Part 27

Robert Stewart, also, considered that Ireland could not with justice be deprived of an extensive commerce with the colonies. What was the use of a system which made all the advantages fall to the share of England and Scotland, without allowing the essentially agricultural population of Ireland, to participate in them? Young Stewart defended the interests of Ireland with energy and great ability, and he immediately attracted the attention of those in power, more especially the Marquis of Buckingham and Lord Westmoreland.

The rebellion in Ireland took place at this juncture; the people were determined to separate themselves from the English crown; the time was past when the questions raised by the opposition were those of religious liberty or political independence; they now wanted to establish a sort of Irish republic, under the protection of the democracy that was then setting Europe in a blaze. Treasonable correspondence with the French republic could not fail to place the society of United Irishmen without the pale of the constitution and of all patriotic feelings. Ireland called for the assistance of foreigners, and a strong party was naturally formed to oppose these evil designs. The Orangemen, who sided with the government, organised the yeomanry--a sort of feudal system against the insurgents, and a civil war broke out in Ireland at the time of the expeditions to their coasts, commanded by Generals Hoche and Humbert. The members of parliament could not venture on further hesitation; for it was necessary either to take part with the United Irishmen supported by foreigners, or to declare for the government of Mr. Pitt. Robert Stewart, who had just acquired the title of Castlereagh, upon his father being created Earl of Londonderry, exhibited no indecision as to the course he was to pursue, and from this time forth he was always firmly convinced that the only real statesmen are those who know how to repress the tumultuous movements of popular excitement.

He now devoted himself to repressive measures, with the energy that formed the basis of his character. He had been appointed secretary for Ireland under Lord Camden, and by this means became identified with the Orange party. It was principally owing to his vigorous measures that the insurrection was brought to a termination, for he never was arrested by any of the trifling obstacles which often form the ruin of causes; he considered it necessary the government should display perfect inflexibility, for the salvation of the country was at stake: amnesties were granted, it is true, but not until the tumult was over and the rebels had laid down their arms. During this struggle Lord Castlereagh was particularly distinguished for the strength and importance he conferred upon the Orange party, consisting of men of property who were formed into a body for the defence of their land. Lord Cornwallis was able, after a time, to succeed Lord Camden in the government of Ireland, and the repressive system had then produced such a state of security, that the government considered the season of pardon and oblivion to have arrived.

The most violent hatred was now aroused against Lord Castlereagh: it is, alas! the fate of all who by violent means restore order in a country, for they occasion discontent, and all the spirits whose turbulence had troubled the country are, of course, opposed to them; because their proceedings have been severe, people insist that they have been sanguinary. These invectives of the Irish did not permit Lord Cornwallis to retain Lord Castlereagh as secretary, he therefore gave in his resignation; for, in peaceful times, the men who commanded during the storm are no longer required, and when the tempest is over the services of the hardy pilot are scarcely remembered: thus Marquis Cornwallis, whose government was distinguished for its indulgence, no longer required the inflexible hand of the former secretary. No part of his conduct, however, had escaped the vast intellect of the statesman then at the head of the English government. Mr. Pitt had discovered the secretary for Ireland to possess an inflexible mind, which, when once convinced of the expediency of any measure, was capable of making every exertion, and encountering every risk, in order to carry out an idea he had formed; and this kind of disposition must have been particularly satisfactory to Mr. Pitt at a time when England was threatened with so many dangers. In unsettled times, the presence of men of firm and determined characters, who will prevent society from falling to pieces, is of the greatest importance to a government. From this moment, a communication took place between Pitt and Lord Castlereagh. The great minister required a powerful supporter in the definitive question of the parliamentary union of Ireland and England; for the late disturbances, and more especially the unfortunate appeal to a foreign power, and to the leaders of the French revolution, had inspired Mr. Pitt with a firm conviction, that neither strength nor order were to be hoped for, except through the means of the Union, and that the existence of the Irish parliament was in direct opposition to the spirit of centralisation, which can alone secure the prosperity and glory of a country. After every insurrection Ireland was losing some portion of her freedom,--a fate always prepared by agitators for those who trust too much to their words! A nation obtains concessions only when it remains in a quiescent position, and when its well-founded complaints are uttered with calm sobriety of manner; silent suffering produces a great effect on the minds of the beholders, and the feeling of justice exercises an unspeakable influence. Lord Castlereagh in the Irish parliament made himself the zealous champion of Mr. Pitt, in his plan for uniting the two parliaments; the country comprehended the advantages to be derived from this measure, and it was decided that the three crowns of England, Scotland, and Ireland, ought to form one great whole, which would hereafter be the support of the Continent when threatened with danger. Pitt was highly satisfied with Lord Castlereagh's speech for the Union; he was summoned by the ministerial party to the united House of Commons, and appointed president of the Board of Control for the affairs of India. This is one of the appointments conferred in England by the ministers upon the talented men with whom they surround themselves, for the sake of their support in parliament.

No man could be better acquainted with the situation of Ireland than Lord Castlereagh, or more perfectly aware of all the resources of the Orange party which could be employed for the purpose of repression. This knowledge rendered him a person of great importance, for the prime minister was then anxious to put into execution the union between England and Ireland, which had been decided upon in parliament, and Lord Castlereagh, who by his profound acquaintance with the moral topography of Ireland was the man most calculated to realise this design, was consulted upon all the measures to be pursued. Mr. Pitt especially possessed the practical genius which enabled him to discover men of particular capacity, and around him were a multitude of young and clever men, each with his appointed station and employment. The system of under-secretaries of state in England produces wonderful results; it gives to affairs their full developement, enabling the statesman to confine himself to generalities, both of ideas and systems, while the young under-secretaries devote all their energies to the statistics of detail and the internal administration. Thus was Lord Castlereagh situated; a man of an inflexible and laborious disposition, who never arrived at a general idea except by means of the most careful and minute study of all the circumstances.

This special knowledge of affairs caused Lord Castlereagh to be retained even during Mr. Addington's ministry, which lasted but a very short time, and was succeeded by Mr. Pitt's still more decided plans against the French revolution. Addington signed the peace of Amiens, and Castlereagh, as president of the Board of Trade, had to deliberate upon all the measures which augmented the commercial relations of England with India and the colonies. He assumed no position as a political character, for he did not agree with the ideas entertained by Addington, and he, therefore, completely gave himself up to his duties at the Board of Control and to the affairs of Ireland. His heart was full of detestation for France, and, in imitation of his master, he allowed this administration to pass without taking any part in it. As a reward for his conduct on this occasion, Pitt, on resuming his situation at the head of affairs, gave him the portfolio of the War department.

It is necessary to observe that Pitt's great ambition was that all the various departments should be entirely dependent upon him; he did not like to have any men about him except those of his school, or immediately attached to his system,--his _fides Achates_, as they were classically termed by Dundas; and among these young men the names of Castlereagh and Canning are especially resplendent: both were subject to his power, but of essentially opposite characters, and jealous of each other. Castlereagh was so firm and decided, that he never gave up an idea he had once formed; his manner of speaking was slow, and rather heavy, but serious, and never thoughtless. Canning, on the contrary, was sarcastic, and rather inclined to classic declamation; an orator, rather spoiled from a constant striving after effect. Castlereagh was often listened to with impatience, nevertheless, he generally attained his object; while Canning, by the generality of people, was only viewed in the light of an eloquent speaker. Castlereagh was a statesman; Canning, a man of words, rather theatrical, not to be relied on, and with an indescribable levity of language and purpose. Castlereagh would have laid down his life for his party, or for an idea; Canning was a renegade to his party, he supported every thing with ability, and gloried in his oratorical triumphs, at the very time he was compromising his cabinet.

When Pitt, their illustrious chief, died broken-hearted by the victory of Austerlitz, the king considered it indispensable, in order to conclude a peace with France, that Fox and Grenville, the leaders of the Whigs, should assume the ministry; it was an unfortunate attempt, often repeated in England. Fox, and all his friends, shewed themselves perfectly devoid of political knowledge, and they also evinced extreme incapacity, which gave occasion to the remark that a Whig ministry was a misfortune both for the country and for the party itself; for the country, because it compromises it, and for the party, because the Whigs always forfeit their reputation, throwing away, in a ministry which lasted fifteen months, the fruit of fifteen years of popularity. As might be expected, Canning and Castlereagh were the most violent opponents of Fox's cabinet. The debates in parliament during this ministry form a curious study; Canning and Castlereagh did not like each other, though they were on the same side of the question, and this was mainly owing to the difference in their talents, as well as in the character of their minds and intellects. Castlereagh attacked the administration by means of reasoning, an appeal to figures, and a sort of traditional influence, which produced a great effect upon the Tories; while Canning, on the contrary, trusted to poetical sallies, or ridicule. Above all, Fox was out of place at the head of affairs.

Men whose whole life is passed in attacking others, are essentially in a bad position when they assume the direction of affairs; they are unable to breathe, they are neither free nor happy in this sphere, for it is not congenial to them. The men of business, on the contrary, who are for a short time in the opposition, become very dangerous opponents, especially if they possess a flow of language and a quick and earnest manner; as they have seen a great deal, they preserve an incontestable degree of authority while reproaching the opposition with succeeding no better than _they_ did when in power, and with imitating awkwardly the very conduct they had formerly attacked with great violence. The men who declaim are not to be feared; the only really formidable adversaries are those who have had much experience in the course of events.

The wretched administration of Lord Grey, after the death of Fox, was a continuation of the Whig politics. His lordship had at all times been rather the bulwark than leader of his party, and the tool of the able men who availed themselves of his high reputation: there are generally in politics some characters who serve as a stalking-horse for certain opinions; they have a great name, which is taken hold of, to be employed or absorbed according to circumstances.

The ministry of Lord Grey, and Grenville, only lasted for a few months after the death of Fox, for the continental questions began to assume so serious an aspect that it was not possible for the Whigs to direct them. Fox had been desirous of a peace with France--one of those bastard truces attempted by Addington at the peace of Amiens; but how was it possible there should be peace between two such proud and powerful authorities as Napoleon and the English aristocracy? the irrevocable fall of one or other of the parties was inevitable. Austerlitz had given birth to Fox's ministry, and the awaking of Prussia from the torpor in which she had been plunged brought about the fall of the Whigs. The Duke of Portland, belonging to the moderate Tory party, undertook the difficult and painful task of directing the affairs of Great Britain, and the two most determined and unvarying opponents of the former administration were naturally included in the present ministry: as I have before observed, they were men of perfectly different characters. Castlereagh returned to the War Office, with the detail of which he was perfectly well acquainted; and Canning was appointed minister for foreign affairs, as being the favourite pupil of Pitt and the inheritor of his doctrines.

From this time a peace with France was no longer thought of; that idea gave place to the determination to engage in a fierce and implacable war against Napoleon, who had now reached the _apogée_ of his glory, and on this point the opinion of Lord Castlereagh was firm and unvarying. His great object was to find the leaven of war, on that continent now humbled under the sword of the Emperor; and, by means of secret springs, to arouse the governments and people, crushed beneath his gigantic power. The influence of France extended from Cadiz to Hamburg, from Antwerp to Trieste; Austria had made peace with her after the sad defeat at Austerlitz; and Prussia, after appearing for a moment as if roused to resistance, had again bowed beneath the yoke. Germany was subject to the Confederation of the Rhine; Switzerland to the predominant mediation of the French empire; Italy was in a state of vassalage under the Iron crown; at Tilsit a friendship had been formed between Russia and France, and the two emperors were about to meet again at Erfurt, to cement the alliance projected at Tilsit, and divide the world between them.

England, therefore, stood _alone_ in the struggle now fiercely undertaken against Napoleon. Castlereagh, who held the same opinions that Mr. Pitt had done, resolutely rejected every attempt at peace with a power whose principle had hitherto been to grasp at every thing, and which appeared resolved it should continue so to be. The Duke of Portland had a degree of rashness, and something chivalrous, in his disposition, which led him to engage boldly in the struggle; and the new connexion between Lord Castlereagh and the Duke of Wellington gave him a sort of pre-eminence in the cabinet, which offended the vanity of Canning. Like all political speakers, the minister for foreign affairs aimed at power, and, because he possessed a happy facility in quoting some classical verses acquired at the University, he considered himself fitted to occupy a higher situation than Castlereagh, whose speech was slow and embarrassed. This jealousy increased after the brilliant expedition to Copenhagen, in which the minister of war had displayed very great ability, and the arrangements of which were so perfectly successful that the Danish fleet remained in the power of the English. The opposition in vain declared it was an iniquitous action, contrary to all the principles of the law of nations: but necessity has no law; and was it not absolutely necessary that Great Britain should prevent the coalition of the Danish squadron and the fleet of Antwerp? The lukewarm neutrality of Denmark was not a sufficient guarantee to England, and it was indispensable either to force that government to declare itself, or to destroy a fleet which lay too near the formidable arsenal of Napoleon. Mr. Canning was very jealous of his ministerial colleague; he had always considered himself to hold the first place since the death of Mr. Pitt, and he could not bear that another should share in this renown: this enmity soon burst forth in a striking manner.

The active diplomatic proceedings of England on the Continent had excited the fears of Austria, as to the probable results of a war; the interview at Erfurt determined the cabinet of Vienna to take arms against Napoleon, and England immediately contracted a league of offence and defence with Austria, based upon subsidies which she agreed to furnish.

It was well known that, ever since the commencement of the war in Spain, great dissatisfaction had existed in the French empire against the insatiable ambition of Buonaparte; and several ministers, as for instance Talleyrand and Fouché, had begun to look forward to the possibility of the death or downfall of the Emperor. When generals like Bernadotte were out of favour, one might easily imagine that, in case of the death of Napoleon, or of a military insurrection, the vast empire raised by one man would fall into complete decay and dissolution. This was, from henceforward, the groundwork of the plans of England. It was intended an English army should land in Holland, at the same time that Austria should open the war by an immense military demonstration, and thus effect a rapid popular insurrection. The thing Lord Castlereagh considered of the most importance was the destruction of the fleet and arsenal of Antwerp, in the same manner as the capture of the Danish fleet had formerly been effected; he therefore, as minister of war, made immense preparations for the Walcheren expedition; but,--must it be said?--here commenced the treachery of Mr. Canning towards his country and his colleague. It is incontestable that Mr. Canning furnished information to Fouché, to let him know the intentions of Lord Castlereagh;[51] for when jealousy has taken possession of the heart it listens to nothing. As to his conduct towards his colleague, Canning persuaded the Duke of Portland to get rid of Lord Castlereagh, as a man of a harsh and inflexible disposition, incapable of conducting the war department, or of directing or supporting a debate. In parliament, Mr. Canning wanted to rule over the Tory party, and Lord Castlereagh was an obstacle to his ambitious designs.

[51] This assertion is untrue, and not borne out by any evidence.--_Editor._

The Walcheren expedition failed, and explanations naturally took place between the colleagues. Unfortunate catastrophes are always followed by harsh and bitter words, because no one is willing to stand by the consequences. A feeling was raised against Lord Castlereagh, who was denounced by the Whigs as unfit for his situation. "How had it happened," said they, "that a fine English army had been thus plunged into sickness and misery?" Lord Castlereagh was obliged to defend himself, and the storm which was growling around him rendered it impossible for him to retain his situation; but he wrote a sharp and angry letter, openly accusing Canning, if not of actual treason, at least of underhand practices, which had occasioned all these disasters. Canning replied in a confused manner, by details on the delays that had taken place in the departure of troops, and the wrong address of the despatches; he was only ardent and cutting when he came to personal recriminations against Castlereagh, who, deeply offended, sent a challenge to his adversary. He was thus returning to the early and poetic part of his existence, to the reminiscences of the eccentric youth on the shores of Lough Foyle, where he had fought a duel in the Scandinavian fashion; and now, when he was a serious and reflecting statesman, he considered that in personal questions the only means of terminating a quarrel was by a personal encounter. Canning and Castlereagh fought with pistols: in England people are ready to lay down their lives for an idea or a system; both were brave men, and would not draw back, but Castlereagh was the most fortunate, for Canning was severely wounded. The resignation of the minister of war was nevertheless accepted, while Canning continued in office, and the Duke of Portland pursued the middle course which had occasioned the rupture between his two colleagues.

The situation of parties and of affairs is sometimes such, that a man is possessed of more influence when out of the cabinet than when he actually forms one of the ministry; and the firm and inflexible attitude of Lord Castlereagh, and his implacable hatred towards France, secured him a degree of ascendancy among the Tories, which Canning had striven for in vain. The Wellesleys, then rendered so powerful by the successes of the Duke of Wellington, shared their credit with the ex-minister; and he followed in parliament the energetic political system which infallibly leads to the downfall of all feeble or temporising measures. The ministry of the Duke of Portland and Mr. Canning had already taken some steps towards peace with Buonaparte, but Castlereagh was constantly opposed to it; he agreed with the ministers whenever repressive measures, or any plan favourable to Conservative ideas was in debate, but opposed them when they were inclined to make any concessions to Whiggism, or the idea of peace. By this skilful conduct he gradually rose in public estimation, and when the unfortunate death of Mr. Perceval occasioned the dissolution of the ministry, the Tories proposed Lord Castlereagh as minister for foreign affairs in the room of Mr. Canning.