1813. CHAP. Sovereigns and ministers, take part daily in their deliXII. berations, and conclude at once on the many important matters which required to be decided on at the moment, before an answer could by possibility be received from the distant Cabinet of London. As Lord Castlereagh had been, ever since his restoration to office, the soul of the Cabinet in regard to foreign affairs, and they had now become of paramount importance, they determined upon offering the appointment to his Lordship, by whom it was at once accepted. His credentials and instructions were immediately prepared; and the foreign minister, wielding the influence, and armed with the power, of England, at the moment of its highest elevation, embarked on the 31st December, at Harwich, to join the Allied headquarters.* The following account of this important appointment, and the views of Lord Castlereagh on the occasion, is from the pen of the Cabinet Minister most cognisant of the fact: "Lord Castlereagh's appointment," says the Earl of Ripon, was on an occasion which demanded the exercise of no ordinary talents; for while, to the ordinary observer, the wonderful events which preceded it, seemed to render smooth and easy the arrangements which were to follow, yet in reality the course of policy which Lord Londonderry had to pursue was surrounded with extreme and complicated difficulties. I allude to his first mission to the Continent in the close of 1813. He did me the honour to invite me to accompany him on that mission, and I travelled with him from the Hague to Bâle, where he first came in contact with any of the ministers of the Allied Powers. From thence we proceeded to Langres, where the headquarters of the Grand Army were established, and where the Allied sovereigns, with their respective ministers, were assembled. I remained with him till near the close of the negotiations which ended in the peace of Paris. During the course of the journey he communicated to me confidentially and unreservedly the view which he took of the existing state of affairs, and of the mode in which he proposed to conduct the important business with which he was charged. The real difficulties of that interesting period commenced when the great powers of Europe took the decisive resolution of conquering peace in the heart of France. It had been comparatively no difficult matter to unite them, during the summer of 1813, in the great object of driving France within the limits of the Rhine. A sense of common dangers, a recollection of national injuries, and the humiliations to which the principal sovereigns and people of Germany had been exposed; an anxiety to repair the losses they had sustained, and to regain the position from which some of them had been successively driven, led them to form an alliance which, from its extent and resources, gave every prospect of a successful result. The enthusiasm which brought them together, in pursuance of this common and animating object, supported as it was by the councils and the aid of England, worked out with singular rapidity its success. ful result. The first combined movement broke out in August 1813, and before the 1st January 1814, the French were entirely expelled from Germany. The minds of all European statesmen were then directed to the consideration of XII. 42. Lord Castlereagh's instructions from the British Cabinet were so drawn as to invest him with full powers, and enable him to negotiate and conclude, of his own autho- 1814. rity, and without further consultation with his Govern- Lord Castlement, all conventions or treaties either for the prosecution reagh's inof the war or the restoration of peace. If there never and powers, was a British statesman who left the shores of England ception at on so momentous a mission, there never was one who headdeparted with such extensive powers. It is no exaggera those principles upon which the reconstruction of the European edifice was to be attempted, and the foundation of its future security rested. Any one who knows anything of the history of Europe since the time of William III., and the grand alliance of his day, to the present time, may readily conceive that this was no easy problem to solve. The immediate pressure of the common danger being removed, views of individual interest necessarily grew up. Some would look to the recovery of what they had lost; some to the maintenance of what they had gained. Some would think that the best chance of a durable settlement was the restoration of everything to the state in which Europe was placed in 1792, before the war of the French Revolution broke out. Some would hold to the notion that such a return was impossible, or, if possible, unwise. Some might deem that the peace of Europe would best be preserved by the adoption of some new and more popular system of internal government in the different States; other would see in such a policy nothing but a source of future evils and general commotion. It was, in short, a state of things which could only be grappled with by a mind capable of a patient, calm, resolute, and enlightened contemplation of all the circumstances of the case-founding its views and hopes for the future upon an accurate historical survey of the past, and a practical appreciation of the present. "In the course of our journey, Lord Castlereagh developed to me the principles upon which he conceived that the expected negotiations ought to be conducted and terminated; and I owe it to his memory to express my decided conviction that the views which he entertained were the natural and just dictates of an understanding competent to embrace all the great points of the complicated question which lay before him. It was not to be expected that, in a matter where so many separate interests were concerned, all his individual views were to be worked out; but historical truth justifies me in saying, that although some points of the final arrangement were made the subject of parliamentary criticism, the general feeling of Lord Castlereagh's countrymen was that of unequivocal satisfaction with the result; and well do I remember, as if it were only yesterday, that when he first entered the House of Commons, after his return from Paris, the whole body of the Commons of England rose from their seats upon his appearance, and greeted him with cordial acclamations. You and I well know how sensibly and deeply he felt this remarkable compliment. "There is one circumstance connected with this period so peculiarly illustrative of his character, and of the influence he was able to acquire over those with whom he had to deal, that I cannot forbear alluding to it. In the course of our journey from Frankfort to Bâle, he stated to me that one of the great difficulties he expected to encounter in the approaching negotiations would arise from the want of a habitual confidential and free intercourse between VOL. II. Q structions and his re Allied quarters. XII. 1814. CHAP. tion to say that he went armed with the power of peace or war, and the sole arbiter of the terms which were to be offered to the vanquished on either side in the most terrible and momentous contest in which the European Powers had ever been engaged.* He arrived at the Allied headquarters on 18th January; and his reception there demonstrated at once the estimation in which he was held Jan. 18, 1814. the Ministers of the great powers, as a body, and that many pretensions might be modified, and causes of irritation anticipated, by bringing the respective parties into unrestricted communications, common to them all, and embracing, in confidential and united discussion, all the great points in which they were severally interested. No man was ever better calculated to transact business himself, and to bring others to act with him in such a manner than Lord Castlereagh. The suavity and dignity of his manners, his habitual patience and self-command, his considerate tolerance of difference of opinion in others, all fitted him for such a task; while his firmness, when he knew he was right, in no degree detracted from the influence of his conciliatory demeanour. Nothing could answer more completely than this mode of proceeding; and I heard at the time, from several of the eminent men with whom his discussions were then carried on, that it conduced in every way, not less to the precision and harmony, than to the promptitude and energy, of their decision.”—EARL OF RIPON to MARQUESS OF LONDONDERRY, July 6, 1839, MS.; and Castlereagh Correspondence, i. 125, 129. "We, taking into consideration the urgent importance of the present crisis, which requires on many occasions a more full and immediate decision on our part than can be effected under the inevitable delay attending a direct communication between the Powers on the Continent and this Government; and the objects under discussion being of a magnitude far beyond the limits of the discretionary decision of the ordinary diplomatic representatives; and we having, therefore, determined to employ, on a special and temporary mission on the Continent, one of our confidential servants and principal Secretaries of State, fully informed of our views, and invested with full powers to negotiate and engage, in his Majesty's name, for the establishment of such arrangements as may most effectually unite all the Powers of the Continent at this crisis, so generally important to the interests, security, and independence of the whole, in common views for the vigorous prosecution of the war, and also enable him to negotiate and conclude, on behalf of his Majesty, conventions and treaties for the restoration of peace. "We have thought proper to confide to you this most important service; and we hereby signify to you our pleasure, in his Majesty's name, that you should repair, in the first instance, to the headquarters of the Allied Grand Army, where it is understood the three Allied sovereigns are assembled, to whom you will deliver the credentials with which you will be furnished to them respectively. After possessing yourself in the fullest manner of all the information which can be supplied by his Majesty's ambassadors, or other ministers, you will propose to enter into conference with such minister or ministers of the said sovereigns, as may be appointed for that purpose, upon the great objects of your mission; and you will be furnished with full powers to enable you to enter into any treaty or engagement with all or any of the Allied Powers, or with any other Power, in furtherance of the like views." XII. 1814. by the Allied sovereigns and ministers, and the decisive CHAP. influence which his presence and councils were expected to have at their headquarters. It has been thus painted by the eloquent pen of a hostile but impartial historian. "The British Cabinet," says Thiers, "determined upon. sending the most eminent of its members, Lord Castlereagh, to attend the ambulatory congress of the Coalition, to moderate the passions, preserve unanimity, and carry out the views of England, and when they were secured, to vote in every other respect for reasonable measures in opposition to extreme resolutions. To be wise for all the world except his own country was therefore his mission, and a very natural one. He was to explain the war budget introduced by Count Pozzo di Borgo, and make use of the riches of England to make his views triumph, by throwing into the opposite balance not his sword but his gold. No man was better qualified to discharge such a mission than Lord Castlereagh. He was the elder brother of Sir Charles Stewart, accredited with Bernadotte, and one of the most active and energetic servants of England. Lord Castlereagh, descended from an ardent and impetuous Irish family, bore in his bosom that disposition, but tempered by a superior reason. In mind honest and penetrating, in character prudent and firm, capable at once of vigour and address, having in his manner the proud simplicity of the English, he was called to exercise, and did exercise, the greatest influence. He was in every particular furnished with unlimited powers. With his character and his instructions you might almost say that England itself had risen up and formed the camp of the Coalesced sovereigns. Having set out from London in the end of December, he made a brief stay in Holland to The Hon. Frederick Robinson was appointed as Lord Castlereagh's "assistant in the execution of this special service, with full power to hold conferences, and conclude such engagements or treaties with his Majesty's Allies, or any of them, in case of your illness or otherwise, according to the directions he shall receive from you in conformity to the instructions with which you are or shall be furnished."-Instructions to LORD CASTLEREAGH, 27th December 1813; Castlereagh Correspondence, ix. 115, 116. XII. 1814. CHAP. give his councils to the Prince of Orange, and was not expected at Fribourg, the Allied headquarters, before the second half of January. No one before his arrival would take a line or give an answer. Every one was waiting to see him to endeavour to win him over to his side. Alexander sent a message to him, through Lord Cathcart, that he wished to be the first to converse with him."* 1 Thiers, xvii. 198200. While the great leader of English diplomacy was thus The following account of this important appointment and its consequences on the Allied cause was written at the time by a most competent observer and diplomatist, Lord Burghersh, since Earl of Westmoreland, then Military Envoyé at the Austrian headquarters. "The decision was taken in England to depute one of the Cabinet Ministers to represent Great Britain in the congress which appeared to be now likely to be held for the final arrangements of a secure and lasting peace. Lord Harrowby is understood to have been first thought of for this mission: Lord Castlereagh, however, undertook it, and in the beginning of January proceeded to the Allied headquarters. No measure was ever wiser or productive of more beneficial effects. Lord Castlereagh, by the manliness of his conduct, by the talent which he displayed under the most difficult circumstances, secured more solid advantages, not only to England but to Europe, than perhaps will be ever known or acknowledged. In the various changes of fortune which attended the operations of the campaign of 1814, the steady course with which he pursued the general objects of the alliance, being never led aside from either by reverses or success, placed him in triumphant contrast with others who, elated or depressed by the events of each succeeding period, would have ruined their cause as much by overstrained pretensions in one alternative as by a conduct totally the reverse in another. Lord Castlereagh is understood to have left England with instructions to negotiate for peace upon conditions honourable to France, but differing from those proposed at Frankfort, which the change of circumstances had rendered no longer applicable."-BURGHERSH's Memoir on the War of 1814 in France, 237. Lord Castlereagh, in a letter to Lord Liverpool of 22d January, gives the following important account of his first conference with the Allied ministers. "I have had, during the last two or three days, several hours' conversation with Metternich, Stadion, and Hardenberg. It is too soon to judge of them before I come to close quarters upon some questions of difficulty. I have every reason, however, to be so far satisfied, and they seem to feel my arrival as a valuable facility. I have had a very full and confidential conversation with Metternich on the Bourbon question. He is highly conciliated by the line we have taken, and the forbearance with which we have used the discretion given to us by his Government through Aberdeen. I am confident I shall have great additional influence over his mind on any practical question connected with this subject that may occur, from the manner in which we have conducted ourselves upon it. My opinion is, that if we meet this event in our progress as a French measure, Austria will not embarrass it from any family considerations, and the less so from the dread she feels of Bernadotte's elevation; but she will not speculate upon it, or commit herself upon either loose or partial grounds. She will desire always to see the public act, and to frame her decision with reference to the nature and extent and the state in which the Allied interests at the moment stand in the war. Metternich seems strongly impressed with the feeling, that to take our terms high against France we must |