Ward A.W. The Cambridge History of British Foreign Policy. 1783-1919. Volume 3
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CANNING AND
CASTLEREAGH
555
Ministers,
perhaps,
have,
at
any
time since Cabinet
Government
begun,
exhibited
greater
differences
of
character
and
temperament
than
Castlereagh
and
Canning; yet
it
was in
their
day
that
the
doctrine of
continuity
in
the
conduct
of
Foreign
Affairs
may
plausibly
be said
to
have been
brought
to
birth.
Canning
had
entered
LiverpooPs
Government
as
President
of
the
Board of
Control in
1816;
and
he
remained
in
office
until
the
question
of
Queen
Caroline's
rights
caused
his
resignation
in
1820. It was
then
that
Castlereagh
wrote to
him
in
terms which
show
how
close had
become
the
cooperation
in
public
affairs of
the former
adversaries.
"As the
individual
member of the
Government
who
must feel
your
loss
the
most
seriously,
both in
the
House of Commons and in
the business
of
the
department,"
so
wrote
the
Foreign
to the ex-
Foreign Secretary,
"...allow me
most
cordially
to
thank
you
for
the uniform attention with
which
you
have
followed
up
and the kindness with
which
you
have
assisted
me,
in the
business of the
department
for
the conduct of which I am
more
immediately
responsible
1
."
The
results
of
this
generous
collaboration
were
apparent
two
years
later.
Though
between
Castlereagh
and
Canning
there
lay
the
whole
difference
between
the
Old
and
the New
Toryism,
and
though,
conse-
quently, they
reached
their conclusions
in
regard
to
Foreign
Affairs
by
different
roads,
those conclusions
were
in
effect the same.
Castle-
reagh's diplomacy
was
based
upon
the
theory
that
every
successful
Revolution
on
the
Continent
advanced
the
power
of France and
every
unsuccessful one
the
power
of Russia
2
;
and he
shrank,
as a
result,
from
Continental
entanglements.
Canning's policy
rested
on a
deeper
insularity
and
a broader
nationalism,
which,
after
Castlereagh
's
death,
sensibly
increased
the distance between Great Britain
and
the
Powers
of
the
Holy
Alliance.
But,
in
practice,
there
was
no
vital
difference
between them
;
and
the Instructions which
Castlereagh gave,
a
little
before
he
died,
to
Wellington
as
prospective
British
Envoy
at the
Congress
of
Verona,
might
have been
penned
by Canning.
"As
to the
form of
government,"
he
wrote,
"which
Spain
has
of late
established for
herself in
Europe,
that is
a matter with
which,
in the
opinion
of the
English
Cabinet,
no
foreign
Power has
the smallest
right
to
interfere.
. . .
The
case
of the revolted Colonies
3
is different. It
is
evident
from the
course which events have
taken
that their
recognition
as inde-
pendent
States has
become
merely
a
question
of
time
4
."
1
Stapleton,
George
Canning
and his
Times,
p. 319.
2
Alison,
Lives
of
Castlereagh
and
Stewart,
11.
633.
3
The
Spanish
Colonies
in the
Americas.
4
Alison,
Lives
of Castlereagh
and
Stewart,
hi.
170.
556
THE
FOREIGN
OFFICE
The
recognition
of
the
independence
of
the
republics
of
Spanish
America,
which
was
Canning's proudest
boast,
had
entailed
a
struggle
between
the Crown and
the
Foreign Secretary.
George
IV
held
the
view
that the
policy proposed
would embroil
him
with
his
Allies
;
he was
studiously
encouraged
in
this
belief
by
the
Russian
and
Austrian Ambassadors
;
and of
the
Cabinet,
which included
Welling-
ton,
all
were
of a
like
opinion,
except
the
Prime-Minister
and,
of
course,
Canning
himself.
Castlereagh
had
raised
no
objection
to the
occurrence of
interviews
keiween the
Sovereign
or
the
Prince-Regent
in
the
absence
of
the
Foreign
Secretary
;
but the
abuse of
this
con-
cession
by Esterhazy
and
Lieven,
the
Ambassadors
in
question,
caused
Canning
to resolve
to reassert the constitutional
doctrine
that
it
was
the
duty
of
the
British
Foreign
Minister to
be
present
at
every
meeting
between the
King
and a
foreign
Envoy
—
a doctrine
from
which he
maintained
George
III
had
never
departed.
The crisis in
the
Cabinet
came
to
a head before the
crisis
in
the
Constitution
;
and
the
issue of
the
first
resolved
the
problem
of
the
second. The
Prime-Minister
and
the
Foreign
Secretary
confronted
their
colleagues
with
a
Memorandum
setting
out their
reasons
for
recognising
the revolted
Spanish
Colonies
as
independent
States,
threatened to
resign
if
their
policy
was
not
accepted,
and reduced
their
colleagues
to submission. It was
in
these
circumstances
that
Wellington,
then
as
always
the
unflinching
disciple
of
necessity,
in-
formed
the
King
that
his
choice
lay
between
surrender
and
the
resigna-
tion of a
united Cabinet.
George
decided
to
give
way,
but
did
it
with
a
sufficiently
ill
grace.
Canning
thereupon
renewed
his
threat
of
resignation
and
compelled
the
unwilling
Sovereign
to
be
gracious.
Tact
completed
what
firmness had
commenced.
So soon
as
the
policy
of
recognition
had been
vindicated
by
results,
the
Minister
proceeded
to
give
the credit
for his
diplomacy
to the
King,
who
had
no
great
difficulty
in
believing
that
he was
responsible
for the
more
notable
achievements
of his
subjects.
Bulwer,
with
the astuteness
of an old
diplomatist,
has observed
that
a
Foreign
Minister
possesses
a
better
opportunity
of
attracting
the
regard
of
royal
personages
than the Heads
of
other
Departments,
since
Foreign
Politics,
being
a
rivalry
between
kings,
are
the
most
interesting
of all
politics
to
a
Sovereign
1
. The
observation,
no
doubt,
savours
of
the
old
diplomacy
;
but
Canning
had
enough
of
the
old
Adam
in
him
to
vindicate its exactitude.
His
ascendancy
over
George
IV
grew
1
Bulwer,
Historical
Characters,
I.
364.
CANNING'S
FOREIGN
POLICY
557
with the
continued
suggestion
that
the
success of
British
policy
abroad
was
due to
the
King's prescience.
And
there
were, besides,
little
services
that
Canning
was
not
above
rendering
and
subtle
influences
that
he was not above
invoking.
He
appointed
Lord
Francis
Conyngham,
the
son of
the
King's
mistress,
to
be
Under-Secretary
for
Foreign
Affairs
;
and he
disposed
of Lord
Ponsonby,
her
lover,
by
sending
him as
Minister to Buenos
Ayres.
His
intimacy,
too,
with
Princess
Lieven,
the
wife of
the
Russian
Ambassador and
an
intrigante
of
some
influence at the
Court,
was a
political
asset
of
a
certain
import-
ance
1
.
Thus
it
came about
that,
when
Liverpool
had
a stroke in
1826,
the
King
was not
unwilling
to
see
the
Minister,
whom he
had
formerly
so much
disliked,
exchange
the
Foreign
Office for
the
Premiership.
Of
Canning's
habits
as
Foreign Secretary
some
slight
memorials
have come
down
to
us
through
Lord
George
Bentinck
2
.
His
powers
of
thought
and
expression
were
singularly
rapid
; and,
living
as he did
before the
age
of
typists
and
impatient
as
he was
at the slowness of
scribes,
he
fell
into
the
way
of
writing
everything
himself.
Even
so,
his
rapid
pen lagged
behind
his mind
;
and
it needed
only
the occasion
afforded
by
an
injury
to
his
hand
to
set
him
dictating,
with
a
ready
command of the
thread
of each
argument
in
turn,
to two
secretaries at
the
same time.
He
possessed
at that
period
of
dignified
deportment
the
capacity
of
unbending
;
and
his
subordinates
,
if
tried
by
the
supreme
test
of
the
love
of officials
—
the
willingness
to
risk an
act of disobedience
—
are
shown
to
have been
devoted
to
his
service.
Stapleton
tells the
story
of
how,
in
spite
of
Canning's express
instructions,
he once held
back
an
indiscreet
letter,
induced
his
Chief,
after
a
moment's
annoy-
ance,
to
read
it
again,
and was told
in
the end that
he had acted
quite
rightly.
"These
were the
sort
of
things,"
concludes the
secretary,
"which
created
such
a warm
feeling
of
attachment
towards
him in
those
by
whom
he was
surrounded
3
."
It
is
worth
while,
before
we
pass
on,
to
try
to form
some idea
of
the constitution
of
Canning's
Foreign
Office
—
of
the
Foreign
Office,
that
is,
as
it was
in
Canning's
day.
At the
head of
the
edifice
stood,
of
course,
the
Foreign
Secretary
with a
salary
of
£6000
a
year
4
.
Immediately
below
him
there
were,
in
1822,
two
Under-Secretaries,
with
salaries of
£2500,
but
by
1827
these
had
been
increased to three
1
Bulwer,
Historical
Characters,
I. 266.
*
Greville,
Memoirs,
1.
109.
3
Stapleton, George
Canning
and his
Times,
p. 530.
4
It was
Grey's
Administration of
1830
which fixed the
salaries of the Secre-
taries
of
State at
£5000.
558
THE FOREIGN
OFFICE
—
the
chief
Under-Secretary receiving
£2500,
the others
only
£1000
each.
The
Chief
Clerk,
who came
next,
was
assigned
a
salary
of
£181
1
in
1822,
but
this was
reduced to
£1100
in
1827.
The
pay,
on the
other
hand,
of
the
Senior
Clerks,
of whom
there were
twelve,
was
raised.
It
averaged
between
£1149
and
£314
in
1822,
but
between
£1400
and
£350
in
1827.
Meanwhile,
the
three
Supernumerary
Clerks
receiving
from
£100
to
£180
in
1822,
had
grown by
the later date
into
seven
Junior
Clerks
receiving
from
£150
to
£170
x
.
There remains
to be
mentioned
an official whose
importance
in
the
Office,
partly
on
account
of
growing
duties
and
partly
of individual
diligence,
rose
steadily throughout
the
century
—
the
Librarian.
It
was
only
in
1812 that
Wellesley
had
put
him on
the
footing
of
other
Foreign
Office Clerks as
from 1801
2
;
and his
salary
was
brought up
from
£700
in
1822
to
£850
in
1827.
The Librarian
had, however,
another
source of income.
He was
Superintendent
of
the Establishment
of
Foreign
Service
Messengers
;
and
about
that
distinguished corps
it
is
proper
here to
say
a
few
words,
since the
changes
in
its
organisation
formed a
not
inconsiderable
feature
of
the
Canning
reforms.
On
July 31st,
1824,
Joseph
Planta
wrote
a
minute
to
the
effect
that
"
though
it
may
be
impracticable
to
appoint
gentlemen
to the
situation,
yet
that a
better
description
of
persons
than
those at
present
to be
retired should
be selected
for
the
Foreign
Messengers
3
";
and
we
may
pause
without
irrelevance
to
look
at that
romantic
side of
Foreign
Office
work,
which
was devoted
to the
safe-delivery
of
State
Papers passing
between the
Foreign
Secretary
and
British
Representatives
abroad.
A
King's
Foreign
Messenger
in
those
days
was
liable to
suffer
most,
if
not
all,
of
the
pains
and
perils
which
were set
down
in
detail
by
the
Apostle
of
the Gentiles
as
the habitual
accompaniment
of his
missionary
travels
—
pains
of
scarcity, fatigue
and
cold;
perils
of
waters
and of
robbers
;
perils
in the sea
and in
the
city,
and from false
brethren. Edward
Hertslet,
the
younger
of
the
two
Foreign
Office
Librarians
of
that
name,
collected
indeed,
some
twenty
years
ago,
a
little
list
of
horrors
illustrating
the
ugly
possibilities
of the
Messenger-
service
in
the
beginning
of the
nineteenth
century,
and
ranging
from
a
death
by
drowning
off
Calais Sands to
a death
from cold
or Asiatic
cholera in
Petersburg.
His
own
grandfather
—
a
King's
Messenger
of
the
Napoleonic
era
—
knew
what it
was
to
have to
make the
long
1
For
the above
figures
see
F.O. General
(librarian's Dept.)
1801-54.
2
Ibid.
3
F.O.
351/10/88 (in
the
Record
Office).
THE
FOREIGN
MESSENGER
559
crossing
from
the
Continent
by
Cuxhaven
to
Great Yarmouth
—
a
passage
in
any
case of
some
days'
and,
perhaps,
if
there were
ice-floes,
of
a
week's
duration
—
and
to
have
to travel for
fourmonths on end with
fifty-two days
out
of
them
in
the
saddle
1
.
This was
a
Messenger's
life
at
the worst.
By
1822 we
may presume
that matters had
rather
improved.
Up
to
that
year,
the
King's
Messenger
Service had
been
maintained
for the
common
benefit
of
the
Home,
Foreign
and
War
Departments;
and of
the
£30,000
a
year
spent
upon
the
thirty
Messengers,
prescribed
by
the
arrangement
of
1795,
tne
Foreign
Service work
was
estimated
to
cost
£
1
8,000
2
. In
1822 the
number
of
the
corps
was
raised
to
thirty-eight.
Eighteen
of
these were
placed
under
the
immediate
orders of
the
Foreign
Office
for
foreign
service
only.
They
were
required
to be
British
subjects,
not
over
thirty-five years
of
age, good
linguists
and
good
horsemen;
and
the
choosing
of
them
rested
in
turn
with each of
the
three
Secretaries of
State
3
.
A
Messenger,
of
course,
was
placed
under a
rigid discipline
during
1
Hertslet,
Recollections
of
the Old
Foreign Office,
p.
160.
2
These are the
roughfigures.
The
actualfigures
are
£29,567.
195.8*/.
and
£18,573.
8
A
foreign
-service
Messenger, by
the
regulations
of
1795,
received a
salary
of
£60
a
year,
besides
7s.
6d.
a
day
board
wages
while on
home
service
and
13s.
\d.
while abroad. This
represented,
however,
only
about
half
his
emoluments,
for
he
was
allowed besides
to make
a
profit
on the
mileage
of
his
journeys,
amounting
in
1820,
according
to Hertslet's
estimate,
to
£200,
so
that,
altogether,
his
income
came
to about
£400
a
year.
Colonel
Townley,
however,
speaking
of
the
period
between
1840
and
1859,
put
it
at
twice
this
figure,
while
pointing
out that
under
the
system
then
in
use
a
Messenger's
income
might
vary by
as
much as
£500
from
year
to
year
{Report
Select Comm.
Diplom.
Service,
1861,
Min. of
Ev.,
Q.
3058
&
3067).
His
travelling
allowance
was
proportioned
to
the
cost
of
travelling
in
the
different
countries
he had
to
pass through.
He
journeyed
as
a
rule
in
his
own
carriage,
which
he had
probably
had
built
for him at a
cost of
£200
or
£250,
and
which
he
kept
on
the
Continent,
post-horses
and
postilions being,
of
course,
hired
by
stages.
A
pair
of horses for
a
French
"post"
—
that
is,
five
English
miles
—
cost
three
francs;
the
postilion's
fee
was
two francs five
sous;
and in
addition,
the
King's
Messenger
was
entitled to
charge
6d. a
mile
profit
for himself and
3d.
a
mile
for
the
estimated
cost
of
the
carriage.
A German
"
post"
was
just
twice
the
distance of a
French
one
;
but
the relative cost
approximated
closely.
Posting
in
Russia
was,
as
might
be
guessed,
a
good
deal
cheaper.
The
merit
of
this
elaborate
system
of
calculating
expenses lay
in its
precision
;
for the
Messenger
was
paid
exactly
in
proportion
to
the
length
of
journey
he
performed
;
and the
more
obvious
but,
from
this
point
of
view,
less
satisfactory
plan
of
leaving
it to the
Government to
supply
the
con-
veyance
was, therefore,
for a
long
while,
rejected.
The
Messenger, besides,
some-
times
got something
very
substantial
out
of the
ownership
of
his own
travelling-
carriage
in the
shape
of
a
paying
companion
who was
accommodated
with the
spare
seat;
and
Palmerston,
in
1837,
failed to
stop
a
practice
which had
the addi-
tional
recommendation
of
suiting
the
convenience
of
Members
of
Parliament or
other
persons travelling
to and from
the
Continent. He
succeeded,
however,
in
putting
some
limitation on
the use
of
post-chaises by
King's
Messengers
at
home.
A
Memorandum
of
183
1
enjoins
the use
of
gigs
in
the
case of
single
stages
from
town
and,
except
where orders have been received to
the
contrary,
or
the
hours
of
departure
prevent,
the
use of
mails and
stage-coaches
for
longer
distances.
560
THE
FOREIGN
OFFICE
the
period
between
the
receipt
and
delivery
of
his
despatches.
Under
the
regulations
of
1829,
he
might
neither call
at the
residence
of
any
private
person
till his
trust
was
executed,
nor
let his
packet
out
of
his
custody
except
for
fumigation,
in his
presence,
by
the
quarantine
officer.
No
letters
nor
articles
other
than
such as
bore
the
official
seal
might
be carried
;
and
no
intelligence
bearing upon
his
professional
business
might
be communicated to friends or
acquaintance.
On board
ship,
provision
was made for him
to mess
alone
or
with
a
warrant-officer;
and
at
every
town
entered,
where a
British Consul
or
Agent
was
present,
he
must have
his
certificate endorsed
with the
date
and
hour
of
his
arrival and
departure.
In
any capital,
the
endorsement of
the British
Representative
was
required
as
well as
that
of
the
Consul.
Mention
in
the
newspapers
of
the arrival or
departure
of a
Foreign
Office
Messenger
was
strictly
forbidden;
and his
movements
were
treated
as official
confidences.
If
not
actually
on
service,
he was
required
to continue
in
attendance
at
the
Foreign
Office until
the close of
the
business of each
day
;
and
the first three
Messengers
on
the list for
employment
had
to leave word as to
their
whereabouts,
if absent from
their
homes at
night.
The
Messenger's
uniform
in
1829
consisted
of a
dark-blue coat
or
jacket
with
scarlet collar
and cuffs and
a
piping
of
gold
lace;
a
blue
waistcoat
similarly edged
;
grey
trousers with
a line of
scarlet
cloth
on
the
seams
;
gilt
buttons
bearing
the
royal cypher
and
a
blue
cloth
cap
with
a
gold
lace
band.
An
enamelled
badge carrying
the
figure
of a silver
greyhound,
which
hung
by
a
blue ribbon from his
neck,
gave
the
Messenger precedence
in
the
matter
of
post-horses
both
at
home
and
abroad.
This dress
was
modified,
though
not
appreciably,
in
1851,
and
again
later,
but
gradually
fell
into
disuse.
It
had,
in
fact,
its
indisputable
inconveniences.
During
the
Franco-
Prussian
War
the
British Government
wished
to
arrange
for
the
appointment
of
a
Special Envoy
to
the Prussian Court
then
re-
sident at
Versailles;
and
Captain
Robbins,
a
Messenger
in
whom
great
confidence was
placed,
was
entrusted
with
the
correspondence
relating
to
the
negotiation.
He
travelled,
as
was
prescribed,
in
full
dress,
and,
as he
returned,
was
taken,
in virtue
apparently
of the
gold
band round
his
cap,
for
a Prussian
spy.
The
silver
greyhound
had
no
magic
for the
franc-tireurs
who
had made him
prisoner;
and
it was
only
at the
intercession
of
the
innkeeper
that
his execution was
deferred
till dawn.
Things
looked
ugly
enough;
he
thought
that
at
any
moment
his
captors
might
make
a rush at
him
;
THE
FOREIGN
MESSENGER
561
and,
having
had
a
fire
lit
at
the inn on
the
pretext
of
feeling
cold,
he
spent
the
night
crouching
over
it,
resolved
at
least,
if he could
not
save
himself,
to
burn
his
confidential
packet,
which included
letters
from
Bismarck
to
Granville
and
from
the
Crown-Prince
of
Prussia
to
Queen
Victoria.
However,
as
the
night
wore
on,
the
guard,
which
had
been
furnished
with wine and
cigars
at
his
expense,
withdrew;
and,
after
giving
orders in
a
loud
voice
for
his
carriage
to
be
round
at a
comparatively
late
hour
in
the
morning,
he
slipped quietly
away
before
daybreak.
"
Do
beg
Mr
Hammond,"
he
said to
Mr
Sanderson
1
on
his
return,
"not
to
insist
upon
our
wearing
that
d—
—
d
uniform."
The
story,
still
to
be
heard
at
first-hand,
furnishes
a
fitting
finale
to
that
long
chronicle of
the
perils
and
adventures
of
the
Foreign
Messenger
Service
which adds
to
the
Court
poetry
of
diplomatic
life
something
of
the
primitive
vigour
of
the
chanson
degeste.
The
telegraph
and
the
train had
indeed,
long
before Robbins's
affair,
been
playing
havoc
with the
more
ordinary
romances
of
his
profession
;
and
Colonel
Townley's
famous
ride from
Belgrade
to
Constantinople
—
a
ride
of a
little over
eight
hundred miles
undertaken
to
assure
the
Turkish
Government
of
British
support
if
they
declined
to
surrender
to the
Austrian
Emperor
the
political
refugees
of
1849
—
was even then
some
twenty
years
old.
It
was
left to
Malmesbury,
who
reduced
the
number of
Foreign
Service
Messengers
from
eighteen
to
fifteen,
to
deal a
final
blow
at
the
chance
and hazard which
had hitherto
played
so
large
a
part
in
a
Foreign Messenger's
affairs.
During
his second
term
of
office in
1858-9,
he
put
an
end to
what
he
called "the
sort
of
gambling
transaction
"
regulating
salaries.
Instead
of
being
allowed
to
make
profits
which
roughly
corresponded
to
the
length
and
diffi-
culty
of
their
journeys, Foreign
Messengers
were thenceforward
paid
a
fixed
salary
of
£525
a
year
and their
travelling
expenses
estimated
by
the
Foreign
Office. No
Messenger
could
hope any
more to
clear,
like
Colonel
Townley,
over
£1000
profit
in
a
single year.
Townley,
indeed,
described
the
new
plan
as
"very
harsh and
unjust,"
and
Russell,
when
he
became
Foreign
Secretary, by
way
of
putting
things
straight,
reduced
the
fixed
salary
to
£400,
separated
personal
from
travelling
expenses
and
allowed
Messengers £1
a
day
to
cover the
former
while
on
service abroad
2
,
thus
giving
them
an income of
about
£550
a
year.
Improving
methods
of communication
continued to
undermine
the
romance,
and
seemed even
to threaten
the
existence,
of
the
Foreign
1
Now Lord
Sanderson.
2
Report
Select Comm.
Diplom.
Service,
1890,
Min.
of
Ev.,
Q.
3514.
w.&G.in
36
562
THE
FOREIGN
OFFICE
Messenger
Service. In
1890
there were
but ten
Messengers
employed,
and
these
were so
jealously regarded
that the Chief
Clerk
at
that
date
hastened to
assure a
Royal
Commission
that
they
would soon be
only
nine
1
.
By
the time
the
19 14
Commission
was
sitting,
their
number
had
sunk
to
seven
2
,
the
reduction
being
facilitated
by
the
practice,
which was
then more common
than
it
is
now,
of
entrusting
bags
to
casual
travellers of
unexceptionable
qualifications.
The
personnel
of
the
present Department
of
the
King's
Foreign
Messengers
and
Com-
munications,
has
risen
to
sixteen;
but
it
must
be
remembered
that,
with a view
to
affording
change
of
employment,
the
duties
of a
King's
Messenger to-day
have been
enlarged
and
now
alternate
between
the
conveyance
of
despatches
abroad and
the
coding
or
decoding
of
telegrams
at home.
It
has
already
been said
that there
existed
an
incongruous
con-
nexion
between the
Foreign Messenger
Service and the
Foreign
Office
Library.
The
arrangement
came about
in
this
way.
In 1801
the
Messengers
required
someone
to
make
out their
bills
of ex-
penses
;
and the
Librarian
was
not
sorry
to
enlarge
his
meagre
income
by
becoming
their
private agent
for
the
purpose.
The
link
was
strengthened
later
by
the
presence
in
the
Library
of
Louis
Hertslet,
himself
a
Messenger
converted
into
a
Keeper
of
Books;
and
in
1824,
during
the
Canning
reforms,
Hertslet
's dual
personality
was
officially
recognised by
appointing
him
to
be
Superintendent
of
the
Foreign
Messengers'
Establishment
3
.
Ill
When
Canning
became
Prime-Minister,
Lord
Dudley
and Ward
took
over
the
Foreign
Office,
where he
continued
during
the
whole
of
the
"
transient
and embarrassed" Administration
of Goderich and
during
part
of
the
more
durable,
but
scarcely
less
embarrassed Administration
of
Wellington.
It
is usual to
regard
Dudley
as a
cipher;
and
both
Canning
and
the
Duke
treated
him as
such. He
was,
in
fact,
a
rather
clever, eccentric,
unpractical personage,
whom
the
King
was
glad
to
have
in
office,
for
the
sake
of his
entertaining
conversation
4
. Lieven
even
supposed
him
to be
very
astute,
because he once
made
the
1
4th Report
Civil
Establ.
Comm.
1890,
Min.
of
Ev.,
Q.
26,645.
2
Appendix
to the
5th Report
Civil Establ. Comm.
1914,
Min. of
Ev.,
Q.
43,548.
3
For the
preceding
sketch of the
Foreign
Messenger
Service
the writer
has
drawn
upon
F.O.
351
(Record Office),
upon
Townley's
and
Malmesbury's
evidence
before
the
Select
Committee
on the
Diplomatic
Service of 186
1,
and
upon
Hertslet
's
Recollections
of
the Old
Foreign
Office.
And
attention should
also be drawn
to
the
articlebyBergne,"TheQueen'sMessenger,"in
The
Quarterly
Review
for
April,
1892.
4
Ellenborough,
Political
Diary,
1.
72.
DUDLEY
AND ABERDEEN
563
mistake
of
slipping
a
letter,
intended for
the
French
Representative
and
containing
some
information
which,
if
it became
known,
was
calculated to
prove
damaging
to
France,
into an
envelope
addressed
to
the Russian
Ambassador
1
.
But the
French
themselves took
his
measure
more
accurately,
for
they
discovered
his
absence
of
mind
and declared
that he
had
been
entrusted
with the
care of
foreign
affairs
"parceque
ses
affaires
lui
out
tie
toujours
tirangires
2
."
Ellen-
borough,
who,
being
a
personal
friend
of
Dudley's
and
at the
same
time
Lord
Privy
Seal
with
more
leisure
on his
hands
than
he
cared
about,
helped
a
good
deal
with the business of
the
Foreign
Office,
found
the
Foreign
Secretary
a
slow worker in his
Department,
and
in
the Cabinet
a
rare
speaker
without clear
principles
of
policy
8
.
During
Wellington's
Ministry,
indeed,
Dudley
was
kept
in
strict
tutelage.
"
Good
God
!
"
the Duke
told the Prince
Consort,
"there
never
was
a
paper
(from
the
Foreign
Department)
which
I
had not
brought
to
me
first
4
." Of all
the
Foreign
Secretaries of
the nineteenth
century
he
may safely
be
placed
the lowest.
It
is
far
otherwise with
Lord
Aberdeen,
who followed him. That
profoundly
good
man,
whose sun
set
so
sadly
amidst the
muddles
and
misfortunes
of
the
Crimean
War,
brought
to the
Foreign
Office
a
knowledge
of
European
affairs
derived
from
his
large experience
as
the
British
Representative
at the Austrian Court
during
the
advance
of
the
Allies
in
1813-14,
an
acquaintance
with the
principal
statesmen
of
the
Continent,
which included
the
friendship
of
Metternich,
and,
last,
but
not
least,
a
character
perfectly
disinterested
and a
disposition
perfectly
pacific.
Wellington,
who was
aware
that
an
incompetent
Foreign
Secretary
is
of all
public
officials
the
one
most
capable
of
running
the
country
into
a
vast
expense,
could have
found no
better
Minister
to
handle
matters
like
those
of
the
Independence
of
Greece
and
the
Succession
in
Portugal.
For
Aberdeen,
brought
up
in
Pitt's
house
and educated
by
Pitt's
example,
believed in
letting
other nations
alone
to the
utmost
of his
ability.
It
is
true that he found a severe critic
in
Ellenborough,
whom he had
generously
allowed to
continue to
assist
in
the
work of
the
Foreign
Office
;
but
a
good
deal
must
be allowed
for
the
feelings
of an
observer,
eagerly
desirous
to
hold
the
Foreign
Secretaryship
himself and
utterly
convinced
that
he
could
do
the
work
better than
the
Foreign Secretary
5
.
To
Ellenborough's eye
it
1
Gentleman's
Magazine
(1833),
I.
368.
2
Escott,
Story of
British
Diplomacy,
p.
265
.
3
Ellenborough,
Political
Diary,
1.
41,
109.
4
Martin,
Lifeof
the Prince
Consort
y
u.
427
.
6
Ellenborough,
Political
Diary,
1.
149.
36
—
2
564
THE
FOREIGN
OFFICE
seemed
that
Aberdeen
was unable
to
"grasp
the
argument
on a
great
question,"
though equal
to
discharging
"
very
well" "all
the
ordinary
work"
of his
Department
1
. And
Ellenborough's
Diary
accuses
Aber-
deen
of
substituting essays
for
diplomatic
instructions
2
;
of
using
expressions
stronger
than
his
meaning
and
even
sufficient to
"make
the
Emperor
of Russia
jump
six
feet
high
3
," and,
finally,
of
depending
for
the
whole
substance
of his
despatches
upon
Wellington,
being
himself unfit
for all
the
higher
parts
of
his
duty
4
.
But,
though
Ellen-
borough
felt
sure
that
the Duke would be
unable
to retain
such a
man
as Aberdeen at
the
Foreign
Office,
Aberdeen held his
post
to
the
end of
the
Administration,
and
resumed
it at Peel's
request
in
1841,
and
left
it
only,
to
Queen
Victoria's
great
regret,
in
1846.
He
was,
in
fact,
a man
without
ambition,
without
partiality
and
without
hypocrisy.
The
year 1830,
owing
to
the death
of
George
IV and
the
subse-
quent
resignation
by
William IV of
the
hereditary
revenues
of
the
Crown,
saw
the
charges
of
the
Diplomatic
Establishment transferred
from
the
Civil List to the
Consolidated
Fund.
Parliament,
in
other
words,
became the
paymaster
of
the
Diplomatic
Sery
jce
msteagL
o£
t
ne
Sovereign.
T
hechange, slight
as
it
was,
heralded
an
extension
of
Parliamentary
control over
Foreign
Affairs.
According
to
the
new ar-
rangement,
the
Foreign
Office was
to
have
the
free
disposal
of
£180,000
for
the maintenance
of
the
Diplomatic
Service
of
the
country;
but
there
were
other
diplomatic
charges
which were
expected
to
fall out-
side
this
sum
and
required
to
be met
by
an annual vote
in Parliament.
The
nation, however,
can
hardly
be
expected
to
have
observed
these
signs
of
the times
and
the
increase of
its
hold
upon
Foreign
Policy.
A much more noticeable event
was
the
displacement
of
Aberdeen
by
Palmerston
on
the
return
of
the
Whigs
to
power.
The
new
Foreign Secretary
was as
great
a
contrast
to
the
old
as can
well be
imagined.
Boisterous
and
bellicose,
rough
and
resolute,
he
left
a
deep impression upon
his
Office,
whether
we look at its internal
organisation,
its
position
in
the
country,
or its
policy
abroad.
In
spite
of
some fond
suppositions
of
Princess
Lieven's,
it
was
Lansdowne
and
not
herself
to
whom Palmerston
owed
his
appoint-
ment
to
the
Foreign
Office
5
. Circumstances
furnished
him with
an
immediate
opportunity
of
asserting
himself;
and
his
tenure
of
power,
1
Ellenborough,
Political
Diary,
I.
171.
2
Ibid.i.
188.
3
Ibid.
1.
235.
4
Ibid.
I.
171,
265.
6
G.
M.
Trevelyan
:
Lord
Grey
of
the
Reform Bill, p. 243.