\TMM%' XIMCTlgH fUHMIU I ITU F 
 
 ggrfW KtriiTfrf liia 
 
 tiftRru 
 
 llllllfl BBifffffffffTffftfTrm 
 ODLfiaBn fMfcfigaBBD^flS 
 
 i m Bflff fflHBi 
 
 HffflftMff ffHH I I ffl fM tffl 
 
 8BB8 811 Si «$ W 
 
 111 inil 
 
 f j :>*< f ; <J \ i Pnffniiii Rwilf j 
 
 rJwl iXBattfknftfSffKl) 
 
 ID 1H HfiT^#tnJ zi»f«ff 
 iw» KUHflffntUiKr 
 
 mflm mWMw 
 
 1 tftfliliiffiilliS 
 
 mti&^m 1188111 
 MSm mW& mm 
 
 til kkw/l* 
 
 lis j 
 
 unun 
 
 &« 
 
 0$ 
 
Columbia ©ntoeratitp 
 
 mtl)e(£itprfJlftugork 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
1 •> 
 1 -> 
 
» ' 
 
 • • • • 
 
 » « • . . 
 
 
 • ••••• • • 
 
 • • • • 
 
 • ••..•• • .. 
 
 t * « • ••••• • 
 
 • • • • 
 • • • • • 
 
 . • • • • 
 
 • • • • 
 
 • • • • * 
 
 • • • » 
 
 • • » » • • • 
 
 ® 
 
 fa 
 © 
 
 ® 
 
 c3 
 
 U 
 
•> 1 1 
 
 11 >■)■>■>■> 
 
 . ■, ' ' ' ' 
 
 1 > ^ 
 
 FOREIGN SECRETARIES 
 
 OF 
 
 THE XIX. CENTURY TO 1834. 
 
 BY 
 
 PERCY M. THORNTON. 
 
 YOL. I. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 W. H. ALLEN & CO., 13 WATERLOO PLACE, 
 
 PALL MALL. S.W. 
 
 1881. 
 
 (All rights reserved.) 
 
■ 
 
 t • 
 
 
 
THESE PAGES 
 ARE 
 
 DEDICATED TO 
 
 H. M. HYNDMAN, 
 
 IN" CONFIDENT BELIEF THAT WHEN HIS TALENTS ARE ENGAGED 
 
 IN THE 
 
 SERVICE OF HIS COUNTRY 
 
 HE WILL NEVER FORGET THOS" HISTORICAL MEMORIES 
 
 OF WHICH HE IS PROUD 
 
 AND WITH WHICH HE IS CONVERSANT. 
 
 282118 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The careers of our prominent public men must ever 
 possess interest for Englishmen. The adoption or 
 abandonment of a line of policy depends so entirely 
 on the direction of individual minds, that in estimating 
 the value of any given measure, the character and 
 capacity of the statesman must be considered in 
 connection with the political condition of his times. 
 An attempt has been here made to combine short 
 biographical notices of the Foreign Secretaries of 
 the nineteenth century to 1834, with allusions to 
 the salient subjects which engaged their attention. 
 
 Without any desire to write a history of England 
 during those exciting times, the writer nevertheless 
 hopes to send his reader for further instruction to the 
 pages of the painstaking authors to whom he is 
 mostly indebted for the completion of his task. 
 
VI INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Lord Liverpool left on record his opinion that the 
 office of Foreign Secretary of State will always give 
 the person who holds it a degree of consequence in 
 Parliament and the country which, perhaps, belongs 
 to no other department, whilst neither the increase 
 of population nor the extended franchise has robbed 
 the position of its prestige, even if under certain 
 circumstances the pre-eminence claimed for it be 
 disputed. 
 
 It has been said by a well-known modern writer 
 that it is open to every man to live in the past. 
 Professor Stubbs then spoke of a period which, with 
 all its interest, could not directly have influenced our 
 own position in the world. But there is a past 
 equally open to the inquirer, without an adequate 
 acquaintance with which it is scarcely possible to live 
 intelligently in the present. The moral and material 
 positions of the various classes in England are so 
 universally fixed by the peculiarity of conditions under 
 which the nineteenth century was ushered in, that 
 the historical outline should be known universally 
 throughout the kingdom. For instance, it is desirable 
 that every individual should learn the real cause of 
 that great war, the financial result of which still 
 hangs like a millstone around our necks, because if 
 mere expediency, and not dire necessity, prompted 
 
INTRODUCTION, vti 
 
 our rulers to deliberately hamper future generations, 
 then, indeed, are they deserving of the reprobation 
 which all honest men will desire to bestow. That 
 the light of truth must lead to a contrary con- 
 elusion, the writer's careful research has convinced 
 him. But the question should, nevertheless, receive 
 the close attention of all intelligent people. It 
 is in the belief that such a knowledge may 
 be best forwarded by giving prominence to the 
 personal services of our statesmen, that has led 
 the author to contribute the subjoined historical 
 portraits. 
 
 Much well-worn ground has of necessity been 
 traversed in the accomplishment of this design. If, 
 however, sufficient interest is awakened to induce 
 a further research into the pleasant groves of 
 literary information, this book will have not been 
 written in vain. 
 
 This work has not, moreover, been attempted 
 without the possession of leisure and opportunity 
 to consult available histories and biographies, 
 together with other authorities acknowledged in 
 the margin. 
 
 In several cases it has been found impossible to 
 avoid sacrificing chronological order to biographical 
 completeness, and more than once, for a similar 
 
VI 11 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 reason, the sketch of an individual's career has 
 transgressed the limits originally traced. 
 
 It is, indeed, a subject the very fringe of which it 
 is but possible to touch in a volume of moderate 
 dimensions, and nothing more has been attempted 
 here. 
 
 The writer has received the greatest kindness 
 from Lord Harrowby, The Hon. and Kev. A. 
 Phipps, Lord Grey, Lord Bathurst, Mr. A. K. 
 Stewart, of Ards, and others, who have rendered 
 his task the smoother. 
 
 The advantage of an exceptional acquaintance with 
 the Bexley Papers has also been of inestimable value, 
 and thanks are thereby due both to Mr. John 
 Thornton and to Mr. Thompson, the courteous and 
 kind custodian of the Manuscript Department in the 
 British Museum. 
 
 The more recent memoirs have purposely been 
 compil eia a less detailed form, as trenching on the 
 politics of our own times, which lie entirely out of 
 the sphere of the author's immediate object. 
 
 Domestic events, although generally avoided, 
 have secured attention when culminating in any 
 great point of national interest, such as Catholic 
 Emancipation, Abolition of the Slave Trade, Reform, 
 and Abolition of the Corn Laws. Without passing 
 
INTRODUCTION. IX 
 
 mention of these events no biography can be 
 complete, provided the individual whose career we 
 are narrating lived and moved in those stirring 
 times . 
 
 The ten years during which Lord Castlereagh 
 was at the Foreign Office contain events of such 
 magnitude, that it has been found necessary to 
 divide that period into three separate chapters. 
 
 Grateful thanks are, moreover, due to Colonel 
 G. B. Malleson, C.S.I., for his estimate of Lord 
 Wellesley's career in India, which, appended to the 
 short sketch of that nobleman's Foreign Secretary- 
 ship, will be read with general interest. 
 
 It would also be ungracious were the author not 
 to acknowledge himself indebted for the ready and 
 ungrudging assistance rendered by the reading-room 
 attendants at the British Museum, who, when 
 applied to, spared neither time nor trouble to 
 provide books, no matter how minute the reference 
 required, or laborious the task of discovering the 
 actual source of such information. 
 
 It is thus open to any poor scholar of respectability 
 
 to have access to a library which has no superior 
 
 for purposes of practical information, and to pursue 
 
 his studies under the pleasant conditions of quiet 
 
 comfort and kindly sympathy. 
 
 b 
 
X INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The writer has in these volumes alike endeavoured 
 to avoid the obvious objections to contemporary 
 history — pointed out by Lord Macaulay — and has 
 striven to steer clear of present controversy. 
 
 He appeals, therefore, confidently for support to 
 that vast majority of his countrymen who, whatever 
 may be their political opinions, think first of the 
 welfare, and then take delight in the achievements 
 of their country. 
 
 Battersea Eise, Chphnm Common, 
 February 1881. 
 
PKEFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 I take an opportunity, while issuing a second and 
 amended edition of these volumes, to thank my critics 
 for hints as to form and construction, such as, if allowed 
 to remain unremedied, must have to a great extent 
 destroyed the value of any biographical work even 
 though it were still available for reference. 
 
 I am the more indebted to such criticism, inasmuch 
 as the favourable verdict pronounced by those whose 
 good opinion is of value, has led me to accede to my 
 Publishers' request, and to resolve on carrying my 
 scheme down to the settlement of the Greek Frontier 
 Question in 1881. 
 
 In so doing I shall continue carefully to avoid all 
 personal allusions, wherever they cannot conscientiously 
 be inoffensive, but shall deal with matters of public 
 policy in accordance with strict fact. 
 
xii PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 This undertaking lias been entered on after con- 
 siderable hesitation, as being contrary to the original 
 scheme, which, as was set forth in an introduction to 
 these present volumes, desired to avoid the difficulties 
 connected with comment on contemporary events. 
 
 But the considerable circulation attained by Mr. 
 Justin McCarthy's last volume of his History of our 
 own Times, containing, as it does, comments and con- 
 clusions on the Foreign Policy of Lord Beaconsfield's 
 Government, to the soundness of which many thinking 
 and reading men demur, has of itself created a necessity 
 which the forthcoming volumes will endeavour to satisfy 
 by criticism devoid of passing passion or prejudice. 
 True it is, that following on other volumes, famed 
 alike for the eloquence and accuracy displayed in their 
 pages, Mr. McCarthy's last published book enjoyed a 
 popularity entirely independent of the matter therein 
 contained . 
 
 But the effect on the public mind of both England 
 and America (where the History of our ouii Times has 
 been specially in vogue) was none the less powerful. 
 Moreover, more than one revelation has been since 
 made, elucidating matters of State policy which now 
 are simple and clear, but which, owing to necessary 
 Ministerial reticence, were previously hidden in 
 impenetrable mist and uncertainty. 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. Xlll 
 
 Mr. McCarthy's best energies were doubtless given 
 to elucidating the truth concerning a party struggle, 
 during which he himself was no lukewarm supporter of 
 the popular side, but it is impossible to accept without 
 comment such wholesale historic condemnation of a 
 deliberate policy prompted by a great statesman, who acted 
 with the best available information before him, and was 
 supported by colleagues of eminence and experience. 
 
 Some of my critics seem to have judged these 
 two volumes as if they pretended to recite a history of 
 England during the present century, a task which it is 
 now scarcely possible to accomplish, inasmuch as the 
 most important sources of information yet untouched 
 are not likely to be finally made public until most of us 
 now living have passed away. It is, moreover, a fact 
 that the secret records connected with the great struggles 
 of 1793, 1802, and 1803-1815, have been jealously 
 guarded, and will not be available during the present 
 century. When I entered upon this task I therefore 
 resolved (after duly appraising the merits of the 
 individuals whose careers I had undertaken to write), 
 not to enter into any violent condemnation of actions, 
 the complete motives prompting which might be hidden. 
 Careful study, assisted by the aid of private documents, 
 without which much that I have written would have 
 been mere journalistic work, has convinced me of the 
 
xiv PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 general falseness of the harsh judgment hastily passed 
 on many of onr ministers. I am certain that no man 
 can attain the highest positions in this State without 
 such sterling qualities of intellect and character as must 
 excite the admiration of an impartial biographer. 
 
 Whilst admitting Mr. Courtney's criticism in the 
 Academy to be temperate and, from his point of view, 
 justifiable, I claim to have shown, through the medium of 
 Lord Bexley's correspondence, that peace was so sorely 
 needed by England that the compromise of Vienna in 
 1814-15 can scarcely be finally condemned in history, 
 even if the durability of the peace then secured did not 
 speak volumes in its favour. Moreover, the soundness 
 of my conclusions has been fully borne out by the lately 
 published correspondence of Talleyrand with Louis 
 XVIII. 
 
 I am likewise unable to hold myself responsible for 
 the shortcomings (as seen by the critic of the Globe 
 newspaper) in the first Lord Dudley's most famous 
 speech, when, speaking in 1825 as Mr. J. W. Ward, he 
 was said by the Annual Register to have both instructed 
 and delighted the House of Commons. It would almost 
 seem if, in the hurry of the moment, the Globe writer 
 may have hastily confused quoted matter with that of 
 the author. 
 
 More than one writer, when alluding to the views 
 
PKEFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. XV 
 
 set forth in these pages, has expressed an opinion that 
 tradition in Foreign Affairs lies buried in the vault at 
 Hughenden. So, at least, somewhat regretfully, says the 
 Saturday Reviewer, when in his criticism of this book he 
 expresses fear lest the position gained for England by 
 the Settlement of 1815, and exemplified by the European 
 belief in British strength and influence, has been 
 sacrificed to more popular theories and ideas. 
 
 The writer cannot, however, bring himself to share 
 such fears, believing, as he does, that the lesson of each 
 great career has not been lost on a thoughtful and 
 patriotic nation. 
 
 The estimate of Lord Aberdeen's character, arrived 
 at after a careful study of all available matter, has 
 been so fully borne out by the lately published second 
 volume of the Life of Bishop Wilberforce, and likewise 
 by private information placed at the author's disposal, 
 that it is open to hope and believe that an equally 
 just estimate of his public conduct will ere long likewise 
 prevail. 
 
 When the Saturday Revieiver, in passing judgment on 
 these pages, gives his opinion to the effect that no single 
 statesman was so responsible for the Crimean war as 
 Lord Aberdeen, he probably bears in mind the fact that 
 the nobleman in question was Prime Minister when the 
 struggle with Russia commenced in 1854. 
 
 c * 
 
XVI PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 Beyond that all must, from the nature of the case, be 
 pure conjecture, and to prove his assertion the critic 
 must show that the dangers descried in Syria, when the 
 Greek and Latin Churches differed as to custody of the 
 holy places, were of little importance, and that a 
 rejection of the warm friendship offered by Napoleon III. 
 on behalf of France had not as an alternative a 
 possible coalition of the nations against England and 
 Austria (not by any means in warm accord), the very 
 essence of which compact would have been the surrender 
 to Russia of carte blanche as to the Black Sea and Con- 
 stantinople. And, indeed, to no other conclusion could 
 a rejection of the French Alliance have led. 
 
 It is intended in the continuation of Foreign 
 Secretaries of the Nineteenth Century to examine this 
 phase of history by the light of such evidence as 
 has been revealed to us, although, in the absence of 
 adventitious aid which private correspondence affords, 
 the data must of necessity be sparse and incomplete. 
 For instance, the papers of French statesmen who 
 re-created the empire in 1852 are not, Mr. Blanchard 
 Jerrold tells us, to be forthcoming at present. The 
 secret correspondence left by Persigny, Fleury, and 
 however fragmentary, that of De Morny, would doubtless 
 disclose evidence showing Lord Aberdeen's frank 
 acceptance of the French alliance to have been the 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. Xvii 
 
 only possible policy for a British minister desiring to 
 shield his country from ills which he had himself 
 witnessed between 1803 and 1815. 
 
 Confidently anticipating the verdict of the future, as 
 regards Lord Aberdeen's public policy, it is pleasant to 
 dwell upon other memories connected with his career, 
 not the least disinterested of which was a settled resolve 
 to allow no member of his own family to profit through 
 the enjoyment of power and influence, such as 
 possession of the Premiership entailed. 
 
 It has been more than once suggested that a too 
 laudatory strain has been adopted in writing the lives 
 of our Foreign Secretaries. The careful reader will, 
 however, perceive that the talents of the Marquis 
 Wellesley, Canning, and Fox, have been acknowledged 
 superior to all, even if the work performed by Castle- 
 reagh and Palmerston has placed them in an equally 
 prominent position on the roll of fame. 
 
 There can, moreover, be no reason to regret having 
 pointed out Lord Mulgrave's perspicuity in descrying 
 talent when he brought Lord Palmerston, Lord 
 Dundonald, Lord Hill, Lord Lynedoch, and Mr. J. W. 
 Croker to the fore, nor can it be denied that Lord 
 Harrowby exercised, through his talents and political 
 acumen, an influence far in advance of the reputation 
 he left behind him. 
 
XV111 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 As for Lord Liverpool, the study of his life and 
 letters, as set forth by Mr. C. D. Yonge, might be 
 undertaken by the most brilliant of our rulers in the 
 present time, and lead to a solidity of political thought 
 and character not possessed by nine out of ten who set 
 their philosophical predecessor down as a mediocrity. 
 
 These are matters which cannot be disproved by the 
 mere ipse dixit of any critic, however gifted with the 
 faculty of discerning the contents of a book almost at 
 first sight. 
 
 The claims of Lord Grenville to statesmanship having 
 been generally admitted by each critic who has examined 
 his titles, there remains but to sustain the reputation of 
 Lord Dudley as a wit, a writer, and a man of letters, 
 together with the high character and talents of Lord 
 Aberdeen (which attracted minds of the noblest type, and 
 led their owners to acknowledge his political leadership), 
 and it will be scarcely then disputed that the office of 
 Foreign Secretary fell into no unworthy hands between 
 the years 1800 and 1834. So that the original design of 
 this work had its justification, even if a final verdict on 
 the manner of its accomplishment awaits the completion 
 of the author's extended task. 
 
 One able critic has assailed the views of Foreign 
 Policy expressed by the author, in terms which admit of 
 no compromise. 
 
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. XIX 
 
 If the writer in the Cambridge Independent Press 
 be right in embracing the views on Foreign Policy 
 held by the so-called Manchester school, he is at issue 
 with all statesmanship, from the days of Aristides 
 and Themistocles to those of Lincoln and Bismarck. 
 
 Let the Government be based on popular will, or 
 supported by the bayonets and breechloaders on which 
 Continental despots now rely, the human nature of 
 their mankind is still of similar type. 
 
 If peace were to be gained and retained for the mere 
 asking, what school of political thought would receive 
 a moment's toleration which acted on principles 
 involving a gratuitous drain of human life and human 
 resources ? 
 
 At the same time, it is impossible to deny that the 
 special critic, to whom allusion is here made, states his 
 views with a force and directness it is not possible fairly 
 to combat in these few lines. 
 
 Believing, then, that good cause for sustaining the 
 ancient policy of England will be demonstrated before 
 this book is finished, the task of setting forth due reason 
 for such adherence must be at present deferred. 
 
 Allusion to the matter would scarcely have been made 
 here, even at this length, but for an averment of the 
 Cambridge Independent Press, to the effect that the 
 author condemned Mr. Gladstone's Government for 
 
XX PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 allowing Russia to repudiate her engagements as to the 
 Black Sea during the Franco-German War. 
 
 As one about to enter on an historical task perfectly 
 unbiassed, and desiring to exercise a dispassionate 
 judgment on this and all other matters of policy, the 
 writer disclaims having ever given utterance to such 
 a sweeping and off-hand opinion upon a subject hedged 
 in with manifold difficulties. 
 
 No such averment certainly appears in Foreign 
 Secretaries of the Nineteenth Century to 1834, where it is 
 obvious that its interposition would have been uncalled 
 
 for. 
 
 So far as believing that England should take her 
 stand manfully on public treaties, and not on any 
 undefined and, therefore unstable ground, the author 
 pleads guilty to having dissented to measures which 
 lured the nation from occupation of that only safe 
 diplomatic ground, such as enabled Metternich to say 
 in 1829, that in England the carrying out of a 
 treaty is always regarded as a sacred duty (Auto- 
 biography of Prince Metternich, vol. iv. page 453). 
 
 That large bodies of men are now found to recom- 
 mend doctrines involving the subversion of national 
 good faith cannot justly be charged exclusively to 
 either political party. 
 
 Nevertheless, without taking an unduly gloomy view 
 
. 
 
 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. XXl 
 
 of public affairs, or fostering the doubts of that 
 multitude of alarmists which surrounds us, it is evident 
 to many (and those not the least instructed amongst 
 us) that the integrity of the Empire should continue 
 to be England's watchword in every quarter of the 
 
 globe. 
 
 PERCY M. THORNTON. 
 
 Batter sea Rise, S.W., 
 June 1881. 
 
NOTE 
 
 ON 
 
 LORD MULGRAVES BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 The interest with which Lord Mulgrave's biography 
 has been received by those whose opinion the author 
 most values, has led him to publish the following 
 additional particulars. 
 
 The earlier history of the present Lord Normanby's 
 family finds no correct chronicle in any of the modern 
 Peerages, and dates from the year 1656, when 
 Constantine Phipps was born at Heading, being the 
 first of that family who arrived at any prominent 
 distinction. This Sir Constantine was the great- 
 grandfather of Pitt's Foreign Secretary, and himself 
 established a reputation as a distinguished lawyer in 
 the reign of Queen Anne. Through a marriage 
 with the family of Sawyer, of Swallowfield, Berks, Sir 
 
NOTE ON LORD MULGRAVE's BIOGRAPHY. Xxiii 
 
 Constantine had become familiar with Sir Robert 
 Sawyer, who, as counsel for the Bishops in James II. 's 
 reign, established an abiding reputation. 
 
 Thus it came to pass that Constantine Phipps was 
 brought forward in his early practice at the bar, where 
 his name has been perpetuated by means of more than 
 one State trial. 
 
 As an advocate alike of the Jacobite and High 
 Church party, it fell to him, in conjunction with Sir S. 
 Harcourt, to defend Dr. Sacheverell, and compose that 
 churchman's defence at his trial. 
 
 When towards the close of Queen Anne's reign the 
 Tories came into power, Sir S. Harcourt was made 
 Lord Chancellor of England, and his former coadjutor, 
 Sir C. Phipps, was sent to Ireland in a similar capacity, 
 exercising supreme power until Queen Anne's death, 
 during a period when the Lord Lieutenant did not 
 reside at Dublin, or indeed in Ireland at all. Be that 
 as it may, he was recalled into private life when 
 George I. ascended the throne, and contented himself 
 with acting as advocate for the Jacobites in 1715, 
 whilst he defended Bishop Atterbury in the House of 
 Lords when that prelate involved himself in a Bill of 
 Pains and Penalties by corresponding with the friends 
 of the Pretender. 
 
 Sir Constantine Phipps' family was a numerous one, 
 
Xxiv NOTE ON LORD MULGRAVe's BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 and their virtues are recorded in an ancient monument 
 in Swallowfield church ; but one alone, William Phipps, 
 appears to have left descendants. 
 
 This William Phipps married Lady Katherine 
 Annesley, daughter of the Duchess of Buckingham by 
 her first husband James Annesley, Earl of Anglesea. 
 
 The Duchess of Buckingham lost her children by the 
 last Duke of Buckingham of the Sheffield family, but 
 left all she could bequeath to her grandson Constantine 
 Phipps, whose mother Lady Katherine Phipps— as we 
 have previously stated — was her only surviving child. 
 
 Thus it came to pass that in the person of Constantine 
 Phipps was accumulated the distinction and wealth of 
 two noble families. Horace Walpole in his letters 
 recounts how the Duchess of Buckingham arranged the 
 marriage of this youth with Lepel Harvey, daughter of 
 the then Earl of Bristol. 
 
 Although the Irish property which came through the 
 Annesleys was lost in a law suit to a claimant in the 
 person of Lord Montmorres, Constantine Phipps was 
 finally left in possession of a fine fortune and of the 
 Irish barony of Mulgrave, to which he had been 
 presented through the interest of his brother-in-law 
 George Harvey, Earl of Bristol, when that nobleman 
 became Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. 
 
 The three sons of Constantine Phipps and Lepel 
 
NOTE ON LOED MULGRAVe's BIOGRAPHY. XXV 
 
 Harvey were— (Firstly) Constantine John, 2nd Baron, 
 captain Royal Navy, in which capacity he made an 
 effort to discover the North-East Passage. His lordship 
 held several official situations, and won an English 
 barony which died with him in 1791. (Secondly) 
 Henry Charles, the subject of our memoir. (Thirdly) 
 Edmund, the popular General, so long Member for 
 Scarborough, 
 
 It was through the influence of Constantine John, his 
 elder brother, that the Lord Mulgrave of these volumes 
 was brought under the notice of public men, and this 
 fact should not be lost sight of. 
 
 Lord Mulgrave was a classical scholar of considerable 
 merit, and did justice to an education with which, 
 even at Eton, it has in later years been found necessary 
 to combine more practical stuies. 
 
 Early in life Lord Mulgrave had been taken by his 
 elder brother to see Dr. Johnson, then living near 
 Windsor, and on an apology being made for bringing a 
 mere child to disturb his leisure, the Doctor remarked, 
 " I am pleased with small things, and not displeased 
 with small things," evolving thereby a lesson in 
 philosophy which one and all may contemplate with 
 advantage. 
 
 The military authorities must have thought highly of 
 Lord Mulgrave's capacity, or he would not have been 
 
XXvi NOTE ON LORD MULGRAVe's BIOGRAPHY. 
 
 entrusted with the whole Northern District at a moment 
 when, as in 1803, a French invasion was thought 
 
 imminent. 
 
 His sagacity in selecting public men, his Foreign 
 Secretaryship, and successful administration both of the 
 Admiralty and Ordnance Offices, have been fully 
 descanted on elsewhere. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PA61 
 
 Lord Grenville . . . • . . 1 
 
 Lord Hawkesbury . . . • • .43 
 
 Lord Harrowby. . . . • . . 76 
 
 Lord Mulgrave . . • • • .105 
 
 Charles James Fox . . . • . . 147 
 
 Lord Howick (Earl Grey) . • 186 
 
 George Canning . . • • • *25 
 
 Lord Bathurst ....•• "91 
 
■Ill 
 
 •> -I » 
 
 » )0 
 
 1 >1 
 
 1 T 1 
 
 1 
 
 1 •> > 
 )1> 
 
 ■> -> 
 
 ■> •> > 
 
 ■> 
 

 ' 
 
 
 
 )ttn 
 
1 11)1) 
 
 ) ))-,!)) 
 
 ) 
 
 
 111)1 ) 
 
 ) ' 
 
 1 I 11 
 
 -, ) 1 ) )) •! I 
 
 ) 1 ■} ■ t 3 
 11 ) , 11 
 
 FOREIGN SECRETARIES 
 
 OF 
 
 THE XIX. CENTURY TO 1834. 
 
 I<Of}f) Gff^KVII^Sj. 
 
 May 1791 to Maech 1801. 
 
 IMSELF the son of a statesman and 
 Prime Minister of England, cousin to 
 the younger Pitt, and springing from a 
 race of legislators, young William 
 Wyndham Grenville was born to sena- 
 torial honours. As a child he showed 
 precocity if not genius, and some verses of his are 
 extant which find their place in the Grenville papers. 
 1 ' They run as follows : — 
 
 WILLIAM WYNDHAM GEENVILLE. 
 January, 1771 ; Aged 11. 
 
 A traveller wandering through the vales of Stowe, 
 The fairest garden here on earth below, 
 Says to his guide, " 'Midst all the domes and shrines 
 Where Garden Venus in her temple shines, 
 
 VOL. I. 1 
 
, . . . . , 
 
 F0Fi7<:k.n g?( ;;:T.vi;ii;s of the xix. century. 
 
 * 
 
 Where George's statue 9 * rears its awful head, 
 Adorns and seems to rule the neighbouring mead, — 
 I see no temple to Minerva's name, 
 No grateful line to celebrate her fame." 
 " No," says the guide, " the sage Minerva dwells 
 Within the house, and in each art excels ; 
 For both her wisdom and her skill you find 
 In worthy Temple's virtuous dame combined." 
 
 Two miles from Buckingham commences the cele- 
 brated avenue of elms which characterizes this lovely 
 spot, where, amidst gentle undulating scenery, and sur- 
 rounded by a garden where fancy has done all to enhance 
 nature's charms, stands the seat of the Grenville family. 
 Famous in the politics and learning of their time as 
 the owners were, a magnificent art collection adorned 
 the walls within which the future statesman wrote the 
 apostrophe to his aunt's virtue, and although this has been 
 dispersed, memories of surpassing interest still crowd 
 on the mind of the visitor. 
 
 Those acquainted with the character of George Gren- 
 ville as given in Adolphus's history of England, will 
 recognise in the father a portrait of the son. The same 
 thoughtful and even philosophical demeanour was in 
 each and either case super-added to a clear and argu- 
 mentative style of public speaking, which, if it never 
 ascended into the regions of high eloquence, yet kept an 
 intelligent level, such as rendered each utterance im- 
 portant. To Lord Grenville 's father we owe the first 
 breaking away from an old but untenable custom obtain- 
 ing in England, which allowed the House of Commons, 
 
 * George Grenville, Prime Minister 1763-65. 
 
LORD GRENVILLE. 3 
 
 as represented by the majority of the day, to be judge 
 in election petitions. Mr. Grenville was thus the means 
 of such questions being removed from out of the immediate 
 sphere of party passion, and, impressed with the results of 
 such legislative success, Mr. Trevelyan speaks of him as a 
 House of Commons man, specially proud of his position 
 in that unique assemblage, and identified with its history. 
 
 The distinguished son, whose career is under con- 
 sideration, received the advantage of an Eton education, 
 in turn conferring on his school the honour of adding 
 once more to the long roll of distinguished scholars, of 
 whom the two friends and contemporaries, Wellesley and 
 Grenville, were not the least famous. 
 
 The lines of youthful poetry above quoted may be said 
 to evince talent, if absolute signs of genius be absent, 
 whilst an early love for the classics afforded scope for 
 exercise of such powers, and at the same time reconciled 
 Pitt to a cousinly companionship made pleasant by mutual 
 tastes and identical pursuits. Mr. CD. Yonge, in his 
 painstaking and valuable life of Lord Liverpool, has 
 expressed an incidental opinion to the effect that Lord 
 Grenville was a man rather of industry * than natural 
 talent, and has proceeded to convey an impression to the 
 reader that assertion in argument, vanity, obstinacy, and 
 unconciliatory manners were combined in his character, 
 and gave effect to his actions. 
 
 A different conception has, however, been arrived at 
 here after research and consideration, and it is impos- 
 sible to believe but that if the historian had made Lord 
 
 • Book i. page 48. 
 
4 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 Grenville's character the special study he has Lord 
 Liverpool's, he would have modified his opinion, even if 
 he did not reach a different conclusion. " William is 
 safe," writes Pitt, at the time of the general election in 
 1784. The young man was then standing for Bucking- 
 hamshire, and soon we read that the Prime Minister, 
 recognising his genius, gave him the post of Under 
 Secretary to the Board of Trade. The origin of William 
 Grenville's call to office sprang from an intimacy which 
 the king himself had cultivated when threatened with 
 the continual domination of a Whig oligarchy. It was the 
 delight of the beleaguered monarch to surround himself 
 with rising young men, who by advice, and ultimately 
 by active co-operation, might relieve him from the 
 pressure of a coalition which threatened to usurp all 
 Parliamentary authority. 
 
 How this procedure resulted in success history relates. 
 Pitt's talents were discovered, and the country brought 
 round to his way of thinking so far as to grant him a 
 Parliamentary majority at the election of 1784. 
 
 William Grenville was a more powerful agent in these 
 events than is generally believed, and the outcome, as we 
 shall show, was that Foreign Affairs were practically 
 relegated to his direction, for, as Lord Malmesbury tells 
 us, he had more absolute authority than any of the six 
 Secretaries of the department he had known. 
 
 Grenville was promoted from the Board of Trade to 
 the Home Office, and in 1790 elevation to the Upper 
 House followed, where his sonorous and dignified style of 
 oratory was in Lord Stanhope's opinion adapted to the 
 taste of his hearers. He had received the benefit of a 
 
LORD GRENVILLE. 
 
 thorough classical education/' and there was a refine- 
 ment in all his ideas which befitted the aspect of the 
 House, and was in accordance with the feelings of those 
 around him. He never tried to soar into the higher 
 flights of oratory, but his speeches were well delivered, 
 logically argued, and at times so forcible that the effect 
 was considerable. It will be found that he had a good 
 reason for every strong political position he took up. He 
 would have no peace with the Jacobins. He dreaded 
 Napoleon. He disbelieved, in company with a majority 
 of military men, that the British could hold their own in 
 Spain. He was an honest and consistent supporter of 
 Catholic emancipation, and twice sacrificed office for the 
 principle. In matters of judgment he was frequently 
 wrong, and his temperament was such, that, when he 
 thought the ship of state steering a crooked course, he 
 was inclined to believe all things lost with the over- 
 ruling of his opinions. He was on these occasions 
 almost arrogant in his self-assertion, but without this 
 explanation the honesty of the man's character might 
 not be understood. 
 
 Towards the close of Lord Liverpool's Administration 
 the Prime Minister desired to estop Lord Grenville's 
 possible opposition, and induced him to act on a Com- 
 mittee, that he might hear facts as to the necessity for a 
 suspension of the Habeas Corpus. Lord Liverpool was 
 confident of his help, if satisfied as to the wisdom of a 
 Government course. 
 
 This disposition of itself precludes factional conduct, 
 
 Eton and Oxford. 
 
6 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 and explains much that had previously occurred in times 
 when party ran high, and hasty decisions may have been 
 arrived at, reached, maybe, without reference to the 
 matured experience of an Opposition whose talents fitted 
 them to shine in any national council. But Lord Liver- 
 pool understood all this, and trusted to Lord Grenville's 
 high sense of truth and justice. 
 
 It should, moreover, never he forgotten that when 
 Lord Grenville attained to the Premiership in 1806, he 
 took the earliest opportunity which his position as head 
 of a party combination would admit, to propose the 
 practical, if gradual abolition of slavery. In a letter to 
 Lord Siclmouth * immediately after the formation of the 
 Government he alludes to this matter, and foreshadows 
 the terms of that motion brought forward by Fox,[ the 
 substance of which is given in a later page of this volume. 
 
 Lord Grenville had cold manners, and was exceed- 
 ingly reserved by nature, so that he seldom began 
 a conversation, but readily entered into any discussion 
 that arose, and Sir James Mackintosh speaks of him in 
 1813 as having a strong understanding, without genius, 
 much positive knowledge in all the branches and depen- 
 dencies of politics, and of his private studies as being 
 Greek and botany. 
 
 He was well read in English history, and w 7 as upon it 
 beyond most men conversant. Such is a sketch of the 
 individual who at the age of 33, and in the year 1791, 
 received the Foreign Office Seals from Mr. Pitt. Strong 
 intimacy and even affection, had for some time existed 
 
 • Lord Sidmouth's Life. f See C. J. Fox. 
 
LOED GRENVILLE. 7 
 
 between the cousins who in the face of so powerful an 
 opposition controlled both the Lords and Commons. 
 
 Pitt was for the first time foiled in Parliament, when 
 in 1791 he proposed to aim against Russia, and save 
 Turkey and Constantinople from the absorption so 
 longed for by Catherine.* English influence henceforth 
 declined in the North, we are told,-)- and the after conduct 
 of Denmark may be traced to this cause ; but Pitt's and 
 Grenville's immediate object was gained, and the massing 
 of 150,000 Austrians and Prussians on the Polish 
 frontier moderated Catherine's aggressions towards Con- 
 stantinople. During the gigantic events connected with 
 the French Revolution, Lord Grenville's Foreign 
 Secretaryship has almost been lost sight of in the over- 
 powering influence of that mighty mind,]; whose 
 inspiration was present in the action of every colleague. 
 
 Having accepted the Foreign Office seals in 1791 
 the weight of negotiation with France fell of necessity 
 upon Lord Grenville. His despatches remain a standing 
 mass of evidence whereon to determine the vexed questions 
 connected with those troublous times. 
 
 Was England justified in resisting the French 
 Revolution ? Was she wrestling with a phantom, and 
 could her liberties and condition have remained intact 
 without the deadly struggle so often described ? 
 
 * Bishop Toniline in his Life of Pitt tells us that the extent of 
 the danger apprehended could not be revealed to Parliament. In 
 other words, the immediate subjugation of Turkey and capture of 
 Constantinople was feared. 
 
 \ Life of Lord Sidmouth, by Hon. Or. Pellew, D.D., vol. i. p. 86. 
 
 { Pitt. 
 
8 POBEION BBOBETABIES OF THE XIX. CENTUBY. 
 
 Two opposing forces, representing severally Order 
 and Liberty, met on the arena of Europe. Despotism, 
 alas ! was linked there with Order. It had become to be 
 part and parcel of the system in vogue, not only in 
 France, the German Empire and Spain, but possessed 
 the sympathies of those who ruled the Muscovite hordes, 
 slowly emerging from barbarism, as of the more civilised 
 military rule which the great Frederick of Prussia had 
 perforce and from geographical reasons been forced to 
 engraft on the institutions of his country. 
 
 The Low Countries, the province of Brabant more 
 particularly, had experienced the evil results of this 
 universal tendency. 
 
 Under pretence of sustaining the Stadtholder against 
 the encroachments of a revolutionary spirit, the most 
 frightful barbarities were, during 1787-9, perpetrated in 
 the name of order, and, under shadow of the Imperial 
 standard, unarmed and helpless citizens were shot down 
 in the streets. The Emperor's proclamation of peace 
 and forgiveness was, so to speak, repudiated by his 
 creatures, and a tyranny, resembling in some particulars 
 that of Alva, seemed about to be established.* 
 
 In France, since the year 1670, a reprehensible 
 practice had been resorted to, which was supposed to 
 strengthen the hands of the State. Lettres de cachet were 
 issued by the kings, in virtue of which sealed communi- 
 cations persons against whom they were directed could 
 be thrust into prison and exiled without trial. 
 
 ; This was not forgotten in 171)4, when the British, under the 
 Duke of York, were opposed by the people in their endeavour to 
 re-establish the power of the btadtholder. 
 
LORD GREXVILLE. 9 
 
 Justice and liberty were certainly non-existent, and 
 the overflowing dungeons of the Bastille attest the 
 hideous length to which cruelty and political wickedness 
 had carried the governing class. 
 
 The aristocracy of France had forgotten that they 
 drew their position and enjoyed their dignities as 
 the leaders of a great people. They allowed themselves 
 to become the tools of men who ruled the State more 
 for the advantage of those in possession of power and 
 property than of the general community. 
 
 They were, moreover, from time to time the servants 
 of a worldly minded and degraded Church, whilst 
 the very principles of conduct which the Bible has 
 enjoined on the followers of Christ were flagrantly and 
 openly repudiated, nay, discredited in high places. 
 
 Falsehood and vice stalked abroad, and might sur- 
 mounted right in dealings between class and class- 
 
 The Reformation, and its attendant lamp of freedom, 
 had been roughly and successfully smothered, so that the 
 smouldering ashes of discontent were hidden alike from 
 the eye of the statesman and the apprehension of a 
 polluted aristocracy. What wonder, then, that the crash 
 came suddenly and with the greater violence. 
 
 The sustentation of the system had come to depend 
 on the ability of those who directed the State machine ; 
 and when the mainspring failed, France had to suffer the 
 direction of new and rougher mechanism. Louis XVI. 
 would certainly have been accounted a good king- 
 had he lived fifty years before his time. With the 
 vices of tho Grand Monarque he had unfortunately dis- 
 carded that strength of government which characterised 
 
10 POKEIGK BE* i;i:i.u;ies OF THE XIX. CENTUKY. 
 
 the sway of his great predecessors. These traditions of 
 his house once discarded, there remained but that right 
 Jivine which paled before the rising doctrines of liberty 
 and equality. It was at this very inauspicious moment 
 that, for the sake of injuring England, Louis joined with 
 Spain to encourage the American revolt, which they led 
 to a successful issue. The example proved fatal and con- 
 tagious, and thus it came to pass that France overthrew 
 her natural rulers. 
 
 In England, fortunately, the transition from feudal 
 to mediaeval times, and thence to the possession of 
 wholesome freedom had been gradual if uninterrupted. 
 There had never been a struggle between class and class. 
 It was the barons assembled at Runymede who demanded 
 the Great Charter. Even in the civil wars it was left to 
 a country gentleman to assert national liberties, whilst 
 no movement of a communistic character threatened the 
 realm during the Reformation, or when James II. 
 elected to break a compact hitherto subsisting be- 
 tween him and his subjects. The result of numerous 
 controversies, sealed truly with the blood of many a 
 patriot and martyr, was that mass of written and 
 unwritten wisdom — the British Constitution. 
 
 It was impossible but that in a country like France, 
 where the shackles had been lately removed, sympathy 
 should be felt for those abroad w T ho were seeking like 
 advantages. This feeling acted and reacted again and 
 again, until, at the moment when Mr. Pitt and Lord 
 Grenville stood together at the helm, the good ship 
 carrying England's fortune was swayed to and fro 
 by two rival currents of opinion. All inequalities 
 
LORD GRENVILLE. 11 
 
 had by no means been removed in England. Laws dating 
 from barbarism still disgraced the statute book. Power 
 — fairly administered on the whole —was still in the 
 hand of a coterie, who, in league with the Crown, held 
 the balance between Parliamentary parties. 
 
 When, therefore, the European coalition of 1792 took 
 place against France, an avowed object of which 
 appeared to be the re -establishment of the monarchical 
 principle, the voice uplifted in England against these 
 proceedings was not that of a faction. 
 
 Fox spoke the feelings of millions when he protested 
 against an interference with the internal affairs of other 
 nations. Lord Grenville had, however, little difficulty 
 in showing that France, by forcing Holland to open the 
 Scheldt, had violated the treaty of 1788, and so justified 
 the diplomatic objections raised by Mr. Pitt's ministry. 
 When, moreover, events in Paris reached a climax, and 
 Louis XVI. was overpowered by the mob, it began to 
 dawn on Englishmen that something beyond the equality 
 which Fox believed in was aimed at by the Eevo- 
 lutionists. That equality was defined by the Whig 
 leader to be equal rights before the law, i.e. the right of a 
 poor man to spend and enjoy a shilling as freely as his 
 more fortunate neighbour could profit by the possession 
 of a thousand pounds. 
 
 This just and moderate idea held possession of Fox's 
 mind throughout all discussions which ensued, and those 
 who would read his conduct aright must not fail to grasp 
 
 the fact. 
 
 Lord Grenville, in bringing forward his Alien Bill, 
 adduced irrefragable proof of intrigue for the subversion 
 
12 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 of the kingly office in Great Britain, and showed that if 
 this interference did not come from the Paris Convention 
 direct, agents of theirs scattered pamphlets of a seditious 
 character throng] i Ireland,* and established Jacobin 
 societies in the heart of London. Their own public 
 declaration will show the end aimed at. 
 
 It contained the following : — 
 
 " The National Convention j . . . faithful to the 
 principle of the sovereignty of the people, which will 
 not permit them to acknowledge any of the institutions 
 militating against it, decree. 
 
 11 It will treat as enemies the people who, refusing 
 or renouncing liberty and equality, are desirous of 
 preserving their Prince, and privileged castes, or of 
 entering into accommodation with them." 
 
 With doctrines such as these compromise was im- 
 possible, and the orators who joined Burke and Wind- 
 ham in dreading a subversion of the British constitution 
 were fully justified in their alarms. 
 
 * " What were the affections and motives that caused us to put 
 down rebellion in Ireland ? To protect our families, our properties, 
 and our liberties ! What were the antipathies by which we were 
 excited? Our abhorrence of French principles and French 
 ambition ! What was it to us that France was a Republic ? I 
 rather rejoiced when I saw the ancient despotism of France fall 
 down. The reason I took up arms and am ready still to bear them 
 against France, is because she intruded herself upon our domestic 
 concerns ; because with the rights of man and the love of freedom 
 on her tongue, I see that she has the lust of dominion in her 
 heart." — Speech of Mr. PLunkett on the Union in the Irish Parlin. 
 ment, 1799. 
 
 + Declaration of November 19th, 1793. Too long to be given in 
 full. 
 
LORD GRENVILLE. 13 
 
 The execution of Louis XVI., however, did not shake 
 Fox's steady support of the cause which he believed to 
 be bound up with liberty. 
 
 Professing deference and affection for the British 
 Constitution he yet denounced most unsparingly both 
 the actions of Government at home and the Continental 
 coalition abroad. Goaded by the tyrannous objects of 
 European rulers, wholesome and reasonable yearnings 
 for liberty had given place to a licence, which, however 
 much to be regretted, was, he held, less objectionable 
 than autocratic rule, and possessed an additional advan- 
 tage, in that it could never become permanent in its 
 disturbing influence. 
 
 Mr. Wilberforce has left several passages on record 
 which show that Pitt desired peace, but one must suffice 
 as a specimen. 
 
 Writing to the author of a work which was published 
 to denounce ministerial policy," Mr. Wilberforce says : 
 
 " There is one radical error which runs through your 
 pamphlet ; that, I mean, of imputing to Mr. Pitt a war 
 system ; as if it were his plan, his wish, his predilection 
 to engage in war, and that he had set himself to consider 
 how he could effect his purpose. 
 
 " In point of fact, great political events are rarely the 
 offspring of cool deliberate system ; they receive their 
 shape, size, colour, and the date of their existence from a 
 thousand causes which could hardly have been foreseen, 
 and in the production of which various unconnected and 
 jarring parties have combined and assisted." 
 
 :: Life of Wilberforce, vol. ii. p. 7. 
 
14 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 It was not until the distinctly hostile character of 
 French proceedings came home to Pitt that he ac- 
 quiesced in Lord Grenville's policy and reluctantly 
 relinquished his projects of reducing the National Debt, 
 and further of amending that Constitution whose exist- 
 ence he was at last forced to believe in danger. 
 
 The man who does not realise the fact that both 
 Lord Grenville and Pitt were anxious for peace and 
 reasonable change at home, will not gauge the merits of 
 the controversy by which England became agitated. 
 
 The cause that may be said to have shaped the 
 course of events is undoubtedly the anti-religious 
 character of the new theories as they came from France. 
 
 Men were invited to a feast of reason where the 
 denial of God's goodness was prominently asserted. 
 The joys of life were attributed to natural laws, and 
 intervention of the Creator on behalf of man stoutly and 
 contemptuously denied. Well might Mr. Burke declare 
 that he dreaded a day of no judgment. This extra- 
 ordinary individual threw his enormous influence and 
 exerted his eloquence on behalf of Lord Grenville and 
 Mr. Pitt, and in so doing he broke up the Whig party, 
 and carried with him Windham, the talented and plain- 
 spoken orator and fascinating man. 
 
 The Foreign Secretary never hesitated, and his refusal 
 to receive M. Chauvelin as representative of the French 
 Republic, forms the point around which differences have 
 raged ever since. 
 
 On the one hand it has been declared by Sir James 
 Mackintosh and Brougham that the refusal was an insult 
 to the French nation, who, as Government apologists on 
 
LORD GRENVILLE. 15 
 
 the other hand declare, had already committed an act of 
 war when, in defiance of treaties, they forced open the 
 
 Schelt. 
 
 The technical dispute has an interest even at present, 
 when the justice and wisdom of English policy under 
 Pitt is still questioned in influential quarters. 
 
 The justification of Lord Grenville's actions was 
 demonstrated so clearly in Marsh's Politics (a hook which 
 became a standard work) that the evangelical party in 
 Parliament, of which Mr. Wilberforce and Mr. Henry 
 Thornton were distinguished members, quoted from its 
 pages whenever the original policy adopted by Pitt was 
 questioned. The justice and rectitude of a chosen line of 
 action which has influenced events through the lives of 
 those oldest amongst us, cannot be lightly dismissed. 
 Therefore it is that a leisure hour spent over Mr. Marsh's 
 pages will amply reward the reader.* 
 
 Lord Grenville's conduct appears to have been con- 
 siderably affected by his respect and love for the Esta- 
 blished Church, which would clearly have been buried 
 under that general wreck which an overthrow of the 
 British Constitution was intended to effect. 
 
 He also sympathised with Pitt in his desire for 
 gradual Parliamentary Eeform, but they both resolved 
 to oppose with all the might of England that desire 
 for sudden and complete change of institutions and 
 opinions which might have been thrust upon us had 
 not the King and his ministers remained firm. 
 
 The power that Burke's support gave them is incal- 
 
 ;: Marsh's Politics, 
 
16 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 culable. His oratory lies in the pages of history to 
 show us what outspoken words in season may effect 
 when issuing from the eloquent lips of a born ruler 
 
 of men. 
 
 At the same time there is good reason to rejoice that 
 Fox held a brief for those who believed the European 
 repudiation of French principles to be hurtful to liberty. 
 Lord Grenville was so desirous of peace that, short of 
 recognising the authority that had subverted royalty in 
 France, and threatened it abroad, he was prepared to 
 negotiate. He offered to send a representative who 
 might meet the French General* on the Dutch frontier. 
 Before, however, this could be effected, Holland was 
 overrun and peace rendered impossible. Napoleon knew 
 full well (when speaking to Metternichj he sneered at 
 England's attachment to the Low Countries) that their 
 subjugation by a first-class naval power could never 
 co-exist with English strength. He himself elsewhere 
 declared the French possession of Antwerp to be a pistol 
 presented at the head of Great Britain. Thus com- 
 menced seven years of uninterrupted bloodshed. War 
 was declared by the French against England and 
 Holland, J and Mr. Wilberforce was brought to admit that 
 Lord Grenville and Pitt were not the aggressors. He 
 still doubted, however, if due pains had been taken for 
 staving off the declaration. 
 
 Lord Grenville had been for some months corre- 
 sponding with the principal European powers for the 
 
 * Dumouriez. t Metternich's Autobiography. 
 
 t War with France commenced February 1st, 1793. 
 
LORD GRENVILLE. 17 
 
 purpose of obtaining a joint representation to France, 
 assuring her if she would engage to keep within her 
 own limits, she should be left to settle her internal 
 government. 
 
 This fact ministers refused to publish, for reasons best 
 known to Lord Grenville and the Prime Minister. 
 When, however, in 1799 Pitt did recount the history of 
 these negotiations, Fox replied that had the minister 
 openly made that declaration to France and her conti- 
 nental enemies, he should have had nothing more to say 
 or desire. 
 
 It is probably true that the Opposition at home would 
 have modified their tone, but what peaceable effect 
 public avowal of that which was notoriously the pre- 
 vailing British feeling could have effected amongst 
 members of the French Convention, it is difficult to 
 imagine. The fact is that the first European coalition 
 against France, which may be said to have collapsed on 
 the field of Valmy,* and before England became involved 
 in war, did desire to replace the Bourbons on the 
 throne, and to replace them there without guarantees 
 of any kind, so revealing a desire to interfere with 
 the internal affairs of France. Although our policy 
 was only that of self-defence, it had become clear to 
 Pitt and Grenville that we were about to be attacked, 
 and must prepare to defend ourselves f by joining with 
 those whose principles were not wrholly to our taste. 
 
 * September 20, 1792. 
 
 t England was not an original member of the first coalition 
 against France. 
 
 i. 2 -f- 
 
18 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTtJRt. 
 
 The alternative appeared to them to be a worse evil, 
 and to involve civil war. 
 
 When the die was cast every means to secure 
 alliances against the French was avowedly adopted. The 
 British co-operation had, however, arrived too late, and 
 the military successes of Buonaparte and Moreau threw 
 us back on to our natural element, where before long 
 the superiority of our sailors became manifest. 
 
 Macaulay has declared that Pitt waged war 
 feebly. He has been replied to by Lord Stanhope. 
 Brougham, in his turn, derides the scale on w T hich 
 ministers designed operations against their foe. The 
 naval victories of How^e, Duncan and Nelson, he declares, 
 would have occurred under any government, allowing no 
 stray laurel from Cape St. Vincent or the Nile to adorn 
 the brows of Pitt and Grenville, a denial which appears 
 to be the more unfair, because naval failure would have 
 involved a responsibility far exceeding any credit which 
 bare justice demands, and the unbiassed w T riter must 
 give.* 
 
 It should be remembered that England had not the 
 means of making war effectively in Europe unless times 
 were favourable for subsidising the Continent, and that 
 they could not be so considered when ill success had 
 damped the ardour of Prussia, Austria, and Pvussia. 
 
 For the first year a combined march on Paris seemed 
 possible, but with continued French success it had to be 
 abandoned, and military efforts being more or less 
 
 * Lord Brougham distinctly gives credit for naval successes to 
 Lord Chatham's Administration, and refuses it to that of Mr. Pitt. 
 — Vide Statesmen of the Time of George the Third, vol. i. 
 
LORD GRENVILLE. 19 
 
 disconnected were sadly ineffectual. With the exception 
 of the campaign of the Archduke Charles on the Maine, 
 all the news from Europe during the first three years 
 was adverse to the cause which England had taken up. 
 The Archduke's success has been forgotten in the subse- 
 quent military collapse, but with the exceptions of Marl- 
 borough and Buonaparte, no military reputation outshone 
 his during the eighteenth century. England twice essayed 
 to take the field in force, and in 1794 18,000 men were 
 sent to Holland under the Duke of York for the purpose 
 of reinstating the power of the Stadth older in his 
 dominions, but a failure was registered which indeed 
 laid those responsible open to censure, but from which 
 full knowledge of the events robbed somewhat of its 
 sting. Brougham finds fault with the policy of attack- 
 ing the West Indian possessions, and other out-lying 
 colonies of France, which he declares would naturally 
 have been resigned to the victors of a conflict waged 
 in more vital quarters.* This objection appears to 
 be specially far-fetched, inasmuch as if the paid hosts 
 of Germany and Kussia had not succumbed, no more 
 valuable aid could have been given them than the 
 diversion which an attack on colonial possessions would 
 have been sure to make in the plans of so proud and 
 high-spirited a nation. 
 
 During the year 1795, Lord Grenvilie made an offer 
 of peace to France upon reasonable terms. The 
 negotiations continued for some time, but fell through 
 when the French flatly refused to evacuate Holland. 
 
 * Again he allows credit to Lord Chatham for similar operations. 
 
 2 * 
 
20 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 Lord Malmesbury's diaries have since proved how 
 genuine was Pitt's desire for an honourable peace, and 
 when the facts came to be known, the Ministry 
 received increased support from Parliament. 
 
 Lord Malmesbury's account of his mission to the Direc- 
 tory in 1795-96 should be studied by those desirous of 
 learning the state of society in France,* and the genuine 
 wish of the English Government for peace. The pour- 
 parler* with Delacroix, the Minister of French Foreign 
 Affairs, are graphically described, whilst to a student of Lord 
 Grenville's career more than one letter is of great interest. 
 The negotiations were broken off on the plea that 
 the Directory could not undertake to include England's 
 ally, the Emperor of Austria, in the treaty of peace, but 
 desired a separate arrangement with ourselves, that they 
 might fall on to the Archduke Charles' army with the 
 better chance of success, an outlook scarcely likely to 
 commend itself to a British ruler. Lord Malmesbury, 
 moreover, discovered evidence of an expedition being 
 fitted out against Ireland, and ultimately left France in 
 despair of success, when he received Lord Grenville's 
 hearty commendation for his tact and patience. 
 
 Perhaps no more dramatic events have ever occurred 
 than those which preceded the glorious results of Nelson's 
 seamanship and determination which led to the discovery 
 of the French fleet off the shores of Aboukir. 
 
 ''Victory or Westminster Abbey" was the hero's 
 watchword as, in the fading twilight,! he bore down 
 on Admiral Bruey's fleet, arranged in battle array and 
 
 * Lord Mabnesburys Diaries, vol. iii. p. 250. t August, 1798. 
 
LOED GRENVILLE. 21 
 
 supported on each flank by powerful land batteries. 
 " He will wait until the morning," was the fixed 
 opinion of the experienced French admiral, but no 
 hesitation occupied Nelson's breast, and before the grey 
 morning had tinged the sandy shores, nine French sail-of- 
 the-line had been destroyed, and the dispersal of Napo- 
 leon's means of transporting his army become complete. 
 
 This occurred, moreover, when the Continent was 
 wavering, and gradually yielding to Pitt's schemes. 
 
 For a time the tide of battle had rolled somewhat 
 evenly, and but for Buonaparte's skill and bravery in Italy, 
 where Lodi,* Areola, t and Eivoli J laid the foundation 
 of his great fame, the allied armies were not by any 
 means borne down by their rivals, whilst at home in 
 England ministerial anxiety as to Ireland had been, during 
 1797-98, tempered by contemplation of naval success. § 
 
 Moreover, during 1799, a gleam of light shone over 
 Europe, when Marshal Suwarow again and again at 
 Cassano, Adda, and Trebia improved the occasion of 
 Buonaparte's absence in Egypt on his romantic expe- 
 dition in quest of Eastern fame and influence. 
 
 The pause that ensued after this change of fortune 
 naturally seemed to Pitt and Grenville fraught with the 
 happiest omens, and Lord Grenville never for a moment 
 hesitated, and left no diplomatic stone unturned. 
 
 * Lodi, May 10th, 1796. 
 
 f Areola, November 14th-17th, 1796. 
 
 ♦ Eivoli, January 14th-15th, 1797. 
 
 § Duncan defeated Dutch under De Winter at Camperdown 
 October 11th, 1797 ; whilst a Spanish fleet was beaten and dispersed 
 off Cape St. Vincent, February 14th, 1797, by Jervis, afterwards 
 created Lord St. Vincent. 
 
22 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 Lord Mulgrave's mission to the Archduke Charles's 
 camp was devised by Lord Grenville and had it been 
 found possible to inspire Suwarow and the Austrians 
 with belief in Mulgrave's warnings the subsequent 
 disasters might clearly have been avoided.* 
 
 This can, however, be scarcely charged against the 
 Foreign Secretary. 
 
 It was on August 23rd, 1799, that, with a celerity 
 unsurpassed, and aided by seamanship of which the 
 French may justly be proud, Buonaparte sailed from 
 Egypt in a frigate which, in company with another of 
 similar build and two sloops, first touched at Corfu and 
 then ran the gauntlet of a British fleet comprising eight 
 sail-of-the-line. Six weeks after leaving Egypt, Buona- 
 parte landed at Frejus, on the shores of Provence, and 
 was received by the population with frantic delight. His 
 journey to and reception at Paris was one long triumph, 
 and pains were taken in the metropolis to mark him as 
 the man of the day. General Moreau made way for 
 him, and accepted the second position in a gorgeous 
 fete that was given to the two commanders. 
 
 The Abbe Sieyes had for some time occupied a high 
 place in the Republican counsels. He was desirous of 
 modifying the constitution and of practically rendering 
 it a constitutional government by means of two chambers 
 and a president. It is believed by some that he had 
 communicated the situation to Buonaparte in Egypt, 
 who declared that he left his army in consequence of 
 events in France. Be that as it may, the Abbe played 
 
 * See account of this mission in Lord Mulgrave's Biography. 
 
LOKD GRENVILLE. 23 
 
 into his hands, and by his collusion Buonaparte was 
 enabled to overthrow the Jacobin party, and to get 
 himself proclaimed First Consul.* The military power 
 was delivered over to the Great Corsican, never to be lost 
 until finally wrested from him on the plains of Flanders. 
 Breathing threatenings against his Continental foes, he 
 yet desired peace with England. His despatch to Lord 
 Grenville was clever and plausible. 
 
 It enlisted on his side elements which were wavering 
 on behalf of peace, at a moment when Pitt was failing 
 in popularity and the country sorely tried with the drain 
 and bloodshed of a long war. 
 
 The Foreign Secretary led the consequent Parliamen- 
 tary discussion of January 1800 with high ability. He 
 had to defend his official despatch, in which, refusing to 
 treat with the French Consulate, he had suggested the 
 return of the Bourbons as the best and most natural 
 pledge of the alleged wish for peace. Qualified as that 
 suggestion had been by the statement that no claim was 
 made to prescribe a form of government to France, it was 
 immediately fastened on by enemies at home and abroad as 
 an interference with the internal affairs of other nations, f 
 In the Commons a most exhaustive and remarkable 
 speech was delivered by Mr. Dundas (afterwards Lord 
 Melville). He laid bare the sophistries of Buonaparte's 
 communication, and accentuated the point dwelt upon by 
 Lord Grenville which disclosed the duplicity of those 
 
 * November 10th, 1799. 
 
 t For report of Lord Grenville' s speech, see Annual Register, 
 lfcJOO, p. 77. 
 
24 iBEIGN BEOBETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 orders left with General Kleber in Egypt, viz. that lie 
 was to treat with the Porte and agree to an early 
 abandonment of the country, but not to evacuate or 
 fultil his engagements. Practically, the French meant 
 to keep what they had gained in the East. Moreover, 
 it was shown that as a subsidy of .£220,000 for prepara- 
 tions and annual promises of £40,000 a year had been 
 made to Russia for carrying on the war, and that we had 
 like arrangements with Austria and other nationalities 
 then in arms, was it reasonable that we should suddenly 
 be asked to throw over our allies, and sacrifice all the 
 advantages which the genius of the Archduke Charles 
 and the gallantry of the Austrian troops had gained ? 
 
 But with the French still in Egypt and in possession 
 of Malta, it would have been a manifest advantage to 
 Buonaparte, who knew that Kleber's army w T as in great 
 danger. 
 
 The magnificent oratory that ensued presented 
 Erskine, Pitt, and Fox at their best ; but there was one 
 voice silent, — one the blended sweetness and nobility of 
 whose tones had sustained and elevated the discussions 
 which had before taken place on the shifting scenes of 
 this vast Drama —Burke. The man of high thought 
 and bold conceptions had in 1797 passed away, an old 
 man, worshipped and honoured by his countrymen. 
 His former attitude was urged as an argument for treat- 
 ing with the new regime which had supplanted that of the 
 Jacobins, with which he would have no peace. 
 
 To this Pitt retorted that there was no adequate 
 ground of security in negotiating with a Power that left 
 the wrongs and aggressions committed against our allies 
 
LOED GEENVILLE. 25 
 
 unredressed. The original cause of complaint was not 
 removed.* Fox was at his best, and in his peroration 
 reminded ministers that if they desired that the nego- 
 tiation should have included their allies, they should 
 at least have given Buonaparte the opportunity of agree- 
 ing to the proposed preliminaries. In this he clearly 
 touched the weak point of Lord Grenville's technical case, 
 as the minister had dreaded Buonaparte's position in 
 Egypt, would hear of no compromise in the Low Coun- 
 tries, and desired scope for the Austrian arms. 
 
 It was universally admitted that Lord Grenville had 
 announced his policy to the House of Lords in a speech 
 of great dignity and eloquence. When calling on the 
 nation for the fresh efforts which discontent and sedition 
 rendered doubly irksome, he pointed out how, but for 
 disunion at home, the fleets of France never would have 
 dared to approach Ireland and help to kindle a rebellion 
 which their dupes had suffered for. 
 
 But for disunion, moreover, amongst the members of 
 the last European coalition, all the calamities under 
 which Europe groaned would have been averted. 
 
 He had from the first avowed that if France re- 
 mained mistress of the Continent, we could have no 
 safety. "It is with pride and satisfaction," said his 
 Lordship, "that I have never submitted to you the 
 necessity of a different policy. I have valued too much 
 the testimony of my own conscience, the feelings of 
 national honour, the dictates of public duty, and, per- 
 haps, those frail memorials which may remain of me, 
 
 : Holland was still occupied by the French. 
 
26 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 should men take the trouble to inquire how William 
 Lord Grenville thought and acted in this great crisis, 
 ever to advise any other than a manly, vigorous line 
 of conduct, or to recommend any resource but our own 
 constancy and perseverance." Such was the substance 
 and part peroration of a speech that lived long in the 
 memory of its hearers, and helped to animate hopes that 
 ever since the battle of the Nile had sunk to a low ebb. 
 Buonaparte's precarious position in Egypt was, however, 
 taken advantage of by Turkey and Russia to join England, 
 Austria, Portugal and Switzerland.* That his dispositions 
 were carefully and skilfully laid, the student of history 
 will attest, and to Lord Grenville must due praise be also 
 given as ably designing the second European coalition 
 against France. Lord Grenville 's words also fell on dis- 
 criminating ears. If ever an assembly existed, inclined 
 by natural predilection and interest towards the main- 
 tenance of peace, it is the British House of Lords, who 
 with every interest involved in the happiness, w T ell- being 
 and contentment of the people, just cause and expediency, 
 verging on necessity, must be not only urged but demon- 
 strated before their decisive countenance can be gained 
 to shield the warlike policy of a minister. 
 
 The English were twice in Holland during the pro- 
 gress of these events, on each occasion under the general- 
 ship of the Duke of York. In 1794 they formed the 
 right of the coalition army, and, deprived of the support 
 which Prussia covenanted to give of at least 61,000 
 men, were likewise separated by the fortune of war 
 
 * 1799-1800. 
 
LORD GRENVILLE. 27 
 
 from Austria.* A retreat across the Rhine, and subse- 
 quent embarkation from the Prussian coast ensued. Iu 
 1799 a great effort was made by Pitt and Grenviile. 
 The expedition achieved a conspicuous naval success, 
 as eight Dutch sail-of-the-line and seventeen frigates 
 were captured and conveyed to England. On shore the 
 Duke, after various skirmishes, fought a drawn battle 
 with General Brune near Bergen for the possession of 
 Haarlem, but lost all he there retained at Alkmaer, on 
 September 1 9th, 1799, after which the palpable distress 
 of his army counselled the compromise which ended in 
 an exchange of prisoners, and the embarkation of the 
 British for England, buch a distressing military failure 
 was injurious for other reasons, inasmuch as after this 
 disaster the people of Holland declared for the French, 
 who established the Batavian republic under Gallic 
 protection, and involved the Dutch in war with England. 
 Again, but for Pitt's and Grenville's discernment the 
 talents of the Duke of York would have been, as they 
 were well-nigh being, lost to his country, as the glamour 
 of disaster in the field might have kept his power of 
 military organisation from receiving acknowledgment, 
 and so a distinct weapon of strength would have been 
 of necessity deducted from the national armoury. 
 
 The first symptoms of re-action from Suwarow's 
 success in Europe occurred in 1799, when having 
 disregarded the warnings of our British envoy,! the 
 Russians and Austrians suffered defeat at Zurich, J and 
 
 * The English were left with 30.000 men opposed to 70,000. 
 
 i Lord Mulgrave. 
 
 J September 25th. 1799. 
 
28 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 were forced by Massena to abandon Switzerland. In 
 the East Sir Sydney Smith's successful defence of Acre 
 was supplemented by the gallant Abcrcromby holding his 
 own in Egypt, when, profiting by the prescience of 
 Wellesley, he alike cemented the union between 
 England and India, and secured British predominance 
 on the fields of Aboukir and Alexandria.* 
 
 It was there and then declared that India, as an 
 integral part of the Imperial system, should contribute 
 towards European efforts on her behalf, when directed 
 against the common enemy. 
 
 Malta, moreover, fell into British occupation.} 
 
 Fortune wavered around Genoa, where the French 
 under the ubiquitous Massena, were forced by a con- 
 junction of the Austrian army and British fleet to 
 evacuate the fortress. On the plains of Italy, however, 
 Buonaparte gained a decisive victory at Marengo. J 
 
 A battle lost was, to use the First Consul's own words, 
 a battle won, when, after a disastrous retreat, he rallied 
 his troops around the advance of Dessaix' reinforcements. 
 
 The subsequent treaty with Melas, the Austrian 
 general, gave Italy practically over to the French. 
 
 In Germany during 1801 the skill and generalship 
 of Moreau prevailed over the military ability of 
 the Austrians. How far the Austrian commanders 
 were paralysed by home counsels it is no part of 
 this book to decide ; but the bold advance of the 
 French into the heart of Austria, to within 50 miles 
 
 * March 1801. In July 1799 the French defeated the Turks at 
 Aboukir. 
 
 f September 5th, 1800. 
 I June 14th, 1800. 
 
LOED GREXVILLE. 29 
 
 of Yienna, received its reward at the peace of Lune- 
 ville, :: where traditional connection with Italy was 
 temporarily, and with Holland finally severed. Buona- 
 parte's power was undoubtedly rendered pre-eminent 
 over Italy and Germany, but the Austrian means of 
 resistance was by no means destroyed by the lopping off 
 of distant provinces. It was clear, however, that the 
 second combination against France had crumbled away, 
 and at the same time Lord Grenville's official part in 
 the direction of events was drawing to a close, f 
 
 It is strange to reflect that during the existence of a 
 Government, stamped as to its foreign policy, according 
 to men's general belief, with the sole individuality of Pitt, 
 we should learn from such an authority as Lord Malmes- 
 bury, that Lord Grenville was, upon the whole, the most 
 resolute and active of the six Foreign Secretaries he 
 knew ; and why ? Because, as we are told by the same 
 authority, he became most independent of his colleagues.]: 
 
 The will must, indeed, have been a strong one before 
 which Pitt yielded and Canning shrunk, unwilling to be 
 a nonentity in his office of Under Secretary for Foreign 
 Affairs. 
 
 * Peace of Luneville, February 9th, 1801. 
 
 t It is not generally known that a British army of 10,000 men 
 landed at Ferrol in Spain, under Sir James Pulteney, in August 
 1800, but that on gaining the heights they desisted from making 
 further attempts on the strong fortifications, and re-embarked. Sir 
 James' attempt may be compared to that of the legendary French 
 king of France, who, with 20,000 men, marched up a hill and then 
 marched down again. This was the last of Pitt's unsuccessful ex- 
 peditions commented on by Macaulay, and its failure gave rise to 
 considerable dissatisfaction. 
 
 \ Lord Malmesburys Diaries, vol. ii. p. 130. 
 
30 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 The foreign administration of such a man should, we 
 think, he the more closely studied and its strength 
 appreciated. 
 
 We stand, as it were, on an eminence, and look down 
 on a panorama of the mighty past. The actions, nay, 
 the thoughts of men are laid hare. 
 
 Enigmas are unfolding their mysteries, as year hy 
 year evidence is, so to speak, rescued from the tomb. 
 
 The prescience of Pitt and Grenville is manifest, in 
 that they discovered the true character of Napoleon's 
 rule before it guided the world. On the other hand, 
 Fox's foresight is remarkable, when in graceful 
 and forcible periods, he told the House of Commons 
 that the country was weary of the war and its undue 
 burdens ; that a cessation from the struggle would be 
 welcomed, together with a return to the reform required 
 at home. The peace of Amiens, and its welcomed 
 cessation from national exertion, proved part of his pro- 
 gramme to be desired ; and as for the internal changes 
 foreshadowed, they have all been accomplished with 
 benefit to the State. 
 
 There remains, then, but the fear whether it be 
 possible under the altered conditions of the present to 
 renew the efforts of the past, and for the Whig 
 programme as propounded by Fox and Grey, and sub- 
 sequently endorsed by Grenville, to prove a conspicuous 
 success. 
 
 It is for Englishmen, sinking all minor differences, to 
 combine on matters of national policy, and prove that the 
 rule of the many is not incompatible with combined and 
 individual sacrifices. 
 
LOED GRENVILLE. 31 
 
 Lord Grenville's character will not be understood, 
 unless his devotion to religion at home and abroad, and 
 his belief in the principle of establishment be duly 
 digested. When France proposed negotiations for peace 
 in 1800, there was no guarantee given that the principles 
 of religion had replaced those vaunted infidelities which 
 had characterised Jacobin rule, and been in some degree 
 a heritage of Voltaire's teaching. Napoleon, however, 
 when in power, adopted the Eoman Catholic religion as 
 that of the nation, and by so doing softened the spirit 
 of hostility amongst those who saw in religion the 
 mainstay of a State. 
 
 Thus it was that in opposition Lord Grenville 
 enunciated some views, logically incompatible with a 
 peace which in office he consistently reprobated. 
 
 Against Napoleon, and his mode of aggression, he 
 continued opposed ; but in conjunction, at first with 
 Fox, and afterwards with Lord Grey, would have 
 agreed to a compromise with the system, in return for a 
 cessation from a struggle to which, as conducted by 
 Government, he thought he saw no other end than 
 failure and national bankruptcy. 
 
 In this particular he was inferior in political fore- 
 sight to men like Liverpool, Canning, Harrowby, and 
 Castlereagh, who never hesitated. The Empire was, 
 however, at least an organised system, and, morally 
 speaking, an improvement on the Communism which 
 pursued its end with equal ambition. 
 
 On the 7th of February 1801 Mr. Pitt resigned. The 
 announcement was made in the House of Lords by 
 Lord Grenville. 
 
FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 George III. had declined to allow the question of 
 Catholic emancipation to he mooted, and such refusal 
 was accounted by ministers incompatible with con- 
 tinuance in the King's Government. 
 
 Pitt always intended and, indeed, by implication 
 had promised, that the union with Ireland should be 
 followed by a measure of relief to that large majority 
 of His Majesty's subjects who professed the Roman faith. 
 Lord Grenville had also warmly espoused their cause 
 as part of the civil and religious liberty he desired for 
 Great Britain, together with the preservation of that 
 Church which he loved so well. 
 
 The severance of political connection between Pitt 
 and Grenville was not effected until after much deli- 
 beration and deep regret. It could scarcely be other- 
 wise after the responsibility jointly incurred during 
 moments of peril and doubt. 
 
 As Lord Mulgrave's letters tell us, the breach was on 
 the point of being healed at one time. Would that it 
 had been forgotten, and remained unrecorded in the 
 pages of history ! 
 
 Pitt, who equally with Cornwallis and Castlereagh 
 knew the terms of the implied promise to grant Catholic 
 emancipation, considered himself justified in deferring 
 such fulfilment until the people of England and their 
 Sovereign were less averse to the change. Lord Gren- 
 ville deliberately judged otherwise, and probably did 
 much thereby to secure a future satisfaction of the 
 Roman Catholic claims. But he lived to be Premier 
 in a Government which, found an immediate settlement 
 of the question impossible, and one would fain have 
 
LORD GEENVILLE. 33 
 
 seen Pitt spared the pain of a separation from his 
 kinsman who, notwithstanding an after- connection with 
 the Whigs, learned his lessons of statesmanship at his 
 great cousin's feet. 
 
 The course of Lord Grenville has heen mis- 
 understood because those who sympathised most with 
 his ready decision at the commencement of the revo- 
 lutionary war, were unable to harmonise violent 
 opposition to Canning's policy in Spain with adherence 
 to former professions. The war that he waged so sternly 
 and steadily had since only varied in character because it 
 became more marked in its intensity of interest for English- 
 men, who, if defeated abroad and in the Peninsula, must 
 have prepared most undoubtedly to face the horrors and 
 suffer the deprivations of the struggle when transferred 
 to the region of their own island home. 
 
 The causes, as well as the details, of the early struggle 
 with France have been traced here with care, because out 
 of a hundred people who have satisfied themselves that on 
 the whole Napoleon's hostility was unappeasible, the 
 vast majority have not studied the question in its in- 
 ception. It is quite possible to favour the Whig theory 
 held by Fox, Shelburne, Sheridan, and others, that but 
 for the general hostility to Republican doctrines as they 
 first appeared in France, the high spirited French nation 
 would not, in self-defence, have had its attention turned 
 towards military tactics, and so forged a weapon for 
 offensive purposes such as the world has never seen 
 before or since, and yet hold the Napoleonic war a 
 necessity. But such a position can only be taken up 
 after reference to the plain facts which have here been 
 I. 3 
 
31: FORKKiX SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 given without prejudice, even if an opposite conviction 
 possess the writer's mind. 
 
 The history of the struggle with Imperial France will 
 from time to time introduce us to the thoughts and 
 opinions of this distinguished individual. He was des- 
 tined to occupy the highest position which a subject 
 can attain, and as he had been Foreign Secretary under 
 Pitt, to finish his official course as Prime Minister with 
 Fox as Foreign Secretary. 
 
 Truly a glorious career, undergone when the old 
 world w r as changing, and whilst the last remnants of 
 the feudal and mediaeval systems were about to merge 
 into times of riper liberty. 
 
 It is said that under the formal manner of Lord 
 Grenville was hidden a warm heart, and when the un- 
 timely death of Mr. Pitt w T as communicated to him he 
 covered his face and wept freely." They had been close 
 friends in boyhood, and Grenville's elevation to the 
 Peerage came w T hen Pitt most required someone he 
 could rely on to lead the Lords. It w T as, moreover, 
 hoped that his cousin's tact would conciliate Lord 
 Chancellor Thurlow, w T ho, of all Pitt's colleagues, was 
 the most difficult to manage. 
 
 Lord Grenville's public life w T as not the inconsistent 
 
 * Lord Grenville had married Anne Pitt, sister of the Lord 
 Camelford who suffered death in a duel with one Captain Best in 
 1804. Thus by matrimonial alliance as by birth and personal 
 friendship was he allied to the interests of Pitt rather than Fox. 
 The balance was, however, ultimately turned in favour of the 
 latter by the influence of his brother, Mr. Thomas Grenville, whose 
 alliance with the Whigs and with Fox in particular, was notorious. 
 
LORD GRENVILLE. 35 
 
 one it has sometimes been represented. He cannot be 
 shown to have swerved from principle, even if his strong- 
 desire for Catholic emancipation and reform carried him 
 from the Tory to the Whig camp. 
 
 Legislation on these subjects was clearly desired by 
 Pitt, and Lord Grenville was but carrying out the wishes 
 of his former leader. 
 
 At times his criticisms on the Spanish war and its 
 management were extreme and injurious, but they can 
 seldom be declared entirely baseless. 
 
 He held that we were embarked on a task beyond our 
 strength, military and financial. Thoroughly acquainted 
 as he was with either branch of our State machine, he 
 was predisposed to limit warlike capacity and deprecate 
 expense such as he believed would drain the ex- 
 chequer. 
 
 Other statesmen (Lord Castlereagh, Mr. Canning, and 
 Lord Hawkesbury, in particular) discerned before him 
 the pre-eminent talents of Sir Arthur Wellesley, but the 
 experience of Pitt's seventeen years' rule had not been 
 to inspire the ministerial mind with trust in our 
 commanders. 
 
 " Some old woman in a red ribbon," was once Lord 
 Grenville's answer as to the possible leader of any 
 military expedition.* 
 
 Lord Grenville appears to have believed, in common 
 with a great many other Englishmen, that when the army 
 of our leading commander, Sir John Moore, was forced 
 
 ::: Lord Stanhope's Life of Pitt. 
 
36 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 to evacuate Spain, and the general fell at Corunna, there 
 was but scanty hope of others succeeding where he had 
 failed. Again Lord Grenville disbelieved in the Continent 
 continuing to oppose Napoleon, who might at any 
 moment have found himself free to pour his resources 
 into the Peninsula. The calculations of Canning, Lord 
 Hawkesbury, and Lord Wellesley were, however, justified 
 by events, and the Peninsula war lured Napoleon to 
 his fall.* Metternich, moreover, tells us that French 
 policy towards Austria was modified by ill-success in 
 Spain, and as we know, the drain of life and gold con- 
 tinued there to the bitter end, whilst dread of Austria 
 and Russia tied Napoleon's hands, and prevented a 
 supreme effort being sustained across the Pyrenees. 
 
 That Lord Grenville should have put forward the 
 other side of the question is not to be wholly regretted. 
 It is curious that in 1810 Napoleon should have 
 remarked to Metternich that no peace with England was 
 possible whilst Lord Wellington's brother (Lord Welles- 
 ley) was Foreign Secretary, and until the Grenville party 
 came into power ; but that after Napoleon's escape from 
 Elba Lord Grenville expressed himself favourable to a 
 relentless prosecution of the war, and Lord Wellesley 
 was found in opposition. 
 
 It is difficult to define where such expressions of 
 disapproval should begin and end. Judgment, patriotism, 
 patience, and moderation are conspicuous requirements 
 for an opposition leader to possess, and without the exer- 
 
 Prince Metternich's Autobiography. 
 
LORD GRENVILLE. 37 
 
 cise of these virtues it would seem almost impossible to 
 give constitutional expression to the doubts and opinions 
 of necessary criticism. That the Whig party exceeded 
 the limits of these duties during the contest with 
 Napoleon is unfortunately too plain to allow of denial. 
 
 It has been regretfully admitted by eminent men of 
 their own persuasion who saw the mistake before they 
 themselves were elevated to guidance of party action. 
 Lord Russell has expressed this feeling strongly, as has 
 Mr. Horner T and even Lord Holland. 
 
 The after-conduct of Lords Russell, Palmerston, and 
 Clarendon has, fortunately for the State, carefully dis- 
 regarded precedents leading to the supposition that a 
 popular Government possesses inherent weakness abroad. 
 
 Perhaps no office was ever better suited to ord Gren- 
 ville's tastes and acquirements than that of Chancellor 
 of Oxford University, which honour fell to his share in 
 1809, after an election at which the Tory interest had 
 been divided. There the want which he himself acknow- 
 ledged was not likely to be felt. No scope was afforded 
 for the management of men, in which Lord Grenville 
 was as deficient as Pitt and Fox were pre-eminent. 
 
 So far as the instincts of statesmanship are concerned, 
 the constant support given by Lord Grenville to Lord 
 Wellesley in India should not be forgotten ; and it was 
 given when prejudice and ignorance of Indian affairs 
 
 * " Mr. Horner never ceased to grieve that his party had failed 
 to see in the Spanish war a struggle for European liberty ; instead 
 of pursuing a course revolting to every true feeling for the 
 independence of mankind." — Lord Russell's Recollections. 
 
38 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 might have led to the practical relinquishmeDt of our 
 Empire, threatened as it was with extinction through 
 foreign designs. 
 
 The deliberate opinion of his political opponent and 
 able contemporary, the second Lord Harrowby, as com- 
 municated to the author by his son, is to the effect that 
 he knew no one so well furnished with the natural 
 requisites of a statesman, together with all the know- 
 ledge which a statesman should possess. Mr. Pitt, 
 moreover, speaks of him as an undoubted authority on 
 Constitutional History, and the papers from which the 
 latter opinion has been culled will be found to possess 
 inestimable value to the student of Pitt's character and 
 career, inasmuch as they have never been utilised for 
 historical purposes, and consist of a correspondence 
 between Pitt and Grenville at the time of their co- 
 operation in the government. When the time comes 
 for the historian to arise who shall desire to probe yet 
 further the motives and designs of these remarkable 
 men, not the least valuable source of information will be 
 found in these letters now at Dropmore, in the posses- 
 sion of Lady Harriet Fortescue. 
 
 Sir James Mackintosh paid a visit to Lord Grenville 
 in 1813, and then found him inclined for the retirement 
 which marked his latter years.* 
 
 * It must have been a remarkable oration which Lord Grenville 
 delivered in 1819 when vindicating the Manchester magistrates. 
 Mr. R. P. Ward spoke of it as lofty and convincing from beginning 
 to end ; Lord Harrowby as a model of high and dignified argument ; 
 whilst the great Duke of Wellington said Lord Grenville's speech 
 
LOUD GKEXYILLE. o9 
 
 At Dropniore, the shady retreat between Beaconsfield 
 and Maidenhead, this once celebrated man passed the 
 latter part of an eventful life.* Had. he chosen, office 
 was more than once believed to be within his grasp ; 
 but the condition of the Whig party and w T eaker health 
 ruled otherwise. He died a decided Whig, although, 
 by the ties of birth and marriage, his connection was 
 with other political traditions. 
 
 When, however, Lord Grey's Keform Bill came fully 
 before the country, Lord Grenville was known to dis- 
 approve of its provisions as being too extreme. The 
 accompaniments of seditious meetings and ominous 
 threatenings directed against the Peers were not by any 
 means to his liking. Lord Chancellor Brougham seems 
 to have striven hard to reconcile the great politician to 
 
 was the finest be ever heard in the House of Lords. — Diary of 
 R. P. Ward, vol. ii. p. 39. 
 
 The Duke's praise must be judged as that of an optimist in such 
 matters, for, as the Times said of him at the time of his death, he 
 magnified his own opinions in order to impress them on his 
 hearers. The Duke could appreciate events with unfailing nicety, 
 but failed to describe them precisely. — Jennings's Anecdotal History 
 of England, p. 240. 
 
 Nevertheless, Lord Grenville's speech, even if not the best Wel- 
 lington ever heard in the Lords, must have been a very great one. 
 
 This was the last great impression upon public opinion ever 
 made by Lord Grenville, who henceforth retired to Dropmore. 
 
 * The keeper of the Grenville Library at the British Museum 
 remembers Lord Grenville drawn about in a chair when towards 
 the close of his life vigour failed him. The same individual (an old 
 servant) was with Mr. Thomas Grenville when he died at the ripe 
 age of 92. 
 
40 POBBION SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 the measure of his adopted party, but in vain.* Erskine, 
 however, speaks confidently of the Government's con- 
 fidence in the Chancellor's ability to soothe the doubts 
 which Lord Grenville felt on this subject. 
 
 The presumption certainly is that he failed, inasmuch 
 as not one written word of Lord Grenville's is forth- 
 coming at this crisis on behalf of a Government with 
 whom he may be supposed to have generally sympa- 
 thised. More than this, we have evidence that Lord 
 Grey himself doubted the wisdom of the extremes which 
 circumstances had led him into indirectly subscribing to 
 
 In a conversation held in November 1832, with Mrs. 
 Manners Sutton, he admitted that he feared the con- 
 comitary agitation had been carried too far.f 
 
 Lord Brou.gham, moreover, lived to quail before the 
 Frankenstein which his party had aroused, and acknow- 
 ledged his anxiety at the dark political out-look, } a state 
 of things which, as it appears, was traced by Lord 
 Grenville to the extraordinary blindness of the party 
 of resistance. 
 
 Throughout the sixth, seventh, and eighth volumes of 
 the Supplementary Wellington Despatches, opinions are again 
 and again avowed by individuals of position and rank, 
 
 * Memoirs of the Life and Times of Lord Brougham, vol. iii. p. 495. 
 
 t Wellington Supplementary Despatches, vol viii. p. 450. 
 
 I Lord Brougham, writing to Dr. Knight in May 1831, speaks as 
 follows : — " I believe a strong Government absolutely necessary to 
 save the country. I speak the more plainly because you are well 
 aware that no man is less exclusive in his political propensities 
 than I am and always have been since I became seriously alarmed 
 at the anti-aristocratic spirit." — Wellington Supplementary Despatches, 
 vol. vii. p. 456. 
 
LORD GRENVILLE. 41 
 
 which one would have long ago believed to be relegated 
 to those mediaeval times to which their realisation could 
 alone belong. 
 
 The fault, as we have elsewhere striven to show, was not, 
 however, so much that of individuals as of ever recurrent 
 human nature, destined in the 19th century to reproduce a 
 struggle not unlike that which once prevailed between 
 the patricians and plebeians of ancient Rome. 
 
 The name of Lord Grenville is associated in the minds 
 of many historical students with an austere individual, 
 faithful, above all things, to the Church of England ; 
 a Whig from conviction, and yet a fitting individual for 
 the office of Oxford University Chancellor. 
 
 But no recorded impression of Lord Grenville gives 
 him credit for the liberality and kindness which, springing 
 from the true nature of his heart, have rendered his 
 name beloved and honoured in Dropmore, and, indeed, 
 throughout the district where he was best known. 
 
 We have heard of certain popular individuals who 
 have confined their amiability to the moments when 
 standing under the searching eye of public criticism, but 
 who have not sustained that high level in the secret 
 records of their homes. 
 
 It was otherwise with Lord Grenville. Enquire where 
 you will amongst the tenantry, the same enthusiastic 
 answer is given. He was a noble gentleman. The 
 custodian of the Grenville Library in the British Museum 
 knew Lord Grenville well, and will endorse every word 
 here written, attesting to the statesman's goodness and 
 kindness 
 
 Whatever may be thought of Lord Grenville's alter- 
 
4:'Z FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 policy, there can be little doubt that his Foreign 
 Secretaryship was of surpassing interest, and when the 
 record of the 19th century comes to be written, it will be 
 an imperfect volume which does not contain the actions 
 of William Wyndham Lord Grenville. 
 
 He died in 1834, at the age of seventy -eight, leaving 
 no child to inherit his title. 
 
t ■> 
 
 
 ■> > ■>> ■> J ■>, 
 
 -, T 1 I 1 1 
 
 I 1 > > 1 > ' ■> 
 
 1 1 
 
I ' 
 
 
 • i ,. » r »'»'. I 
 
 V f '.'•' i 
 
 
 
 
43 
 
 I<Of(f) S^WE^0L f f{Y. 
 
 March 1801 to May 1804. 
 
 ISITORS to the old Charterhouse will 
 remember that after wandering through 
 tapestried rooms, they were taken to 
 the ante-chapel, where are inscribed 
 the names of illustrious Carthusians. 
 Foremost amongst these, must be 
 reckoned Kobert Banks Jenkinson, afterwards Lord 
 Liverpool. His father before him had been a pains- 
 taking politician, skilled in finance and commerce, in 
 measures connected with which he assisted Mr. Pitt 
 very materially. 
 
 The early friend of Canning,* Mr. Jenkinson learned 
 to revel in the delights of literature. 
 
 Travel came to his lot as that of a young Englishman 
 of means and fashion. Passing through Paris just 
 before the Revolution broke out, he entered Parliament 
 
 * They were at Oxford together. 
 
44 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 in 1791 as member for Appleby, where Pitt had first 
 gained entrance to the House of Commons. Mr. Pitt 
 selected him to open debate on the Russian armament, 
 and the Prime Minister characterised this maiden effort 
 as full of science and philosophy, for truly the speaker 
 had come fully instructed to his task. 
 
 In 1792, Mr. Jenkinson travelled through Belgium 
 and Germany, and witnessed the state of continental 
 feeling which brought about the league against France. 
 Quarrels between Prussia and Austria preventing the two 
 countries acting cordially together, seem to have opened 
 the future statesman's eyes to the difficulty of effecting a 
 real concert between the sovereigns of Europe, even in 
 the face of what they deemed vital danger. 
 
 He strongly advocated an advance upon Paris, as 
 likely to unite the allies in a common object, and strike 
 a blow at the heart of the Revolution. However, this 
 idea was laid aside, when fortune, as it shortly did, 
 inclined to the side of the French. 
 
 In 1796, Mr. Jenkinson became Lord Hawkesbury, 
 and favoured the attempt made by Pitt to end the war, 
 which, renewed again in 1798 and 1800, was on each 
 occasion foiled by the impractibility of the French 
 negotiations. 
 
 The famous naval quartette, Nelson, Howe, St. 
 Vincent, and Duncan, swept the seas of French 
 shipping, armed and unarmed ; but the valour of our 
 troops could not avert disasters which inferior general- 
 ship imposed on us when we essayed to regain Holland 
 for the Stadtholders. 
 
 It was, therefore, after military failure, and in the 
 
LOED HAWKESBUEY. 45 
 
 midst of distress and discontent at home, that Mr. Pitt 
 desired to follow up the union of Ireland with Great 
 Britain, by a measure of Catholic relief. To this, 
 George III. refused his assent. 
 
 The character of George III. has been variously 
 estimated. By Lord Brougham * prominence has been 
 given to his relentless and unforgiving conduct towards 
 those who differed from him in principle ; to the 
 indifferent education he had received, and the uncon- 
 stitutional estimate of the power of a prerogative, which, 
 during the Premiership of North, Pitt, Addington, and 
 Grenville, asserted a position ahead of either Lords or 
 Commons. 
 
 It is shown how he told his favourite minister, Lord 
 North,f that he would never prosper until he learned to 
 disregard defeat in the Commons, and that the preva- 
 lent desire of the ministers seems uniformly to have 
 been first to please the King, and avoid measures which 
 he was known to regard with disfavour. 
 
 On the other hand it has been urged, with equal 
 truth, that one unfailing standard of principle was ever 
 before George III., and that no personal exaltation ever 
 intermingled with his determined opposition to whatever 
 he believed unconstitutional and contrary to his corona- 
 tion oath. He believed that on the terms of the com- 
 pact between England and the Ho-ise of Brunswick, he 
 was as much bound to preserve Protestant ascendancy in 
 
 * Lives of Statesmen of the Reign of George the Third. 
 f Letters of George the Third to Lord North, 
 
46 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XTX. CENTURY. 
 
 Ireland, as he was to assert Imperial supremacy in the 
 councils of our colonies. 
 
 His letters may be ungrammatical, but they are at 
 least pithy, terse, and always to the point ; nothing 
 seemed to escape him, from the conduct of individual 
 members in Parliament to the tenour of an agent's 
 
 letter. 
 
 " Ford * writes without flowers " is his characteristic 
 comment on the report of a visitor to Paris, who believed 
 Louis XVI. was about to help the Americans, and the 
 character of that document was not misinterpreted by 
 the English king, who henceforth prepared for the 
 hostility of France. 
 
 The results of this policy lie before us. American 
 independence was gained, as in the opinion of most men 
 it invariably must have been under the peculiar combina- 
 tion of circumstances \ which ensued. But the same 
 cause that helped to split in twain the British Empire, 
 destroyed once and for ever the foundations on which 
 the French Monarchy had for ages rested secure. 
 Tainted by the contagion of Eepublican ideas, the 
 soldiers and sailors of France returned to give effect to 
 their newly imbibed principles, destined shortly to take 
 root in ground otherwise prepared for their reception. 
 The last man to recognise American independence, the 
 upright British king, declared he would be equally 
 faithful to the new conditions which he had unwillingly 
 
 * Letters to Lord North from George the Third, edited by Lord 
 
 Brougham. 
 
 t France, Spain, and Holland joined America, 
 
LORD HAWKESBURY. 47 
 
 sanctioned. The refusal to settle the Catholic claims 
 seems to us now a gigantic error. 
 
 The emancipation of the Roman Catholics was, 
 sooner or later, inevitable, its final adoption being allied 
 to the best and wisest traditions of statesmanship. 
 But notwithstanding these errors, there remains the 
 constitution of this kingdom in its present condition as 
 a monument to George TII.'s memory. 
 
 Nobody who reads the history of the French Revolu- 
 tion, and learns the sympathy which the thoughts and 
 aspirations of its devotees aroused here, can fail to see 
 that the stolid determination and statesman-like fore- 
 thought of our grand old king saved this country from 
 a revolution. 
 
 It is impossible to travel in the country districts of 
 Great Britain and see the morality and comfort which 
 the national acknowledgment of religion amongst us has 
 effected, and not bless the memory of the ruler who 
 defended their liberties. Inalienably allied as religion is 
 to the well-being of any community of men, its abandon- 
 ment and the adoption of selfish rules of conduct have 
 ever proved the precursors of national decline. 
 
 It is not proposed here to enter into the merits of the 
 Catholic question. The assertion that good citizenship 
 was incompatible with the religion of a Roman Catholic, 
 has not, as a matter of fact, been proved correct in 
 modern Ireland. But for the priestly and Papal influ- 
 ence being exerted on the side of law and order, more 
 than one later crisis would have become acute and have 
 enlarged the domestic troubles which hover around a 
 still unsolved political problem. But for the generous 
 
48 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 measures of public policy dreamed of by Pitt, forwarded 
 by Grenville, and consummated by Peel and Wellington, 
 tliis beneficent tendency would scarcely have existed. 
 
 When George III. refused to accept Catholic emanci- 
 pation in 1801, he was asserting a principal that has 
 since been abandoned by the nation, but which it does 
 not follow the special circumstances of the time did not 
 render expedient. Mr. Addington, at any rate, accepted 
 office on the tacit understanding that this question was 
 not to be advanced, and when Lord Hawkesbury took 
 the Foreign Office seals he became soon convinced of 
 the desirability of that peace which the changed de- 
 meanour of the First Consul of France appeared to 
 render possible. 
 
 The reign of Lord Hawkesbury at the Foreign Office 
 was distinguished by direction of the discussions which 
 led to peace being arranged at Amiens between Great 
 Britain and France on March 27th, 1802. Unhappily 
 the chronicler must likewise describe the speedy return 
 of war, which, coming as it did when the national desire 
 for repose had been by no means satisfied, has led to 
 the opinion that statesmen hoped for nothing but an 
 armed truce, when discarding the protests of Lord 
 Grenville and Mr. Windham, they resolved to seek a 
 modus vivcndi with that devouring spirit of aggrandise- 
 ment which had fixed itself on the national counsels of 
 France. When the resolve had once been taken, the 
 choice of Lord Hawkesbury as instrument for carrying it 
 through was in everyway desirable. Those there were who 
 under-rated the abilities of that steady man of business, 
 whose solid worth was to influence the destinies of his time. 
 
LORD HAWKESBURY. 49 
 
 Lord Hawkesbury's (then Mr. Jenkinson) first speech 
 in Parliament had been one upholding the European 
 balance of power.* The principle at stake has been more 
 or less condemned in modern times, but, as Professor 
 Montagu Burrows has told us in his Imperial England, 
 it contains the germ of a great truth. 
 
 Like other truisms, the balance of power as an anti- 
 dote to war may be pressed to a hurtful extreme, and 
 prove dangerous to liberty ; but until the time comes 
 when wars shall cease, and the lion lie down with the 
 lamb, there will be danger to the State whose rulers 
 shall elect to isolate their country. For to such result 
 must the rejection of Lord Hawkesbury's great principle 
 logically lead. 
 
 The key-note of the Minister's conduct preceding the 
 Peace of Amiens may be said to have been struck when 
 his observance of this principle has been noted. 
 
 Buonaparte, as First Consulof France, had succeeded 
 in arraying the kingdoms of the north in commercial 
 opposition to this country,! and for the moment no 
 European field appeared to invite scope for British 
 energies or due results for expenditure of her matchless 
 but weakened resources. 
 
 At home the cry for peace was general, and the Foreign 
 Secretary resolved to consolidate strength and to take 
 advantage of circumstances which appeared to make a 
 cessation of hostilities possible. 
 
 * The phrase, " balance of power," was first used in Parliamen- 
 tary discussion by Sir Eobert Walpole. 
 
 t The policy of opposition to the armed neutrality which entailed 
 Lord Nelson's action at Copenhagen in 1801, was resolved on by 
 Mr. Pitt. 
 
 L 4 
 
50 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 The jealousy of English naval power had led Europe 
 to accede to French proposals which, Lord Hawkesbury 
 saw, their own interests would ere long force them to 
 rebel against, and it is worth while to notice here, that 
 the maritime changes demanded by the Confederation 
 were not nearly so sweeping as those actually passed into 
 law by the Declaration of Paris sixty years after- 
 wards. 
 
 It is impossible, moreover, to read the records of our 
 high-handed conduct in insisting on the rule of search, 
 as put in practice both against Denmark and Sweden, 
 without seeing that Napoleon gauged the weak spot in 
 England's position when he essayed to enlist on his side 
 the jealousy of smaller naval Powers. Russia, it is true, 
 had no such grievance to urge, but her gradual change 
 of attitude became equally notorious, and culminated in 
 the seizure of British property in Russia, and an 
 embargo being laid on all English vessels in the ports of 
 that Empire. 
 
 When the unfriendly conduct of Russia became like- 
 wise apparent, the extent of the web which Buonaparte 
 was weaving unfolded itself to the English Ministry, who 
 had to chose between facing new clangers and accepting 
 the compromise which it became known that the French 
 were prepared to accede to. 
 
 At home, two bad harvests in 1/99 and 1800, to- 
 gether with one indifferent one in 1801, had reduced the 
 lower classes to the verge of famine. So inadequate was 
 the supply of wheat that many well-to-do families agreed 
 to limit consumption to a quartern loaf per week, and to 
 their further credit were open-handed to such a degree 
 
LORD HAWKESBURY. 51 
 
 that absolute want was avoided among the poor. But 
 the public spirit became impaired, and the continuance 
 of a desolating struggle with France, aided by her new 
 allies, was judged impolitic and doubtful in the extreme. 
 
 Still the nation, as represented by Mr. Addington's 
 able Foreign Secretary, was prepared to agree to no 
 dishonourable terms. The fruits of Sir Ralph 
 Abercromby's victory in Egypt were to be secured 
 and the French evacuation rendered permanent, whilst 
 Ceylon and Trinidad were to be retained by England, 
 and Buonaparte's troops withdrawn from Naples and 
 the Papal States. 
 
 Lastly, and most important proviso of all, Malta was 
 to be surrendered by England to the Knights of St. 
 John, and placed under the guarantee of Russia and 
 Naples, who engaged not to return the island to France. 
 
 Herein, however, were the seeds of future discord. 
 For a time it seemed as if nothing short of the imme- 
 diate evacuation of Malta would satisfy the plenipoten- 
 tiaries of France, who, when the treaty was signed, 
 must have seen that difficulties were likely to arise. 
 The Hereditary Grand Master of the Knights of St. 
 John was said to be the Emperor Paul of Russia, who 
 for reasons of his own refused to accept the guarantee 
 assigned to him in the treaty. 
 
 The Order itself was scattered and disorganised. 
 Their return to Malta was improbable, and proved an 
 excuse given both for French irregularities elsewhere, 
 and for retributive diplomatic evasion on the part of 
 England. 
 
 That Lord Hawkesbury knew the French desire to 
 
 4 * 
 
O'l FOREIGN BECBETABIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 possess Malta, and prepared to thwart it in every pos- 
 sible way, can be the only solution of a transaction 
 which, looked at fairly, cannot be said to present 
 England as minutely faithful to treaty engagements. 
 
 The debates which ensued in the English Parliament 
 showed that the nation would never agree to part with 
 Malta, and the sentiment was expressed by Mr. Wind- 
 ham, an able and finished speaker, when he spoke 
 anxiously of the French claims and of their probable 
 satisfaction whenever Buonaparte chose to wrest his 
 spoil from the feeble hands into whose keeping it was 
 to be entrusted. 
 
 The First Consul of France and Talleyrand were 
 certainly bent on opposing a British occupation of 
 the island, and the wonder is that so considerable 
 a time should have elapsed before the inevitable dis- 
 agreement ensued. Lord Hawkesbury's admirable 
 speech in defence of the treaty was the pride of Go- 
 vernment and Opposition alike. As Pitt declared,* 
 " Who after Mr. Fox was qualified to conduct such 
 negotiations as was Lord Hawkesbury ? " 
 
 Every despatch to Lord Cornwallis, our plenipotentiary, 
 had been carefully written out by the Foreign Secre- 
 tary, and the instructions were complete, and nothing 
 omitted. 
 
 But a shadowy idea has been transmitted to us of 
 the form and character of the minister who did so 
 much to give his country a long and durable peace. 
 
 : ' C. D. Yonge's Life and Letters of Lord Liverpool. 
 
LORD HAWKESBURY. 53 
 
 As Foreign Secretary he laid the foundation of that 
 consummation so devoutly to be desired, and if as 
 Prime Minister his power of conciliating and governing 
 the passions of others is better remembered than his 
 terse and simple oratory, and patient endurance of the 
 hardest and weariest work, he will yet be remembered 
 as the author of that Peace of Amiens which made 
 subsequent exertions possible to a high-spirited but 
 exhausted nation. 
 
 The Peace of Amiens had the public concurrence of 
 both Pitt and Fox. Failing our hopes of Continental 
 alliances, the former held that, although not precisely 
 in terms what he could wish, the peace appeared to 
 him creditable, and, on the whole, very advantageous. 
 
 The great Whig leader praised it for very different 
 reasons, and took the opportunity of tilting at Pitt's 
 measures and their assumed failure. Better terms, he 
 declared, were to be had for asking towards the close 
 of the preceding century, and the minister of that day 
 was answerable for all the distress and slaughter which 
 had since occurred. 
 
 Lord Grenville, on the other hand, fiercely assailed 
 what he believed to be an unnecessary resignation of 
 our conquests. 
 
 It appears to us that Lord Hawkesbury deserves 
 great credit for his perspicuity in seizing a favourable 
 opportunity for negotiating a peace which after- events 
 proved necessary, and at the same time retaining vital 
 British interests under the shadow — alas ! — of that uplifted 
 sword, which Britain's enemies shortly forced into 
 renewed action. 
 
54 FOREIGN SECBETABIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 There was, perhaps, solid truth underlying the Par- 
 liamentary opposition of Windham and Grenville, but 
 the objections had been well considered and, so to speak, 
 discounted by the ministers. It was the breathing 
 space that the fleetest horse or the strongest athlete 
 requires which was sought for our island home — an 
 oasis in that long valley of war and death through 
 which it was necessary to pass before the goal of peace, 
 plenty, and domestic reform could be reached, and 
 England transformed into that favoured spot which we 
 know and other nations envy. 
 
 There is evidence to show that peace was welcomed 
 by our neighbours across the sea, so far as the people 
 themselves were concerned. Lord Hawkesbury had 
 recommended the fitting-out of Lord Cornwallis' en- 
 towage with unusual splendour, and the popularity of 
 the negotiations became manifest as the populace 
 crowded around the equipage of the English plenipo- 
 tentiary, when, under the shadow of the noble Cathedral, 
 representatives of France, Spain, and Holland met to 
 ratify the definitive treaty. (March 27th, 1802.) * 
 
 Lord Hawkesbury had given attention to the smallest 
 
 * The table on which the treaty was signed is still at the Hotel 
 de Ville, Amiens, and on the wall are pictures of Lord Cornwallis 
 and the other plenipotentiaries. It is curious to read in the chron- 
 icles of that time with what enthusiasm peace was received in 
 England. There was, so to speak, a general blaze of joy. The 
 metropolis and other large towns were illuminated. Feasting, 
 processions with bands playing joyful music, and military demon- 
 strations prevailed. We hear also of mail coaches covered with 
 trophies, and drawn home in triumph by the crowds. Thus did 
 Englishmen receive the truce, of which Sheridan declared, " all 
 men were glad, but none proud." 
 
LORD HAWKESBURY. 55 
 
 details, and the French love of splendour and respect 
 for outward appearance was not forgotten. 
 
 When the anticipated time arrived and Napoleon 
 threw aside the mask that he had worn with ill- disguised 
 aversion,* the demand for an immediate retirement 
 from Malta reached the English ministry. Malta was 
 then, as now, regarded as the stepping-stone to Egypt, 
 and secret communication warned Lord Hawkesbury 
 how the British were to be driven from that country in 
 defiance of a recent treaty which confirmed their 
 occupation thereof. This placed peace out of the 
 question unless Buonaparte could be induced to 
 withdraw his demands concerning Malta, and appli- 
 cation was made by Lord Whitworth to Joseph 
 Buonaparte, who had, in the first instance, represented 
 France at Amiens. 
 
 A suggestion was about this time mooted, to the 
 effect that England, in her character of what Lord 
 Grenville called the milch-cow of Europe, should find 
 money to be distributed amongst Napoleon's courtiers, 
 and thus, if possible, get his consent to the abandonment 
 of a project which the English people were determined 
 he should not carry out. Malta was not to belong 
 either directly or indirectly to France. Joseph Buona- 
 parte was believed to wish the treaty negotiated by him 
 to stand, and other prominent Frenchmen to have an 
 interest in maintenance of peace. But Napoleon's 
 brother called officially on Lord Hawkesbury to fulfil 
 
 * " Buonaparte seized the Fame packet, bound to Jersey, but 
 driven into Clierbourgh, between the signature of preliminaries 
 and the definitive Treaty."— Dyer's History of Europe. 
 
56 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 the covenants of the Treaty of Amiens and evacuate 
 Malta. 
 
 Reply was given that the aggrandisement of France, 
 which had proceeded during the peace, was against the 
 spirit of that treaty, as was the aggression on Switzerland. 
 
 As for Malta, the Knights of St. John and the Grand 
 Master were not forthcoming to undertake the occu- 
 pation, and the island would not he delivered over to 
 France as a place of arms. Hence arose a deadlock 
 it was found impossible to remove. 
 
 The bribe was never more than privately hinted at, 
 and neither Mr. Addington nor Lord Hawkesbury were 
 disposed to pay secret service money away for objects so 
 obviously uncertain of attainment. Who was to guaran- 
 tee the continued fulfilment of any such pact, and what 
 English legislature would vote money for a purpose at 
 once degrading and unworthy ? Not the least demo- 
 ralising part of Napoleon's system consisted in the 
 wholesale distribution of gold amongst favourites and 
 military officials. The enrichment of his own family, 
 moreover, temporarily resulted, and but for the fact that 
 greed in turn begets extravagance, the Napoleonic legend 
 might have been allied to the possession of wealth unrival- 
 led but by the merchant and banking princes of Europe. 
 The consequences of this pampered desire for gold 
 made themselves apparent throughout France, and per- 
 meated to the steps of the consular throne, proving 
 from first to last the bane of an Imperial system, which, 
 having no root in the traditions on which it from necessity 
 partially rested, betook itself to the extraneous assistance 
 afforded by profusion and military glory. The establish- 
 
LOED HAWKESBURY. 67 
 
 ment of juster laws than had hitherto prevailed, codified, 
 as they undoubtedly were, with rare skill, and overlooked 
 by a master mind versed in the peculiarities of the Gallic 
 character, accompanied those blandishments. 
 
 It is impossible to peruse the intensely instructive 
 pages of Prince Mettemich's Life, and not to see how all 
 this policy of human wisdom with its preposterous pan 
 dering to national weakness depended for its success — 
 aye, for its maintenance — on the presence of the man 
 himself. It is clear that jealousies and furious party 
 spirit were repressed, but at no one time destroyed, and 
 the star of Buonaparte's fortune alone stood between him 
 and the oft courted death in battle, and the gleam of that 
 assassin's knife, which must have haunted the retirement 
 of St. Cloud and the pleasant groves of Malmaison. But 
 it is impossible not to see that, as with the retirement of 
 the all-inspiring presence the system must crumble away, 
 so must the continuance of such influence sap the moral 
 life of a nation, ruled by such a man and governed by 
 such means. 
 
 That this destructive canker-worm did not work its 
 way into English public life, is owing to no individual 
 more than to Lord Hawkesbury. 
 
 The temptation of securing a probable respite from 
 war, when most required, by means of bribing Buona- 
 parte's following, was put aside by Lord Hawkesbury 
 and Mr. Addington as impossible in English politics,* 
 
 * Joseph Buonaparte's frank and honest character, as revealed 
 in the Cornwallis Papers, shows the improbability of his adherence 
 to such scheme. 
 
58 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 and we have given prominence to this fact because the 
 secret of a long-continued influence is here apparent. 
 Men looked up to the statesmen of undoubted truth 
 and probity whose public utterances, if simple and 
 unpretentious, conveyed the plain, unvarnished truth. 
 
 With rulers such as these on the one hand, and a 
 successful military adventurer on the other, it is wonder- 
 ful at first sight to contemplate the undecided demeanour 
 of Europe when the conflict between Great Britain and 
 France was renewed. A reference to Metternich's first 
 State paper will, however, show that continued naval 
 success had in the year 1800 generated jealousy, and 
 called into being that unnatural coalition, headed by 
 France and Russia, whose hostility slumbered and was 
 by no means extinct when the peace of Amiens came to 
 an end. (May 22nd, 1803.) 
 
 Hence it came to pass that Lord Hawkesbury had 
 not to hand the means of furthering those natural 
 alliances which his well-known policy would have led 
 him to embrace. Measures of defence rather than of 
 offence became, therefore, the deliberate choice of 
 ministers. Mr. Addington was of opinion that by 
 husbanding resources for defence of our own shores, 
 we should reap a fuller benefit from the breathing 
 space which the late peace had given us, and be the 
 better able to take the initiative when the moment should 
 arrive. 
 
 The Prime Minister is brought forward prominently 
 here, because the peace of Amiens is as indelibly con- 
 nected with his name as with Lord Hawkesbury' s, so that 
 the national rest prescribed by Addington should be 
 
LORD HAWKESBURY. 59 
 
 traced to its author with the same instinct that has 
 attributed our continental influence and alliances to the 
 spirit and genius of his mighty successor. 
 
 Lord Hawkesbury, however, loyally defended this 
 attitude as adapted to special circumstances, and from 
 the moment that Lord Whitworth held his famous inter- 
 view with Napoleon, the energies of the Foreign Office 
 were directed towards thwarting any attempt at invasion 
 which might be made. Great was the excitement in 
 England whilst peace and war were in the balance. A 
 forged letter, purporting to be written by the Foreign 
 Secretary, and announcing a satisfactory settlement with 
 France, obtained credence in the city, and the funds 
 rose from 63J to 71J. When Government apprised 
 the Lord Mayor of the truth, a corresponding de- 
 pression ensued. The French view of the question, if 
 not indeed the germ of the whole dispute, may be 
 gathered from the following account of the famous 
 scene between Buonaparte and Lord Whitworth, which, 
 as the earliest that reached England, and taken from a 
 reliable source, may possess of itself historical interest. 
 
 " In the saloon where Josephine received ambassadors 
 and persons of distinction, people were surprised by the 
 First Consul's unusual abruptness of manner on making 
 his entrance. He spoke loudly to Lord Whitworth after 
 saluting the company : 
 
 " ' You know, my Lord, that a terrible storm has arisen 
 between England and France ? ' 
 
 "LorpW. — 'Yes, General Consul, but it is to be 
 hoped that this storm will be dissipated without any 
 serious consequences.' 
 
60 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 " B. — * It will be dissipated when England shall have 
 evacuated Malta. If not, the cloud will burst and the 
 bolt must fall. The King of England has promised by 
 treaty to evacuate that place, and who is to violate the 
 faith of treaties ? ' 
 
 " Lord W. (surprised). — ' But you know, General Con- 
 sul, the circumstances which have hitherto delayed the 
 evacuation of Malta. The intention of my sovereign 
 is to fulfil the Treaty of Amiens ; and you know also ' 
 
 "B. (with impetuosity). — ' You know that the French 
 have carried on the war for ten years, and you cannot 
 doubt but that they are in a condition to wage it again. 
 Inform your Court that if, on the receipt of your 
 despatches, orders are not issued for the immediate 
 surrender of Malta, then war is declared. I declare 
 my firm resolution is to see the treaty carried into effect, 
 and leave it to the Ambassadors of the several Powers 
 who are present to say who are in the wrong. You 
 flattered yourselves that France would not dare to show 
 her resentment whilst her squadrons were at St. 
 Domingo. I am happy thus publicly to undeceive you 
 on that head.' 
 
 " Lord W. — ' But, G-eneral, the negotiation is not yet 
 broken, and there is every reason to believe ' 
 
 "B. — ' Of what negotiation does your Lordship speak ? 
 Is it necessary to negotiate what is conceded by treaty 
 — to negotiate the fulfilment of engagements and the 
 duties of good faith ? ' 
 
 "Lord Whitworth was about to reply. Buonaparte 
 made a sign with his hand, and continued in a less 
 elevated tone, ' My lord, your lady is indisposed. She 
 
LORD HAWKESBURY. 61 
 
 may probably breathe her native air rather sooner 
 than you or I expected. I wish most heartily for 
 peace, but if my just demand be not instantly com- 
 plied with, then war must follow and God will decide. 
 If treaties are not sufficient to bind to peace, then the 
 vanquished must not be left in a condition to offer injury.' 
 
 " Buonaparte afterwards walked up and down the hall, 
 and discoursed gaily with the guests, but to the English 
 he returned a cold salute." — Article on Public Affairs 
 (Christian Observer, 1803). 
 
 The theatrical character of this interview tallies with 
 more than one of a like description which the publication 
 of Prince Metternich's papers prove Napoleon to have 
 forced on the Austrian Ambassador at crucial periods of 
 political history. Once, indeed, a message was sent to 
 Metternich telling him that no personal antipathy was 
 intended. 
 
 It is clear that Napoleon III. was but carrying out the 
 traditions of his family when in 1859 he startled Europe 
 by an abrupt and threatening observation made to the 
 Austrian Ambassador on a public occasion, thereby 
 presaging the war in Lombardy and Italian indepen- 
 dence. 
 
 Lord Hawkesbury put the English case before the 
 nation in an able State document entitled " His 
 Majesty's Declaration," * and although this should be 
 carefully studied by the lover of history, it is not 
 within the scope of this work to do more than 
 extract the important matter named therein. The 
 
 * State Papers, May 1803. 
 
62 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 English contention as regards Malta was explained at 
 length. 
 
 It urged that at no time since the Peace had England 
 heen bound to evacuate Malta, because several important 
 stipulations were not fulfilled by France. 
 
 Yet, notwithstanding the right which His Majesty had 
 hence acquired to retain Malta, evacuation or renewal of 
 war were the alternatives presented. As the French 
 still pointed to the Treaty of Amiens as unfulfilled by 
 England, the two countries continued arguing in a circle, 
 until it was seen that the knot could alone be untied by 
 the sword. 
 
 The supreme value of the "possession in question was 
 not at that moment gauged by the public, and but for 
 Napoleon's designs on Egypt Mr. Addington's Govern- 
 ment would possibly have sacrificed for the sake of 
 peace that which has proved of inestimable worth both 
 during the renewed war with France, the Crimean con- 
 flict, and Indian Mutiny. The probable future of the 
 Euphrates valley as a route to India was foreshadowed 
 by Sir J. Macintosh, and many thinking men have ever 
 since desired to see England with a chain of communi- 
 cation between her shores and Eastern Europe.* A 
 taint of illegality clings around the means by which 
 Malta accrued to Great Britain, but it is fair to allow 
 that the alternative of neutralisation meant the esta- 
 blishment of French influence. 
 
 The majority of the Knights of St. John would them- 
 selves have been under Buonaparte, and English sur- 
 
 * See Greater Britain, by Sir Charles Dilke, M.P. 
 
LORD HAWKESBURY. 63 
 
 render have forged a weapon of offence against her 
 commerce and prestige. 
 
 Fair play, as beloved by Englishmen, has never more 
 conspicuously been disregarded than by the opposition 
 to Mr. Addington's Government during the phase of 
 public opinion that made peace as negotiated at Amiens 
 possible. At the very outset, when Pitt had failed either 
 to carry on the Government or to make peace, we find 
 him asking Canning not to laugh at the Speaker's eleva- 
 tion to the Treasury. More than that, however, the 
 sarcastic and brilliant politician refused to undertake. 
 In real earnest, it was never intended to give Addington 
 and Hawkesbury the fair chance they had every right to 
 claim just as much as if they had received a fresh man- 
 date from the nation when in later years it elected its 
 members by household suffrage. 
 
 When peace came the unfortunate treaty pleased 
 neither Whig nor Tory, but its after-justification has 
 proved that Addington and Hawkesbury will live in 
 history as the authors of a stitch in time which in sober 
 truth may be s'aid to have saved nine. 
 
 As we know, the Whigs ultimately joined in the 
 chorus and dragged x\ddington from his seat, but his 
 measures were a distinct result of the position he was 
 called on to take up, and in Lord Nelson's and St. Vin- 
 cent's opinions did not in the least neglect naval 
 interests. Lord Malmesbury's Diaries will show that 
 never for a moment were the followers of Mr. Pitt 
 at ease, but political intrigue was succeeded by pro- 
 posals for a Coalition whose only battle-cry was to be 
 " Let us get rid of the Doctor." 
 
64 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 Cunning's talents and especially his wit tended much 
 to bring about the inevitable end, but it cannot be 
 denied that men such as Pitt and Fox must, as a rule, 
 head the parties they severally belong to. The excep- 
 tion took place when a temporary Government became 
 necessary, but with the crisis arrived a state of affairs in 
 which it became plain that if Pitt did not rule, Fox 
 would. It was as if Mr. Canning in 1827 had remained 
 out of office, and left power to his friends. How long 
 could such a Government have lasted ? Or again, to 
 quote a perhaps more apposite case, If in 1880 Lord 
 Granville had become Premier, would not Mr. Gladstone 
 have been forced once more to head his party, which 
 otherwise, in a disunited condition, would have fallen a 
 prey to Lord Beaconsfield's sturdy blows. 
 
 The debates in Parliament* before and after the Peace 
 of Amiens should be studied by all lovers of eloquence 
 and argumentative power. The characters of Pitt, Fox, 
 Addington, Windham, Sheridan, the Grenvilles, and 
 Lord Hawkesbury can be better understood from the 
 perusal. Certainly the oratorical powers of the Foreign 
 Secretary shine in clear and simple perspicuity, even 
 beside the more brilliant eloquence with which they are 
 surrounded. It is easier to understand how something 
 nearly akin to despair smote the Government ranks when, 
 soon after the renewal of war, Mr. Addington moved his 
 Foreign Secretary to the Lords in his father's lifetime 
 (January, 1804). The objects of this step are fathomless 
 
 * Annual Register, 1801-2-3. 
 
LORD HAWKESBURY. 65 
 
 so far as Government strength was concerned, as it left 
 the Prime Minister to oppose high-minded and plainly 
 enunciated truisms amidst the gathering of a coalition 
 which in ability has had no superior in history. 
 
 " Let us be first rid of the Doctor," was Fox's irre- 
 verent mode of defining his hostile attitude. Mr. Pitt 
 and Lord Grenville wavered at first, and then joined 
 Mr. Windham in the common cry, so that the rest 
 which Napoleon's unpreparedness and Addington's policy 
 of defence still marked out for the country, was dis- 
 turbed by the inevitable change of Government which 
 Mr. Pitt's readiness for office made necessary. 
 
 Discontent with Lord St. Vincent's administration of 
 the Admiralty, and his preparations for defence, were the 
 visible signs of Pitt's hostility, before which stronger 
 governments than Mr. Addington's would have fallen. 
 
 Sir Archibald Alison has passed a severe judgment 
 upon the parsimonious character of Mr. Addington's 
 Government, maintaining that when Lord Melville 
 acceded to the Admiralty, the requisite stores were non- 
 existent and the Navy below its proper strength. The 
 reader of the Hon. and Eev. G. Pellew's Life of Lord 
 Sidmouth must admit that such a charge has little if 
 any foundation, inasmuch as an administration lacking 
 proper public spirit in naval affairs would not have had 
 the conspicuous commendation which Lord Nelson con- 
 veyed to its chief. The fact is, that so desperate had 
 appeared the domestic condition of France, and so 
 reasonable the hopes of peace, that Napoleon was 
 paralysed so far as offensive warfare was concerned, 
 and for a year at least after the renewal of hostilities 
 i. 5 +- 
 
66 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 his measures were preparatory and, comparatively 
 speaking, innocuous, so that in England a relaxation of 
 effort had occurred in sympathy. 
 
 The time doubtless had come when the star of Pitt 
 shone out again pre-eminently from amongst the satel- 
 lites who adorned the political hemisphere. The nation 
 was certain, sooner or later, to insist on his guidance, 
 and Mr. Addington welcomed the time with the equa- 
 nimity of a statesman. It is remarkable that contem- 
 porary opinion was by no means unanimous as to the 
 superiority of Lord Melville's administration of the Navy 
 over Lord St. Vincent's. These charges of parsimony 
 and false economy have been frequent in our history, 
 and while containing a certain amount of truth, are 
 frequently the result of that ebb and flow of popular 
 feeling which at one time urges that the national 
 strength should seek undue repose, and at another 
 expects fleets and armies to start up as at the bidding 
 of a magician's wand. Lord Hawkesbury's presence 
 in Mr. Addington's Cabinet was, in itself, a guarantee of 
 due regard to public safety. 
 
 King George III. had, in the interval of his first 
 attacks of illness, chafed at Mr. Pitt's absence from the 
 ministry. Once he sent a message to say he traced 
 his ailment to that cause, and the reception of it had 
 grieved Pitt bitterly. 
 
 So it came to pass that the waves closed around the 
 administration of which Lord Hawkesbury had been 
 Foreign Secretary, and the registry of its worth was 
 left for the decision of posterity. 
 
 If Lord Hawkesbury had done nothing else than 
 
LORD HAWKESBURY. 67 
 
 arrange the preliminaries of the Peace of Amiens he 
 would have rendered his country incalculable service.* 
 Sheridan said of that peace that it was one which all 
 welcomed but none were proud of. 
 
 But for the evidence secured thereby of the insecurity 
 of any compact with Napoleon, there could never have 
 been anything approaching unanimity in our national 
 
 counsels. 
 
 It existed during the next administrations, containing, 
 
 as they jointly did, politicians of all shades.f 
 
 Lord Hawkesbury was proved to possess statesman-like 
 qualities of the highest class when, after scanning the 
 horizon, he deliberately came to the conclusion that, after 
 all, peace was insecure if not incapable of preservation. 
 The ultimate concurrence of Mr. Wilberforce and his 
 independent following in this opinion has done much to 
 convince historians of its rectitude. 
 
 * Mr. Vansittart, Chancellor of the Exchequer, writes to Lord 
 Castlereagh in 1814, saying how the Peace of Amiens had made 
 after-efforts possible. 
 
 t A justification of the Peace ]oi Amiens is to be found in Mr. 
 Pitt's own words, spoken to Lord Mahnesbury. In vol. iv. p. 151, 
 of the Diaries it will be found recounted how he, speaking during 
 the latter days of Mr. Addington's Government, believed that if 
 we acted with a just mixture of spirit and forbearance, and could 
 protract the evil of war for a few years, war would then be an evil 
 much less felt. And, again, on p. 162 of the same volume :— " If 
 it were possible to go on, without risking our power or safety, four 
 or five years in peace, our revenues would then be in such an 
 improved state that we might without fear look in the face of such 
 a war as we had just ended." This appears to the author to con- 
 tain the very spirit which animated Lord Hawkesbury throughout 
 his Foreign Secretaryship. 
 
 5 * 
 
68 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 Not only was the power of France to be stretched 
 over Switzerland and Italy, but a scheme for the par- 
 tition of Turkey was revealed to Lord Hawkesbury, 
 for the purpose of foiling which hopes were first opened 
 of a Russian alliance in this country. 
 
 The murder of the Duke d'Enghien occurring a few 
 weeks after the renewal of war, stirred up indignation 
 against Napoleon,* and created a public opinion in 
 England which would not rest content with what 
 political opponents represented as inadequate measures. 
 
 Lord Hawkesbury at this crisis devised a system of 
 volunteer effort as supplementary to the regular forces 
 in times of national peril. 
 
 By this means 830,000 volunteers were assembled to 
 meet the threatened invasion. The present militia and 
 yeomanry stand as a monument to his memory, which 
 have since made possible the creation of an army reserve t 
 adapted to change of time and circumstance. Some 
 of the criticisms which raised a public opinion against 
 the Government of Mr. Addington were proved to be 
 
 empty. 
 
 Demand was made for a fleet of small boats to act 
 in shoal water, a species of nautical structure which the 
 naval men of the day by no means favoured, and which 
 has since received full professional trial and been found 
 wanting.]: The utility of Mr. Windham's system of 
 
 * Napoleon at Boulogne, 1805. 
 
 + General Peel's Act, 1867. 
 
 } Sir Charles Napier's Expedition to the Baltic, 1854. 
 
lor:> hawkesbury. 69 
 
 Martello towers has likewise not been held to possess a 
 value equal to the cost of its adoption. The War Office 
 being, however, in 1881 , on the point of arming these 
 towers with modern artillery, proves that the original 
 scheme was not altogether without merit. 
 
 Sir Archibald Alison has given his opinion to the 
 world that Lord Liverpool's talents were not of the 
 higher order. 
 
 Pitt was of a contrary opinion in 1801, and the 
 efforts of Mr. CD. Yonge * have beyond doubt brought 
 fresh matter into the arena. 
 
 He shows that Lord Hawkesbury's Foreign Secretary- 
 ship stands out in brilliant confutation of such mistaken 
 judgment. It may be true that in later years, when in 
 exercise of that exquisite tact and discernment which 
 enabled him to keep burning questions from the front 
 when the Commonwealth needed all its resources for 
 self-defence, there were not put into prominence those 
 other qualities of the statesman which his contemporaries 
 discerned, and which an honest and careful study of 
 Mr. Yonge's volumes will show that he possessed. 
 
 His Premiership is perforce brought before the readers 
 of the later pages in this book, and has no place here ; 
 but his being the head of a school in statesmanship which 
 Prime Minister after Prime Minister has chosen to model 
 himself upon, proves that the possession of extraordinary 
 information, unfailing patience, natural kindliness, 
 facility of expression, both of tongue and pen, and 
 above all a high rectitude of purpose, may land the 
 
 Lord Liverpool's Life and Letters. 
 
70 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF TIIE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 possessor on the highest pinnacle of fame which a British 
 subject can attain. In the science of governing the 
 passions and restraining the ambition of men, and yet 
 retaining their service for the State, Lord Liverpool has 
 not his equal in English modern history, so that his 
 Premiership merits far more than the mere passing 
 notice here given, and it was, to say the least of it, 
 a most extraordinary evidence of the power of com- 
 promise in politics. A period of equal responsibility was 
 certainly undergone by Mr. Pitt, but not during times of 
 greater import abroad and at home. 
 
 For the scope of his policy Lord Liverpool was always 
 proud to acknowledge himself indebted to Pitt, and the 
 war forced upon Europe had of necessity to be carried to 
 a conclusion. It became necessary then to determine 
 where liberty drifted into licence, and his action is 
 challenged according to individual bias. It is indicative 
 of the life a public man led in those times when we read 
 that every morning he received piles of letters. Some 
 were certain to entail labour, some to give anxiety if 
 not vexation, whilst a few might render passing satis- 
 faction to the wearied statesman. 
 
 The judgment of posterity — certain to be the more 
 favourable as time goes on — is a poor return for labours 
 which, in his own case, ended in paralysis, and in that 
 of his Foreign Secretary, in loss of mental equilibrium. 
 It has been insinuated by Mr. Kinglake that Lord 
 Liverpool, who* of all men did most to organise the 
 
 • Mr. Kinglake ascribes the foundation of the new organisation 
 to Mr. Dundas. 
 
LORD HAWKESBURY. 71 
 
 War Office in 1810-11, was guilty of omitting a plain 
 duty when in 1816 he, as Prime Minister, allowed the 
 temporary system to be broken up without finding a 
 substitute which should supersede the sovereign's con- 
 stitutional power over the service, and forthwith bestow 
 it on Parliament. 
 
 But he must of necessity have run great risk of 
 arousing popular jealousy against permanent military 
 institutions, must have incurred the hostility of the 
 Court at the close of a successful war, when the 
 public treasury was exhausted, and have done all this, 
 moreover, when the strongest Parliamentary influence 
 was adverse to such a change, and when Europe was 
 yet quivering with half- sub sided excitement. 
 
 It would indeed have been a contravention of Presi- 
 dent Lincoln's rule, " never swop horses in crossing a 
 stream," if Lord Liverpool had plunged England into a 
 doubtful constitutional controversy for objects which, 
 however good in themselves, might have denied us the 
 services of our chief organiser,* if not of our greatest 
 general,! neither of whose merits exempted them from 
 passing unpopularity. Never has an individual continued 
 so many years in prominent political situations without 
 displaying party spirit as Lord Liverpool. Persistently 
 refraining from use of sarcasm in debate, he either did 
 not possess the combative spirit common to most 
 eminent statesmen, or he had unrivalled power of sup- 
 pression. When we contemplate the acrimony which 
 even historians and philosophers have displayed when 
 
 • Duke of York. f Duke of Wellington. 
 
72 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 launched into the vortex of party strife, this abstention 
 is the more remarkable. Mr. Yonge has justly re- 
 marked that Lord Liverpool's private character is a reflex 
 of his public actions. 
 
 There is little to note beyond a high sense of moral 
 rectitude, and abhorrence of anything unreal, whilst 
 his duty to his country was nobly performed, and 
 each successive generation will be more ready than the 
 former to acknowledge the benefits they inherit from a 
 most remarkable administration. 
 
 The opinions of Lord Liverpool are reflected with 
 certainty in his speeches, because those effusions were 
 not merely the results of spontaneous and polemical 
 expression, but of long and well considered judgment. 
 Probably no more readable volume could be formed out 
 of Parliamentary addresses than a sympathetic editor 
 might compile out of Lord Liverpool's oratory. The 
 substance of a speech made by Lord Liverpool on 
 Ireland in June 1822 is even now worth reproduction, as 
 showing the philosophical outcome of much thought 
 and some experience. In the opinion of Lord Liverpool 
 the sub-divisions of property in Ireland arrested the 
 progress of civilisation. At the same time he believed 
 the evils of that country to arise from the internal state 
 of society, and the relation in which the great body of 
 the people in that country stood with respect to that 
 portion of the people who had property. The Prime 
 Minister must have had the desirability of some legisla- 
 tion as to Irish land in his mind's eye, but not in the 
 direction of the creation of a peasant proprietary. He 
 went on to speak of the bad moral effect that absenteeism 
 
LORD EAWKESBURY. 73 
 
 had on the people, even beyond the material injury 
 suffered from large masses of money being drawn from 
 the country instead of being spent in it. 
 
 As to Parliamentary Eeform, Lord Liverpool held 
 liberal sympathies, but doubted whether an extended 
 franchise would lead to a better reflex of the general 
 national will, or, to use his own characteristic simile, 
 whether, if the people were collected together on Salis- 
 bury Plain, and allowed to give a collective vote, they would 
 necessarily eschew improper attachments or unreasonable 
 aversions, whether it be certain that they would not place 
 too much confidence in an unworthy minister, while 
 they refused the same trust to another whom all men 
 acquainted with his character and scheme of policy 
 would desire to honour. The defect, according to Lord 
 Liverpool (then Mr. Jenkinson), did not in 1793 consist 
 so much in representation, but was deeply ingrained in 
 human nature, and could not be removed by concession 
 as could mere passing discontent. In common with 
 many other thoughtful statesmen, he trembled, to use 
 his own words, at the idea of a pure democratic prepon- 
 derance, such as must obtain when the franchise is 
 conferred as a right, and not, therefore, accepted as a 
 privilege. 
 
 Thoughts such as these cannot be entirely dis- 
 regarded even now, when, eighty-seven years afterwards, 
 we are awaiting the results of yielding the outworks of a 
 citadel not yet delivered up to mere popular clamour. 
 
 Lord Liverpool himself, however, would not have 
 defended per se the obvious abuse wmich rendered the 
 possession of a borough a marketable property, and it 
 
74 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF TUG XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 was mainly against such evils that the reformer's efforts 
 were first directed. 
 
 In distribution of patronage Lord Liverpool's conduct 
 was simply unexampled for its watchfulness over public 
 interests, reaching even, as some thought, to undue 
 sensitiveness. Talk of his Premiership as an age of 
 jobs, why he refused to forward the desires of the 
 Duke of Wellington* as if he had been the poorest 
 subject George IV. possessed, provided he was not 
 satisfied of the propriety of a request ! 
 
 Towards the close of 1826 Lord Liverpool was 
 warned by Sir Henry Holland that his health was in a 
 precarious condition. 
 
 As, however, he persevered in discharging his excited 
 and exhausting duties, his system failed to gain the 
 requisite repose, and on the 17th of February 1827 he 
 retired to rest at Fife House apparently in good health. 
 
 On the following morning, Saturday the 17th of 
 February, he took his breakfast alone in his library, and 
 read through the post letters, the advent of which he 
 was wont to dread. Some time afterwards his servant, 
 looking into the apartment, found him stricken with 
 paralysis. 
 
 From that moment his resignation of the Premiership 
 became a necessity, and a career closed which will both 
 bear and repay constant study. 
 
 Throughout the necessary researches for the com- 
 position of these pages no fact has struck the writer so 
 forcibly as that Lord Liverpool's talents and services 
 
 * Life and Letters of Lord Liverpool, by C. D. Yonge, vol. iv. 
 
LORD HAWKESBURY. 
 
 75 
 
 have been notably and strangely underrated by his 
 countrymen. A study of his career will reveal philo- 
 sophical thought and seldom- erring wisdom, joined with 
 the tact and moderation of a statesman, and sustained 
 by the high principle of a Christian, in a degree not 
 found united in a single character in any other instance 
 presented by the records of his time. 
 
76 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 I<Of{f) SSfif{0W8Y. 
 
 May 1804 to March 1805. 
 
 IN the year 1762 was born Dudley Ryder, 
 afterwards second Baron Harrowby. 
 In 1776 he went to Harrow under 
 Mr. Heath. In those days it was the 
 Harrovian custom for boys of position 
 and ability to present their pictures to 
 the master under whose roof they lived. That of the 
 young Ryder is now extant, and represents a most 
 attractive-looking youth. There is trace in those frank, 
 open features of the temper and discrimination which 
 afterwards enabled him to play no mean part in the 
 world's history. The picture in question was given by 
 the representative of the Heath family to the present 
 Lord Harrowby, and is cherished as an heirloom. 
 
 A family representative of this boy's old master was, 
 at the time of the late tercentenary at Harrow, the senior 
 
1 ■> ■> 
 1 1 1 
 
 1 •> 
 
 1 
 
 i i">i ii 
 
 i i i 
 
 I 1 1 1 1 , ' 11 1 i 
 
 II 111 111 
 
 , 1 
 
 
 wmmm 
 
 orb ■ tv.ca^br). 
 
ll 
 
 ■ 
 
LOKD HABROWBY. 77 
 
 old Harrovian, and his signature remains amongst many 
 others enrolled on that day as a link between young and 
 old Harrow — between the scholar of the eighteenth and 
 nineteenth centuries. Young Mr. Kyder from the first 
 evinced the possession of talent, and his quickness in 
 acquiring languages was of great help to the future 
 diplomatist. 
 
 He learned to become a ready and accomplished 
 French scholar, and there can be little doubt that this 
 talent, seconded as it was by patient observation and 
 sound judgment in estimating character, contributed 
 greatly towards a reputation which became famous on 
 the Continent, and was appreciated most thoroughly by 
 the many colleagues with whom he from time to time 
 acted. 
 
 During the whole of his life Lord Harrowby suffered 
 from a liability to headache of an acute and disabling 
 character ; consequently it was that in more than one 
 Government he was obliged to take positions which did 
 not entail hard official work. It is, therefore the higher 
 tribute to his many excellent qualities that he should 
 have been the chosen colleague of four different Prime 
 Ministers. 
 
 It may, perhaps, have been consequent on the 
 uncertain health above described, but Lord Harrowby 
 throughout life seemed constitutionally inclined to shrink 
 from the highest office. Twice at least the Premiership 
 appears to have come within his grasp when, either 
 from modesty or other kindred cause, he made way for 
 others. He had the discrimination, it may have been, 
 to gauge the extent of his strength, and so accepted 
 
78 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 offices where his advice and judgment were exercised on 
 behalf of the State, but where his services were not 
 fully made known to the public. 
 
 At the age of twenty-one a seat in Parliament awaited 
 the future Peer. As many years afterwards he told the 
 House of Lords, his family was so respected and 
 befriended in Tiverton, that it was an interest simply 
 and entirely personal, and dependent neither on posses- 
 sion of property nor conference of money, that secured 
 the seat. He would not, as he jocularly observed, have 
 feared the pecuniary opposition even of an Indian 
 Nabob. His grandfather, having been Solicitor General 
 in 1730, came to the borough and secured his election. 
 The worthy law officer of the Crown was succeeded by 
 his eldest son, and in turn the like honour came to be 
 conferred on the subject of this chapter, whilst in 
 1795 Mr. Eyder's colleague in the representation 
 of Tiverton died, and a younger brother was welcomed 
 by the electors. 
 
 The above tells of a phase in the political life of those 
 days, which later legislation has entirely obliterated. 
 There is now no such thing as a safe family seat, and as 
 the wisdom of our rulers has so decreed, it is doubtless 
 for the best. There is, however, nothing mean or 
 demoralising in the adherence of Tiverton to the Ryder 
 family. 
 
 We have it on Lord Harrowby's own assertion, that 
 it was the feeling of respect for the father which, 
 descending to the son's sons, opened an honourable 
 career to the scions of a noble house, by gaining for 
 him the training of the House of Commons so invaluable 
 
LORD HARROWBY. 79 
 
 to any future Peer who, like Lord Harrowby, possesses 
 talents and inclination to profit thereby. 
 
 Lord Harrowby, then Mr. Ryder, was Pitt's second 
 in his duel with Tierney in 1796, and before that 
 event reminded the Minister how England would be 
 endangered if left bereft of a guidance she relied on, 
 and asked, should the chances of conflict prove 
 unfortunate, who was to fill the vacant post when an 
 unfruitful and sustained war pressed heavily on the 
 nation. 
 
 That such warnings should be addressed to England's 
 chosen Minister at such an hour and under such 
 circumstances, is alone sufficient condemnation of a 
 system which has fortunately become extinct in Eng- 
 land. 
 
 On this occasion, however, we see the Statesman's 
 friend, faithful alike to the man he loved as to the 
 nation he served. In March 1801, with the full con- 
 currence of his party, Lord Harrowby (then Mr. Ryder) 
 accepted the Treasurership of the Navy in Mr. Adding- 
 ton's Government. This step was not taken alone, but 
 in the excellent company of Lord Hawkesbury and 
 several other friends of Mr. Pitt. 
 
 The formation of Pitt's second administration has been 
 the cause of much controversy, inasmuch as the resigna- 
 tion of Addington was said to have been brought about 
 by a combination of Pitt's and Fox's adherents, made for 
 the object of uniting the nation in coalition against 
 Napoleon. Yet, when the new Government appeared, 
 neither Fox's adherents nor those of the Grenville 
 connection were represented. The King, it has been 
 
80 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 urged, if firmly pressed, would have withdrawn his 
 objection to Fox, inasmuch as his supremacy in England's 
 council was accepted, after Mr. Pitt's death, without a 
 murmur. 
 
 Lord Grenville was certainly asserting a fully recog- 
 nised right when he objected to the exclusion of an 
 individual marked out for office by talent and popularity ; 
 but Pitt, had he risked all on the demand of a coalition 
 with Fox, might have been forced to thrust in the back- 
 ground principles which he believed the public safety 
 demanded. Hence the danger of such unconstitutional 
 union. When, therefore, Mr. Pitt returned to power 
 amongst his own adherents, it was natural that he should 
 fill the offices of Foreign Affairs and the Admiralty 
 with others than those who occupied them under 
 Mr. Addington. 
 
 He had objected to the general scope of Foreign 
 policy, and to the administration of the Admiralty in 
 particular, under Mr. Addington. Hence it was that 
 Lord Hawkesbury's talents were utilised at the Home 
 Office. Lord Harrowby had delicate health, but of all 
 Pitt's immediate followers to whom the Cabinet was 
 restricted, he had wider knowledge of Continental affairs, 
 thought more about them, and, as the sequel proved, was 
 the fittest man to assist Pitt in his great task of once 
 more uniting the nations against France. Lord Har- 
 rowby may be described as essentially an eloquent man. 
 He could be deeply stirred by a fact or thought which 
 aroused his imagination. A great speech of his at an 
 early meeting of the Bible Society has never been 
 forgotten amongst the members, one of whom described 
 
LOED HABEOWBY. 81 
 
 its effect to the writer. He was a politician rather than 
 a philanthropist, but he had come there, he told them, 
 to sound the trumpet of alarm, and to assist in making 
 known how many millions of human beings still existed 
 who had never heard of Christianity. Early in his 
 career, moreover, Lord Harrowby declared himself for 
 abolition of the slave trade, and his utmost endeavours 
 were joined to those of Pitt in endeavouring to reason 
 with the opposition, which was so strong on both sides 
 of the House. Mr. Pitt's idea when the Addington 
 Government fell was undoubtedly, as we have explained, 
 to combine all parties in a general committee of safety 
 in presence of the manifest danger of invasion which, 
 whatever Napoleon may have since alleged to the 
 contrary,* was very real. Thousands of pounds were 
 not spent upon the Boulogne flotilla for nothing. The 
 command of the seas was, moreover, in dispute, and 
 the secret alliance of France and Spain placed France 
 in possession of a fleet for immediate purposes, 
 which, but for Nelson's skill and the favour of the 
 elements, might have screened the Boulogne flotilla 
 during its progress to our shores. 
 
 True it is that, as one of Napoleon's generals is said 
 to have remarked, he never hoped to hold permanent 
 possession of the country, but could undertake, if once 
 landed, to make England unfit to live in for a century 
 
 * Napoleon declared to Metternich that his army assembled at 
 Boulogne was always intended to overwhelm Austria ; that he 
 never soberly thought of a project on England, which would pro- 
 bably in its execution send him to the bottom of the sea. 
 
 i. 6 
 
82 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 after the invasion.* Such was the spirit of the foe 
 Great Britain had to cope with, and to do so with the 
 prestige of being a united nation f — a foe, moreover, 
 who had all his energies at liberty in consequence of 
 Continental jealousies. Now to reconcile these jealousies 
 became the work of Pitt and Lord Harrowby. 
 
 The continued exclusion of Mr. Fox from power has 
 been charged against George III. as an unworthy ex- 
 ercise of prerogative ; but on the occasion in question, 
 
 ::: Iu conversation with Sir Pulteney Malcolm at St. Helena, he 
 alluded to his former designs on England in a manner which 
 showed that he had at least a double object in view at Boulogne. 
 
 f The conjuncture of all parties at this period is graphically 
 
 described in a letter from the famous Cambridge scholar and divine, 
 
 Dr. Dealtry, who was then a guest of Samuel Thornton, Esq., 
 
 Governor of the Bank of England, M.P. for Surrey, at Albury 
 
 Park, near Guildford. A County meeting was held at Epsom, for 
 
 the purpose of assuring His Majesty of general support against 
 
 external foes. Several prominent Whigs appeared to speak, 
 
 amongst whom was Lord William Russell, who affirmed the justice 
 
 of the renewed struggle, although doubting the necessity of the 
 
 original war with France. After Sir Thomas Turton, a Southwark 
 
 politician, had indulged in some recrimination as to Lord William 
 
 Russell's former political opinions, there arose, to use Dr. Dealtry's 
 
 words, " an individual who delivered one of the very best speeches 
 
 he ever heard." It soon appeared that he was no common man, 
 
 unknown as his face was to many present. He justified the war in 
 
 the strongest terms, drew a most able character of Buonaparte, and 
 
 said that the French had caused Emmett's rebellion in Ireland. 
 
 His description of the conduct of the French armies was so pathetic 
 
 that many were moved to tears, he being heard sometimes with 
 
 solemn silence, and interrupted by loud and universal bursts of 
 
 applause when he concluded by solemnly calling on every man in 
 
 the country to take up arms immediately. The individual proved 
 
 to be Mr. Sheridan. 
 
LOED HARROWBY. 83 
 
 both the King and Pitt were prepared for a coalition 
 which, for the fame of Fox and the Prime Minister, it is 
 well to know never received consummation. 
 
 The union of those who have no two political objects 
 or opinions in common, cannot (however grave the cir- 
 cumstances combining to call it forth) be for the good 
 of the State. 
 
 The people of England are, moreover, specially alive 
 to the surrender of principle which is involved in a 
 change of this description, and although in later days 
 the invention of a specious political term has prevented 
 that from being called a coalition which, in sober truth, 
 is sometimes nothing else, there has not, since the 
 union of Fox and North, been seen an open compromise 
 of opinions between two leaders of opposite parties 
 who are about to divide between themselves and fol- 
 lowers the chief offices of State. 
 
 Lord Grenville has also been charged with ingratitude 
 for deserting Pitt at this crisis. Bare justice, however, 
 bids one to pause before registering such judgment. 
 True it is that Grenville owed much to his great re- 
 lative, but if one principle had been chosen as a 
 guiding influence by the former leader of the Peers, it 
 was that of the removing Catholic disabilities. For this 
 he had shown every preference and desire which poli- 
 tical opportunity afforded. Is he, therefore, to be 
 censured if a seat in a Cabinet where such claims re- 
 mained unmentioned seemed out of place and the offer 
 to be repudiated accordingly? 
 
 To realise under what disadvantages our Koman 
 Catholic fellow -subjects then laboured, one has only to 
 
 6 * 
 
84 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 know that neither in Parliament nor in the army was 
 a career open, and in the latter service no officer could 
 rise beyond the rank of Colonel, while the Duke of 
 Norfolk, Premier-Peer, and Earl Marshal of England, 
 was unable to exercise his duties without special legis- 
 lative interference. In the judgment of Lord Grenville, 
 and those who thought with him, this was calculated to 
 weaken England in any sustained effort she might be 
 called on to make. 
 
 It was in May 1804 that Mr. Pitt formed his Ministry, 
 and it was in the same month that Buonaparte, after 
 conniving at the murder of the Bourbon prince, the 
 Duke d'Enghien, stepped into the throne of that family 
 and was proclaimed Emperor of the French. 
 
 On June the 6th the French Gazette published the 
 following : — 
 
 " The invasion of England is to be attempted before 
 the 14th of July. . . . Thirty-six hours' calm, and 
 England is ours." 
 
 Threats such as these were soon followed up by an 
 alliance with Spain, by which means Napoleon thought 
 to outnumber the British fleet. The squadron within 
 Brest was at least equal to that performing the duties 
 of blockade. When, therefore, both Toulon and Koche- 
 fort were destined to contribute a quota towards a com- 
 bined and allied fleet, there was due cause for hope that 
 a rendezvous of naval power could be concentrated off 
 the shores of Spain which might outnumber the fleet 
 under Nelson, and this, after various counter manoeuvres, 
 proved to be well founded. 
 
 In September Lord Harrowby gave notice to the 
 
LORD HARROWBY. 85 
 
 merchants trading to Spain and the Mediterranean that 
 armaments were preparing in the Spanish ports. 
 
 The Spanish Government had agreed to pay over a 
 monthly subsidy to France in lieu of the troops and 
 ships which by the Treaty of St. Ildefonso they had 
 consented to find. England did not, however, decide on 
 action until French soldiers and sailors passed through 
 Spanish territory to Ferrol. 
 
 Certain French ships were, moreover, blockaded in 
 the above harbour, and the leaders hoped that by man- 
 ning and arming the Spanish squadron there located, a 
 superior force might be launched against the English. 
 
 The capture by the Government of four treasure-ships 
 bound from the West Indies to Ferrol, was the cause 
 of much comment in and out of Parliament, inasmuch 
 as war had not been formally declared, and after this 
 rencontre peace between Spain and Great Britain be- 
 came impossible. The mistake would rather appear to 
 have been the weakness of the squadron sent to inter- 
 cept the Spanish ships, consisting, as it did, but of four 
 large frigates, thus forcing the Spaniards to fight for 
 their very honour's sake. It should not be forgotten, 
 however, that our naval resources were fully engaged in 
 opposition to the French.* 
 
 * The capture of three, and destruction of one, Spanish treasure- 
 ship was not effected without an incident which stirred the warm- 
 hearted British people, so that a considerable section forgot all 
 questions of international law whilst stirred by sentiments of the 
 purest humanity. 
 
 Not only had the loss of 300 lives by the explosion diverted the 
 question from one of judgment to one of feeling, but men were 
 
86 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 At this supreme crisis the Foreign Secretary was, 
 unfortunately, obliged to resign his office, but not 
 before the seeds of a European coalition against France 
 had been sown. 
 
 Lord Malmesbury, in his famous diary, speaks as 
 follows of Lord Harro why's efforts : 
 
 " Lord Harrowby found from Foreign Office informa- 
 tion that the Continent was quite in awe of France ; 
 Austria unrecovered from her panic ; and besides the 
 natural pusillanimity of Cobenzyl,* the idea of seeing 
 again a French victorious army at the gates of Vienna, 
 terrified them all — that the French had a great force in 
 Lombardy and towards Venice, and this kept them in 
 a constant state of apprehension ; that he, therefore, 
 despaired of bringing this court forward. 
 
 ■ ' Berlin he stated less unfavourably than I should have 
 
 shocked by the sorrows and sufferings of an unhappy Spanish mer- 
 chant, who, after spending 25 years of his life in America, had 
 amassed a large fortune, married a beautiful wife, and had become 
 the father of four daughters and five sons. His money in specie 
 was on board the Mercedes, which he quitted just before the action 
 with one son for another ship. It is a fact that within ten minutes 
 after he left for the purpose of assisting to man a vessel short of 
 hands, he saw all those dearest to him blown into the air, whilst 
 every dollar that he possessed went to the bottom of the sea. 
 The case was, therefore, not argued in England generally on its 
 merits, and before the debates in Parliament cleared the air, and 
 showed how dire was our necessity. 
 
 Moreover, before Trafalgar every available ship was required to 
 watch the French ports, and the measure which humanity would 
 hav dictated — viz. the interception of the treasure-ships by over- 
 whelming force — was easier suggested than put into practice. 
 
 * The Austrian Minister. 
 
LORD HARROWBY. 87 
 
 expected ; and said the evil arose from the King sup- 
 posing he was like the great Frederick to govern by 
 himself, when in fact he was led by flatterers and 
 traitors ; that besides the French had filled the north- 
 west side of Germany so full of troops, and posted them 
 in such a way, that he doubted if the French would not 
 be in Berlin before a Prussian army of any size could be 
 collected. Russia, however, he thought, was the court 
 most likely to be brought into action. 
 
 ' ' He went on to state that Spain was subservient to 
 France, and would, sooner or latter, be put in motion 
 against us." 
 
 To give an idea of the time and labour consumed 
 by Lord Harrowby in arranging this famous coalition, 
 he was on one occasion closeted with Woronzow, the 
 Russian ambassador, for fixe hours. Woronzow was 
 delighted with Lord Harrowby, and gave an opinion that 
 Berlin would follow Russia in a combined policy. 
 
 It is instructive to compare Prince Metternich's reflec- 
 tions on the European politics of the time with those of 
 Lord Harrowby. Mett enrich was then employed at 
 Berlin as Austrian envoy, and was to bring the Austrian 
 and Prussian courts into alliance. Lord Harrowby's 
 estimate of the King proved to be a true one, and 
 between the threats of the Russian Emperor and the 
 violation of Prussian territory which Napoleon ventured 
 on at Anspach, when bent on surrounding the Austrian 
 general Mack at Ulm, it ended in Prussia preserving a 
 contemptible neutrality, which resulted in the nation's 
 future degradation. 
 
 Austria was brought into action contra rv to Lord 
 
88 FOBEIGN BECBETABIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 Harrowby's bopes, and had the counsel of the Emperor 
 Francis prevailed over that of his Imperial brother 
 Alexander, Austerlitz would never have been fought, and 
 Napoleon's peril proved great indeed. At the same time, 
 Metternich tells us how the Tyrol and Upper Austria 
 were on the point of rising, and how the least hesitation 
 on the part of France or of her generals would have 
 brought this about. 
 
 So far as human affairs can be said to have been 
 arranged with skill and forethought, the coalition in 1805 
 will ever remain an evidence of Pitt's diplomacy and 
 statesmanship, and the praise due to its construction must 
 be shared by Lord Harrowby, whilst the origination of 
 the idea has been traced to George III. himself. The 
 ultimate failure was beyond English power to avert,- 
 and Prince Metternich, in his admirable autobiography, 
 has truly traced it to the jealousies and imperfect 
 concert between Kussia, Austria and Prussia, but 
 above all to the overbearing and tyrannical conduct of 
 Alexander. 
 
 The character of the Emperor Francis of Austria 
 shines out brightly through all the reverses of his country, 
 adding a nobility to disaster itself, and presenting a 
 bearing in unison with the simple, patient courage of 
 the poor German soldiery, who went forth to disaster 
 after disaster and murmured not. 
 
 Madame de Eemusat's remark has great penetration 
 when she wonders why the Powers did not agree at first 
 utterly to destroy Napoleon or else leave him to carry 
 out his projects. The opposing him singly or in a half- 
 hearted fashion seemed to her folly. If Pitt's desire 
 
LOED HAKROWBY. 80 
 
 could have been accomplished, Buonoparte's early 
 designs would have been nipped in the bud ; but the 
 European orchestra that Lord Salisbury has told us of 
 in 1880 never would play in tune. The renewal of the 
 war with England in 1803 had undoubtedly taken 
 Buonaparte by surprise, and foiled his plans as regards 
 this country. Doubtless he reserved his efforts for what- 
 ever quarter might seem likely to favour France ; but that 
 the camp at Boulogne was deliberately planned to blind 
 Austrian statesmen as to his designs on their country is 
 too far-fetched, and will not stand the test of thought. 
 
 There is evidence that Napoleon hoped, by a general 
 scheme of commercial exclusion, to destroy British 
 commerce, and by a naval alliance to chase our fleets 
 from the seas. For this plan he required time, which 
 universal opinion in England refused to give, notwith- 
 standing that a ministry was in power who desired to 
 husband national resources. 
 
 For the Continent and its lost liberties — for England 
 and her fifteen millions of population cheated for years 
 to come of peace and its accompanying plenty — Pitt, as 
 we shall see in the next chapter, sorrowed unto death. 
 
 Lord Harrowby fell in descending a stone staircase 
 of his new house in Park Lane, and the shock was 
 too much for his already weak nerves, so that 
 he desired to resign his office after some weeks of 
 illness, but his colleagues insisted on a further inter- 
 regnum. After a retirement to Bath, where the news of 
 Pitt's bad health reached him, he begged his friend to 
 come down and accept a suite of rooms, which, being 
 on the ground floor, would preclude fatigue and, 
 
90 FOREIGN BEOBETABIBS OF THE XIX. CENTUEY. 
 
 at the same time, give opportunity for drinking the 
 waters, hut the Parliamentary discussions on Lord 
 Melville's case kept Pitt in town and helped to increase 
 his weakness and agitation. 
 
 Lord Harrowhy ultimately found, to his regret, that he 
 was unequal to a renewal of duties at the Foreign Office. 
 No less a personage than Lord Malmesbury had ex- 
 pressed himself anxious that the seals should continue 
 to be held by one whom he considered peculiarly fitted 
 for the post, and had gone so far as to offer himself 
 to perform the work at Whitehall, while leaving the 
 patronage in Lord Harro why's hands. 
 
 Although not strictly within the province of this 
 volume, Lord Malmesbury's life can scarcely fail to be 
 of interest wherever foreign affairs are under considera- 
 tion, and we shall, therefore, be guilty of pardonable 
 digression if we show what sort of man formed this 
 high opinion of Lord Harrowby. 
 
 After an Oxford education and residence in Holland, 
 Sir J. Harris went, in 1768, on an embassy to the Court 
 of Madrid, and in 1771 represented England at the 
 court of Frederick the Great. He remained there four 
 years, and saw Poland dismembered without our Go- 
 vernment lifting a finger to prevent it. In 1777 he 
 occupied a similar post at the Court of Catherine the 
 Great, and remained there until 1782, when his health 
 broke down. Originally a protegee of Lord Shelburne, 
 he arrayed himself politically under the standard of 
 Mr. Fox, for whom he had the greatest personal vene- 
 ration and affection. Nevertheless, in 1781 he accepted 
 Pitt's nomination to the Hague, and did so with the 
 
LORD HARROWBY. 91 
 
 full concurrence of his political leaders. For a short 
 time Sir James Harris had been Whig member for 
 Christchurch, but never seemed to care so much for 
 Parliamentary as for diplomatic duties. In 1784 his 
 private fortune was said to have suffered a reduction 
 of <£20,000 during his public career, the emoluments 
 of which were unequal to the demands made upon his 
 purse, and so skilful were his political dispositions at 
 this period, that in 1788 he received an apt reward by 
 being created Baron Malmesbury. 
 
 In 1793 Fox's acknowledgment of the French Revo- 
 lution severed the political tie between two men whose 
 private friendship remained intact, and Malmesbury 
 followed the Duke of Portland and Burke in their seces- 
 sion from the Whig party. 
 
 In 1794 Lord Malmesbury went to Brunswick to 
 solicit the Duke's daughter in marriage for our Prince of 
 Wales, and afterwards was employed by Pitt and Grenville 
 in their several attempts to conclude peace with France. 
 
 Deafness closed his diplomatic career at this point, but 
 in 1814 he rendered Lord Castlereagh valuable assistance 
 as to arrangements connected with Holland and Prussia, 
 and their situations in the restored European system. 
 
 At 74 years of age Lord Malmesbury died, in 1820, 
 and was buried in Salisbury Cathedral. The scenes in 
 which he had been actor, and the great men whose deeds 
 he had witnessed, rendered his diaries perhaps the most 
 interesting diplomatic records of modern times. 
 
 With all his unrivalled knowledge of foreign affairs 
 he was essentially a diplomatist, and never held the 
 coveted Foreign Onke seals. 
 
92 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 It is evident, then, how great was the value of a com- 
 mendation such as he extended to Lord Harrowby, whom, 
 as we have seen, Lord Malmesbury desired to retain, at 
 all hazards, in his position. 
 
 It was left to the grandson of Lord Malmesbury to 
 occupy the position of British Foreign Secretary in 
 1851, when the skill of his kinsman yet lingered in the 
 memory of more than one living statesman. 
 
 Lord Harrowby' s Foreign Office career led him to 
 see the necessity for vigorous measures of national 
 defence. The hydra of European discord assumed a 
 chamelion-like uncertainty of name and appearance, but 
 the objects were alike the same which Lord Grenville 
 as Foreign Minister declared he could make no peace 
 with and Hawkesbury vainly tried to pacify ; while 
 Harrowby, the man of trusted judgment and moderate 
 views, determined to combat them to the bitter end. 
 Against such trickery as the Treaty of St. Ildefonso 
 prepared in 1796 for England there could be, when it 
 was divulged, but one reply consistent with national 
 honour. That this was given by men of the Harrowby 
 stamp should not be forgotten when cheap popularity is 
 sought to be raised by railing at their measures seventy- 
 six years afterwards, and by looking at the whole 
 question as one of expense without reference to the solid 
 results gained. 
 
 In July 1805 Lord Harrowby, having recruited his 
 health, rejoined the Government as Chancellor of the 
 Duchy of Lancaster, and after the catastrophe of Ulm 
 he was sent to Berlin upon a mission of great im- 
 portance. 
 
LORD HABROWBY. 93 
 
 It was for the purpose of convincing Prussia of the 
 necessity that existed for her action. 
 
 It is possible, without any undue stretch of imagi- 
 nation, to conceive the nature of Lord Harro why's 
 feelings when at a great distance from home in times 
 of slow communication. Weighed down with the re- 
 sponsibility of the fulfilment of schemes for which, in their 
 inception, he had been responsible, he was indeed ex- 
 posing a slender stock of health to grave trial. When 
 moreover, all Pitt's and his own carefully-conceived 
 dispositions fell down like houses of cards, and there 
 was nothing for it but to retrace his steps and break 
 the intelligence to the fast-failing Prime Minister, small 
 wonder that with return across the channel came a firm 
 resolve never to undertake so wearing a task again. 
 
 Sir George Jackson has left evidence in his letters of 
 the bad health with which Lord Harrowby was afflicted 
 during his embassy to Berlin. The persistence dis- 
 played during harassing duties, and in the face of 
 hopeless Continental intelligence, is greatly to the credit 
 of the British ervoy, so that Mr. F. Jackson, the Eng- 
 lish representative at Berlin, scarcely makes a just 
 estimate of Lord Harrowby's talents when he describes 
 him as a peevish valetudinarian. The wonder to most 
 men's minds will be that under such disadvantageous 
 circumstances Lord Harrowby should have, in this short 
 time, laid the foundation of a Continental reputation, of 
 which, as we have elsewhere narrated, Lord Brougham 
 learnt but one flattering opinion during his tour abroad. 
 On this occasion Lord Harrowby had all the British 
 Foreign Office Staff placed under his direction, and 
 
94 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THK XTX. CENTURY. 
 
 results were expected from his mission which would doubt- 
 less have received realisation if he had not, so to speak, met 
 Austerlitz on his arrival in Germany, whilst the demon- 
 stration which the Prussians made after France had in- 
 fringed the neutrality of their territory was speedily hushed 
 up in retreat, as tidings of Eusso-Austrian disasters arrived. 
 
 Lord Harrowby's nervous system came to be sorely 
 tried by the overwhelming sense of responsibility on this 
 occasion, and this, added to the sense of failure caused by 
 no fault of his own, and the tendency of events alto- 
 gether setting in contrary to English interests, made the 
 idea of any future mission of this description totally and 
 entirely distasteful to Lord Harrowby. 
 
 The memory of how poor Pitt in his last illness asked 
 anxiously and constantly whether the wind was in the east, 
 harping on Lord Harrowby's return bearing, as he dared 
 to hope, tidings of a yet uncrushed Europe, added not a 
 little, doubtless, to the distaste for any such gigantic task 
 as the mission to Vienna in 1815, which, calling Lord Har- 
 rowby aside, Lord Castlereagh begged him to fulfil. Lord 
 Harrowby took office consecutively under Perceval, Lord 
 Liverpool, and Mr. Canning, whilst, proud as he ever re- 
 mained of his association with Pitt, that afterwards con- 
 tracted under Perceval was likewise a source of great 
 satisfaction. 
 
 His admiration of his old leader appears to have been 
 intense, and one of the last tributes paid to Perceval's 
 memory was the carrying out of a project on which the 
 late minister set great store.* 
 
 * Lord Teignmoutb tells an interesting episode concerning a 
 visit of Lord Harrowby to the Harrow speeches the year after 
 
LOKD HARROWBY. 95 
 
 It was a scheme, proposed by Lord Harrowby in 1812, 
 to better the condition of curates in the Established 
 Church, then shamefully underpaid, as their incomes 
 averaged but <£35 a year. Lord Harrowby's eloquence 
 did much to set the question astir, thus increasing the 
 inducements for those of gentle birth to enter on the 
 duties of clergymen. 
 
 Others besides Lord Harrowby never forgot the 
 features of Mr. Perceval's short pre-eminence in the 
 State. The only practising lawyer * who has attained to 
 the Premiership in the nineteenth century, Mr. Perceval 
 seems to have been exceedingly clear in his ideas of 
 statesmanship and mode of public expression thereof. 
 
 Mr. Plumer Ward, in his Diary, tells how manfully 
 Perceval fought for his principles in Parliament. His 
 forcible retorts staggered even Canning himself, so that 
 
 Mr. Perceval's assassination. He narrates how the eldest son and 
 namesake of the murdered minister selected " Wolsey's farewell ' 
 as his subject, notwithstanding Dr. Butler's (the head master) 
 endeavour to dissuade him from awakening painful memories, 
 public and private. 
 
 No one present, the narrator informs us, was more affected than 
 the Minister's late colleague and friend, Lord Harrowby, who was 
 celebrating the annual gathering at the school of which he himself 
 was not the least illustrious son. 
 
 Lord Teignmouth speaks of Lord Harrowby as one of the most 
 independent members of the House. Whether in Parliament or 
 on the platform, where he rarely appeared, his sentiments, lan- 
 guage, bearing, and delivery were expressive of the most refined 
 good taste and enlarged knowledge of men and books. — Lord 
 Teignmouth's Reminiscences, vol. ii. p. 200. 
 
 * Pitt, Lord Grenville. and Lord Melbourne studied at the Bar, 
 whilst the law was designed for Lord Beaconslield as a prolession. 
 
96 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 the field was gained by argument and eloquence, so that 
 the ascendency of the Prime Minister was a cause of 
 astonishment to his opponents, who had learned to 
 believe they had but inferior men before them on the 
 Treasury Bench. All that vituperative and reckless 
 abuse could effect was afterwards brought into play for 
 the purpose of defiling Perceval's fair fame as a states- 
 man. But the testimony of such a man as Lord 
 Harrowby remains to give a truer impression to posterity, 
 who likewise may consult the pages of Mr. Spencer 
 Walpole's excellent biography, and there learn the un- 
 varnished truth, stripped of the venom of political 
 partisanship and totally bereft of undue flattery. 
 
 Lord Harrowby appears to have been again and again 
 the man chosen to fulfil tasks requiring tact and the 
 higher qualities of diplomacy. Thus Lord Grenville begs 
 Wilberforce to let Harrowby take up the Slavery Abo- 
 lition Bill in the Lords, saying that with his advocacy 
 the chances would be at their brightest. Again, when 
 Mr. Brougham* (afterwards Lord Brougham) was tra- 
 velling on the Continent he heard no English diplo- 
 matist held in such repute. 
 
 Although the fatigues and anxieties incumbent on the 
 duties of British Plenipotentiary at Chatillon, Paris, and 
 Vienna were beyond Lord Harrowby's strength, he 
 subsequently, in 1815, undertook a mission to Belgium 
 for the double object of first seeing the Duke of Wel- 
 lington and learning from him the character of British 
 hopes, and afterwards interviewing Louis XVIII. at 
 
 * Wilberforce's Corresjjondence. 
 
LORD HARROWBY. 97 
 
 Ghent. The sudden nature of the crisis consequent on 
 Napoleon's escape from Elba had precluded the Duke's 
 coming to England from the Congress of Vienna. Al- 
 lusion to the details of this mission will be found in a 
 later part of this book, but its fulfilment by Lord 
 Harrowby shows how the remainder of the Cabinet 
 shared the high opinion of his diplomatic talents which 
 led Lord Castlereagh originally to desire that he should 
 represent England at the Congress. 
 
 The possession of such intrinsic merits made Lord 
 Harrowby's counsel invaluable to a minister like Lord 
 Liverpool, who ruled by the exercise of tact and mode- 
 ration, so that from 1812 to February 1827, when the 
 Premier died, the post of Lord President of the Council 
 was filled by the former friend and colleague of Pitt and 
 Perceval. 
 
 Appreciation of the glorious talents and noble career 
 of the former are commemorated by a monument, 
 close to Sandon, in memory of England's great Prime 
 Minister. 
 
 Lord Harrowby's name is also indelibly connected in 
 history with the Cato Street Conspiracy in 1826, inas- 
 much as the plot to assassinate the ministers was 
 planned to find its consummation in his dining-room. 
 It was a custom in those days — one, moreover, only 
 discontinued in 1853 — for the Cabinet to dine alter- 
 nately at one another's houses, and on the night in 
 question the warning of danger fortunately preceded the 
 proposed meeting. Consequently, the conspirators were 
 alike foiled in carrying out their nefarious scheme, 
 and suffered the subsequent mutilation which a bar- 
 I. 7- 
 
98 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 barous custom still allowed to follow execution for 
 
 treason.* 
 
 If the fostering of such a conspiracy justified the ex- 
 treme repressive measures since charged against Lord 
 Liverpool's Government, the horrible revenge taken by 
 the State upon lifeless bodies proves a necessity to 
 have existed for a change of practice in criminal punish- 
 ment such as went far to justify any agitation for its 
 removal, if conducted upon constitutional principles. 
 
 A story thoroughly characteristic of Lord Harro why's 
 natural nonchalance has been handed down to us 
 through the diary of Mr. R. P. Ward. The Ministers 
 were on their way to the annual Mansion House dinner 
 on Lord Mayor's day during the public discontents of 
 1819. 
 
 During the drive the Duke of Wellington's carriage- 
 windows were broken, and the Duke of York reproached 
 for the possession of ,£10,000 a year. 
 
 "Who are you?" cried the mob, when the Pre- 
 sident of the Council appeared. " Lord Harrowby," 
 quietly replied the imperturbable nobleman. The mob 
 hesitated, not quite knowing whom they had to deal with. 
 "Are you not ashamed of being Lord Harrowby ? " at 
 length they shouted. " Not a bit," said the victim of 
 democratic discontent, and calmly passed on, unmolested 
 as those with courage and self-command often are on 
 such occasions. 
 
 * Tliistlewood and his accomplices were the last men hanged, 
 drawn, and quartered in England. The Duke of Wellington, Lord 
 Sidmouth, and Lord Castlereagh, were the three whom the con- 
 spirators most desired to kill. 
 
LOED HAEEOWBY. 99 
 
 At Mr. Canning's death the administrative career of 
 Lord Harrowby came to a close, but not the service 
 that his excellent qualities enabled him to render the 
 State. 
 
 As an orator, the chief memento of his eloquence 
 and argumentative power remains in the shape of a 
 comprehensive speech on Lord Grey's Reform Bill as it 
 first came into the House of Lords. Lord Grey had 
 represented to the House that an agitation existed in 
 the country such as it was necessary to appease, and 
 declared that the Bill must pass as it stood. To this 
 doctrine Lord Harrowby offered the strongest opposition. 
 He declared that as the Constitution enjoined divided 
 power and responsibility between the Crown, Lords, and 
 Commons, so would it be an abdication of duty were 
 not each House to assert its influence and, above all, 
 express its opinions most fully when such radical changes 
 were proposed. 
 
 He objected to the disfranchising clauses as they 
 stood, and to the principle on which they were framed. 
 He thought that the noble Earl should have commenced 
 his reform at the other end, and have given additional 
 members to new populous constituencies which included 
 both wealth and population, and then made room for 
 them in the House by disfranchising boroughs low in 
 the scale of wealth and population. He would likewise 
 have granted additional members to the counties. 
 
 It had been argued that with the march of demo- 
 cracy would ensue an era of peace. Nothing, Lord 
 Harrowby declared, could be adduced less in accordance 
 with the teachings of the past. Indeed, the story of 
 
100 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 England's own history tended to destroy any such 
 illusion. The Commonwealth may be considered as a 
 product of popular aspirations as opposed to kingly 
 prerogative, yet its foreign policy placed English arms 
 on the highest pinnacle of European fame. 
 
 The American war was, at first, Lord Harrowby de- 
 clared, undoubtedly a popular one, and the possession 
 of the only free constitution in Europe had not pre- 
 cluded Great Britain from sustaining a conflict with 
 France, which, in magnitude, nature, and results, was 
 unexampled in the history of the world. 
 
 He concluded with a stirring peroration, and begged 
 the House to give Lord Grey an opportunity of availing 
 himself of that which Mr. Burke called the great ruler 
 of human affairs, viz. a compromise between extreme 
 opinions. 
 
 This speech* should be read in full by every lover of 
 oratory. It had an ultimate effect, for the speaker 
 was appealed to from both sides as an apostle of mo- 
 deration. 
 
 He was by no means against a less violent and well- 
 considered change. Lord Harrowby, in company with 
 most moderate men who had enjoyed like opportunities 
 of observation, thought, and research, saw that in 1831 
 the time for a concession to the unenfranchised millions 
 was expedient, if not necessary. He deprecated yielding 
 to mob law and violence, but exerted all his energies to 
 secure a compromise which should preclude the creation 
 
 ' :: Hansard, book vii. 1831. Specially corrected by the late Lor 
 Harrowby himself. 
 
LORD HARROWBY. 101 
 
 of peers threatened by the Whig Government, and settle 
 the question on a firm basis. In conjunction with 
 Lord Wharncliffe he acted as medium of communication 
 between Lord Grey and the Tory Peers. The origin of 
 such action was a representation made to him through 
 Lord Kenyon and others, who were in want of a leader 
 to express their desire to avoid a conflict between 
 the two branches of the legislature, and yet preserve 
 the Constitution whilst effecting the unavoidable re- 
 forms. 
 
 Ultimately, the followers of Lord Harrowby gravitated 
 to the lead of the Duke of Wellington, but a perusal 
 of the eighth and last volume of the Wellington De- 
 spatches will convince anyone 'of the perspicuity and 
 wisdom of both William IV. and Lord Harrowby. 
 
 Neither the extreme opinions of the Tories nor the 
 excesses of the political unions led either moderate and 
 statesman-like mind to recoil from the necessities of the 
 moment. 
 
 " Keform must be passed," said the King, " substan- 
 tially in the form Government had proposed, and on 
 behalf of which the popular excitement had been 
 aroused"; but speaking to Lord Salisbury, the King 
 remarked : " The reform must take place, but it was 
 another question whether it should have gone so far." 
 
 "Do not a second time resist the second reading," 
 said Lord Harrowby, "because the deep feeling evinced 
 for the measure has been substantially aroused since 
 our previous action. Without reform, the door must be 
 shut against any Conservative Government. Remove 
 the cause of popularity which Lord Grey's Government 
 
102 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 enjoys, and the affection and esteem of the country will 
 revolve to its natural leaders." 
 
 All this proved to be true, and the dismal prophecies 
 of alarmist politicians were doomed to be falsified. 
 
 The letters and memoranda of the time do certainly 
 go to warn one against the dangers of extreme views 
 on political matters formed in apparent haste, and 
 expressed without moderation. 
 
 Out of the differences of this excited period Lord 
 Harrowby stands forth as the exponent of moderate 
 counsels ; and so great seems to have been his moral 
 influence, that, notwithstanding his inability to show 
 Lord Grey a large or compact party following, yet he 
 succeeded in allaying the intensity of a crisis which, but 
 for the prominence of the arguments he adduced, might 
 have led through resistance to a wholesale creation of 
 Peers, and the consequent degradation of the Upper 
 House, so shielding the Constitution from a wrench 
 which must have shaken it to the foundation. 
 
 The constant comparison between William IV. 's posi- 
 tion and that of Charles I. which Tory writers made at 
 this period seems of itself to condemn the nature of 
 the measures they would have desired to see adopted. 
 
 On the other hand we have seen how not only did 
 Lord Grey and the King fear they had gone too far, 
 but that the Nestor of Whig politics, Lord Grenville, 
 could never be persuaded in his retirement of the wisdom 
 of the Eeform measure ; nevertheless, it does seem 
 probable that had extreme counsels on the Tory side 
 prevailed, civil war would have ensued. The crisis was 
 certainly grave. 
 
LOED HARROWBY. 103 
 
 It was said of Lord Harrowby that he had twice 
 saved Europe. First when he induced Lord Castle- 
 reagh to proceed to Chatillon in 1814, and again when 
 the Duke of Wellington was known by the English 
 ministry to be in danger of assassination ; inasmuch 
 as a conspiracy to destroy him existed amongst the 
 French officers in Paris. It was impossible to acquaint 
 the Duke, who would have straightway insisted on re- 
 maining. " Let him succeed Castlereagh," was the 
 happy thought suggested by Lord Harrowby, and 
 executed straightway to national advantage. 
 
 Successively a member of Pitt's, Percival's, Lord 
 Liverpool's, and Canning's administrations, Lord Har- 
 rowby's name is one indelibly connected with the first 
 half of the nineteenth century. 
 
 Lord Harrowby had married a daughter of the first 
 Marquess of Stafford, and his eldest son has undergone 
 a Parliamentary career worthy of his father's fame. By 
 the action of that son the way was cleared for a settle- 
 ment of the Burials Question in the House of Lords, 
 much in the same way in which the subject of this memoir 
 had soothed the passions of another generation when 
 civil war threatened the realm. 
 
 And that the continuity of family talent should be 
 complete, it is worth recording how high are the hopes 
 of those desiring to see the grandfather and father live 
 again, in the person of the present member for Liverpool, 
 Lord Sandon, whose masterly conduct of the amended 
 Education Act through the House of Commons was 
 justly considered amongst the prominent Parliamentary 
 achievements of Lord Beaconsfield's Cabinet. 
 
104 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 Digression though it be, this allusion to family prowess 
 will not altogether seem out of place to those whose 
 pride in national statesmanship leads them to look for 
 guidance amongst the old historic families, each member 
 of which, in these days of Liberal competition and free 
 opinion, must both win his spurs and show cause why 
 he should retain them. 
 
 The former Foreign Secretary of Pitt died in 1847 at 
 the ripe age of 85. 
 
■v -) -i l -> 
 
 •> 1 •>■>■> 
 
 -) 1 1 t -It 
 
I 
 
 - 
 
 * < 
 
 
 
 
105 
 
 i<of(f) Mlfi<af{SY^. 
 
 March 1805 to January 1806. 
 
 PMNGING from an old family whose 
 members have long held leading posi- 
 tions both in Lincolnshire and York- 
 shire, Henry Phipps, Lord Mulgrave, 
 succeeded his brother Constantine John 
 as third lord in 1792. This brother 
 had been Member for Lincoln during clays preceding the 
 American War of Independence, and filled various 
 Government offices of importance and responsibility. 
 
 Both Lord Mulgrave and his younger brother Edmund 
 were trained to the profession of arms, whilst each of 
 them formed early acquaintance with the rising star of 
 the senate, the immaculate and pre-eminent William 
 Pitt. Lord Mulgrave had the further advantage of 
 Lord Grenville's good will, that statesman, as we 
 
106 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 shall see, taking early opportunity to employ the 
 talents of his protege, who was created an English baron 
 
 in 1794. 
 
 Handsome, open-hearted, and full of energy, Lord 
 Mul°rave in the year 1795 won the heart of Sophia, 
 daughter of Christopher Thompson Maling, of West 
 Herrington, Durham. That the lady of his choice was 
 refined and beautiful the picture by Hoppner remains 
 to show, and the goodly knight proceeded to offer that 
 life-long devotion which, by some commonplace minds, 
 is relegated to the pages of Scott and Bulwer, and yet 
 is to be found amongst the true-hearted of all times and 
 all grades of society. 
 
 Lord Mulgrave, before he was married, served as a 
 regimental officer in America and the West Indies, 
 and during 1793 hearing of Lord Hood's occu- 
 pation of Toulon, was induced by the Admiral to act as 
 Brigadier-General of the garrison, composed as it was 
 of the waifs and strays of several nations. This com- 
 mand was exercised with great tact and success. Soon, 
 however, superseded by General O'Hara, Lord Mulgrave 
 had to leave his somewhat ragged regiment to encounter 
 the bufferings of a changing fortune. 
 
 The action of Lord Hood at Toulon was challenged 
 by Major Maitland in Parliament during 1794, and the 
 defence of that gallant sailor was undertaken in the 
 Commons by Mr. Pitt himself, so far as the charges 
 affected his Lordship personally. Lord Mulgrave, on 
 his part, speedily disposed of critics who averred that 
 there had been a promise to restore the Constitution of 
 17tt9 when the English entered Toulon. (The National 
 
LORD MULGRAVE. 107 
 
 Convention had in 1789 limited their action, so far as 
 Government was concerned, to a declaration that the 
 King of France should henceforth be styled King of the 
 French, but had confiscated clerical property, and allowed 
 the mob to destroy the Bastille. It was to this Consti- 
 tution that Frenchmen no less distinguished than Talley- 
 rand himself were wont to revert longingly, even when 
 after the hundred days it was clear that a Bourbon 
 monarchy had once more become necessary. This pre- 
 dilection is again and again manifest in the cor- 
 respondence of eminent Frenchmen, with which Lord 
 Bexley's papers abound.) Lord Mulgrave, moreover, 
 showed that the idea of his having attempted to defend 
 fifteen miles of improvised fortification with 1,800 
 men against 10,000 was untrue, and that the most 
 distant post was not two miles from the centre of 
 Toulon.* 
 
 It is, moreover, impossible to scan the lately published 
 pages of Lord Lyndoch's life and fail to apprehend how 
 Lord Mulgrave's loss at Teulon was fatal to the cause 
 England had at heart. 
 
 We can only hope that the few lines which mere 
 justice leads us to pen on this subject may lead to a 
 correct appreciation of Lord Mulgrave's soldierly talent, 
 as will a perusal of his political career elevate his name 
 as regards the senate and the council- table. 
 
 The Quarterly Review (vol. 87, p. 266) tells us how 
 Lord Mulgrave served under the Duke of York, when a 
 
 * Giflbrd's Life of Pitt, vol. iv. p. 99. 
 
108 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 diversion was made by the British in the Low Coun- 
 tries, which, dependent on concerted action with Prussia, 
 failed to effect its purpose when that country recoiled 
 from her most recent engagements. 
 
 This must clearly have been during the operations of 
 that campaign which, early in 1793, was participated in 
 by a British division. This English force shared in the 
 successful fighting at St. Amand, on May 8th, 1793, and 
 Valenciennes, May 23rd, 1793.* The after-collapse of 
 the allies in Holland must be, in all fairness, traced 
 to continental disunion, caused by the discovery of how 
 formidable the Kepublican armies of France were 
 becoming — a conviction, however, which had previously 
 dawned on Europe after Valmy (September 20th, 1792) 
 and Jemappes (November 6th, 1792). 
 
 Prussia agreed in May 1794 to provide 62,000 men 
 to be subsidised by England and Holland.! This mea- 
 sure, agreed to in May, was ignored altogether by the 
 Prussian king in June, a fact which should not be 
 forgotten when the English failure to hold their ground 
 in Brabant is narrated. 
 
 Lord Malmesbury's mission to Berlin failed, as Lord 
 Mulgrave's to the Archduke Charles five years later, 
 and Lord Harrowby's in 1805 were destined to fail, so 
 that " Slow to conceive, slow to execute," seems to have 
 been the motto of Foreign Office officials before the days 
 
 * Lord Mulgrave §puld have been in Holland at no other period, 
 as in the autumn of 1793 he was at Toulon, and during 1794-5 in 
 England, and engaged in Parliamentary duties. 
 
 t Lord Malmesbury's Letters, vol. i. p. 565. 
 
LOKD MULGBAVE. 109 
 
 when electric telegraph and railways sharpened diplo- 
 macy up generally. 
 
 When Lord Mahnesbury arrived Prussian recusancy 
 had already been resolved on. 
 
 How not to do it, however, can certainly be learned 
 from reading of the tedious and unaccountable delay 
 to which our envoys were sometimes exposed, and 
 at the very moment when success depended on expedi- 
 tion. 
 
 The foundation of Lord Mulgrave's diplomatic re- 
 putation, which ultimately led him to the Foreign Office, 
 was laid during a mission to the camp of the Archduke 
 Charles in the autumn of 1799, and the projects, for the 
 realisation of which he was sent to carry out, would, it 
 is reasonable to believe, have been successful but for 
 the delay which the Foreign Office of that day imposed 
 on Lord Mulgrave's start from England. The objects 
 of the mission were vital, and yet the British envoy was 
 kept waiting nearly a month, so that it was the second 
 week in August before Lord Mulgrave reached Cux- 
 haven. 
 
 Constant appears to have been his travelling, and 
 ceaseless his energy. We meet with him in the camp 
 of Marshal Suwarow in Italy, at Berlin, and then with 
 the Archduke Charles's army, and finally taking counsel 
 with the Austrian prime minister, Count Thugut, and 
 paying court to the Emperor and Empress at Vienna. 
 During his earlier peregrinations Lord Mulgrave saw 
 enough to convince him that the army of Austrians and 
 Russians posted in Switzerland were in great danger of 
 being attacked, separated, and outnumbered. This 
 
110 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 opinion was enjoined on the great Austrian leader on 
 September the 1st, and communicated to the English 
 Government on the earliest opportunity, whilst Lord 
 Mulgrave made it his duty to personally inform both 
 Marshal Suwarow and Baron Thugut of his fears, which 
 one and all — Archduke, Kussian general, and Austrian 
 statesman — refused to believe possible of fulfilment, and 
 therefore declined to alter their preconcerted plan of 
 action. 
 
 On September 25th Massena drove the Kussians and 
 Austrians out of Zurich after a struggle which resulted 
 disastrously for the allies. Lord Mulgrave's prognos- 
 tications were, therefore, fulfilled to the letter, and as he 
 himself emphasised it, he was a diplomatic Cassandra. 
 But the fulfilment of his prophecy destroyed all hope of 
 the mission on which he set out proving successful. The 
 nature of events which followed threw the Austrians and 
 Bussians on the defensive, and after various parleyings 
 and interviews with great people at Vienna there was 
 nothing left for Lord Mulgrave but to speed homewards 
 to the wife and family anxiously expecting his return. 
 
 In those days a journey to Berlin, Switzerland, and 
 Vienna was not the mere pleasure -trip that modern 
 appliances and scientific inventions have now rendered it. 
 
 Lord Mulgrave's account of the assemblage at Ham- 
 burgh is most instructive and amusing, telling as it does 
 of the stirring times during which his journey was 
 accomplished. 
 
 Bepublican refugees from all parts of Europe were 
 there. Insolvent debtors from England, emigres from 
 la belle France; Turks and Christians crowding the 
 
LORD MULGRAVE. Ill 
 
 streets in a perpetual stream, their countenances busy, 
 or in some cases, Lord Mulgrave tells us, designing in 
 appearance. 
 
 Such was Lord Mulgrave's description of the popu- 
 lation in the first great German town through which 
 he passed. Then we have a lively account of Berlin, 
 from which city, however, the special envoy hurried 
 with such haste that we are left without the advan- 
 tage of one of his pointed criticisms on men and 
 politics. 
 
 We next hear of his Lordship in close converse 
 with Marshal Suwarow, whose noble and frank bearing 
 coupled with kind manner, he highly commends, as 
 contrary to the received opinion of that soldier current 
 in London. Altogether the political gleanings of this 
 mission are thoroughly instructive. 
 
 Life at Vienna is admirably described in the letters 
 from which this account is gleaned. We are told of work 
 in the morning amongst generals and diplomatists, of 
 dinner at 3 p.m., visiting and friendly meetings until 
 7 p.m., when either the German theatre or opera, the 
 evening concluding with homely gatherings, at which 
 strangers — and Euglishmen in particular — received 
 hearty welcome from the citizens of a nation allied alike 
 by interest, similarity of race, and general good-fellowship. 
 
 It was clear that, after the catastrophe of Zurich and 
 the fulfilment of Lord Mulgrave's fears, his reputation 
 had risen in the eyes of Thugut and the Archduke, in 
 an equal ratio to that in which it was destined to 
 increase in England. Had but his advice been fol- 
 lowed, the course of European events might have been 
 
112 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 changed * and his beloved friend Pitt not have sunk to 
 his early grave amidst fading hopes and disappointed 
 expectations. But to use the philosophical words quoted 
 by Lord Mulgrave, " Things without remedy should be 
 without regard," so we must contentedly await the 
 development of events, and turn for a moment towards the 
 social aspect of Lord Mulgrave 's character, which the 
 letters written to his wife during this enforced separation 
 reflect. The whole series breathe one elevated spirit 
 of respectful affection, the expression of which, flowing 
 naturally and eloquently from Lord Mulgrave's pen, are 
 the more delightful reading. 
 
 It seems to the writer faint and unworthy praise 
 to call them the outcome of a noble and refined mind 
 acting on the warmest heart it is possible to conceive. 
 The sentiments expressed therein, public and private, 
 
 * The retreat of Suwarow before Massena was followed in a few 
 months by the conquering advance of Buonaparte into Italy, 
 which, culminating at Marengo, left Moreau's left flank secure 
 during his advance into Germany. Moreau's success in 1800 was, 
 as a military exploit, worthy of the General who conducted the 
 retreat from Germany in 1796. At the outset of the later cam- 
 paign Moreau had opposed to him the Archduke Charles, who 
 doubtless designed the general plan of campaign. It was, however, 
 over the Archduke John that the decisive battle of Hohenlinden 
 was gained on December 3rd, 1800. General Krag had become 
 commander-in-chief of the Imperial forces, but was not present at 
 Hohenlinden. The absence of the redoubtable Archduke Charles 
 pressed heavily on Austria. Besides the advantage naturally 
 accruing to the carrying out of his own designs, the Archduke 
 Charles might have been less shackled by the Viennese Foreign 
 Office than was his successor. 
 
L0KD MULGKAYK. 113 
 
 go far to show why it has been that in a self-governed 
 nation (such as England could then claim to have been 
 for at least 120 years) the people have ever elected to 
 be swayed socially and politically by their natural 
 rulers. 
 
 Lord Mulgrave was by no means a frequent speaker 
 in Parliament. His first attempt in the House of 
 Lords was, however, described by Lord Grrenville as 
 the most brilliant first appearance that was, perhaps, 
 ever remembered," high praise, be it noted, when 
 coming from such a quarter. 
 
 As the chosen friend and colleague of Pitt, Lord 
 Mulgrave's name would have never been forgotten by 
 those who interest themselves in the ways and thoughts 
 of the present century when yet young, even if talents 
 and services recognised by the historical student have 
 remained overshadowed by the giant memories of an 
 eventful age. Those who ponder over Lord Mulgrave's 
 whole career, may say with Tennyson in his In Memo- 
 riam — 
 
 "He makes by force his merit known, 
 And lives to clutch the golden keys, 
 To mould a mighty state's decrees, 
 And shape the whisper of the throne." 
 
 It has been said of Pitt that he possessed few friends, 
 but in his case, as in that of many highly wrought 
 and refined natures, the few become the dearer. We 
 hear of Lord Mulgrave's brother, General Phipps, as 
 
 * Life of R. P. Ward, by Hon. E. Phipps, vol. i. p. 29. 
 I. 8 
 
11 -L FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 at Walnier with Pitt when, during Addington's ministry, 
 he gave his time and thought to drilling a volunteer 
 battalion. 
 
 From the terraces of that sea-girt home might the 
 friends have discerned distant signs of the very pre- 
 parations they were leaguered to defeat. There doubt- 
 less the inadequacy of a purely defensive war had 
 dawned upon their imaginations. Spurred on to action 
 perchance were they by the sight of the noble forms that 
 studded the Downs, and whose presence made the neigh- 
 bouring hamlet of Deal a place of passing, if not 
 strategic importance. We know of excursions made 
 along the coast, where Martello towers were con- 
 tinuously posted, and how Pitt himself perceived the 
 necessity for fortifying Hythe and its neighbourhood. 
 Perchance the scene changed to the high ground above 
 Wimbledon where, in the fair spring season, the same 
 friends, in additional converse with Lord Mulgra^e, 
 looked out on the undulating country and drank in 
 the breezes as they blew straight from the Surrey hills. 
 There, may be, was canvassed the desirability of a union 
 with Fox, and consequent hope of national unity. 
 
 Through all these different circumstances no friend 
 was more trusted, none more constantly consulted, than 
 the accomplished Yorkshire nobleman, who so soon was 
 to hold high office. 
 
 When the selection came to be limited to Pitt's old 
 party the path at least lay simply before him who 
 was, of necessity, the mainspring of all action. The 
 management of his colleagues, and reconciling their 
 conflicting interests, had always been a strong point 
 
LORD MULGRAVE. 115 
 
 with Pitt, so that in his last years of office theie was 
 little to dread from that quarter. 
 
 Amongst these chosen adherents, Lord Mulgrave 
 deserves a mention beyond the sparse notoriety which 
 accrued to him through the passing politics of his 
 time, inasmuch as not only was he an enlightened 
 lover of literature and art, both of which he liberally 
 supported,* but perfect in all the relations of private 
 life, so that it is scarcely to be wondered at that Pitt 
 discerned his high and noble character. 
 
 No Holland House or Bowoodf was open to members 
 of the Tory party, where their social virtues might 
 receive due appreciation, and leave interesting materials 
 for future history, but Lord Mulgrave 's conversational 
 powers appear to have been of a character that in any 
 such gathering he was fitted to shine, whilst his letters 
 are open to perusal,]: and will be found to combine 
 refinement of expression with an original style. 
 
 Lord Mulgrave abjured slavery very early in the day, 
 and was a consistent supporter of Wilberforce until the 
 abolition was carried. 
 
 Towards the close of Mr. Addington's Government we 
 
 * Lord Mulgrave first descried the talent of Jackson, the painter 
 who, by birth the son of a tailor near Whitby, rose to be a dis- 
 tinguished R.A. For the nobleman to whom he owed his advance- 
 ment he painted— by leave of Lord Carlisle— a copy of the famous 
 " Three Marys," by the brothers Caracci. known so well to the 
 visitors at Castle Howard . 
 
 f Seat of the Lansdowne family. 
 
 J Life of R. P. Ward, by Hon. E. Phipps. (Murray). 
 
 8 * 
 
116 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 find Lord Mulgrave stirring up his native Yorkshire 
 on behalf of a return to power of his friend Pitt ; first 
 in the castle-yard at York, where the verdict of the 
 intelligent part of the audience was in unison with that 
 expressed by Lord Grenville when Lord Mulgrave 
 made his maiden speech in Parliament. " Who will 
 beat that?" shouted the enthusiastic Yorkshiremen, 
 proud of their countryman. 
 
 Thence went the eager politician to Beverley and 
 Hull to excite the people on behalf of Pitt the un- 
 equalled statesman, whose presence was more than ever 
 needed in moments of threatened invasion. 
 
 "I do not like this itinerant mountebank oratory 
 from a stage," said Lord Mulgrave, "but I believe it 
 is necessary." 
 
 Ireland then, as in later times, was the difficulty of 
 England. A premature insurrection had broken out,* 
 and the future was darker than even Lord Mulgrave's 
 keen vision could pierce. " Fanatics and Jacobins 
 have got the start in exhortation," writes the York- 
 shire nobleman, " and hence the public speeches of 
 gentlemen become more desirable. The Government 
 of Ireland I do not think stronger than that of Eng- 
 land, either in wisdom or firmness, and neither have 
 the confidence of the people, without which such virtues 
 have but half their effect, so that Pitt's mind and temper 
 are alone equal to feel and act upon this great and 
 important truth." Thus do we see the key-note struck 
 
 ::: Emmett's Insurrection. 
 
LORD MULGBAVE. 117 
 
 of a political change which the measures of the Adding- 
 ton Government, canvassed and fairly dissected in detail, 
 could scarcely warrant. 
 
 When the new G-overnment came to be formed, Mul- 
 grave's elsewhere -mentioned efforts to reconcile Pitt 
 and Grenville were very real and continuous, the 
 mutual friend bemg ready to sacrifice his own political 
 prospects for the purpose of gaining the desired end 
 
 Thus it was that, hurrying often to Pitt's, where he 
 hoped to meet his friend, he underwent many a long 
 and weary wait in the good cause, Lord Grenville, it 
 is certain, was very loth to heal the connection, and 
 at one time it did appear that Mulgrave's mediation 
 might succeed. But the King stood firm on the sub- 
 ject of concessions to the Roman Catholics which, as 
 Lord Grenville thought, public honour and policy were 
 alike interested in granting, he made what must have 
 been to Mr. Pitt's former Foreign Secretary the great 
 sacrifice of his life, one, moreover, followed by life-long 
 fidelity to the principle which, like Pitt, he had soon 
 to leave in temporary abeyance whilst serving king and 
 country. 
 
 When the Government came to be formed, a staunch 
 supporter was found in Lord Mulgrave until when Lord 
 Harrowby, shaken by a fall, was obliged to resign the 
 Foreign Office at a most critical moment. Bereft of 
 Lord Harrowby's assistance, Pitt called to his side 
 another friend in the person of Lord Mulgrave. 
 
 The new Foreign Secretary soon found means of 
 justifying the alacrity with which he accepted office. 
 His State papers show effective and polished writing, 
 
118 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 and the history of the year 1805 teems with evidence 
 of Lord Mulgrave's devotedness to his duties and 
 courage in their performance. Soon after taking office 
 he had to justify before Parliament the seizure of 
 Spanish treasure -ships when war had not actually been 
 proclaimed between the two nations. This was one of 
 those cases such as occurred in Seiwia in 1876. France 
 was passing men through Spain, who were utilised in 
 Ferrol, either for the purpose of manning Spanish 
 war-ships or for home defence, so that there was, in 
 effect, an act of hostility to England on the part of 
 Spain, whose object was to release the French fleet 
 from blockade. 
 
 But it was agreed, on the other hand, that neither 
 international law or morality warranted the course 
 taken by England who had become the aggressor, and 
 had, therefore, provoked the declaration of war which 
 ensued. 
 
 Lord Mulgrave was held to have made an excellent 
 case for Government. He spoke at great length and 
 laid stress on the fact of French aid having reached the 
 Spaniards in Ferrol when at peace, and he dwelt, more- 
 over, on the well-known fact that Spanish subsidies were 
 regularly paid to France, so that his speech may be said 
 to have bristled with argument, and to have been strong 
 in evidence. 
 
 The attitude of the Opposition led by Fox and Gren- 
 ville at this period is important, inasmuch as they 
 themselves were soon to be put to that test of office 
 which has stultified the sayings and paralyzed the actions 
 of other gifted ministers. To commence with, they 
 
LORD MULGRAVE. 119 
 
 decisively condemned the seizure of the treasure-ships. 
 Fox, moreover, at this time, declined to bring forward 
 Catholic emancipation, because such a motion could not 
 be effective in the hands of one outside the Govern- 
 ment, and vet in a few months, as minister, he was to be 
 found tolerating the very grievance which he had con- 
 demned in Opposition, and regretted his inability to 
 remove. 
 
 But the Opposition likewise signified their disbelief in 
 the general fear of invasion, inasmuch as Lord Grenville 
 wrote from Dropmore, saying he feared no attack on our 
 shores, and saw no reason to leave his solitude, whilst 
 Fox deliberately judged that the public fears were exag- 
 gerated and uncalled for. 
 
 After Napoleon had been crowned King of Italy, on 
 the 26th of May 1805, he wrote to George III., and 
 suggested that peace should be made between the two 
 nations. It is remarkable, however, that at this moment 
 he made no definite proposals, and confined himself to 
 vague generalities. 
 
 As his official paper had just proclaimed that no peace 
 could be made with England not founded on the basis 
 of that Treaty of Amieus which required the immediate 
 evacuation of Malta, Lord Mulgrave could not see his 
 way to treating this advance au serieux. 
 
 The Foreign Secretary's reply was terse, courteous, 
 and to the point, and set forth, that much as His 
 Britannic Majesty appreciated the blessings of peace, 
 he had duties to fulfil towards his allies, whom, with the 
 Emperor of Kussia, he must consult on the subject. 
 
 Immediately after war broke out again, in 1808, the 
 
120 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 famous scheme for the invasion of England took shape in 
 France, and had hovered over England until the time 
 we write of. Boats drawing a few feet of water were 
 built on all the principal rivers of France, and even on 
 their small tributaries, where there was scarcely suffi- 
 cient water to float them, whilst depots were appointed 
 on the coast, and Boulogne was made head-quarters of 
 the flotilla. 
 
 Unfortunately, it happened that Mr. Addington's 
 Government were not prepared for the sudden renewal 
 of War, inasmuch as Lord St. Vincent had ventured on 
 certain reforms of abuses at the Admiralty, which, of 
 necessity, left the service in a transition state, inas- 
 much as a deficiency of workmen and materials was at 
 first felt, and a suspension in the routine of the dock- 
 yards occurred at the moment it was most desired to 
 build new ships. 
 
 In the words of James' Naval History, " Earl St. 
 Vincent, by his measures, did much temporary evil, but 
 he also did much permanent good." 
 
 On Mr. Pitt succeeding to power, Lord Melville filled 
 Lord St. Vincent's office, but the naval administration 
 was henceforth directed by Sir Charles Micldleton, a 
 veteran whose scientific skill was only equalled by his 
 experience in shipbuilding and dock-yard matters, and 
 England is indebted to him for an invention brought 
 forward at the crucial moment when French naval power 
 was at its strongest. By means of this scientific 
 advance, hulks in ordinary were made ready for sea in at 
 least half the space of time, and at less expense than 
 had previously been the case. 
 
LORD MULGKAVE. l2l 
 
 When Lord Melville retired,* Sir Charles Middleton 
 went himself to the Admiralty, and took the title of Lord 
 Barnaul. An octagenarian at the time, his appointment 
 
 * The First Lord selected originally by Pitt was the brilliant 
 and distinguished statesman, Lord Melville, who, as Mr. Dundas, 
 had spoken with effect in all the greater debates for nearly 
 a quarter of a century. The playmate of his earlier career, Pitt 
 had learned to regard this staid supporter with an attachment 
 which bordered on strong affection ; and when, in April 1805, 
 charges first rumoured about began to take consistent form, the 
 Prime Minister's surprise was only equalled by the strong and 
 determined stand which he showed himself ready to make against 
 all detractors. When, however, Lord Melville refused to meet the 
 charges of misappropriating public money by any refutation that 
 could lead to public satisfaction, but talked in a mysterious tone, 
 which, as the King said, appeared to him rather to make matters 
 worse — (he declared all vouchers connected with the transactions 
 had been destroyed, and if in existence that it would not have been 
 for the public advantage to produce them. Lord Stanhope thinks 
 he alludes to secret service money) — Pitt was obliged to concur with 
 sorrow in Lord Melville's resignation of his rank as Privy Councillor. 
 
 Lord Melville, in the King's opinion [March 1805, Jesse's Life 
 of George III. vol. hi.] given after deliberate consideration, had 
 allowed his secretary, Mr. Trotter, to derive benefit from balances 
 of the public money. This was in direct opposition to a rule of 
 public conduct which Lord Melville had himself promulgated. The 
 nation was directly mulcted of interest, the capital of which, 
 although returned to the penny, had been used in a way which 
 laid Lord Melville open to the charge of personal malversation, 
 such as political opponents were not slow to make. 
 
 It was not to be expected that it should be otherwise when the 
 overthrow of Mr. Addington's Government had hinged upon an 
 assumed weakness in the management of this very Admiralty 
 department whence these grave scandals emanated, and to the 
 administration of which Lord Melville had returned. The events 
 in question had occurred four years previously, and towards the 
 close of Mr. Pitt's seventeen years' rule. It is, however, Lord 
 
122 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 was much commented on, and Lord Sidmouth, who had 
 rejoined Pitt, gave vent to the feeling. It appears, how- 
 ever, that hut for Lord Barham's skill and science it 
 would have heen impossible to cover the seas with our 
 line-of-battle ships and frigates as occasion demanded, 
 and yet have a fleet in reserve for each and every con- 
 tingency. 
 
 All this was done before and after Trafalgar ; and when 
 the so-called feeble war-measures of Pitt are again called 
 in question, it may be well to take account of the 
 perspicuity which placed the right man in the right 
 place, and, in conjunction with our naval heroes, saved 
 this country from further danger of invasion. 
 
 An interesting picture of the intervening time when 
 Pitt had arranged his Continental alliances, and had 
 taken, through Lord Barham's and Nelson's co-operation, 
 measures to pursue, and if possible destroy, the combined 
 fleets of France and Spain is subjoined.* 
 
 Stanhope's deliberate conviction, after searching all available 
 documentary evidence, that Lord Melville gained no personal 
 benefit from these irregularities. 
 
 * An American traveller writes as follows : 
 
 ' ' In our passage to Portsmouth we sailed close to the fleet, which 
 lies moored at Spithead. I counted between 60 and 70 sail of 
 ships, besides brigs and smaller vessels. Amongst them were 
 several ships of war from 74 to 110 guns. 
 
 " The Victory, the flagship of Lord Nelson, lay moored off St. 
 Helens, three or four miles from us, and with a glass I could 
 plainly distinguish her ports. She had white sides, and with her 
 three tiers of guns, made a most formidable appearance. We 
 passed near the lloyal Sovereign, another 110-gun ship, commanded 
 by Admiral Collingwood. 
 
 " As wc approached Portsmouth, I was forcibly struck with the 
 
LORD MULGRAVE. 1 23 
 
 Lord Mulgrave may be described as the minister of 
 expectancy, for lie had but to watch the train laid during 
 
 magnitude and extent of its fortifications. . . . There was a flag 
 flying on one of the churches, which, as we were told, denoted that 
 Lord Nelson was on shore. A crowd of people was assembled on 
 the batteries to see him embark, and some of our passengers as we 
 came up to the harbour, hired extra boats to land them for the 
 same purpose. 
 
 " Lord Nelson, who had been doing business on shore, prepara- 
 tory to his contemplated expedition, endeavoured to elude the 
 populace, who were assembled in great numbers, in the street 
 through which he was expected to pass. He went out through a 
 back door and through a bye lane, attended only by Admiral Coffin 
 and a few private gentlemen. But by the time he had arrived on 
 the beach, some hundreds of people had collected in his train, 
 pressing all around, and pushing to get a sight of his face. He 
 was elegantly dressed, and his blue coat was splendidly illuminated 
 with stars and ribbons. As the barge was pushed from the shore, 
 the people gave him three cheers, which his lordship returned bv 
 waving his hat." 
 
 This was the last act of respect which in life Lord Nelson 
 received from his countrymen. He was leaving England for ever. 
 Nelson's previous chase of the escaped Brest and Toulon fleets, 
 and salvation of British West Indian Colonies by the magic of his 
 name, was fresh in the memory of all. His return and juncture 
 with Collingwood had foiled Napoleon's plan of immediate invasion, 
 so that the Imperial eagles winged then flight towards the German 
 frontier, and totally fresh schemes occupied the fertile mind of that 
 great leader. 
 
 And Nelson was, at the moment described, going forth, as Lord 
 Stanhope tells us, sent by Pitt to Trafalgar, there to crush the 
 danger which an equally strong hostile fleet must ever be to 
 England. 
 
 But the elements fought on the side of our sea-girt home, and 
 Napoleon's communication with his fleets was slow and uncer- 
 tain, whilst the Directory had previously rejected an invention which 
 purported to render their Boulogne flotilla independent of wind 
 
124 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 his predecessor's regime, and prepare for action according 
 to the turn of events. It is no discredit to the new 
 Foreign Secretary that as the whole of Pitt's vast 
 energies were concentrated on the office which he filled, 
 Lord Mulgrave's lucid despatches, and the steady hard 
 work which he performed have not received from 
 historians of the period that recognition which their 
 merit deserved. 
 
 Pitt and Mulgrave received together the first reports of 
 General Mack's capitulation at Ulm. At first they 
 refused credence, but a day or two later a Dutch paper 
 was placed in Lord Mulgrave's hands, containing a full 
 account of the battle with Marshal Ney, which brought 
 about the surrender of 28,000 men,* who were un- 
 doubtedly the flower of the Austrian army. 
 
 Gloomy as was the news, a glance at the map was yet 
 calculated to inspire hope into the minds of Pitt and 
 Mulgrave, who hoped that the Prussians, and knew that 
 the Archduke Charles, might be gradually closing in on 
 the French, who would also have to meet the Russian 
 army and a third Austrian corps. 
 
 It was on the latter combination that Napoleon 
 marched to throw all his strength, although according to 
 
 and waves alike. [Alison's History of Europe.] This possible 
 change had been mentioned in England so early as 1798 [by the 
 then Lord Stanhope to Mr. Wilberforce as likely to be introduced 
 by France] and was the first historical allusion to steam naviga- 
 tion. 
 
 * October 20th, 1805. Metternich pays a tribute to General 
 Mack's administrative talents, but doubts his capability to lead an 
 army. 
 
LORD MULGBAYE. 125 
 
 Prince Metternich,* the choice of accepting the battle 
 lay with the allies, and that, therefore, upon the pre- 
 cipitancy of Alexander, who put aside the Austrian 
 Emperor's counsels, must be charged that subsequent 
 halt of the Prussians, and fatal military disaster which 
 ensued. 
 
 Between the catastrophies of Ulm and Austerlitz, a 
 gleam of light shone over England and Europe, Nelson 
 destroyed nineteen French and Spanish sail of the line 
 off Cape Trafalgar.! 
 
 It is not within the scope of this work to enter into 
 details concerning a victory which is at once the pride 
 of England, and a study for lovers of naval tactics 
 and masterly seamanship. Followed as this action was 
 by Sir R. Strachan's capture of the retreating French 
 ships, England was at last safe from the long threatened 
 invasion. 
 
 But the events on the Continent were crushing hope 
 and spirit out of Europe. Austerlitz]: was fought, the 
 peace of Presburgh signed, and Prussia allowed con- 
 
 * Metternich's Autobiography, vol. i. p. 58. 
 
 t October 21st, 1805. Those present at Trafalgar who have 
 lately either narrated or recorded their personal impressions (which, 
 of necessity, must have been those of boyhood), tell us how the 
 forest of masts seen on the horizon sent a thrill through every 
 breast, when the enemy's fleet was discovered on the morning of 
 October 21st, 1805. Little more can they record beyond uninter- 
 rupted and determined advance, until the smoke of battle screened 
 ship from ship. For a full and detailed account, however, contained 
 in account of events from 1799 to 1815, see Personal Narrative, 
 by S. Lovell, R.N. (W. H. Allen and Co.), p. 48. 
 
 { December 2nd, 1805. 
 
126 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 temptuously by Napoleon to feign a friendship and 
 neutrality which her conduct had already belied. 
 
 In England, on the other hand, the prospect was 
 indeed lowering, for a long war, or the alternative of 
 submission to Napoleon, lay before her, whilst her naval 
 hero Nelson was killed, her greatest minister Pitt was 
 dying, and the decaying energies of the Senate's orna- 
 ment, Charles Fox, were apparent. 
 
 Abroad, long degradation and demoralising servitude 
 had predisposed the smaller European states — Switzer- 
 land, Saxony, and even Holland* — to cringe to Napo- 
 
 The Low Countries were, from the commencement of hos- 
 tilities, loath to give up their trade and communication with Great 
 Britain, so that, despite rigid French regulations, continual inter- 
 course was carried on. We have the personal evidence of the same 
 American traveller, Mr. Silliman, whose description of England in 
 the autumn of 1805 has been lately referred to. He tells us that the 
 Dutch, in direct opposition to their own interests, enacted laws 
 against England, and then paid their French conquerors for relax- 
 ing those laws. Moreover, that the Gallic officials enriched them- 
 selves by this means. 
 
 The traffic was carried on as follows : — Dutch boats, commanded, 
 manned, and owned by Dutchmen, cleared out from Holland as 
 Prussian, and sailed under Prussian colours. They stated their 
 destination as Embden, a neutral town, and the captain deliberately 
 kissed the Bible, and swore that to be his destination. The boat 
 then proceeded directly to the Thames, and when she returned the 
 same perjured farce was enacted. The natural predilection of the 
 Dutch for gain, if not for England over France, was never entirely 
 crushed out, and the above is inserted to show how bound 
 hand and foot the nation was by a system at once corrupt and 
 demoralising. 
 
 Perhaps, however, the worst and most degrading side of that 
 rule was seen in the conduct of Napoleon to the officers and sailors 
 
LORD MULGRAVE. 127 
 
 leon, until they were part and parcel of the Imperial 
 system. 
 
 Napoleon himself when, in the midst of his success, 
 he heard of Trafalgar* replied bitterly that he could 
 not be everywhere, and could not again be brought 
 to talk or think of naval affairs, but contented himself 
 by endeavouring to deceive the French legislature! by 
 saying he had lost ships in a storm, and further threw 
 out allusions to Admiral Byng's fate, saying he would 
 teach French admirals how to conquer. 
 
 In France the ominous and lowering discontent 
 which had existed before the campaign in Germany, 
 passed off, and our neighbours revelled deeply in their 
 beloved glory. 
 
 The public temper in Vienna and London was, how- 
 ever, worthy of the nations whose respective capitals they 
 were, for whilst in Vienna sympathy and sorrow for the 
 troubles of their beloved Emperor was the chief senti- 
 ment, in London Pitt's popularity returned, and the 
 horses were taken out of the carriage when on his way 
 
 of his gallant fleet which succumbed to Nelson at Trafalgar. 
 Madame de Eemusat in her Diary describes how they never could 
 obtain justice of any description. 
 
 This is also fully borne out by the author of James' Naval History, 
 who is eloquent on the wrongs of those poor French sailors who 
 nobly did their duty, and were acknowledged so to have done by 
 opponents. It was indeed a sad reception that awaited poor 
 Admiral Villeneuve, when after his sojourn in England he 
 returned to his country, where he was murdered whilst awaiting 
 an interview with the Emperor at Kennes. 
 
 * Dyer's History of Europe. 
 
 t James' Naval History, book iv. p. 115. 
 
1'28 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 to the Guildhall.* The immediate cause of this ovation 
 was undoubtedly Trafalgar, but it must have cheered 
 the Prime Minister on what appeared a desperate course. 
 
 The genius of Pitt has been by some held to have 
 waned before that of Napoleon, who designed and 
 carried out his own schemes, whilst Pitt perforce en- 
 trusted his to other hands. Had it fallen to his lot 
 to find a Wellington, or even an Archduke Charles, 
 with complete swa;y over the forces which his diplomacy 
 had conjured into action, events might have shaped 
 themselves otherwise, and the world have been spared 
 ten years of ceaseless bloodshed and disorder. 
 
 But there was no chosen leader. Moreover, Prussia 
 by being a laggard in the field, injured the chances of 
 her allies, and laid seeds of a speedy overthrow. 
 
 At home matters looked black in the extreme, and we 
 hear of Lord Mulgrave concentrating all his efforts in 
 securing the speedy return of British troops, who had 
 been sent to the north of Germany for purposes of 
 co-operation. 
 
 It is true that since Trafalgar the proportion of 
 English line-of-battle ships was as two to one over the 
 French, but the overpowering prestige of Napoleon 
 on the Continent rendered a naval coalition possible 
 whenever the conqueror should have time to turn his 
 mind to the matter. 
 
 For the moment it is true that all fear of invasion had 
 passed by, and the Mediterranean remained free from 
 
 * November 1805. 
 
LOKD MULGKAYE. 129 
 
 the danger of becoming a French lake, but of Pitt, 
 Lord Mulgrave sorrowfully admitted to Lord Malmesbury 
 he had little hope, and of the Continent none. 
 
 The Prime Minister was sinking under symptoms 
 which, to use one of his physicians' words,* were those 
 of old age rather than of a man at forty- six. 
 
 Wilberforce says Austerlitz killed Pitt as much as the 
 wound at Trafalgar killed Nelson. One would incline, 
 however, to believe also that the long and anxious 
 years of office had worn a constitution which was never 
 of the strongest, and that troubles at home concerning 
 Lord Melville's impeachment, combined with those 
 abroad, weighed down the weak body.f 
 
 To the last the indomitable spirit was there. Dr. 
 Baillie told Mr. Henry Thornton that the last stage of 
 Pitt's existence was passed in a typhus fever, which 
 destroyed consciousness and intellect. His own servant, 
 moreover, related how, for many weeks before his death, 
 a terrible restlessness had afflicted him. The minister 
 appears to have fretted for Lord Harrowby's return from 
 
 * Sir Walter Farquhar. 
 
 t H. S. Thornton's MS. diary. Mr. Thornton was the personal 
 friend of Pitt, and although sometimes differing from him politically, 
 held the highest opinion of the talents and character of the man. 
 Mr. Thornton was member for Southward for thirty-two years, not- 
 withstanding that the famous Mrs. Thrale of Streatham — and Dr. 
 Johnson's friend — advised him to have nothing to do with a 
 borough notoriously fickle in its Parliamentary affections. The 
 drawing-room of Mr. Thornton's house at Battersea Eise was 
 designed by Mr. Pitt, and remains, as Sir James Stephen tells us, 
 a sole monument of his constructive powers. 
 
 i. 9 
 
130 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 Berlin, and spent much time walking up and down his 
 room during the nights. Sometimes his servant would 
 remonstrate with him, but could never induce him to 
 put out the light or to remove the packets of papers 
 which covered the bed. 
 
 There is certainly reason to believe that anxiety for 
 England and sorrow at the distressful European pro- 
 spect was an immediate cause of this restlessness, and 
 indirectly of Pitt's death. 
 
 Mr. George Rose, an intimate friend, related with 
 great feeling to the House of Commons, how, towards 
 the end of the great minister's life, he had murmured, 
 " Oh, my country." showing that the ruling feeling w T as 
 to the last uppermost in his mind. Many are the 
 thoughts and opinions that crowd on to the memory 
 when the name of England's greatest counsellor is re- 
 called to mind. Reflections such as must recur again 
 and again. 
 
 But one characteristic feature of his presence and 
 authority over the Parliament remains to this day. 
 
 He is universally admitted to have upheld the dignity 
 of Parliamentary debate. There was a majesty in his 
 own presence, which the talents of Nollekens* and 
 Hoppner f have by no means inadequately conveyed. As 
 an orator, Lord Monboddo, { the famous Scotch 
 philosopher, says of him ' ' that an individual had arisen 
 
 * Nollekens the sculptor's head and shoulders of Mr. Pitt, 
 f Hoppner, the painter. 
 
 I Lord Monboddo at seventy-five, had ridden from Edinburgh to 
 London and back. 
 
LOKD MULGRAVE. 131 
 
 in the eighteenth century, who reproduced the periods 
 of Cicero and Demosthenes." 
 
 Mr. Windham, moreover, after hearing one of Pitt's 
 marvellous displays, has left an opinion on record that 
 until then he had not conceived the heights to which 
 oratory could soar, or of the power it possessed to stir 
 the innermost depths of the soul.* 
 
 The career of Lord Mulgrave may be divided into two 
 
 distinct parts. 
 
 First, the military, as above narrated, and which 
 closed after the mission to Vienna in 1799, issuing dis- 
 tressfully for the public cause, and yet drawing attention 
 to the talents and foresight of the envoy ; and, secondly, 
 the political, which is the more immediate object of this 
 memoir to narrate, meeting as it did early reward and 
 honour in the shape of that Foreign Secretaryship which 
 at a moment of doubt and difficulty Pitt evinced his 
 confidence by bestowing on Lord Mulgrave. 
 
 We have so far traced the political career of our hero 
 up to the point when, left alone with Pitt's unaccom- 
 plished schemes on his hands, he and his colleagues 
 were unprepared to remain in office. 
 
 To no one probably did the momentous change con- 
 sequent on Pitt's death come home with such redoubled 
 force as to his Foreign Secretary. The converse 
 
 * Such was the European fame of Mr. Pitt, and the affection 
 entertained for him by those who had been in contact with his 
 presence, that Count Woronzow, the Russian Ambassador, lamented 
 with tears to Lord Mulgrave the premature less of one so precious 
 to the world. 
 
 9 * 
 
132 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 between the two men had become close to a degree, 
 cemented as it was by common hopes destined to suffer 
 bitter and overwhelming disappointment, so that the 
 possibility of retaining office without the presence of a 
 master mind to guide, and in the face of Fox's claims, 
 never entered Lord Mulgrave's head, as his own recorded 
 Cabinet vote shows. Doubtless his worship for Pitt's 
 memory led to Lord Mulgrave forming this opinion. 
 
 Perhaps the intercourse which most operated to create 
 this intimacy between Pitt and Lord Mulgrave took place 
 in the year 1802, when both the friends were at Bath, 
 and the Modern — for by that name, as expressive of 
 fame unique in the period during which he lived, was Pitt 
 known amongst his intimates — was believed to be bene- 
 fiting slowly from the waters. 
 
 Few there are acquainted with the quaint old streets 
 and houses of the Somersetshire watering-place so 
 famous during our Continental wars, who have not 
 peopled Bath in their own minds with the forms of 
 departed wits and men of fashion. Far, however, in 
 advance of any of these whilom denizens of the hand- 
 some and cleanly city, must rank the residence of Pitt 
 and the brilliant coterie of statesmen who sunned them- 
 selves in the light of his gifted presence. * 
 
 Chief among these, doubtless, was Wilberforce, who 
 himself used the waters medically, but even he was not 
 
 * Lord Harrowby, Lord Bathurst, and Lord Wellesley were 
 specially and personally favoured, whilst Lord Hawkesbury and 
 Lord Castlereagli Pitt accounted ministerially indispensable when 
 he took office for the last time. 
 
LOBD MULGBAVE. 133 
 
 on closer terms than Lord Mulgrave, who combined 
 the radiant affection of the friend with the sympathy 
 of an unswerving colleague, being specially leagued 
 together with the Prime Minister in Foreign Affairs. 
 
 But it became necessary to yield to national desire and 
 place Fox in office. 
 
 There is nothing more certain in politics than that 
 great ability will have its swing, and that leading minds 
 must rise to the uppermost level even when every indis- 
 cretion and Parliamentary excess has been indulged in. 
 Mr. Fox was an example of what we mean when, 
 although not destined to become Prime Minister, he took 
 the Foreign Office seals from the hands of Lord Mul- 
 grave, and did so as taking the office of his choice by 
 right of being, after Pitt died, incomparably the first 
 politician in the kingdom, when the nation demanded 
 that his talents should be exercised on its behalf. 
 
 Lord Mulgrave's opposition to the Government of all 
 the talents was tempered at first by deep sorrow for 
 Pitt's death, and afterwards by concurrence in two 
 leading principles of Lord Grenville,* viz. Abolition of the 
 
 * Lord Mulgrave had struggled Lard to keep Pitt and Grenville 
 from political separation. His high opinion of the latter 's states- 
 manlike qualities coincided with that of Lord Harrowby, and it is 
 remarkable that he never mentions the current story that Lord 
 Grenville shrunk from the Premiership in later years in order that 
 he might retain the Auditorship of the Treasury and with it a 
 permanent salary. Good work performed on behalf of his country 
 during a long and unselfish life should relegate to contemptuous 
 oblivion such suggestions, even if the pens giving them publicity be 
 guided by the minds of those who should know better. 
 
134 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 Slave Trade, which the latter nobleman's Government 
 led Parliament to declare against, and Catholic emanci- 
 pation, which eventually destroyed them. 
 
 When the Duke of Portland's Government came to be 
 formed in 1807, Lord Mulgrave undertook the naval 
 administration of Great Britain as First Lord of the 
 Admiralty, a duty performed, as the pages of James' 
 Naval History go to show, to great national advantage. 
 
 Lord Mulgrave held continually in view the necessity 
 of keeping naval supremacy for England. 
 
 Whether by neutralising Napoleon's projected naval 
 alliances, scheming to destroy his fleets, and so ren- 
 dering his contemplated battle of Cannae impossible, the 
 same diligent forethought was constantly exercised. To 
 Lord Mulgrave, moreover, England owes it that the 
 talents of Lord Cochrane — afterwards Earl of Dundonald 
 — were not allowed to remain unknown to the world. 
 He placed him in command, which enabled Cochrane to 
 put into practice his famous project for the destruction 
 of the French fleet in Basque roads, and although the 
 scheme was but partially successful, the engagement 
 drew attention to naval talents, second only to those of 
 Nelson, which might otherwise have been lost to their 
 country. 
 
 Lord Mulgrave must clearly share with his colleagues 
 responsibility for failure of the Walcheren expedition. 
 The fleet, however, which, as First Lord of the Admiralty, 
 he had despatched to the Scheldt, was equal in point of 
 equipment to any task demanded of it. 
 
 Lord Mulgrave, however, as a member of the Cabinet, 
 ran into the prevalent error of underrating Lord Castle- 
 
LORD MULGRAVE. 135 
 
 reagh's talents, though with regard to the dispute 
 between that statesman and Mr. Canning, which 
 destroyed the Portland Government, from first to last 
 Lord Mulgrave bore witness that Mr. Canning believed 
 Lord Castlereagh to be fully cognisant of the Cabinet 
 decision concerning him. 
 
 Moreover, Lord Mulgrave ever appreciated the grand 
 qualities of Mr. Canning's mind, confiding in him as a 
 colleague, and being proud of him as an Englishman. 
 
 Mr. Perceval's Government was not formed in 1809 
 without Lord Mulgrave filling his previous position at 
 the Admiralty, but delicacy of health soon warned 
 the First Lord that sooner or later he must seek 
 comparative repose. Thus it came to pass that he 
 surrendered the Admiralty to Mr. York, and accepted 
 the post of Master-General of the Ordnance, which, with 
 a seat in the Cabinet, he retained until 1818. 
 
 The Ordnance Office was of ancient origin ; once the 
 armoury and dwelling of the so-called Purveyor of 
 Helmets and Keeper of Tents, the office was placed by 
 Henrv VIII. under the management of a Master- General. 
 
 When artillery came into vogue it was at the Ordnance 
 Office that this arm of the service was organised and 
 administered ; and the separate existence of such an 
 institution is said by Mr. Kinglake to have proved in 
 later years a cause of weakness. Be that as it may, the 
 office was well filled by Lord Mulgrave, who watched 
 over the British artillery during the period that Welling- 
 ton fought the battles of Salamanca, Vittoria, Orthez, 
 Toulouse, and Waterloo. 
 
 As he performed this important duty in the most 
 
136 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 effective way, the efforts of Mulgrave towards the 
 deliverance of Europe should rank with those of the 
 Duke of York, Lord Bathurst, and the Prime Minister — 
 Lord Liverpool — even if previous services at the 
 Admiralty were not indelibly inscribed in the history of 
 Great Britain. 
 
 This office was filled by Lord Mulgrave until 1818, 
 when his own opinion that the Duke of Wellington 
 ought to find a place in the Cabinet, led to an appeal to 
 Lord Liverpool, suggesting that the most fitting position 
 was clearly the Ordnance.* 
 
 Lord Liverpool had married Lord Mulgrave's first 
 cousin, so that closer contact improving friendship the 
 two statesmen remained most thoroughly in accord 
 during the course of a long and varied political career. 
 
 Many of our readers may have formed an opinion that 
 the expedition to Denmark, and the seizure of her fleet, 
 were not acts to be justified by international law. They 
 may again, in their own minds, have condemned the 
 divided counsels and lack of information which made a 
 failure before Walcheren possible, but they cannot but 
 remember how 7 grand a fleet Lord Mulgrave sent forth on 
 each of these occasions to represent Great Britain. 
 
 In his hands the results of Trafalgar were maintained, 
 
 * Very general appears to have been the appreciation of Lord 
 Mulgrave's disinterested action on this occasion. The Duke's 
 brother, the Eight Hon. Wellesley Pole, spoke in a letter of his 
 conduct as romantically honourable, and full of consideration for 
 others and contempt for his own interests. The Prince Regent, 
 moreover, only consented to the change on condition that Lord 
 Mulgrave remained in the Cabinet, 
 
LORD MULGRAVE. 187 
 
 and the great naval battle rendered impossible, in which, 
 before a combination of the nations in league with 
 France, England was to be robbed of her naval 
 supremacy, and to forfeit once and for all the indepen- 
 dence against which Napoleon railed so bitterly. It 
 fell, moreover, to Lord Mulgrave to correspond officially 
 with the great Collingwood, when failing health was 
 warning the hero of his coming death. Collingwood' s 
 last words almost were written to Lord Mulgrave in 
 approval of the British resolve to defend Spain and her 
 liberties. 
 
 Lord Mulgrave, with his ready forethought for the 
 need of others, on hearing indirectly of the noble old 
 sailor's ill-health, despatched a letter relieving him 
 temporarily from the harassing duties of active service. 
 That letter was never opened, and Collingwood died at 
 sea in ignorance of the First Lord's considerate fore- 
 thought.* Thus did it happen that Lord Mulgrave's 
 
 * We insert an extract from the last official letter received by 
 Lord Collingwood from Lord Mulgrave, as evidence of the First 
 Lord's naval forethought, and a specimen of his anxiety for others, 
 expressed in the simple but excellent writing which distinguished 
 his penmanship. Dupont the French general had surrendered 
 with 16,000 men to the Spaniards, and had covenanted for the em- 
 barkation of his men to French soil. Collingwood and Mulgrave 
 busied themselves with the careful protection of British interests. 
 
 " Upon hearing of the nature of the capitulation with Dupont, I 
 thought it expedient to suspend (to such extent as you should 
 judge necessary) the recall of ships from the fleet under your com- 
 mand, as well as on account of the necessity of having a naval force 
 sufficient to support the principle you had so justly stated, of the 
 impossibility of suffering so large a French force to pass the sea, as 
 to prevent any part of that force going in ships of war, which (upon 
 
138 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 name came to be associated with Collingwood, as it was 
 in the future to entwine itself with that of Dundonald. 
 
 the experience of the former French Government) might be de- 
 tained and equipped to act against this country. It is also neces- 
 sary, as long as any probability shall exist of the embarkation of 
 Dupont's army, that you should have the means of supplying a 
 convoy sufficient to ensure their being transported to the port to 
 which they shall be respectively destined at the period of the depar- 
 ture of each division. Upon these considerations a discretion has 
 been left to you with respect to the proportion of ships which you 
 will send home. The consideration of the exigencies of the service, 
 and the object of economy in the relief and repair of such ships as 
 may require to be sent home with that view, cannot be better 
 provided for than by the discretionary instructions which the 
 change of circumstances has induced this Board to send to you. 
 
 " I trust the brilliant success achieved in Portugal ( Vimiera) will 
 tend materially to the early deliverance of Spain, as well as to the 
 perfect security of Portugal, by the final reduction of Junot and of 
 the Russian fleet in the Tagus. We are in hourly and impatient 
 expectation of those events. I read with great uneasiness and 
 regret the concluding part of your letter, in which you express 
 some doubts of the continuance of your health to the end of the 
 war, and I earnestly hope that the service of the country will not 
 suffer the serious inconvenience of your finding it necessary to sus- 
 pend the exertion of your zeal and talents. It is a justice which I 
 owe to you and to the country, to tell you candidly that I know not 
 how I should be able to supply all that would be lost to the service 
 of the country, and to the general interests of Europe, by your 
 absence from the Mediterranean. I trust you will not find the 
 necessity — and without it the whole tenor of your conduct is a 
 security that you will not feel the inclination — to quit your 
 command whilst the interests of your country can be essentially 
 promoted by your continuing to hold it. 
 
 " I have the honour to be, with the highest esteem and consi- 
 deration, my Lord, 
 
 " Your Lordship's most obedient and 
 faithful servant, 
 
 11 MULGRAVE," 
 
LORD MULGRAVE. 139 
 
 Lord Mulgrave always clung to the more moderate 
 section of the Tory party. The more his career is 
 studied the clearer will it be seen that he followed 
 out Pitt's principles, and desired to place no restrictive 
 bonds on his fellow-countrymen. 
 
 It may seem remarkable to the reader that the states- 
 man who filled such prominent public positions in 
 moments of crucial importance, should not be more 
 generally inscribed on the roll of those made illustrious 
 from their connection with the Great Peace. 
 
 Now a study of Lord Mulgrave's character will lead 
 to the conclusion that he was one of those refined and 
 instructed men who had, nevertheless, not attached 
 sufficient importance to cultivating the considerable 
 power of expression which his occasional efforts prove 
 him to have possessed, efforts which secured the excep- 
 tional approval of no less an authority than Lord Gren- 
 ville, who declared Lord Mulgrave's opening speech in 
 the House of Lords in 1794 to be the most successful 
 he had ever heard made on such an occasion. A mind 
 well stored with literature and a taste cultivated and 
 refined might fascinate the fastidious Pitt, but not fore- 
 shadow the qualities of practical statesmanship which a 
 comparatively silent administration of the Foreign Office 
 and Admiralty were not calculated to make fully known 
 
 Sir James Mackintosh, in one of his great essays, 
 has shown how, with increasing popular sympathies, 
 the designs of statesmen must ever be better and 
 deeper understood when set forth with the charm of 
 an eloquence at once powerful and illustrative. 
 
 It has been granted to some in all ages to possess 
 
140 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 this gift of oratory. Whenever exercised with discretion 
 it has not failed to sway the counsels of men, and its 
 very success has served to create an impression that 
 talk rules the world. This is well known by critical 
 observers to be not altogether the case. 
 
 Much that originated in the study of the philosopher 
 or at the counter of the financier has been taken by this 
 aforesaid declaimer, and made part and parcel of his 
 system, and it has received at his hands a notoriety 
 it could not have altogether attained by other means, 
 whilst the matter and its attendant philosophy is not his 
 but the production of another mind. 
 
 In Lord Mulgrave's character a most remarkable 
 power of discernment was combined with a warm, eager, 
 and generous disposition. 
 
 His selection of Graham and Hill, afterwards Lords 
 Lynedoch and Hill, as his aide -de-camps at Toulon is 
 only surpassed by his excellent after-judgment when 
 Lord Palmerston was introduced into office, the talented 
 John Wilson Croker placed at the Admiralty, and Lord 
 Dundonald (then Lord Cochrane) encouraged in pur- 
 suit of that profession to the summit of which he was 
 destined to climb, whilst it is remarkable that every one 
 of these eminent men nourished a regard for Lord 
 Mulgrave himself. 
 
 Moreover, besides possessing a remarkable, sound 
 understanding as to the common affairs of life, a poetical 
 vein existed in Lord Mulgrave's composition. His lines 
 on Trafalgar consist of various stanzas, but these we 
 have selected seem to have a true poetic ring about 
 them. 
 
LOED MULGRAVE. 141 
 
 " On bold Trafalgar's cape, exulting fame 
 Proclaimed the dawn of that eventful day 
 When, chased o'er half the globe by Nelson's name, 
 The French and Spanish squadrons stood at bay. 
 
 " To check the hero's course in glory's way 
 Superior numbers waked the rash desire, 
 The double crescent, formed in dread array, 
 Poured on the English fleet concentred fire." 
 
 * * * 
 
 " Old Ocean sees his fav'rite son expire, 
 And on the troubled bosom of the main, 
 Tempest more fierce than war's destructive fire, 
 Howl o'er the remnant of the vanquished train. 
 
 . i 
 
 Th' ill-fated captures, from their anchors torn, 
 
 Yield to the glory of the angry skies, 
 Whilst on the rising waves, triumphant borne, 
 
 Th' avenging blast the victor's fleet defies." 
 
 Pitt added the following on the ground of Collin o*. 
 wood's name having been omitted : — 
 
 " With Nelson joined, and sacred to renown, 
 Time shall record the second of that day, 
 Who, to the glory of his sovereign's crown, 
 Secured the lustre of its brightest ray." 
 
 The whole poem will be found in the Memoir of Mr. 
 R. P. Ward, vol. i. p. 172. 
 
 The whole poem was set to music by Doctor Arne. 
 The brightest ray alluded to consisted in Collingwood's 
 efforts on behalf of the endangered French and Spanish 
 seamen. Pitt's lines, therefore, commemorate an act of 
 humanity rather than they celebrate a triumph. 
 
112 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OJ THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 If Lord Mulgrave had never done anything else than 
 to secure Lord PalnnTston's brilliant talents to his 
 country, he would have deserved a fame which he other- 
 wise earned by his own public service. 
 
 It is worthy of passing remark that Mr. Perceval soon 
 after offered the Chancellorship of the Exchequer to 
 Lord Palmerston, but with a proviso that Mr. Milnes, 
 M.P. for Pontefract, and father of the present Lord 
 Houghton, should have the refusal. Mr. Milnes had 
 proved himself an orator, but preferred the rest of a 
 Yorkshire gentleman's life to one of political unquiet. 
 He lived and died plain Mr. Milnes, and when he refused 
 a peerage the yeomen around his Yorkshire estate of 
 Fryston constantly said, within hearing of the writer's 
 father, how proud they were of their squire who refused 
 to become a lord. The eminent talents — poetical and 
 political — that have distinguished the son forced, how- 
 ever, on him a position which his high social influence 
 has enabled him to fulfil to manifest advantage of the 
 State, and it fell, strange to say, to Lord Palmerston to 
 confer a barony on the son of his early rival. 
 
 Lord Mulgrave, as before mentioned, continued in 
 office as Master- General of the Ordnance until lbl8, 
 w T hen he delivered the situation up to the Duke of 
 Wellington. 
 
 Henceforth his life was a private one. 
 The statesman who consecutively filled the high 
 offices of Foreign Secretary and First Lord of the 
 Admiralty through critical periods of history, and who 
 was honoured and beloved by all who knew him, can 
 never be said to have spoken or written a word person- 
 
LOED MULGKAVE. 143 
 
 ally injurious to his political opponents. His convic- 
 tions, nevertheless, appear to have been very strong, 
 and his enthusiasm for the principles of Mr. Pitt's 
 policy unbounded. 
 
 " Wait," he says to his brother-in-law, Mr. Ward, 
 who had just entered Parliament and been fascinated by 
 the fire of Fox and eloquence of Sheridan — " Wait 
 until you hear Pitt, and so learn what the power of 
 oratory really is." 
 
 It is impossible not to remark on the perspicuity of 
 Lord Mulgrave's style of writing, which, without being 
 ornate, was yet chaste and always intelligible. He lived, 
 it is true, at a time when more attention was given to 
 such matters than in the turmoil of modern life is, 
 perhaps, possible. But posterity is none the less 
 benefited by the perusal of such admirable compositions 
 as are to be found in Mr. Phipps' Life of B. P. Ward, 
 the Life of Lord Lynedoch, and, above all, in the charm- 
 ing collection of private letters from Vienna, previous 
 extracts from which have been given. They combine 
 the grave and gay most delightfully, and the reader, 
 lucky enough to be entrusted with an insight into the 
 depths of these treasures there, reads on to the end, 
 strangely fascinated, if not absolutely entranced, by 
 the unflagging interest which the writer has aroused. 
 Austrian life in 1799 absolutely rises up before you, and 
 the aristocratic and official obstinacy is there faithfully 
 portrayed, which, finding a counterpart in stubborn 
 bravery on the field of battle, yet indicates the faults of 
 policy which from time to time made Ulm, Austerlitz, 
 Wagram, Solferino, and Sadowa possible. 
 
14-4 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 And then the allusions to foreigners struggling to 
 speak English to milord are irresistibly comic. One 
 lady remarks, "Your king is vera happy. He makes 
 Avar, surrounded with many lords and blood ladies," 
 alluding to the Princesses who graced George III.'s 
 court ; a paraphrase of ladies of his blood, or the blood, 
 as it is commonly called, which taxed Lord Mulgrave's 
 diplomatic gravity to the utmost. 
 
 But it is his remarkable service at the Ordnance 
 that seems to us never to have received adequate public 
 recognition. 
 
 Mr. Rosenhagen, financial agent with the Duke at 
 Brussels in 1815, speaks of the Ordnance Office officials 
 as convinced of the desirability of doing all things in a 
 high and expensive way. Now Lord Mulgrave, as their 
 chief, was not only the very man to discourage such an 
 unwholesome view, but contrived to get such good work 
 out of these aforesaid grand gentlemen, at a time when 
 England had sent forth the flower of her army, fully 
 armed, to America, that he caused to assemble on the 
 plains of Belgium the efficient park of field artillery 
 which enabled the Duke of Wellington to fight on fair 
 terms at Waterloo. For this the Duke specially 
 expressed his gratitude to Lord Mulgrave (Life of 
 R. P. Ward, vol. i. p. 488). 
 
 But that this result was obtained is to a degree 
 due to the services performed by Lord Mulgrave's 
 brother-in-law, Mr. R. P. Ward, then Under-Secretary 
 to the Ordnance. Having filled a similar position with 
 eclat at the Foreign Office under Pitt, and being the 
 author of a successful treatise on international law, Mr. 
 
LORD MULGRAVE, 145 
 
 Ward had early laid the foundation of a political and 
 literary reputation, the latter of which the publication 
 of his popular novel Tremaine ultimately crowned. 
 
 Mr. Ward's memoir, by the Hon. E. Phipps, ranks as 
 a standard historical reference, containing, as it does, 
 reliable information as to the politics of his time. It is 
 published by Murray. 
 
 It is impossible to take leave of the subject of Lord 
 Mulgrave without recording the fact that his brother, 
 General Phipps, remained for some years one of the 
 best-known figures in the House of Commons. His 
 connection with Pitt at Walmer, and subsequent 
 acquaintance with all the great men of either party, 
 rendered the General a person of equal notability and 
 popularity. His picture by d'Orsay exists, to convey to 
 a fresh generation the features of one of those old- 
 fashioned men of his time who become scarcer day by 
 day. The General died unmarried in September 1837. 
 
 We take an unwilling farewell of Lord Mulgrave as 
 one of the pleasantest characters which these researches 
 have unfolded. But it is satisfactory to think of him 
 closing his long life in leafy, shady Mulgrave, famous for 
 its beautiful woods and contiguity to the sea. :: 
 
 Some lovers of the beautiful who have visited High 
 Whitby's cloistered pile, may perchance have pursued 
 their travels as far as this noble retreat, and whoever 
 
 * The Mulgrave woods cover the sides of two deep ravines open- 
 ing down to the sea. On a high ridge between the ravines are 
 ruins of the old castle. A striking view of Whitby Abbey is seen 
 from part of the park. 
 
 i. 10 
 
146 FOBEIGN SECBETAETES OF THE XIX. OENTUBY. 
 
 has been fortunate enough to gain an entry into the 
 house, must have there seen the original portrait of Pitt, 
 by Hoppner, painted for Lord Mulgrave, besides other 
 pictures of interest, including that of our hero. 
 
 The soldier-statesman's last political act was to send 
 his proxy to the Duke of Wellington when Catholic 
 Emancipation was decided on, but he died in April 1831, 
 before the great Eeform Bill was finally passed, and 
 during its agitation was suffering from a tedious illness, 
 from which he never recovered. 
 
 His last years, however, were on the whole passed in 
 great contentment, the apt reward of a busy, useful life. 
 
 Lord Mulgrave's son became Lord Normanby, and was 
 known as a distinguished Whig statesman, and colleague 
 of Lord Palmerston. 
 
 However inadequately the father's noble character 
 may have been described here, the task has been 
 lightened by the pleasant and instructive details of a life 
 at once pure and useful to the State. 
 
■) 1 
 
 1 1 
 
 ) -. ' -> 
 ) 1 1 -> •) 
 
 ■) 1 I ■> ■>■)'> 
 
 -> 1 
 

 . 
 
 \uxh% 
 
 ■^p 
 
 mn m® 
 
147 
 
 dS&fti^g j$m*<# ^ox 
 
 January 1806 to September 1806. 
 
 OEN in 1749, Charles James Fox was 
 second son of Henry Fox, first Lord 
 Holland, by the Lady Gr. C. Lennox. 
 His father had been one of the gay 
 courtiers of George II. 's time, and 
 subsequently developed high talents, 
 and gave evidence of great Parliamentary abilities. 
 
 The education he gave his son was the best procurable 
 in England, and whatever the shortcomings of the youth 
 during such instruction, he became the best read man 
 who before or since has held the seals of the Foreign 
 Office, a position nominally the highest he ever 
 attained. 
 
 It was as Paymaster of the Forces that Henry Fox had 
 laid by most of the large fortune which enabled him to 
 act the too indulgent father towards his children, one of 
 
 10 * 
 
L48 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY, 
 
 whom at least, the redoubtable Charles, was injured for 
 life by being taken from Eton to a round of continental 
 dissipation, daring which the gambling-table occupied 
 
 no mean portion of our young statesman's time. It was 
 not much for Henry Fox to pay £150,000 for his 
 favourite son, hut in so doing without a murmur the 
 future happiness of that gifted child was irreparably 
 injured. Lord Holland — for to the barony of that name 
 was Henry Fox promoted — lived and died an unpopular 
 man. Cynical beyond even the wits of his time, 
 when death overtook the owner of Holland House, 
 it was only in his own family that he was mourned, and 
 to do him justice, there he was universally beloved. 
 
 His enormous gains, although compiled according to 
 the vicious custom of the time, through contact with 
 public duties, were such as to render Lord Holland an 
 object of jealousy rather than reprobation. Feared 
 when in office, he suffered unrelenting hatred during a 
 retirement which he knew well how, in a worldly sense, 
 to render delightful. 
 
 Such was the training under which Charles Fox had 
 grown up, Educated both at Eton and Westminster, it 
 was at the former college that he remained celebrated 
 for his love of mischief, combined with proficiency in 
 manly amusements. 
 
 At Oxford, dissipation and literature were somewhat 
 incongruously intermingled, and at an early period he, 
 as has been already indicated, contracted that habit of 
 high play which proved the bane of his life. 
 
 Without attempting to discover the demerits of Lord 
 Holland, ii is clear that he was an over-indulgent father, 
 
CHARLES JAMES FOX. 149 
 
 and condoned Charles Fox's extravagance, not appearing 
 to see any great moral fault in gambling furiously.* 
 
 * Many of our readers have doubtless revelled in the delights 
 of Mr. Trevelyan's research, which presents characters, separated 
 from us by more than a century of time, in colours as bright and 
 with an individuality standing quite as clearly out of the canvas as 
 ever did a portrait of Kembrandt or Titian. We learn there of a 
 society, political and domestic, such as leads us to ask why at that 
 time all combinations of mortals should have been so bad. 
 
 Mr. Trevelyan is severe on George III. and the party of king's 
 supporters who, in default of any hope of a stable Government, 
 he endeavoured to gather round him. 
 
 When, however, it is remembered that between the gigantic and 
 perilous domination of the great Whig families (whose ancestors 
 accomplished the Ee volution of 1688, and, therefore, claimed 
 authoritative and continual sway), and a partial reaction towards 
 increased Court power, there was no intermediate influence 
 possessing elements of religious permanence, the value of King 
 George lll.'s high moral example should be the more fully 
 acknowledged. 
 
 The Established Church appeared dormant, and a paralysis 
 afflicted the energy of her children. It was not, moreover, until 
 1781 that the efforts of John and Charles Wesley bore fruit in the 
 shape of permanent organisation [the Wesleyan Conference]. 
 W'hitefield, it is true, was doing all that individual effort could 
 accomplish, and afterwards with the co-operation of Lady Hun- 
 tingdon, was enabled to leave visible results behind him when in 
 1770 he went to his long home. 
 
 Bnt for an agency radiating from the Court, our Established 
 Chmch would not in these cold and listless days have received an 
 external impulse of any description. Certainly not such as that 
 the moral example of George III. presented. If people in 1768- 
 1770 really were all so depraved as Mr. Trevelyan tells us, surely 
 the above compensatory consideration should be duly weighed 
 when registering wholesale condemnation of an influence not 
 deemed at the time to be unconstitutional in the sense we should 
 now understand the word. 
 
 No self-denying coterie of rich, refined, and highly educated men 
 
150 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 The stigma of living beyond means persistently and 
 inordinately squandered at the gaming-table cleaves to 
 a man, and however guiltless he (as doubtless was 
 Charles Fox's case) may be of wilfully corrupting others, 
 it is certain that the parents and guardians of his 
 contemporaries will, in what they believe to be the 
 interests of those committed to their charge, endeavour 
 to limit his influence, and in so doing damage (may 
 be irretrievably) first the reputation, and then the 
 character, of the unfortunate youth ; and this we state 
 after due allowance for eighteenth century customs and 
 morals. 
 
 Much of King George III.'s later and unconquerable 
 aversion to Fox as a counsellor may undoubtedly be 
 traced to this source. Fox was the chosen friend of his 
 eldest son, the Prince of Wales, and when rumour of 
 
 had before 1770 banded themselves together for the purpose of 
 spreading the religion they possessed and gloried in throughout the 
 masses of society — then practically unleavened by Christianity. 
 Wilberforce and his associates had not yet become famous in 
 England's story, while the Dissenters needed a nucleus around 
 which to rally, Therefore it is that the mere State religion — if you 
 care to call it so — which King George III.'s supremacy tended to 
 support, alone visibly represented the moving power of humanity 
 around which had encircled the high and soul-inspiring principles 
 of our Reformation and Revolution alike. 
 
 Lord Bexley (when Mr. Vansittart) told the Bible Society how, 
 when the King desired to evince his affection for a trusted counsellor, 
 the gift he bestowed was a small manual of devotion, proving that 
 if as Sovereign he raised the individual to distinguished rank and 
 high employment, as his friend he recommended religion to his 
 heart. Such was the Sovereign whose conduct was a beacon of 
 light to his people m times of darkness and uncertainty. 
 
CHARLES JAMES FOX. 151 
 
 the gifted youth's extravagance, exaggerated as these 
 matters always are in the babble of London society, 
 came to the King's ears, he was the less prepared to 
 condone the tone taken up in Parliament by Fox when 
 he seconded Lord Chatham's advocacy of the recal- 
 citrant Americans. 
 
 Trumpet-tongued as his opposition to Lord North 
 had been, all the arts of eloquence and of Parlia- 
 mentary skill were placed at that minister's disposal 
 when Fox made one of the great political mistakes 
 of his life and assented to a coalition with the man 
 he had publicly denounced in the House of Com- 
 mons. 
 
 If a possible combination of public events could allow 
 Fox and North, or Fox and Pitt, to act together in 1805, 
 what becomes of the bitter and overwhelming flood 
 of denunciation which had accompanied scathing and 
 destroying sarcasm, unsurpassed in the history of 
 Parliamentary warfare ? 
 
 The general tendency of Mr. Fox's policy when at 
 the Foreign Office under the Coalition Ministry was to 
 support Russia in preference to other countries, and 
 between various expressions of admiration for the 
 Russian Empress's talents, he again and again tells 
 Lord Malmesbury that St. Petersburgh was in his eyes 
 the most important diplomatic post. This direction of 
 his sympathies led to his famous and successful efforts 
 to check Mr. Pitt's Russian armaments in 1792, and it 
 will be seen that his Foreign Secretaryship in 1806 
 tended in a like direction. 
 
 In homely language and natural style is told the story 
 
152 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 of Fox's quarrel with his Whig associates, by Lord 
 Malmesbury. How Burke first descried the man with- 
 out whom his party might be weakened, to be fatally 
 bitten by French principles. How the Duke of Port- 
 land wavered, but again and again fell under Fox's 
 personal influence ; and how Windham hesitated to take 
 the plunge and break with one so skilful and eloquent ; 
 and, when the breach was made, how unwillingly the 
 Whigs separated from him whom they felt to be their 
 strongest Parliamentary debater — all is told as in a 
 letter from man to man, leaving on the face of each 
 communication the imprint of truth as of the writer's 
 prudence and sagacity. 
 
 Those who, to preserve the Russian alliance, would 
 not have hesitated to follow Fox even in his meditated 
 renunciation of our maritime rights threatened by the 
 armed neutrality, were fairly staggered when they were 
 enlightened by Burke as to the real character of the new 
 French political creed. 
 
 Any attempt to give an idea of Fox's burning 
 eloquence* has doubtless failed, because, like that of 
 Burke and Pitt, it must have been heard to be realised. 
 
 ; ' : " The force of Fox's oratory cannot be adequately described, and 
 can be only felt by those who have heard him on important occa- 
 sions. His speeches were luminous, without the appearance of 
 concerted arrangement ; his mind seemed by its masterly force to 
 have compassed, reduced, and disposed the whole subject, with a 
 confident superiority to systematic rule. The torrent of his 
 eloquence increased in force, as the subject expanded. . . . The 
 distinguishing characteristic of his arguments was profoundness ; 
 his general aim was the establishment of some grand principle to 
 
CHARLES JAMES FOX. 153 
 
 " What is that fat gentleman in such a rage for ? " said 
 Lord Albemarle, when, as a child, he heard one of these 
 historical orations. 
 
 Another youthful hearer tells us he came away 
 impressed by the majesty with which the speaker's 
 wrath clothed itself. "Brougham was right,'' said 
 Macaulay, " to speak of Fox as a great orator, but he 
 was the great debater." 
 
 Critics were anyhow at one in the opinion of Fox's 
 transcendent talents, and that it was not until the young 
 William Pitt opposed himself to the coalition, that any 
 speaker was found to stand up against him. From that 
 moment to the beginning of 1806 they were constant 
 opponents, and selected champions of the Demosthenic 
 arena. 
 
 "Not an excellent statesman," was urged against Pitt's 
 public funeral by his rival.* Fox incurred some obloquy 
 for what appeared to be ungracious and ill-timed 
 conduct. 
 
 On the other hand, his sincerity is above all suspicion, 
 
 which all other parts of his speech were subservient, and his genius 
 for reply was singularly happy . . . and in the greatest warmth of 
 political contest few expressions escaped him which can be cited to 
 the disadvantage of his character as a gentleman. . . Fox was 
 always elevated above his subject, and by impetuosity of oratory 
 animated his adherents and threw alarm into the minds of his 
 opponents." — Adolphus' History of England, vol. ii. p. 194. 
 
 * Sir A. Alison and Lord Eussell declare Fox to have made use 
 of these words. According to Hansard, they were Windham's. 
 There was, we are told, a disposition to condone conduct in Wind- 
 ham's case for which Fox suffered some censure. — Alison, vol. vii. 
 
154 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 when it is considered how cheaply might the incoming 
 minister hy his concurrence in the proposal have pur- 
 chased popularity. The high-minded Windham stated 
 his views on the subject, and reached like conclusions. 
 Taking into consideration the two periods of office into 
 which Mr. Pitt's career had been divided, he could not 
 subscribe to his being termed an excellent statesman. 
 
 Fully believing that posterity will finally decide these 
 two speakers to have been wrong, it must yet be admitted 
 that the parallel drawn by Windham between Pitt and 
 his father, Lord Chatham, was at least plausibly correct. 
 One had succeeded in his undertakings, the other had 
 failed.* 
 
 Moreover, when Lord Castlereagh in reply could place 
 the matter at issue on no higher grounds than one of 
 feeling, it may freely be admitted by the most enthu- 
 siastic admirer of the dead patriot, that neither Fox nor 
 Windham were actuated by demagogic feelings. 
 
 They saw — not as we see now — knew not that, as time 
 wore on, evidence of masterly forethought would illumine 
 the otherwise dark conclusion of a then misunderstood 
 career. 
 
 Probably no reputation has gained more year by year 
 than that of the Heaven-born minister, whose objects 
 reached attainment, despite failures which overwhelmed 
 the man. 
 
 The Constitution owes present preservation to him who 
 
 * Fox's contention was that an unfortunate system of govern- 
 ment had pervaded the whole reign. 
 
CHARLES JAMES FOX. 155 
 
 defended it from attacks abroad, and prepared meet 
 instruments for its reform at home. Fox should not, 
 however, suffer in reputation because he failed to see 
 through the mists and darkness of general and complete 
 
 uncertainty. 
 
 The unanimous decision of Mr. Pitt's late colleagues 
 in favour of immediate resignation placed power 
 practically in the hands of the Whigs. The Govern- 
 ment of Lord Grenville has been termed a coalition, 
 and inasmuch as it contained within its limits Lord 
 Sidmouth's friends, it may be, perhaps, plausibly 
 described as such. 
 
 On the other hand, Mr. Windham had but returned to 
 the party from which he had seceded in 1793, with Burke 
 and others, in consequence of the encouragement given 
 to the Jacobin extravagances. The King appears to 
 have made no personal reservations, and only to have 
 stipulated for the Catholic question being left in abey- 
 ance. To this the new Foreign Secretary, Charles 
 James Fox, assented 
 
 The writer is here exclusively occupied with the 
 administration of that office which brings England's 
 greatest debater into the scope of these pages. At a 
 moment when the most successful and eloquent biogra- 
 phical pen of the day has begun to reproduce a 
 gigantic career such as Fox's, it would be folly to wander 
 away from the details, without a recital of which this 
 volume would necessarily be incomplete. 
 
 Fox's administration of the Foreign Office is to be 
 remembered as forming a series of honest endeavours to 
 act up to those principles which he had professed in 
 
156 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 Opposition. True it is, that lie had declared a private 
 individual's advocacy of the Catholic claims as likely to 
 prove fruitless, and had so left it to be inferred that in 
 office he would remove them, but the King's non pos- 
 sumus stood in the way of discussion, and Fox decided 
 on bringing his impaired energy but still unrivalled 
 faculties to the aid of his isolated country. 
 
 So far as the immediate Foreign Policy of the country 
 was concerned, it was found impossible to depart from 
 the general lines chosen by Mr. Pitt, but Mr. Fox laid 
 down in Parliament three courses as open to him. 
 
 The first was, to make immediate peace, though he 
 did not himself suggest that the moment for a pacification 
 had absolutely arrived. 
 
 The second was to act entirely independent of the 
 Continent, and pursue objects exclusively British. 
 
 The third, and the one which he indicated as about to 
 be followed by the new Government, was to cultivate 
 what yet remained possible in the way of alliances in 
 Europe, and to lean towards the still powerful Govern- 
 ment of Russia. 
 
 Austerlitz had stricken Austria harder than her ally, 
 whose losses were but as a wound on the foot to a giant,* 
 and it will be seen that in effect this was but picking up 
 the thread of that policy which Fox's great predecessor 
 had favoured. 
 
 It was not the fault of the minister, but rather of those 
 
 * The Emperor Alexander stipulated to withdraw his troops 
 behind the Bussian frontier, 
 
CHARLES JAMES FOX. loT 
 
 timely necessities' which the exigencies and realities of 
 office led the Whigs to allow. 
 
 Mr. Fox justly blamed Prussia for lack of good faith in 
 the case of Hanover, where Napoleon had contemptuously 
 allowed Frederick William to recoup himself as a set-off 
 against the losses which a policy of subterfuge and delay 
 had ensured at the hands of France. Kussia, although 
 encouraged by Mr. Fox to ally herself with this 
 country, was not immediately or actually subsidized, 
 but encouraged to expect pecuniary assistance in certain 
 cases. Herein may be perceived the first visible 
 difference between Mr. Fox's and Mr. Pitt's rival 
 policies. A difference, however, which was at Tilsit 
 made use of by the Emperor Alexander to justify an 
 abandonment of his alliance with Great Britain. 
 
 The negotiations for peace with France may he con- 
 sidered the last act of Mr. Fox's political life. They 
 have been here carefully extracted from the State papers 
 of the time. 
 
 In February 1806 Mr. Fox was told by a foreigner, 
 in a private interview, that an assassination of Napo- 
 leon was imminent. This informant, one Guillet de 
 la Grevilliere, declared that it had been considered 
 necessary for the safety of sovereigns generally to 
 kill the Emperor of France. 
 
 Mr. Fox immediately informed Talleyrand and con- 
 veyed to him his horror at having thus held converse 
 with an avowed assassin, who, although safe from 
 arrest according to English law, should be placed at 
 some sen port far from the French frontier. Talley- 
 rand answered that the Emperor recognised the high 
 
158 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THF, XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 principles on which Mr. Fox had acted, and he enclosed 
 an extract of a late speech of Napoleon's offering to 
 treat on the basis of the Treaty of Amiens. 
 
 "It may be agreeable to you," says Talleyrand in 
 the beginning of his letter, " to receive news from this 
 country. You will see our wishes are still for peace." 
 
 Mr. Fox returned answer that " in order to avoid 
 chicane, and as a better basis of negotiation, the object 
 on each side should be a peace honourable for both 
 parties and their allies, and calculated to secure the 
 tranquillity of Europe." 
 
 This was indeed speaking in generalities. Lord 
 Yarmouth was in France, and although possessing no 
 official position, had held conferences with certain mem- 
 bers of the French Government, and so far as he could 
 gauge their wishes, and through them those of Napo- 
 leon, no objection would be placed in the way of a 
 peace based on the principle * of each country retaining 
 its conquests. Moreover, a subsequent letter from 
 Talleyrand to Mr. Fox confirmed this basis of the 
 proposed pacification. 
 
 The third Lord Holland was the chosen negotiator 
 for England, but he gave way to the Earl of Lauder- 
 dale t when the dangerous condition of his gifted 
 relative, the Foreign Secretary, became evident. 
 
 The funds rose considerably on receipt of this news, 
 telling of possible peace, and in city circles Lord 
 Lauderdale's success was evidently believed in. 
 
 * Uti possidetis. 
 
 t Lord Lauderdale left England on August 2nd, 1806. 
 
CHARLES JAMES FOX. 159 
 
 When, however, the British envoy neither met with 
 a flattering reception at Paris, or did Napoleon show 
 the slightest intention of desisting from projects of 
 Continental aggression, it became clear that the mission 
 could have no effect. Napoleon appears to have thought 
 that the logical sequence of previous statements made 
 in Opposition would lead the Whig Ministry to make 
 peace on the terms he might choose, and at the same 
 time condone the rapacity of his intentions.* He 
 talked of employing the means entrusted to him by 
 Providence for the purpose of asserting the liberties of 
 the seas, of restoring commerce its liberty, and securing 
 the repose and happiness of the world. This, more- 
 over, at the very moment f when he was about to receive 
 the English proposals. 
 
 Mr. Fox kept two leading ideas in his mind whilst 
 conducting these negotiations. { They were, firstly, to 
 retain our hold on Sicily, which the King of Naples, as 
 our faithful ally, had just reason to expect us to do ; and 
 secondly, to forward our Russian connection and alliance. 
 
 This, as we have seen, he did not propose to do by 
 means of subsidies. 
 
 In this tendency to support the Emperor Alexander 
 the Foreign Secretary may have possessed an incom- 
 plete forecast of what actually happened in 1812. It 
 was obvious that efforts undertaken in a struggle near 
 the Muscovite frontier must have proved more ex- 
 
 * Bacher, French Charge d' A fairs to the German Diet. 
 
 t August 1806. 
 
 I Life and Opinions of Earl Grey. 
 
160 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XTX. CENTURY. 
 
 hausting fco the French armies than campaigns on the 
 Rhine or the Danube, and the distance from the base of 
 operations, which Napoleon's genius could not lessen, 
 must have occurred to Fox when he adhered to this 
 alliance. 
 
 It is desirable to give prominence to the fact that 
 at no time of his extraordinary career were Napoleon's 
 pretences more preposterous and ungovernable than at 
 the moment when he was destined to have the mist 
 removed from before his eyes as regards the true 
 character of the new English Government. 
 
 It had, however, been the weakness of Mr. Fox's 
 Parliamentary career, that he had aroused hopes in 
 Opposition, which no spell of future office was likely to 
 enable him to fulfil. 
 
 Constant and persistent opposition to Government 
 had generated a habit leading him to condemn the acts 
 of his opponents, if not to rejoice at their failures. Lord 
 Russell, in his life of Fox, has recorded how he spoke 
 of Trafalgar. He said : "It is a great event, and by 
 its solid as well as brilliant advantages far more than 
 compensates for the temporary relief which it will certainly 
 afford Pitt in his distress." And yet Pitt's distress was 
 on account of their common country, the well-being of 
 which was really desired by Fox with all the strength 
 of a really noble heart. 
 
 It is illustrative of the extremes that party has been 
 held to carry men into, when Lord Brougham * should 
 
 * Lord Brougham's Statesmen'of the Time of Gforr/e III., book i. 
 chap, on Pitt. 
 
CHARLES JAMES FOX, 161 
 
 say that he believed Pitt would have been for peace if 
 Fox had declared for war, leaving it to be inferred that 
 Fox would have done likewise ; and that Mr. Wilberforce 
 should once have found it his duty to tell the Whig 
 Opposition that he believed they did not desire to see 
 an invasion, but wished just as much evil to their 
 country as should serve to turn the Government out. 
 
 To prove what an honest-minded man Fox really 
 was,* when in power and his nephew Lord Holland 
 desired him to relinquish the cause of the Sicilies, and 
 even of its King, our faithful ally, that by so doing peace 
 might be secured, he spoke as follows : — 
 
 " No, young one; it won't do. It is the way the 
 French fly from their word that disheartens me." f 
 
 The price paid for our inestimable system of Party 
 government has again and again been that of seeing our 
 public men committed to extreme opinions, which are not 
 the result of any meditative and deliberate resolve, but 
 the outcome of some momentary burst of passion and 
 indignation, in which higher wrought and nobler natures 
 are frequently led to indulge. When, however, this 
 great Whig leader had to choose between the mainten- 
 ance of what men might term his consistency and the 
 dictates of national honour, he did not hesitate 
 
 There is reason to believe that previous exaggerations 
 when in Opposition had, in Mr. Fox's case, been caused 
 
 * When Lord Brougham made the above comment he was him- 
 self estranged from the Whig party, and in the frame of mind to 
 see party spirit in other men's actions. 
 
 t Lord Russell's Life of C. J. Fox. 
 
 I. 11 
 
162 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XTX. CENTURY. 
 
 by the feeling that the hand of authority was against 
 him, and that his entry on office was forbidden Indeed, 
 the King had once refused to accept Fox as Minister, 
 even at the risk, as he declares, of civil war.* 
 
 The peace negotiations with France coming to a close, 
 a corresponding fall of the funds occurred, and the Whig 
 Government found ready support from Castlereagh, 
 Canning, Hawkeshury, and Harrowhy, leaders of the 
 Opposition, in the renewed preparations for war which 
 became an unfortunate necessity. 
 
 It is to the credit of Mr. Fox's administration of the 
 Foreign Office that the proceedings of Prussia after 
 Austerlitz received the reprobation which they deserved. 
 " The conduct of Prussia," said Mr. Fox, " has been a 
 union of everything that is contemptible in servility, 
 with everything that is odious in rapacity." 
 
 The absorption of Hanover as a set-off against French 
 encroachment was an act of bad faith towards England, 
 inferior only in its perfidious meanness to the repudiation 
 of Prussian engagements with Austria, which Harden - 
 berg, the Prussian Minister, calmly told Metternich 
 were made but to be bi'oken. 
 
 Mr. Fox sternly reproved the Prussian Government, 
 and prepared for that state of warfare which might 
 ensue. 
 
 But it has not been inconsistency in foreign affairs 
 (to which charge every English statesman who has been 
 in Opposition becomes more or less liable) that has vexed 
 the righteous soul of politicians of a certain shade. 
 
 * Lord Russell's Lije of Fax. 
 
CHARLES JAMES FOX. 16 
 
 o 
 
 It is Fox's revolt from what may almost be de- 
 scribed as a trades unionism amongst the upper classes 
 of the early nineteenth century, which meets with 
 condemnation from Quarterly Review writers, quite as 
 powerful as that bestowed upon the details of pro- 
 jected reforms or rejected opinions on Continental 
 policy. 
 
 For instance, Lord Dudley and Ward, a future Secre- 
 tary of State for Foreign affairs, an individual as incapable 
 as a politician could possibly be of nurturing party 
 bitterness of any kind, laments the unnatural forsaking 
 of all the great Whig's antecedents which led Charles 
 Fox to bespatter the social advantages of his own order. 
 Inconsistency, without the existence of which, it was 
 argued by the Quarterly Reviewer, Fox could neither 
 have gained his own position, nor possibly even have ever 
 thoroughly disclosed his peculiar talents to the world. 
 For it was not so much as a minister that Fox's name 
 became notorious as the denouncer of class prejudice 
 and constitutional wrong. 
 
 The Reformer who defames his class by exposing their 
 weaknesses, will ever be open to such obvious retort, 
 although it may be permissible to note that but for the 
 Hampdens and Russells of history, liberty would to this 
 day have remained in general obscurity. 
 
 The history of the House of Lords and its continued 
 influence over the British Constitution, affords the aptest 
 of all illustrations of our meaning. 
 
 The Russells, Howards, Fitzwilliams, Stanleys, 
 Campbells, Gordons, Cavendishes, and other historical 
 houses have on the who]p consulted national interests 
 
 11 * 
 
104 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 before their own, and have often exposed themselves in 
 so doing to the taunts which assailed Charles Fox. 
 
 They may not always have been justified in their 
 conscientious conclusions, because danger to liberty may 
 proceed from a totally different quarter of the horizon 
 than that from whence men expect its appearance. 
 
 Such was the cause of Burke's decided action against 
 French principles, which, sheltered by the tree of Liberty, 
 were, but for his advocacy, about to receive the sympathy 
 of a great historic party. Such the lesson of the experience 
 which forced Fox in office to follow in the main Pitt's 
 foreign policy. There was real national gain in the 
 fact that Fox worked his full will at the Foreign 
 Office. 
 
 It was thereby known, when Lord Lauderdale returned 
 from Paris, that no mere expediency kept the nation in 
 arms, but an engagement in a struggle with one 
 determined to crush England's energy, and destroy her 
 very existence. It was henceforth, and after this fact 
 had been elicited,* that Lord Russell holds the followers 
 of Grenville and Grey to have been bitterly mistaken in 
 their opposition to a war proved necessary by the action 
 of their own Government,! inasmuch as naval and 
 military operations were by no means checked during 
 the Whig rule, and Lord Grenville's ministry looked in 
 
 * Lord Russell's Recollections. 
 
 t Objection to the Peninsula contest and doubt as to its issue 
 has been elsewhere given as explanatory of the Grenville- Grey 
 conduct after 1807. 
 
CHARLES JAMES FOX. 165 
 
 vain for a scene where British resources might be 
 advantageously expended. 
 
 Sicily was defended, and an inroad into Calabria, 
 planned by Sir John Stewart, who met and overthrew 
 the French general Kegnier on the plain of Maida, whilst 
 it was here that the prowess of British troops first 
 reasserted itself, and the famous struggle where. bayonet 
 crossed bayonet has not been forgotten in the louder 
 clang of arms which, until i 81 5, so constantly resounded 
 through Europe. And yet when the Whigs resigned 
 office no permanent military results had been obtained, 
 and isolated expeditions under Fox and Howick shared 
 the fate of ultimate impotence with which Brougham and 
 Macaulay have branded those of Pitt. 
 
 So far as the struggle with Napoleon is concerned, 
 its necessity was shown by the failure of Fox's nego- 
 tiations for peace, but justification of the original 
 republican quarrel rests, we frankly own, on different 
 grounds, and is subject to controversy, such as the old 
 Whig traditions have provided food for. We may, for 
 instance, read in the life of Lord Shelburne how the 
 opposition to the French war was justified. England's 
 conduct in acting with Europe to suppress French 
 liberties, it was there declared, had inspired a military 
 spirit throughout that chivalric nation, and so un- 
 necessarily laid the seeds of the long strife, heavy debt, 
 and untold slaughter, together with the ultimate want 
 and social disturbance which fell upon England. 
 
 The advantage of this theory is that its futility can 
 never be clearly demonstrated, as it might have been if 
 Fox and Shelburne had been called to office in 1793, 
 
166 FOREIGN SECRETARIES <>F THE XIX. CENTtJRt, 
 
 but it will ever, specially in this matter, be open to the 
 man convinced against his will to be of the same 
 opinion still. 
 
 But if asked to assert a reason why a contrary view 
 should on the whole prevail, we might point to the 
 evidence laid before our readers in the biographical 
 notice of Lord Grenville already given. 
 
 But we can do more, and rely upon the ultimate and 
 unwilling decision of that party par excellence being 
 the one of peace, as it then was a mainstay of religion 
 in England, viz. that of Mr. Wilberforce.* Again and 
 again did these excellent men hesitate. More than once 
 they gave votes against particular Government measures 
 which they believed to tend towards war, and yet slowly, 
 certainly, regretfully, they had to come back to support 
 the great minister, too much engaged with the enemies 
 of his country to do more than trust to the good sense 
 of Englishmen for that countenance so strikingly afforded 
 him. 
 
 Fox, however, by his contrary action, if followed in the 
 House of Commons by but at most seventy Whigs, 
 established such a title to their affection, that not only 
 has the worship of his name become enshrined in the 
 party belief, but each and everyone of the compact 
 minority was declared to be ready to die for him. 
 
 Such was the enthusiasm with which Fox inspired his 
 following, whilst it is but simple justice to admit that 
 he led the Opposition under somewhat unusual circum- 
 
 * 1793. 
 
CHARLES JAMES FOX. 167 
 
 stances. He, in the first place, was understood to be 
 excluded by his Sovereign from taking office, a disability 
 not calculated to make his language more measured, his 
 opinions better considered, or to induce a spirit of 
 sober responsibility. 
 
 Again, the unrivalled power of declamation, added to 
 the gift of rendering potent effect to feelings of indigna- 
 tion, which he possessed, was stimulated by what seemed 
 to him very like persecution. He had but been setting 
 forth opinions which were known to be held by millions 
 of his fellow-countrymen, and propounding theories 
 which have since been accepted by the nation. 
 
 It may appear to many of us, as it certainly does 
 to the writer, that the prompt decision of Pitt and 
 Grenville in the first instance saved this country 
 from a revolution. But that a Fox should have arisen 
 and proclaimed the evil of bad laws unrepealed, and of 
 wealth and intelligence unrepresented in Parliament, is 
 none the less matter of everlasting satisfaction. 
 
 Indeed, the Opposition had drifted into such a 
 condition of impotency that, had it not been for the 
 ceaseless advocacy of this passionate and eloquent man, 
 all remembrance of electoral inequalities and indefensible 
 laws would have been forgotten in the coming European 
 triumphs, and redress have been relegated to the time 
 of inevitable revolution — to that sudden shifting of the 
 scene which must perforce have succeeded an era of 
 over- strained repression. 
 
 The later Whig traditions have, therefore, been of 
 inestimable value to England. It is not for us to decide 
 how far the pendulum may have swung beyond its 
 
108 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 natural scope. It is part of the philosophy of a finished 
 politician to have studied each phase and section of 
 national history, and he can have learned his task but 
 imperfectly who lightly consents to change for its own 
 sake. 
 
 There is, fortunately, an innate Conservatism bound 
 up with the Whig belief which, of itself, has a restrain- 
 ing power, and bids us to hope and believe that England 
 can never become Radical in the sense of forsaking 
 her Constitution for that political Will-o'-the-wisp, 
 Equality — that specious form of Liberty which must sap 
 the foundations of government and exchange them for 
 
 # 
 
 the quicksands of mere popular will. 
 
 Such a career as Fox's could never have existed and 
 not left a mark on the future of his country. It is open 
 to doubt if the emanations of such a mind were not 
 directed for a beneficent object by the Supreme Being 
 who created its superiority and allowed its sway. 
 
 All that he asked, aye, and more, has been surren- 
 dered, and England is England still, in possession of the 
 unrivalled freedom which she enjoys at home, together 
 with unimpaired prosperity and influence abroad. 
 Some there may be who dread for the future, and would 
 feign stem the aspirations which they believe to have 
 been unwisely encouraged, but an unswerving adherence 
 to the Constitutional settlement made at the Revolution 
 will yet guard English order and freedom from each 
 passing danger, however threatening it may appear. It 
 is difficult, at any rate, to learn upon what other foun- 
 dation a faithful disciple and student of Mr. Fox's 
 matured opinions could rest. 
 
CHAELES JAMES FOX. 169 
 
 Fortunately the African Slave Trade question was in 
 that position which, unlike religious equality, electoral 
 reform, and the restoration of peace, was, so to speak, 
 ripe for the reformer's sickle. 
 
 Pitt had dealt the monster many an ugly blow ; 
 Lord Grenville had never hesitated ; there were ready 
 sympathisers on the Opposition benches, where Canning 
 in the one House, Harrowby and Mulgrave in the 
 other, were eager to carry, as they ultimately did, a 
 majority even of Tory ability. 
 
 Amongst Fox and Grenville' s own party Lord Sid- 
 month was lukewarm,* and doubted the expediency of 
 action. Windham, the generous, noble-hearted English- 
 man, had been seduced from his allegiance, and was 
 a foe to Abolition. He had been deeply moved by the 
 massacres of white men which had been perpetrated in 
 St. Domingo. Nothing, however, daunted Fox, and 
 he continued to grapple with the task by moving a 
 resolution in Parliament, which may be described as the 
 death-knell of slavery, and, at the same time, a last 
 official act of the speaker. 
 
 It was in the following words f : — 
 
 * Mr. Addington had been created Lord Sidrnoutk, joining 
 consecutively the Governments of Pitt and Lord Grenville. His 
 following being a compact and reliable one, Lord Sidmouth's Par- 
 liamentary power was considerable, as was his administrative 
 experience valuable. The irrepressible and witty Sheridan said of 
 him that " the measles was so far like the Doctor that we must 
 all have it once." 
 
 t A closely corresponding motion was made by Lord Grenville 
 in the House of Lords. 
 
170 FOREIGN SECRETARIES <>K THE XIX. CKNITRY. 
 
 " This House, conceiving the African slave trade to 
 be contrary to the principles of justice, humanity, and 
 sound policy, will, with all practicable expedition, pro- 
 ceed to take effectual measures for abolishing the said 
 trade, in such manner and at such period as may be 
 deemed advisable." 
 
 Mr. Fox's motion was carried without a division, 
 and in the House of Lords Lord Grenville voted in a 
 majority of forty-one against twenty. 
 
 Mr. Fox had already felt the fatal malady of dropsy 
 stealing on him, and his ready attention to the dearly 
 loved project is, therefore, more to his credit and ever- 
 lasting renown. 
 
 The great Parliamentary genius, when in failing health, 
 lay surrounded by all the charms that love and attention 
 can scatter. He was idolised by his relations, and had 
 friends wherever the influence of his presence had been 
 felt. 
 
 For thirty years had he been connected with politics, 
 and had captivated the hearts of all who had come into 
 contact with him. As a keen sportsman * he had the 
 sympathy of that never diminishing multitude, who in 
 England, Scotland, and specially in Ireland, are moved 
 by loyal feeling towards those who partake in like 
 pleasures and revel in like tastes. Field sports have 
 ever been a strong bond of union between those who 
 partake therein, and Fox's care to notice and encourage 
 the efforts and share the joys of youth was not the least 
 
 * Cricketer, hunting-man, and good shot. 
 
CHARLES JAMES FOX. 171 
 
 commendable quality in a character which becomes the 
 more charming as it is more extensively studied. 
 
 It is delightful to think that at the close of an 
 eventful life, during which the individual had lived in 
 an atmosphere of trial and temptation, that the poor 
 suffering body was soothed by the consolations of that 
 religion which its owner had, in the wildest moments, 
 never repudiated ; in days of paramount influence, if of 
 carelessness, never wished to depreciate. 
 
 It is nothing more than the truth to proclaim that 
 with the real character of Jacobinism placed before 
 him, he would have decided against it as vile and 
 un-English. 
 
 He saw, or thought he saw, Liberty where chaos was 
 reforming. 
 
 There is some reason to believe that before death he 
 at least recognised the evils of the system which suc- 
 ceeded the Eepublican Government, although Holland 
 House bears ample witness of the sympathy subsisting 
 between the Buonaparte and Fox family. Charles Fox 
 had hastened over to Paris at the peace of Amiens, 
 not contented until he had seen his hero ensconced in 
 the Consular dignity. 
 
 It is, however, a curious fact, and one which it is 
 difficult to explain, except by putting it down to accident, 
 that Fox should have found his own portrait turned face 
 to the wall. 
 
 If the after- conduct of Napoleon in 1806 concerning 
 the proposed peace did not open Fox's eyes, and show 
 him the spectre early descried by Pitt in its naked 
 hideousness, it can only have been because the drama 
 
172 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 was enacted before a vision blinded by the approach of 
 death. Bat we know that the minister received early 
 information of Palm the Nurembergh bookseller's 
 condemnation and execution because he had allowed 
 Gentz's pamphlet, urging continued resistance against 
 Napoleon, to receive circulation. 
 
 Nothing more antagonistic to Fox's nature and 
 principles can be conceived than this act. 
 
 Whether policy or predilection had most inclined 
 Fox towards Russia and France it is difficult to say, but 
 the tendency of his policy was undoubted. 
 
 Tilsit was left for Mr. Canning to cope with, and so 
 discover the reliance to be placed on the Muscovite 
 despot's alliance when put to the touch. Charles Fox 
 had on the other hand, we may believe, never forgotten 
 his pleasant sojourn in Paris with Lord Holland, whilst 
 his generous nature induced him to remember the ever 
 ready welcome his family had received from the noble and 
 hospitable French nation, then uncorrupted by the fatal 
 theories and opinions which hastened the Revolution. 
 
 His personal coinciding with his political feelings, thus 
 tended towards importing an article of faith into the 
 counsels of the Whigs, which, if it reduced their 
 voting power in the House of Commons to a minimum, 
 yet led to the belief that any one of the number would 
 have died for Fox. 
 
 It has been urged against this extraordinary individual 
 that he had previously agitated the strongest passions 
 of the nation in favour of electoral reform, and when 
 in office allowed the question to sleep. It is, however, 
 no fault of his that the pressure of immediate danger 
 
CHAELES JAMES FOX. 173 
 
 from without should have been so enormous as to pre- 
 clude due attention being given to Home affairs. 
 
 The electoral question was not, unfortunately, in a 
 progressive condition. Mr. Pitt had been unable to 
 ventilate the moderate and statesman-like views which 
 he held on the subject, and the same all-absorbing in- 
 stigation of national preservation had precluded Lord 
 Grenville from indulging desires which, it is historical, 
 were very near his heart. 
 
 Much of the good feeling between English politicians 
 of different views takes its kindly hue from the example 
 of this great tribune of the people, who studiously 
 avoided private controversy, and was above all things 
 natural, kind, and unaffected. 
 
 It might, indeed, be said of such as him, in language 
 used by Lord Houghton when extolling the men of 
 old— 
 
 " Great thoughts, great feelings, came to them 
 
 Like instincts, unawares ; 
 Blending their soul's sublimest needs 
 
 With tasks of every day, 
 They went about their gravest deeds 
 
 As noble boys at play." 
 
 Moreover, Mr. Fox possessed the unfailing resource of 
 literature, in contemplation of the delights of which he 
 occupied every spare moment. The statesman had 
 chosen for himself a residence at St. Anne's Hill, near 
 Chertsey, which must have been in some degree a solace 
 when leaving his beloved Holland House, ever open to 
 him although the latter place naturally continued. 
 
 Indulging his taste for choice shrubs, w T hich luxuriated 
 
174 FOREIGN BEOBETABIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 amidst classic temples such as Mr. Trevelyan tells us 
 Fox rejoiced in, the prospect visible therefrom must have 
 brought much contentment and delight to those visiting 
 this now classic spot. The dome of St. Paul's and 
 the outline of Westminster Abbey are seen from Mr. 
 Fox's retreat ; whence also Norwood, Sydenham, 
 Shooter's Hill, Hampstead, Highgate, Bushey, and 
 the spire of Charles II. 's visible church at Harrow, 
 all come within range of the view. Although many 
 features of the country are now somewhat changed, the 
 pleasant range of Surrey Downs on one side, and the 
 winding Thames on the other, still add their charms to 
 a prospect nature will not allow to be robbed of its 
 glory. 
 
 It was here that, during the leisure which occasional 
 absence from Parliament allowed, the society of books 
 became a natural delight. 
 
 Mr. Fox, as a man of letters, gave but one fragment 
 to the world, his history of the early part of James II.'s 
 reign being lost, so to speak, as an historical work, 
 in the blaze of fame which attended Macaulay's 
 later efforts, and is not nearly so well known as its 
 merits deserve. Macaulay, nevertheless, attained his 
 success under more advantageous circumstances for 
 communicating with the owners of literary information 
 than Fox had within his grasp. Moreover, the older 
 Whig statesman held peculiar views as to the compilation 
 of history, and adopted mere unadorned narrative, scru- 
 pulously correct as to detail, whilst his conclusions — and 
 herein lies hidden the pearl of price — were the matured 
 and studied results of quiet, contemplative retirement. 
 
CHARLES JAMES FOX. 17-5 
 
 We are, for the moment, taken aside from the heated 
 atmosphere of Westminster, and enlightened with the 
 views of Charles Fox, the philosopher and thoughtful 
 upholder of England's free constitution. Far more, 
 therefore, than any of his impassioned speeches, should 
 this work become a text-book for the great national 
 party, call it by what name you will, which must one 
 day be found striving to preserve the liberty secured to 
 us in 1688, alike, may be, from the pressure of half- 
 taught popular clamour, and the less powerful preten- 
 sions of oligarchic faction, 
 
 Mr. Fox's volume contains little of the fiery eloquence 
 which violently swayed the political passions of his 
 countrymen. At times, it is true, he rises to the occa- 
 sion, and leaves us an eloquent description calculated to 
 fix the event narrated permanently on the reader's 
 memory. For instance, when scorning the base conduct 
 of Charles II. and his counsellors for receiving money 
 at the hands of Louis XIY. through his minister 
 Barillon, he makes the following reflection : — " How 
 little could Barillon guess that he was negotiating with 
 one who was destined to be at the head of an adminis- 
 tration which, in a few years, would send the same Lord 
 Churchill, afterwards the great Duke of Marlborough, 
 not to Paris to implore Louis for succour towards 
 enslaving England, or to thank him for pensions to her 
 monarch, but to combine all Europe against him in the 
 cause of liberty ; to rout his armies ; to take his towns ; 
 to humble his pride ; and to shake to the foundation 
 that fabric of power which it had been the business of a 
 long life to raise at the expense of every sentiment of 
 
176 FOKEIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 tenderness to his subjects, and of justice and good faith 
 to foreign nations. It is with difficulty the reader can 
 persuade himself that the Godolphin and Churchill here 
 mentioned are the same persons who were afterwards 
 one in the cabinet, one in the field, the great conductors 
 of the war of the succession. How little do they appear 
 in the one instance, how great in the latter ! " 
 
 The last sentiment will scarcely commend itself to 
 those who, judging by Mr. Fox's opposition to the 
 American and French wars, believe him to have been a 
 veritable apostle of peace at any price ; but it is not in 
 one particular that the views of this book differ from 
 those sometimes (and we admit not without plausible 
 references to Mr. Fox's spoken sentiments) enunciated 
 as forming a foundation for the popular creed. 
 
 In the first place the judgments passed on men's 
 actions are tempered with a gentle spirit of charity and 
 gentleness quite in unison with the writer's nature. Mr. 
 Fox, moreover, avoids reference to contemporary authors, 
 poets, and thinkers who flourished during the times of 
 which he descants, whilst, although the volume contains 
 many well-considered dissertations on men and things, 
 it must have become, when finished and brought to 
 maturity, a valuable and unbiassed account of the Great 
 Kevolution, and the causes which brought it about. 
 
 That some of his considerations bear upon our own 
 times a reference to the subjoined extract will show, 
 and it is just as certain that the revolutionist and the 
 constitutional subverter will be unable to appeal to Mr. 
 Fox for justification of his action, as it is that when the 
 historian dives fairly into the literary treat reserved for 
 
CHARLES JAMES FOX. 177 
 
 him in Mr. Fox's account of the early part of James II. 's 
 reign, he will scarcely find historic precedent there 
 for the repudiation of Mr. Pitt's foreign policy for Parlia- 
 mentary opposition to which Mr. Fox has linked his 
 name in history. 
 
 The great Whig leader abhorred all notes when com- 
 piling his literary work, and the text of his manuscript 
 was written chiefly by Mrs. Fox. 
 
 In the introductory chapter to his Early History of 
 James II., page 7, Mr. Fox speaks thus : — " A 
 sagacious observer may be led to expect the most impor- 
 tant revolutions, and from the latter he may be enabled 
 to foresee that the House of Comnioir; will be the 
 principal instrument in bringing them to pass. 
 
 " But in what manner will that House conduct itself ? 
 Will it content itself with its regular share of legislative 
 power, and with the influence which it cannot fail to 
 possess whenever it exerts itself upon the other branches 
 of the Legislature, and on the executive power, or will it 
 boldly, perhaps rashly, pretend to a power commensurate 
 with the natural rights of the representative of the 
 people ? If it should, will it not be obliged to support 
 its claims by military force, and how long will such a 
 force be under its control ? How long before it follows 
 the usual course of all armies and ranges itself under a 
 single master ? 
 
 " If such a master arise, will he establish hereditary or 
 elective government ? If the first, what will be gained 
 but a change of dynasty ? If the second, will not the 
 military force choose the King or Protector (the name is 
 of no importance), and choose in effect all his successors ? ' 
 i. 12 
 
178 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 The reflections here evoked are worthy the considera- 
 tion of those who believe greater freedom to be attainable 
 when the direct popular power in the Legislature receives 
 unrestricted strength. 
 
 Mr. Fox clearly thought otherwise, inasmuch as he 
 limited his aspirations for change to those within that 
 constitutional grasp which the Settlement of 1688 pro- 
 vided for. 
 
 This publication, to the merits of which we have 
 attempted to render justice, was clearly the result of 
 deliberate thought and preparation, inasmuch as Mr. 
 Fox, when in retirement at St. Anne's Hill, was accus- 
 tomed to write snatches of sentences and various abstract 
 ideas on the backs of envelopes, and on fugitive scraps 
 of paper which Mrs. Fox would straightway convey to 
 their positions in the history. This book, moreover, was 
 written after the sowing of those wild oats, the incidents 
 and companionships connected with which Mr. G. 0. 
 Trevelyan has so graphically described. Mr. Fox 
 meditated other literary labours, amongst which were an 
 Essay on Poetry, History, and Oratory ; and it will be 
 interesting to learn hereafter, from the historian, whether 
 these floating ideas were ever committed to paper. 
 
 Not the least charming side of Mr. Fox's character 
 consisted in his conjugal affection. How thoroughly he 
 entered into Lord Howick's sense of loneliness when, in 
 the whirl of London without his wife, can be read by 
 anyone interested in the subject.* Such sympathy was 
 
 * Life and Ojjinions of Earl Grey. 
 
CHARLES JAMES FOX. 179 
 
 founded upon a parallel attachment of his own for that 
 partner of his joys and sorrows, whose name was 
 lovingly murmured in the dying statesman's last adieu 
 to the world. 
 
 And what a bright light society such as his must have 
 shed over a party in the country-house of the Duke of 
 Bedford at Woburn. 
 
 The author of Lord Grey's life tells us, " Fox is 
 in the highest spirits. It is quite delightful to see such 
 a man in the midst of a society which he appears 
 to like, so unassuming, good-humoured, and cheerful. 
 Everything seems to be enjoyment to him." 
 
 It is pleasant to read how constant and devoted were 
 the attentions of his nephew, Lord Holland, towards the 
 close of this cherished existence. 
 
 Lord Albemarle has left us an interesting picture of 
 how Fox, when stricken by increasing weakness, loved 
 to play with children and be with them. Following his 
 wheeled chair would be troops of little ones who sunned 
 themselves in the rich benevolence of a nature gentle 
 at home, as in the Senate it had been fierce and 
 uncurbed. 
 
 The general scope and tendency of Mr. Fox's policy 
 during his short tenancy of the Foreign Office is the 
 more immediate object of this dissertation. 
 
 It may succinctly be described as a Policy of Peace, 
 but not without honour, and of humanity at any price. 
 The negotiations with France and the Parliamentary 
 condemnation which Slavery received will remain the 
 best remembered events of his last Foreign Office 
 administration. 
 
 12 * 
 
180 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 Mr. Fox did not let his hankering after a Russian 
 alliance, and peace with Napoleon, lead him to encourage 
 Russia in her subservience to the conqueror. When it 
 was really known that the Prussians contemplated 
 a seizure of Hanover, Fox spoke out boldly, and sent 
 the young English diplomatist, afterwards Sir George 
 Jackson, to Berlin, on a mission, where he was 
 commissioned to speak plain truths to the temporising 
 sovereign and his ministers. 
 
 Sir George, in an early part of the second volume of 
 his correspondence, tells a good story of how within 
 three months of Mr. Fox's death he saw him, then a 
 complete invalid but still able to perform official 
 duties. 
 
 Mr. Fox received young Jackson in bed, and dis- 
 coursed at length and with great animation on the 
 subjects of the mission. But Mrs. Fox had been 
 taken by surprise and when the diplomatist entered 
 sought refuge in an adjoining cupboard. 
 
 Warmer and more intricate drew the discussion, until 
 Mrs. Fox in despair called out, " Oh, Mr. Fox, the young 
 man is gone, is he not ? I am so cold." With a smile 
 and hearty good wishes for the future, the young 
 Jackson was dismissed, and ever treasured up in his 
 memory the interview with one so strangely fascinating, 
 and yet so decided in views of men and things 
 
 Adair was another of Fox's diplomatists who, in the 
 time of the coalition with Lord North, had been sent to 
 Russia. His affection for his chief is historical, and 
 when, years after the times we speak of, in company 
 with Rogers the poet, he was visiting Cbiswick, he 
 
CHAKLES JAMES FOX. 181 
 
 wept bitterly when shown the room where his patron 
 died. 
 
 Men loved Charles Fox as a creature, whatever their 
 opinions might have been of him as a politician. Even 
 the very bailiffs who, in the midst of their vagaries, 
 came to seek both Fox and his friend Hare, could 
 scarcely fail to be moved to laughter when asked if they 
 were hunting the Fox and the Hare. Canning declared 
 him to be, on the whole, the wittiest man he ever met, 
 and with this estimate Pitt agreed. 
 
 At one time so low were the pecuniary prospects of 
 the first Lord Holland's son, that his many friends were 
 induced to subscribe for his relief. " How will he take 
 it?' they anxiously asked at Brooks'. " Why, half- 
 yearly to be sure," answered the cold-blooded but witty 
 George Selwyn. 
 
 It must, however, be stated in any biography of Fox, 
 and noted on his behalf so far as it goes, that self- 
 restraint was sufficient to prohibit him from dissipation 
 at any time during his various terms of office. In fact 
 he knew what was due to his position, and if at other 
 times, alas ! he yielded to the weakness of his will and 
 the infirmity of his nature — sinning may be the more in 
 that through an innate fascination he carried others with 
 him in his irregularities — there was never absent a manly 
 if tardy perception of the evil effected, combined with 
 an honest desire to counteract the same. 
 
 His influence, for instance, over his nephew, the 
 young Lord Holland, was of the best description, and 
 entirely for good. 
 
 Perhaps the most characteristic story which Mr. 
 
182 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 Trevelyan tells us of Fox, is that of his kindness to the 
 Clapham schoolmaster who had come on chance to 
 hear the speaking. Mr. Trevelyan says that of course 
 the man of sums and spelling-hooks was a Tory, but, 
 whatever his creed, we can quite understand that a 
 part of it ever afterwards was a belief in Fox. After 
 all, the personal guides us to an estimate of our 
 fellow- creatures, and if the most blinded Tory standing 
 unnoticed and weary of waiting in the lobby at 
 Westminster is taken in hand and shown the lions by 
 a genial and thoroughly informed political opponent, he 
 will read the emanations of that man's mind with 
 greater patience, if not approval, than when his very 
 existence seemed vile and unpalatable as seen through 
 the mists of party distortion. 
 
 It was this love of humanity, which, seizing the first 
 outlet to indulge its generous bearings, made Fox so 
 charming. 
 
 With Pitt there remained a reserve which, if it 
 savoured of the divinity said to hedge in a king, yet 
 held him aloof from much of the personal sympathy 
 which renders life a delight. 
 
 It is with something of wonder, therefore, that, with 
 a disposition such as Fox's in command, we read how 
 bitter was the contention and violent the recrimination 
 over Foreign and Domestic Policy when the Govern- 
 ment of all the talents first came into office. 
 
 In later clays such indulgence of speech has by 
 general consent been banished from Parliamentary dis- 
 cussions when conducted by responsible Statesmen, and 
 relegated to the hustings where words are not meant or 
 
CHAELES JAMES FOX. 
 
 183 
 
 believed to carry a full import. Observers put down 
 their acrimonious discussions to the absence of Pitt's 
 dignified control, to catch the true spirit of which has 
 been since desired by all Parliamentary Leaders. 
 
 Anecdotes in abundance flow from the pen of one 
 who has pondered over the history of a man at once 
 gifted, simple, and generous. His very faults were 
 rendered less inexcusable to those around him by a 
 light-hearted anxiety for others, which never forsook 
 him. His benevolence was exercised even to weakness. 
 Once, when at a balloon ascent with his brother, 
 General Fox, a man attempting to seize his watch was 
 cauo-ht in the burly statesman's powerful grip. " Oh ! 
 spare me, Mr. Fox ! " said the reprobate ; "I have a 
 wife and children at home." Fox was foolish enough 
 to give the man a guinea and pass on, but not with 
 his watch, which the professional duties of the thief did 
 not seemingly allow him to overlook. 
 
 But Fox's rich benevolence was, perhaps, best of all 
 displayed when, at the close of his life, the Foreign 
 Office duties were irksome and beyond his strength. 
 The young Lord Holland had refused the peace 
 mission to Paris, on the results of which his uncle 
 had based so much, desiring -and, indeed, desired by 
 a ll — to be with his uncle. 
 
 » So you would not leave me, young one, to go to 
 Paris," said the fond uncle, "but liked staying with me 
 better. There 's a kind boy ! " 
 
 But he never for a moment forgot his political cares, 
 or ceased to believe in the possibility of peace with 
 French aggression, until the rude awakening came upon 
 
184 FOEEIGN SECRETAIRES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 him but a short time before death. It is strange how 
 the trust in Napoleon had ever co-existed with a blind 
 trust in Kussia, the two ruling political sentiments 
 remaining strong to the last. 
 
 When the failure of Lord Lauderdale's mission 
 became certain, Fox was too ill to gauge the full 
 importance of such an event, and was only thinking 
 of how he should screen his beloved wife from the pain 
 which the knowledge of his dangerous condition would 
 give her. 
 
 " Does she think there is danger ? " he asked of Lord 
 Holland.* "If not, it will be so much worse for her 
 afterwards," or words to that effect. 
 
 Everything that love could devise was done for the 
 sufferer, who seems to have been soothed by the works 
 of art, both in painting and sculpture, with which the 
 house at Chiswick abounded. 
 
 But notwithstanding that the sufferer bore up bravely, 
 the great life was ebbing away, and weakness had placed 
 the statesman beyond the reach of human skill. 
 
 The death of Mr. Fox has been described by 
 
 * Mr. Fox was believed to have married Mrs. Armstead, a 
 widow, as early as 1780. The following lines, placed on her 
 breakfast-table in January 1799, should at once confirm that theory, 
 and prove the ardent affection which existed between them : — 
 
 " Of years I have now a century passed, 
 And none of the fifty so blessed as the last, 
 How it happens my troubles thus daily should cease, 
 And my happiness thus with my years should increase — 
 This defiance of nature's more general laws 
 You alone can explain, who alone are the cause." 
 
CHABLES JAMES FOX. 185 
 
 the Princess Liclitenstein, in the first volume of her 
 charming work, Holland House, with a pathos which 
 approaches even Stanley's account of Dr. Arnold's last 
 hours. It is almost impossible to read it without 
 tears involuntarily rising to the eyes. The scene, more- 
 over, was not rendered less weird and terrible by the 
 eccentric Lady Holland announcing Fox's death to the 
 anxious crowd outside the apartment by walking amongst 
 them with a white apron thrown over her head. 
 
 It was said of Mr. Fox's funeral in Westminster 
 Abbey, that never had there been seen more great people 
 unhappy, whilst Mr. Trevelyan has told us how the news 
 of his loss shot grief into hearts whose interest in the 
 man was only as the friend of the oppressed and poorer 
 classes. 
 
 His career is a great English fact and possession, so 
 that we can well afford to sink all differences in pre- 
 sence of the tombs of those whose ends, after all, were 
 not diverse, even if they sought to compass them by 
 different means. 
 
 Pitt and Fox both desired the happiness of the Eng- 
 lish people, and the proximity of their graves in the 
 venerable Abbey was no inapt fulfilment of the popular 
 desire such as allowed the poet to say with general 
 approval — 
 
 "Where, turning thoughts to human pride, 
 The rival chiefs lie side by side ; 
 Drop upon Fox's grave a tear, 
 'Twill trickle to his neighbour's bier." 
 
186 FOKEIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 I<6f|f) &OWlCK (^Sffc G[f$Y). 
 
 September 1806 to March 1807. 
 
 F Fox's power of dominating debate 
 represented the sword of Whiggism, so 
 most surely did the classical and philo- 
 sophical acquirements of Charles Grey 
 serve as a shield whereby the most 
 telling blows of its opponents were 
 turned aside. Born in 1764 of an ancient Northumber- 
 land family, at Falloden, near Alnwick, this celebrated 
 Whig acquired a correct and refined taste during an 
 education at Eton and Cambridge. He was wont, how- 
 ever, afterwards to declare that he owed most of his 
 knowledge to study and reading indulged in after leaving 
 the University. In 1784 the grand tour followed as 
 in due course it always did when parents were in the 
 position to afford such a luxury, and in Mr. Grey's case 
 it was undergone as a member of the Duke of Cumber- 
 
' T 1 >,1 
 
 1 1 
 111 > 1 1 
 
 1 1 1 1 
 
 1 1 1 ■" 1 1 1 
 
 1 11-111 
 
 1 ' I -, > 1 1 1 
 
 i i i » i i 
 »i i so 
 
 44 
 
 i 
 1111 
 
 ", >', > iiii 
 ' -, , i > i 
 
 i 11 
 
 i 1 
 
 ' ' -. ' ' iii 
 
 ' * ' 3 , ■>■> ' > i ),' „ 
 
 ; -> ' . • o i i e • i , 
 
 ■' * •' * " Til 
 
 ftiorrto sSsteidk. 
 
 ' 
 

 
 . I 
 
 
 
LOKD HOWICK (EAEL GBEY). 187 
 
 land's suite. Two years afterwards he took his seat in 
 Parliament as Member for Northumberland, the county 
 where his family had resided since 1372. 
 
 The first we hear of the future statesman in Parlia- 
 ment was when serving on the proceedings directed 
 against Warren Hastings, and afterwards, as outvying 
 even Fox in Liberalism, by joining the Friends of the 
 People, an extreme organisation of the time. 
 
 But in Parliament it was Charles Fox's example that 
 formed the politician's public character ; his precepts 
 that inculcated method and instilled policy into the able 
 mind readily prepared by nature to receive such instruc- 
 tion, so that consequently, when Mr. Fox was removed by 
 death, Lord Grenville did not hesitate to appoint Lord 
 Howick Foreign Secretary. Not only did he know 
 better than any man what were Mr. Fox's designs, but 
 had gained a great Parliamentary position by attention 
 constantly paid to that statesman's advice. " Stay and 
 listen to the dull speakers as well as the attractive 
 ones," was the unvarying rule laid down by the great 
 master of Parliamentary warfare. In common with the 
 rest of the Whig party Lord Howick had an almost 
 reverential respect for Mr. Fox's maxims, and love for his 
 memory. It would, however, be eminently misleading 
 to estimate Lord Howick' s views by the ordinary Whig 
 rules of conduct, inasmuch as he possessed certain abstract 
 ideas, to which he clung with a tenacity that stands as 
 landmark in the sea of uncertainty which the individual 
 observer is launched on when attempting to estimate 
 Lord Howick's political conduct. Such tenacity in 
 clinging to theory savours somewhat more of the doctrinaire 
 
188 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 than the practical politician. In his case, if the 
 mountain refused to come to Mehemet, Mehemet 
 would most certainly not go to the mountain. Illus- 
 tration of our meaning will be conveyed to the reader's 
 mind during the next few pages, but his pertinacious 
 determination to consider each event in foreign affairs 
 by itself, and without reference to past or other special 
 circumstances, will effectually explain what some writers 
 have attributed to party conduct and feeling. 
 
 Like his great adversary Lord Liverpool, there is 
 reason to believe he was just as free from partisanship 
 as human nature would admit. His theory, that no 
 possible war could be justifiable on grounds of expe- 
 diency, or except when necessity or an unjust attack on 
 an ally compelled, would account for his leaning towards 
 peace during the earlier stages of the French war, but 
 not for the spasmodic criticisms directed against the 
 foreign administrations of the Duke of Portland, Mr. 
 Perceval, and Lord Liverpool. 
 
 When in office with Lord Grenville his conclusions 
 appear to have been more practical, and although these 
 two powerful intellects parted company when, as Lord 
 Grey, he refused to concur in proscribing Napoleon's 
 rule (and held such views to be antagonistic to the 
 principle of non-interference in the affairs of other 
 countries), he must yet be held to have done good work 
 in Lord Grenville's Government, when head of the 
 Admiralty, before Mr. Fox's death, and afterwards as 
 Minister for Foreign Affairs. 
 
 As an orator, Lord Howick may not have attained 
 the higher flights revelled in by Fox or Canning, 
 
LORD HOWICK (EARL GREY). 189 
 
 but he was a clear and logical speaker ; exceedingly 
 nervous, and yet never hindered by this peculiarity of 
 temperament. It would be unjust, moreover, not 
 to ascribe his opposition to the Spanish war to that 
 prevailing sentiment which likewise, undoubtedly, moved 
 Lord Grenville to believe that Napoleon would find 
 gigantic means to drive us from the Peninsula whenever 
 his affairs in Europe allowed. This, however, having 
 been admitted, and the value of his Opposition criticism 
 on some other occasions duly acknowledged, we fail to 
 follow the lines of those principles in foreign affairs 
 which Lord Howick undoubtedly pursued according to 
 his conscience and judgment. 
 
 It was otherwise in home affairs, and excellent as 
 we hold to have been the way in which he took up the 
 thread of Mr. Fox's Continental desires in 1807, it is 
 impossible not to regret that circumstances did not 
 admit of the introduction of the moderate measure of 
 Parliamentary Keform, which relief from danger of 
 immediate invasion (gained for us at Trafalgar) might 
 have rendered practicable. 
 
 As was the case with Lord Liverpool's speeches and 
 writings, so we may speak of Lord Howick's Parlia- 
 mentary utterances as mines of information. He read 
 constantly, and had the peculiar and unusual facility 
 of improving spare moments when waiting for a friend, 
 so that none of his time might be wasted, and it 
 necessarily followed that whatever conclusions he 
 reached were based upon a solid foundation. 
 
 A few specimens of his opinions scattered through 
 this biography cannot, then, be out of place. 
 
190 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 Mr. Grey, for instance, before he became Lord 
 Howick, made a great speech on Parliamentary Reform 
 in 1793 ; but as the period chosen for his motion was 
 but a few weeks after war had commenced with France, 
 it did not receive that attention which the importance of 
 the subject deserved. He commenced with a history of 
 the question, which, strange to say, originated in two 
 attempts to repeal the Septennial Act, made in 17S3and 
 1745, inasmuch as the duration of Parliament for seven 
 years has been preserved through all the changing scenes 
 which the representation has passed. The only cause, 
 however, that seems to have saved us from more frequent 
 elections, was because in 1733 and 1745 the Jacobites 
 were constantly plotting against the succession. Mr. 
 Grey showed on the occasion in question how Mr. Pitt 
 had himself agitated the question, first in 1782, again 
 in 1783, and lastly in 1785, when he was Minister. 
 The eloquent Flood, moreover, had taken up Reform 
 in 1790, and had been compelled to desist in face oi 
 the hurricane arising in France. 
 
 Mr. Grey himself declared that a pure and uncorrupted 
 House of Commons, emanating fairly and freely from 
 the people, would remedy any injury gained from con- 
 tagion with those dreaded French principles, which, he 
 urged, none in their senses would propose as a model 
 for imitation, and he proceeded to fortify his desire for 
 Reform by the declared support of Lord Chatham and 
 many great legal authorities. 
 
 He then dwelt on the weakness of a system which 
 allowed Rutland to send as many members to Parliament 
 as Yorkshire, and concluded by fulminating against 
 
LORD HOWICK (EARL GREY). 191 
 
 borough liberty arid corruption, as a remedy for the 
 latter prescribing a more popular election, such as the 
 experiences of Queen Victoria's reign have, we regret to 
 say, not proved to be altogether efficacious. 
 
 When Mr. xiddington's ministry succeeded that of 
 Mr. Pitt in 1801, Mr. Grey spoke as follows of the late 
 ministry. 
 
 To those who composed it he imputed all the mis- 
 fortunes which overwhelmed Europe ; all was, on their 
 side, disaster and disgrace, while the mighty genius who 
 governed France, trusting to the resources of his own 
 mind, restored life and energy to the Government, led on 
 his armies to victory, and laid his enemies at his mercy. 
 
 Opposition criticism this, however, which must be 
 taken cam grano salis, and read in conjunction with 
 Lord Howick's conduct when Foreign Secretary a few 
 years after. In company with Mr. Fox and other 
 great men in our Parliamentary history, the Opposition 
 view of foreign politics has been found incapable of an 
 approach to realisation, even when every opportunity is 
 afforded for its adoption in office. 
 
 At Fox's death, as we have forecasted, the foreign 
 affairs of the nation fell into Lord Howick's hands, but 
 the Grenvilles — Lord Grenville as Premier and Mr. 
 Thomas Grenville, First Lord of the Admiralty— assisted 
 in the direction of general policy. 
 
 France, by means of her ambassador, General 
 Sebastiani, had acquired an influence over the Ottoman 
 Porte, which, as later historical light has shown, was 
 but preparatory for that proposed partition of Turkey, 
 so important a part of Napoleon's scheme. 
 
192 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 The possession of Constantinople being judged in- 
 dispensable to the empire of the world, it was thought 
 desirable to hinder Napoleon in this quarter at least, 
 and to despatch an English naval force to Constanti- 
 nople, and there, as the ally of Russia, do what we 
 could to substitute the British and Russian influence for 
 that of France. 
 
 It happened that, contrary to treaty, the Turks had 
 removed the Governors (or Hospidars as they were 
 called) of Wallachia and Moldavia, who, according to 
 agreement, were to be Russian nominees, and secure in 
 their office for seven years. These Sultan Selim re- 
 placed with rulers, suggested by Sebastiani. This was 
 too much for the Emperor Alexander, who invaded the 
 Principalities with 40,000 men. Decided successes 
 followed over the Turks, whose armies were in a tran- 
 sition state from the Oriental to a European and more 
 civilised mode of warfare. 
 
 When the Sultan found how hard matters were going 
 with his troops he hesitated, and replaced the Hospidars, 
 and did so when the remedy came too late, for the old 
 desire for encroachment on Constantinople had inspired 
 the Russian War Office, and their armies still pressed 
 on, to the terror and amazement of the Pachas in the 
 capital. All of a sudden the scene changed. Threatened 
 by Napoleon on the Vistula, Alexander recalled his 
 troops, and leaving the old Turkish party masters of the 
 situation, deferred further aggressions on the Balkan 
 peninsula until a more convenient season. But such 
 conduct left French influence at Constantinople supreme 
 over that of England and Russia alike. 
 
LORD HOWICK (EARL GREY). 193 
 
 It was to counteract this, and to insist on a free 
 passage for Eussian and English ships of war, that Sir 
 John Duckworth was sent on his minatory expedi- 
 tion. 
 
 Something, moreover, was expected of England in 
 return for the Kussian alliance, which the English 
 Foreign Office refused to subsidize. 
 
 Sir John Duckworth, the admiral in command of 
 the squadron, acted as follows: — Pre-supposing a state of 
 war, he ran the gauntlet of the Dardanelles, incurring 
 little injury or loss of life, and half-way up the channel 
 succeeded in capturing or destroying a Turkish line-of- 
 battle ship and several frigates. 
 
 When at Constantinople, or rather at the Princes 
 Islands, a parley took place, which proved General 
 Sebastiani and the Turks to be better negotiators than 
 the English admiral and ambassador combined. 
 
 The consequence, moreover, of delay in attacking 
 Constantinople from the sea was that General Sebastiani 
 rallied the Turks to prepare for the worst, whilst 
 fortifications were improvised as if by magic, and by 
 the time that Mr. Arbuthnott's indispositions left the 
 diplomacy to Sir John Duckworth, the enterprise was 
 assuming an entirely different complexion. It is, at this 
 distance of time, a satisfaction to think that an English 
 admiral did not act when a destruction of part of 
 Constantinople, combined with a slaughter of helpless 
 non-combatants, might have ensued, but no permanent 
 occupation could have been maintained without troops 
 destined to act in co-operation. The late Lord Stratford 
 de Bedcliffe, then a young diplomatist, told Sir Archibald 
 i. 13h- 
 
194 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 Alison ' that fche Turks were at first prepared to give 
 way, but on time being allowed tbem, rallied to Sebas- 
 tian i's passionate appeals, so that, as events turned 
 out, the French ambassador out-manoeuvred both the 
 ambassadors of Russia and England, and defied the 
 British fleet into the bargain. 
 
 Not only did the Turks refuse to surrender their fleet 
 without fighting, but they imprisoned a boat's crew of 
 the frigate Endymion, and refused to give them up. 
 
 The fact appears to have been that Sir John Duck- 
 worth had been sent out on a coercive errand, which 
 depended for its success on resolute and immediate 
 action, but that when it came to the point Mr. 
 Arbutlmott, the English ambassador, would not take 
 the responsibility of bombarding and scattering death 
 and desolation amongst a defenceless population. The 
 consequence was, that after a useless conflict on the 
 island of Prota, Sir John Duckworth took advantage of 
 the first fair wind to retrace his steps through the sea 
 of Marmora, and into the dreaded passage. 
 
 Between the 19th of February 1807, and the 2nd of 
 March, French engineers had assisted the Turks to 
 repair their fortifications, and to plant additional pieces 
 of heavy ordnance in position. 
 
 On nearing the castles of Sestos and Abydos, where 
 the channel is little more than half a mile in breadth, 
 the English admiral saluted the Turks, hoping, no 
 doubt, that the gunners would believe an amicable 
 
 * Alison's History of Europe. 
 
LORD HO WICK (EARL GREY). 195 
 
 arrangement to have been arrived at. The reply came, 
 however, in the shape of enormous stone and marble 
 shot, which, breaking the masts and decks into splinters, 
 inflicted severe wounds. The squadron, consisting as it 
 did of five line-of-battle ships and six frigates, suffered 
 heavily in effecting this passage, a loss of 29 killed 
 and 138 wounded* being a large average for an opera- 
 tion of so short a duration. Still the ships were 
 above water. 
 
 The Government appear to have been mistaken 
 in confusing the admiral by undecided orders, given 
 through an ambassador, and in having furnished 
 him with inefficient means for enforcing their 
 demands. 
 
 The desired result of Sir John Duckworth's attempt 
 to intimidate the Turks into relinquishing a French 
 alliance, and allowing British and Eussian commerce to 
 pass through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles, was thus 
 by no means gained. Sebastiani was looked upon as a 
 deliverer, and when Russia became Napoleon's ally the 
 Sultan gladly joined the two nations in their hostility to 
 Great Britain. 
 
 So it came to pass that the Opposition at home 
 had specious cause for objecting to Lord Howdck's policy 
 in this matter. The fault lay in trusting to a threat 
 which could scarcely have been acted on without laying 
 the seeds of future embarrassment, and was not likely to 
 
 * A friend of the writer's, wounded in the neck by a splinter, 
 was condemned to a suffering life, but evinced great literary power. 
 From bis (Captain John Furneaux's) History of Treaties, the author 
 has received valuable help in compiling this book. 
 
196 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 be promptly carried out on the joint responsibility of an 
 ambassador and an admiral. 
 
 The object of this expedition having clearly failed, it 
 was unfortunate for the Home Government that a British 
 army- should have been forced to leave Buenos Ayres, 
 and to surrender their settlements on the La Plata, 
 and that, moreover, immediately after the Constan- 
 tinople fiasco, an ineffectual attempt to re-establish 
 English military predominance in Egypt must be re- 
 corded. 
 
 Thus did political opponents gain a vantage-ground 
 from which they might launch their bolts against 
 those who had not given a magnanimous support 
 to Mr. Pitt, and were about to reap as they had 
 
 sown. 
 
 But there was never, for one moment, any hesitation 
 on Lord Howick's part as to the projecting of measures 
 framed to uphold the honour of England. All party 
 exaggerations and Opposition extravagancies are natu- 
 rally forgotten when men of the Grenville-Howick 
 capacity find themselves at the helm — men, be it re- 
 membered, whom no less a personage than the great 
 Marquis Wellesley afterwards (and notwithstanding 
 differences as to the conduct of the war in Spain) 
 meditated acting with politically— the statesman who 
 of all others most desired to promote at any hazard the 
 universal safety of England's empire. 
 
 The recital of these minor events has a special in- 
 
 * 7500 strong. 
 
LORD HOWICK (EARL GREY). 197 
 
 terest here as bearing on the character of Lord Howick's 
 administration of the Foreign Office, but they have been 
 obscured by the commotions which threatened to agitate 
 Europe with the opening of a renewed conflict. 
 
 Whilst it is manifest to the simplest intelligence that 
 the ministerial effort, Whig or Tory, to gain a military 
 foothold for England failed from no fault of their 
 authors or executants, but from the circumstances of 
 the case. 
 
 Moreover, it is patent that Lord Macaulay's stric- 
 tures directed against Pitt's military failures are equally 
 fitted to be levelled at those of Lord Grenville's Whig 
 Government. 
 
 But the threatening aspect of Europe attracted all 
 Lord Howick's energies. 
 
 In the first place Prussia evinced hostility against 
 France, and her king put forth a manifesto which was 
 practically a declaration of war against Napoleon. 
 
 Metternich tells us that this was undoubtedly an out- 
 break of national feeling in Prussia,* but it does appear 
 a fatal error to have seen Austria crushed and Russia 
 cowed before taking the field. 
 
 Frederick William's manifesto was at once a justifica- 
 tion of Mr. Pitt's Continental policy, and a recantation 
 of the opinions forced by Napoleon on Prussia. French 
 politics, it affirmed, had been for fifteen years the scourge 
 of humanity. Holland, Switzerland, and Hanover, in their 
 
 :;: The young Prussian officers sharpened their swords on the 
 French ambassador's doorstep. 
 
IDS FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 then debased and depraved conditions, attested the truth 
 of all that had been affirmed against a system of usurpa- 
 tion and exaction. 
 
 The murder of the Duke d'Enghien had been 
 unavenged, and Prussia in particular laboured under 
 assumption of military sovereignty by France in portions 
 of her own dominions. Independence was but a name 
 under these oppressions, and the recurrence of such an 
 infringement of neutral territory as had occurred at 
 Anspach might be expected whenever Napoleon so 
 willed. 
 
 Prussia, on the other hand, as the paper affirmed, 
 had kept her faith with France, in return for which 
 she had been repaid by distrust, perfidy, and mortifying 
 indignity. 
 
 There was nothing in the above statements that was 
 not equally true in 1805, when Mr. Pitt, Lord Harrowby, 
 and Lord Mulgrave were striving to unite the Powers 
 on behalf of European liberty, or again in 1806, when 
 Mr. Fox uplifted his voice for Hanover. The concurrent 
 appearance of a Kussian proclamation showed the 
 German king to be morally allied to Alexander, even if 
 geographical distance was destined to preclude practical 
 advantage. Napoleon, who had been for some weeks on 
 the frontier, swooped down upon his prey with all the 
 advantages that superior forethought, strategy, and 
 numbers could give. Auerstadt and Jena" opened the 
 way to Berlin, from which city the unhappy Prussian 
 
 * Jena, 14th October 1806. 
 
LORD HO WICK (EARL GREY). 199 
 
 monarch, accompanied by a division of his army, had 
 fled towards the Oder and the advancing Kussian forces. 
 Defeat in detail was again to be the result of this new 
 uprising. Before proceeding on this march northwards 
 to meet Kussia and the remnant of the Prussian armies, 
 Napoleon announced to the world that he would make 
 no peace with England till he had deprived her of the 
 means of disturbing the tranquillity of the Continent any 
 more. 
 
 Thereupon he issued his famous Berlin decrees, for- 
 bidding any country under French influence to trade 
 with Great Britain, and ordering the imprisonment of 
 all English subjects dwelling under his power. 
 
 At home Government had dissolved Parliament, and 
 prepared to strengthen themselves by Parliamentary 
 refreshment for coping with events over which they 
 could, alas ! place no control. 
 
 The temper of the new Parliament was shown to be 
 exceedingly national, and it upheld the Government in 
 their foreign policy as a whole. The Opposition criticisms 
 on the conduct of the late negotiations with France 
 likewise fell through after a perusal of the official papers 
 subsequently submitted to Parliament, where it was 
 clearly demonstrated that in the French Senate docu- 
 ments had been suppressed which bore on the vital parts 
 of the controversy. 
 
 The original offer to negotiate came from France, 
 and the ensuing rupture was the consequence of a de- 
 parture from every principle to which she had previously 
 pledged herself. 
 
200 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 Lord Ho wick, moreover, enlightened Parliament on 
 the subject of the Prussian disasters. So infatuated 
 had been the Government of Prussia, that its resolution 
 to commence hostilities with France was not made 
 known at St. Petersburg until fifteen days before the 
 Prussian troops were crushed at Jena. The unprepared- 
 ness and confusion in the Eussian camp can be therefore 
 thoroughly accounted for. 
 
 The British Government early* submitted to Parlia- 
 ment their intention to issue Orders in Council as an 
 answer and reprisal to the Berlin Decrees, which had 
 not only placed Britain in general blockade, but rendered 
 her citizens liable to seizure in Napoleon's so-called 
 territory. The British reprisals enacted that no neutral 
 vessel should be permitted to trade between ports under 
 French control without liability to capture, whilst 
 British ships were likewise prohibited from so trading. 
 
 This action, leading as it did to cause of complaint 
 and ultimate quarrel with the United States, was, strange 
 to say, preceded by the transmission to America of a 
 treaty of commerce. The policy of this measure has 
 I H(iii questioned, but its subsequent ratification, and as 
 many thought undue extension, by the succeeding 
 Government has justified the Grenville-Howick action 
 in this matter. 
 
 At this moment Napoleon was absolute master from 
 the borders of Turkey to the banks of the Vistula ; 
 
 >:: 7th January 1807. 
 
LORD HO WICK (EARL GREY). 201 
 
 whilst not only were the naval stores of the Baltic open 
 to him, but the seafaring populations of Venice, Genoa, 
 Spain, Holland, and Prussia were at his beck. With 
 a population of at least fifty millions to draw his armies 
 of invasion from, it could not, therefore, have been 
 the passing campaign in Poland alone that occupied 
 the anxious minds of English ministers. 
 
 That temporary curtailment of trade fell heavily on 
 many an English merchant, but it became necessary for 
 Great Britain to ask special sacrifices from her sons in 
 pursuit of honour and safety, which she could leave no 
 stone unturned to obtain. 
 
 Tentative the measure must necessarily have been, 
 and its subsequent withdrawal was not effected until 
 French commerce and that of her allies had bitterly 
 repented the initiatory measures of commercial prohi- 
 bition on which, under Napoleon's guidance, they had 
 embarked. 
 
 On the 7th and 8th of February 1807, and after 
 previous skirmishes at Pultulsk and elsewhere, the 
 forces of Napoleon and Alexander met at Eylau. 
 
 The battle was most obstinately contested, and the 
 half-starved masses of Russians only left the field because 
 want of food made a retreat to the line of the Pregel an 
 absolute necessity. By the retiring Muscovites Prussian 
 Poland was denuded of the fruits of the earth. Carrying 
 little or no commissariat, the barbarian hordes that then 
 composed a Russian army slowly marched along, con- 
 suming every kind of provision, find, we may add, 
 spreading dirt and disease throughout the region of 
 
202 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 their encampment, and it is a fact that General 
 Beningzen, the Russian commander, the night before 
 Eylau, could obtain nothing to eat but a dish of boiled 
 potatoes.* 
 
 However, the Muscovite zeal and determination had 
 in no wise abated, and the Emperor sent his cavalry 
 guard to join the army in Poland, and otherwise rein- 
 forced an army which had not suffered discomfiture or 
 disorganisation in the field. 
 
 Such was the European position when Lord Grenville's 
 Government resigned the offices they had worthily 
 filled. 
 
 To particular and individual measures of this Adminis- 
 tration exception might doubtless be taken, but the 
 general tenor of Lord Howick's measures appears to have 
 been sound and patriotic. It is easy to found a plausible 
 theory to the detriment of the Whig Government, and to 
 found it upon the assumed alienation of Prussia and 
 Russia, who, according to Mr. Canning's Parliamentary 
 contention, might have been secured as allies by prompt 
 and decided action. This was very fully debated in 
 1807, and it was shown that, so far as Prussia was 
 concerned, her seizure of Hanover evinced an hostility 
 towards England on the part of her Government, which 
 it was impossible to explain away satisfactorily, even by 
 the notorious influence which Napoleon possessed, and 
 did not scruple to exercise. Russia, undoubtedly, looked 
 
 * Account of Sir Robert Wilson. 
 
LOED HO WICK (EAEL GREY). 203 
 
 for the subsidy without the granting of which in times 
 of European ferment and disorder Great Britain could 
 not hope to wage a Continental war with effect. This 
 policy, however, as we have stated hereafter, was 
 practically forced on Lord Howick. 
 
 An agreement cannot be here registered with the 
 conclusions of Sir Archibald Alison, who imputed the 
 disorganisation of the Continent and the ultimate defeat 
 of Eussia to British abstinence from European affairs. 
 Just before leaving office Lord Howick should, it was 
 urged, have made a great effort to support Alexander, 
 and so keep him from joining hands with Napoleon. But 
 granting, as every reader of history must, that Mr. Fox's 
 policy of refusing to subsidise Germany or Bussia repre- 
 sented the national feeling when a change of Govern- 
 ment occurred in 1806, how, we may ask, could a British 
 cabinet suddenly resolve to take a contrary course, and 
 carry out fresh plans, which depended for success on 
 alacrity such as telegraphic communication could only 
 have afforded ? 
 
 The original line of action chosen by the Whigs may 
 have been unwise, but it was forced on them by a 
 reaction caused by the conspicuous collapse which 
 had overtaken a contrary policy at Austerlitz. 
 
 Moreover, it is probable that nothing could have 
 prevented a temporary alliance between Napoleon and 
 Alexander. 
 
 Towards the close of 1807 Lord Howick was called 
 up to the House of Lords at the death of his father, a 
 distinguished officer, who had been prominent in the 
 American War, and so ennobled an ancient name. 
 
204 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 Lord Grey had previously married a daughter of 
 the first Lord Pousonby, of Imokilly, and retired into 
 the House of Lords, there in Opposition to sustain his own 
 peculiar and decided opinions for twenty-three years. 
 
 If the identical opinions of Mr. Fox were not repre- 
 sented by Lord Howick, there is no doubt that the name 
 of Lord Grey has been ever since looked upon as the 
 perpetuator of Whig traditions, recurring to most of us 
 in the form of old country gentlemen in blue coats 
 and gold buttons, together with memories of Althorpe 
 and the Pytchley hunt. 
 
 In Lord Grey's hands this great traditional power was 
 wielded mainly on behalf of justice and humanity, but, 
 to reach a conclusion, the noble Lord's mind had to pass 
 through a logical and theoretical process, which some • 
 times was ill-adapted to the practical needs of the 
 moment. 
 
 It is scarcely possible to consider each abstract 
 question in politics and not to connect it to a degree 
 with events of the past. Lord Grey's rooted distrust of 
 Mr. Canning is a case in point. The noble Lord seems 
 to have believed that Mr. Canning's reflections on the 
 conduct of his predecessor in the Foreign Office were 
 in 1808 disingenuous, and therefore unjust. But it is 
 impossible for the historian not to perceive, even in 
 querulous and purposeless recrimination, a repetition of 
 the conduct which animated the Whig party after Pitt's 
 death, when, as described in the words of one present, 
 the strife was bitter to a degree. 
 
 Mr. Canning, be it also remembered, was defending 
 his own policy when led to carry the war into his 
 
LORD HO WICK (EARL GREY). 205 
 
 enemies' territory, It is certainly difficult to justify the 
 morality of Sir John Duckworth's attack on Turkey any 
 more than that upon Denmark, unless each venture can 
 be proved necessary and not merely expedient on account 
 of national safety. This was the contention, combined 
 with a charge of having meditated a similar raid upon 
 Lisbon, that irritated Lord Grey against Mr. Canning. 
 That the latter statesman was inclined to find fault 
 somewhat prematurely, can be shown by his remark on 
 this occasion when lamenting the omission of an allusion 
 to the battle of Maida in the King's Speech, a special 
 motion on this subject having been prepared by Mr. 
 Windham. 
 
 Few can ponder over the domestic measures recom- 
 mended by the ministry of which Lord Howick was so 
 moving a spirit, and not regret that their term of office 
 was shortened by circumstances which, perhaps, would 
 have proved fatal to any Whig ministry during 
 George III.'s active rule.* 
 
 * When, in 1786, Mr. Pitt put the finances in order, lie esta- 
 blished a Sinking Fund by placing annually aside one million, derived 
 from an estimated surplus of £900,000, the remainder to be pro- 
 vided annually by taxation. To this fund he hoped to add the 
 annuities falling in from time to time, and one tenth of any sums 
 borrowed by the State for war or other purposes. This sum of 
 money was to accumulate at compound interest — as Mr. Pitt cal- 
 culated — with determinate and accelerated velocity, and be applicable 
 for the gradual extinction of the National Debt. To confine its use 
 to this object the fund was to be vested in certain commissioners. 
 
 Mr. Fox quite concurred in the wisdom of this measure, but 
 argued that Parliament could abrogate any measure, and the 
 inriolflbility of the fund would therefore be subject to the will of 
 a powerful finance minister. 
 
206 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 When Mr. Pitt by his talents and courage had re- 
 lieved England from the too powerful sway of the Whig 
 families, he was perforce driven to strengthen the 
 kingly prerogative. 
 
 It is impossible to read the history of Mr. Pitt's, Lord 
 G-renville's, and the Duke of Portland's last administration 
 without coining to the conclusion that England was then 
 a limited monarchy in the true sense of the word, but 
 that the power of the Sovereign's will had, so to speak, 
 
 In 1786 the Sinking Fund was only ^is of the whole debt, but 
 in 180G it was as much as J^ of the then national indebtedness. 
 
 So far, therefore, Mr. Pitt's calculations were fully justified by 
 this remarkable financial result attained in twenty years. 
 
 Sir Archibald Alison tells us that if the Sinking Fund had not 
 been infringed on by any Chancellor of the Exchequer before 1846, 
 the whole National Debt would then have been paid off at that 
 time. Be that as it may, in 1807 Lord Henry Petty, the youthful 
 Whig Chancellor of the Exchequer, proposed a scheme devised on 
 the hypothesis that war was to be the normal condition of Great 
 Britain for many years, and that heavier taxation would soon 
 become impossible. It infringed the principle of raising all interest 
 within the year, and proposed to mortgage the war taxes in future 
 years. It cannot be urged that either party would have stood by 
 Pitt's and Fox's rule that debt deferred cannot be debt discharged, 
 as the Opposition plan propounded by Lord Castlereagh would have 
 infringed the same principle and touched the Sinking Fund sooner 
 than Lord Henry Petty 's. 
 
 This abrogation of the financial maxims of Pitt and Fox, 
 which ultimately got our finance into considerable confusion, was 
 therefore determined on directly those great statesmen were in 
 their graves. 
 
 The financial power of the nation had so much to do with its 
 conduct of the war, that we mention this fact to show how anxious 
 were statesmen, one and all, as to the sinews of war when, as in 
 England, the limit of taxation was believed to have been reached. 
 
LORD HOWICK (EARL GREY). 207 
 
 reasserted itself, and attained an equality unsurpassed 
 by Lords and Commons, which has been found incom- 
 patible with more modern theories of Parliamentary 
 government. For the benefit and fame of Great 
 Britain, it may have been well that such balance existed, 
 but the prerogative was undoubtedly exercised to limit 
 civil and religious liberty. 
 
 An implied promise had been given by Pitt, Corn- 
 wallis, and Castlereagh, when they concluded the union 
 with Ireland, that measures of Catholic relief should 
 follow. 
 
 On the principle, moreover, that unity is strength 
 it seemed absurd to place men under penalties when 
 you relied on their allegiance, and on this argument 
 Lord Howick relied when he submitted his measure to 
 Parliament. 
 
 However, the King persistently refused to concur, 
 and the general election that shortly followed proved the 
 constituencies of those days to be enthusiastic in his 
 support. George III. lived many years too late for 
 carrying out any prolonged opposition to the nation's 
 will, but, as in this case, he inflamed their prejudices, 
 and concurred in the perpetuation of a system admittedly 
 behind the times. 
 
 Lord Howick appears to have believed that a stormy 
 interview with the King had not passed without the 
 Sovereign yielding the outworks at least of his position, 
 but when the ministry, as we have forecasted, proposed 
 to Parliament the relaxing of certain military disabilities 
 which they considered necessary in the then state of war, 
 George III. not only refused to concur, but has since 
 
208 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 been proved to have straightway corresponded with the 
 Duke of Portland, who undertook to form an Administra- 
 tion and ignore the Roman Catholic claims altogether. 
 
 Lord Howick's was no ordinary character, for the due 
 understanding of which the social and political gleanings 
 of Holland House might be searched, and yet the great 
 Whig noble's views and aspirations remain misunder- 
 stood. 
 
 That his was a single-minded and disinterested spirit 
 no reader of history can deny, and that it was beautified 
 by that fidelity in friendship and amiability in private 
 which has gained credit and admiration for the political 
 party with whom he acted, is also certain. 
 
 As Foreign Secretary he strove hard to maintain the 
 honour of England, whilst in Opposition he ventured 
 on unflinching criticisms directed against measures he 
 believed to be unwise ; and if the verdict of history must 
 sometimes be adverse to his judgment, there is ample 
 reason for granting full forgiveness even where error 
 is most palpable. 
 
 Lord Grenville, rather than Lord Grey, gave vent to 
 the feelings of the two Whig noblemen as to the attack 
 on Copenhagen, and it is difficult not to recognise in Lord 
 Howick's Foreign Secretaryship reason for this silence, 
 together with a justification for possible decisive action 
 not reconcilable with strict interpretation of inter- 
 national law ; provided that such exceptional conduct 
 were only adopted when the safety of England herself 
 was in question, or in the case of a renewed naval com- 
 bination (such as that in which Denmark was to be 
 forced by France to participate) ; and again, when, as at 
 
LORD HOWICK (EARL GREY). 209 
 
 Constantinople in 1806, the stronghold of Eastern 
 Europe was apparently about to be delivered into hostile 
 and all-powerful hands. 
 
 Following the lead of Lord Grenville, but accentuating 
 that nobleman's arguments with forcible and illustrative 
 comments, Lord Grey consecutively condemned the 
 expedition to the Scheldt (founded, as he declared it to 
 be, on a design submitted to himself when Foreign 
 Secretary and rejected as impracticable), and the 
 Peninsula War, both in its inception and mode of 
 operation ; carrying his criticism so far, indeed, as to 
 appear desirous both to comment on military matters 
 and to be trenching on the dangerous ground of political 
 prophecy. 
 
 It is, however, fair to Lord Grey to say that, at the 
 moment we were attacking Antwerp and the Scheldt, 
 Sir Arthur Wellesley was protesting his inability to 
 proceed into Spain, from a lack of transport and 
 commissariat, which contemporary observers naturally 
 set down exclusively to inefficient home management, 
 but which history has declared to have been attributable 
 neither to inadequate numbers nor feeble organisation, 
 but to the difficulties inseparable from England and 
 Spain working together in the field without one uniform 
 system. When Wellington became Captain-General of 
 the Spanish armies this difficulty became mitigated, and 
 the efforts of Mr. Dundas, Lords Liverpool and Bathurst 
 at the War Office bore their natural fruit in the shape 
 of improved means of transport and supply, although, as 
 will be afterwards shown, the want of specie remained a 
 difficulty until the last. 
 
 I. 14+- 
 
210 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 It must not, however, be forgotten, and in justice to 
 Lord Grey's memory due prominence should here be 
 given to the fact that he chose the precise moment 
 when Wellington needed encouragement from all parties 
 at home, to own (and proclaim from his place in Par- 
 liament) both the judgment formed after Talavera to 
 have been mistaken, and to acknowledge that England 
 had at last found a general worthy of the high spirit 
 which animated her people. 
 
 The impression prevailing on Lord Grey's mind as to 
 the treaties of 1814 and 1815 will account for the oppo- 
 sition which he, in common with Brougham and others, 
 directed against Lord Castlereagh's foreign policy. He 
 states in a letter to Lord Brougham,* written at the end 
 of December 1815 : — " Of the execrable principle of 
 these treaties, and the scandalous fraud by which the 
 country has been led on to support measures the real 
 object of which has not only been concealed but denied 
 — the public will take no heed if they can only enter- 
 tain a hope of a continuance of peace, and if not of a 
 diminution of their burdens, at least that they will not 
 be augmented. But if the people can be made to under- 
 stand that our triumphs have produced no security, that 
 we must support a ruinous establishment in peace to 
 maintain our guaranty of the Bourbons — with the risk of 
 a new war and all its consequences, if the French should 
 again rise against them— I think it still possible that 
 something may be done." 
 
 * Memoirs of the Life and Times of Lord Brougham, written by 
 himself, vol. ii. p. 301. 
 
LORD HOWIGS (EARL GREY). 211 
 
 Lord Grey was then writing under a misapprehension 
 which the logic of events speedily removed, but it is well 
 that such mistaken forecasts should be clearly shown 
 never to have possessed solidity, and in justice to Lord 
 Liverpool and the members of his Government promi- 
 nence should be afforded to the facts as unfolded by 
 history. It is, however, worthy of remark that when 
 Napoleon escaped from Elba in 1815, and violated the 
 Treaty of Fontainebleau, Lord Grey supported Lord 
 Liverpool's Government in a renewal of the war. 
 
 The settlement of the Catholic emancipation was of 
 necessity a cause of satisfaction to him who of all others 
 had suffered politically from its remaining an open 
 question, as but for his scruples on this head it is clear 
 that office was again and again open to Lord Grey. 
 
 Lord Teignmouth, in his Reminiscences, grants the 
 palm of eloquence during the final debates in the House 
 of Peers to Lord Grey. 
 
 He speaks as follows : — " Of the orators who dis- 
 tinguished themselves in these remarkable debates, the 
 palm of eloquence must be assigned to Lord Grey. A 
 standard-bearer in the cause of civil and religious liberty, 
 he was denied the prospect of the promised land till he 
 had shared with his followers the way-worn weariness of 
 the desert, and the discouragement of repeated defeats. 
 . . . And now the passage of the intervening Jordan 
 devolved on the leadership of one who had not borne the 
 heat and burden of the day. Yet no invidious reference 
 to past shortcomings, no niggardly grudging of present 
 recompense, sullied the loyalty of the allegiance or the 
 sincerity of the tribute which he tendered to his more 
 
 14 * 
 
212 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 fortunate rival. And whether he reminded his brother 
 peers, as he pointed to the historical tapestry which 
 adorned the walls of their House, of the immortal 
 achievements which rescued them from the threatened 
 thraldom of Spain and its Inquisition ; or congratulated 
 the hero of a hundred battles on his crowning vindica- 
 tion of the rights of conscience, — the heroic strain of the 
 veteran statesman's eloquence was worthy of the speaker 
 and of the occasion." 
 
 Lord Teignmouth also tells a characteristic story of 
 the Whig leader during the agitation of 1819, who, when 
 answered somewhat roughly and contemptuously by the 
 Devonshire nobleman, Lord Rolle, to the effect that if 
 the cap of demagogic disturbance fitted he was welcome 
 to wear it, drew himself up to the full extent of his 
 stately figure, and told the noble Lord that if he charged 
 him as accessory to the disorders in question, the 
 imputation was false. Lord Teignmouth's evidence is 
 the more valuable inasmuch as, being a diligent collector 
 of historic facts, he himself witnessed many of the 
 scenes which he described. 
 
 His volumes will, moreover, be found as far removed 
 from partisanship as they are replete with interest.* 
 
 It would be misleading to interpret Lord Grey's 
 exclamation made to Mrs. Manners Sutton (and 
 noticed in the Wellington Despatches) as betokening 
 any doubt as to the wisdom of his reforming course. 
 Rather should we read between the lines of passing 
 
 :;: Reminiscences of Lord Teignmottth, 2 vols. (David. Douglas, 
 Edinburgh.) 
 
LORD HO WICK (EARL GREY). 213 
 
 events, and decipher other causes for alarm which might 
 lead the most determined minister to pause. He saw 
 society stirred to its very depths by an agitation likely to 
 degenerate into riotous and seditious conduct amongst 
 the less-educated classes, who clamoured for admission 
 into the constitutional pale. To quiet the storm he 
 feared to be forced to wield powers unused before in 
 England's history, and to be compelled to use them 
 against the privileges, if not the very existence, of his 
 own order. 
 
 No one can believe that the aristocracy of England 
 could have retained equal caste after a wholesale swamp- 
 ing of their votes by a creation of Peers. 
 
 All this was on the anxious mind of England's 
 minister, who, may be, for the moment saw more vividly 
 the wrongs and inequalities of his poorer countrymen than 
 the rights of those — dear to him as they were— who had 
 jealously cherished liberty for all classes in the kingdom. 
 But the hour had arrived when men desired to burst the 
 leading-strings of mere class prejudice, and exercise 
 power in the proportion which they contributed 
 towards national prosperity, and desired to do so, as 
 after-experience has shown, with an abiding desire to 
 preserve our National Constitution. 
 
 Lord Grey might well hesitate before setting rival, 
 and to a degree unknown, forces into action. He was, 
 perforce, called on to make a leap in the dark quite as 
 much as his celebrated colleague (the fourteenth Lord 
 Derby) who shuddered thirty-six years afterwards when 
 about to make a fresh departure in the direction of 
 enfranchising the semi-educated thousands. 
 
214 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 A picture is extant of Lord Grey meditating resigna- 
 tion, when the Lords' opposition placed such alternative 
 before him in competition with a creation of Peers or an 
 abandonment of the Bill. 
 
 Hay don, the artist, has in a striking manner delineated 
 England's Prime Minister in the official room at Down- 
 ing Street. Care is imprinted on those interesting 
 features, whose meditative cast struggles with a native 
 benignity nothing could suppress. All the comforts of 
 life are around, and a cheerful fire throws its glow 
 over all. " Shall I resign ? " is the question asked, and 
 answered as we know in the affirmative, even if patriotism 
 bade him put on harness once more, and complete the 
 task he of all men was best fitted to undertake. 
 
 The justification of his action is written in the after- 
 page of English history, and while it is open to believe 
 that the change might have come with greater benefit if 
 conferred after the institution of national education, 
 there is hope that warning may yet be taken by the 
 nation as to the danger of entrusting its destinies to 
 those unfit to guide them. 
 
 If one element bids fair to usurp more than its share 
 in governing the England of a future century, it is 
 education. Bank has ruled the country. Wealth now 
 holds a not altogether unwholesome influence in deter- 
 mining the counsels of England, but education is, we 
 believe, destined to eclipse either by the brightness of 
 the rays which both parties in the State are ready to 
 diffuse. This change will be welcome to all, if only the 
 influence of religion is maintained, and statesmanship be 
 called to guide us but through a restricted period of 
 
LORD HOWICK (EARL GREY). 215 
 
 crisis before England's steps advance in the light 
 of day. May we not venture to hope that fidelity to 
 religion and respect for her Constitution may still make 
 it possible to extol and justify that first step in the new 
 direction, taken by the statesman whose character we 
 have been contemplating. 
 
 That Lord Grey's scheme of electoral reform, fore- 
 shadowed by Pitt, was not engrafted on the statute book 
 in the modified form which the circumstances of 1807 
 would have warranted, is of itself a disaster which years 
 of peace failed to compensate. 
 
 The change had to be made at a time when an alter- 
 native of revolution stared us in the face. 
 
 The captain who takes command of a ship struggling 
 in the trough of the sea is not responsible when he 
 brings his vessel into port somewhat shattered. It is 
 enough that he has guided her through the storm. 
 Hence it will be that generations yet untold will honour- 
 ably connect the name of Grey with the great Reform 
 Bill of 1831-32. 
 
 It is characteristic of the old Whig party, and of Earl 
 Grey as one of their greatest leaders, that he, when 
 minister, should have never hesitated at all hazards 
 to discourage extreme opinions amongst his followers, 
 an example which may safely be followed by any 
 minister, Whig or Tory, Conservative or Liberal, 
 who desires to retain the confidence of the British 
 nation. Not that it would be possible even to 
 revert to tne maxims of the first political reformers of 
 1832. 
 
 The old times have long passed into days of riper 
 
216 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 freedom, and in turn these constitutional rights are 
 dissolving into a degree of liberty which a majority 
 (including many of the wisest amongst us) hail with 
 delight and confidence. The greater, then, must remain 
 the responsibility of statesmen whose province it is to 
 guide these great political forces. 
 
 One page of Lord Grey's life claims a notice at our 
 hands. His watchfulness over the public purse was 
 constant. Whether in Opposition as Mr. Grey, when 
 during the years 1795-96 he first desired to limit the 
 Prince of Wales's increased allowance — as proposed by 
 Mr. Pitt— repudiate his debts, and call on the most 
 exalted person in the realm to contribute towards their 
 liquidation — (in the latter of the two above-mentioned 
 years, he went so far as to threaten an impeachment 
 against Mr. Pitt for the subsidising of the Continent 
 without making a detailed financial explanation to 
 Parliament) — or during succeeding years of unremitting 
 opposition submit to discouraging defeats, his attitude 
 remained unchanged. Such public action may have 
 had, as history shows, a two-fold influence. 
 
 It may have, on the whole, restrained expense, and 
 so saved England from over-stepping the mark, and 
 trusting too much to the elasticity of resources, which, 
 we shall show in this volume, were in official quarters 
 believed to have been ultimately strained to the utmost. 
 One cannot then but believe that to Mr. Grey's bold 
 advocacy as the mouthpiece of a determined minority, 
 must be granted the merit of having preserved a healthy 
 financial balance, even if his efforts were unavailing to 
 destroy a system of policy proved to be alone adopted to 
 
LORD HOWICK (EARL GREY) . 217 
 
 the special occasion for which it was devised, and we 
 state this in spite of early failures and disappointments 
 inseparable from the circumstances which accompanied 
 the resistance of Napoleon's aggressions on neighbouring 
 nations. The earlier coalitions failed, it is true, and 
 failed conspicuously, but he would be a bold man who 
 cared to urge, with the facts before him, that in 1813 
 the Allies could have had the remotest chance, either of 
 unity or victory, without British gold had been freely 
 and judiciously spent on behalf of the common cause. 
 
 We know that the theory of such subsidising is now un- 
 popular and voted out of date ; but if (which God forbid) 
 the conditions of 1813 should re-appear, he will be an 
 indifferent friend to Great Britain who shall counsel the 
 paralysing of her great and matchless source of strength 
 which, in combination with the determination of her chil- 
 dren, could alone place her on a footing with the conscrip- 
 tions and increasing hosts by whom she is surrounded. 
 
 Well indeed may our statesmen, warned by the past, 
 desire to nurse our financial strength in times of peace. 
 
 Mr. Grey, then, did good service when he essayed to 
 place a moral check on lavish expense, whilst he failed 
 to render Mr. Pitt that credit which his discernment of 
 England's power deserved. 
 
 The same feeling in favour of retrenchment un- 
 doubtedly existed in Lord Grey's mind when the Spanish 
 war commenced. It is with regret that we recur to the 
 notice of that Parliamentary action, because alone of all 
 Lord Grey's public endeavours, it seems to us to have 
 threatened to work permanent ill for England, made as 
 it was when — as Mr. Hayward, in his fascinating work 
 
218 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 entitled Statesmen and Eminent Writers (vol. i. p. 442), 
 tells us — the British troops were in danger of being with- 
 drawn from the Peninsula, and Napoleon left free to 
 concentrate his enmity against England. 
 
 But Sir William Napier's history, much as it is open 
 to differ with his political conclusion, has at least put 
 forward reasonable justification at once for the under- 
 current of public opinion and the Opposition action. 
 
 The conduct of Lord Grey on this occasion must be 
 taken together with that of Lord Grenville, and judged 
 accordingly. The two statesmen deliberately believed it 
 to be impossible to save Portugal, even if in the attempt 
 an English army suffered effacement. They, moreover, 
 considered that such an effort would involve financial 
 exertions beyond the scale that even England's resources 
 warranted her in attempting to sustain. 
 
 With this belief they were clearly within the province 
 of their position, as Opposition leaders, in placing the 
 case as they conceived it to stand before the people. 
 They made no allowance, be it remembered, for military 
 genius such as Wellington developed, gauging such talent 
 by that which had served the nation in earlier stages of 
 the war. They moreover sarcastically and unsparingly 
 condemned the faults of detail which added expense 
 to the first proclamation of Britain's mission in the 
 Peninsula, and in so doing fostered in their own minds 
 an antagonism to Mr. Canning, which, in Lord Grey's case 
 at least, was never entirely effaced. If he was mistaken 
 as to the result of the Peninsula contest, it can only be 
 said that others were either more fortunate in forecasting 
 events, or had better gauged the conditions of strife. 
 
LORD HOWICK (EARL GREY). 219 
 
 Party feeling as an explanation should be scouted by 
 all who have studied Lord Grey's noble and disinterested 
 nature, which had a single eye to the honour of England 
 and the happiness of the millions who inhabited this 
 island. 
 
 A remarkable feature in the Whig minister's foreign 
 policy was from first to last his apprehension of the 
 necessity for watching carefully over the English interests 
 in Turkey. 
 
 Whether by sending Sir John Duckworth to the 
 Dardanelles in 180G, or by the influence of his voice in 
 Parliament in February 1829, when he condemned 
 alike the Treaty of Adrianople and the untoward event * 
 of Navarino, as contrary to the interests of England, or 
 again during his own Premiership in 1831-34, one 
 universal sentiment as to the necessity of maintaining 
 British influence at Constantinople was prominent, being 
 that which has animated every responsible Englishman 
 who has studied the question. It is true that in conse- 
 quence of unexpected demands made elsewhere in Europe, 
 and in consequence of a somewhat cheese paring economy 
 which prevailed after the Reform Bill, we were unable to 
 send men-of-war to succour Sultan Mahmoud, when 
 pressed by Mehemet Ali in 1833, but the inability, when 
 it was recognised, must — judging by all his public 
 professions — have been as distressing to Lord Grey, as 
 we know it was to his colleague and Foreign Secretary— 
 Lord Palmerston. 
 
 It was not so much, as those who knew Lord Grey best 
 
 * Annual Register, 1829. 
 
220 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 say, that he desired the absolute integrity of the Ottoman 
 Empire to become a watchword in the mouths of English 
 statesmen, as that he dreaded any attempt to turn the 
 Turks out of Europe, as, humanly speaking, certain to 
 be accompanied by scenes of bloodshed and inhumanity. 
 The opinion, therefore, which is imputed to him in the 
 Wellington Despatches to the effect that he held, in 
 common with Mr. Fox, a desire to expel the Turks 
 from Europe, is proved from undoubted authority to have 
 been mistaken, even if its incorrectness had not been 
 manifested by Lord Grey's public conduct. 
 
 Lord Grey spent much of his life at his beloved 
 Ho wick, after the final peace of Paris in 1815. 
 
 Differences with Lord Grenville on foreign policy had 
 thrown him much amongst the home occupations of an 
 English nobleman ; but it is remarkable that under the 
 most depressed political conditions the Whig leaders by 
 no means gave themselves up to constant and hopeless 
 opposition, but resorted to the refined occupations which 
 their minds eminently qualified them to enjoy. 
 
 There remains (so far as his conduct in Opposition is 
 concerned) but the repugnance of Lord Grey to support 
 Mr. Canning's Government in 1827. 
 
 The famous speech which the Earl made on that 
 occasion conveyed, from his point of view, the anomaly 
 of a minister who, as he declared, had for more than 
 half a century supported every invasion of civil liberty, 
 yet attracting towards him the more Liberal elements 
 which a fast changing condition of thought and opinion 
 made necessary for the carrying on of Government. 
 
 Each political leader, strange to say, saw his followers 
 
LORD HO WICK (EARL GREY). 221 
 
 deserting into rival camps, or standing aloof in doubtful 
 neutrality. 
 
 Well might the Eeformer, who had borne the burden 
 and heat of the struggle, look with doubt upon the great 
 orator chosen over his head to be Minister of England. 
 How well can one imagine the feelings of those friends 
 who knew the innermost desires of each, and longed to 
 combine their talents on behalf of the common good. 
 
 Few of us live who have not known what it is to wish 
 that the most intimate and trusted of our acquaintances 
 may be brought into the close converse which their 
 tastes and opinions fit them to enjoy. But when the 
 attempt is made to effect such conjuncture of sympathies, 
 may be under every advantage which society affords — the 
 approach between the two individuals has not only 
 appeared cold and formal, but has possibly never advanced 
 beyond a certain point. How bitterly have we regretted 
 our inability to join them in attachment whose spirits 
 we know to share so much in common. 
 
 Such indeed must have been the prevailing sentiment 
 of those who, overlooking all passing prejudice or party 
 feeling, saw in 1827 Lord Grey and Mr. Canning the 
 national leaders of the English people. 
 
 During the next few chapters we hope to familiarise 
 our readers with the career of that great foreign minister 
 whom Lord Grey so profoundly distrusted, and whose 
 secret and more philosophical views on statesmanship 
 and its application to English needs were probably never 
 known to his Whig contemporary. 
 
 Indeed, " strangers yet " must have been recorded of 
 the two statesmen by those who sought a common 
 
222 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OE THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 platform for their actions at issue. It is, however, 
 characteristic of the gradually progressive public opinion 
 of those times to learn from no less an authority than 
 the late Sir Henry Buhver, that, in his opinion, but 
 for the elevation of Mr. Canning to the Premiership and 
 the concomitant re -arrangement of parties, Lord Grey's 
 great Reform Act never could have been proposed when 
 it took legislative shape, and the crowning achievement 
 of our hero's career have been rendered uncertain of 
 accomplishment during his lifetime. It is, however, 
 strange to reflect that in 1807 Mr. Canning had made 
 the self- same error which, on the occasion in question, 
 we believe Lord Grey to have participated in. We 
 mean that uncompromisingly and without hesitation he 
 repudiated the policy of his opponents. 
 
 When Mr. Canning moved to substitute an entirely 
 fresh King's Speech for that of the Grenville-Howick 
 Government, he was pronouncing a censure which 
 historians cannot endorse who study the questions at 
 issue. 
 
 Lord Russell has narrated how distasteful return to 
 office was to Lord Grey in 1831. It was, therefore, 
 pure patriotism that led him to engage in the task of 
 reforming Parliament, and thus entering on a bitter 
 political contest.* 
 
 ::: Before the Reform Bill, glimpses of Lord Grey are afforded us 
 in Mr. Trevelyan's life of Lord Macaulay. We are told of the 
 Prime Minister carrying the sword of state at William IV. 's 
 coronation, the very incarnation of aristocratic dignity. Again 
 we see him the favoured guest at Holland House interceding for 
 Lord Holland, who desired to be allowed a slice of melon, which 
 his better half denied him on account of the gout ; whilst finally 
 
LORD HO WICK (EARL GREY). 223 
 
 Lord Grey's last official act as minister was to deal a 
 death blow to the expiring slave trade, and so complete 
 the policy initiated in 1807. 
 
 the stately society of Downing Street opens its portals to the 
 reader, and we learn how completely the Earl was a link between 
 that aristocracy which the English people deliberately elect to a 
 share of Government, and the popular aspirations so deeply 
 stirred in those anxious times. But the Earl's own words will at 
 this crisis best convey his thoughts and ideas. He spoke as follows 
 for the second reading of the Eeform Bill : " I have throughout 
 endeavoured not to say one word which would excite angry feelings 
 or add excitement to — I wish I could say — dying animosities. If 
 I have done so, I disclaim it as being remote from my intention. 
 But consider well what may be the effect of a rejection of this Bill. 
 You have seen and you have felt how much the public interests 
 have been affected by the long-continued anxiety and suspense in 
 which the public mind has been held — how much its commercial 
 transactions, domestic interests, its foreign relations have all 
 
 sustained injury more or less It was, perhaps, the 
 
 unavoidable consequence of conflicting opinions on a great measure 
 
 of constitutional policy But if you reject the Bill, will 
 
 the question be set at rest? Let who will be the minister, 
 
 another must be introduced. Then follows another period of 
 suspense and agitation, exempt, I trust, from violence and tumult, 
 but still prejudicial to the interests and tranquillity of the country. 
 To myself everything depends upon it. Having introduced the 
 measure, I have endeavoured to conduct it with a steady adherence 
 to its principles, and to the views upon which I had originally 
 acted. I have been exposed to much injustice, to many, I will 
 confidently say, undeserved attacks, to much misrepresentation, 
 and, I must add, to much suspicion, from which I should have 
 thought I might have been protected. But I have not been 
 deterred from doing what I thought right. In the event of 
 failure, a personal responsibility rests upon me which, perhaps, 
 never was before sustained by any former minister. I may sink 
 imder it, but that is nothing. I shall have the support of an 
 approving conscience, which has always instructed me to do what 
 is right and leave the consequences to God." 
 
224 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 The after -rest which he thus earned was gratefully 
 spent in his loved Northumberland. 
 
 Lord G-renville at Dropmore, and Lord Grey at 
 Howick, are described to us as in enjoyment of all that 
 makes life worth living. Blest with ample means and 
 cultivated minds, happy in their homes, honoured and 
 respected by their friends, there could exist no more fit 
 conjunctures of the mens sana in cor pore sano than is 
 evidenced by these two remarkable men. Those familiar 
 with the contents of the volume containing the life and 
 opinions of Earl Grey, will remember his constant 
 anxiety to return home to participate in pleasant rides 
 above the wild sea coast, and other home pleasures 
 there fully described. 
 
 These delights were indeed the reward of anxious care 
 in Lord Grey's case. He had battled with the prejudices 
 of his own caste, and incurred political enmity which 
 was inseparable from the violence of the passions raging 
 over a controversy which imperilled the domestic peace 
 of England. 
 
 The third Lord Holland's lines, however, evince 
 
 the tone of feeling which Grey's merits had generated 
 
 amongst political and personal adherents : — 
 
 " Nephew to Fox and friend to Grey, 
 Enough my meed of fame, 
 If those who 've deigned to watch me say 
 I 've tarnished neither name." 
 
 Earl Grey died in 1845, at the age of eighty-one. 
 
n > ■> i 
 
 -> i i ■> ■> i 
 

 I f • • * t a 
 
 am • 
 
 
 
 ■ 
 
 ffil 
 
225 
 
 g$o!{g$ d^KKiK^- 
 
 We are told that we have heen successful because the principles on which 
 war was undertaken has been renounced. I know of no such change. We 
 have not succeeded by adopting new maxims of policy, but by upholding, 
 under all varieties of" difficulty and discouragement, old-established, and 
 inviolable principles of conduct.— Spoken at Liverpool at the close of the great 
 French war, January 10, 1814. 
 
 March 1807 to September 1809. 
 
 OKD STRATFORD DE REDCLIFFE* 
 
 shortly before his death contributed 
 materials of great value concerning the 
 early life of George Canning, whose 
 Etonian delight in classical studies, and 
 in the periods of Grecian glory, was, 
 as the writer in effect remarks, the sentiment of a career, 
 and it was granted to the matured statesman to give life 
 to his own boyish aspirations. 
 
 As a youth the ludicrous and satirical flowed naturally 
 from his pen, whilst solid argument was conspicuous 
 in his writing, an element tending towards literary 
 
 * Nineteenth Century, January 1880. 
 
 I* 
 
 15 
 
226 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 completeness which is uncommon in the early pro- 
 ductions of youthful genius. 
 
 Probably no individual has ever derived greater 
 advantage from Eton than did George Canning. His 
 peculiar talents fitted him to shine conspicuously on an 
 arena where Fox had languished, but which was yet 
 destined to train the energies of other eminent men, as 
 it previously had those of Grey and Grenville. (The 
 great Duke of Wellington— Lord Wellesley, Lord 
 Melbourne, the late Lord Derby, and Mr. Gladstone, 
 were all Etonians.) Lord Dalling tells us that Eton 
 developed in George Canning all his natural propensities. 
 He was even there regarded as a born statesman. 
 
 The advantage of a fine presence and of a natural 
 delivery are great in public speaking. They came to 
 Canning unbidden, and were even observed in boyhood. 
 It is open to anyone to linger near that monument in 
 Westminster Abbey, and trace the high forehead and 
 erect figure which stands near the grave of England's 
 great Foreign Minister, and so convince themselves 
 of the nobility which belonged naturally to his person. 
 
 Sprung from an ancient English family, some of whom 
 lie buried in the grand old church of St. Mary, Redcliff, 
 Bristol (which city, moreover, has more than one spot 
 called after the name since rendered so famous*), 
 Mr. Canning yet was another notable instance of the 
 many distinguished men whose birthplace has been in 
 Ireland, his more immediate part of the family tree 
 
 * It is there spelt Canynge, whilst the word Redcliff has no 
 final e. 
 
GEOEGE CANNING. ^27 
 
 having thither migrated, and are now represented by 
 Lord Garvagh. Lord Stratford de Kedcliffe's father 
 provided for the education and advantages the young 
 Canning received ; and his uncle possessing political 
 sympathies, allied to what we now consider the creed of 
 an old Whig, the nephew became, as Lord Dalling tells 
 us in his Historical Characters, the representative of that 
 shade of opinion in the school debating society. On 
 Montem days, it also appears, he was the show-boy of 
 master and student, and in the above volume the Etonian 
 of the period is represented as saying, "Look, papa; 
 that good-looking fellow is Canning. Such a clever 
 chap, but a horrible Whig. How he does give it Pitt ! " 
 
 But it came to pass that the latter minister, exercising 
 the perspicuity which characterized his career, heard of 
 the abilities which at Oxford had not belied his school 
 promise. At the University his opinions, may be, 
 became more advanced, and his name a rallying- 
 point for those young men of talent who believed 
 that a new era of Liberal opinion was about to 
 dawn, when George III. was in the full swing of his 
 kingly prerogative. It was, however, at this period that 
 he inaugurated a life-long friendship with Lord Liverpool. 
 
 George Canning was born in 1770, and in 1793, 
 his education being complete and the idea of a 
 lawyer's life discarded, Mr. Pitt, through a private 
 channel, asked for an interview with the young man 
 of promise, who, yielding to the blandishments of 
 one whose personal influence was unbounded, accepted 
 the offer which was to bring him into Parliament as a 
 Government supporter. Nor is this to be wondered 
 
 15 * 
 
228 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 at, when, on reflection, we learn how thoroughly in 
 accordance with the true dictates of that liherty (from 
 first to last dear to George Canning's heart) was the 
 policy of the minister, who, to use Sir Henry Bulwer's 
 words, repudiated the desecration of freedom which the 
 moh rulers of Paris had made part and parcel of a 
 vicious system of Government. 
 
 Hence it came to pass that the Whig leaders were 
 disappointed of the young man of promise, who, 
 Sheridan hoasted, would soon supply an antidote to 
 the successful opening speech of Mr. Jenkinson, the 
 future statesman and Prime Minister. 
 
 Canning suffered more than other Party leaders from 
 a natural instability of temperament, which forbad easy 
 acquiescence in political discomfiture, and herein lay his 
 weakness. He could never rest unless he had carried 
 the war into the enemies' country, and both crushed the 
 arguments and silenced the tongues of his opponents. 
 More often than not, it was within his power to rule the 
 storm ; but on special occasions events fought against 
 him, and under these circumstances he writhed under 
 the pain of disappointment. He was not, in the ordinary 
 sense of the words, a party man, but he fought hard for 
 principles which he held to be right and true. Mr. Pitt 
 was his model, and to fulfil the mission of that political 
 guide remained his constant object. 
 
 Mr. Canning has left on record his impressions when 
 first making a speech in the House of Commons, and 
 their recital lends an additional interest to the early 
 pages of Mr. Stapleton's George Canning and His Times. 
 
 The young orator's alarm at hearing his own voice 
 
GEOEGE CANNING. 229 
 
 amidst the silence which reigned around, soon became 
 merged in the labyrinth of his argument. Suddenly, 
 however, looking up, he saw two prominent members of 
 the Opposition bench laughing, apparently either at his 
 manner or the drift of his contention. 
 
 This for a moment thoroughly disconcerted the 
 speaker, who at the time in question was out of breath 
 from the unwonted efforts he had made. 
 
 ^Recovering soon from his temporary dismay, Mr. 
 Canning, however, once again plunged into the more 
 controversial parts of the question at issue, and for- 
 getting all in an overpowering desire to overthrow his 
 opponent's case, he sat down amongst the cheers of 
 Government supporters, but not on the whole recorded 
 to have made the expected sensation. 
 
 Anyhow, he fared better than did the son of the 
 famous Lord North, who himself was wont to tell how 
 he rose in the House of Commons amidst a crowd of 
 members expecting great things from the family name ; 
 but after uttering a few incoherent sentences, during the 
 delivery of which he saw nothing but the Speaker's wig, 
 which grew to an enormous size before his perplexed 
 vision as he sank helplessly on the benches of the House, 
 never tempted fortune more. 
 
 In Mr. Canning's case, however, notwithstanding some 
 disappointed expectations, his opening attempt was held 
 to have evinced talent of a high order, so it came to pass 
 that, turning special attention to foreign affairs, and 
 serving as Under-Secretary under Lord Grenville, he 
 received the training destined to render his name so 
 famous. 
 
230 FOREIGN SECBBTABIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 At home and in domestic life the love and faithfulness 
 constantly shown to his somewhat ohscure relations 
 present George Canning's character in its lovable and 
 trustworthy nature . He was not only the great states- 
 man, hut the good son and faithful friend. 
 
 Thus it came to pass that when Miss Scott, a lady of 
 fortune, bestowed her hand on the rising statesman, 
 there was conferred on Mr. Canning the reward of solid 
 if silent merit, at the same time releasing him from the 
 financial cares of a life destined to be spent in his 
 country's service. 
 
 A volume might be written on the lives of Mr. 
 Canning's children and the devotion of his wife, which 
 of itself would fill more space than can be here allotted 
 to a sparse notice of a noble career. 
 
 But the name of one son lives indelibly in the pages 
 of Kaye and Malleson, whilst the early death of 
 another will not be forgotten by those who have read 
 the touching poetical lament of the gifted father.* 
 
 * CANNING'S LAMENT ON HIS SON'S EAELY DEATH. 
 
 (Written in 1820.) 
 
 Though short thy span, God's unimpeached decrees 
 Which made that shortened span one long disease, 
 Yet merciful in chastening, gave thee scope 
 For mild redeeming virtues, faith, and hope, 
 Much resignation, pious charity, 
 And since this world was not the world for thee, 
 Far from thy path removed, with partial care, 
 Strife, glory, gain, and pleasure's flowing snare, 
 Bade earth's temptations pass thee harmlessly, 
 And fixed on heaven thine unr everted eye. 
 Oh, marked from birth, and nurtured for the skies, 
 In youth with more than learning's wisdom wise, 
 
GEORGE CANNING. 281 
 
 Some readers of Lord Macaulay's life will not forget 
 his interview with Mr. Canning's daughter, the 
 Marchioness of Clanricarde, who with flashing eye 
 spoke scornfully of those politicians who deserted her 
 father when he became Premier. The lady's beauty 
 was as notorious as her mother's devotion to the great 
 memory they all prized. 
 
 Mr. Canning's statesmanship and oratory has a special 
 interest for ourselves, the latter, moreover, as forming 
 a link between the past and present — between the times 
 of Pitt and Fox and those of Palmerston and Derby. 
 
 It behoves us, however, in the first place as concisely 
 as possible to present to our readers Canning the literary 
 man, together with some idea of the individual, before 
 plunging into the recital of his career as Foreign 
 Minister of England, nor even estimating his forensic 
 talents. It is, however, a fact that but for a conspicuous 
 success in the senate, George Canning's name would 
 stand higher even amongst the talented contemporaries 
 with whom he lived. 
 
 As sainted martyrs, patient to endure, 
 Simple as un weaned infancy, and pure, 
 Pure from all stain (save that of human clay), 
 Which Christ's atoning blood hath washed away, 
 By mortal sufferings now no more oppressed. 
 Mount, sinless spirit, to thy destined rest, 
 While I, reversed our nature's kindlier doom, 
 Pour forth a father's sorrow o'er thy tomb. 
 
 In the year 1828 (one year after the father's death), Mr. 
 Canning was followed to the grave by his sailor son, a Captain in 
 His Majesty's Service, who was drowned whilst bathing. 
 
232 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 His early contributions to the Microcosm at Eton, for 
 instance, show high merit, whilst the famous Anti-Jacobin 
 
 owes much of its success to Canning. At 169 Piccadilly, 
 where those young men of talent who opposed themselves 
 to French Jacobinism were wont to meet for the purpose 
 of compiling the coming number, a space, we are told, 
 was always left for Pitt ; but his financial contributions 
 were irregularly sent. Canning, on the other hand, 
 was the life of these sarcastic and able productions now 
 so notorious. A continual vein of quiz and banter, 
 however, runs throughout, which, in the opinion of 
 some critics, communicated itself to Canning's earlier 
 speeches, and destroyed their effect. Sidney Smith, for 
 instance, never appreciated the great Foreign Secretary's 
 senatorial abilities, and contended they displayed shallow 
 philosophy, and seemed to him altogether beneath the 
 occasions on which they were delivered. 
 
 If even George Canning failed to surpass the clergy- 
 man of Combe Florey in wit, there remain published 
 speeches, despatches, and fugitive poetical pieces to 
 attest the merit of a genius whose political career seems 
 to us strangely underrated. 
 
 The estimation of a great orator by contemporary 
 opinion must of necessity be imperfect. One is apt to 
 doubt whether the present can reproduce the wonders of 
 the past. Men living when Pitt and Fox fought their 
 battles on the floor of the House of Commons, stoutly, 
 therefore, denied that a Parliamentary genius had arisen 
 when, as the Annual Register complained, long speeches 
 became again the order of the day. Canning's brilliant 
 periods and mellifluously well-turned sentences failed to 
 
GEORGE CANNING. 233 
 
 convince those around him of the supreme excellence 
 which public opinion ultimately claimed for his powers. 
 Brougham, indeed, deliberately set him down as an 
 actor. 
 
 One voice was, however, powerfully raised on his 
 behalf. Mackintosh, who, perhaps, of all his contem- 
 poraries, observed him most closely and judged him 
 the fairest, said of his eloquence that it possessed some 
 qualities in advance of those professed by Pitt himself, 
 even if in the dignity of argument it fell lower than that 
 of his mighty model. 
 
 Probably at no one time had Canning's eloquence the 
 continued force of either Pitt's or Fox's. It was, how- 
 ever, lightened by a wit, which, playful in its intention, 
 wounded wherever the carelessly-directed shaft might 
 chance to strike. 
 
 Oratory must be more or less judged by the effect 
 made thereby on the public mind, and no instances 
 either in the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries can be 
 cited where whole audiences have been smitten more 
 thoroughly by the majesty of a great occasion than when 
 George Canning has disburdened himself. 
 
 The word disburdened has been used advisedly, 
 because when one of these remarkable orations was in 
 process of incubation, the man's whole nervous system 
 seemed oppressed with his task, and it was not until it 
 had been performed thoroughly and well that natural 
 spirits were recovered, and the George Canning his 
 
 ' ;: Brougham's Lives of Statesmen of George III. 
 
234 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 friends loved so well was ready and able to give attention 
 to ordinary matters. 
 
 Canning always advised young speakers to take the 
 conversational as their basis for public speaking, and he 
 seems to have acted on this rule himself. 
 
 It seemed as if a river pursuing a natural course, 
 varied it only by bursting into magnificent cascades 
 and waterfalls, represented as they were by passages 
 of eloquence which this gifted speaker now and then 
 
 poured forth. 
 
 Lord Dalling tells us that the orator's abruptly framed, 
 rapidly delivered sentences and phrases may have been 
 for hours premeditated in the cabinet, but in delivery 
 had not the appearance of art. 
 
 He likewise remarks how every day leaves fewer of 
 those who remember the clearly chiselled countenance, 
 which the slouched hat only slightly concealed, the lip 
 satirically curled, the penetrating eye. Few, moreover, 
 live to speak to us of the singularly mellifluous and 
 sonorous voice, now elevated into poesy, now burning 
 with passion, now rich with humour, which curbed into 
 still attention a willing and spell-bound audience. 
 
 If Canning's sarcastic wit made some enemies,* 
 and even occasionally offended friends, it was 
 
 * Mr. Wilberforce spoke of a speech of Canning's as follows : — 
 «« Canning invincibly comic. Went to the House unwell, but 
 became enchained by Mr. Canning's admirable humour. . . . His 
 drollery of voice and manner were inimitable. The lighting up of 
 the features and comic play about the mouth prepares you for the 
 burst of witticism which is to follow." 
 
GEORGE CANNING. 235 
 
 left for lofty and classical declamation to charm contem- 
 poraries and impress posterity. The high -sounding 
 language which upraised and sustained public spirit on 
 behalf of down-trodden Spain in 1809, equally with the 
 voice which, sixteen years after, was agam to be lifted in 
 the cause of Portuguese freedom, has, on each occasion, 
 left a mark in history equal, perhaps, to that which each 
 remarkable event should have evoked. Higher praise it 
 is impossible to give, and one is involuntarily led to 
 incline towards the judgment of Mcintosh rather than 
 that of Brougham. In sustaining a high and consistent 
 
 Lord Dalling was accustomed to narrate how observant Canning 
 would be of the mood in which individual members of the House 
 were conversing, so that he might himself hit off the prevailing 
 temper when he addressed them. Very silent in the Cabinet, the 
 Duke of Wellington told Mr. Greville that Canning was wont to be, 
 but that when once aroused he maintained his opinions with 
 extraordinary tenacity. 
 
 Even in the midst of the driest official details, the minister's 
 native wit would break forth, and once when Sir Charles Bagot 
 was minister at the Hague he was astonished to receive the 
 following verse in cypher : — 
 
 " In matters of commerce the fault of the Dutch 
 Is giving too little and asking too much ; 
 With equal advantage the French are content, 
 So we '11 clap on Dutch bottoms a twenty per cent." 
 
 Jenning's Anecdotal History of British Parliament, p. 211. 
 
 Again Mr. Canning once sorely tried the regard and admiration 
 of the first Lord Carington, who but a few weeks after he had been 
 made a peer by Mr. Pitt, found the following chalked on his hall 
 
 door : — 
 
 " One Bobby Smith lives here, 
 Billy Pitt made him a peer, 
 And took the pen from behind his ear.' 
 
230 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 level both as regards fluency and style of speaking, 
 neither Chatham nor Burke approached the younger Pitt. 
 His magnificent periods were ever at command. In 
 this particular Sir James Mcintosh descries Canning's 
 inferiority to his great model ; and the estimate is borne 
 out by the testimony of such contemporary opinion as it 
 has fallen in the writer's power to consult. 
 
 There is, however, due reason to believe that the man 
 whom neither Erskine, Grattan, nor Brougham can be 
 declared to have surpassed, was an orator worthy the 
 position he has earned for himself in history. 
 
 The talents of a great minister have wider scope and 
 more striking opportunity for their exercise than those 
 of other individuals, however eminent. It is the apt 
 reward of success which in George Canning's case may 
 in a degree be traced to the picture-painting of his 
 eloquent tongue. Competent critics are not wanting to 
 tell us of merit in the oratory of Grattan, Erskine, 
 Plunkett, aye, even in that of Mcintosh, which they do 
 not profess to find in the glittering sentences of the 
 popular minister, whilst as a political gladiator no 
 human being has ever surpassed Lord Brougham. 
 
 But the oratorical honours of those j :ast conflicts on 
 the whole cleave to Canning, and invest his name with 
 an historic halo not by any means undeserved.* 
 
 * " In person," says Lord Dalling, " Mr. Canning was favoured by 
 nature, being of a good height, of a strong frame, and of a regular 
 and intelligent countenance." The glance of his eye, and his 
 pleasant smile were thus fancifully described by Tom Moore, the 
 Irish poet : — 
 
GEORGE CANNING. 237 
 
 Our meaning may be best illustrated by an allusion to 
 the time of Canning's life when his powers were least 
 prominent. When, after the quarrel with Lord Castle- 
 reagh, the ex-minister became generally unpopular in 
 Parliamentary circles, and his leaning towards the Prince 
 of Wales as opposed to the King was set down to desire 
 for office rather than a wish to forward Catholic 
 emancipation by every means within his power. It was 
 at this moment that Sir Samuel Komilly came forward, 
 and with all the earnestness of conviction proclaimed to 
 the House of Commons that he could not consider Mr. 
 Pitt a great man. Wilberforce straightway raised the 
 
 " And on that turtle I saw a rider, 
 A goodly man, with an eye so merry, 
 I knew 'twas our Foreign Secretary." 
 
 Although not always equally attentive to the closeness of his 
 argument as to the polish of his periods, several of Mr. Canning's 
 great forensic displays are distinguished for their unimpeachable 
 logical correctness, showing that when attention had been turned 
 to this matter, such defects were easily cured. 
 
 Lord Lansdoune was wont to declare (Lord Dalling's Historical 
 < haracters, vol. ii. p. 426 1 that he considered Canning, at his best, 
 more effective than Fox or Pitt, but it would be scarcely consistent 
 with truth to aver that the general level of oratory left to us for 
 perusal was equal to that of the above-named champions of debate, 
 even if the delightful bursts of wit and graceful ornament lift that 
 of Mr. Canning into permanent life. 
 
 The turn of mind which made his private society so delightful 
 may be exemplified by an answer he once gave to Lord Londonderry 
 dining their times of friendly converse. 
 
 The latter had seen a Dutch picture representing the exodus 
 from the Ark, and in which the elephant came out last. " Of 
 course/' said Mr. Canning, " He had been packing up his trunk." 
 
238 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 voice of friendship and honest belief against the continued 
 prevalence of such views, but to Canning men looked for 
 the colleague's and pupil's justification. It came, as the 
 political critics of the day tell us, somewhat late, but 
 with such overwhelming power, that Mr. R. P. Ward 
 has left recorded an impression that never did Pitt or 
 Fox make such a passing effect in Parliament.* 
 
 The words remain entombed in Hansard, but we 
 reproduce the more striking as an evidence of word- 
 painting such as the world has never seen surpassed. 
 In Romilly's reply, with consummate skill these jewels 
 of eloquence were decried as the result of deliberate 
 contemplation, and as an antidote to other actions 
 tending to separate Canning from his early political 
 leanings ; but the eloquence evolved remains fairly 
 characteristic of a power which never deserted this 
 extraordinary man during any portion of his great 
 career. 
 
 When all present thought the debate had closed, 
 Canning burst out with the following exuberant and 
 magnificent invective : — 
 
 " Can it be necessary in our present situation, 
 sufficiently fall of distractions and diversions, to rake up 
 the ashes of the dead for the purpose of kindling new 
 flames among the living ? For myself, I can confidently 
 say that we do not desire to erect an altar to the object 
 of our veneration with materials picked from the 
 sepulchral monuments of his rival. The character of 
 him whom we venerate and regret shines without 
 
 * Memoirs of R. P. Ward, vol. i. p. 308, 
 
GEORGE CANNING. 239 
 
 contrast ; its lustre is all its own, and requires not the 
 extinction of the reputation of others to make it blaze 
 with a brighter flame. Mr. Pitt, it seems, was not a 
 great man. Is it, then, that we live in such heroic times, 
 that the present is a race of such gigantic talents and 
 qualities as to render those of Mr. Pitt in the comparison 
 ordinary and contemptible ? Who, then, is the man 
 now living — is there any man now sitting in this 
 House, who, by taking the measure of his own 
 mind, or that of any of his contemporaries, can feel 
 himself justified in pronouncing Mr. Pitt was not a 
 great man ? " 
 
 Chronologically premature as is this quotation, it is 
 adduced to give an earlier specimen of a style our story 
 will lead us to give hereafter more than one illustration. 
 
 The early appreciation of Canning's talents by Pitt 
 has been held not to have been an unmixed benefit to 
 the recipient. During eleven years the young Parlia- 
 mentary genius received no check, and when opposition 
 came Canning looked on it at first with contempt, and, 
 when it seemed likely to prevail, with indignation. 
 Lord Malmesbury said of him : " Had he been left to 
 ripen gradually, and allowed to experience political 
 hardships, his mind would have taken a better bent ; 
 but, spoiled as he has been, feared, and wanted, no 
 place is high enough for him, and I fear he may lose 
 many real and cordial friends for uncertain political 
 connexion." 
 
 A precisely similar estimate is arrived at by Lord 
 Mulgrave's brother-in-law, Mr. R. P. Ward, and it 
 becomes necessary for the biographer to delineate alike 
 
240 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 the light and dark shades in, on the whole, a noble and 
 pre-eminently gifted character. 
 
 Absence from the ordinary sensitiveness of human 
 nature frequently appears not to accompany genius. It 
 was not so, for instance, with Napoleon, or the Marquis 
 Wellesley, and we fear we cannot claim it for 
 Canning. 
 
 In Pitt's nature, on the other hand, disinterestedness 
 seems to have overborne more earthly qualities most 
 completely; and hence the secret of the unbounded 
 confidence and enthusiasm placed in his conclusions by 
 cultured and thoughtful men. 
 
 Attachment to the person of an individual usually 
 presupposes that personal vanity has in his case been 
 relegated to a position of subjection to the wants of 
 others. Not that Mr. Canning did not ever possess a 
 warm following, but the difficulties incidental on his 
 elevation to the Premiership will occur to the mind of 
 all, and were to a degree consequent on these older 
 faults of temperament. 
 
 After the pause in Opposition, which at Addington's 
 accession to office first occurred, Mr. Canning threw 
 himself heart and soul into securing Pitt's return to 
 
 power. 
 
 For this purpose he became associated with the 
 veteran diplomatist Lord Malmesbury, whose diaries 
 contain many letters from his gifted young friend. 
 
 It is moreover clear that Canning in his hot haste 
 overstepped the limits of the Opposition to which Pitt 
 could accede, or Lord Mulgrave counsel him to lend 
 an ear t 
 
GEORGE CANNING. 241 
 
 A round robin was to have been presented to 
 Mr. Addington from influential politicians, setting forth 
 the desirability of his resignation, and this, after the 
 policy decided and acted on by the Government, had 
 been stamped by the private approbation of Pitt himself, 
 and at first been received in silence by many of those 
 then most vaunting their hostility. 
 
 When, therefore, this so-called Paper Plot fell through, 
 stamped alike as ridiculous and unconstitutional, whilst 
 Pitt's dignified position had been preserved simply and 
 entirely through Lord Mulgrave's timely warning and 
 sage advice, Canning still could not rest content. As 
 Lord Malmesbury's diary as well as that of Mr. K. P. 
 Ward shows, he endeavoured to force Pitt's hand to a 
 degree which the great politician was obliged to shrink 
 from acting as if he approved, so that, temporarily 
 baffled, Canning had to submit to Lord Malmesbury's 
 pungent criticism. 
 
 " Very clever, very essential to Government, but hardly 
 yet a statesman, and his dangerous habit of quizzing 
 (which he cannot restrain) would be most unpopular 
 in any department which required pliancy, tact, or 
 conciliatory behaviour. He is honourable, however, 
 and honest, and may be safely trusted." 
 
 Such was the critical comment of one whose opinion 
 no one could disregard, and yet no single individual can 
 be said to have contributed more towards his great leader's 
 return to office than George Canning, the sarcasms 
 with which he forced home forcible public appeals being 
 numerous and effective. One, the famous " Pitt is to 
 Addington as London to Paddington " is known to 
 I. 16 
 
2 12 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 most of us ; whilst others less notorious had their 
 immediate effect on public opinion. 
 
 It has thus fallen to ourselves to be called on to 
 hesitate before placing the object of a preconceived 
 admiration upon the pedestal, whereon he has better 
 historic right to stand than several exalted individuals 
 whose services have fallen far below the level of George 
 Canning's. 
 
 It is, therefore, with relief that having allowed par- 
 ticipation in the weaknesses of humanity, we pass on to 
 tell how the young statesman was rewarded by Mr. Pitt 
 with the treasurership of the navy, whilst we know that 
 the untimely end of the minister alone prevented him 
 from becoming a member of the cabinet, such reward 
 following an able advocacy of Lord Melville's cause. 
 
 But we have likewise to tell of a restless— nay, even 
 fierce opposition to the Grenville Government, one 
 moreover which had such potent effect on Parlia- 
 ment as to necessitate Mr. Fox's presence in the 
 House of Commons when, had he abandoned his 
 colleagues to the withering sarcasms directed against 
 them, he might have gained more rest at a time when 
 it was sorely needed. After the great debater died, we 
 have already told how unsparing was the criticism, based 
 on a motion which would have replaced the King's 
 Speech altogether by one of the brilliant speaker's own. 
 Canning at this moment was probably not in the zenith 
 of his forensic power, but to the acute observer he 
 showed signs of developing statesman-like talents, not 
 certainly descried by Lord Malmesbury or by Pitt, who 
 never for one moment hesitated to name Lords 
 
GEORGE CANNING. 243 
 
 Hawkesbury and Castlereagh as the two indispensable 
 colleagues, and therefore the inheritors of his policy. 
 
 Be that as it may, the moment was approaching 
 when foreign policy was more than ever to be the 
 test of British statesmanship, and when, despite all 
 faults of character or temperament, George Canning 
 was to gain the position in which he made his name 
 most famous. 
 
 The reconstruction of a ministry consisting of Pitt's 
 adherents, under the leadership of the Duke of Portland, 
 came to be a natural result of the Whig dismissal. 
 
 It was necessary to turn towards the other leading 
 party in the State, who could repress all jealousies under 
 the lead of a great noble, rich in the borough influence 
 so necessary to their Parliamentary existence. An early 
 trial of strength proved opinion to be closely divided on 
 the Catholic question, which reappeared in the form of 
 a motion declaring it in effect to be unconstitutional for 
 ministers to restrain themselves by any pledge from 
 giving the King advice they held to be conducive to 
 public safety. 258 supported the new ministry, who 
 were in a majority of 32, as 226 expressed themselves 
 in favour of the motion. 
 
 George Canning was the Foreign Minister, and filled 
 the most important position in the State. 
 
 It will be necessary to follow Continental events closer 
 than heretofore, as, reacting on British prospects, the 
 actions of our great Foreign Secretary were moulded in 
 accordance, and took colour in sympathy with the 
 development of Napoleon's plans. 
 
 In Poland the French and Kussian armies received 
 
 16 * 
 
244 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 reinforcements, the former culling out in advance the 
 conscription of 1808. This extreme measure could 
 scarcely he popular, and was only justifiahle, from a 
 French point of view, on the plea of expediency, which 
 there can he no doubt did exist at that moment. The 
 enormous drain consequent on carrying on war on the 
 Vistula had become manifest in France. The very names 
 of places (as Prince Metternich remarks) were unknown 
 to the people when they read in the Gazette of victories 
 gained and armies overthrown. 
 
 Under these circumstances Napoleon expressed himself 
 prepared for peace on the same terms he had offered 
 during the previous year. The time had not, however, 
 arrived when the detachment of Russia from her British 
 alliance could be effected. England continued her 
 dogged resolve to abate no right or surrender one inch 
 of territory. War was declared against Turkey, whom 
 the failure of Sir John Duckworth's negotiations had 
 left hopelessly under French influence, and between the 
 Russian and English fleets the Black Sea trade was 
 absolutely paralysed. On the whole, moreover, the 
 operations in north-east Europe tended towards French 
 success, as Dantzic was captured, and Napoleon's army 
 left resting its centre and wings on fortified places. 
 
 On the 14th of June (the anniversary of the battle of 
 Marengo) a general engagement took place at Friedland. 
 The righting had continued in a desultory way for some 
 days, but the greater contest was none the less stoutly 
 waged. Gradually, however, the retreat of the Russians 
 became a fact, and Napoleon stood victor on the field 
 which yielded him, perhaps, the greatest results of all 
 
GEORGE CANNING. 245 
 
 his conflicts. Passing through Konigsberg, the conqueror 
 pursued the beaten Russians to the Niemen, where on 
 a raft near Tilsit, Napoleon and Alexander met to 
 discuss terms of peace. Vanquished although they 
 certainly were, the Eussian army of, at most, 70,000 
 men* could not be said adequately to represent Muscovite 
 strength, and there can be little doubt but that the 
 means of resistance remained to Alexander. But the 
 seductive visions which Napoleon unrolled before his 
 eyes straightway deluded this vain man. First displayed 
 to his ready imagination came the long-desired partition 
 of Turkey, so dear to every Muscovite imagination. 
 Then there was the ruin and humiliation of England, 
 that steadfast but, according to Alexander, calculating 
 ally, who, as the grasping mind of the Czar conceived, 
 had failed to fulfil her part of the alliance when a 
 subsidv was withheld. At this distance of time it appears 
 manifest how the alliance, concluded at Tilsit and 
 cemented at Erfurt, was directed primarily against 
 
 England. 
 
 Not only was the chain of commercial exclusion to 
 become complete, and to comprise Denmark and Portugal 
 within its grasp, but an advance towards British India 
 was then deliberately projected. Subsequently 22,000 
 men under Orloff, together with two companies of 
 artillery, despatched as an advanced guard, actually 
 reached Irghis, where, for reasons unexplained but 
 not difficult to contemplate, the idea was temporally 
 abandoned. We say temporally because General 
 
 * Alison and Sir R. Wilson. 
 
246 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 Duhamel proposed an invasion of India through Persia 
 to Nicholas in 1854, and the Sf. Petersburg News, writing 
 in 1878, declares the idea of an expedition to India 
 never to have left the Russian mind throughout the 
 nineteenth century, an averment which has received 
 ample corroboration by the publication, in 1881, of the 
 Russian despatches found at Cabul. That in 1808 it 
 was associated with the contemporaneous subjugation and 
 division of Turkey, then proposed, is as certain as that 
 Russia will take advantage of every shifting scene of the 
 Eastern Question to secure a hold on Constantinople and 
 extend her empire into India. 
 
 The potent and decided measures taken by Canning 
 to neutralise these machinations were not by any means 
 approved of by the two distinguished Opposition states- 
 men, Lords Grenville and Grey.* Their objections are 
 before us now, and ought not to be lightly placed 
 aside by any asseverations connecting their criticisms 
 with party spirit. 
 
 Bitterness had unfortunately long prevailed in the 
 counsels of this nation, and had been evident amongst 
 its foremost men ever since Parliamentary Government 
 received institution. There can, however, be no more 
 valid claim to charge faction on Grenville and Grey 
 than to give credence to accusations of partisanship so 
 freely made against Canning. The origin of the resolve 
 to take forcible possession of Denmark's fleet required a 
 justification beyond that which circumstances allowed 
 the minister to give. No eloquence of tongue or pen 
 
 Lord Howick had been called to the Upper House as Earl Grey. 
 
GEORGE CANNING. 2 17 
 
 could easily reconcile right-feeling and humane men to 
 the destruction of 2000 inoffensive citizens by bombard- 
 ment. Lord Eldon expressed his feelings as a man on 
 this subject, without for a moment denying the expediency 
 of the political action. The dockyards which it became 
 unfortunately necessary to fire upon, stood in contiguity to 
 churches and houses, some of which suffered destruction. 
 
 General Peiman, the Danish commander, had every 
 opportunity given him for removing non-combatants out 
 of Copenhagen, and does not appear to have availed 
 himself thereof. Again, the number given as having 
 perished in the city were stated by the Danes themselves, 
 when smarting under the natural disgust which the 
 success of Admiral Gambier's expedition invoked. It is 
 therefore to be hoped, for the sake of humanity, that the 
 slaughter was exaggerated; but, as the bombardment 
 continued for the best part of four days, the sacrifice of 
 life must necessarily have been considerable in what the 
 Danish general chose should remain an open and 
 inhabited city. 
 
 Large quantities of timber were destroyed by fire, and 
 305 houses levelled with the ground, whilst the British 
 became possessed of all the valuable stores which laid 
 ready for use close to the dockyard. It had been declared 
 on the honour of England that the Danish fleet should 
 be restored whenever peace returned to Europe. As 
 that consummation depended on various contingencies, 
 chief amongst which must have been the suppression of 
 an all-conquering despot, there is little wonder that a 
 nation possessing a history such as belonged to Denmark 
 should stoutly refuse to comply. 
 
248 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 The Crown Prince appears to have acted as an English 
 ruler would have done under like circumstances. 
 
 The Danes had been absolutely guiltless of any 
 offensive connivance against England. It was not 
 pretended that such action was imminent, or likely to be 
 adopted on their own free will.* 
 
 When, therefore, eighteen sail of the line, fifteen 
 frigates, and thirty-one brigs and gun-boats were 
 conveyed to England, a transaction had to be justified 
 which international lawyers must have prima facie 
 combined to condemn, and which can find no warrant in 
 the pages of Vattel, Grotius, or Puffendorf. There 
 remains but the plea of absolute and dire necessity, the 
 production of proofs connected with which (or an 
 equivalent) any leader of the Opposition was clearly 
 justified in demanding. Short of abdicating their 
 constitutional functions altogether, it is difficult to say 
 what alternative course could have been pursued other 
 than that taken by Lord Grenville's party. 
 
 Time appeared at first sight to destroy the Govern- 
 ment theory altogether. Within twenty days of the 
 Emperors' meeting at Tilsit, an expedition of overpower- 
 ing naval and military strength w T as leaving Yarmouth 
 roads. Granting that the story of an individual 
 concealed behind a tent, f overhearing the secret treaty, 
 and straightway communicating its designs on Danish 
 naval power to the British Government, to have the 
 credibility which its source undoubtedly deserves, J there 
 
 * Stapleton's Canning and his Times, p. 129. 
 t A pavilion was erected on the raft. 
 { Stapleton's Canning and his Times. 
 
GEORGE CANNING. 249 
 
 remains yet the difficulty of a journey to England being 
 accomplished in time for the necessary arrangements to 
 be made. 
 
 The Foreign Secretary was life and soul of the 
 Parliamentary defence set up by the Duke of Portland's 
 ministry. After biting and sarcastic references to the 
 foreign policy of his predecessor, he plunged in medias res. 
 
 As to the possibility of the secret clauses being 
 communicated to England and acted on within twenty 
 days, it was enough, he declared, that His Majesty's 
 ministers bore witness to the fact that they possessed 
 reliable proof which had satisfied the cabinet. The 
 expedition, he allowed, had for some time been waiting 
 for other undefined purposes, and when the necessity 
 arose was straightway directed to sail for Denmark. 
 
 Subsequently, and in a later debate, Mr. Canning 
 asked Lord Grenville and his brother, Mr. T. Grenville, 
 how they could reconcile their violent action against 
 Turkey with the criticisms directed against the Danish 
 expedition ? In the former occasion British interests 
 were alone at stake ; in the latter the contiguity to our 
 shores laid us open to an attack from the region of the 
 Baltic, whenever our foes could combine in sufficient 
 naval strength to effect their purpose. 
 
 Opposed by Windham, Erskine, and the Opposition 
 generally, Mr. Canning's defence was certainly worthy 
 of the occasion, as any reader of Hansard can discover. 
 
 The secret clauses agreed to at Tilsit were practically 
 vouched to in Parliament by men of such standing and 
 character as the Duke of Portland, Canning, Lord 
 Hawkesbury, Perceval, Lord Eldon, Sir Arthur Wellesley, 
 
250 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 and Lord Castlereagh, and it is on the undoubted and 
 unquestionable veracity of trusted and tried statesmen 
 such as these that the Government case rested, but the 
 doubts of the Opposition were natural, and by no means 
 deserve the hard judgment which certain writers have 
 passed thereon. 
 
 Why, one is inclined to ask, were the facts not 
 entrusted to Lord Grenville, whose experience in public 
 affairs was paramount ? That not having been done, 
 there was clearly reason for Opposition criticism, if not 
 for the party spirit, prejudice and passion, which 
 unfortunately appears to have been imparted into the 
 discussion, and to have possessed rank and file of Whigs 
 and Tories alike.* 
 
 * The views of the journal expounding Whig opinion were more 
 advanced than those of either Lords Grenville or Grey, and we 
 propose to give extracts therefrom, corresponding to each section 
 of passing history. The Edinburgh Review was under the editorship 
 of the illustrious Jeffrey, and it is a subject for wonder how such 
 rancorous views on public affairs could have prevailed as those 
 which historical truth force us to restate. The dismissal of the 
 Whig Government in 1807 may, or may not, have been an undue 
 exercise of George III.'s prerogative, or have been, as Sheridan 
 phrased it, " the result of a deliberate attempt made by the Whigs 
 to knock their heads against a wall, built by themselves for the 
 purpose." But there certainly was nothing in the foreign policy of 
 that defunct administration the slightest in accordance with such 
 ideas as the following. Mr. Wilberforce had exercised the extra- 
 ordinary power of his penmanship in a brochure, entitled Dangers of 
 the Country. For vivid description, clearness of diction, combined 
 with natural and eloquent facility of expression, a counterpart can 
 alone be found in the pages of Macaulay. It certainly merited 
 comments of a different class than those vouchsafed by the 
 Edinburgh Review. In the first place we are calmly told that as a 
 subversive democracy has been succeeded by the civilised rule of 
 
GEORGE CANNING. 251 
 
 The Government found an able supporter in that 
 remarkable statesman Lord Wellesley, who pointed out 
 to the Peers the change of circumstances since 1805, 
 when Europe was, on the whole, neutral. He showed 
 how, in August 1807, on the other hand, every man's 
 hand, willingly or unwillingly, was opposed to England, 
 whilst the ban of commercial exclusion was working its 
 fell purpose, and the ranks of Britain's enemies showed 
 
 an all-conquering military despotism, it was England's policy to 
 propitiate Napoleon by surrendering her conquests, and take his 
 word for the observation of the best terms obtainable [Edinburgh 
 Review, vol. x. p. 23). And this, in answer to a graphic description 
 of what Great Britain would suffer as a French province, with 
 Imperial cohorts quartered on her inhabitants. As for the 
 Continent, let it make the best terms it could with a nation that 
 every fresh war loaded with additional territory. But the 
 Edinburgh Review said more, and scoffed at the foreign policy of the 
 deceased Whig Government, calling Maida a senseless skirmish, 
 and condemning Howick in the same spirit they afterwards tried to 
 crush Canning, Perceval, and Castlereagh. It will scarce be 
 credited, that in vol. xv. p. 518, lines 20 and 21, will be found a 
 distinct suggestion to the effect that unskilful and unsuccessful 
 politicians should become subject to loss of life and character 
 when the issue of their political management was adverse. 
 (Befereiice will show us to have understated this case.) The whole 
 page in question should be read and pondered over, if only to 
 demonstrate how utterly malignant were the political passions 
 of our age before wise measures of Reform gave constitutional 
 expression to the feelings of those who believed their opinions to be 
 artificially restrained. It, moreover, fully bears out the assertion 
 made in a former chapter, as taken from the written observations 
 Of a careful Parliamentary observer (who himself was present 
 throughout the discussions), that the party spirit displayed after 
 Pitt's death was such as to threaten the dignity of debate. A 
 condition of things which, it seems, affected contemporary literature 
 
 of the highest class. 
 
252 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 more serried and determined than they had ever done 
 before. 
 
 It was clearly the duty of England's ministry to retain 
 the naval supremacy gained for her by Nelson and Pitt. 
 France seriously threatened this by preparing at least 
 sixty sail-of-the-line in the harbours of France and 
 Spain, whereas at Antwerp, and by means of a proposed 
 confederacy in the north, there would have been added 
 at least thirty* more to the above-named number. 
 
 Part of this latter fleet was to have been made up by 
 the Danish contingent, and the fact has since been 
 acknowledged by Fouche, Napoleon's famous minister, 
 and implied by his master. 
 
 It is true that four only of the line-of-battle ships w r ere 
 found to be absolutely fit for active service, but the others 
 would in any situation have occupied the attention of 
 an equal number of British vessels of war, a reflection 
 which was not likely to escape the calculating mind of 
 Napoleon. The situation of England after Tilsit has no 
 absolute counterpart in the history of the world, and it is 
 this fact, and the threatened and imminent destruction 
 of his country, that must be held to justify Canning's 
 decided action at Copenhagen. 
 
 Being here primarily interested in the part played by 
 Canning during the progress of these events, it becomes 
 as necessary to allude to achievements of his facile pen 
 as to those Senatorial triumphs so justly known to 
 fame. 
 
 Mr. Canning, as Foreign Secretary, issued a declaration 
 
 * James's Naval History believes sixty more. 
 
GEORGE CANNING. 253 
 
 containing England's case. In it he stated that " His 
 Majesty had received the most positive information of 
 the determination of the present ruler of France to 
 occupy with a military force the territory of Holstein, 
 for the purpose of excluding Great Britain from all her 
 accustomed channels of communication with the Con- 
 tinent, of inducing or compelling the Court of Denmark 
 to close the passage of the Sound against British 
 commerce and navigation, and of availing himself of the 
 aid of the Danish marine for the invasion of Great 
 Britain and Ireland." 
 
 The despatch went on to instance the conduct of 
 Denmark in 1801, when pressed by external influence, 
 and compared her comparatively independent condition 
 then with the notorious subjection of her Government to 
 Napoleon's wishes. Was it likely that with the Continent 
 prostrate at her feet France would either hesitate to act 
 or have difficulty in forcing the Danes to acquiesce in 
 her scheme. This lucid State paper was penned with a 
 facility and elegance of expression which would have 
 won for its author high praise, were it not that men 
 turned naturally to the more direct justification which 
 proceeded from the Foreign Secretary when in Parliament. 
 
 As an historical document the value of the paragraph 
 above quoted is very great, because it goes to show the 
 nature of the facts officially vouched to by men whose 
 integrity and honesty can never be doubted.* 
 
 * Sir Archibald Alison has adduced proof that Alexander was 
 not disinclined to play a double game. Through Sir Kobert Wilson 
 he undoubtedly expressed his satisfaction with the seizure of the 
 
254 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 Canning was certainly a master in the art of penman- 
 ship, both as regards composition and style, whilst those 
 who have ever seen any of his despatches in manuscript 
 will not easily forget a handwriting the excellence and 
 beauty of which lives for all time in the mind of a 
 
 beholder. 
 
 It is a curious fact that our Government was, for a time, 
 led to infer that Russia regretted the steps she had taken 
 after Friedland, and approved our action in the Baltic. 
 
 As the guardian of that sea the Emperor's opinion 
 had great value ; but the separation from France never 
 really occurred, and was supposed to emanate from 
 agents who had not been apprised of the Emperor's 
 definite alliance with Napoleon. 
 
 France must be held, towards the close of 1807, to 
 have reached the highest point of power she was destined 
 to enjoy under the First Empire, and it comprised a sway 
 such as had not been seen in Europe since the days of 
 Imperial Csesar. 
 
 Danish fleet. However, he took advantage of the clause in the 
 treaty of Tilsit directed against Sweden, and in one campaign 
 wrested Finland from her former rulers. 
 
 Sir Robert Wilson was a character who played the part of a free- 
 lance during the whole Continental war. 
 
 He was present both at Eylau and Friedland, and, possessing 
 considerable literary talents, wrote an account of the campaign, 
 which was published in England. 
 
 He distinguished himself afterwards at Leipsic, and saw the 
 conclusion of the war consummated by peace at Paris. Although 
 he had spent much of his life in compassing Napoleon's overthrow, 
 he was by no means in favour of the Bourbon dynasty, by an 
 intrigue against which he not only suffered imprisonment, but went 
 very near embroiling the French and English Governments. 
 
GEORGE CANNING. 255 
 
 In the opinion of the astute Metternich, however, the 
 solicler triumph was that attained during the previous 
 year at Jena, because when the Prussian monarchy fell 
 stricken down, there existed a compactness about 
 Napoleon's sovereignty which the more fantastic schemes 
 of Tilsit were not designed to attain. 
 
 Sooner or later the Austrian Chancellor foresaw that 
 differences would arise between Napoleon and Alexander. 
 He acted accordingly, trusting to his knowledge of the 
 two men, and kept this contingency steadily in the 
 forefront of his schemes." 
 
 Napoleon had but one problem to solve after Tilsit, 
 and it was how to strike at England. The fleets of 
 Great Britain sailed triumphantly all over the world, and 
 her commerce, although restricted to a degree, was still 
 paramount. 
 
 On the other hand, the efforts for discovery of a battle- 
 field whereon English soldiers could appear was rendered 
 impossible on the Continent where France reigned 
 supreme. In this dilemma the Dictator of Europe issued 
 his Milan Decrees prohibiting introduction of British 
 merchandize into European ports. 
 
 Posting military at every seaside town to enforce these 
 restrictions, Napoleon hoped to isolate England com- 
 mercially. Canning, however, replied by issuing the 
 celebrated Second Orders in Council,! prohibiting any 
 
 * Autobiography of Prince Metternich. 
 
 t Mr. Perceval, with his clear power of explanation, defined 
 England's position in connection with the Orders in Council as 
 follows : — 
 
 " The French having said that no nation on earth should trade 
 
25G FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 neutral commerce from reaching Europe without first 
 calling at an English port and paying tribute. 
 
 England, therefore, taxed or seized neutral mer- 
 chandize on the seas, and Napoleon confiscated English 
 goods on land. So it came to pass that the merchants 
 of Great Britain and America fared ill. The celebrated 
 Russia trade was completely destroyed, and there can be 
 little surprise at an opposition which awaited the Orders 
 in Council in Parliament and the country, and of which 
 Brougham ultimately became the most effective mouth- 
 piece. 
 
 One of the consequences of this commercial strife 
 became apparent in the restriction of American trade, a 
 result which trans-Atlantic statesmen laid at the door of 
 Great Britain, so that a leading object of Napoleon's was 
 therefore gained, and the veiled hostility of England's own 
 children became henceforth added to that of united Europe. 
 
 America issued a Non-intercourse Act, which prohibited 
 American subjects from trading with the authors of 
 either the Milan Decrees or Orders in Council; but this 
 measure, although it may have rendered the existing 
 paralysis of trade complete, injured America more than 
 England or Europe. 
 
 At the root of President Jefferson's action lay dissatis- 
 faction with the rule of search, which England claimed, 
 because British seamen had deserted in considerable 
 numbers to the Americans. Hence it came to pass that 
 the two nations stood on the brink of conflict. 
 
 with us, our answer under the orders was that no nation on earth 
 should trade with them except through us," 
 
GEORGE CANNING. 257 
 
 After a hostile encounter between the British and 
 American frigates Leopard and Chesapeake, and the 
 controversies that thereon ensued, Mr. Erskine, the 
 British Ambassador, agreed to withdraw our Orders in 
 Council if America refrained from promulgating the 
 Non-intercourse Act. 
 
 This agreement Mr. Canning did not hesitate to 
 repudiate, and the ill-disguised hostility between the 
 brethren of Old and New World continued, until the mask 
 was removed in 1811. This trade dispute has been 
 justly deemed a dry and interminable subject. 
 
 The debates in Parliament saw the matter thoroughly 
 threshed out, and although illumined by the knowledge 
 and eloquence of Canning, the experience of Grenville, 
 and the logic of Grey, it cannot be said to have ever 
 aroused the interest which its enormous importance 
 deserved. Strenuously objected to as this policy was 
 by Lord Grenville, it could never be forgotten that 
 the system of trade reprisal was originated by the 
 Government of that noblemen, when they issued Orders 
 in Council but a few months before their retirement from 
 office. 
 
 It could, therefore, be but the question of degree 
 which remained in dispute, and Mr. Canning fully 
 established his contention as to the unprecedented 
 national position, which warranted recourse being taken 
 to stringent and exceptional measures. 
 
 In December 1807 Ptussia acknowledged her vassalage 
 
 to France in a manifesto directed against England. 
 
 Declaring want of English co-operation, the Denmark 
 
 expedition, and Orders in Council to be causes of 
 
 i. 17 
 
258 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 complaint, Alexander broke off all communication with 
 this country, proclaimed afresh the principles of armed 
 neutrality, designed originally by the Empress Catherine,* 
 and following declaration by action, sequestered all the 
 British property and ships he could lay his hands on. 
 
 Canning replied in a State paper of consummate 
 ability, which, as it traversed the same ground as the 
 Parliamentary debates, will not be produced in this 
 place. 
 
 It contained, however, a shrewd remark that the 
 Emperor's manifesto bore marks of the policy adopted 
 at Tilsit, and was of itself a justification of England's 
 action at Copenhagen. 
 
 In two European countries alone was the Continental 
 system as directed against British trade not in vogue, 
 as even Austria had yielded, diplomatically may be, but 
 with the result that English commerce was excluded 
 from Trieste and Fiume. 
 
 Portugal, however, after closing her ports against 
 England, and so giving evidence of the power Napoleon 
 possessed to compel weak and unwilling nations to adopt 
 his system, protested against might becoming right. 
 
 Her Prince Pvegent, amidst the lamentations of the 
 
 * Mr. Fox desired to allow the principle of the armed neutrality 
 in the first place, rather than lose the Paissian alliance. It can be 
 contended, therefore, that his policy would have inclined Alexander 
 towards England at Tilsit. But the crisis must have come, and 
 although the matters in dispute witli Denmark resulted from the 
 same commercial origin, it is by no means evident that Alexander 
 would not have been even then constrained by circumstances to 
 side with France. 
 
GEORGE CANNING. 259 
 
 nation, sailed for the Brazils, accompanied by the court 
 and a number of personal adherents. 
 
 He Lad hoped that his adoption of the Continental 
 system -would have appeased Napoleon and saved his 
 country. Y, . however, Marshal Junot, at the head 
 of a French army, approached Lisbon, the Portuguese 
 ruler listened to the counsels of the English ambassador, 
 Lord Strangford, and made the only reparation within 
 his povrer. 
 
 Port": 1*8 cause was henceforth to be that of Great 
 Britain. There is an historical interest in the scene that 
 followed far exceeding the immediate results of the 
 events themselves. 
 
 As the eight sail of the line, eight frigates and 
 forty large merchantmen sailed down the golden 
 Tagus, at the mouth of which they met Sir Sidney 
 Smith and four English men-of-war, there was there 
 and then cemented that alliance which was destined to 
 influence Europe's future so mightily. TYhen the rugged 
 rocks of Cintra and Torres Vedras sank out of sight, 
 there must have yet gleamed a hope of future indepen- 
 dence for Portugal as her prince glanced at Sir Sidney 
 Smith's accompanying squadron. 
 
 The other remaining ally of Great Britain was 
 Sweden, - - hose unfortunate prince, Gustavus IV., 
 resolutely opposed himself to Russia when in alliance 
 with Napoleon, as he had before done to France alone. 
 
 A powerful fleet under Admiral Keats, and no less than 
 two hundred tran tfl conveying 14,000 men under 
 the famous Sir John Moore, were sent to succour the 
 Swedes, who were overmatched by Russia on land and 
 
 17 
 
260 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 sea, besides having to contend at the same time with 
 Danes and Norwegians. 
 
 The British fleet neutralised that of Russia and drove 
 it into harbour ; but Sir John Moore's army never landed, 
 in consequence of a misunderstanding with the Swedish 
 king, whilst the transports and convoy were afterwards 
 sent to the Peninsula. 
 
 Thither previously was conveyed a body of 10,000 
 Spaniards, under the Marquis Romana, whom Napoleon 
 had deputed to act on his behalf in Hanover. 
 
 They revolted against the French and joined the 
 English, who assisted them with all the naval power 
 at command. Ultimately Admiral Keats brought the 
 exiles away in triumph to Spain, where they arrived 
 when most required. 
 
 Spain was in partial revolt early in the spring ; the 
 French fleet in Cadiz was bombarded, and ultimately 
 had to surrender before French military assistance could 
 arrive ; a fate, moreover, which overtook the army of 
 Dupont after their defeat at Baylen. 
 
 The royal family of Spain had positively been taken 
 into France, and in lieu of the old Bourbon line, Napoleon 
 resolved to place his own brother Joseph on the throne. 
 
 History might be ransacked in vain to discover 
 anything like a precedent for such an action, which 
 as it was at the time truly said, " savoured more of the 
 wildest romance than of sober truth." First decoyed 
 from his dominions, and then threatened into signing 
 an ignominious abdication, the wretched Ferdinand 
 exhibited a spectacle scarcely calculated to elicit loya 
 to his person . 
 
GEORGE CANNING. 201 
 
 But that the laws and liberties of his countrymen 
 were infringed and trampled on by this outrage, the 
 nation once guided by Charles Y. might have recoiled 
 from the rule of one choosing dishonour and universal 
 
 contempt in lieu of the violent death which a refusal of 
 
 J. 
 
 Napoleon's proposition exposed him to. But it is an 
 advantage adhering to a Monarchical Constitution of the 
 old Spanish type, that the laws of the realm override 
 the evils of a despotism which is thereby limited in 
 its power. Never could Napoleon plead legality for 
 his usurpations. Moreover, the Spaniards were at one as 
 to resistance. In May the province of Asturias had risen 
 against the French ; whilst the rebellion quickly spread, 
 and the country supposed to be most completely under 
 Napoleon's heel was all aflame on behalf of liberty." 
 Here was a British opportunity which Canning was not 
 slow to use. Portugal soon caught the fast-rising 
 enthusiasm, and the British Government straightway 
 resolved to send a fleet to the Tagus, and 10,000 
 men under a general of Canning's and Lord 
 Castlereagh's joint choice, and who soon became 
 known to fame.f Sir Arthur Wellesley not only won 
 the battles of Rolica and Yimiera, but out-manoeuvred 
 Junot altogether, and placed him in such a position 
 that surrender became a military necessity. 
 
 * May 1808. 
 
 t The merit of first descrying Sir A. Wellesley's talents has 
 been claimed alike for Canning and Castlereagh. Probably the 
 result of observation in Council where, as Irish Secretary, Sir 
 Arthur's wisdom had been thus early apparent. 
 
2G2 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 Unfortunately Sir Arthur was superseded, and Sir 
 Harry Burrard sent out to take the command, which, 
 strange to say, within a few hours was transferred to 
 Sir Hew Dalrymple. Straightway it followed that the 
 unnecessary convention of Cintra was agreed on, in 
 accordance with which Junot and his troops were con- 
 veyed to France at England's expense. The unpopularity 
 of this treaty for a time dimmed the prestige of Sir 
 Arthur Wellesley, and the great commander never 
 shirked the share of responsibility for what (notwith- 
 standing the 'accompanying expulsion of the French 
 from Portugal) has received much condemnation. 
 
 Canning, moreover, resolved to employ Sir Arthur again 
 on the earliest opportunity. The high opinion formed 
 of his military qualities by that great statesman, the 
 Marquis Wellesley, operated strongly on Canning, who 
 was equally determined to urge prosecution of the 
 Peninsula War. At last we had found a stage whereon 
 our small army might hope to operate with effect. 
 Spain had been subject entirely to France, and there- 
 fore hostile to Great Britain. Now, how r ever, she 
 sent commissioners to England asking for assistance. 
 This was speedily promised, and Sir John Moore 
 directed to take a command in the north of Spain. 
 Lord Castlereagh was said to have been a prime mover 
 in the arrangements of this campaign, the design of 
 wdiich, however, Canning never thought promising. 
 
 Moreover, our ambassador, Mr. Frere, urged Sir John 
 forward towards Madrid, at a time when the Patriots 
 had spent much of their enthusiasm, and received more 
 than one check. 
 
GEORGE CANNING. 263 
 
 It is impossible to read the communications 
 between the English general and Lord Castlereagh 
 without coming to the conclusion that we were late in 
 the field, and that an admirably-planned diversion was 
 likely to fail. In the first place, it was found to be 
 impossible to unite the corps marching from Lisbon with 
 that under Moore, and after some hesitation, caused by 
 conflicting rumours as to the condition and disposition 
 of sundry Spanish divisions, the general disorganisation 
 of which was finally ascertained, retreat alone remained 
 possible for the outnumbered British. 
 
 The insurgents had, it is true, inflicted more than one 
 reverse on the French before the British arrival, but 
 when Napoleon himself appeared at the head of 10,000 
 men to support Soult, Madrid fell into his power. 
 
 It is easy to be critical after the event, and a bold 
 advance of the British and Spanish forces might possibly 
 have altered the course of events. But what Wellington, 
 with Lisbon as a base of supplies, and Torres Vedras 
 as a haven for retreat in reserve, accomplished with 
 difficulty, Moore found impossible when operating from 
 Corunna. There is nothing now clearer to the simplest 
 intelligence than the wisdom of our Government (much 
 impugned at the time) in resolving at once to fulfil their 
 treaties, and expel the French from Lisbon and Portugal 
 before proceeding into Spain, and the gallant Sir John 
 Moore did not lay down his life for nothing when, by 
 his failure to gain Madrid and the difficult embarkation 
 of his army, he demonstrated the true strategic value 
 of what Sir Arthur Wellesley secured at Yimiera. 
 
 That the retreat to Corunna was admirably executed 
 
264 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 in presence of a superior force, and that the conflict 
 which gained embarkation for the English was ably 
 conceived and bravely fought, no military historian has 
 ever denied ; but with the loss of the gallant Sir John 
 Moore England temporally lost also her footing in 
 Spain. There was no military obstacle between the 
 gathering hosts of Napoleon and the devoted land of 
 Portugal, so that many believed the vaunted intention of 
 driving the Leopard into the sea to be nigh fulfilment. 
 
 Canning, however, was nothing daunted. He saw in 
 the eagerness of Napoleon, and in his sudden spring on 
 Spain, the importance which that greatest of all 
 commanders had attributed to Moore's operations. 
 Silently and determinedly he resolved to renew them. 
 Trust in Sir Arthur Wellesley was even thus early the 
 talisman wherewith he hoped to charm away the horrors 
 of invasion from the troubled Peninsula. 
 
 At home our national fortunes seemed to be at the 
 lowest ebb, and Lords Grenville and Grey were again 
 loudly opposed to the , Government foreign policy. 
 Indeed, had Lord Grey's advice been taken, the 
 Peninsula would have been abandoned, for as he urged 
 — apparently with truth — it was always in the power 
 of France to pour her legions across the Pyrenees and 
 overwhelm our puny battalions. 
 
 Canning, however, must be granted the statesman's 
 high merit of having seen clearer than his contemporaries. 
 He knew that, but for the peculiarities of the country 
 in which our military efforts were to be made, and 
 the certainty of future European troubles distracting 
 the French, the English nation of at most fourteen 
 
GEORGE CANNING. 265 
 
 millions and a half could not hope to cope numerically 
 with that of Napoleon. But he had counted the cost, 
 and, as Lord Russell has truly said, entered on a 
 struggle which must have been decided somewhere — 
 a struggle, moreover, in which either Napoleon or 
 England would ultimately succumb. In Spain it was 
 to fight for all that made life worth haying that the 
 sword was drawn. In fact, it was felt by a thinking 
 section of the Whig party, comprising Lord Holland 
 and Mr. Francis Horner, that it was in the cause not 
 only of liberty that Sir Arthur Wellesley again took the 
 field, but of that independence of Europe which, with a]l 
 its questionable accompaniments, had found a place on 
 the banner of the French army that fought at Yalmy. 
 
 The times were changing, and the true tenour 
 of Napoleon's sway becoming patent to all. Lord 
 Grenville in vain put forward his opinion that we were 
 undertaking a task beyond our strength, so that neither 
 his high position nor Lord Grey's pertinacious and 
 conscientious objections could avail anything in altering 
 public policy.* 
 
 The die was irrevocably cast. 
 
 True it is that in political circles other than those 
 merely Whig, the safety of the State was despaired of. 
 A conversation has been reported to the author by one 
 who, as a child, heard Canning and Wilberforce bewailing 
 the nation's dangers over a cup of coffee. A combination 
 of creature-comfort and dismay at public peril which 
 failed to satisfy the child's reflective mind ; and, indeed, 
 
 :;; It is fair to Lord Granville to note that his objections were 
 partially those of detail. 
 
2 iO POBEIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 much of the conversation of the great Wilberforcc was 
 at this period impregnated with apprehension (as he 
 phrased it) for the future of poor old England. But the 
 British people at large were becoming inured to taxation, 
 
 1 were prepared for any sacrifice. They were, us 
 Madame Kemusat observes, " changing into a military 
 
 ktion, and so made by Napoleon.' 1 
 
 He had calculated that the promulgation of his 
 Continental system would create a revolt in England. 
 Little by little he believed that recriminatory measures 
 would lead to encroachment on the rights of a people 
 specially careful of their liberties. 
 
 But encouraged by Canning, who adopted the measures 
 and language of Pitt, the English nation realised the 
 necessity of resistance. 
 
 All the popular elements in the realm sympathised 
 with the Spanish patriots, and it is the promulgation of 
 this sentiment, together with exceptional foresight as 
 regards the importance of Spain as an arena whereon 
 British skill and valou* could be most advantageously 
 displayed, that formed the special feature of Canning's 
 first occupation of the Foreign Office, and fixed his 
 inalienable title to be called a statesman. 
 
 ''Fortune but not fate has favoured the French invasion 
 of Spain," became the burden of a stirring Parliamentary 
 appeal made by the Foreign Secretary, such as reference 
 to the various papers and magazines of the day will 
 show to have secured a striking, and as it ultimately 
 proved, abiding effect, whilst those fortunate enough to 
 hear the passionate and patriotic bursts of powerful 
 rhetoric never lost the impression made thereby. As for 
 
GEORGE CANNING. 267 
 
 the dissipation of the Spanish armies, Canning declared 
 that the British Government, when they despatched Sir 
 John Moore, had resolved to take advantage of the 
 favourable military conditions existent when that resolve 
 was formed, and could not he held responsible for a 
 disintegration over which they had no control. But 
 England's policy, nevertheless, was to succour Portugal, 
 and advance on Spain as opp >rtunity offered. 
 
 Mr. Windham in reply blamed Government for not 
 utilising the harbourage of the eastern coast, and for 
 failing to make Gibraltar their rallying-ground. The 
 
 anal register for 1 800 tells how the Opposition looked 
 in vain for an answer to this latter criticism ; but the 
 reply came ultimately when ensconced in Torres Vedras 
 the allied armies beheld Massena's forces helplessly 
 foiled, and ultimately compelled to retreat. 
 
 Lisbon was then proved to be the true basis of 
 operations for England, who, at the same time securing 
 Cadiz from capture, adopted a plan whereby they might 
 retain a hold on the Peninsula ! under the most adverse 
 circumstances possible to conceive. 
 
 The misconceptions of Government were undoubtedly, 
 attributable to the popular origin of the Spanish 
 uprising. 
 
 When that excitable and proud nation found that 
 French troops had been smuggled into the kingdom 
 under false pretences, King Charles persuaded to 
 abdicate in favour of the more pliable Ferdinand, and 
 both representatives of the kingly dignity brought 
 together at Bayonne and there frightened into a 
 shameful abdication, the character of Napoleon's 
 
2 >8 FOREIGN BTARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 scheme dawned upon the puhlic mind, causing a popular 
 ment, which from the very nature of the case wj 
 
 certain to be more or less iwscent. 
 
 The glorious achievements of Talafox at Saragossa 
 
 and the battle of Baylen soon gave way to a reactionary 
 period, of which Napoleon was not slow to avail 
 himself, and for which he was fully prepared. 
 
 Critics of the British Government alleged that the 
 populations of Saragossa and Gerona should have been 
 directly succoured and joined with our forces, but that 
 in consequence of this neglect British aid arrived at 
 an unpropitious moment, a circumstance, however, 
 which nothing but the existence of the electric telegraph 
 could have prevented. The prevalent idea to the effect 
 that Government should have despatched 100,000 men 
 for embarkation close to the French frontier was shown 
 by events to have been impracticable, inasmuch as 
 when the field transport and commissariat received 
 better organisation never were half that number of 
 troops with difficulty placed in motion. Just as well 
 might the Opposition have proposed a landing in France 
 and an advance on Paris. 
 
 The maintenance of treaties and the defence of 
 Portugal was thus made by Canning the first object of 
 his policy, which was conceived on the assumption that 
 England was entering upon a long and arduous struggle 
 from which no discouragement should lead her to draw 
 back. 
 
 In France the people were beginning to weary of 
 military success, and it required all the genius of their 
 ruler to reconcile society to the deprivations which 
 
GEORGE CANNING. 269 
 
 commercial paralysis entailed. But the dictator worked 
 hard to facilitate these evils. 
 
 He pondered over the inventions of distractions likely 
 to occupy the public mind, and by pompous bulletins 
 brought the general subservience to France before the 
 nation. 
 
 The smallest detail did not escape his attention, and 
 he positively conceived the idea of manufacturing sugar 
 out of beetroot and so of allaying the discontent of the 
 French at the absence of a luxury which they looked 
 upon as a necessity. 
 
 During these attempts to destroy England and degrade 
 her constitution Napoleon called upon Pope Pius VII. 
 to join the common league against his enemy. On the 
 Pontiff's refusal he annexed the states of the Church 
 to Italy, and if by so doing he, in some degree, 
 anticipated a national desire, it was at the expense of 
 the indignation which his conduct aroused amongst 
 the Pioman Catholics of Europe. This result was 
 specially apparent in Spain and Austria. In the latter 
 empire a restlessness had been promoted by her leading 
 statesmen who had formed an opinion that the empire 
 of the Hapsburghs had not put forth its full strength 
 
 in 1805. 
 
 Napoleon, moreover, getting scent of this hostile 
 disposition, made overtures of peace to England. 
 
 Although no direct collusion has been, at the moment 
 in question, shown to have existed between the ministries 
 of Austria and England, there is evidence of the interest 
 with which our policy was watched by Metternich, who 
 was then Austrian Ambassador in Pari.;, 
 
270 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF TIIE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 He lias left on record a strong opinion of the happy 
 results which Canning's resolute conduct would conduce 
 to perpetuate. The English Foreign Secretary refused 
 to make peace except when acting in unison with 
 Spain, Portugal, Sweden, and the Sicilies, and as the 
 French Government scorned all idea of recognising the 
 Spanish insurgents, the negotiations straightway lapsed.* 
 Nothing daunted, Napoleon taxed Metternich with 
 complicity with England and subjected him to a not 
 unfamiliar scene before the assembled ambassadors, f 
 
 But the Austrian emperor had once more resolved 
 to submit events to that arbitration of the sword which 
 had served his empire but ill on the two previous 
 occasions. 
 
 France cannot be said to have given direct cause of 
 effenee to Austria in 1809, but it was probably true, as 
 Metternich declares in his autobiography, that such a 
 conflict as occurred was unavoidable. 
 
 The Peace of Presburgh as a consequence of Auster- 
 litz was held to be unbearable for an empire which 
 felt itself strong enough to gain better terms. The 
 treaty of Tilsit had surrounded its frontiers with French 
 troops, and the commerce of the Adriatic remained 
 paralysed by the Continental system. To shake off 
 these disabilities the war of 1809 was commenced, and 
 
 ::; The proposition camo from Napoleon and Alexander, in 
 conference at Erfurt. 
 
 t Austria went so far as to draw on England for pecuniary 
 aid, a proceeding which Cannir liated as one he could not 
 
 endorse without reference to Parliament. — Parliamentary Deba 
 1809. 
 
GEORGE CANNING. 271 
 
 with an advantage to Austria which Metternich's finesse 
 had gained. By plausible diplomatic explanations he 
 reassured Napoleon, so that after the Congress of 
 Erfurt the princes of the Confederation of the Ehine 
 had been allowed to disband their contingent forces. 
 
 This premature loss of her ancient leadership in 
 Germany, destined in future years to recur, was un- 
 bearable to the proudest of all Continental aristocracies 
 who insisted that a further attempt should be made to 
 wrest supremacy from the hated Gaul. 
 
 The British Prime Minister was the first to receive 
 a somewhat vague report that Austria intended to 
 wrestle afresh with Napoleon, and the Duke of Portland 
 seems to have both mentioned it to Lord Malmesbury 
 and, of course, to Canning. 
 
 Soon, however, a confirmation arrived in the person 
 of Count YTalmoden, a natural grandson of George II. 
 who, resident in Austria, had been sent by the Emperor 
 to announce his resolve. 
 
 Walmoden told how, unlike in 1794 and 1805, the 
 whole of the Austrian nation was heart and soul in the 
 coming struggle. The measures taken by Napoleon 
 against the Roman Catholic religion had stirred the 
 aristocracy to the depths, and he came to tell of a 
 nation united and strong in numbers but wanting money 
 wherewith to sustain the conflict. 
 
 Nominally England was at war with Austria, and so 
 far Canning gladly accepted Walmoden's offers for 
 peace, but it remains on record that he did not reverse 
 the policy of Fox and Howick, so much criticised in 
 1806-7, and held aloof from subsidising the Austrians, 
 
272 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 How far the fatal delay after Aspern may be traceable 
 to this cause, and consequent lack of resource, we 
 are neither prepared or competent to aver ; but we do 
 know that if Canning had had his way, neither would 
 the diversion on Holland have been attempted. It is 
 remarkable, however, that England's minister of action 
 should have been led to adopt the scorned policy of his 
 predecessors, a continual persistence in which never 
 could, humanly speaking, have brought about a restoration 
 of liberty to Europe. 
 
 And yet it is fair to state that Lord Malmesbury 
 believed Canning himself to be favourable to supporting 
 Austria — much, however, in the sense, as events proved, 
 that Lord Howick desired to retain the Russian alliance 
 before Friedland. 
 
 On the 22nd of April Napoleon fell on to the Archduke 
 Charles' army and defeated it at Eckmuhl. The Arch- 
 duke was considerably outnumbered, having but 40,000 
 men to the 75,000 French troops engaged. Several 
 other engagements resulting unfavourably for Austria, 
 Vienna was again occupied by the enemy on the 13th 
 of May. 
 
 As England had just despatched Sir Arthur Wellesley 
 to Portugal, with orders to advance into Spain, and 
 succour the still -resisting Spaniards, and to do so at the 
 head of 40,000 men, this Austrian collapse was most 
 depressing news for the British ministry. The fore- 
 bodings of the Opposition looked like receiving an early 
 fulfilment, and as if Napoleon would be able to throw 
 his legions once more freely into Spain. 
 
 But a gleam of light came from the Danube, whilst 
 
GEORGE CANNING. 273 
 
 the public and some members of our Government had 
 not Canning's unbounded confidence in Sir Arthur 
 Wellesley's powers. 
 
 At Aspern and Essling near the Danube was posted 
 the Austrian army, whose wings rested on the two 
 above mentioned villages. On the 21st and 22nd of 
 May they became the scenes of two days' desperate 
 fighting. Vienna lay on the opposite side of the Danube, 
 to cross which several streams, caused by islands in the 
 river, had to be bridged ; the largest of these, Lobau, 
 lay close to the western or left bank of the river. 
 
 Napoleon, proceeding from the capital, made light of 
 all difficulties, and aided by the possession of the Vienna 
 arsenal and its resources, placed a large part of his army 
 on the marchfield or plain which divided the river 
 Danube from the Austrian positions. 
 
 But the Archduke Charles had ably schemed so to fill 
 certain heavy boats with stores that they should be 
 launched on to the tide at its height, and destroy 
 the bridge connecting Lobau with the main land. This 
 actually took place, and the French were attacked by 
 superior numbers, and had, on the whole, the worst 
 of a frightful day's fighting. On the 22nd of May the 
 fortune of war again wavered, but in the evening Napoleon 
 had to retire on to the island of Lobau, with his retreat 
 dependent on engineering skill, and on the condition of 
 the river. Vain had proved the heroic valour and 
 wondrous military skill of Napoleon, who long held 
 Aspern against overwhelming odds. 
 
 The fortune of war had wavered, but for once it had 
 proved adverse to Napoleon. The question came to be 
 I. 18f- 
 
274 F0BE1GN BSCBBTABIS8 OP THE XIX. CENTUKY. 
 
 whether the courage of the French emperor's soldiery, 
 and his own unrivalled resource, could save him from 
 destruction. The astonishment of Europe when this 
 became generally known can be scarcely described, and 
 a prospect seemed to be opening which must soon have 
 been perilous for the Imperial interests in Europe. But 
 unfortunately there was at this time neither confidence 
 nor concert between the Continental nations. 
 
 Whether the Fabian tactics adopted by the Austrians 
 resulted from exhaustion, or from other necessities of 
 their position, it is certain that the French were allowed 
 time to repair their bridges, and to build a fresh one 
 threatening the Austrian left wing. 
 
 After drawing attention to this quarter by means of 
 a feint, the French forced their way higher up across 
 the Danube. 
 
 Nothing was left to the Archduke but retreat across 
 the plain of Wagram, where, awaiting a junction with the 
 Archduke John, the Austrians took up a fresh position. 
 
 Napoleon, having concentrated the fire of his artillery 
 on the enemies' centre, literally crushed it at the same 
 time that he turned the Archduke's flank by a masterly 
 movement. 
 
 The fighting was deadly and long-continued, but the 
 French forced their opponents to retire into Moravia, 
 where, notwithstanding the efficiency of one untouched 
 army corps under the Archduke John, the Austrian 
 commander soon saw necessity for an armistice. The 
 slaughter on the plain of Wagram was frightful on 
 either side, and 20,000 prisoners were taken by the 
 French. 
 
GEORGE CANNING. 275 
 
 Still the Austrian resources were in advance of those 
 which Napoleon's bulletins ascribed to her. 
 
 Moreover, if Metternich's diplomacy had cajoled 
 Napoleon before the war, it was decreed that an ample 
 reparation should be in store for France. 
 
 Prince Metternich's autobiography has removed the 
 diplomatic veil which rested over the ensuing Peace of 
 Schonbrunn. 
 
 Napoleon asked the Emperor Francis to send him a 
 soldier to talk over the military situation, which he 
 declared a civilian could not understand. 
 
 The Prince John Leichtenstein was accordingly sent, 
 before Metternich's advice was taken. When the great 
 diplomatist heard of the incident, he gave it as his 
 opinion that the move would prove a disastrous one. 
 Either Leichtenstein would be detained, and an able 
 general lost to Austria, or the soldier would be beguiled 
 into signing a shameful peace. The latter proved true. 
 
 Assured that he was merely affixing his signature to 
 a provisional agreement, the Austrian general fell into 
 the trap so skilfully laid for him. On leaving Vienna 
 he heard a general ringing of bells and other sounds of 
 rejoicing. In reply to his inquiry as to the reason of 
 such demonstrations, he was told that peace was signed 
 between France and Austria. The exuberant joy of the 
 Viennese was such that their emperor found it im- 
 possible to repudiate even the details of a treaty which 
 smothered his empire on land and sea. 
 
 The only two Austrian sea-ports, of Trieste and 
 Fiume, were delivered over to France, whilst Austria 
 sacrificed by this peace upwards of 2,000 square miles 
 
 18 * 
 
276 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 of territory, with a population of between three and four 
 millions, and being entirely surrounded by powerful 
 neighbours the military advantages of her position were 
 neutralised. 
 
 And this when, as Metternich tells us, Austria could 
 still have placed 250,000 men in line to oppose the 
 French, and at a moment when, as he pertinently 
 observes, England had made a timely descent on 
 Holland. The advantage of having occupied Vienna 
 early in the campaign gave the invaders an opportunity 
 to play the above trick upon their opponents, and so 
 change the course of European history. Who, for one 
 moment, can deny the probability that a prolonged 
 Austrian resistance might have quickened Muscovite 
 intentions, formed, as they doubtless were, to break 
 ultimately with Napoleon. 
 
 The joy of the Viennese knew no bounds, for when, 
 as a result of the peace, French troops retired from 
 the capital, the Emperor Francis was literally carried to 
 his palace by a delighted population. It was, moreover, 
 thus early ominously apparent that the Kussian emperor 
 was discontented with this treaty. 
 
 As the nominal ally of France, Alexander considered 
 that his friendly disposition should have been more 
 iberally rewarded. 
 
 Although he received enough of ancient Galicia to 
 contain a population of 400,000, he was much 
 exercised at the fact of Brody not being comprised 
 therein. Being particularly adapted to forward com- 
 merce between Eussia and Turkey, the Muscovites had 
 long observed this spot with longing eyes. Moreover, 
 
GEORGE CANNING. 277 
 
 the refusal to confer this town on Russia was one of the 
 subsequent causes of the Czar's estrangement from 
 Napoleon. We have dwelt thus somewhat fully upon 
 the condition of Continental affairs because it is evident 
 that the element of Austrian future capability for warfare 
 must have affected the calculations of those who believed 
 her to be crushed when she was in truth but cowed. 
 And no precaution of Napoleon's could eliminate the 
 strength which military training, conferred on a large 
 percentage of the population, had given, even if (as was 
 the case) Austria's standing army became temporarily 
 reduced. 
 
 At this moment two expeditions were in process of 
 execution which had been devised by the British 
 Government as a means of assisting Austria. 
 
 One, under General Stewart, left Sicily with the view 
 to creating a diversion on the coast of Italy, but met 
 with little opportunity of effecting their purpose. They 
 captured the islands of Ischia and Scylla, but their 
 operations remained unattended with material advantage. 
 
 Another, under Lord Chatham, proceeded to the 
 Scheldt, with the object of destroying or capturing the 
 shipping at Antwerp and the docks at Flushing. 
 
 The Government had received a warning in 1808, 
 which told them their policy of retaining British pre- 
 eminence at sea could not be ensured if Napoleon's 
 naval combinations were allowed development. 
 
 The Rochefort squadron escaped, whilst Sir Richard 
 Strachan and his fleet were driven away by a storm, 
 and passing unnoticed through the Straits of Gibraltar, 
 slipped into Toulon. Finally, a French squadron 
 
278 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 literally ravaged the Mediterranean commerce of 
 England. 
 
 This turned attention to ship -building in the Scheldt, 
 situated as that harbour is, advantageously to contribute 
 a quota towards a naval attack on England. Never 
 did a better equipped armament leave these shores 
 than that known in history as the Walcheren expedi- 
 tion. Lord Castlereagh watched its departure from the 
 Downs, and looked anxiously after the child of his own 
 invention. But the leaders did not prove equal to the 
 occasion. Flushing was certainly taken and the docks 
 finally destroyed, so that no line-of-battle ship fully 
 equipped and stored could float in secure haven inside the 
 Scheldt, but this, and this only, was the solid result of a 
 venture which cost close on twenty millions sterling, and 
 sacrificed between three and four thousand lives. 
 
 The story has been oftentimes told how the fever 
 swept over the island of Walcheren, and how the attack 
 on Antwerp failed because the besiegers had not the 
 requisite information as to the position of the citadel 
 which, it was discovered when too late, commanded the 
 dock-yard and harbour. Just, however, as the healthy 
 season was approaching and the ravages of disease had 
 done their worst, the British forces were withdrawn. 
 
 It had originally been commenced when the sickly 
 season was setting in, and although Flushing was 
 absolutely rendered useless for Napoleon's immediate 
 purposes, and danger from the Scheldt in winter, 
 therefore, reduced to a minimum, the assaults which 
 were directed against the Government in Parliament 
 must be allowed to have possessed real foundation. 
 
GEOKGE CANNING. 279 
 
 And, indeed, if the miscarriage of a great venture, 
 designed by patriotic and talented public servants, is ever 
 to attract the opprobruim which a healthy sense of 
 responsibility should visit on failure, surely this was the 
 occasion more than all others in the eighteenth or 
 nineteenth centuries when it must alike have been 
 unconstitutional and demoralising to the public service 
 for national opinion to remain silent. England had 
 positively sent forth this vast armament without proper 
 geographical knowledge of Antwerp being obtained, and 
 such shortcoming was proved on inquiry to have existed. 
 But the blame should be shared by the ministry as 
 a whole, and not cast on Lord Castlereagh in particular. 
 The failure of naval or military operations naturally 
 reacts upon those who jointly originated them, and the 
 loss of human life and money which ill-considered 
 schemes may at any moment bring about should, at 
 least, be secured against by undoubted ministerial 
 responsibility. Mr. Canning had already been allowed 
 the doubtful plea of absence from Council when the 
 Convention of Cintra received ratification. On the 
 other hand, the sweeping Opposition statements that 
 nothing could have been effected by a diversion on 
 the Scheldt when Napoleon was straining his resources 
 on the Danube, is as untrue as the mismanagement of 
 details is notorious.* 
 
 * There was a disagreement between the naval and military 
 commanders, and Lord Chatham forwarded his version to the 
 King, which if he had known, Lord Mulgrave, the First Lord of the 
 Admiralty never would have opposed the City of London demand 
 for an inquiry. 
 
280 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 The well-known lines will better celebrate this 
 unfortunate venture than any elaborate criticism 
 in Parliament known only to the pages of Hansard. 
 
 14 Lord Chatham with his sabre drawn 
 Stood waiting for Sir Kichard Strachan ; 
 Sir Eichard, longing to be at 'em, 
 Stood waiting for the Earl of Chatham." 
 
 Lord Liverpool has, however, left on record the fact 
 that abandonment of Walcheren was not finally deter- 
 mined on until peace was proclaimed between France 
 and Austria. Sir Richard Strachan wrote to Lord 
 Mulgrave begging that nothing should be finally decided 
 until he could see his lordship at the Admiralty, when 
 personal familiarity with military and naval tactics 
 would render explanation easy. 
 
 Napoleon having his hands free to act either in 
 Spain or Belgium, together with the proved unhealthiness 
 of the island, led to its immediate evacuation, contrary 
 to the admiral's request, but a potent result of British 
 efforts remained in the fact that no large naval 
 contingent could be fitted out in the Scheldt until 
 the docks at Flushing were repaired. 
 
 This fact, together with the destruction of French 
 ships in Basque roads by Admiral Cochrane, went far 
 to unite our hands and render operations in the 
 Peninsula a main object. 
 
 Mr. C. D. Yonge has published a letter in the 
 Liverpool correspondence, which tells the story of the 
 events which led to the Canning and Castlereagh duel, 
 and to the Foreign Secretary's resignation. 
 
 The story as told by Lord Mulgrave in Mr. R. P. 
 
GEOKGE CANNING. 281 
 
 Ward's life is confirmed, and all doubts are cleared 
 up. Canning did wish to remove Lord Castlereagh 
 from the War Office, and the Duke of Portland agreed 
 to get rid of him. Several ministers, including Castle- 
 reagh's special friend, Lord Camden, were apprized of 
 this, but they appear to have temporised, and the 
 matter was kept secret from Lord Castlereagh, until 
 after the conclusion of the expedition to Holland the 
 intrigue became known. 
 
 Without expressing any opinion as to whether duelling 
 was ever justifiable at all, Lord Castlereagh's challenge 
 must, at least, be admitted to have resulted from gross 
 ill-usage. Nor is it possible to withhold blame from all 
 concerned in the secrecy which had worked such dire 
 mischief, even if the weak health of the Duke of Portland 
 had for some time rendered his premiership a mere 
 nullity. 
 
 Moreover, Canning's supremacy in debate had led 
 him to underrate the talents of Lord Castlereagh, and he 
 openly confessed his aspiration to the leading position 
 in any Government which might succeed the Duke's, 
 desiring, at the same time, that Lord Wellesley should 
 enter the cabinet. Perceval, he, however, admitted, 
 might become a rival. 
 
 There had for some time been differences between 
 Canning and Castlereagh, inasmuch as the Foreign 
 Secretary wished all our resources thrown into the 
 Peninsula under Sir Arthur Wellesley, and had never 
 approved the diversion in the north of Spain, which 
 ended in Corunna, any more than he liked the attack 
 on Holland. 
 
282 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 The public scandal which ensued led to Canning's 
 resignation and to an unpopularity in certain quarters 
 from which he long suffered, but had the House of 
 Commons of those days been governed simply by the 
 exercise of eloquence, he might have carried all before 
 him and have survived the storm which ensued. But 
 the qualities possessed by Castlereagh had worked their 
 silent way, and it was felt that he had been misunder- 
 stood. 
 
 Scattered through the two last published volumes 
 of Lord Malmesbury's letters are various characteristic 
 notices of Canning. An interesting picture is drawn 
 of his demeanour at the Foreign Office at the time 
 of the Treaty of Tilsit, by his secretary, Mr. Ross. 
 The minister's industry is described as only equal 
 to his power of despatching business with celerity. 
 But then he is, we are told, often weary and in want 
 of rest, betokeniug the delicacy of constitution which 
 clung to this gifted individual during life. 
 
 Moreover, the reception by Canning of the news telling 
 the complete success of Lords Gambier and Cathcart at 
 Copenhagen is especially striking. What would have been 
 the position of the minister announcing an unsuccessful 
 attempt to seize the Danish fleet may be imagined. 
 
 The account given of the commotion and trouble 
 amongst Canning's friends when Lord Castlereagh 
 claimed satisfaction for the unjust conduct to which he 
 had undoubtedly been subjected, is vivid to a degree. 
 Canning's conduct on the occasion was perfect. Without 
 uttering a complaint, he complied with the vicious 
 custom of his times, and both fought and was wounded 
 
GEORGE CANNING. 283 
 
 in a duel with his rival.* But that he did so in connection 
 with a dispute in which he himself was as utterly 
 guiltless of deception as, from his frank and open 
 nature, might be supposed, there can be no manner of 
 doubt. 
 
 He did desire to remove Lord Castlereagh from the 
 War Office, and understood that Lord Camden, as a 
 private friend, was to apprise Lord Castlereagh of the 
 
 fact. 
 
 That this had not been done according to agreement 
 was surely no fault of Canning's, who, for a long time, 
 had to bear the obloquy of what, unexplained, looked 
 like treason to a colleague. 
 
 Lord Mulgrave has substantiated every word written 
 in Lord Malrnesbury's book on this matter, and as 
 we have elsewhere stated, always averred Canning's 
 innocence of unworthy or underhand conduct. At the 
 same time it is clear that several in the cabinet made 
 a mistake as regards Lord Castlereagh's ability.! 
 
 * This encounter took place close to the telegraph on Wimbledon 
 
 Common. 
 
 f The fact that staggered those anxious to judge Mr. Canning's 
 conduct fairly was the assertion that he believed Castlereagh to 
 have known his fate and proximate expulsion from office for some 
 time before the explosion took place in the cabinet. If so, how, 
 says Mr. R. P. ^Yard, could Mr. Canning and Lord Castlereagh have 
 remained in friendly deliberation over public business? The 
 answer we believe to consist in the fact that for some time unfor- 
 tunately the two statesmen had looked askance at one another. 
 Mr. Canning doubtless mistook Lord Castlereagh's reservation 
 towards him for resentment. At all events, the Foreign Secretary's 
 word is to ourselves conclusive, even if it had not been seconded by 
 
284 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 The account of a subsequent meeting of the two 
 rivals in 1812 is likewise singularly interesting. 
 
 Canning feared that political arrangements might be 
 discussed at the meeting which Castlereagh sought.* 
 But when assured by Lord Liverpool that the object 
 was personal he relented, and soon found that the 
 generous Irish nobleman desired all the past to be for- 
 gotten. They heartily shook hands and parted friends. 
 The contretemps is pleasing and creditable to the two 
 great men, who soon forgot their differences in zeal for 
 the public weal, and Canning's first Foreign Secretary- 
 ship, despite an unpropitious conclusion, remains 
 indelibly connected with the Peninsula struggle and its 
 ultimate effect on the war. 
 
 After Corunna his attitude of resolution determined 
 many a waverer, whilst in Parliament he proclaimed his 
 confidence in the struggle. The heroism of Saragossa 
 had not been continuously maintained amongst the 
 Spaniards. Eeliance could not be placed on their 
 combinations, and more than once jealousy of the 
 
 Lord Mulgrave's persistent statement to the same effect. In 
 justice to the cabinet it should be noted that the intrigue against 
 Lord Castlereagh's continuance in office was not known generally 
 until a few hours before matters came to a crisis. 
 
 Canning, the Duke of Portland, and Lord Bathurst all appear to 
 have underrated Lord Castlereagh, but his inherent high qualities 
 possessed such an unexpected hold on the opinions and sympathies 
 of his colleagues, that his dismissal threatened the dispersion of a 
 cabinet which was not even informed of its leader's acquiescence 
 in this most momentous change. 
 
 * Lord Malmesbury's Letters, vol. ii. p. 311. 
 
GEORGE CANNING. 285 
 
 English deliverers had marred the prospect ; otherwise 
 the Spanish line-of-battle ships in Ferrol harbour would 
 never have been suffered to fall into French hands. 
 
 But neither these facts nor Mr. Windham's accusation 
 of bustling about and spending a great deal of money 
 for no result, affected Canning's resolution. 
 
 Succeeding in getting Sir Arthur Wellesley re- 
 appointed, he saw Talavera fought under the auspices 
 of his chosen general. And afterwards, when, released 
 from Germany, Napoleon sent Massena to drive the 
 English out of Portugal and into the sea, he had the 
 supreme satisfaction of seeing the British army safely 
 ensconced on the Portuguese frontier, soon to retire 
 behind the fortifications of Torres Vedras, which remain 
 to this day a monument of their leader's genius. Such 
 was ample reward to a British statesman even if destined 
 to see a policy he had inaugurated brought to maturity 
 by others. 
 
 Steadily did Canning support the efforts of his 
 successor in the Foreign Office, and no factious word 
 passed his lips while Lord Bathurst and Lord Wellesley 
 were carrying out in detail the conception of his own 
 mind. 
 
 We have previously given an opinion that Mr. Canning 
 scarcely fills the position in history destined hereafter to 
 belong to his name. This Foreign Secretaryship just 
 narrated seems to possess features peculiar alone to 
 the period in question. Notwithstanding the continued 
 abrogation of Continental subsidies, the two strongest 
 pieces of ready action recounted during English nine- 
 teenth-century history must be traced to the individual 
 
280 FOREIGN SECBETABIE8 OF THE XTX. OENTTJBY. 
 
 decision and prompt resource of George Canning. The 
 unveiling of the plot laid by France and Russia, and the 
 
 iron grip on the Peninsula seized by England, were both 
 the result of this minister's individual inspiration, and, 
 despite all criticism and some shortcomings, presents 
 to our memory the form of one acting and speaking 
 much as Chatham had done before him. The younger 
 Pitt and Lord Castlereagh were essentially ministers 
 skilled in the intricacies of Government, and although 
 each possessed the faculty of addressing himself to wider 
 interests, they were prima facie great administrators, one 
 being fired with a genius such as antiquity can find 
 no model to eclipse, and the other clever and patient 
 beyond measure, and therefore successful in most 
 that he undertook. But they were only War Ministers 
 because the times they lived in forced them to 
 adopt that role. But Canning's whole official nature 
 was that of the war-horse who scents the battle from 
 afar. 
 
 Like Chatham, he cemented the decision he might be 
 called on to make, by burning and noble thoughts, 
 conveyed with all the force and grace that words would 
 allow. 
 
 It is left for us to tell hereafter how, when peace 
 blessed British soil, Canning was again and again its 
 guardian, because, as he phrased it, " he did not shrink 
 from war if forced upon him." Against wars of aggression 
 or of mere expediency we shall find him an equally 
 strong opponent. 
 
 But other names have taken precedence of Canning's 
 diiiiiig times when social questions have relegated to 
 
GEORGE CANNING. 287 
 
 history all reference to the reason why cheap bread 
 became a political possibility } reform was not shelved, 
 the treasury not drained beyond hope of present recovery, 
 and this island not now slowly arising from disaster if 
 not foreign dominion. 
 
 To no man is it more attributable that such conditions 
 have not been existent during the careers of many now 
 living than to Canning, who whilst he perpetuated the 
 spirit of Pitt amongst the people, yet hesitated not to 
 straightway hurl the might of England at those whose 
 secret schemes were aimed at her destruction, or who 
 hoped by quenching liberty all over the earth to isolate, 
 pauperise, and crush her down. 
 
 Foreign affairs have for some time past forced 
 themselves into what some amongst us think undue 
 prominence. But such a time is surely that when, in 
 the interests of peace and liberty, the memory of this 
 first Foreign Secretaryship of Canning's should be kept 
 alive in our midst. The shadow of foreign conspiracy 
 even now — whilst these lines are written — may be 
 hovering over the realm. We know but that yesterday 
 a scheme of devastation and robbery was planned 
 against our dominion by one to whom we had but to say, 
 11 Thus far and no farther," whereupon the traditionary 
 and long deliberated course of public action adopted by 
 our secret enemy would straightway lead him to hold 
 aloof. It is to say this with emphasis, and to repeat 
 it if necessary, amidst preparations for defence not 
 defiance, that we need a George Canning to arise 
 amongst us. We will elect him as a leader when the 
 light of his presence is seen, and trust to his teaching 
 
288 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 for the transmission of ideas which alone can secure 
 peace for England in times of gathering peril. 
 
 In Canning then, more particularly, do we see the 
 type of an Englishman during the first part of the 
 present century. He specially represents a steady 
 determined watchfulness against aggressive territorial 
 advance on our own part, and in guarding imperial 
 interests with a statesman's eye. His due regard for 
 the laws of nature and the rights of manhood was 
 tempered with a stern determination to suffer no wrong 
 to be devised against his country without measures of 
 precaution — may be of defence, which might merge into 
 action — being straightway adopted. 
 
 We have, then, surely reached a time in our history 
 when justice may be rendered to him who, recognising 
 the fact that the traditions of a former century were 
 growing fainter, received for such prescient foresight 
 the commendation of his countrymen. 
 
 It will, moreover, be our duty later in this volume 
 to enter more fully into the circumstances which 
 brought such statesmanship into action, but it must 
 never be forgotten that to any honour then gained 
 should be added that of having previously delivered 
 our country from the peril of foreign conspiracy, and 
 changed an impending struggle near our own shores 
 into one waged across the seas, on behalf of treaty 
 law, and in the sacred cause of constitutional freedom 
 — such, moreover, as Mr. Croker has elegantly phrased 
 it, Canning knew well how to mete out for the benefit 
 of all. 
 
 That measured freedom is, moreover, inalienably 
 
GE0BGE CANNING. 289 
 
 allied with the adoption of a foreign policy at once 
 determined and peace-giving. 
 
 The proverbially tender plant, Liberty, has been 
 descanted on by the greatest of all modern philo- 
 sophers, John Stuart Mill, who places strength of 
 government in the fore-front of all attempts to conserve 
 its influence. How, then, can such safety possibly 
 exist where the rights of a nation are infringed with 
 impunity from without ? 
 
 Moreover, in all possible conditions of society — shift 
 and shuffle the cards as you may— there must exist 
 a ruling class holding privileges, either by virtue 
 of superior knowledge, wealth, or birth, but whose 
 natural tendency being to care for their own interests, 
 require a constitutional check upon their movements, 
 such as Great Britain has accumulated through the 
 experience of ages. 
 
 By no possible means can such liberties be more 
 effectually guarded, or the mind of a nation become 
 more elevated, and self become more completely 
 merged in the commonweal, than by an adherence to 
 the maxims Canning strove to put in practice 
 and which characterised this his first great Foreign 
 Secretaryship. 
 
 The key to his conduct and intention may be held 
 to have been the example and career of Mr. Pitt, 
 whose precepts of public polity were constantly kept 
 in view. If moved therefrom at any time it had been 
 by faults of temperament rather than of intention. 
 
 The lines which he wrote on his great master, 
 and with which we desire to close this first record, 
 i. 19 
 
290 FOEEIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 might not improperly have been inscribed to his own 
 memory. 
 
 " Shall not his name to Britain be dear 
 
 Whose example all nations with envy behold ? 
 The statesman unbiassed, unflinching from fear, 
 
 Uncorrupted by nature, unbiassed by gold, 
 Who, when terror and doubt through the universe spread, 
 
 Whilst rapine and fury their banners unfurled, 
 The hearths and the hopes of his country maintained, 
 One kingdom preserved 'midst the wreck of the world." 
 
 — George Canning on Pitt. 
 
291 
 
 i<of{f) e^^su^H^. 
 
 " There is an honourable desire open to every man such as the 
 acknowledgment of his services from his sovereign and country affords. 
 Let no one underrate such reward by the chilling lessons of a selfish 
 philosophy, which seeks not to animate the exertions of genius and 
 heroism." — Thanks of the House to Duke of Wellington, June 21th, 1814. 
 
 September 1809 to December 1809. 
 
 HE above -mentioned sentiments prove 
 bow thoroughly the speaker could arise 
 to the level of a great occasion. We 
 shall show that on ordinary subjects his 
 oratory was of the simplest and most 
 unadorned character, and how, even 
 during the remarkable speech delivered by him in 1812 
 upon the Orders in Council, practical argument pre- 
 ponderated over more ambitious flights of eloquence 
 such as head this chapter. 
 
 Sprung from a family settled in England since Saxon 
 times, Lord Bathurst claimed descent from those who 
 had served sovereign and country in almost uninterrupted 
 succession. 
 
 The son of an eminent lawyer, who rose to be Lord 
 
 19 * 
 
292 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 Chancellor of England, Lord Batlmrst early acquired 
 habits of business such as, linked with a taste for 
 politics, attracted Mr. Pitt's attention. 
 
 The knowledge that Lord Batlmrst was holding the 
 seals of the Foreign Office until he could arrive in 
 England, proved a source of great satisfaction to 
 Lord Wellesley, who spoke of the future War Minister 
 as his old friend, in whose judgment he reposed 
 implicit confidence. The moment was one of anxiety 
 for England. 
 
 Austria, tricked into a shameful and unnecessary 
 peace, had relapsed into an almost hostile neutrality, 
 such as unkind fortune fixed on her. 
 
 The Pope consequently, on his refusal to become an 
 Imperial instrument, suffered imprisonment in France, 
 whilst in Spain Lord Wellington, halting near Badajoz, 
 remained on the defensive in face of a renewed irruption 
 of Napoleon's trained legions, who, fresh from their 
 Danubian triumphs, poured across the Pyrenees for the 
 purpose of enforcing the Emperor's early resolve. 
 
 Although the interregnum came to be prolonged 
 beyond the time that it had originally been expected, no 
 leading question of foreign policy seems to have called 
 for decision before the great Marquis returned from the 
 Seville embassy. 
 
 One appeal to the British Foreign Office cannot pass 
 without notice. It came from the unfortunate Tyrolese, 
 who by the treaty of Schonbrun were assigned to the 
 alien yoke of Bavaria. 
 
 Notwithstanding that the house of Austria succeeded 
 in embuing mens minds with a conviction of its 
 
LOBD BATHURST. 293 
 
 tyrannical tendencies, the institutions and local govern- 
 ment granted to these children of the mountain were 
 such as to satisfy their undoubted aspirations for liberty. 
 
 On the occasion in question the Tyrolese found a 
 leader in the gallant Hofer, whose memory dwells 
 amongst these simple people as the Tell of that 
 interesting district. Himself an innkeeper, Hofer nursed 
 the flame of independence which was destined to be 
 maintained, even if in the throes of the struggle the 
 leader died a martyr to his country's cause. 
 
 Never could England's aid have been solicited when 
 her own principles were plainer seen to be at stake, 
 and may be said to have gone in manifest unison with 
 her interests. 
 
 But all energies were by general consent to be 
 concentrated on the Peninsula war. The navy of 
 Great Britain could, moreover, exercise no influence on 
 an exclusively inland struggle, whilst the conveyance of a 
 money subsidy must have been attended with uncertainty, 
 in consequence of the geographical isolation in which 
 Napoleon's late success had placed the Tyrol. 
 
 It was under these circumstances that Lord Bathurst 
 was constrained to return a sympathetic and unwilling 
 refusal to the request of these undaunted mountaineers. 
 
 But even in Spain the crisis appeared to Englishmen 
 to present an almost desperate aspect. There the 
 National Junta, essaying to act independently of the 
 British, had suffered complete defeat at Ocana,* whilst 
 not even the prestige of Talavera (where the reputation 
 
 * November 1809. 
 
29-1 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 of English soldiers, as established at Maida, received 
 general acknowledgment) could for the moment stem 
 the tide. 
 
 Under these circumstances it was natural that the 
 Government should anxiously inquire of Lord Wellington 
 what he held to be the ground of our hopes in 
 maintaining Portugal and Lisbon. 
 
 The Duke's calm and resolute reply reached England 
 when his gifted brother was about to become Foreign 
 Secretary, and re-infused a much needed confidence into 
 the nation. 
 
 Lord Wellington replied that he did not believe the 
 French could, even by an immediate and combined 
 military movement, drive him from Portugal, but that he 
 felt confident of being able in any case to re-embark his 
 army in safety even after defeat. 
 
 When it is taken into consideration under what 
 adverse circumstances and amidst what gathering clouds 
 this brave forecast was ventured on, admiration for the 
 high qualities which inspired such confidence must of 
 necessity animate the breast of every English reader. 
 
 But the Duke was about to reap the advantages of 
 steady and unobtrusive support at home. 
 
 The merits of desk-work, performed by men such as 
 Bathurst and Liverpool, does not become apparent until 
 years after the events therein controlled have passed by, 
 but it is now clear to every reader how ably and manfully 
 the duties of office were performed. The historian of the 
 Peninsula war,* who in the description of military 
 
 * Sir C. Napier. 
 
LORD BATHURST. 295 
 
 manoeuvres has not been equalled for clearness and 
 accuracy, errs again and again when he ventures into 
 the sea of politics, His information was not collected 
 with equal knowledge of its value or judgment as to its 
 selection. When in his preface to the History of the 
 Peninsula War, Sir William Napier says that Wellington 
 was supported by three inefficient administrations, he 
 was pronouncing a judgment which history will never 
 endorse.* 
 
 The despatches of Bathurst, Perceval, Castlereagh, 
 Canning and Liverpool, are still open to the perusal of 
 
 * It must be evident to anyone of a reflective tarn of mind that 
 the assumed merit of the administrative arrangements, which 
 Mr. Kinglake declares were organised under the war administra- 
 tions of Dimdas and Liverpool, are totally irreconcilable with the 
 wholesale ministerial condemnation fulminated by Sir William 
 Napier in his History of the Peninsula War. But an additional 
 witness on behalf of Mr. Perceval's Government has lately 
 appeared in the shape of the Eight Hon. J. C. Hemes' biographer 
 —Mr. E. Herries tells us on page 29 of the first volume that 
 his father (who was Commissary-in-Chief at the time) always 
 emphatically denied the truth of the charge of neglect, so 
 frequently made and insinuated in books, pamphlets, and news- 
 papers, against the Government generally through the war, but 
 most particularly under Mr. Perceval's administration. " I could 
 tell a very different story," he said, " if I chose to speak. There 
 is not the slightest ground for pretending that the Duke was not 
 supported to the utmost." 
 
 After perusing several letters connected with the supplying his 
 army with the needful clothing and commissariat, the great Duke 
 speaks as follows in a letter to Mr. Herries : — 
 
 " I assure you that I am fully aware of Mr. Perceval's kindness, 
 and, I must say, partiality towards me." 
 
 Mr. Herries' biographer may well say, " Compare this with 
 Napier's attacks upon Perceval for his imaginary, and now, we 
 may add, disproved, neglect of Wellington." 
 
206 FOREIGN SECBETA1UES 0* THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 those who have time and inclination for the task. They 
 prove that at no one time was there any desire to 
 restrict Lord Wellington's operations, but to support 
 them with men and money so far as the resources of the 
 country would allow. It appears, however, certain 
 that ministers were hardly judged in more than one 
 quarter. Mr. Perceval's Government may never have 
 been strong, but its leader took the same view of the 
 financial aspect as did his successor at the Exchequer. 
 A remarkable minute of Mr. Rose on this subject is 
 conspicuous among the Bexley papers. * 
 
 Since the commencement of the war in 1798, the 
 charges of army, navy, and ordnance, had increased 
 from £13,448,000 to £44,720,000 in 1809. As Napo- 
 leon's intentions appeared to preclude hopes of peace, 
 and the conflict must therefore be indefinitely prolonged 
 it followed that ordinary means might fall short of the 
 annual requirements. 
 
 The limits of taxation were believed by our financiers 
 to have been reached in England, whilst the requirements 
 exceeded all expectations. Under these circumstances 
 there was danger of the theatre of war being transferred 
 once more to our own coasts, unless a resolute attempt 
 were made to keep expenses down. 
 
 So thoroughly, however, did Mr. Perceval and his 
 
 * Mr. G. Kose was one of Mr. Pitt's political friends, whose con- 
 siderable talents were turned towards finance. He appears to have 
 had the ear of the House of Commons, to whom he announced 
 Pitt's dying exclamation, " Oh ! my country." He was also an 
 author of repute, publishing, amongst other works of a somewhat 
 Tory complexion, a Eeview of Mr. Fox's History of James II's Early 
 Times. 
 
LORD BATHURST. 297 
 
 colleagues realise the fact that the independence of Great 
 Britain depended on a sustained support being given to 
 Lord Wellington in the Peninsula, that, in addition to 
 providing him with all the troops he asked for, they 
 brought the financial question prominently forward. 
 When, therefore, Lord Bathurst, in 1812, succeeded at 
 the War Office, he had before him the task of supplying 
 the largest British army that had yet taken field in the 
 Peninsula. He was slightly relieved in his task by 
 specie getting a little less scarce in consequence of the 
 opening of Baltic ports to England, a result which 
 accompanied the war between Puissia and France. 
 
 The British were at an enormous disadvantage as 
 to the respective modes of waging war. They paid 
 for everything with a regularity such as would have 
 accompanied a camping-out at home. 
 
 The French, on the other hand, laid heavy contribu- 
 tion in money on parts of the country where it could be 
 procured, and paid for provisions in places where coin of 
 the realm was not to be obtained. A process resembling 
 that of robbing Peter to pay Paul, for which the 
 assurance of a like remission of taxation can scarcely 
 have rendered the unhappy capitalists a satisfactory 
 equivalent. A more certain means of driving capital out 
 of the country could scarcely have been devised. 
 
 It appears that King Joseph's hold on Spain was 
 never firm enough to secure regular payment of revenue, 
 but the French Government thus avoided the stigma of 
 living by simple requisition.* 
 
 * The above information is taken from Lord Bexley's Corre- 
 spondence with Individuals of Knowledge and Influence. 
 
298 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 The subject is here enlarged on because the value of 
 business qualities such as Mr. Dundas, Lords Liverpool 
 and Bathurst brought to the solution of a most difficult 
 problem, will be thereby sooner seen and appreciated. 
 
 If the attempt is made to throw blame upon 
 Lord Liverpool's Government, for not making 
 permanent field appliances and war organisations 
 devised on an emergency, surely the resource of those 
 who devised such expedients should not pass unre- 
 cognised. 
 
 Lord Bathurst's services were evident in all the 
 negotiations connected with a later period of the 
 war. 
 
 As Colonial and War Secretary it fell to his part to 
 arrange details concerning Napoleon's fate, and final 
 detention at St. Helena. 
 
 His, therefore, was the duty to embody the cabinet 
 decisions in plain unvarnished language. Want of 
 sympathy with fallen greatness has been charged against 
 him, but has no possible ground to stand on, other than 
 the promptings of passing political feelings. 
 
 If the officials of England had gone out of their way 
 to feed the very sentiment, a general prevalence of 
 which might, at any moment, have deluged Europe in 
 blood, they would have betrayed the nation they served. 
 
 The generous promptings of Lord Holland's kind 
 heart and sympathetic imagination, might most honour- 
 ably lead to expression of the interest he so notoriously 
 felt in Napoleon. It would have been otherwise with 
 the official world of England w T ho had themselves 
 knowledge of the blood spilt and treasure sunk in the 
 
LORD BATHURST. 299 
 
 attainment of an object, the results of which should be 
 sternly and carefully guarded. 
 
 The justification of Government is amply accomplished 
 in the despatches and speeches of Lord Bathurst to 
 Sir Hudson Lowe. If Napoleon was to be kept in 
 custody at all, the measures taken were clearly those 
 prompted by humanity. 
 
 Even after a more circumscribed amount of ground 
 had been marked out for the imperial prisoner's re- 
 creation, there was space eight miles in circumference 
 whereon he might ride or walk. As for the assertions 
 repeated from time to time concerning the scarcity of food 
 and wine allowed to the emperor's suite, they collapsed 
 when inquired into, and that large-hearted man, the 
 late Sir Kobert Inglis, after full investigation, was of 
 a decided opinion that no ground existed for any such 
 asseverations. 
 
 The fact is, that the custody of so illustrious an 
 individual for the prolonged period of six years was 
 certain sooner or later to generate complaints. The 
 hope expressed by Lord Liverpool, that at St. Helena 
 the mighty conqueror would soon sink into oblivion, 
 was neither destined to meet fulfilment nor does it appear 
 to be in accordance with the unsurpassed faculty of 
 discernment which characterised most of the Prime 
 
 Minister's opinions. 
 
 So unrivalled had the great Frenchman's pre-eminence 
 been in Europe, that the mental agonies suffered during 
 his imprisonment were certain to find an echo far 
 beyond the boundless space of ocean which separated 
 St. Helena from the busy world. 
 
300 FOKEIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 Death would undoubtedly have proved the lighter 
 penalty had it been inflicted, and the thoughtful reader 
 rises with relief when the mournful story reaches its 
 close. 
 
 Without entering into any undue disquisition on the 
 moral influence of Napoleon's actions on the world, 
 there may yet remain in the minds of many a regret 
 that at Chatillon * he did not see fit to accept the allied 
 propositions, and so give a Continental countenance to 
 his dynastic sway. 
 
 That Europe resolved to take security for the non- 
 infringement of her liberties seems to have proved the 
 bar to such settlement, and finally estranged the 
 sympathy of the world for a Government that elected 
 war in preference to peace. No change of policy 
 prompted by expediency could hope to remedy this 
 fatal error, and although the struggle might be extended 
 for a short season, the seeds of that expiation of St. 
 Helena and its attendant miseries were alike rendered 
 inevitable after the fatal refusal to make peace at 
 Chatillon. The man must be bold who writes down the 
 Napoleonic system as wholly bad, or the individual as 
 having exercised no beneficent influence on his race 
 or generation. On the other hand, certain facts stand 
 out so cruel in their inception, and inhuman in their 
 execution, that pity shrinks involuntarily and gives 
 place to a desire for the fulfilment of that stern re- 
 tributive justice which, indeed, had its full swing. 
 
 * See chapter ii. on Castlereagh. 
 
LORD BATHURST. 301 
 
 The conducting to Cherbourgh of the eleven noble 
 Prussian youths* of Queen Louise's Regiment, who 
 there worked in manacles and chains, and shortly after 
 suffered death, is an instance of the worst kind of 
 revenge — personal, alas ! in its barbarity ; the memory, 
 moreover, of which has led to prolonged and bitter 
 national revenge. 
 
 Other instances might be adduced of cruelties staining 
 the memory of a name which must share with Caesar, 
 Hannibal, and Alexander the Great the title of Supreme 
 Conqueror — the incarnate genius of war. 
 
 One would desire rather to let memory rest on the 
 ever-ready desire to grant an armistice and follow it 
 up by peace whenever circumstances admitted, which 
 universally characterised Napoleon's conduct. He 
 willingly ceased from inflicting pain, provided he could 
 gain his own ends, and in this particular stands out 
 in brilliant contrast to the victors in earlier periods of 
 European history. 
 
 His prolonged reverie after the battle of Lutzen in 1818, 
 when his beloved Duroc was killed, proves the possession 
 of the gentler feelings of humanity, even if such natural 
 instincts were constantly crushed out by baser and 
 coarser motives. 
 
 So certainly, however, did the subjection of all men's 
 ideas and hopes fall under the power of his tyrant 
 will that the world can scarcely be held cruel for the 
 fate they decreed their prisoner when vanquished. 
 
 * Alison's Modern History of Europe. 
 
302 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 Lord Bathurst was but the instrument of the British 
 Government in arranging details which threw upon him 
 and his colleagues partisan obloquy as undeserved as it 
 was doubtless not unexpected. 
 
 When a paper with the high character of the Illus- 
 trated London News allows an attack to be made on a 
 political party in its columns, and gives publicity to 
 palpable error under the colour of rendering justice to 
 Napoleon's memory, it is time that the facts be given 
 such prominence as opportunity affords. It was stated 
 in the above paper on July 31st, 1880, that Napoleon 
 was restricted to a single bottle of champagne between 
 the suite and himself at dinner. Moreover, Sir Walter 
 Scott's authority is quoted as if he had endorsed this 
 mean allowance as a fact, and commented on it accord- 
 ingly. Now, not one word in confirmation of this 
 statement appears in Sir Walter Scott's life of Napoleon, 
 where the treatment of the distinguished prisoner is 
 fully descanted on and a conclusion arrived at totally 
 antagonistic to that of the Illustrated London Neivs. 
 
 ■■' The extract in question runs as follows : — 
 
 11 I have said, and I repeat, that the bitterest political and 
 personal enemies of the first Napoleon — from William Pitt to Lord 
 Bathurst — were the Tories. It was the Tories who sent him to 
 Saint Helena, and slowly killed him there, and who had the inex- 
 pressible meanness to restrict the table allowance of champagne for 
 himself and the gentlemen of his suite to a single bottle per diem : 
 thus denying him, as the Tory Sir Walter Scott half- ironically, 
 half-compassionately, observed, even the solace of intoxication." — 
 Illustrated London News, July 31st, 1880, p. 99. 
 
 We have no desire to question the matter of fact as to what Sir 
 Walter Scott may have said, although the point is how owl when did 
 
LORD BATHURST. 3G3 
 
 Lord Bathurst, moreover, in the House of Lords told 
 Lord Holland officially that two bottles of high-class wine 
 was allowed each individual at Napoleon's table, and 
 that other and cheaper alcoholic beverages were in 
 reserve. 
 
 The statement of the newspaper is, moreover, tinged 
 with the bitterest party feeling, urging people to believe 
 the Tory party and not the nation as responsible for 
 Napoleon's captivity and unavoidable distress. But for 
 the fact that even random statements gain credence 
 when they issue from respectable quarters, this reply 
 would not have found the place here that, in the 
 interests of historical truth and justice, the author has 
 felt bound to allot. 
 
 The writer in the Illustrated London Neivs should know 
 that when an allowance of <£8,000 per annum was 
 increased to £12,000 for the ex-emperor's establishment, 
 there could of necessity have been no undue restriction. 
 
 The grievance lay in the unfortunate circumstances 
 
 of the case. 
 
 The logical consequence of Lord Holland's philan- 
 thropic desires would have been the restoration of 
 Europe's great captive to that life and liberty which it 
 had been universally resolved to limit. 
 
 When the great ex-captain's health had begun to give 
 
 he make use of such language. But if the general conclusions 
 derived at in his History of Xapoleon go for anything, they clearly 
 prove the expediency of Lord Bathurst's actions, and certainly give 
 no colour to belief in mean restrictions as to food and drink having 
 been resorted to by the British Government during Lord Bathurst's 
 communications with Sir Hudson Lowe. 
 
30 1 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 give way, the anxiety of the Prince Regent and his 
 Government was set forth in a despatch of Lord 
 Bathurst's, which displayed all the sympathy due to 
 distressed and fallen greatness, desiring, moreover, that 
 the existence of such sentiments should he made known 
 to the sufferer. Medical help was to he sent for from 
 the Cape, and every possible alleviation adopted con- 
 sistent with acknowledged public duty. 
 
 Delicacy of feeling could go no further, nor could a 
 repulsive but necessary duty have been more perfectly 
 fulfilled. The more imperative then the acknowledg- 
 ment of such services by Lord Bathurst's countrymen, 
 and the indignant repudiation by them of anonymous 
 attacks in a matter which had nothing to do with 
 party, as England was alike carrying out the mandate 
 issued by the citizens of liberty-loving Germany, as by 
 their imperial and royal leaders. 
 
 The close of this great career is, indeed, one over 
 which all can afford to ponder with regret, and yet 
 acknowledge the measures taken as necessary. 
 
 The request that his heart might be taken to Marie 
 Louise at Parma is touching and affecting in the 
 extreme. Whatever may be averred to the contrary, 
 there from the first existed a sentiment in his heart 
 creditable alike to the man and husband. 
 
 He studied to make her original position pleasant to 
 her in Paris, was never harsh or inconsiderate, and their 
 meeting in Paris after the disastrous Russian campaign 
 was one, as Alison tells us, of affection. 
 
 Sad is it, then, to think that considerations of policy 
 should have kept man and wife apart at Elba, especially 
 
LORD BATHURST. 305 
 
 when it is notorious that the Empress desired to rejoin 
 her husband. 
 
 But the Austrian alliance with Imperial France was 
 looked upon as a danger to European peace. This 
 digression has, we are fully aware, led us to comment 
 on events not chronologically in order, but as any 
 notice of Lord Bathurst is manifestly incomplete 
 without recital of these circumstances, our readers 
 will understand the necessity which prompted such an 
 anticipation. 
 
 So numerous and comprehensive as to the variety of 
 subjects treated on are the official despatches of Lord 
 Bathurst, that it is only possible to give a general idea 
 of his merits at moderate length. 
 
 Although a former opposer of the slave trade 
 abolition, he vied with other English officials in his 
 determined attempts to eradicate the evil, when such 
 task had been undertaken by the nation. As Colonial 
 Secretary he had to strive against all the distrust and 
 opposition which the measure engendered amongst West 
 Indian colonists. Slave owners were still placed high 
 in West Indian office, civil and legal, and the difficulty 
 of even bettering the condition of the unemancipated 
 slaves became almost overpowering. 
 
 Thanks, however, to resolute public opinion in 
 England as to a corresponding sentiment amongst the 
 colonists themselves, Lord Bathurst was enabled to 
 adopt a tone which, coming from the responsible 
 minister of the Crown, must have had great effect in 
 hastening the final emancipation which had dragged so 
 wearily. The British Government in 1825-26 had laid 
 i, 20+- 
 
HOG FOREIGN BBCBETARIBS OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 down the principle that it was indispensable that there 
 should be, both in form and in substance, equal 
 administration of justice open alike to white and 
 
 black. 
 
 Here was the difficulty, to remove which was the 
 
 end desired. 
 
 Lord Bathurst wrote to the Governor of the Bahamas 
 
 as follows : — 
 
 " Since the superiority of rank and education which 
 belongs to the white inhabitant is an aggravation of 
 the offence committed by him when he infringes the law, 
 there is an injustice in assigning to the aggravated 
 offence the minor punishment." 
 
 This may be recommended to the attention of those 
 
 who, looking on Lord Bathurst as a Tory of Tories, 
 
 might not expect such expressions to proceed from his 
 
 pen. But they will learn that they are the victims of 
 
 fallacy when seeking to fix opposition to the expressed 
 
 national will on Lord Liverpool's administration. The 
 
 machine to which they had trusted to indicate that will 
 
 might be antiquated, and its motive power unequal to 
 
 the increasing duties demanded of it, but its voice was 
 
 less unerring than it has suited the views of some 
 
 opponents to confess. Its dictates were never neglected 
 
 if even on occasions delay led to temporising, and thence 
 
 to discontent. 
 
 On the occasion of the despatch of troops to Portugal 
 in 1826, Lord Bathurst stated the Government policy 
 to the Lords in an able and temperate manner, which 
 received universal and well-deserved praise. Lord 
 Liverpool was ill and absent from Parliament, whilst in 
 
LORD BATHURST. 307 
 
 the Commons Mr. Canning seized the occasion for 
 making one of his great speeches which, of itself, 
 stamped the occasion. Lord Bathurst's statement, 
 however, may even now he referred to with advantage 
 by those who desire to see what the end and aims of 
 Government were directed towards effecting. 
 
 Lord Bathurst's speaking had no pretension to the 
 higher character of oratory, but was frequently effective 
 from its very simplicity. 
 
 It has fallen to the party of which Lord Bathurst was 
 a distinguished member to be frequently objurgated as 
 the enemies of all change, and of being shown by the 
 force of later events to have been once and for all in 
 the wrong. Now, those so deciding are clearly railing 
 against human nature, just as much as at the objects 
 of their political condemnation. 
 
 The human understanding, as ordinarily constituted, 
 is not formed to see clearly the two sides of any great 
 question. Occasionally the statesman arises who solves 
 the problem in his own mind, and proceeds to adapt 
 its fulfilment to the institutions and traditions of the 
 country he rules. 
 
 Such was Pitt, had he not been foiled in his schemes 
 by the great and devastating war which, as we have 
 shown, was forced upon him. 
 
 The followers who were afterwards appalled at sudden 
 and considerable alterations in the British Constitution, 
 were not the easier reconciled thereto by the fact that 
 the changes were directly the results of popular 
 commotion. Those best acquainted with England and 
 her requirements knew that, as hope deferred makes the 
 
 20 * 
 
308 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 heart sick, so had justice deferred been productive of 
 demands beyond even the requirements of an excep- 
 tional occasion. The mistake of many careless political 
 writers has been the attributing continued class re- 
 strictions and the tardy reform of Parliament entirely 
 to individual prejudice and obstinacy, instead of to 
 circumstances in which no other nation has ever found 
 itself placed. We state this, moreover, without 
 sympathy with the alarmists of politics who undoubtedly 
 did retard change unduly. Pitt had clearly reprobated 
 every symptom which at length led statesmen to concur 
 in the great Reform Bill. 
 
 But it is notorious that he would originally never 
 have allowed the internal requirements of the country 
 to be neglected, had not threats of foreign interference 
 and invasion forced him to defer his contemplated 
 measures of relief. 
 
 Consequently the statesmen who looked with prejudice 
 upon Catholic Emancipation and Parliamentary Reform 
 were mostly those who learned their traditions under 
 Pitt. The altered circumstances of the case accustomed 
 them to a system logically out of all unison with their 
 former leader's aspirations. 
 
 In fact, the traditions of office had been formed under 
 a war system. 
 
 So thoroughly fired, however, was Lord Liverpool's 
 Government with respect for Constitutional and even 
 popular prejudice, that they deprecated the original 
 formation of the United Service Club on the ground 
 that an organisation of the kind in London might, in 
 times of popular commotion, lead to a natural, if 
 
LORD BATHURST. 309 
 
 unfounded, popular distrust.* The objection denoted 
 a dread of standing armies and their possible un- 
 constitutional aggressions, for which we, in the year 
 1880, can find no counterpart. Trace of Lord 
 Bathurst's prescience and military knowledge is 
 apparent in the ready acquiescence which he gave 
 to the Dutch request for help in 1813. The 
 people would rise, Lord Bathurst was told, if British 
 succour came to their aid. The capture, moreover, of 
 Antwerp was as much desired by England as it was 
 dreaded by Napoleon, who, in the negotiations at 
 Chatillon, made much of the detention of his beloved 
 fortress. f 
 
 The appointment of Sir Thomas Graham, afterwards 
 Lord Lynedoch, at first to the vice-command in the 
 Peninsula, under the Duke, and afterwards to the 
 leadership of the aforesaid expedition to Holland, were 
 not only tributes to undoubted military talent, but 
 evidence of the absence of all party spirit from the 
 Government councils, who in the face of considerable 
 dissenting opinion preferred a strong political opponent 
 to high command, and finally raised him to the Peerage. 
 
 Moreover, the perspicuity with which Lord Bathurst 
 saw the cause of failure in Holland, and specially at 
 Bergem op Zoom, not to be attributed to military short- 
 coming, was shortly confirmed by no less an authority 
 
 * Lord Lynedoch's Life. 
 
 f Napoleon laid special value on its possession, and over and 
 above pure military considerations, coveted the art galleries and 
 admired the churches. The cathedral spire he longed to remove to 
 Paris. 
 
310 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 than Napoleon himself, who remarked to Colonel 
 Campbell, the English Commissioner at Elba, when on 
 their journey to that island, how admirably the attack 
 on Bergem op Zoom had been conceived by that great 
 soldier Sir Thomas Graham. 
 
 The despatches connected with these events, as they 
 flow from the facile pen of Lord Bathurst, recount the 
 whole story of the above-mentioned expedition, which 
 failed in its immediate effects only because Bulow and 
 his gallant Prussians were called into France for the 
 purpose of reinforcing Blucher. 
 
 Both Kings George III. and IV. extended unlimited 
 confidence to Lord Bathurst.. 
 
 This fact is patent after reading the various histories 
 and biographies connected with the time, the latest of 
 which, Lord Ellenborough's Diary, abounds with 
 characteristic incidents of Lord Bathurst's dread of 
 change ; telling us, moreover, how after the passing of 
 Catholic Emancipation he believed twenty years would 
 see the Roman Catholic religion established in Ireland. 
 Again, it is recounted how the stout-hearted Tory Earl 
 urged the Duke of Wellington to allow King William IV. 
 to pay his visit to the City, notwithstanding the Reform 
 riots, and not to countenance the surrender which yielding 
 to popular clamour would certainly involve. It fell, 
 moreover, to Lord Bathurst to take the news of his 
 daughter Prince Charlotte's death to the then Prince 
 Regent. 
 
 In so doing, excellent tact and delicate consideration 
 for the father's feelings were blended in a remarkable 
 manner. 
 
LORD BATHURST. 311 
 
 The hearty shake of the hand, which even in the 
 agony of his trouble the Prince accorded to his trusted 
 servant, told how thoroughly these manifold services 
 were appreciated. 
 
 As the Minister for War and the Colonies in 1816, 
 Lord Bathurst's ministerial policy has been more directly 
 impugned than any other members of Lord Liverpool's 
 cabinet — the Premier excepted — when in the last 
 published volume of Mr. Kinglake's Crimean War a 
 charge of pandering to court influence at expense of the 
 nation has been made against the Government who 
 concluded the great war with France. 
 
 It is contended that ministers were responsible for 
 not welding together the Horse Guards, Ordnance, and 
 War Department into one office under Parliamentary 
 supervision, which might at least secure, in any future 
 war, the unity of action which experience had proved 
 to be desirable. 
 
 Now, without stopping here to inquire whether that 
 unity was ever legally attained, there are certain other 
 considerations which strike the most casual observer. 
 
 Not only had the objects of war been attained after a 
 desperate struggle, but, as Lord Bexley's correspondence 
 shows, the exchequer was nearly exhausted. 
 
 Now the establishment of a new institution, formed 
 for the purpose of waging future conflict, must, from the 
 very nature of the case, have aroused powerful opposition, 
 both popular and constitutional. 
 
 It may certainly be doubted whether the transference 
 of the Horse Guards' supremacy, once and for all 
 made in 1816, might not, in any moment of popular 
 
312 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OP THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 excitement, have led to the removal from supreme 
 military influence of the two individuals who were most 
 fitted to exercise such sway. 
 
 Now the Duke of York, despite faults of character, 
 possessed a faculty for military organisation which the 
 history of his country discloses, and hut for the success 
 of his endeavours, seconded by those of Lord Bathurst, 
 to keep regiments on the home establishment well up to 
 the mark, Waterloo could never have been fought in 
 1815, when the flower of our line regiments was across 
 the Atlantic. 
 
 A popular transfer of military authority would 
 certainly have swept the King's brother out of office, 
 whilst after- experience of popular feeling during 
 moments of political excitement goes to show that the 
 great Duke himself was not exempt from the changes 
 of popular sentiment which led King James of Scotland 
 to exclaim in the Lady of the Lake : — 
 
 " Who o'er the crowd would wish to reign, 
 Fantastic, fickle, vile, and vain ?" 
 
 There was then a principle at stake, which, at 
 the moment to which Mr. Kinglake refers in blaming 
 Lord Liverpool's Government, was universally regarded 
 as a constitutional safeguard. 
 
 Mr. Wynne, a representative of the Grenville and 
 therefore moderate Whig connection in Lord Liverpool's 
 Government, subsequently resisted a proposal, of the 
 nature which Mr. Kinglake would have desired to see 
 adopted at the hazard of existing military equilibrium 
 " The House of Commons," said Mr. Wynne in reply to 
 
LORD BATHUEST. 313 
 
 Mr. Hume, " by dictating to the Crown whom it should 
 or should not employ, would arrogate to itself the 
 management of the army, than which nothing could be 
 more dangerous to the Constitution/' 
 
 Thus we see that in the political constitution of the 
 country in 1816, such immediate change would have 
 been impossible, inasmuch as the more Liberal official 
 elements repudiated it eight years later. 
 
 But in 1816 three leading Englishmen came forward 
 to preach peace and reduction of military establish- 
 ments. 
 
 In the face of the protests set forth by Lords 
 Lansdowne, Grenville, and Wellesley, what Govern- 
 ment would dare to enter on a course of legislation 
 which at the outset would naturally trench on the 
 English dread, then deeply prevalent, of the uncon- 
 stitutional elements believed to surround exclusively 
 military institutions ? 
 
 The more immediate guarantee for national safety 
 was clearly present whilst the Duke of York organised 
 and Wellington watched over the well-being of England's 
 land forces. These considerations involve no denial 
 of Mr. Kmglake's hypothesis, nor is it desired for one 
 moment to doubt that the unity of principle gained for 
 our war administration during the Crimean encounter 
 was in accordance with the march of intellectual progress 
 and reform, and at the same time productive of every 
 advantage which compact organisation, consummated by 
 general concurrence, must confer. 
 
 On the other hand it should not be forgotten that 
 those best acquainted with the British army, its needs 
 
314 FOREIGN SECUETAU1ES OE THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 and requirements, are constantly found to declare that 
 the pendulum has swung too far in the popular direction, 
 either for the maintenance of discipline, due esprit de 
 corps, or of that regimental enthusiasm which Mr. 
 Kinglake so justly confides in. 
 
 The above thoughts appear to the writer naturally to 
 flow from the consideration of a painstaking career 
 which, at the very moment of all its aims and desires 
 reaching consummation, is arraigned for Lord Bathurst's 
 non-fulfilment of conditions which naturally pertain to a 
 later period and more recent order of things. 
 
 On the principle, apparently, that any stick is good 
 enough to beat a dog with, Mr. Kinglake 's vials of wrath 
 are straightway poured out upon the devoted head of 
 George IV. He is the personal king who, for selfish 
 reasons, retains his privileges — privileges, let the reader 
 mark, that for the whole of the succeeding reign and 
 for twenty years of the next never met question from 
 the most uncompromising adherents of popular will. 
 
 If Lord Liverpool's Government, and the so-called 
 personal ruler, have been thus odiously gibbeted for the 
 sustentation of a false principle, why should not the 
 blame be equally shared by officials taking their mandate 
 from the new rule, and owing allegiance to a more 
 modern political condition, when, as we know, at least 
 twenty years were allowed to elapse without the whisper 
 or suggestion of a change ? 
 
 After the Reform Bill the retention of Crown privilege 
 in army affairs is not surely to be traced to the selfishness 
 of the personal sovereign who never had alteration 
 suggested by his ministers. Without attempting to deny 
 
LORD BATHUEST. 315 
 
 the benefit of the change which Mr. Kinglake contends 
 should have been effected in 1816, the utter impossibility 
 of entering on a novel constitutional reform at the close 
 of an exhausting, and withal successful war, must occur 
 to every mind familiar with the minutiae of English 
 public life. 
 
 The biographer of Lord Bathurst — that painstaking 
 director of our war system during the greatest crisis of 
 modern English history — should ask for his hero the 
 just judgment of posterity, such as Mr. Kinglake, in 
 chivalrous and convincing language, has claimed and 
 won for Lord Raglan in the Crimea. 
 
 To gain anything approaching an adequate conception 
 of Earl Bathurst' s industry, one has but to search 
 through the pages of the Wellington Despatches. There 
 in the simplest and most lucid form will be found 
 expressed, in short space, all that the writer's colleagues 
 desired. Financial details are disposed of, questions oi 
 high policy descanted on, whilst the whole series of 
 official letters breathe a high spirit of confidence in 
 English resources, and the future of her great Com- 
 mander, which, if not prompted by absolute genius, are 
 clearly the fruit of an enthusiasm to which it is near of kin. 
 
 Not the least merit in Lord Bathurst' s war adminis- 
 tration consists in the effective reserves, gathered in haste 
 and despatched to Belgium after Napoleon left Elba.* 
 
 The English minister could rely on no conscription. 
 
 * The remarkable administrative skill possessed by H.E.H. the 
 Duke of York should not pass unnoticed in any history of the time. 
 To his co-operation Lord Bathurst's success was, no doubt, greatly 
 due. 
 
316 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 His choicest troops were across the Atlantic, and unable 
 to reach home in time. 
 
 And yet an efficient British force was gathered to- 
 gether in a few weeks and participated in the greatest 
 military success that ever fell to our share. 
 
 Again, when the army of occupation was at Paris, 
 Lord Bathurst's watchful and business-like eye was 
 directed towards strengthening the Duke against any 
 eventuality, and it is not too much to say that, but for 
 men of the War Secretary's type, and for the hard work 
 they performed in the cabinet, England could never have 
 contributed her share towards the liberation of Europe. 
 
 Lord Bathurst, moreover, had in his composition a 
 full appreciation of the prestige of Old England. After 
 the second Treaty of Paris was negotiated, he took care 
 to claim the restitution of all British trophies, and 
 claimed one as far back as the battle of Fontenoy. 
 
 To the last he was a stout Tory, and stood by the 
 Duke of Wellington until his resignation after the final 
 settlement of the Catholic Question. His desertion of 
 Mr. Canning at the crucial moment was due more to his 
 fidelity to the Great Duke than to any direct breach 
 between himself and the new Prime Minister. But 
 there doubtless existed increasing differences of opinion 
 between the two former colleagues. 
 
 The Foreign Secretaryship of Lord Bathurst is but 
 a chance incident in a long official career, which has 
 given an opportunity for the inclusion of a worthy name 
 amongst those of others whose acts help to fill up the 
 pages of this volume. 
 
 The friend of each Sovereign under whom he served, 
 
LORD BATHURST. 317 
 
 the confidant of the Duke of Wellington, Lords 
 Liverpool, Castlereagh, and, indeed, of every leading 
 individual whose efforts were aimed at sustaining the 
 interests and liberties of Britain, Lord Bathurst's 
 character cannot but stand out in bold relief by the 
 side of many whose prominent positions have handed 
 their names down to a grateful posterity. Those most 
 intimately associated with the Earl in public bear witness 
 to his kindness of heart, whilst a gentle nature was the 
 charm of an appreciative home circle.* 
 
 We have previously alluded to Lord Bathurst's 
 remarkable speech on the Orders in Council made in 
 1812. Lord Holland remarked on that occasion that 
 it was the best statement on the subject he had heard 
 made by an opponent, whilst Lord Mulgrave, moreover, 
 rejoiced in its powerful refutation of Lord Grenville's 
 arguments against the deceit and fraud which, it was not 
 unreasonably urged, the issue of trading licenses involved. 
 
 Mr. Greville in his memoirs speaks from time to 
 time of Lord Bathurst. As his private secretary, 
 although differing from him in politics, the opinion 
 formed possesses great value. 
 
 We hear of him as a very amiable man with a good 
 understanding, a High Churchman, and a Tory, but a 
 cool politician ; a bad speaker, a good writer, greatly 
 averse to changes, but unwillingly acquiescing in many. 
 
 * In 1789 Lord Bathurst married a daughter of Lord George 
 Lennox. The two eldest sons by this marriage were consecutively 
 Earl Bathursts, whilst the third son left an heir in the person of 
 the present Earl, who succeeded to the title at his uncle's death 
 in 1879. 
 
318 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 To Mr. Greville himself Lord Bathurst appears to have 
 been too indulgent, inasmuch as he allowed him time 
 for employment of his tastes. That, like many other 
 young men of eighteen, Mr. Greville did not early 
 incline towards literature and employment, is surely not 
 to be charged at the door of a hard-worked official such 
 as Lord Bathurst was during the major part of his career. 
 
 Mr. Greville, however, seems to have expected some- 
 thing more of his contact with the minister than 
 he gained thereby. Doubting if his master's abilities 
 were absolutely brilliant, he was inclined to rate them 
 higher than the world has generally done.* 
 
 In this opinion he was holding a similar view to that 
 of Mr. G. Rose, the financier, and able Member of 
 Parliament, who considered Bathurst 's talents to be the 
 most considerable of those competitors for Premiership 
 honours who disputed for pre-eminence with Mr. 
 Perceval. 
 
 Mr. Greville relates how, as a friend and devoted 
 adherent of Pitt, and a regular Tory of the old school, 
 Lord Bathurst felt that evil days had come upon him in 
 his old age. Dying before the fortunes of his party 
 were resuscitated under Sir Robert Peel, Lord Bathurst 
 could not reconcile his views as being compatible with 
 the new Conservative creed. 
 
 Without for one moment deprecating the changes 
 which were doubtless unavoidable, it is yet possible for 
 the strongest Liberal to feel sympathy for men of the 
 
 * Greville Memoirs, vol. iii. p. 116. 
 
LORD BATHURST. 319 
 
 olden times, like Lord Bathurst, who had accomplished 
 so much themselves, and seen such extraordinary events 
 take place under the former dispensation, that they 
 looked coldly and doubtingly upon measures which at 
 the time we write of were still on trial. 
 
 Lord Bathurst passed the last few years of his life in 
 private, where his gentle nature has left memories 
 destined to be handed down in unison with a public 
 character distinguished, as Lord Malmesbury tells us, for 
 acuteness, sensibility, and uprightness. 
 
 Mr. Greville's asseveration to the effect that want of 
 sympathy with fallen greatness, as evidenced in his 
 despatches to Sir Hudson Lowe, resulted from a defect 
 in Lord Bathurst's composition, is not borne out by 
 the personal preference which Mr. Pitt accorded to Lord 
 Bathurst equally with Wilberforce and Mulgrave.* 
 
 * The following expressions in a correspondence between Lord 
 Mulgrave and Bathurst in 1818 at once testify the tie between 
 the two men which intimacy with Pitt had formed, and presents 
 the character of Lord Bathurst in its true aspect. The occasion is 
 Lord Mulgrave's resignation of the Ordnance. 
 
 Lord Bathurst says : — 
 
 11 We are two of the oldest of Mr. Pitt's friends now belonging 
 to the Cabinet, and when I recollect the time which we passed with 
 him at Bath, when we were all out of office, I cannot bring 
 myself to allow your resignation to pass by without lamenting, on 
 the one hand, that your health should have rendered the measure 
 advisable, and without, on the other, expressing sincere delight 
 in finding that you have consented not to withdraw from us 
 altogether." 
 
 To this warm and affectionate expression of feeling Lord 
 
 Mulgrave replied : — 
 
 Few circumstances in my life have given me more satisfaction 
 
 II 
 
320 FOREIGN SECRETARIES OF THE XIX. CENTURY. 
 
 Sympathy could scarcely exist between the mind of 
 Pitt and a really commonplace individual. 
 
 Towards the close of his life Lord Bathurst was a 
 welcome visitor wherever (amongst the extensive range 
 of his acquaintance^ he could be prevailed on to come. 
 
 There are those living whilst these lines are penned 
 who remember the pleasure and amusement which the 
 Earl was wont to diffuse amongst those around him. 
 One of the last who clung to the pigtail, he preserved 
 therewith all the dignity belonging to a gentleman of the 
 old school, and with it a humour all his own. 
 
 Beloved, respected, and destined to live in history, he 
 died in July 1834, at the age of seventy-nine. 
 
 than the uniform friendship which I have experienced from you. 
 ... It is no small addition to that satisfaction that it connects 
 itself with the remembrance of the admiration and affection with 
 which we both estimated all the qualities of the heart and under- 
 standing which endeared Mr. Pitt to those who had the happiness 
 of enjoying his society and regard." 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 London : Printed by W H. Allen & Co., 13, Waterloo Place, S.W. 
 
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 t 1 1 1.X- J 
 
 »♦ the 
 
 DATE DUE 
 
 m 
 
 GAYLORD 
 
 17?nm 
 
 PRINTED IN U.SA 
 
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES 
 
 0038101670 
 
 *>£*. Z. 
 
 I 
 

 ilifil 
 
 ■IS 
 
 MM Wffl 
 
 II mm 
 
 m 
 
 I Si Ell 
 
 Mm B 
 
 UtmmSHaA 
 
 fleffll a&ȣ