st
important of these colleagues was Lord Castlereagh, who became Secretary
for Foreign Affairs. Time has long ago rendered justice to the political
ability of Castlereagh, disguised as it was to men of his own day by a
curious infelicity of expression; and the instinctive good sense of
Englishmen never showed itself more remarkably than in their preference
at this crisis of his cool judgement, his high courage, his discernment,
and his will to the more showy brilliancy of Canning. His first work
indeed as a minister was to meet the danger in which Canning had
involved the country by his Orders in Council. On the 23rd of June, only
twelve days after the ministry had been formed, these Orders were
repealed. But, quick as was Castlereagh's action, events had moved even
more quickly. At the opening of the year America, in despair of redress,
had resolved on war; Congress had voted an increase of both army and
navy; and laid in April an embargo on all vessels in American harbours.
Actual hostilities might still have been averted by the repeal of the
Orders, on which the English Cabinet was resolved; but in the confusion
which followed the murder of Perceval, and the strife of parties for
office through the month that followed, the opportunity was lost. When
the news of the repeal reached America, it came six weeks too late. On
the 18th of June an Act of Congress had declared America at war with
Great Britain.

[Sidenote: Napoleon and Russia.]

Had Napoleon been able to reap the fruits of the strife which his policy
had thus forced on the two English peoples, it is hard to say how
Britain could have coped with him. Cut off from her markets alike in
east and west, her industries checked and disorganized, a financial
crisis added to her social embarrassment, it may be doubted whether she
must not have bowed in the end before the pressure of the Continental
System. But if that system had thrust her into aggression and ruin, it
was as inevitably thrusting the same aggression and ruin on her rival.
The moment when America entered into the great struggle was a critical
moment in the history of mankind. Six days after President Madison
issued his declaration of war, Napoleon crossed the Niemen on his march
to Moscow. Successful as his policy had been in stirring up war between
England and America, it had been no less successful in breaking the
alliance which he had made with the Czar at Tilsit and in forcing on a
contest with Rus