A Lost Opportunity
Castlereagh. By lone Leigh. (Collins. 2 is.)
A ONE-VOLUME biography of Castlereagh is much needed. It is true that all the materials for a complete one do not yet exist ; but Mr. Hyde has written a scholarly, if somewhat partisan, account of Castlereagh's early life and work in Ireland, and a great deal has been written by myself and others about his career as Foreign Minister on which his place in history mainly depends. There is still much to be found out about the period 1801 to 1812, but here also there has been much authentic research. Admittedly, to write a biography which shows both the achievements and the personality of the man is no easy task. Everyone who has attempted it so far has failed.
This biography is also quiijidequate to its purpose. It is pleasingly written and easily- rea , but it is padded out with anec- dotes about other people, some stale and some having no relation to Castlereagh's career. Thus space has been used up in trivialities which should have been devoted to the main theme. The authoress passes superficially over the most important contributions which Castlereagh made to history,- the mistakes and omissions being of such a kind that it is not worth while discussing them seriously. Her references fo seCondary gources in the footnotes are gpasmodic and unscientific. I can find no logic in them. Such value as the book possesses, apart from some unpublished material, lies in the collection of references to Castlereagh in memoirs, but-little attempt is made to distinguish what is true from what is false or partly true. The picture given of the man is, therefore, sometimes distorted.
Finally there is the value of the new material. Seven sources are listed, but it hardly seems as if the authoress herself had worked in them except in the papers belonging to Lord Londonderry and the archives at Newtownards. At any rate though the Lieven papers are amongst them there is only one reference to these in the text. There is indeed much use of the evidence of Princess Lieven in the description of Castlereagh's last weeks, but this comes from the letters to Metter,nich published by Mr. Quennetl. An unwary reader might perhaps think this was new material since no footnote is given explaining the source. More important is it that Princess Lieven is a notorious liar, and nothing that she writes can be believed unless it is confirmed from other sources.
There -are a few interesting letters on public affairs from the Londonderry archives:- The most important, perhaps, is one written to Charles about the Tsar. There are also a number of others from Castlereagh to his wife and brother, which add a few lines to the picture, but so much of this kind of material had already been published by the late Marchioness of Londonderry, Mr. Hyde and myself that, while all such evidence is welcome, our conception of Castlereagh is not much affected by it. There are also a few letters to and from Camden of some interest and one or two others of no great importance. The whole amount might, if properly handled, have been worth publishing in an article.
So the biography of Castlereagh has yet to be written, and it may be hoped that the publication of this book will not prevent the task being undlertakedby some one capable of doing justice to the theme. CHARLES WEBSTER.
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