Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 22.djvu/207

Rh catholic petition in June 1811, he declared his conviction 'that a time would come when the catholics would ultimately succeed' (ib. xx. 672-3). He became president of the Society of Antiquaries on 23 April 1812 (a post which he resigned in 1846), and in November 1812 was elected for the third and last time a Scotch representative peer. On 11 Aug. 1813 he was despatched on a special mission to the emperor of Austria, who on the following day declared war against France (Gent. Mag. 1813, lxxxiii. pt. ii. 185). On 28 Sept., he was appointed ambassador extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Vienna, and, as the representative of Great Britain, signed on 3 Oct. the preliminary treaty of alliance with Austria at Toplitz. Aberdeen accompanied the Emperor Francis through the campaign, and in company with Humboldt rode over the field of Leipzig. Aberdeen, assisted by Lord Cathcart and Sir Charles Stewart, represented Great Britain at the congress of Chatillon in February and March 1814, and, as one of our representatives, signed the treaty of Paris on 30 May following. As a reward for his diplomatic skill he was created a peer of the United Kingdom by the title of Viscount Gordon of Aberdeen by letters patent dated 16 July 1814, and was admitted to the privy council on the 23rd of the same month. For several years after his return to England Aberdeen took but little part in politics, occupying his time chiefly in agricultural pursuits, and in planting his Scotch estates. Wilberforce, while on a visit to Haddo in 1858, records in his diary that Aberdeen 'reckoned that he had planted about fourteen millions of trees in his time. Nothing when he came to it at Haddo but the limes and a few Scotch firs' (Life of Bishop Wilberforce, 2nd edit. ii. 411). On the formation of the Duke of Wellington's ministry in January 1828 Aberdeen accepted the post of chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster with a seat in the cabinet, and, on the secession of Huskisson and the other Canningites in the following May, was appointed foreign secretary in the place of Lord Dudley (2 June 1828). While Aberdeen was foreign secretary the Porte acknowledged the independence of Greece by the treaty of Adrianople in September 1829, and its territory was fixed by a protocol signed in London on 3 Feb. 1830. He refused to interfere with Dom Miguel, who had been proclaimed king of Portugal, and instantly recognised Louis-Philippe as the king of the French. He resigned office with the rest of the Wellington administration in November 1830. On the overthrow of Lord Melbourne, Aberdeen was appointed secretary for war and the colonies on 20 Dec. 1834 in Sir Robert Peel's shortlived ministry, which lasted only until the following April. In May 1840 he made a well-meaning attempt to avert the impending schism in the Scotch church by bringing in his Non-Intrusion Bill (Parl. Debates, 3rd ser. liii. 1209-29), a half-and-half measure, which failed to satisfy the members of the free church party, who denounced both the bill and its author. Though it passed the second reading in the House of Lords, it was afterwards withdrawn by Aberdeen in consequence of the opposition of the government and of the majority of the general assembly (ib. lv. 593-5). The correspondence which passed between the negotiators of the bill and Aberdeen gave rise to a heated controversy, and Aberdeen was charged with a distinct breach of faith in introducing a clause obnoxious to the free church party into the bill. In May 1843 the secession took place, and Aberdeen being then in office shortly afterwards introduced a bill 'to remove doubts respecting the admission of ministers to benefices.' The bill, which was modelled on the lines of the former one, was passed into law that session (6 and 7 Vict. c. 61), but failed to have any effect in healing the breach. In Sir Robert Peel's second administration Aberdeen resumed his old post of secretary for foreign affairs (3 Sept. 1841). His conciliatory language soon changed the character of the American negotiations, and in the following year Lord Ashburton was despatched to Washington with full powers to conclude a definitive treaty on the long-vexed question of the north-eastern boundary. Aberdeen's friendship with Guizot enabled him to establish a better understanding between England and France, which was further promoted by the visit of the queen, accompanied by her foreign secretary, to Louis-Philippe in September 1843. By his skilful management of the Pritchard incident at Tahiti in the following year the danger of a war between the two countries was averted. With regard to the Spanish marriages he contented himself with taking up a position of complete neutrality, relying on Louis-Philippe's promise, which was afterwards so disgracefully broken. He refused to listen to the request of Louis Napoleon, when a prisoner at Ham, that the English government should intercede on his behalf with Louis-Philippe (Memoirs of an Ex-Minister, i. 157-60). In spite of the warlike tone aroused both in England and America on the publication of President Polk's inaugural address in 1845, Aberdeen successfully seized the first opportunity of renewing the negotiations with regard to the north-western