Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub
[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

97

No. V.

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE CHARLES

WHITWORTH,

EARL WHITWORTH OF ADBASTON, COUNTY OF STAFFORD; BARON ADBASTON; LORD WHITWORTH OF NEWPORT PRATT, COUNTY OF GALWAY; G. C. B.; A PRIVY-COUNCILLOR; LORD OF THE BOARD OF TRADE AND FOREIGN PLANTATIONS; HIGH STEWARD OF STRATFORD-UPON-AVON; AND D. C. L.

"Dum Spiro Spero."

THE Whitworths are an ancient Staffordshire family. Charles, Lord Whitworth, the eldest of the six sons of Richard Whitworth, Esq., by Anne, niece of Sir Oswald Moseley, a Cheshire baronet, like the late earl, was a very able and celebrated statesman and negociator; having been employed as ambassador and minister plenipotentiary to the several courts of Europe, from the reign of king William until the time of his death, which happened in 1725. In the year 1704, he was sent envoy extraordinary to the court of St. Petersburgh; he appeared in the character of minister plenipotentiary to the diet of Ratisbon in 1714; he was envoy extraordinary to the king of Prussia in 1716; in 1717, he resided in the same character at the Hague; and in 1724, he was nominated ambassador extraordinary to the States General. Like the late earl, also, he was in the year 1720 created by George I., Baron Whitworth, of Galway, in Ireland; and, as if to complete the resemblance, he died without male issue, in consequence of which the title became extinct.

Charles, Lord Whitworth, was succeeded in his estates by his younger brother, Francis Whitworth, Esq., who, in 1724, removed into Kent, purchased the manor of Leybourne, rebuilt the mansion-house called the Grange, and improved

[blocks in formation]

and embellished the adjoining grounds. Mr. Whitworth was M. P. for Minehead, Surveyor-General of His Majesty's Woods and Forests, and Secretary of Barbadoes; and died in 1743. His son, Sir Charles Whitworth, Knight*, inherited his property; and for many years held the office of LieutenantGovernor of Gravesend and Tilbury Fort. He was a major in the West Kent regiment of militia, and chairman of the Quarter Sessions. He also sat in parliament for Minehead; and frequently presided in the Committee of Supply. On the 1st of June, 1749, Sir Charles married the eldest daughter of Richard Shelley, Esq., Commissioner of the Stamp Office, by whom he had seven children (three sons and four daughters), the eldest of whom is the subject of the following memoir.

The late earl was born in 1754, at Leybourne Grange, but in 1776 removed with his father to Stanmore, Sir Charles having, with his eldest son's consent, obtained an act of parliament which enabled him to sell Leybourne to James Hawley, Esq., M. P. and F. R. S., whose son, Sir Henry Hawley, Bart., now resides at that beautiful seat. Earl Whitworth was educated at Tunbridge-school, under Mr. Cawthorne, the poet, and Mr. Towers, the translator of Cæsar and other Latin classics. Among his school-fellows were Colonel James, of Tytham Lodge, Kent; Christopher Hull, Esq., of Sidcup; and the late Lord Eardley. To the second of these he was fag; and, it is not a little remarkable, that the third was created a baronet whilst at school, which occasioned a holyday and treat, &c. Soon after leaving this academy, Mr. Whitworth became an officer in the Guards. The successful example, however, of his predecessor, Lord Whitworth, appearing to point out diplomacy as the happiest road to celebrity and preferment, it was determined that he should commence that career, which eventually led him to honour and distinc

tion.

After an initiatory trial in a subordinate situation, Mr. Whitworth's first mission was to the court of Stanislaus Augustus, of Poland, where he appeared, in 1786, in the character of * He was knighted in 1768.

minister plenipotentiary. Warsaw was then the centre of intrigues; for a new partition of Poland happened to be meditating at that moment, and the generous attempt at national independence proved but the signal for the final overthrow of that ancient state. Even then the king, an accomplished but weak prince, was dictated to in his own capital by the ambassador of St. Petersburgh; and the successor of John Sobieski, who saved Vienna from the Turks, and of those powerful princes who held Prussia' in vassalage, and considered the Russians as a wild Tartarian horde, was reduced to the humiliating necessity of complying with the cruel mandates of Frederick, Leopold, and Catharine. In this state of things the interests of England were but remotely concerned. It was the duty of her minister, indeed, to ward off, as long as possible, the meditated dismemberment and annihilation of that unhappy country; and more especially to prevent, if possible, the annexation of Dantzic to the house of Brandenburgh. These were events which did not occur until after the termination of Mr. Whitworth's embassy.

After residing two years in Poland, Mr. Whitworth was recalled; and, in September 1788, was nominated to a much more important mission, that of envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the court of Russia. Warsaw had presented the singular spectacle of a king retained a kind of state prisoner in his own capital, while a foreign ambassador assumed all the functions of royalty; but St. Petersburgh, on the other hand, exhibited a heroine possessed of a masculine mind, adored by her own subjects, holding Poland in chains, and threatening to render the Greek cross triumphant on the shores of the Hellespont. But Catharine was surrounded by French philosophers and statesmen; and this circumstance, in addition to some recent events of a disagreeable nature, had created somewhat of an aversion in the bosom of this princess to the British cabinet, if not to the nation. From this feeling, consequences unfavourable to the commerce of England might have been anticipated, but the French revolu tion forewarned her of her own danger.

In 1793, when the English ministers determined to take part in the confederacy against France, it was thought proper to invest the ambassador at St. Petersburg with the Order of the Bath, to add dignity to his mission; and Sir Charles Whitworth, from this moment, began to act a conspicuous part on this, now become the great theatre of European politics. A more intimate connexion than had hitherto subsisted became an object of mutual desire; a subsidiary treaty began to be hinted, and the death of the empress alone prevented its completion.

The zeal of her son and successor, Peter III., required but little stimulus to induce him to make a common cause with the chief potentates of Europe; and Sir Charles Whitworth proved successful in his endeavours in this respect; an event which was announced to parliament by the following message, on the 6th of June, 1799:

[ocr errors][merged small]

"His Majesty thinks proper to acquaint this House that he has, some time since, concluded an eventual engagement with his good brother and ally the Emperor of Russia, for employing forty-five thousand men against the common enemy, in such manner as the state of affairs in Europe at that period appeared to render most advantageous. The change of circumstances which has since arisen, having rendered a different application of that force more desirable, His Majesty has recently had the satisfaction to learn, that the views of the Emperor of Russia in that respect are entirely conformable to his own."

When the papers on this subject were afterwards submitted to the inspection of parliament, it appeared that the English plenipotentiary, after a previous negociation with the chancellor Prince Besborodko, had concluded a provisional treaty at St. Petersburgh in 1798, by which it was agreed on the part of His Imperial Majesty," that in case the King of Prussia could be induced to take an active part in the war

« ForrigeFortsæt »