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CASTLEREAGH Robert Stewart 2nd Marquess of Londonderry 1769-1822 by Sir Thomas Lawrence CASTLEREAGH • c. J. Bartlett Palgrave Macmillan 1966 ISBN 978-1-349-81797-9 ISBN 978-1-349-81795-5 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-81795-5 © C. J. Bartlett 1966 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1s t edition 1966 978-0-333-00556-9 MACMILLAN AND COMPANY LIMITED Little Essex Street London WC2 also Bombay Calcutta Madras Melbourne THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA LIMITED 70 Bond Street Toronto 2 IN MEMORY OF PAUL Contents List of Illustrations page viii Acknowledgements IX 1 The <Mask' of Castlereagh 1 2 Irish Apprenticeship 1790-1801 6 8 India and the War against Napoleon 1802-9 40 4 The Pittites without Pitt 1806-12 88 5 Wars and Peace-making 1812-15 106 6 Leader of the House of Commons 1812-22 162 7 Castlereagh and the <New Diplomacy' 1816-22 199 8 Castlereagh and the Wider W orId 285 9 Suicide and Conclusion 259 Bibliographical Note 281 Index 287 Note To avoid confusion, I have referred constantly to the subject of this book by his best-known name, Castlereagh. He was, in fact, Viscount Castlereagh only from August 1796, and he succeeded his father as the 2nd Marquis of Londonderry in 182 I. To simplify the footnotes, and to facilitate easy reference, I have provided (see p. 282) an alphabetical list of the main works cited in this book. vii List of Illustrations Robert Stewart 2nd Marquess of Londonderry 1769-1822 by Sir Thomas Lawrence frontispiece National Portrait Gallery Castlereagh as a young man by Sir Thomas Lawrence facing page 6 Marchioness Dawager of Londonderry The Irish House of Commons by Francis Wheatley 22 Sir Alvary Gascoigne Disciples catching the Mantle 86 From the Gillray cartoon in the British Museum A cartoon of Sidmouth, Castlereagh and Canning by George Cruickshank 182 From William Hone's pamphlet' The Political House that Jack Built', various editions, London, 1819-20 British Museum A cartoon of Castlereagh, Sid mouth and Canning 198 From William Hone's pamphlet 'The Man in the Moon', London, 1822 British Museum The Congress of Vienna 230 Mansell Collection Robert Viscount Castlereagh by Hugh Douglas Hamilton 246 Marchioness Dawager of Londonderry viii Acknowledgements My first debt is to Dr. Donald Southgate, who encouraged me to undertake this study of Castlereagh. Professor Asa Briggs very kindly read the whole typescript, and made many valuable suggestions. The style and format of the early chapters were greatly improved by Professor D. F. Macdonald, who throughout has taken an active and kindly interest in this project. I am heavily indebted to the library staff of Queen's College, Dundee, in the University of St. Andrews, and to the very efficient Inter-Library Loan Service. I have endea voured in the footnotes and bibliography to acknowledge my debt to the many scholars who have laboured on the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and whose work throws light on the career of Castlereagh. Any academic merit the present study possesses is essentially due to them, and I can only hope that they will feel that this biography represents a useful synthesis not unworthy of their efforts. Any omissions in acknowledgement I trust they will forgive. My wife has nobly undertaken much of the mechanical work associated with this book, including the Index, and has, as always, proved a severe and invaluable critic, especially in matters of style. To the errors and omissions alone can I lay exclusive claim. Queen's College, Dundee C. J. B. December 1965 IX 1 • The 'Mask' of Castlereagh Of all British statesmen Castlereagh remains one of the most anonymous. To outward appearance his career should have proved attractive to at least one type of biographer. One, possibly two duels, a narrow escape from drowning in his youth, an active part in the suppression of an Irish rebellion, an intimate relationship with British and European royalty, attendance at some of the most glittering social occasions of the age, and the whole crowned by suicide - the most famous instance in all British history - the material for the romantic writer seems abundant. But just as Castlereagh repelled contemporary poets, so he has never attracted the imaginative writer to any great extent since that time'! His slowly growing band of admirers has numbered diplomats, or those interested in diplomacy, rather than any other readily identifiable group. Castlereagh, indeed, is frequently portrayed as the epitome of the nineteenth-century diplomatic profession - secretive, passionless, polished and aloof. When Shelley wrote, 'He had a mask like Castlereagh', was there not a second meaning behind the obvious one? Byron stressed Castlereagh's coldness even in the heat of his worst reputed crimes. Contemporaries who knew, but who were not intimately acquainted with him were fascinated by this characteristic. The handful of people who really knew him did indeed discover a warm and gentle person- Exceptions are Charles Lever's inclusion of some scenes of I Castlereagh's early life in his The Knight of Gwynne, and lone Leigh's Castlereagh (1951), though the latter also contains much valuable information, and is especially useful for Castlereagh's early career. I
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