ABSTRACT
Robert Stewart, 2nd Marquess o f Londonderry, know n to history as Viscount Castlereagh, was born in D ublin on June 18 in the year 1769. O n that same day was born another great Irishman, Castlereagh’s life-long friend, A rthur Wellesley, 1st D uke o f W ellington; and on their forty-seventh birthday the D uke w on his crown ing victory at W aterloo.1 Though by birth and im mediate descent an Irishman and attached to Ireland by ties o f property, Castlereagh had in him more o f the Scot than the Irishman. In some o f the gifts w ith which Irishmen are commonly endowed Castlereagh was in deed conspicuously lacking; from most o f their failings he was fortunately free. By rem oter descent he was in fact a Scotsman; by breeding he was something more than a Scot-an Ulsterman.
