Sir Charles Manners-Sutton seeks re-election as Speaker of the House of Commons 1833

 

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Sir Charles Manners-Sutton retained the office of Speaker of the House of Commons from 1817 to 1835, elected seven times as a Tory but eventually replaced by a Whig. Antonia Fraser in her book The Perilous Question: The Drama of the Great Reform Act 1832 describes him as “a fine, friendly, genial figure, if inclined to pomposity (but that was a forgivable offence in a Speaker)”. In 1832 he was briefly considered by the Tories as a more emollient candidate for Prime Minister than the Duke of Wellington.  Earl Grey’s Whig government had resigned after being defeated on the Reform Bill in the House of Lords, a defeat which occasioned nationwide disorder – the “Days of May”. The Tories fairly rapidly declined to accept the chalice offered them, Grey returned, and the Reform Bill passed in an empty House of Lords. Popular celebrations immediately followed.

After the excitements of 1832 and an end-of-year General Election in which Whigs and Radicals triumphed, the House of Commons re-assembled in January 1833 and on the 29^th re-elected Manners-Sutton as Speaker. A few days before he had written from his home in Manningtree, Essex to the Tory MP Quintin Dick who opened the letter carefully leaving intact the large scarlet seal. The neatly written note needs no interpretation except to say that Quintin Dick was at this time one of the two MPs for Maldon in Essex; the other was Thomas Lennard, referenced in the letter and a Whig.

No one has much good to say about Quintin Dick, a very rich Irish merchant, living in splendour in Curzon Street, opposing all Reforms, and notorious for bribing the owners and electors of the several constituencies he represented.

Disraeli satirised Quintin Dick in Coningsby, published in January 1844 and full of so many coded references that A New Key to the Characters in Coningsby shortly after appeared; with “Mr Ormsby” keyed to Quintin Dick.  Disraeli acknowledged the satire in an 1844 note to Dick which I found tucked in an unconnected envelope. He writes, My dear Dick, I confess to the personal attack which you have discovered. I certainly was thinking of my dear little wife when I wrote p. 207. Yours ever Disraeli. Gro[svenor] Gate Jan 27 44. The relevant words in Coningsby appear to be these where “Lord Monmouth” is the Marquess of Hertford:

All this time Mr Ormsby, as the friend of Lord and Lady Monmouth, remained shaking his head; but as a member of society, and therefore delighting in small scandal, appropriating the gossip with the greatest avidity.

Quintin Dick never married but was familiar to the courtesan Harriette Wilson and appears in her Memoirs “The next evening found us all dining with Mr Dick, who handed me down to dinner…” – which, if I understand Regency etiquette correctly, implies that she was then seated next to him.

Transcription

Addressed to:   Quintin Dick Esqre M.P.     Brighton

Datelined from:   Mistley Hall Jan’ 24 1833

My Dear Sir

Many thanks for your kind and friendly letter – I am most anxious to have the attendance in the House at the selection of Speaker, if any Member of the last Parliament, who has thought favourably of my conduct (I won’t say services) in the Chair – and the more that attendance is mixed up with Whig & Tory indiscriminately the more flattering and honourable to me – so pray put this note  into Mr Leonard’s hands with every acknowledgment on my part of his kindness to me on this & al occasions.

I hope my being here will account for the delay in my answer

I am My Dear Sir Yr. most faithful & sincere C MannersSutton

Quintin Dick Esqre.

References

Fraser, Antonia Perilous Question. The Drama of the Great Reform Bill 1832 (2014)

Wikipedia: Charles Manners-Sutton, 1st Viscount Canterbury, (9 January 1780 - 21 July 1845)

Wikipedia: Quintin Dick (7 February 1777 – 26 March 1858) was an Irish Peelite, independent, Conservative, and Tory politician.

Nils Clausson discusses Disraeli’s literary references in Coningsby  in a 2016 article at researchgate.net/publication/301276257_Pedigree_and_Politics_or_the_Two_Marneys_in_Disraeli's_Sybil