means his intention to remain inactive. The first opportunity which presented itself for a display of his political knowledge and rhetorical powers, was a debate on the question, whether Ireland had a right to trade with India, notwithstanding the monopoly of the British East India Company.. On this occasion, Mr. Stewart ranged himself under the banners of the popular party, and delivered a speech in support of the affirmative, in which, although he displayed the hesitation, the confusion, and inaccuracy of a young and inexperienced speaker, yet he at the same time developed a soundness of understanding and powers of reasoning, that were the means of commanding for him a degree of respectful attention with which young and uninitiated politicians are seldom or ever honored. His debut was noticed by the late Lord Charlemount in terms of very decided approbation. The opposition in the Irish House of Commons congratulated themselves on the accession of such an auxiliary, and did not fail to pay him many handsome compliments on the occasion. For a few sessions Mr. Stewart voted generally with the opposition; but even on these occasions, there was a lukewarmness in his support which seemed to indicate, that he was rather the hesitating and undecided friend of the court, than the warm and sincere advocate of the popular cause. Mr. Stewart started into public life, gifted in the earliest part of his career with uncommon shrewdness and penetration, and displayed no common expertness in managing to keep himself unfettered by explicit avowals of political sentiments. He has been described, probably with some truth, as having in his outset in public life, coquetted alternately between the two parties, and without any compromisement of his principles led each to reckon upon him in some measure as a friend; nor would he for some time give either reason to believe, that if properly wooed, he might not, at length, be won. The increasing satisfaction of the people, however, and the turbulent developement of their purposes, rendered it necessary for him to come to some decided conclusion on the subject; accordingly when the system of strong measures was adopted by the Irish administration, in order to silence rebellion by terror or extinguish it in blood, we find Lord Castlereagh among the warmest of its friends. Lord Westmoreland succeeded the Marquis of Buckingham, (who in consequence of a breach with the Irish Parliament on the regency question, suddenly quitted his post and the country, and exposed himself to the censure of both houses), in the viceroyalty of Ireland, and his presidency was an era of fierce political conflict, as well with the opposition as with the advocates of parliamentary reform and Catholic emancipation out of doors. The dissenters of the north, and the Catholics of the other three provinces suddenly joined their interests with the northern Presbyterians; and although very considerable concessions were made to the former by relaxations of the penal laws, and certain grants of political privileges and other ameliorating measures, with a view to detach them from the northern reformists, still the Catholics, who imputed, in a very considerable degree, the favours they had received to the joint and zealous advocacy of the dissenters in their behalf, refused to detach themselves from the cause of the northerns, but pledged themselves also to the question of parliamentary reform. In this state of affairs it was deemed advisable by the British cabinet to adopt some measures of palliation, in order to avert the threatening dangers to the general peace. Lord Westmoreland was recalled, and Earl Fitzwilliam was avowedly sent with the olive-branch as the harbinger of peace, to heal the wounds of faction, and to concede to the people the measures of catholic emancipation and parliamentary reform, as far as was consistent with the due security of the state. On his arrival, tranquillity was to a certain extent restored with all but the Orange party, who were not disposed to regard him with much cordiality or respect. Mr. Grattan announced the purposes of Lord Fitzwilliam's administration. The call of that gentleman and his political adherents to the councils of the new Viceroy was hailed as a certain earnest of the proffered boons; and on the motion of Mr. Grattan, three millions were voted to the aid of Great Britain, in support of the war. But scarcely had the bill for this grant passed through both houses of parliament, when the boons promised by Lord Fitzwilliam were declared to have been promised without their authority. It was insisted that Earl Fitzwilliam had quite mistaken his instructions, and pledged that which was utterly incompatible with the existence of Protestant government in church and state, or the permanent connection of Great Britain and Ireland. The consequences of this misunderstanding were easy of anticipation. The Earl Fitzwilliam deeming his continuance in the viceroyalty impossible after this alleged violation of the promises he represents himself as having been commissioned to hold out, desired his recall. He left the country, and thus gave place to Earl Camden, with Mr. Pelham (now Lord Chichester) as his principal secretary. On the first night of the latter's official appearance, Mr. Grattan determined to bring forward the Catholic question, although he was pretty certain it could not succeed. Mr. Pelham immediately rose in reply, and stated with great heat and emphasis, that "concessions to the Catholics seemed only to increase their demands; that what they now sought was incompatible with the existence of a protestant constitution; that concession must stop somewhere, -it had already reached the utmost limit, -it could not be allowed to proceed; and here he would plant his foot, and never consent to recede an inch farther." The debate continued the whole night until eight the next morning, with the most ardent display of eloquence. The question was lost by a majority; and from that moment the popular feeling took its desperate decision, and the system of horrors began. A result so unexpected soon disgusted Mr. Pelham, and he immediately returned to England. About this period the Honourable Mr. Stewart now become Lord Castlereagh, (1797,) in consequence of his father's promotion, joined the administration of Lord Camden, and became professedly the locum tenens of Mr. Pelham; but after a few weeks' lapse, his Lordship was formally announced as the chief secretary to the Viceroy. From this period to the completion of the Union, the administration of affairs in Ireland was attended with a succession of difficulties, which it required both wisdom and firmness to overcome. The first occasion, on which the noble Lord played a conspicuous and active part, was in the Irish Rebellion. In his situation of secretary, however, the odium of every measure directed by government, fell with undue oppression. The persons who considered themselves aggrieved, considered the instrument rather than the cause; and thus he bore the full brunt of every unpopular proceeding, which originated with his superiors in office. To this circumstance may be referred many of the slanders with which political malignity and hate have so frequently sought to stigmatize his name, for his presumed conduct at this period. Among other calumnies we may notice the assertion, that Lord Castlereagh countenanced the severe tortures and corporeal punishments resorted to in 1798. It was not with the secretary, the Lord Lieutenant, or the British officers and soldiers then in Ireland, that these cruelties originated. It was the fanatics of the Orange faction who gave a loose to such excesses, under a dreadful, yet natural, thirst of vengeance for atrocities the most appalling, which had been perpetrated in every part of the south of Ireland. Many efficient offices connected with government were filled by Orange-men. The yeomanry, who were of the greatest importance to the interests of England at this moment, and without whose aid the government would have been altogether unable to have maintained its ground in Ireland, were all of them belonging to the Orange faction. And although government used all the influence it could command to check the progress of cruelty and bloodshed, it was not in a situation to enforce any thing with this class of the community until Lord Cornwallis's arrival with military reinforcements, which placed him in a situation to command where his predecessor had vainly supplicated. The outcry against Lord Castlereagh by his enemies has been for his pretended connivance at, and even participation in these cruelties; and the public voice has in some instances re-echoed these calumnies, although there has never been a syllable calculated to criminate him, from any respectable or authentic source; and his general character and subsequent modes of action are of themselves quite sufficient to vindicate his memory from the stigma. Earl Camden ultimately grew tired of his situation, and withdrew, after the example of Mr. Pelham, very suddenly from the administration of public affairs in the sister-island. He was succeeded by Lord Cornwallis, who, after delivering the country from the horrors of French invasion, put a stop to the system of torture, to which we have had occasion to advert; soothed the vindictive spirit of the Orange party; and published an amnesty to all the rebels in arms (murderers excepted) who should surrender their arms, and swear allegiance to his Majesty. The rebellion soon terminated, and tranquillity was once more restored. Lord Castlereagh's conduct in effecting the union between this country and Ireland, was the next topic of popular outcry against him. Of the policy of the measure there appears to have been a variety of opinions. It is curious, however, to remark, that some of the leading ranks that disputed with government so obstinately the ground which they were, at last, compelled to yield, and who solemnly denounced as an enemy to human rights him, whom they were pleased to term the perpetrator of this parricide, did not, afterward, refuse to whisper their concurrence with the Irish policy of the noble Lord. The first occasion on which the noble Lord became known to the English public, was that of his seconding the address to the King, on the memorable 29th of October, 1795. The session of parliament was opened on that day; the chief object of calling it together at that early period of the year was, in the first place, to mitigate the evil arising from the scarcity of corn, which then prevailed throughout the country; and in the next, to adopt vigorous measures for putting a stop to the meetings of vast bodies of people, which, at that time, had |