Part 30

Lord Castlereagh, deeply sensible that there was real suffering among all classes of the people, now unfolded his vast plan of economy, with all the logic of Pitt in his admirable budget of 1798. Taking his ground on the existence of much distress in the agricultural districts, and in the principles of credit, he proceeded at once to retrenchments. The expenses of the army and navy were reduced by two millions sterling a-year; the interest of the public debt was reduced from 5 to 4 per cent; and the sinking fund was considerably increased.[53] These measures permitted the decrease of imposts, the suppression of all additional taxes, and a system of loans to agriculture by means of the bank, the grand instrument he always had recourse to, in order to make advances to parishes, and more especially to the producers of corn, so as always to keep down the price. It was an earnest undertaking, and the last he had to carry on during this session. In the meanwhile he could not fail to observe that the renown of his old adversary, Canning, was marvellously increasing; he was becoming a popular character, he was the favourite of the mob, while the firm and persevering minister who had aroused the world, and saved England, was branded with reprobation by the populace, who broke the panels of his carriage. Ought he to allow himself--he, so proud and haughty, to be drawn into the wake of Canning, on the boundless waste of revolutionary ideas? Partially reconciled to his adversary on the Catholic question, his lordship took only a secondary part in the debate; and he was stung by the conviction, that, while in foreign relations his influence was overpowered by the Holy Alliance, at home Canning was the person considered most necessary to the administration, because he was better suited to the new liberal situation in which they were becoming entangled; and he repeatedly expressed his grief and vexation at this circumstance. In England, where public questions are adopted like a mission, and the feelings of statesmen on the subject are deep and interwoven in their whole being, the destruction of a system involves that of the man. Mr. Pitt was killed by the battle of Austerlitz, and Lord Castlereagh belonged to that noble school. He whose life had commenced in so poetical a manner, who had feared neither single combat, nor the dangers of the raging waves in his shipwreck on the Isle of Man, could not be afraid of death; but as his hour drew near, his disposition became extremely irritable, and he expressed himself in parliament with a degree of bitterness and sullen haughtiness: I should almost say he looked with pity and contempt upon the opposition of the Whigs, who were advancing towards fresh storms and disturbances. There are times when people wish to have done with a situation which oppresses them, and with adversaries of whom they are weary; they utter their last words to their face, and after that they die without regret.

[53] This is a mistake.--_Editor._

Lord Castlereagh announced his intention of visiting the Continent, with the intention, if not of being present at the congress of Verona, at least of meeting the assembled sovereigns there; and Canning was in hopes that, when his colleague had once left England, he would send in his resignation, and consequently leave him at the head of affairs. But matters were more rapidly drawing to a close: Lord Castlereagh had been unwell for several days, and there was every appearance of extreme nervous irritability about him; some expressions that fell from his lips shewed that he had some sinister ideas in his head, and when he went to take leave of the king, the state of his mind did not escape the monarch, who had a great esteem for him. From that time he constantly complained of a feeling of oppression in his head, and his physician, Dr. Bankhead, reported that when he visited him he was calm, though there were symptoms of impatience and caprice in his manner, and a few short and hurried words were all that he could draw from him; he let fall some observations on the troubles of life which raised apprehensions of suicide, and he was watched: but on Monday, the 12th of August, 1822, just as his physician entered his dressing-room, Lord Castlereagh uttered these few words: "Doctor, let me fall on your arm; it is all over!" and fell with the heaviness of a corpse. The blood was flowing in torrents, from a deep wound which he had inflicted in the carotid artery, with a small penknife he had concealed in a letter-case. Such was the end of the man, who had conducted the affairs of England with so much firmness and consistency for the last ten years!

Since then people have endeavoured to prove that he was raving mad, and the opposite party have even asserted, that the energy of his government shewed a tendency to mental alienation: would they not have considered any man mad, who wanted to contend vigorously against them? No, Lord Castlereagh was _not_ mad; he only felt the deep sorrow of a statesman who, after having fulfilled a great duty, finds himself forgotten and abandoned at the end of his career. Mr. Pitt had died at his post while his work was progressing towards its accomplishment, and Lord Castlereagh saw it completed by the fall of Buonaparte. But he, in his turn, had to contend with the revolutionary opinions that were again invading the world; Canning was like his evil genius, and as in a long political career they were both constantly before the public, we may inquire what services they rendered to England. Castlereagh gave his country the pre-eminence she every where exercises; he signed the treaties of 1815, he secured to her vast stations, colonies, and new worlds, and he was forced to escape, by suicide from the reprobation of the people; while Canning the declaimer, the renegade from the opinions of Pitt, and who, though threatening all the cabinets, did not dare to oppose the expedition to Spain in 1823, died peaceably in his bed, and was crowned with universal applause. Alas! it is because men who devote themselves to the serious affairs of their country, are in general persecuted and misunderstood; for with the populace, noise and clamour are thought more of, than good measures. Let it, however, be said to the credit of England, that she is returning to the men she formerly blamed. The noble hierarchy of statesmen which begins with Pitt and Castlereagh, and extends to Peel, Lord Aberdeen, and the Duke of Wellington, is now hailed as the school most fitted to afford protection to Great Britain; and Fox, Sheridan, and Canning, are only mentioned as eloquent speakers, who passed away long nights in the House of Commons.

* * * * *

There is not the slightest doubt that the unfortunate termination of Lord Castlereagh's existence was owing to delirium.--_Editor._

Printed by George Barclay, Castle Street, Leicester Square.

* * * * *

Transcriber's note:

Obvious printer errors have been corrected. Otherwise, the author's original spelling, punctuation and hyphenation have been left intact.