A.D. 1822.] CANNING APPOINTED FOREIGN SECRETARY. : had not caught fever in the midst of it. All, however, went sure." 71 from speaking on politics to anybody. But he was revolving in his mind not less anxiously who was to be the new leader of the house of commons, and how the constitution in church and state might be best protected against the spirit of innovation. Waiting impatiently for the arrival of his royal master, he wrote, "I cannot quit this place till he does come; and when he and Sir William Curtis are to cease exhibiting the full highland garb I cannot be Sir William was a fat London alderman, whose appearance in the highland costume afforded much work for the caricaturists, and amusement for the public. On the king's return from his northern metropolis, the chancellor was about to press upon him the promotion to the vacant leadership of the house of commons of Mr. Peel, who had won high distinction in the late debate upon the catholic peers, when he found, to his unspeakable chagrin, that lord Liverpool himself had selected Mr. Canning, and overcome the royal objections to him on the ground of his having been formerly the champion of the queen. He had represented to the king that this was the only arrangement by which the whigs could be effectually excluded, and he gave him an assurance that catholic emancipation, though left an open question, should be resolutely opposed. Great as Mr. Canning's talents for parliament were, and great as was the want of talent on the ministerial side of the house, it was not without the utmost reluctance that the cabinet consented to receive him as an associate. They invited him to fill the place vacated by lord Londonderry, because he was forced upon them by circumstances, and they felt that the government could not go on without his aid. Canning," " said lord Dudley," will be a bitter pill to them, and yet I am more The king left Scotland on the 29th, taking a route inclined than I was at first to think that they will swallow different from that by which he entered. On his way to it."* 66 Canning knew well enough," says the duke of the place of embarkation he visited the earl of Hopetoun, Buckingham, "that he had only to wait, and the necessities at whose house he conferred the honour of knighthood on of the government, notwithstanding the aversion of the Mr. Raeburn, the celebrated portrait painter. At Queen's majority, would force him into the position his great rival Ferry, the country people assembled to testify their loyalty had left vacant." Many persons of influence shared in this with a last look and a parting cheer. The roar of cannon conviction, and though far from cordial in their admifrom all the surrounding hills, and the shouts of the multi-ration of this political leader, they were eager to adopt tude, greeted him on his embarkation at Port Edgar. The royal squadron arrived safely on the 1st of September at Greenwich, where he was cordially welcomed home CHAPTER VIII. แ him as their colleague or superior, seeing no other assistance at hand so capable of advancing their particular policy. His only competitor was Mr. Peel, who had not yet had sufficient opportunity of evincing his great powers for the conduct and discussion of public affairs to command the station which many of his Mr. Canning and the Holy Alliance-Lord Eldon's Apprehensions and colleagues would have gladly seen assigned to him. Mortifications-Lord Bexley-Mr. Robinson Chancellor of the Ex-Canning was unpopular with the anti-catholic party in chequer, and Mr. Huskisson President of the Board of Trade-The Congress of Verona-The Duke of Wellington British Plenipotentiary of the Allies against England-The Duke disappointed and disgusted general, and particularly obnoxious to the lord chancellor; and, besides, there was the great objection of his having been the friend and adherent of the queen. But lord Liverpool, the premier, having been associated with him from early life, was so thoroughly convinced that he was the fittest man for the post, and so well acquainted with his transcendant powers of intellect, that he prevailed upon him to relinquish the governor-generalship of India, to which he had been appointed, and to accept the vacant LORD ELDON, who was by no means weary of political secretaryship for foreign affairs, together with the leaderlife, became very uneasy about his position, and the arrange-ship of the commons. "This change gave much satisments at which his majesty had mysteriously hinted. The chancellor religiously obeyed his injunction to abstain South American Provinces-Canning's Defence of his Policy. *Lord Dudley's "Letters," p. 361, faction to an important portion of the country, for there was now growing up a desire of improvement in various branches of the political and civil constitution and government; and to such improvement Mr. Canning was known to be cordially favourable, although he lived and died the foe of that pseudo liberality which thrives by pandering to popular passion."* This was not the only bitter pill that poor lord Eldon was compelled to swallow. Without one word of intimation from the king or the prime minister, he learned for the first time from the Courier that Mr. Huskisson had been introduced into the cabinet. "Really," said he, "this is rather too much. Turning out one man, and introducing another, in the way all this was done, is telling the chancellor that he should not give them the trouble of disposing of him, but should, not treated as chancellor, cease to be a chancellor. What makes it worse is, that the great man of all (the king) has a hundred times most solemnly declared that no connections of certain persons should come in. There is no believing one word anybody says; and what makes the matter still worse is, that everybody acquiesces most quietly, and waits in all humility and patience till their own time comes." He states that he had written to lord Liverpool, and that he had no wish to remain chancellor, and adds, "To say the truth, I think those who should remain, and especially that officer, stand a very good chance of being disgraced.". There was more truth, perhaps, in what follows:-"Bodily, I am well, and looking remarkably well: but I am puzzle-pated, and in that respect very awkward at times; upon the whole, however, greatly better, and full of plans as to locomotion." He kept his place, however, determined not to meddle with those who were given to change. He had stated to his brother before this storm that, as chancellor, he would not meet another session of parliament. "We are bound to believe," says lord Campbell, "that if he had consulted his own inclination, he would instantly have resigned; but that he was persuaded, for the good of his country, to pocket the affront, and to consent to sit in the cabinet, with Canning on his right hand and Huskisson on his left." Mr. Huskisson was made president of the board of trade, and in his stead Mr. Arbuthnot became first commissioner of the land revenues. Mr. Vansittart, who had proved a very inefficient chancellor of the exchequer, was raised to the peerage by the title of lord Bexley, and got the quiet office of chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster. He was succeeded in the more important office by a much abler financier, Mr. Robinson. It has been generally understood that it had been definitely arranged that lord Londonderry should represent England at the congress of Verona, and it was universally believed, as we have seen, that this fact weighed on his mind and led to his suicide; but Mr. Gleig states that in consequence of the reluctance expressed by lord Londonderry to undertake the mission, it had for some time been settled that England should be represented there by the duke of Wellington, and that he had begun to *Twiss' "Life of Eldon," vol. ii., p. 446. + Ditto, p. 468. make his preparations, when a severe illness fell upon him, from which he did not sufficiently recover to set out upon his journey till after lord Londonderry's death. The duke of Wellington started for his mission when Mr. Canning had been only forty-eight hours in office. Stress has been laid upon the fact that he received his instructions from Mr. Canning, and this has been declared to be the turning point in our foreign policy, when England began to disengage herself from the holy alliance. She was not formally a party to that alliance, but the despots composing it had counted on her aid and influence in keeping down the nations which they oppressed. But Mr. Gleig states that lord Londonderry himself had compiled a letter of instruction for the representative of England at the congress, and that this was transferred, without a single alteration, to the duke of Wellington. It is, he says, “a very interesting document. It touches upon every point which could be expected to come under consideration at the congress, and it handles them all so as to guard with scrupulous care, not only the honour of Great Britain, but the rights of foreign peoples, as well as of their governments. It assumes that the subjects of general discussion would be three: first, the Turkish question, external and internal; secondly, the Spanish question, European and American; and, thirdly, the affairs of Italy. With this last question himself at all. As England had been no party to the the representative of England was directed not to concern military occupation of Naples and Sardinia-as she had merely acquiesced in it, with a view to prevent worse things-so she felt herself precluded from advising upon the arrangement now that it was complete, lest by so doing she should appear to admit the justice of a proceeding against which from the outset she had protested. The representative of Great Britain was therefore instructed to hold aloof from all meetings at which Italian affairs were to be discussed, and, if possible, to avoid connecting himself with the congress till these should have been settled." With regard to the Turkish question, all possible measures were in the first instance to be tried, with a view to reconcile the differences between Russia and Turkey. These referred to the Russian protection of the Christian subjects of the sultan, and the navigation of the Darda nelles and the Bosphorus. When these matters were disposed of, then, and not till then, was the condition of Greece to be considered, and in dealing with this question the British plenipotentiary was instructed to use great caution, to avoid committing England either to the recognition or subjugation of that country. The case of The English Spain was the most perplexing of all. cabinet expressed the opinion that no foreign power had any right whatever to interfere with any form of government which she had established for herself, and that her king and people were to be left to settle their own differences as best they could. The representative of Great Britain was directed to urge this point with all his influence But the case upon the allies, and especially upon France. of her revolted colonies was different. It was evident, "Life of Wellington," p. 362. A.D. 1822.] INSTRUCTIONS OF THE BRITISH CABINET TO THEIR REPRESENTATIVE. 78 from the course of events, that their recognition as in- colonial produce which was the result of slave labour. "It dependent states was become a mere question of time. will be seen," says Mr. Gleig, "that the recognition of Over by far the greater portion of them Spain had lost all the actual independence of many of the Spanish colonies hold, and it had been found necessary, in order to admit had already been determined upon by Great Britain, and their merchant vessels into English ports, to alter the that the establishment of diplomatic relations with them navigation laws both of England and Spain. The letter all had come to be considered as a mere question of time. of instructions accordingly directed the British pleni- This is a point worthy of notice, because of the misunderpotentiary to advocate a removal of the difficulty on this standing in regard to it which originated in a speech subprinciple: that every province which had actually estab- sequently delivered by Mr. Canning in the house of lished its independence should be recognised; that with commons, and which still, to a considerable extent, prevails. provinces in which the war still went on, no relation should It will be further noticed that the principle observed by be established; there was to be no concert with France, or lord Londonderry as the true principle was that of non Russia, or any extraneous power in establishing relations with the new states. "The policy projected was exclusively English and Spanish, and between England and Spain alone its course was to be settled. Other nations might or might not come into the views which England entertained; but upon their approval or disapproval of her views England was not in any way to shape her conduct." There were other matters which the English representative was to bring forward, and foremost among them all was the suppression of the slave trade, either by a general declaration from the allies that it should be treated as piracy, or by obtaining from them an engagement that they would not admit into their markets any article of 111.-NEW SERIES. him the opportunity to collect a native force strong enough to enable him to protect himself against the schemes of the revolutionists—that is, to put down the constitution. Of course, France said she entertained no views of conquest or aggrandisement, or even of prolonged occupation. She would withdraw her troops whenever Greek revolution they denounced as a rebellion against to insure the personal safety of the king, to afford the legitimate authority of the sultan. The actual govern ment of Spain they regarded as incompatible with the safety of monarchical power, and France called upon the sovereign to re-establish the despotism of Ferdinand. Russia, Austria, and Prussia took the same view of the Spanish revolution, but were unwilling to interfere by force of arms. France was not so scrupulous upon that point. Chateaubriand and other votaries of absolutism in church and state were busy fomenting conspiracies in Spain, and secretly supplying arms and ammunition to the priest-ridden enemies of constitutional government in that country. An army which during the previous year had been assembled on the frontier, under the ridiculous pretence of preventing the fever at Barcelona from spreading into France, changed its name from that of a sanitary cordon to an army of observation. M. de Villele, the new French prime minister, threw off the mask, and in a circular note stated that unless Spain altered her political constitution France would use force to convert her from her revolutionary theories. Such was the state of things with which the duke of Wellington had to deal as British plenipotentiary, when he left London on his mission early in September, taking Paris on his way. There he had some interesting conferences with the king and his minister. The latter could hold out no hope that France would fulfil her engagements as to the slave trade. He spoke, indeed, of their African settlements as useless to the French people, and proposed to make them over to England in exchange for the isle of France; but further than this he declined to go, because there were too many interests, both public and private, engaged to thwart his efforts, should he be so unwise as to make any. His language with regard to Bouth America was not less vague and unsatisfactory. He stated that France had not entered into relations with those provinces in any form, and did not intend to do so till they should have settled their differences with Spain one way or another. "M. de Villele did not add, as he might have done, that France was feeling her way towards the severance of Spain from her colonies, and towards the establishment in the new world of one or two monarchies, with younger branches of the house of Bourbon at their head."* The third topic discussed at these conferences was the nature of the relations then subsisting between France and Spain, and the projects of the former power in reference to the latter. These were explained by the minister without any reserve, and with no symptoms of apprehension that they would be disagreeable to England, or of anxiety as to the result, whether they should or not. He frankly avowed that, under cover of the sanitary cordon, 100,000 French troops were assembled; that it was proposed to throw them in two columns into Spain; that one column, of 40,000 men, was to pass into Catalonia, while the other, of 60,000, was to march by the great road through Irun upon Madrid. He stated that the sole object of this invasion was *MS. correspondence, "Gleig's Life of Wellington," p. 368 the king of Spain said he could do without them, and yield up every inch of territory. In reference to this matter the duke of Wellington wrote home for instructions, and in reply Canning said :-" If there be a determined project to interfere by force or by menace in the present struggle in Spain, so convinced are his majesty's government of the uselessness and danger of any such interference-so objectionable does it appear to them in principle, as well as utterly impracticable in execution-that when the necessity arises-or, I would rather say, when the opportunity offers-I am to instruct your grace at once frankly and peremptorily to declare that to any such interference, come what may, his majesty will not be a party." To say that England peremptorily declined "to be a party" to the invasion of an independent state, in order to force upon the people a government contrary to their will, was not saying very much, nor putting the objection very strongly. There should have been the strongest possible protest against such an iniquitous outrage upon a foreign state. There is no merit in a man saying that he would not be a party to robbery or murder; it is an insult to expect that he should be a party to the perpetration of a crime. We are assured, however, that the duke steadily set his face against the project, pointing out that the step would be not only unjust, but impolitic; that it would precipitate the catastrophe which the French government feared; that the revolutionists would probably remove Ferdinand from Madrid as soon as they heard of the passing of the frontier by the French troops, and that, even if these troops should reach the capital, the Spaniards would not therefore submit, nor would the king be set at liberty. He argued that a war between France and Spain for such a purpose would be pronounced a war to put down free institutions, and that if France sought the support of her allies, the only one amongst them that had free institutions would feel it her duty to meet such a request with a refusal. Europe would be ranged into two hostile camps, that of absolutism on the one side and of revolution on the other; amid which not thrones only, but settled governments in every form, might be overthrown.* In reply to these arguments, both the king and his minister stated that whatever France might do in the matter she would do single-handed, and that she would not only not apply for assistance from without, but that, if such assistance were offered, she would refuse it. The duke could not, however, prevail upon the French government to refrain from bringing the question between France and Spain before the congress. The king and his minister both contended that vast moral good would accrue from a joint remonstrance on the part of the allies against the treatment to which the king of Spain was subjected, and The duke of Wellington's MS. correspondence. A.D. 1822.] THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON AND WILLIAM ALLEN. a joint threat that if any violence were offered to his person or family all would unite to avenge the outrage. “The duke,” says his biographer, "was therefore forced to withdraw from the conferences, after he had explained that Great Britain would never assume without proof that violence was or could be intended by Spain to her royal family; that she would never be brought to declare beforehand what she might or might not do in any hypothetical case; and that if other governments took a different course, they would, in his opinion, do violence to the law of nations. Finally, he showed that if the purpose of the proposed agreement was to hinder Spain, through the influence of fear, from perpetrating a great crime, the whole transaction must necessarily be made public; and he took the liberty of adding, from his acquaintance with their national character, that Spaniards were as little likely to be deterred by threats from what they had resolved to do as any people under the sun." ”李 Having reported to Mr. Canning the result of his diplomatic efforts at Paris, the duke set out on his journey to Vienna, where he arrived on the 29th of September, and where he expected the congress to be held. But there again England's plenipotentiary, the great conqueror of Napoleon, who had restored the legitimate despots to their thrones, was treated with as little consideration as at Paris. Not till his arrival did he learn that the congress which he was invited to attend was not to be held at Vienna at all, but at Verona, where the petty Italian princes would have a decent excuse for attending, in order to carry on their intrigues. Meantime, in the interval between the adjournment from one city to another, the allied sovereigns were paying a visit of friendship to the king of Bavaria, whose system of government no doubt met with their unqualified approval. As the duke's instructions forbade him to meddle with Italian affairs, he tarried at Vienna till he should receive further instructions from his own government. While awaiting an answer, he had opportunities of conferring personally with the czar, who had obtained an ascendancy in the councils of the Holy Alliance which rendered him the virtual master of every situation. With regard to the affairs of Turkey, the duke succeeded in obtaining from his imperial majesty an assurance that, unless driven to it by some unforeseen and irresistible necessity, he would not come to an open rupture with the sultan. He was not so successful in his exertions with regard to the Spanish question, on which the czar was in an irritable mood. He said that Spain was the very centre and focus of revolutionary principles, and he felt it to be the duty not less than the policy of the allied sovereigns to trample them out at their source, and for this purpose he had proposed to contribute 150,000 men, which he intended to march into Spain through French territory. In reply to the duke's earnest remonstrances against this course, the czar put a question which betrays the aggressive policy of military despots. He asked what he was to do with his army. It insisted upon being led against Turkey, and was only re * Gleig, p. 370. 75 strained because he had expressed his determination of employing it in putting down jacobinism in the west. The British cabinet did not think that the duke ought to abstain from attending the congress because of its meeting in an Italian city, and thinking so himself, he set out for Verona, after a fortnight's sojourn in Vienna. Arriving there on the 15th of October, he found it crowded with the élite of European society. Before he left Vienna, he was waited upon by the celebrated philanthropist, William Allen, a member of the society of Friends, who was known to every public man in his own country, and had corresponded with most of the princes and statesmen of Europe. The duke was, therefore, more amused than surprised when Mr. Allen said to him, "Friend, I must go to Verona." The following dialogue then ensued: DUKE: That is impossible; haven't you read the order that nobody is to be allowed to enter the town unless he belongs to one of the embassies? ALLEN Friend, I must go to Verona, and thou must enable me to do so. DUKE: How can I do that? You don't hold any office, and I have none to give you. ALLEN : Friend, I must go to Verona, and thou must carry me thither. DUKE: Well, if I must, I must; but the only thing I can do for you, is to make you one of my couriers. If you like to ride as my courier, you may do so. ALLEN: Friend, I told thee that I must go to Verona, and that thou must carry ine thither; I will ride as thou desirest, and am ready to set out immediately. And the Friend did ride as the duke's avant courier, and, reaching his destination before him, introduced himself to the emperors of Austria and Russia and the other crowned heads, and lectured them all round on the iniquity of the traffic in negroes. The worthy Friend was, however, strangely out of place in the gay and brilliant society which at that time crowded Verona. Never had that old city witnessed such scenes of splendour and dissipation. Balls and theatrical representations occupied every night, and were renewed every morning, to the great apparent delight of all who partook in them. "Into the round of gaiety which never slackened, no one threw himself with greater abandon than the duke of Wellington. Fond of society, and especially of the society of beautiful and gifted women, he met in the frankest manner all the advances that were made to him, and indulged to his heart's content in that interchange of pleasant sayings and doings in which few public men of the day knew better than himself how to take part; and it is worthy of remark that more than all the other diplomatists assembled there, he was courted and caressed, not merely because of the renown which attached to him personally, but because it was hoped to work, through his self-love, upon his temper, and thus to render the policy of England, concerning which much anxiety prevailed, more in union than it might otherwise be with that of the continental governments. But the politicians, female as well as male, who indulged in these speculations entirely mistook their man. To whatever weaknesses he might be liable-and he was not exempt from the shortcomings of human nature-the duke was so far master of |