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by a single ray of genius. His powers as a speaker and writer were contemptible even to ridicule-the temper of the times alone rendered his principles dangerous. On this point we thoroughly agree with the estimate which Lord Brougham has expressed with regard to Lord Castlereagh's capacity, in his "Historical Sketches of the Statesmen of the Reign of George III. ;" for although the only portion of his oratory which is given in these volumes is one very long extract, which occupies from page 24 to page 59, of the Marquess of Londonderry's "Memoirs" of his brother, and although it was corrected by Lord Castlereagh himself, we are convinced that the reader will be quite satisfied with this specimen, which, although it does not soar into one of those lofty metaphors in which his lordship embarked into a feature-said feature being on hinges, will sufficiently prove that "he was incapable of uttering two sentences of any thing but in the meanest manner and in the most wretched language." We are sorry that we can only make room for one or two sentences of this polished effort of oratory. The following are a fair specimen of the whole. "The people of the Netherlands will now become a nation of great importance, in the general balance of power, and have great weight when properly called out." Vol. i. p. 54. "At the commencement of the war, Hanover and her fate were not so much connected with this country as they might have been." (p. 55.)

Lord Londonderry avows that his object in publishing these volumes, is to rescue the name of Castlereagh from the calumnies which have been cast upon it; and that for this purpose he publishes his select official correspondence. Explaining this word "select" by the object of the present publication, it is certainly calculated to create a strong suspicion that every thing unfavourable to his lordship has been carefully suppressed. Lord Londonderry thus expresses his object in undertaking the present work, and at the same time sums up the contents of the first division, only the first part of which, however, has as yet been published.

"Though conscious that my abilities are not adequate to the task which I have undertaken, I feel it to be a duty to rescue the name of Castlereagh from the calumnies and abuse which have been so long and so industriously cast upon it by political adver

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saries and pardoned rebels. This object cannot, in my opinion, be more effectually accomplished than in (by?) submitting to the public the select Correspondence of Lord Castlereagh, from the commencement of his official career, to the close of his useful and laborious life. The first division of this collection, relating exclusively to the affairs of Ireland, will occupy four volumes, two of which are before the reader. The prominent points comprehended in these volumes are the Rebellion of the United Irishmen, and the abortive attempt at invasion by the French; the proceedings adopted for effecting the important measure of the Union with Great Britain, and arrangement, commercial and financial, preparatory to it; the state of the Roman Catholics and of the Presbyterians; and the insane outbreak of the younger Emmett."

As the two volumes already published do not come down so far as the Union, we shall confine ourselves entirely to the transactions connected with the Rebellion of 1798. From ignorance, flattery, party spirit, or perhaps because a Marquess got them printed, the historical importance of these volumes has been grossly exaggerated. After perusing them more than once, and without pretending to any extraordinary knowledge of the history of the period to which they belong, we cannot recollect that we have discovered in them a single fact with which we were not already acquainted. Notwithstanding the great number of documents and letters which they contain, most of them being now first published, these volumes are neither interesting nor important. The writers of a few of the letters were amongst the most eminent individuals of their own times, such as Pitt, Burke, Grenville, Cornwallis, Portland, and the Irish Catholic bishops. They treat of almost every topic which agitated the public mind during the end of the last, and the commencement of the present century. Not only the Union, Catholic Emancipation, and the diplomatic relations with Rome, which have been already legislated upon, but the utility of a new University, a state provision for the clergy, and other subjects of importance, will be found discussed by men who have left their impress on the age for good or for evil. But, notwithstanding these recommendations, we are convinced that the collection will be regarded on the whole as the least interesting that bas for many years been issued by the press in these countries.

Lord Londonderry's volumes, indeed, show us more

clearly than we ever knew it before, the perfect system of espionage which the government had established, by which its members were thoroughly acquainted with all the most secret proceedings of the United Irishmen at home, as well as with those of their agents in France, and even with the secret despatches of the French ministers to each other. Conspirators may learn a very salutary lesson from the fact, that not only was treachery rife at home, but that the correspondence regarding Ireland which passed between Citizen Reinhard, the French Resident at Hamburgh, and La Croix and Talleyrand, who were successively ministers for foreign affairs, and even the memorial of Dr. McNevin relating to a landing in Ireland, which was presented to the French Directory, as well as the letter of Mr. Duckett, another of the Irish emissaries, which was addressed to Citizen Truguet, ex-minister of Marine, were all put into the hands of the English ministers almost as soon as they were written. Lord Londonderry does not tell us who these agents were, and indeed we are sorry to be obliged to say, that his are decidedly the worst edited volumes we have ever read. The names of persons are constantly designated by the initials only; and yet the Editor scarcely ever tells us who is meant, even when the name is given in full in other documents in the same volume. Hence we are treated to such information as the following, which occurs in a letter from Mr. Wickham to Lord Castlereagh, dated Whitehall, June 8th, 1798.

"His Grace (the Duke of Portland) has desired me to inform your Lordship, that the Honourable Mr. L, Mr. S., of Acton, and Messrs. A., C., and T., of the Temple, have been apprehended here; and Messrs. M'G., and D., at Liverpool; and that warrants for apprehending the following persons have been granted, though not yet executed, viz. :-Dr. O'K., a person of the name of C., of Abbey-street, Dublin, and Mr. H."

The editor, like a true Protestant, gives all this to his readers without note or comment. By way of compensation, when the name of the Home Secretary, the Duke of Portland, which is printed in full some hundreds of times in these volumes, is occasionally written the Duke of P., the learned editor takes care to supply the missing letters by putting (ortland) in a parenthesis. The letters are for the most part printed according to their dates, but

not the slightest attempt is made to connect them with the history of the period to which they refer. Indeed, the illustrations of the noble Marquess are for the most part short extracts from the peerage. Thus, when Lord Ormond's name occurs, we are told in a note that he was "eighteenth earl and first marquess." Vol. ii. p. 25, is illustrated by four notes: the first is appended to Lord Shannon, and considerately informs us that he was "second earl, and that his christian name was Richard;" the second to Lord Ely, and it tells us that his name was Charles Tottenham, that he was created Baron Loftus in 1785, Viscount Loftus in 1789, and Earl of Ely in 1794; the third to Lord Pery, which lets us into the secret that he was created Viscount Pery in 1785; the fourth to Lord Yelverton, and this, though last not least, tells us that his name was Barry, and that he was raised to the peerage in 1795. In the very next page (26) we have three notes, of which the first and second give us the dates (and we have no doubt accurately) at which Lords Kilwarden and Carleton were made peers; whilst the third informs us that the Duke of Leinster's name was William Robert. Truly, the Marquess of Londonderry is "a man of one book;" and that is the "Peerage of Great Britain and Ireland." This information may be very interesting in aristocratic circles, but it is very easily acquired; and we beg leave to assure Lord Londonderry that when unaccompanied by any other, it is scarcely sufficient to illustrate a book which relates to one of the most eventful periods of a nation's history. We are sorry to be obliged to add, that there are a few miserable, bigoted notes in these volumes, which we are sure would never have found their way into them, if his lordship had not been utterly ignorant of the history of the transactions to which they refer. The truth is, that these volumes are a "rudis indigestaque moles;" that no attempt whatever is made to edit them in the present publication; and that, in a literary point of view, Lord Londonderry must rest content with the credit of having permitted them to be printed. The names of persons and places are often grossly, and sometimes ludicrously, distorted. Thus the informer, McGucken, is called McGuckey; the unfortunate Quigley, who was executed, is called Coigley; and, with regard to places, we find the County of Ulster (vol. i. p. 303), whilst in the previous page, the camp of Blaris is not inappropriately called the camp of Blasis.

The first of Lord Londonderry's volumes contains a very miserable memoir of Lord Castlereagh, and certainly, if we can judge of the suppressed parts of the correspondence by the omissions in the life, we must conclude that they are neither small nor unimportant.

Robert Stewart, afterwards so notorious under the name of Castlereagh, was born on the 18th of June, 1769-a year rendered memorable by the birth of Wellington and Napoleon. His father was not then a peer, but was created Baron of Londonderry in 1789, Viscount Castlereagh in 1795, Earl of Londonderry in 1796, and Marquess of Londonderry in 1816. This nobleman had himself represented the county of Down in two parliaments, and his son-the object of the present notice-on attaining the legal age in 1790, sought the same honourable trust from the electors. He stood on the principles of reform, and was supported by the votes and contributions of the independent portion of the county, for which he was returned after a harassing contest of two months, and at an expense of £60,000. At first he voted regularly with the opposition. But in 1797, Mr. Stewart, who was now Viscount Castlereagh on account of his father's promotion in the peerage, was appointed Keeper of the Privy Seal by Lord Camden, and of course ceased to be an advocate of parliamentary reform. Lord Londonderry says this change took place so early as 1793, when the franchise was conferred on the Catholics, which only proves that he kept his hustings pledges for even a shorter time than some charitable persons had previously imagined. When Mr. Pelham left Ireland in March, 1798, Lord Castlereagh discharged the duties of Chief Secretary as his locum tenens, to which office he was afterwards appointed on the retirement of that gentleman in 1799. He continued to hold this important situation until after the Union. That the Catholics were cajoled into an approval of that measure in some instances, and into neutrality in others, by the hopes of emancipation which were held out to them by Pitt, Cornwallis, and Castlereagh, no one can deny. They even retired from office avowedly in 1801, because the king would not permit them to carry that question; and Lord Cornwallis, when resigning the Lord Lieutenancy of Ireland, assured the Catholics that "many characters of eminence were pledged not to embark in the service of government, except on the terms of the Catholic

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