the troubled sky of a wintery night ; that of the
imdaunted statesman, at first obscured, but in
the end lasting like the fixed stars, which, when
the clouds roll awa}', shine forever the same
in the highest firmament. Intrcpiditj- in the
rulers of men is the surest passport to immor-
tality, for it is the quality which most fasci-
nates the minds of men. All admire, because
few can imitate it.
" Justum et tcnaccm propositi virum
Non civium ardor prava jubentiuiri,
Non voltus instantis tyranni
Menle quatit solida nerjue Auster,
Dux inquieti lurbidus lladritE,
Nee fulininantis magna inanus Jovis :
Si fractus illabatur orbis,
Impavidum ferient ruinae."
Never was there a human being to whom
these noble lines were more applica- 155.
ble than to Lord Londonderry. His Itsindomit-
whole life was a continual struggle ''^'^ ^''"^"
with the majority in his own or for-
eign lands ; he combated to subdue and to
bless them. He began his career by strenuous
efforts to effect the Irish Union, and re.=cue his
native country from the incapable legislature
by which its energies had so long been re-
pressed. His mature strength was exerted in
a long and desperate conflict with the despo-
tism of revolutionary France, which his firm-
ness, as much as the arm of Wellington, brought
to a triumphant issue ; his latter dajs in a
ceaseless conflict with the revolutionary spirit
in his own country, and an anxious eflbrt to
uphold the dignity of Great Britain, and the
independence of lesser states abroad. The un-
* " Tlie news of Lord Londondcrrj's death struck the
despots of Europe aghast upon their thrones — newswhjcli
was hailed with clasped hands and glistening eyes hy
aliens in many a provincial town of England, and witi
imprudent shouts by conclaves of patriots abroad. There
are some now, who in mature years can not rfmemfcer
without emotion what they saw and heard that day.
They could not know how the calamity of one man— a
man amiable, winning, and generous in the walk of daily
life — could penetrate the recesses of a world but as a ray
of hope in the midst of thickest darkness. This man
was the screw by which England had riveted the chains
of nations. The screw was drawn, and the immovable
despotism might now be overthrown There was abund
ant reason for the rejoicing which spread through the
world on the death of Lord Londonderry, and the shout
which rang through the .\bl)ey when his coffin was taken
from the hearse; was natural enoueh, though neither de-
cent nor humane."— .Miss .Maetineau, i. 2&7, 2fc6.
182-2.]
HISTORY OF EUROPE.
371
compromising antagonist of Radicalism atliomo,
he was at the same time the resolute opponent
of despotism abroad. If Poland retained, after
the overthrow of Napoleon, any remnant of
nationality, it was owing to his persevering
and almost unaided efforts ; and at the very
time when the savage wretches who raised a
shout at his funeral were rejoicing in his death,
he had been preparing to assert at Verona, as
he had done to the Congresses of Laybach and
Troppau, the independent action of (jroat Brit-
ain, and her non-accordance in the polic}- of tbe
Continental sovereigns against the efforts of hu-
man freedom.
His policy in domestic affairs was marked
157 ^y *'^*^ same far-seeing wisdom, the
His policy same intrepid resistance to the blind-
in domestic ness of present clamor. He made
affairs. ^j^g most strenuous efforts to uphold
the Sinking Fund, that noble monument of Mr.
Pitt's patriotic foresight : had those efforts been
successful, the whole national debt would have
been paid oft" by the year 1845, and the na-
tion /oreyer have been freed from the payment
of thirty millions a year for its interest.* He
resisted with a firm liand, and at the expense
of present popularity with the multitude, tiie
efforts of faction during the seven trjing years
which followed the close of the war, and be-
queathed the constitution, after a season of pe-
culiar danger, unshaken to his successors. The
firm friend of freedom, he was on that very
account the resolute opponent of democracy,
the insidious enemy which, under the guise of
a friend, has in every age blasted its progress,
and destroyed its substance. Discerning the
principal cause of the distress which had occa-
sioned these convulsions, his last act was one
that bequeathed to his country a currency ade-
quate to its necessities, and which he alone of
Jiis Cabinet had the honesty to admit was a
departure from former error. Elegant and cour-
teous in his manners, with a noble figure and
finely-chiseled countenance, he was beloved in
his family circle and by all his friends, not less
than respected by the wide circle of sovereigns
and statesmen with whom he had so worthily
upheld the honor and the dignity of England.
Three years only had elapsed since the great
158 monetary change of 1819 had been
Political carried into effect, and already it had
changes in become evident that that was the
FroifiTho' turning-point of English history, and
resumption that an entire alteration would ere
ofcaslipay- long be induced in its external and
riiunts. internal policy. Changes great, de-
cisive, and irremediable, had already occurred,
or were in progress. The cutting off of a hun-
dred millions a year from the ivtnuncration of
industry, agricultural and manufacturing, while
the public and private debts remained vhe same,
had changed the whole relations of nocictj", al-
tered all the views of men. Reduction in ex-
penditure, when so great a clia.sm had been
effected in income, was the universal cry. In
1810, the House of Commons ha
solved that the Sinking Fund should tmder no
circumstances be reduced Ijelow £r>,()flO,000
a year, and laid on .£.'i,000,000 of indirect taxes
to bring it up to that amount ; Init already tlie
* Vide Hislnry of Europe, cliap. xll. Hect. 24, where
tbis is dcmon.strated, and the calculation given.
system was abandoned, taxes to the amount of
£3,500,000 had been repealed in a single year,
and the doctrine openly promulgated by Gov-
ernment, which has since been so constantly
acted upon, that the nation should instantly
receive the full benefit of a surplus income in a
reduction of taxation, instead of a maintenance
of the Sinking Fund. The fierce demand for a
reduction of expenditure, which made itself
heard in an unmistakable manner even in the
unreformed House of Commons, had rendered it
indispensable to reduce the land and sea forces
of the state to a degree inconsistent with the
security of its vast colonial dependencies, and
the maintenance of its position as an independ-
ent power.
Changes still more important in their ulti-
mate efl'ects were already taking .^^
place in the social position and bat- internal
anee of parties in the state. The dis- changes,
tress in Ireland — a purely agricul- ^^^^^^f^^
tural state, upon which the fall of g^^g cause.
50 per cent, in its produce fell with
unmitigated severitj- — had I)ecome such that a
change in the system of government in that
country had become indispensable ; and the
altered system of Lord Wellesley presaged, at
no distant period, the adndssion of the Roman
Catholics into the legislature, and the attempt
to form a harmonious legislature out of the
'.inited Celt and Saxon — the conscientious serv-
ant of Rome, and the sturdy friend of Protest-
ant England. The wide-spread and deep dis-
tress of the manufacturing classes, and the in-
ability of the legislature to afford them any
relief, had rendered loud and threatening the
demand for reform in those great liives of in-
dustr}', while the still greater and more irre-
mediable sufferings of the agriculturists had
shaken the class hitherto the most firmly at-
tached to existing institutions, and diffused a
very general opinion that things could not be
worse than they were, and that no alleviation
of the evils under which the country labored
could be hoped for till the representation of
the people was put on a different footing.
Lastly, the general necessity of cheapening
every thing, to meet the reduced price of prod-
uce, had extended itself to freigiits, and sev-
eral acts had already passed the legislature
which foreshadowed the repeal of the Naviga-
tion Laws, and the abandonment of the system
under which England liad won tlie sceptre cf
the seas, and a colonial em|iire which encirc]c
the earth. The dawn of Iho whole future of
England is to be found in these tiirec years.
The Marquis of Londonderry was the last
minister in (Jreat Britain of the rul- jf.o.
ers who really governed the state ; I-orJ I-nn-
that is, of men who took counsel l""''"''*', ,
, r ,, • . , 1 • was the last
onl^' of their own ideas, and im- orthcrcMl
printed them on the internal and rulcr.soiKn-
extcrnal policy of tlicir ecMintry. K'""''-
Thenceforwar(r statesmen were guided on both
sides f>f the Channel, not by wliat they deem-
ed right, but what llicy found practicable; the
ruling power was found elsewhere than cither
in the enf)in(t or the legislature, (.^'"'rulous
and desponding men, among whom Chateau-
briand stands foremost, ])ercciving this, nn
comparing the ]iast with the present, concludc
that this was because the period of greatness
11 ISTOR Y OK EUROPE.
[Chap. X.
liiul piis^oil, because the ago of giants liad boon
»;iK'oooilod by tliat of pigmies; and that men
wore not ilireetoii, bceauso no one able to lead
them appeared. Hut this was a mistake: it
was not that the age of great men had eeased,
but llie age of great eausos had sueeeeded.
I'ublic opinion had become irresistible — the
press ruled alike the cabinet and the legislature
i>n important questions ; where the jieople were
strongly roused, their V(.>iee had become om-
nipotent; on all it gradually but incessantly
aeied, and in the cud modilied the opinions of
government
The Vox Fopnli is not alwaj's, at the mo-
ment, the Vox Dei : it is so only when
Increased *'^^ period of action has passed, and
ascendant that of reflection has arisen — when
of the rul- the storms of passion are liushed, and
thou'''tit *''^ whisperings of interest no longer
" ' heard ; but when the still small voice
of experience s[)eaks in i)ersuasive tones to fu-
ture generations of men, it will be shown
whether the apparent government of the many
is more beneficial in its effects than the real
government of a few; but this much is certain,
that it is their apparent government only. Men
seek in vain to escape from the iirst of human
necessities — the necessity of being governed by
establishing democratic institutions. They do
not change the direction of the many by the
few: by the establishment of these they only
change the few who direct. The oligarchy of
intellect and eloquence comes instead of that
of property and influence; happy if it is in
reality more wise in its measures and far-see-
ing in its policy than that which it has sup-
planted. But it is itself directed by the leaders
of thought: the real rulers of men appear in
those who direct general opinion; and the re-
sponsibility of the philosopher or the orator be-
comes overwhelming when he shares with it
that of the statesman and the sovereign.
No doubt can remain, upon considering the
1C2. events in the memorable years 1819
Simultane- and 1820 in Europe, that they were
ous outbreak i\^q result of a concerted plan among
01 the revo- -i i i- • x • o • -n
luiionary ''^^ revolutionists in Spain, 1* ranee,
spirit in dif- Italy, Germany, and England; and
lerent coun- that the general overthrow of gov-
"^' erninents, which occurred in 1848,
had been prepared, and was expected, in 1820.
The slightest attention to dates proves this in
the most decisive manner. The insurrection of
lliego at Cadiz broke out on 1st January, 1820
— that at Corunna on 24th February in the
same year — the king was constrained to accept
the Constitution on 7th March ; Kotzebue was
murdered in Germany on 2l6t March ; the revo-
lution of Naples took place on 'Jth March, that
of Piedmont on 7th June; the Duke de Berri
was assassinated on 13th March; hneutes in
Paris, which so nearly overturned the Govern-
ment, broke out on 7th June, the military con-
spiracy on 19th August; the assassination of
the English Cabinet was fixed for 19th Febru-
ary by the Cato Street conspirators ;
\vao. ' *'^*^ insurrection at Glasgow took place
on 3d April. So many movements of
ft rovolulioiuiry character, occurring so near
each other in point of time, in so many dif-
ferent countries, demonstrates either a simul-
taneous agency of ditl'erent bodies acting un-
der one common central authority, or a com
iiuin sense of the ailvent «)f a period in an es-
pecial manner favoi'able to the designs which
they all had in contemplation. And when it is
recollected that the Chambers of France had, by
the operation of the coxpn d'itat of 5th Septem-
ber, 1810, and Mai'ch, 1819, been so thoroughly
rendered democratical that the dethronement
of the king and establishment of a republic, by
vote of the legislature, was with contidenee an-
ticipated when the next fifth had been elected
for the Chamber of Deputies, and that distress
in Great Britain had become so general, by the
operation of the monetary law of 1819, that in-
surrectionaiT movements were in preparation
in all the great manufacturing towns, and had
actually broken out in several — it must be con-
fessed, that a more favorahle time for such a
general outbreak could hardly have been se-
lected.
And yet, although these revohitionaiy move-
ments were obviously made in pur- ie3.
suance of a common design, and for Difli?rcnt
a common purpose, yet the agents in •^'•apcters
them, and the parties in each state volts in the
to which their execution was intrust- difl'erent
ed, were widely different. In Great states
Britain, they were entirely conducted bj' the
very lowest classes of societj'; and although
they met with apologists and defenders more
frequently than might have been expected in
the House of Commons, and from a portion of
the press, yet no person of respectability or
good education was actually imjilicated in the
treasonable proceedings. The whole respect-
able and influential classes were ranged on the
other side. But the case was widely difl'erent
on the Continent. The French revolutionists
embraced a large part of the t.alent, and by far
the greater part of the education of the coun-
try; and it was their concurrence, as the event
afterward proved, which rendered any insur-
rectionary movement in that country so ex-
tremely formidable. In Fpain and Portugal,
the principal merchants in the seaport towns,
the most renowned generals, and almost the
whole officers in the army, were engaged on
the revolutionary side, and their adhesion to
its enemies in the last struggle left the throne
without a defense. In Italy, the ardent end
generous youth, and nearly the whole educated
classes, were deeply imbued with Liberal ideas,
and willing to run any hazard to secure their
establishment ; and nearly the whole youth edu-
cated at the German universities had embraced
the same sentiments, and longed for the period
when the Fatherland was to take its place as
the first and greatest of representative govern-
ments. Such is the difference between the
action of the revolutionary principle upon a
constitutional and a despotic monarchy, and
such the security which the long enjoyment of
freedom affords for the continuance of that
blessing to future times.
1821.]
HISTORY OF EUROPE.
873
CHAPTER XI.
ENGLAND, FRANCE, AND SPAIN, FROM THE ACCESSION OF TILLEI.E IN 1819 TO THE CONGRESS OF
VERONA IN 1822.
France and England, since the peace of 1815,
J. had pursued separate paths, and
Divergence of their governments had never as yet
France and been brought into collision â– with
re"ard"to'ttie ^^"â– '^^ other. Severally occupied
Spanish Rev- with domestic concerns, oppressed
olution. with the burdens or striving to heal
the wounds of war, their governments were
amicable, if not cordially united, and nothing
had as yet occurred which threatened to bring
them into a state of hostility with each other.
But the Spanish revolution ere long had this
effect. It was viewed with very different eyes
on the opposite sides of the Channel. Justly
proud of their own constitution, and dating its
completion from the Revolution of 1G88, which
had expelled the Stuarts from the throne — for
the most part ignorant of the physical and po-
litical circumstances of the Peninsula, which
rendered a similar constitution inapplicable to
its inhabitants, and deeply imbued with the
prevailing delusion of the day, that forms of
government were every thing, and differences
of race nothing — the English had hailed the
Spanish revolution with generous enthusiasm,
and anticipated tlie entire resurrection of the
Peninsula from the convulsion which seemed
to have liberated them from their oppressors.
These sentiments were entirely sliared by the
numerous and energetic party in France, which
aimed at expelling the Bourbons, and restoring
a republican form of government in that coun-
try. But for that very reason, opinions dia-
metrically opposite were entertained by the
Bupporters of the monarchy, and all who were
desirous to save the country from a repetition
of the horrors of the first Revolution. They
were unanimously impressed with the belief
that revolutionary governments could not be
established in Spain and Italy without endan-
gering to the last degree the existing institutions
ia France ; that the contagion of democracy
would speedily spread across the Alps and the
Pyrenees; and that a numerous and powerful
party set upon overturning the existing order
of things, already witli difficulty held in subjec-
tion, would, from the example of success in the
neigliboring states, speedily become irresistible.
Tliis divei'gence of opinion and feeling, coup-
led witli tiie immin(nit danger to
France from the convulsions in the
adjoining kingdoms, and the com-
which aug- parative exemption of (ircut Britain
divergence. 'â„¢"i 't, in consequence of I'einoteness
of situation, and difference of national
temperament, must inevitably, under any cir-
cumstances, have led to a difference in tiie j)
icy of the two countries, and spriouKJy endan-
gered their amicable rclafions. But this danger
was much increased in France and Kngland at
this period, in consccjueiiee of the recent events
which had occurred in the Peuinsula, and tlic
2.
Peculiar
cau.scs
character of the men who were then placed, by
the prevailing feeling in the two countries, at
the head of affairs. Spain and Portugal were
the theatre of Wellington's triumphs ; thej' had
been liberated by the arms of England from the
thraldom of Napoleon; they had witnessed the
first reverses which led to the overthrow of his
empire. The French beheld with envy any
movement which threatened to increase an iu-
fluence from which they had already suffered
so much; the English, with jealousy any at-
tempt to interrupt it. In addition to this, the
two Ministers of Foreign Affairs on the opposite
sides of the Channel, when matters approached
a crisis, were of a character and temperament
entirely in harmony with the ideas of the
prevailing influential majoritj' in their respect-
ive countries, and both alike gifted with the
genius capable of inflaming, and destitute of
the calmness requisite to allay, the ferment of
their respective people.
George Canning, who was the Foreign Jlia-
ister that was imposed upon the King 3
of England, on Lord Londonderry's ciiaractcr
death, by the general voice of the oi'Mr. Can-
nation, rather than selected by his "'"*^'
choice, and who took the lead, on the British
side, in the great debate with France which
ensued regarding the affairs of the Peninsular
was one of the most remarkable men that ever
rose to the head of affairs in Great Britain. Of
respectable but not noble birth, he owed no-
thing to aristocratic descent, and was indebted
for his introduction to Parliament and political
life to the friendships which he formed at col-
lege, where his brilliant talents, both in tlie
subjects of study and in conver?ation, early pro-
cured for him distinction.* It is seldom that
* (jeorgc Canning was born in London on lllh April,
1770. lie waa descended from an ancient family, which,
ill the time of Edward HI., had comineiiced wilh a mayor
of Bristol, and had since been one of the most respected
of the county of Warwick. IIis father, George (;aiiiiiii(;,
the third sou of the family, was called to the bar, but
being a man of more literary than legal tastes, he never
got inio practice, and died in 1771 in very needy circum-
stances, leaving Mrs. Canning, an Iri.sli lady ol great
beauty and accomplishments, in such d(^stitution that she
was obliged for a short time to go on the stage for her
subsistence. Voung (banning was educated at Eton out
ol' the proceeds of a small Irish estate be
by his grandfather, and there his talents and assiduity
soon procured for him distinction. He joined there sev-
eral of his KchooUi-llows in getting up a literary work,
which attained considerable classical eminence, entitle(l
the Microcosm. Mr. (banning was its avowed editor, ami
principal contributor. In I7S8, in his eighteenth year, he
left Eton, already preceded by liis literary reputation, and
was entered at ("hrist Church, Oxford. The continued
Industry and brilliant parts which he there exhibited gained
for liiin the highest honors, and, what proved of still more
importance to him in after-life, the frieiKlship ol' iii:iiiy
eminent men, among whom was Lord llawkesbury, who
afterward brionie Earl of Liverpool. On leaving Oxford
he enlrri'd Liiicnlu's Inn, but rather with the design of
strengtliciiiiig his mind by legal argumint than following
the law as a profession. He there formed an accinainlanco
with Mr. .Sheridan, which soon ripened into a friendship
that continued through life.
HISTORY OF EUROPE.
[Chap. XT.
oniforii-nl nml lito::»rv tnloiits siu-li as ho pos-
sossod fail ill lU'tiiiiring ilistiiU'tioii iit ii uni-
voi-#ity, tlioiii^li still ii;roatei- powiTs luul nioro
prolV'und onpaoity rnrely do iittniii it. Bacon
iiuuio no figure at college; Aiiani Smith was
»:nkno\vn to aoaileniio fume; Burke was never
lieard of at Trinity (."ollege, Dublin; l.oeke was
ixpolleil from C'ambriilge. On the other hand,
there has been scarcely a great orator or a dis-
tinguished minister in England for a century
and ft half whoso reputation did not precede
him from the univcrsitj' into Parliament. The
reason is, that there is a natural connection be-
tween eminence in scholarship and oratorical
power, but not between that faculty and depth
i)f thought ; both rest upon the same mental fac-
ulties, and can not exist without them. Quick-
ness of perception, retcntiveucss of memory, a
brilliant imagination, fluent diction, self-con!i-
dence, presence of mind, are as essential to the
debater in Parliament as to the scholar in the
university. Both are essentially at variance
with the solitary' meditation, the deep reflec-
tion, the distrust of self, the slow deductions,
Ills literary and oratorical distinction was much en-
hanced by the brilliant appearances he made in .several
private societies in London, and this led to his introduc-
tion into public life. Mr. Pitt, having heard of his talents
as a speaker and writer, sent for him, and in a private in-
terview stated to him that, if he approved of the general
policy of Government, arrangements would be made to
procure him a seat in Parliament. Mr. Canning declared
Ins concurrence in the views of the minister, acting in
this respect on the advice of Mr. Sheridan, who dissuaded
him from joining the Opposition, which had nothing to
offer him. Mr. Canning's previous intimacies had been
chietly with the Whigs ; and, like Pitt and Fo.\, he had
hailed the French Revolution at its outset with uncjualified
hope and enthusiasm. He was returned to Parliament
in 1793 for the close borough of Newport, in the Isle of
Wight, entering thus, like all the great men of the day,
public life through the portals of the nomination boroughs.
His first speech was on the 31st January, 1794, in liivor
of a loan to the King of Sardinia ; and it gave such prom-
ises of future talent that he was selected to second the
Address. In spring 1796 he was appointed I'nder-Secre-
tary of State for Foreign Affairs ; and on 1st .March, 1799,