Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

"Mackintosh used to say of Castlereagh that he had all the inferior qualities of a leader in an extraordinary degree. Though his language was often ungrammatical, his metaphors and figures so strangely perplexed and confused as to set the House a laughing, yet I have heard him speak in such a powerful, impressive and eloquent style as would have done honour to any man. The more he was pressed...the better he spoke, both in matter and manner. He was a handsome, fine looking man, good natured, high bred, and his courage was so undoubted that he could allow people to take liberties with him, or disregard them, as unworthy of his notice, which other men might have lost reputation by not resenting."

"Castlereagh, who had been often pointed out as the successor of Pitt, wanted the large views of that great man... [He] was an obscure orator, garnishing his speeches with confused metaphors... He had no classical quotations, no happy illustration, no historical examples... Yet his influence with his party was very great, and he was, till near the close of his life, a successful leader of the House of Commons. For this end he possessed...very considerable advantages. He was, as a man of business, clear, diligent, and decided. His temper was admirable – bold and calm, good humoured and dispassionate. He was a thorough gentleman; courteous, jealous of his own honour, but full of regard for the feelings of others. No one doubted his personal integrity, however much they might dislike his policy."

"I met Murder on the way— He had a mask like Castlereagh—"

"There probably never was a statesman whose ideas were so right and whose attitude to public opinion was so wrong. Such disparity between the grasp of ends and the understanding of means amounts to a failure in statesmanship."