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country at the news of this catastrophe. The funeral procession to Westminster Abbey was attended by an immense con- course of people, who, while the coffin was being removed from the late peer's residence to the hearse, and again from the hearse to the Abbey, vented their joy at his death in shouts of exultation. The feel- ings of the masses in Ireland, so far as they found expression, were not more re- spectful to the memory of the deceased statesman. Lord Castlereagh was greatly beloved by his family ; he was munifi- cent to the poor, and encouraged letters both in Ireland and England. He de- lighted in field sports. The statue over his remains in Westminster Abbey almost looks down upon the simple flagstone that marks the grave of Henry Grattan. Sir Robert Peel bears testimony to Castle- reagh's abilities : " I doubt whether any public man (with the exception of the Duke of Wellington) who has appeared within the last half century, possessed that combination of qualities, intellectual and moral, which would have enabled him to effect under the same circum- stances what Lord Londonderry did effect in regard to the Union with Ireland, and to the great political transactions of 1813, 1814, and 1815. To do these things required a rare union of high and generous feelings, courteous and prepossessing man- ners, a warm heart and a cool head, great temper, great industry, great fortitude, great courage, moral and personal, that command and influence which makes other men willing instruments, and all these qualities combined with the disdain for low objects of ambition, and with spotless integrity."'^ Barrington says : "In private life, his honourable conduct, gentlemanly habits, and engaging demeanour were ex- emplary. Of his public life, the com- mencement was patriotic, the progress was corrupt, and the termination criminal. His first public essay was a motion to reform the Irish Parliament, and his last was to corrupt and annihilate it by bribing 1 54 of its members. It is impossible to deny a fact so notorious. History, tradi- tion, or the fictions of romance contain no instance of a minister in Ireland who so fearlessly deviated from all the principles which ought to characterize the servant of a constitutional monarch, or the citizens of a free country." Lord Brougham thus sums up Lord Castlereagh's character : " His capacity was greatly underrated from the poverty of his discourse ; and his ideas passed for much less than they were worth, from the habitual obscurity of his expressions. . . Scarce any man

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of any party bore a more important place in public affairs, or occupies a larger space in the history of his times. . . He was a bold and fearless man ; the very courage with which he exposed himself unabashed to the most critical audience in the world, while incapable of uttering two sentences of anything but the meanest matter in the most wretched language ; the gallantry with which he faced the greatest difficul- ties of a question ;. . all this made him upon the whole rather a favourite with the audience whose patience he was taxing mercilessly, and whose gravity he ever and anon put to a very severe trial. . . In council he certainly had far more resources. He possessed a considerable fund of plain sense, not to be misled by any refinement of speculation, or clouded by any fanciful notions. . . The com- plaints made of his Irish administration were well grounded as regarded the cor- ruption of the Parliament by which he accomplished the Union ;. . but they were wholly unfounded as regarded the cruelties practised during and after the rebellion. Far from partaking in these atrocities, he uniformly and strenu- ously set his face against them. .^ . Lord Castlereagh's foreign administration was as destitute of all merit as possible. No enlarged views guided his conduct ; no liberal principles claimed his regard ; no generous sympathies, no grateful feel- ings for the people whose sufferings and whose valour had accomplished the re- storation of their national independence, prompted his tongue. . . He flung him- self at once and for ever into the arms of the sovereigns." The Marquis of London- derry was succeeded in his honours by his brother Charles. The Memoirs and Cor- respo7iden.ce, edited by the latter, appeared in twelve volumes, between 1848 and 1853. Sir Archibald Alison's Lives of Lord Castle- reagh and Sir Charles Stewart, 3 vols. 1861, embrace in reality a history of Europe during his lifetime, from a very conserva- tive point of view. - ^' ^^t  ^^ "' '" ' ^n su Stewart, Sir Charles WiUiam Vane, 3rd Marquis of Londonderry, younger brother of preceding, was born in Ireland, i8th May 1778. At six years of age he was sent by his grandfather, Lord Camden, to Eton. He entered the army in 1 79 1, and received a company, and when but sixteen was Assistant Quartermaster- General in an expedition to Flanders, where he was wounded. In 1796 he was Major of the 5th Dragoons, and served in Holland, and in 1 803 was promoted to a colonelcy, and appointed Aide-de-camp to the King and Under-Secretary of State SOI