III. 1809. 76. lenges Mr who is and they re- both resign. Sept. 16. having been discovered, or the real motives of the pro- CHAP. ceeding suspected. But this lull in the political tempest was not of long duration. The story of the way in which it came out must be given in Mr George Rose's Lord Castlewords: "It It was not till Lord Castlereagh was shown the reagh chalcorrespondence of Mr Canning by Mr Perceval, that he Canning, expressed any resentment or unpleasant feeling on the wounded, subject. It was from that he learned how early his moval had been consented to by his Majesty and his colleagues, and it was in that that he met with passages which induced him to challenge Mr Canning-a proceeding which I still think, even admitting some misconception on the part of Lord Castlereagh, his Lordship was utterly unjustified in adopting. If he had determined to call out any one, the Duke of Portland was the only delinquent to whom he should have resorted; and he had no motive whatever, but an anxious desire to reconcile matters in the best way he could, and, if possible, prevent any breach among the Ministers-constantly hoping that an accommodation might be effected in some way or other, and at last thinking that his (Duke of Portland) own resignation could afford an opportunity for such an arrangement as might, to a certain extent at least, be satisfactory to Lord Castlereagh. That, however, was defeated by Mr Canning urging a separate arrangement, as is proved by the extracts of the correspondence which I made from the papers Mr Canning put into my hands on the 16th September."1 The result was, that Rose's Lord Castlereagh, conceiving that the whole was an in- 422, 423. trigue of Mr Canning's to get him removed from office in order to facilitate his own advancement, and that he himself had been ill-used by being allowed so long and at so critical a juncture to retain the responsibility of office when his removal had been not only resolved on by the Cabinet, but submitted to his Majesty and approved by him, sent Mr Canning a challenge. The parties met and exchanged shots. Mr Canning's fire did not take effect; Diary, ii. CHAP. III. 1809. but that of Lord Castlereagh inflicted a severe flesh wound on the thigh of his adversary, which fortunately did not prove mortal. Both parties, as a natural consequence, resigned their situations in the Cabinet: Lord reagh Cor- Wellesley succeeded Mr Canning as Foreign Minister, and Lord Liverpool undertook the arduous duties of Ministerat-War.1 1 Castle resp. i. 72,73. 77. Mr Can ning's conduct was unjustifi was equally BO. Without pretending to justify the barbarous practice of duelling, now happily almost gone into desuetude, it may safely be affirmed that Lord Castlereagh was the agable, though grieved party on this occasion, and that Mr Canning's the duel conduct, so far as the concealment was concerned, was indefensible. Such, accordingly, was the opinion openly expressed at the time by persons the most opposed to each other in ordinary politics. The mere fact of part of the Cabinet, or indeed the whole excepting one member, entering into a concerted plan to get that one excluded from his situation, is not in itself a matter for reprehension. It may sometimes be a duty which public servants owe to the service to adopt this painful step with an old comrade. But it is one thing as a matter of duty to take steps for the removal of a public servant from a situation of responsibility for which he is deemed unfit; it is another and a very different thing to allow him to remain in power during an arduous and critical time, when, simultaneously, decisive steps, unknown to him, have been taken for his dismissal. To do this is at once a dereliction of public duty, and a treachery to private friendship: the first, because it is a retention in office of a person deemed unfit to be intrusted "Tuesday, October 31.-The Duke of Cumberland again rode up to me in Hyde Park, and talked of the probability of the Government going on, of which he expressed rather a sanguine expectation, but very much disliked Lord Liverpool being at the War Department. He had seen Mr Canning, and read all the papers he put into his hands; after which, he said, he had a strong impression that that gentleman's conduct was utterly unjustifiable, and that he was persuaded he now regrets the step he had taken, of which I entertain no doubt. His Royal Highness desired me to read Cobbett's paper of last Saturday, in which he attacks Mr Canning with great severity; this, however, I feel no disposition to read."-ROSE's Diary. III. with its duties; the last, because it is subjecting that CHAP. person to the responsibility of measures which it is not intended he shall either bring to maturity or reap the credit of their success. 1809. 78. Lord Castle achievements at the War This resignation threw Lord Castlereagh out of office for two years and a half, during which time his energies Resumé of could be exerted only on behalf of his country by his reagh's efforts in Parliament. During this period his biography necessarily turns into an abstract of his parliamentary Office. speeches; and on no occasion did the services he rendered to the public interests stand forth more pre-eminent. But before entering on that, a rapid summary of what he had already done may tend to show how far Great Britain was indebted to his exertions. He entered upon the direction of the War Office in April 1807, on the verge of the battle of Friedland and treaty of Tilsit, when the victories of Napoleon had enabled him to array the whole forces of the Continent, with the exception of Sweden, against us, and when our alliance even with Russia, the last and most faithful of our supporters, had been broken by the unhappy refusal of the Whig Government to render her any, even the most trifling, assistance, during the critical months, when the scales of fortune hung even, which immediately succeeded the battle of Eylau. When removed from office in September 1809, he had succeeded, by his unaided efforts, not only in securing the independence of his country and arresting the torrent of Napoleon's victories, but he had set in motion that chain of events which in their final results produced his decline and fall. He had, by land forces skilfully directed, and by taking proper advantage of the means of descent on decisive points which the command of the sea afforded, wrested from the enemy, during this short period, a hundred sail of the line, and forty frigates, of which a third had been brought as prizes, or to be detained in security, to the British shores. He had deprived the French Emperor of both the wings of the vast naval armament which he was preparing for our de III. 1809. CHAP. struction, and which it was the principal object of his life to render irresistible. He had planned and fitted out the greatest expedition of land and sea forces which the world had ever seen, and which, if it had been directed in the field with the same skill and vigour with which it had been planned in the Cabinet, would have cut Napoleon's naval centre through the middle, destroyed one-half of his remaining maritime resources, and for ever determined the war in our favour, by reducing to a mere fraction the fleets of the enemy. He had resuscitated the contest on the Continent, brought the British legions to contend on terms of equality with the French on their own element, and fanned a flame in the Peninsula destined never to be extinguished till the Imperial eagles were chased with disgrace beyond the Pyrenees. He had fitted out an army, and appointed a commander, whose exploits had already recalled the days of Crecy and Agincourt. He had established a military system for the defence of the country, based on the local, and gradually ascending through the regular, militia to the line, which amply provided for the national defence, and furnished an inexhaustible stream of recruits to supply the waste of life in the Peninsular campaigns, and left a disposable force of 60,000 to second the efforts of their immortal general. The military system of Prussia and Austria is in great measure founded on this model. By the example which he set in Spain, he had revived the spirit of resistance in Germany, and brought Napoleon to the brink of ruin on the field of Aspern. He had adopted a plan for the defence of Portugal, which, conceived and executed by Wellington, proved the salvation of that country, and in its ultimate results led to the deliverance of Europe. Never was a Minister who, in so short a time, had conferred such benefits on his country, or so quickly raised it from a state of imminent danger to one of comparative security and imperishable glory. What was the return which his countrymen made to him for these inestimable services? Was it that he was crowned III. with laurel, and honoured with a civic ovation for having CHAP. saved the State? It was that he was overwhelmed with obloquy, and by a unanimous vote of the Cabinet declared 1809. unfit to retain the office of WAR Minister! 79. of this de Lord Castle in advance This extraordinary decision was generally ascribed at the time to the ambitious and intriguing disposition of Real causes Mr Canning, which could not brook a rival, and took cision of advantage of the excitement produced by the failure of the the Cabinet; Walcheren expedition to overturn, as he thought, a for- reagh was midable competitor for power. But without disputing the of the age. influence which these circumstances may have had in producing the movement which occasioned Lord Castlereagh's temporary fall, it is evident that more general and powerful causes contributed to the result than the efforts of any individual, how ambitious or powerful soever, for his own advancement. The fall of Lord Castlereagh was the work of the whole Cabinet, and was very generally approved at the time by a large portion at least of the people, who, judging only from the failure of the Walcheren expedition, and the retreat of Wellington from Talavera, deemed the Minister in fault under whose war administration these untoward results had occurred. These ideas were in an especial manner embraced by Mr Canning, who, although he in public supported Lord Castlereagh's continued warfare, was in secret distrustful of it, and inclined to the Whig system of shutting ourselves up in our island, leaving the Continent to its fate. Having no turn himself for military affairs, and being from early association inclined to the Liberal side, he was more influenced by the brilliant oratory of Mr Fox against Continental exclusion, than the sober historical references of Lord Castlereagh in its favour. It is not surprising that it was so. Judging from the mere surface of things, the case was against the War Minister; and it was not till years after his death that the triumphant vindication of his memory was furnished by the final result, and correspondence and documents published by his enemies. In truth, Lord Castlereagh was the object of |