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 regard to the abolition of the slave trade, Castlereagh found himself hampered as he had been in regard to the independence of Poland. Outside of England no one greatly desired it, and the colonial interests of France and Spain were ranged in opposition to it. He was himself a believer in the plan of gradually abolishing the trade by the imposition of high import duties, and was accused of having flinched from pressing the total abolition at Vienna as vigorously as he might have done. Probably there was little justice in the charge; at any rate, after much patient negotiation, he was obliged to be content with undertakings for its abolition by France and Spain within a fixed term of years. He quitted Vienna on 15 Feb. 1815, having been urgently pressed from home to return for the meeting of parliament, where the government felt his assistance to be indispensable. On his way he visited Paris, and, thanks to his personal influence with Louis XVIII, successfully negotiated the questions in dispute as to the duchy of Parma. He landed at Dover on 3 March amid demonstrations of welcome, applauded as the negotiator of a European peace. At that moment Napoleon was advancing towards Paris.

Castlereagh, on hearing this new danger, at once apprehended its gravity, and urged on Wellington the promptest action. The treaty of Chaumont of the previous year was put in force, and Castlereagh authorised Lord Clancarty at Vienna to sign a further treaty binding Great Britain to pay 5,000,000l. as a subsidy and over 2,000,000l. in lieu of the contingent which the treaty of Chaumont required her to bring into the field. By his speeches in the House of Commons he awoke public feeling to the necessity of a renewal of the war, though he brought odium on himself, and even a street attack by a mob in June. He laboured to provide men and money for a campaign, and to bring the allied sovereigns into the field. On 8 April, to Napoleon's great indignation, he refused his offers, made through Caulaincourt, for a separate accommodation with England. After Waterloo he returned to Paris, and by his resolute remonstrances moderated Blücher's violent plans for taking vengeance on Paris. On the question of restoring to their former possessors the works of art plundered by the French armies abroad, he succeeded in restraining the allies from making reprisals on native French collections. The treaty of Vienna, substantially embodying the terms settled before his return to England, was finally signed on 9 June 1816. He was much attacked because in return for the efforts and sacrifices made and the part played by Great Britain so little was secured for her by the peace. Probably he was right in thinking that England was more interested in European peace and security than in particular acquisitions. Still, one term to which he consented has found few defenders: he restored Java to the Dutch, it was said because he could not find it on the map, and therefore did not know what to say about it; in reality he relinquished it in pursuance of his general policy of maintaining the influence of Great Britain in the task of settling the future of Europe by the most complete demonstration possible of her own disinterestedness. The selection of St. Helena as the place of Napoleon's internment was due to him; and he settled the terms of his confinement, if not very magnanimously, still with keen regard to his safekeeping. With regard to the terms to be enforced on France, Castlereagh was in negotiation for some months longer, and did not conclude the agreement with Prince Nesselrode till 20 Nov. 1815. He had considerable difficulty, not only with the German powers, but with his colleagues at home, in preventing France from being treated with a severity which would have made against, and not for, the prospects of future peace; but, supported by Nesselrode and Wellington, he at length succeeded, and France was simply reduced to her position of 1790.

The year 1815 was the zenith of Castlereagh's career; from that time forward his popularity declined, and before long vanished. The social and financial questions that were forced to the front as soon as the war was over were difficult to deal with in any case, but he least of all men could handle them in a manner likely to conciliate public opinion generally. Though not the originator of the home policy of the government, still, as leader of the House of Commons (the home secretary, Lord Sidmouth, being in the House of Lords), he was always its mouthpiece, and was identified with all its acts of domestic as well as of foreign policy. He was fortunate neither in the policy he advocated nor in the arguments he employed. He defended the maintenance of a high income tax on 18 March 1816, and was defeated; but the continuance of the restriction of cash payments by the Bank of England was carried. He introduced the bill for the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act on 24 Feb. 1817, nor was his reputation restored by his support in 1818 of the ministerial palliative for distress—the bill granting 1,000,000l. for the building of new churches. The extent