James Grant (1802-1879) was a British newspaper editor and prolific author of books.

• First Duke (Richard Temple)
• Second Duke (Richard Chandos)
• Charles Watkin William Wynne
• Marquis of Westmeath
• Thomas Frances Fremantle

The first Duke of Buckingham and Chandos (Richard Temple)

Random recollections of the House of Lords: from the year 1830 to 1836, including personal sketches of the leading members. James Grant. Smith, Elder, & Co., 1836, page 97ff.

The Duke of BUCKINGHAM is sure to attract the attention of a stranger in the house, whether he happens to speak or not. His personal proportions are of a very unusual size. You may walk six months in the streets of London before you Encounter so stout a man. His frame is, doubtless, naturally corpulent, and an easy disposition of mind, a life of indolence, and good living, have, in his case, effectually seconded Nature's purposes. He is pot-bellied, and rejoices in a face, the size of which does no discredit to his general stoutness. The complexion of his countenance has something of a sallow-ness about it, and his hair is of a dark brown colour. He has large laughing eyes, deeply set; his features generally are highly indicative of that species of cheerfulness which may be most justly characterised by the term “jolly!” When speaking of an opponent, or even looking at him from his seat, you see, from a peculiar expression in his eye, a lurking disposition to be sarcastic at his expense. In the chapter on “Scenes in the House,” I have given a lively one, in which his Grace was the principal performer. As there mentioned, there was something in his looks, as well as in the tones of his voice, of so very quizzical a kind, that Lord Brougham must have been as much stung by them as by the words themselves. Any one who chanced to observe the countenance of the noble Duke a little before he made the onset, must, though the merest novice in physiognomy, have perceived how he was, in his own mind, quizzing the Lord Chancellor. As a speaker, he has no pretensions to distinction. His style is bad; it is usually rough and incorrect. His matter is, if possible, still worse ; ideas, he has few or none: the commodities in which he chiefly deals are declamation and rhapsody. If it be a sin to mangle figures of speech, and grossly to pervert the best tropes of other men, by applying them to some absurd matter of his own, never was public man more guilty than his Grace. He treated the House to some choice samples of his capabilities in this way when opposing, in 1832, the second reading of the Reform Bill. It would occupy too much space to transfer these to our pages; but I may mention that, among other things to which he compared the Reform Bill, was that of a spell, which, he said, quoting from Shakspeare's tragedy of Macbeth, had been formed to

“Untie the winds, and let them fight
Against the churches—to let the yeasty waves
Confound and swallow navigation up—
To let the castles topple on our heads,
And palaces and pyramids to slope
Their heads to the foundation.”

The authors of the Reform Bill might call that measure by the name of Reform; but the noble Duke maintained its proper character was that of Republicanism, and following oat the idea, he played havoc among a few more figures of rhetoric. “It was,” he said, “the spirit of Republicanism that would be insinuated in the habit and form of the British Constitution. The demon of Republicanism, in all its hideousness, was before them in that bill! He trusted that it would find its final repose in that House—that it would be laid in a Red Sea of rest, no more to ‘fright the isle from its propriety.’” His Grace is amazingly fond of quoting Shakspeare in his speeches; but he always, wherever practicable, palms off the borrowed passages as his own. In the scene already referred to between him and Lord Brougham, in the Session of 1834, he passed off the phrase, “drinking potations pottle deep,” as his own; and it was only when Lord Brougham put the question to him in a regular home-thrust style, whether he meant to apply the words to him (Lord Brougham) personally, that the noble Duke, for the purpose of averting, unpleasant consequences, came out with the admission that the words were from one of Shakspeare’s plays. I may here mention, that until his Grace confessed the plagiarism, every one present gave him the credit of their originality.

The noble Duke is no bad hand, when he chooses to put forth his strength, at what is called coarse abuse. Take the following specimen from the same speech, in opposition to the second reading of the Reform Bill. Speaking of the frightful evils which would result from the creation of the Metropolitan Boroughs, he said, “They had heard of Paris constituting all France, and they were now to hear of London constituting all England. And what,” he asked, “was London”? Were they to look for the purity of representation in the hallowed shades of the Tower Hamlets—in the classical haunts of Billingsgate, and the modest precincts of St. Mary-le-bone? They had heard of Westminster’s pride and England's glory, but he believed it would be difficult to bestow an eleemosynary penny in the Strand, without hazarding the appearance of bribing a Westminster elector; and if a short-sighted candidate chanced to overlook a beggar, he might have to mourn over the loss of a vote. Why, the cholera was nothing to the risk of this contamination—the pestilence was nothing to it—and yet this was the way in which the representation of England was to he purified.”

In politics his Grace is a decided Tory, though one of those who profess to be moderate reformers. When he concluded the speech from which I have culled the above flowers of rhetoric, he gave notice that, in the event of the measure then before the House being rejected, he had a Reform Bill of his own ready, which he meant to propose in its stead. The leading feature of his Grace’s measure was to couple the nomination boroughs in the return of members, giving one representative to every pair of those boroughs, and beginning the union by joining Old Sarum and Gatton together! The members who would be excluded by this scheme from Parliament were to be transferred to Manchester, Birmingham, and one or two other large towns, where, in the first instance, due care was to be taken that the qualification should be sufficiently high. The Reform Bill, however, being carried, his Grace's substitute was never brought formally forward.

He is a nobleman of considerable influence in the House. He is, indeed, regarded as the head of a certain party in that house, amounting to thirty or forty, and numbering among its members the Duke of Northumberland, the Earl of Arundel, &c.

He speaks frequently, but never long at a time. I have already endeavoured to give some idea of the matter of his speeches: his manner is still worse. He works himself, in the majority of cases, into a passion—sometimes into a towering one. In the latter case he raises his voice, which is naturally shrill and penetrating, to such a pitch of loudness, that the sounds are reverberated from the walls and ceiling of the house. The consequence is, if there be not an Irishism in the expression, that sometimes you cannot hear him from the very loudness of his voice. In the Session of 1834, a gentleman belonging to the reporting establishment of a Morning Paper, gravely assigned the reason of his not being able to give his Grace s speech, to the extreme loudness of the tone in which he spoke. His action is correspondingly violent, and has, owing to the unwieldy character of his person, a very awkward effect. One wonders at seeing so much zeal and energy of manner displayed in a man who has reached the sixtieth year of his age.

The Marquis of Chandos (Richard Chandos)

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. p43-146.

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

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. James Grant. Smith, Elder & Co., Cornhill, 1836. Page 134.

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.

Marquis of Westmeath

Random recollections of the Lords and Commons. James Grant. 1838. Vol 1. Page 86ff.

The Marquis of WESTMEATH does not often take part in the proceedings of the House, and still less frequently speaks at any length; but no one who ever heard him utter a few sentences could be at a loss to distinguish him afterwards from the other peers. Not only has he a strong Irish brogue when he speaks—stronger perhaps than that of any other noble lord in the House— but his voice has a curious, indescribable squeaking tone about it, the strange effect of which is considerably aggravated by the hasty manner of his speaking. He usually speaks under a greater or less degree of excitement, however few the observations he makes, and whatever the subject. His words generally flow from him with such rapidity, that very few of them have any justice done to them in the way of pronunciation. For this reason it is sometimes difficult to catch every word which the noble marquis utters. But in addition to the defect of his voice, and the imperfection of his elocution, be has acquired a ludicrous habit of thrusting up his right hand perpendicularly above his head, and then, with his fist closed, excepting the first finger which is stretched out in a horizontal position, so as to give his hand precisely the appearance of a figure on a sign-post, he flourishes his arm in the air. This favourite peculiarity of the noble marquis's gesture has often reminded me of the way in which Mr. Vandenhoff and some others of our more popular tragedians are in the habit of flourishing their right arm perpendicularly above their heads, when enacting the celebrated scene in Shakspeare’s “Coriolanus,” in which the leading character in the piece exclaims in tones of self-gratulation and triumph—

“Like an eagle in a dove-cot
I fluttered the Volscians in Corioli:
Alone I did it!”

The longest speech, if I am not mistaken, which the noble marquis has made in the House of Lords for the last five or six years, was the one in which, in July last year, he arraigned the conduct of government in reference to their administration of the affairs of Ireland. That speech occupied, as nearly as I can remember, from twenty to thirty minutes in the delivery, and, if it was exceedingly violent, it certainly displayed respectable talent. The most singular circumstance connected with it was that of the noble marquis resuming his seat without making any motion. A thing so unusual called up Lord Brougham, who is always ready to admonish noble lords of any departure of which they may be guilty, unintentionally or otherwise, from the usages of the House. The noble and learned lord having complained .that the noble marquis, after so violent and criminatory a speech against ministers, should not have concluded with some motion,

The noble Marquis rose and said—“The noble and learned lord having called me up again—“

“Oh, Heaven forbid !” exclaimed Lord Brougham, in his own peculiarly sarcastic manner, amidst roars of laughter from both sides of the house.

The noble marquis cannot be said to be a man of superior talents; but he is by no means deficient in acuteness, and possesses a very respectable amount of political information, especially on topics connected with Ireland. He is a most zealous Tory, always identifying himself with the measures adopted by the most ultra section of the Conservative peers. He is pretty regular in his attendance on his parliamentary duties, and very rarely misses being present when Irish affairs are expected to come before the House. For some years past be has usually sat in the centre of the house, on the first row of benches. This, as I have before observed, is the place in which the Duke of Wellington sits. I mention the fact, because of the opportunity it affords me of stating, that the breach which sometime existed between the noble marquis and the noble duke, in consequence of some misunderstanding in the family of the former, and which he made the subject of a lengthened pamphlet, is now healed.

The personal appearance of the noble marquis is striking. He is tall and slender, and has a thin face and a dark complexion. His age is fifty-three.

Thomas Francis Fremantle

Random recollections of the Lords and Commons. James Grant. 1838. Vol 2. Page 76ff.

Sir THOMAS FREEMANTLE, member for Buckingham, is one of the most strenuous supporters of Tory principles on the Opposition side of the house. He is, however, too much a man of sense, and has too much of the gentleman in him, to allow himself to be betrayed into those paroxysms of passion which so often characterise the oratorical exhibitions of ultras of both parties. He is a very respectable speaker. He is always clear in his matter. His style is simple and unaffected. It has nothing of that meretricious ornament without which some honourable members, who fancy themselves modern Demostheneses, would think their style was no style at all. He speaks with considerable ease and fluency: he is seldom at a loss for a word, and when he does hesitate for a moment, he almost invariably chooses the right one. His utterance is rapid, but his distinctness renders it easy to follow him. His voice is not strong, but it is sufficiently so to make it audible in all parts of the house—that is to say, when tolerable order prevails. His matter is generally good; sometimes he displays considerable acuteness; but there is never anything profound or original in what he says. Perhaps as correct an idea may be conveyed of his mental calibre, when I say that he is above mediocrity, as by any other expression I could employ. He is a man of excellent business habits. He held a subordinate situation in the short-lived administration of Sir Robert Peel. He filled the office with much credit to himself. It is chiefly on matters of a business character that be speaks, when he does address the House. He does not speak often; nor does he ever speak long at a time. A favourite subject with him is the miscellaneous estimates. He is expert at figures, and seems to have a partiality for them.

In person he is under the usual height, but well made. He is of a dark complexion, which appears much darker from the circumstance of his immense whiskers casting a shade over his face. They are not only the largest which are owned by any honourable member in the house, but I have seldom or never seen them equalled out of doors. They are of a dark colour, and are in excellent keeping with his ample crop of black hair. His features are large, but their general expression is pleasant. He is in the prime of life, being about his forty-fifth year.