From the North British Review. MEMOIRS OF CASTLEREAGH. Memoirs and Correspondence of Viscount Castlereagh, second Marquess of Londonderry. Edited by his brother, CHARLES VANE, Marquess of Londonderry, G.C.B., &c. London: 1848. THE present circumstances of Ireland have attracted our attention to the documents contained in the "Memoirs and Correspondence of Lord Castlereagh." The amount of positive information, in any true sense new to the public, is far less than we had anticipated. Much, however, that had been floating about unfixed is here authenticated or disproved. A good deal that had been misrepresented is corrected, or the means of correction supplied. The activity of those who war against the established institutions of society is sustained by an untiring impulse. Those who are satisfied with things as they are, or contemplate improvements in institutions chiefly as the result of the improvement of those by whom they are administered, are impatient of the dogmatic and disputative spirit when it is disposed to disturb our enjoyments by vindications which, however well-meant, we feel to be unnecessary and intrusive--and thus the voice of assailants will for a while win an undeserved triumph. The character of Lord Castlereagh has suffered more from these causes than that of any other public man of our times. The object of Lord Londonderry's publication is, by such documents as he possesses illustrative of Lord Castlereagh's official life, to place his brother's character in a true light. The history of the earliest period of Castlereagh's life was more frequently brought before the public in accounts of the Irish Rebellion by the families of the defeated party than in any other way, and their language was naturally colored by their feelings. When Lord Castlereagh was taunted in 1817 as the perpetrator of savage cruelties, in the Irish Rebellion of 1798, cruelties utterly alien to his nature, and which in point of actual fact, he was the chief person to terminate, Mr. Canning indignantly asked, "If the Legis lature has consented to bury in darkness the crimes of rebellion, is it too much that rebels, after twenty years, should forgive the crime of being forgiven ?" Without imputing to Tone, and M'Nevin, and such writers, any desire to falsify the real facts of the case, and while forming our notion of the scenes in which, very much from their own accounts, it is plain that they had not the means of knowledge which would enable them to represent truly either the motives or the acts of the Government. Of the crimes of the leaders of the Irish insurrections of 1798 and 1803, we think it impossible to form an exaggerated estimate, as whatever be the real or supposed wrongs which armed resistance would redress, no wrong can be so great-no evil so hopelessly intolerable, as the disturbance of the settled order of society. A nation must be all but unanimous to justify Revolution. The strong opposition with which the measure of a legislative union with Great Britain was regarded at the time by the weaker island, and the continued agitation for its repeal, kept alive a feeling of resentment against the chief instruments in carrying it out, and to this we owe the remarkable fact, that to this hour it is difficult to form any distinct notion of the character of Lord Castlereagh or Lord Clare. If the family of Lord Clare possess the means of bringing the history of that remarkable man before the public, or if even the few fugitive pamphlets in which his speeches, during the period in which he swayed the destinies of Ireland, were printed, could be collected and published with such notes as, after an interval of fifty years, are necessary to render them fully intelligible, something would be done for the history of the country that in a few years will be impossible. Mr. Wills in his Lives of The work opens with a biographical memoir. We omit the links which connect the Londonderry Stewarts with the kings of Scotland, and descend at once from the heights on which Lord Londonderry would place us to Robert Stewart who represented the county of Down in the Irish Parliament, and who was the first Marquess of Londonderry. Robert was twice married; first to Frances, second daughter of Lord Hertford; of this marriage Lord Castlereagh was the only surviving issue. His second wife, sister of Lord Camden, was the mother of our au thor. Distinguished Irishmen-Mr. Grattan in the | derry when he undertook this voluminous Memoirs of his father-Mr. Madden in his compilation, which, if continued on anything Life of Emmet-and the author of "The like the scale on which it has been commenced, Gallery of Illustrious Irishmen," in the Dub- must, we should think, reach some twentylin University Magazine, have each preserved five or thirty volumes. Four are devoted to many traits of the Irish Chancellor's charac- the time of his brother's Irish Secretaryship; ter. But what we want and wish are his own the two first of which (the Part now publishspeeches and letters-anything actually and ed) relate to the years 1798 and 1799. entirely his own. Differing with him in many things-agreeing with him perhaps in nothing, we feel in all that we have seen of him the stamp of indomitable power-a man whose image should not be lost. With respect to Lord Castlereagh, it is to be regretted that the delay of bringing his biography before the public has occasioned irreparable loss. Lord Londonderry, who himself writes a memoir of his brother prefixed to these volumes, tells us, that after a communication with Sir Walter Scott, whom he wished to engage in the task, a series of private letters, extending over twenty-five years, was confided to the care of the late Dr. Turner, bishop of Calcutta. The vessel that sailed for India with the bishop's effects was lost,and in it the letters of Lord Castlereagh, and, we presume, other materials collected to illustrate his life. His official correspondence was scarcely more fortunate. The executors of Lord Castlereagh (we call him throughout by the name by which he will be remembered in history) thought the papers might be public property, and claimed as such by the Government. For the purpose of releasing themselves from responsibility, they placed them under the control of the Court of Chancery, from which, after long delays, and what Lord Londonderry describes as the highly honorable and straightforward conduct of Lord Palmerston," a great mass of papers, public and private, were delivered to him. 'On | examination of the documents," he adds, "I regret to say that I discovered many chasms and losses." In short, anything that any one for any purpose might wish concealed, is not to be found in the volumes now before us. 66 We do not believe that a single new fact, with reference to any one concerned either in the suppression of the rebellion or the furtherance of the legislative union, is communicated. There is nothing that throws any light on the secret history of either. The correspondence is the correspondence of the Irish secretary's office, after every document of any peculiar interest has been withdrawn. Many of the letters cannot even be regarded as the letters of the persons whose names are officially attached to them. The passion of authorship must have been strong with Lord London At Robert, our hero, was born in 1769. He received his early education at Armagh; and, at seventeen, was entered of St. John's College, Cambridge. He appears to have remained there but a year, or a year and a half. His tutor, writing to Lord Londonderry in 1840, describes him as remarkably successful in his college examinations. his third half-yearly examination, the last which he passed, "he was first in the first class." After leaving college, he made the Grand Tour; and on his return, commenced political life by a successful contest against the Downshire family for the representation of the county of Down. At the hustings he gave a pledge to support Reform. This was in 1790. When, in 1793, the Catholics were admitted to the elective franchise, he said, that he thought this a sufficient Reform. Ac "For a few sessions he voted generally with the Opposition. However, the turbulent development of the state of Ireland rendered it necessary for cordingly, when the system of strong measures him to come to more decided conclusions. was adopted by the Irish Administration, in order to silence rebellion by terror, or extinguish it by severity, we find Lord Castlereagh among the warmest of its supporters.”—Vol. I. p. 9. Lord Londonderry passes rapidly over his brother's public life in Ireland, leaving the documents given in his volumes to speak for themselves. When Lord Camden succeeded Earl Fitzwilliam as Viceroy, with Pelham as Chief Secretary, an incautious or intemperate speech of Pelham's in the House of Com mons led to his return to England in disgust, and Lord Castlereagh acted as his locum tenens for a while, and afterwards was himself appointed Chief Secretary, which office he filled during the important period of the Union arrangements. It will be more convenient to follow Lord Londonderry in running over the remaining incidents of Lord Castlereagh's life, than at the moment dwelling on topics to which we must return. When the Union was accomplished, he transferred his residence to London. Pitt's retirement delayed his appointment to office till 1802. Under Addington's Administration he was placed at the head of the Board of Control. "When Pitt resumed the direction of affairs, Lord Castlereagh continued to preside over the Board of Control, till, in 1805, he was appointed Secretary of State for the War and Colonial Department. Party prejudices operated so strongly against him, that, on this occasion, he failed, after an expensive contest, to obtain his re-election for the county of Down." "In the year 1821, on the decease of his father' Lord Castlereagh became Marquess of Londonderry. The political horizon had at this time become overcast. A Congress was to be held at Vienna and Verona on the affairs of Spain; the insurrection of Greece had also rendered the position of England between Russia and the Porte very ticklish and difficult and the continuance of disturbances in Ireland excited uneasiness. Under these circumstances the strong mind of Lord Londonderry, harassed by Parliamentary warfare, and worn out by incessant toil, began to break down." Lord Castlereagh's attention to business was unremitting. He himself wrote the draft of every despatch from the Foreign Office. Towards the end of the session, his health manifestly declined. It had been arranged that he should represent England at a Congress to be held at Vienna on the affairs of Spain; and laborious as was the duty which this involved, he looked forward to change of scene and occupation as likely to afford relief and recreation. There was over his mind a haunting feeling of some coming illness. He had been suffering from gout at the close of the session, and appre On Pitt's death, Lord Castlereagh and hended the increase of the disease, if not his colleagues in office resigned. "On the resignation of the Grey and Grenville Administration, in 1807, and the formation of that of Mr. Percival, Lord Castlereagh was replaced in his former situation of Minister of the War Department, in which he continued till the Walcheren Expedition, and his duel with Mr. Canning." On the death of Percival, Lord Castlereagh became Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, and held the office till his death. To him, we believe, Lord Londonderry is right in ascribing the carrying out into perfect effect the policy of assisting the Spanish people when they rose for the purpose of asserting their national independence. To Lord Castlereagh is also due the selection of the Great General by whom the European war was brought to so glorious a termination. Lord Londonderry discusses at considerable length Lord Castlereagh's diplomatic movements at Chatillon, and afterwards at Paris and Vienna. That the arrangements entered into by the Congress should have preserved peace so long among the principal European powers is no slight evidence of the good faith of the parties to the contract, and, above all, tells favorably for England and her representative, who was in the proud position of arbiter between contending nations. speedily arrested, as likely to interrupt public business, and interfere with the King's visit to Scotland, and his own attendance at Congress. Medicines were administered for the purpose of lowering the system, but they brought on depression of spirits and nervous fever. His handwriting, in general remarkable for its neatness, was so changed a few days before his death, that the official documents which he wrote or subscribed were scarce legible to those best acquainted with the character of his hand. Still, the thought of his mind being affected did not occur to any one till it was observed, at the same cabinet council, by the King and the Duke of Wellington. The King wrote to Lord Liverpool on the subject. The Duke communicated with Lord Castlereagh's physician. This was on Saturday. The physician ordered him to the country, and followed him thither the next day. Early on Monday morning, he was hastily summoned to Lord Londonderry, who was in his dressing-room, but before he could reach it, his patient had committed the fatal act, and life was almost immediately extinct." Our biographer, before tracing the private character of his brother, calls us for a moment to dwell on that of his father, who appears to have been an estimable country gentleman, living on his own estate, dealing reasonably with his tenants, and assisting the poor in seasons of distress-practising virtues which endeared him to the persons among whom he resided, but which are not, we trust, so rare in Ireland as to distinguish him from a thousand others. His example is described as operating on his son-our Lord Castlereagh-the second Marquess. Some improvements in the town of Castlereagh from which his title is taken, are described as Lord Castlereagh's work. He assisted in building a Roman Catholic chapel there, and he built one at Strangford. He is described by Lord Londonderry as a munificent patron of letters. He aided the Belfast Academy with his countenance and his money, and wrote papers in its praise in a magazine called the Belfast Athenæum. He helped Bunting to bring out his collection of "Irish Melodies;" and what surprises us very much, the translations from Carolan [in Bunting's Melodies] were moulded into their present shape by his masterly hand." "He was the means of establishing in Dublin a 'Gaelic Society,' the object of which was to encourage writers in the ancient Erse, and translations from scarce works in verse and prose. This Society went on well for some time; and a volume of their proceedings was printed, highly creditable to all who had contributed towards it. Theophilus O'Hannegan was the secretary, a man who was quite a genius, and a scholar of unrivalled attainments, but who possessed not an atom of discretion. The removal of Lord Castlereagh to England withdrew his attention from this local institution, and it was in consequence discontinued. The last service he rendered it was releasing poor O'Hannegan from the Sheriff's, where he was confined for a considerable debt." "A munificent patron of letters." We are not quite disposed to assent to this praise, though we are glad that Lord Londonderry has recorded it. It shows ludicrously enough what great men mean when they speak of rewarding letters. Lord Londonderry thinks his brother's patronage of men of genius one of his great claims on the admiration of the public, and he produces as a proof of it that he encourages writers in the ancient Erse, and releases from the sheriff a writer whom he admires. O'Hannegan may have been a fitting object of charity, and to have paid his debts may have proved Lord Castlereagh's consideration for his creditorsfor the poor fellow does not seem to have got anything for himself. That this should be solemnly recorded as a proof of a British minister's patronage of genius is too bad. The following details of his personal habits are worth preserving : "In his house he was never heard to murmur at anything, nor was he ever known to speak in a whom he had not changed for years. He was of harsh or hasty manner to any of his servants, abstemious habits, often tasting of but few dishes, and taking moderately of wine. He generally dressed himself without assistance. When in the country, and without company, he always retired early to his library, where he usually remained two or three hours, and retired to bed without supper. His usual hour for rising was seven in the winter, and in summer, five in the morning, weather admitted of it. He was fond of planting, never omitting to walk before breakfast when the pruning, and grafting with his own hands, and his parterre of native and exotic flowers at Crayfarm was choice, though not extensive. "Political despatches, which daily arrived, were disposed of by him with the utmost order, exactness, and regularity, and his visitors scarcely missed his company while he attended to them. At public worship he was a regular attendant, and had prayers read in his family once every day, sometimes in the morning, but oftener in the evening. Field sports he abandoned long before his death; but he had a kennel of pointers and grey. hounds. His ear for music was excellent, and though an indifferent player on the violoncello, he would often sit down and take part in a concerto, and join in any music that was going on. "He was very tenacious of all his early friendships. The Earl of Bristol and the late Mr. Holford were the most dear to him. His mind was much fixed on putting upon record the history of the Union, and the events which immediately preceded it-in fact, of his own administration in Ireland. It was a project which I know he had very much at heart, and it was often talked of to some gentlemen of reputation as men of letters in Ireland. One of these, a particular friend of Lord Castlereagh's, declined the undertaking, because he could not conscientiously, and as he thought satisfactorily execute it in the sense of the minister-and yet their friendship continued uninterrupted. "In stature he was nearly six feet high, and his manners were perfect, his features commanding. His appearance, when full-dressed, was particularly graceful; and at the coronation of George the Fourth he was remarked for the graceful dignity of his mien and manner, which, as I have heard it more than once observed, might well have caused him, when in the robes of the Garter, to be tier, yet in private life no man could be less mistaken for the Sovereign. Although a courassuming, and his affability at once dissipated that timidity which intercourse with high rank sometimes produces." An exceedingly interesting part of Lord Londonderry's work is that in which he replies to Lord Brougham's account, of Lord Castlereagh in his "Statesmen of the reign of George the Third." Among the many infelicitous sketches in that very amusing book perhaps that which is of least value is that ty of Ireland. He was thoroughly conversant and he was most sincerely and faithfully attached with every circumstance relating to Irish affairs, to the cause of Ireland." Sir Walter Scott and Alison are quoted, and each expresses that high admiration of Lord Castlereagh which will soon become the fixed conviction of all sober-judging men, of whatever party. A sentence of Croker's describes him well : of Lord Castlereagh. By him Castlereagh | is represented as a man of the meanest powers, of the most vulgar and arrogant pretensions. The passages which Moore and Byron have hitched into rhyme as specimens of his oratory are put forward with all the gravity of a witness. We suppose there was ground enough for such jokes, and the ground being once laid jokes enough would be perpetrated; but Lord Castlereagh was, on the whole, a graceful and effective speaker; and it is to be remembered that the task of inculpation is "Of Lord Londonderry [Castlereagh] Mr. always an easy one, and even where the means Wilberforce seemed at first to have formed a of defence are most perfect there must be very low, and we need not add, a very errooften reasons for silence that can scarcely be neous opinion; but when his Lordship's situafittingly assigned, and that this often places a tion became more prominent, and his characCabinet Minister in a situation of such perter better defined, that polished benevolence, plexity that it that high and calm sense of honor, that conbe even a dexterous escape may from worse dangers to expose himself to the summate address, that inflexible firmness, and arrows of the witlings. In Brougham's that profound and yet unostentatious sagacity, sketch there is one important acknowledg-won the respect and confidence of Wilberforce, ment-that all the personal imputations of as they did of reluctant senates at home, and cruelty against Lord Castlereagh in Ireland of suspicious cabinets abroad." were mere calumny. Lord Londonderry has published a number of very interesting letters, to show the estimate in which Lord Castlereagh was held by the greatest men of his time. We wish we could abridge these letters, but so much depends on the very words in which they are written, that could even the facts recorded be preserved, the impression which they leave of the affection with which this great statesman was regarded by his friends would be lost. In one letter of Lord Wellesley, he dwells on the aid given by Lord Castlereagh to sustain him in his Indian policy, and refers to his despatches from India in support of this statement. "But I must add," he says, one circumstance which does not appear in these despatches. During the whole of my administration he never interfered in the slightest degree in the vast patronage of our Indian empire, and he took especial care to signify this determination to the expectants by whom he was surrounded and to me. In his published despatches many examples occur of great abilities and statesman-like views, and they are all written in a style more worthy of imitation than of censure. "From the year 1812 I had no intercouse with your brother until the close of the year 1821, when I was called to undertake the arduous charge of Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. On that occasion I had repeated private interviews with your brother, whose sentiments on the subject of Ireland were of the most liberal description, most favorable to all the just views and interests of our Roman Catholic fellow-subjects, and most practically beneficial to the general welfare, happiness, and prosperi A letter of Lord Ripon's-too long for us to quote-gives a very striking proof of Lord Castlereagh's presence of mind and instant decision, in a case of considerable difficulty. To his insisting on reinforcing Blücher after his first march to Paris, with two corps of Russians and Prussians, belonging to Bernadotte's army, without a communication with Bernadotte, Lord Ripon attributes the success of the battle of Laon. The difficulty was regarded as insurmountable. "He was at the council when the matter was discussed. The moment he understood that militarily speaking, the proposed plan was indispensable to success, he took his line. that, in that case, the plan must be adopted, and the necessary orders immediately given; that England had a right to expect that her allies would not be deterred from a decisive course by any such difficulties as had been urged; and he boldly took upon himself the responsibility of any consequences as regarded the Crown Prince of Sweden. His advice prevailed; Blücher's army was reinforced in time; the battle of Laon was fought successfully; and no further efforts of Buonaparte could oppose the march of the Allies on Paris, and their triumphant occupation of that city." He stated How he was appreciated by his colleagues in the Cabinet, we learn from a letter of Sir Charles Wetherall: "I remember as well as yesterday meeting Eldon the morning when the despatches came over giving an account of the battle of Laon. I met him in the passage near the Chancellor of the Exchequer's house in |