ABSTRACT
This chapter discussess Tory approaches to British foreign policy during the early nineteenth century and focuses on Lord Castlereagh and George Canning. Lord Liverpool noted that British interests along with political culture and institutions differed from Continental powers in ways that limited the scope for effective cooperation. Liverpool's rhetorical approach to defending the government's policy in the House of Lords deliberately claimed a prudential middle ground. Castlereagh came from a family of Irish Whigs that forged English connections by marriage and his formative influences were a blend of Irish Presbyterianism and Ulster's offshoot of the Scottish Enlightenment. Liverpool's justification for cautious inaction deflected Opposition charges of enabling repression and played to Tory prejudices by invoking the superiority of Britain's balanced constitution. The prominence Castlereagh, Canning and Wellington enjoyed tended to eclipse Liverpool's role in foreign policy, a dynamic reinforced by the Prime Minister's strategy for deflecting controversy.
