ABSTRACT
C a s t l e r e a g h ’s tale was told. His last speech in the House o f Commons (on Piracy in the W est Indies) was made on July 30th, and before the close o f the Session (6 A ugust 1822) he gave unmistakeable signs o f mental and physical exhaustion. There was ample reason: for many years he had borne a burden almost intolerable. Virtually Prime M inister and Leader o f the House o f Commons, he had also been, for ten m ost anxious years, Secretary o f State for Foreign Affairs. The Foreign Embassies were mostly staffed by soldiers o r by diplo matists o f second-rate quality; in the House o f Commons Castlereagh had no colleagues o f real parliamentary experience o r capacity, except Canning, and Canning only rejoined the Ministry in 1816 and resigned again in 1821. Yet at no period in our history were domestic affairs m ore harassing than from 1814 to 1820: a palace scandal, sordid in detail and m ost damaging to the prestige o f the monarchy; profound depression, alter nating w ith occasional and illusory recovery in industry, finance and agriculture; social unrest approaching at times the verge o f revolution; currency complications and uncertainties-the burden o f all this fell primarily on Castlereagh, and it is small w onder if it ultimately crushed him.
