Thread by @AndrewBrunatti

Here's the latest instalment of my threads on #ViscountCastlereagh and #MentalHealth under the hashtag #Castlereagh200.

In my last thread, I looked at how medical practitioners through the 19thC understood stress, and particularly the work of Charles Mills. 1/

Today, I'll use a passage from Mills's 1884 study of mental overwork among 'professional and public men' to consider Castlereagh's behaviour preceding his suicide on August 12, 1822--changes that bear strong similarities to what Mills identified as acute nervous exhaustion /2

Mills identified warning signs:
"excessive irritability of temper; depression of spirits; morbid impulses and fears; constantly recurring thoughts, phrases, or suspicions; sense of effort; impairment of memory and attention; and change in habits and methods of mental work." 3/

Castlereagh's final days certainly show depression and irritability. Wellington recounted that on August 6 and 7 the Foreign Secretary was in low spirits and disinterested. At the cabinet meeting re his instructions for the Congress of Verona, Castlereagh barely said a word. /4

By August 9, Wellington recounted meeting quite a different Castlereagh who was extremely agitated and prone to openly weeping. (Image: 'The Blue Devils' by George Cruikshank, 1823) /5

Others had noticed increased irritability that was quite out of character. Woodbine Parish, one of Castlereagh’s assistants, later recorded that Castlereagh, “showed (at what I don’t know) an impatience and irritation so unusual in him, that I was greatly struck by it.” /6

Castlereagh also exhibited a preoccupation with suspicions and fears leading up to his suicide. Wellington’s memoranda indicate that the one thing that did fix Castlereagh’s interest on August 6th and 7th were the letters he had received as part of a perceived blackmail plot. /7

There are also indications that Castlereagh’s paranoia had been running for months before that fateful weekend. Close friends were stunned to hear in June 1822 that Castlereagh suspected Wellington, of all people, of trying to edge him out of cabinet. /8

In terms of morbid impulses, Castlereagh’s signals on August 10/11 were notable enough for those in his household to take precautions against suicide. On August 10, Castlereagh’s wife hid his pistol box and key, and on the 11th hid his razors. (Img: Lady Castlereagh, c1820) /9

Gronow indicates that Castlereagh’s interest in the position of the carotid artery could be traced back to a conversation with Dr. Howell, Gen. Packenham’s personal physician, during a dinner in Paris in 1815 when the General noted that Castlereagh was 'in a strange mood.'/10

Giles Hunt has posited that Castlereagh exhibited worrying memory lapses in the House of Commons earlier in 1822, including drawing blanks about important matters that had been front-page news. /11

Finally, Castlereagh’s under-secretary, the 3rd Earl of Clanwilliam, recounted that the Foreign Secretary had started to show a loss of focus, and a greater sense of the effort involved in his official duties in the weeks before his suicide. (Img: Clanwilliam by Lawrence) /12

Clanwilliam said Castlereagh had showed “an unusual restlessness of mind” and “a degree of restlessness about trifles entirely alien to his general disposition, such as to have said that he dreaded then responsibility of going to Verona…” /13

Given these observations, in the weeks/days leading to his suicide Castlereagh exhibited many of the warning signs that Mills identified later in the 19thC as common signs of acute mental exhaustion. In modern terms, Castlereagh was in a mental health tailspin. 14/14

#19thC #18thC #HisParl #Twitterstorians

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