that uttered by the noble lord [Byron] who had so ably addressed their lordships that night for the first time"
(
Hansard
, vol. xxi. p. 977). Moore quotes a passage from Byron's
Detached Thoughts
:
"Sheridan's liking for me (whether he was not mystifying me I do not know, but Lady Caroline Lamb and others told me that he said the same both before and after he knew me) was founded upon English Bards, and Scotch Reviewers. He told me that he did not care about poetry (or about mine—at least, any but that poem of mine), but he was sure, from that and other symptoms, I should make an orator, if I would but take to speaking, and grow a parliament man. He never ceased harping upon this to me to the last; and I remember my old tutor, Dr. Drury, had the same notion when I was a boy; but it never was my turn of inclination to try. I spoke once or twice, as all young peers do, as a kind of introduction into public life; but dissipation, shyness, haughty and reserved opinions, together with the short time I lived in England after my majority (only about five years in all), prevented me from resuming the experiment. As far as it went, it was not discouraging, particularly my first speech (I spoke three or four times in all); but just after it, my poem of Childe Harold was published, and nobody ever thought about my prose afterwards, nor indeed did I; it became to me a secondary and neglected object, though I sometimes wonder to myself if I should have succeeded."
Footnote 2:
Byron, writing to John Hanson, February 28, 1812, says:
"Dear Sir,—In the report of my speech (which by the bye is given very incorrectly) in the M[orning] Herald, Day, and B[ritish] Press, they state that I mentioned Bristol, a place I never saw in my life and knew nothing of whatever, nor mentioned at all last night. Will you be good enough to send to these papers
immediately, and have the mistake corrected, or I shall get into a scrape with the Bristol people?
"I am, yours very truly,
"B."
Footnote 3:
Childe Harold
, Cantos I., II.
