Late
CHARLES C. F. GREVILLE, Esq.
Clerk of the Council to Those Sovereigns

Edited by
HENRY REEVE
Registrar of the Privy Council

IN THREE VOLUMES
VOL. I.

Second Edition

LONDON
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
1874

PREFACE
BY THE EDITOR

The Author of these Journals requested me, in January 1865, a few
days before his death, to take charge of them with a view to
publication at some future time. He left that time to my
discretion, merely remarking that Memoirs of this kind ought not,
in his opinion, to be locked up until they had lost their
principal interest by the death of all those who had taken any
part in the events they describe. He placed several of the
earlier volumes at once in my hands, and he intimated to his
surviving brother and executor, Mr. Henry Greville, his desire
that the remainder should be given me for this purpose. The
injunction was at once complied with after Mr. Charles Greville's
death, and this interesting deposit has now remained for nearly
ten years in my possession. In my opinion this period of time is
long enough to remove every reasonable objection to the
publication of a contemporary record of events already separated
from us by a much longer interval, for the transactions related
in these volumes commence in 1818 and end in 1837. I therefore
commit to the press that portion of these Memoirs which embraces
the Reigns of King George IV. and King William IV., ending with
the Accession of her present Majesty.

In accepting the trust and deposit which Mr. Greville thought fit
to place in my hands, I felt, and still feel, that I undertook a
task and a duty of considerable responsibility; but from the time
and the manner in which it was offered me I could not decline it.
I had lived for more than five-and-twenty years in the daily
intercourse of official life and private friendship with Mr.
Greville. Sir George Cornewall Lewis, to whom he had previously
intended to leave these Journals, died before him. After that
event, deeply to be regretted on so many accounts, Mr. Greville
did me the honour to select me for the performance of this duty,
which was unexpecte