Memoirs And Correspondence Of Viscount Castlereagh, Second Marquess Of Londonderry Book

MEMOIRS AND CORRESPONDENCE OF VISCOUNT CASTLEREAGH. ----VOL. I - 1848 - PREFACE - Having adverted, at the conclusion of the Rlemoir with mhich this Volume opens, to some of the circumstances which have contributed to delay, till so late a period, the publication of Documents illustrating the public and private character of my Brother, I need not here recur to that subject. 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 adversaries and pardoned rebels. This object cannot, in my opinion, be more effectually accomplished than in submitting to the public the select Correspondence of Lord Castlereagh, from the commencement of his official career to the close of Ifis laborious and useful 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 XJnited Irishmen, and the aboi-tive attempt at invasion by the French the proceedings adopted --for effecting A 2 iv PREFACE. the important measure of the Union with Great Britaiu, and arrangements, commercial and financiai, preparatory to it the state of the Roman Catholics and of the Presbyterians and the insane outbreak of the younger Emmett, surpassed in imbecility only by that which we have just witnessed. Till the consummation of the Union, Lord Castlereagh filled the arduous and responsible office of Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant and hence malevolellce and party rancour perversely imputed to him personally, as the principal organ of the Executive Govenlnlent, all the severities that took place in Ireland during the Rebellion. I am aware that it may be objected, that inconvenience to the public interests is liable to accrue fi-om divulging the Correspondence of Statesmen who have been employed in the service of the Crown that this may be the case I freely admit, unless a sufEcient time has elapsed after the events and negociations in which they were engaged but, in the present instance, the h f century that has intervened, and the exercise of a proper discretion, v-ill, I tiust, furnish a satisfactory plea for the course that I feel it incumbent on me to pursue. In these Documents, for the most part confidential at the time, will be found incontrovertible evidence of what Lord Castlereagh was, of what he did, of what he thought all is reservedly exposed in traits not premeditated, not calcdated for effect, or that could be deemed likely everto emerge from the privacy to which they were destined by the writer. The necessity PREFACE. V of this privacy, which was then rendered imperative by the interests of the Government and the public service, Time, in the lapse of nearly fifty years, has surely removed...Read More