164 History of the Radical Party in Parliament. [1820- mitted suicide at his residence at Foot's Cray. The conse- quences of the death of Londonderry were more striking than could have been expected by any of his contemporaries. There is hardly another instance in our modern history of the removal of one man, and he not in the first rank as to ability, causing so great an effect on the feelings and the policy of the country. There was a sensation of relief, if not of absolute satisfaction, in the minds alike of foreigners and of English- men of which it is tragical to read. Harriet Martineau says, " The relief to a multitude was so extraordinary and porten- tous that little children who carried the news, as children love to carry wonderful news, without knowing what it means, were astonished at the effect of their tidings, and saw, by the clasped hands and glittering eyes of aliens in English towns, that there was a meaning in the tidings beyond their compre- hension. There are some now who in mature years cannot remember without emotion what they saw and heard that day. They could not know how the calamity of one man a man amiable, winning, and generous in the walk of his daily life could penetrate the recesses of a world, not as a calamity, but as a ray of hope in the midst of thickest dark- ness." * The writer has heard old men, the Radicals of that time, describe the share which many Englishmen had in these feelings of relief and satisfaction. To understand this we must recognize what a oneness there is between the home and the foreign affairs of a nation, and how the domestic conduct of a government is affected by the associations with neighbouring states and the principles which it shares with them in international policy. Castlereagh, although he agreed with the coercive and re- pressive measures of the Tory Government, was neither their originator nor, except from his being leader in the House of Commons, was he the most prominent of their supporters. Liverpool, as Premier, was more directly responsible, and Sidmouth and Eldon were the most zealous of their advocates ; but Castlereagh, as Foreign Minister, and as the man who had
- " History of the Thirty Years' Peace," vol. i. pp. 286, 287.
