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Lord Aberdeen and Conservative Foreign Policy, 1841-1846 Samuel 1 Lord Aberdeen and Conservative Foreign Policy, 1841-1846 Samuel John Butcher PhD January 2015 School of History This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that use of any information derived there from must be in accordance with current UK Copyright Law. In addition, any quotation or extract must include full attribution. 2 Thesis Abstract This study looks at Lord Aberdeen’s second tenure as Foreign Secretary, in Robert Peel’s government of 1841-46. The tenure is first contextualised by an analysis of Aberdeen’s ‘mental map’, in order to reconstruct the personal influences and reasoning behind Conservative foreign policy. The study then engages with Aberdeen’s dealings in Europe, where it provides an alternative interpretation of the Anglo-French entente. It considers Aberdeen and the Conservatives’ approach to Russia and the ‘Eastern Question’ which, along with Chapter Two, treads historiographical terra incognita. Britain’s engagement with America is then analysed; the discord of preceding years, various festering diplomatic sores, and America’s growing influence had combined to throw relations into sharp focus. This study re-examines archives that have, for the most part, been long neglected or examined in the light of historiographical debates long superseded by new developments. Where the present methodology varies from previous works is that different questions are being asked of the material in accordance with the new contexts in which Aberdeen and Conservative foreign policy are considered: these relate to conclusions drawn from the analysis of Aberdeen’s ‘mental map’ and to the wider objectives of the Conservative government. This approach facilitates a study in which Aberdeen’s foreign policy is analysed on its own terms. The historiography has hitherto largely used Palmerstonian and/or liberal contexts as the parameters of debate about the foreign policy of the Peel administration, which only served to distort conclusions. This study’s approach leads it to consider a rational and competent Foreign Secretary whose policy dovetailed with the objectives of the Conservative government and was crucial in helping Peel to deliver them. A consistent set of principles ran through foreign policy dealings – albeit with a flexibility reserved for the means by which they were applied – not least a focus on the maintenance and extension of mercantile intercourse as a means by which to consolidate and protect British power. These observations help lead the study to consider a reinterpretation of Aberdeen and the Peel government, and to ask new questions about mid nineteenth-century Conservatism. 3 Contents List of tables and maps 4 Acknowledgements 5 1. Introduction 6 -Aberdeen and Conservatism: A Historiographical Overview 10 -The Major Biographies: Iremonger and Chamberlain 26 -A New Study 29 2. Aberdeen and his World 39 -The Early Years 42 -Aberdeen in the Peel Administration 64 3. Anglo-French Relations 73 4. Anglo-French Relations in Spain 109 5. Aberdeen, Russia and ‘The Crazy Machine’: The Eastern Question 144 6. Anglo-American Relations 172 7. Anglo-American Relations: The Oregon Question 198 8. Conclusion 220 -Aberdeen and the Principles of Conservative Foreign Policy 221 -Reinterpreting Conservative Foreign Policy 225 -Reinterpreting Conservatism in the Mid-Nineteenth Century 229 Bibliography 233 4 List of tables and maps Genealogical Table of the Spanish House of Bourbon 119 Map of the Maine Boundary Controversy 186 Map of the Oregon Dispute 199 5 Acknowledgements In undertaking a work of this nature, one inevitably accumulates numerous debts. Thanks must go to the repositories in which I have conducted my research and to their Trustees, who gave me kind permission to use primary material: the British Library for the Aberdeen, Gladstone, Lyons, Palmerston, Peel, Stanmore and Wellington papers; the National Archives for the Cowley papers, the Ellenborough papers and various Foreign Office files; the Norfolk Record Office for the Bulwer papers; the University of Southampton Library for the Broadlands and the Wellington papers; the West Sussex Record Office for the Lyons papers; and the University of East Anglia Library for access to various material. Gratitude is also extended to the present Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair for his permission to use the material available at the Haddo Estate Office, and to the wider office for helping me to organise my visit there and to access the papers. The History Faculty at the University of East Anglia deserves particular thanks for the time and advice of its members since 2005, none more so than my supervisor for this study, and for studies pertaining to earlier degrees, Geoff Hicks. His support and advice have been invaluable throughout, particularly as events ‘off the pitch’ have been challenging for us both during my doctoral study. Further back in time, thanks must also go to Martin Ruddock, my history teacher at Thorpe St. Andrew School. His encyclopaedic knowledge and enthusiasm for the subject inspired me and set me on the path that led to doctoral research. This study is dedicated to my parents, whose support throughout my time at the UEA has made my experience there much the richer, be this the financial assistance that enabled me to do a semester of studying abroad during undergraduate study, or the moral encouragement provided throughout. I hope the following words go some way to repaying their support. It is further hoped that this study does justice to those whose academic help I have received. The responsibility for any remaining errors is, naturally, my own. 6 Chapter One: Introduction The period between 1841 and 1846 was an eventful one in British politics. Sir Robert Peel’s Conservative government came to power seeking to improve Britain’s economic and social health. The world trade slump of the late 1830s and early 1840s was exacerbated by the profligacy of the preceding Whig government; Britain was left with a huge budget deficit and a discontented population.1 The dual objectives of improving the condition of the nation whilst reducing Britain’s debt placed pressure on the Conservatives who faced all the normal challenges of nineteenth-century government. Simmering Irish discontent boiled over during the potato famine in 1845, which coincided with Peel’s growing belief that Britain’s tariff system was holding back economic development, leading the government to repeal the Corn Laws, which had hitherto placed prohibitive duties on the import of foreign corn and protected prices for British farmers. Repeal was a divisive measure that alienated much of the Conservative party faithful and precipitated the demise of the Peel administration. Many historians have been drawn to study these domestic aspects of Peel’s government, especially given that this was a pivotal phase in British politics, when an era dominated by Conservative governments gave way to the largely liberal age of the mid-nineteenth century.2 The conduct of foreign policy has not always attracted the same level of historiographical attention, which is surprising given that 1841-1846 was also a significant period in Britain’s international relations. The Conservative government oversaw the initiation of the first Anglo-French entente, at a time when a pro- French policy was identified more with the Whig Party. In the United States, the emergent doctrine of ‘Manifest Destiny’ helped exacerbate boundary disputes with British North America. British policy makers were also challenged by tensions with Russia relating to the fate of the Ottoman Empire. 1 A famous summary of Britain’s social ills, originally published in 1843, was T. Carlyle, Past and Present (New York, Gotham Library edition, 1965). 2 See, for example, T. Crosby, Sir Robert Peel’s Administration (London, 1976); P. Adelman, Peel and the Conservative Party 1830-1850 (London, 1989); A. Howe, Free Trade and Liberal England 1846- 1946 (Oxford, 1997); C. Schonhardt-Bailey, From the Corn Laws to Free Trade: Interests, Ideas and Institutions in Historical Perspective (Massachusetts, 2006); J. Charmley, A History of Conservative Politics since 1830 (London, 2nd edition, 2008). 7 The foremost sources of interest in the study of nineteenth-century foreign policy remain practitioners such as Lord Palmerston, William Gladstone, Benjamin Disraeli and Lord Salisbury, all of whom attract significant attention.3 Whilst the subjects of study have remained largely the same, however, there have been recent works that point towards a historiographical shift in the way that foreign policy is approached by historians. David Brown’s work on Palmerston has explored the relationship between foreign and domestic policy in the 1840s and 1850s, as well as the connection between ‘high’ and ‘low’ politics, and he recently extended his analysis in a full biography.4 Brown’s approach to Palmerstonian policy pieced together the multifarious influences upon it, thereby avoiding the bureaucratic portrayal of politicians that often results from a focus upon diplomatic minutiae. Widening the scope to contextualise Palmerstonism within the wider political world, and to consider Palmerston’s symbiotic relationship with public opinion, further represented a move away from the traditional accounts of diplomatic intercourse. 3 Post-1980 publications relating to Palmerston include, in chronological order, K. Bourne, Palmerston: The Early Years, 1784-1841 (London, 1982); M. Chamberlain, Lord Palmerston (Cardiff, 1987); E. Steele, Palmerston and Liberalism, 1855-1865 (Cambridge, 1991); G. Billy, Palmerston’s Foreign Policy: 1848 (New York, 1993); D. Brown, Palmerston and the Politics of Foreign Policy 1846- 55 (Manchester, 2002); P. Ziegler, Palmerston (London, 2003); J. Chambers, Palmerston: ‘The People’s Darling’ (London, 2004); Brown, Palmerston: A Biography (London, 2010); L. Fenton, Palmerston and The Times: Foreign Policy, the Press and Public Opinion in Mid-Victorian Britain (London, 2013). For Gladstone see, for example, P. Butler, Gladstone, Church, State and Tractarianism: A Study of his Religious Ideas and Attitudes, 1809-1859 (Oxford, 1982); R.
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