BLACK OR WHITE?

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 104, 30 October 1933, Page 6

BLACK OR WHITE?

CUESES EECALLED

A CASTLEREAGH BOOK

I met murder on his way And he looked like Castlereagh. Sang a nineteenth century poet. Poets and historians combined in damning Castlereagh. Byron was one of them. If all this historic vituperation is unjustified, one is inclined to ask "What is history?" Whatever it is, Mr. H. M. Hyde has made a recent addition to it in "The Itiso of Castlereagh," which Mr. W. Alison Phillips thus reviews in "The Listener": — Robert Stewart, second Marquess of Londonderry, will always bo known in history by the courtesy title of Viscount Castlereagh, which he bore until, not long before his tragic end, ho succeeded to his father's peerage. Tho great period of his career was between March, 1812, when he succeeded Lord Wellesley at the Foreign Office, and his death in July, 1822; for it ■was during this period that his perspnal qualities not only made him supreme in the House of Commons, but also enabled him to exercise an immense influence for good on the i,ounsols of the European Powers during the critical years which preceded and followed the downfall of Napoleon. Castlcreagh's merits were by no means recognised by all his contemporaries. He lived in a coarse and violent ago, and tho spokesmen of the Opposition, whether in Parliament or the Press, bespattered him with rile abuse, which he bore with a well-bred indifference

■which only added fuel t<fe their flaming rage. Byron's description of him as a "cold-blooded, sinootfi-faced, placid miscreant" is but a mild example of the language used about him. The venomous hatred of his enemies pursued him even into the grave, and the triumphant Liberalism of the nineteenth century complacently accepted the legend thus propagated —the legend of a coldblooded, cruel reactionary, the willing .tool of the Powers of the Holy Alliance in their efforts to suppress liberty everywhere. It was not till the present century, when the records of the Foreign Office were thrown open to research, thaj; it was possible for historians to expose the baselessness of this legend and to reveal Castlereagh in his true light, as a worthy successor of Pitt and one of the greatest of the statesmen who havo guided the .destinies of Great Britain in perilous times. How different would the aspect of Europe now be if the framers of the Treaty of "Versailles had acted on Castlereagh's maxim: "Our business is not to collect trophies, but to. bring back the world to peaceful habits"! The rehabilitation, of Castlereagh's reputation as a diplomatist, however, still left him under a cloud. His political career had bisguu in Ireland; and as Chief Secretary ho had been mainly instrumental in securing the passage pf tho Act of Union. His motives in doing so were from the first grossly misrepresented. He was accused of having fomented the. rebellion of 1798 in order to make the Union inevitable, of having sold his country for gold and the promise of place and power, of callous cruelty in the suppression of the disorders of which he had been the agent provocateur. Mr. Hyde has done a useful service in examining these charges in the light of all the available evidence and, as the result, dissipating—it is to be hoped for over—that legend of "bloody Castlereagh" which is still current in Ireland. The Castlereagh hero revealed

is a very different person from the Castlereagh of the legend. We have here the picture of a man of high principle, kind heart, cool judgment, and spotless life moving serenely in a society debauched, corrupt, and torn by bitter political and religious antagonisms. The Parliament in College Green, so far from being "the guardian of the national liberties," represented nothing but the "Protestant Ascendancy";, and if -Castlereagb pressed for the Union, it was because he knew that the Insk Parliament so constituted would never pass those great reforms which the rebellion had shown to be absolutely essential. It was not his fault that, in this respect, the Union. proved a failure. Ho said himself that it would not succeed unless it were "followed up," and ho pressed the British Cabinet to proceed at onco with tho removal of tho tests which prevented Catholics from entering Parliament or holding office, with the concurrent endowment of the Roman Catholic and Dissenting clergy, and with abolition of the 'burdensome and unjust tithe system. _ Had his advice been followed, the history of the Union would have been very different. Mr. Hyde shows how it was th« bigotry of Loughborough, the Lord Chancellor, working on the obstinate conscience of King George 111, which! prevented these wise measures being brought forward. - _ Mr. Hyde's interesting and well-writ-ten volume is more "than an account; of Castlereagh's early career and a successful vindication of his character and policy. . It gives a vivid picture of Irish lifo at the close of tho eighteenth century. It is by no means a very agreeable picture; and the reader will be disposed to agree with Castloreagh when he said that it was "most nnpleasant." _^____