"Look at the men themselves who lead in this cause. Is there one among them with whom you would trust yourself in the dark? Can you have, I will not say, any confidence in their opinions and principles, but any doubt of the wickedness of their intentions? Look at them, at their characters, at their conduct. What is there more base, and more detestable, more at variance with all tact and decency, as well as all morality, truth, and honour? A cause so supported cannot be a good cause. They may use Burdett as an instrument for a time, and you also if you place yourself in their trammels, but depend upon it, if a convulsion follows their attempt to work upon the minds of the people, inflamed as they now are by distress, for which your reform will afford a very inadequate remedy, I shall not precede you many months on the scaffold, which you will have assisted in preparing for us both."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Prime Ministers of the United KingdomPoliticians from EnglandWhig (British political party) politiciansSecretaries of State for Foreign Affairs of Great Britain and the United KingdomLeaders of the House of Commons (United Kingdom)
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Letter to General Sir Robert Thomas Wilson on the Radicals (October 1819), quoted in M. R. Brock, Lord Liverpool and Liberal Toryism. 1820–1827 (1941), pp. 117-118
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Charles_Grey%2C_2nd_Earl_Grey
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey
Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, KG, PC (13 March 1764 – 17 July 1845), known as Viscount Howick between 1806 and 1807, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 22 November 1830 to 16 July 1834. A member of the Whig Party, he backed significant reform of the British government and was among the primary architects of the Reform Act 1832. In addition to his political achievements, he famously gave his name to Earl Grey tea.
33 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey →
Related Quotes
"Bad as I am thought, I cannot express the horror I feel at this atrocity."
"Mr. Grey said, that he was prepared to defend the country, not only against an invasion of a foreign enemy, wishing t…"
"What was the conduct of the minister in the year 1782, when his pretended sincerity for a parliamentary reform had be…"
"Mr. Grey was much obliged to his hon. friend for submitting the motion to the House. The length of time during which …"
"What I most heartily wish for is, a union between the two countries: by a union I mean something more than a mere wor…"
"We are referred to the period the Revolution [of 1688]. We are told to be contented with those securities for our lib…"
"Has, then, the influence of the crown increased since the Revolution? Down to the period of 1782 I believe the fact w…"
"I have from the beginning been adverse to distant expeditions for the purpose of expanding our colonial possessions. …"
"[The Spanish news] really keeps me awake at night and in the day I can think of nothing else. I did not think it poss…"
"He was not a friend to Paine's doctrines, but he was not to be deterred by a name from acknowledging that he consider…"