Grant, James 1836. Random Recollections of the House of Commons, from the Year 1830 to the Close of 1835, including Personal Sketches of the Leading Members of All Parties. By One of No Party. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 2nd edition.

Richard Chandos

Grant’s Random Recollections, pages 143–46. Portrait of Richard Chandos (2nd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos).

The Marquis of Chandos, member for Buckinghamshire, is a nobleman of very great influence among the agricultural members in the House, as well as among the farmers throughout the country. He is called, by way of eminence, the Farmer’s Friend. He is worthy of the title. The interests of the agriculturalists are ever uppermost in his mind. In many instances he has been known to sacrifice his own private interests and justifiable ambition, solely from a regard to the interests of the farmers as a body. It is well known to honourable members of all parties, though not generally known in the country, that rather than accept office when Sir Robert Peel’s Administration was formed, on the condition of throwing the agriculturalists overboard by putting off the motion which he had engaged to bring forward for a repeal of the Malt Tax, he preferred continuing a private member. This was a sacrifice to principle which few men of any party in the House, would, under the circumstances, have made; for he could have had no difficulty of finding a pretext, from the state of parties, or something else, for postponing it from time to time until the session had come to a close. He, however, with his characteristic integrity and straightforwardness of conduct, refused to accept office on any terms of which his own conscience did not approve, though it was well known he would otherwise have been delighted to have been associated in office with a Conservative Ministry. He is chiefly known in the house and the country by his speeches in favour of the agricultural interest.

He is a West-India proprietor, and before the emancipation of the slaves in our colonial possessions, took a distinguished part in all the proceedings in the house bearing on the West-India question. The colonists, indeed, committed their interests in the house to him. He was their acknowledged representative, and displayed uncommon zeal, blended with considerable talent, in their favour. But since that question has been set to rest he has almost exclusively applied himself to the consideration of the best means of relieving farmers from their burdens, and affording protection to the agricultural interest. He seldom speaks on any other subject, but never misses an opportunity of speaking on that when the question before the house will admit of it. A more vigilant, zealous, or faithful friend, the farmers could not have.

He is, as I have already said, a nobleman of considerable talent. He acquits himself, when addressing the House, in a very creditable manner. His voice is not strong, but it is audible and pleasant. He speaks with considerable fluency, and is always clear and forcible in his reasoning. No one can mistake his positions, or fail to perceive the arguments by which he endeavours to establish them. There is nothing ornamental or artificial in his style or manner. In fact, he has no ambition to shine as a mere stringer of rounded periods together: he quite forgets himself—I cannot say as much of many others, both of the Tory and Liberal party—in the intensity of interest he feels in his subject. He does not usually speak long; but there is always a great deal of matter in what he does say.

In person, the Marquis of Chandos is a little above the usual stature. he is a handsome gentlemanly-looking man. His features are small and regular, and have a prepossessing appearance. His complexion is dark, and his hair black. He has a fine forehead, and an intelligent as well as agreeable expression of countenance. He is in his forty-first year,[1] and is the only son of the Duke of Buckingham.

Charles Watkin Williams Wynn

Grant’s Random Recollections, pages 134–36. Portrait of Charles Watkin Williams Wynn

Mr. C. W. W. Wynn, the member for Montgomeryshire, ought not to be passed over in a notice of the Tory party. In person he is of the middle size, rather, if anything, inclined to corpulency. he has a round face, is of dark complexion, and slight pitted with the small-pox. His hair was formerly dark, but is now beginning to turn grey. His is in his sixtieth year. His voice is more extraordinary than that of any honourable member in the house. I shall never forget how singularly it sounded in my ears the first time I heard the right honourable gentleman speak. It is impossible to describe it. You would sometimes think the sound proceeded from the back of his head, not from his mouth. He often falls into so screeching a tone as to impair the articulation of the word altogether; for he does not pitch his voice at a very high key. He has, besides, an indescribable sort of lisp by which he mars the correct pronunciation of almost every word. For example, if he were to commence his speech as follows:—“I rise, Sir, for the purpose of asking the,” &c. he would pronounce it thus:—“I rithe, ther, for the purpothe of athking the,” &c. And yet, when once the ear is accustomed to his curious delivery, it is by no means unpleasant. He makes great professions of liberality; but he is at bottom a genuine Tory of the Ultra school. He has some intellect, though not as much as he takes credit for. He often takes the common-sense view of questions not immediately bearing on party objects; but at other times he is quite unintelligible. I have known him speak for an hour at a time, and would have defied any man to say which side of the question he was advocating. His speech, in 1834, on the propriety of admitting Dissenters to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, was a case in point. On that occasion he seemed as much lost in history, religion, and politics, as Milton’s angels were in the “wandering mazes” of “fixed-fate, free-will, fore-knowledge absolute.” Several members inquired of each other, when he sat down, which side he was for. he is never at a loss for words, but his matter is insufferably prosy. His sentences are correctly constructed without the least glimmering of eloquence ever struggling through them. he speaks often, and is seldom listened to with much attention.