title: Meta-ethics

text: Some theorists argue that a metaphysical account of morality is necessary for the proper evaluation of actual moral theories and for making practical moral decisions; others reason from opposite premises and suggest that studying moral judgments about proper actions can guide us to a true account of the nature of morality.


title: Meta-ethics

text: According to Richard Garner and Bernard Rosen, there are three kinds of meta-ethical problems, or three general questions:


title: Meta-ethics

text: Garner and Rosen say that answers to the three basic questions "are not unrelated, and sometimes an answer to one will strongly suggest, or perhaps even entail, an answer to another." A meta-ethical theory, unlike a normative ethical theory, does not attempt to evaluate specific choices as being better, worse, good, bad, or evil; although it may have profound implications as to the validity and meaning of normative ethical claims. An answer to any of the three example questions above would not itself be a normative ethical statement.


title: Meta-ethics

text: Moral semantics attempts to answer the question, "What is the meaning of moral terms or judgments?" Answers may have implications for answers to the other two questions as well.


title: Meta-ethics

text: "Cognitivist" theories hold that evaluative moral sentences express propositions (i.e., they are 'truth-apt' or 'truth bearers', capable of being true or false), as opposed to non-cognitivism. Most forms of cognitivism hold that some such propositions are true (including moral realism and ethical subjectivism), as opposed to error theory, which asserts that all are erroneous.


title: Meta-ethics

text: Moral realism (in the "robust" sense; cf. moral universalism for the minimalist sense) holds that such propositions are about "robust" or mind-independent facts, that is, not facts about any person or group's subjective opinion, but about objective features of the world. Meta-ethical theories are commonly categorized as either a form of realism or as one of three forms of "anti-realism" regarding moral facts: ethical subjectivism, error theory, or non-cognitivism. Realism comes in two main varieties:


title: Meta-ethics

text: Ethical subjectivism is one form of moral anti-realism. It holds that moral statements are made true or false by the attitudes and/or conventions of people, either those of each society, those of each individual, or those of some particular individual. Most forms of ethical subjectivism are relativist, but there are notable forms that are universalist:


title: Meta-ethics

text: Error theory, another form of moral anti-realism, holds that although ethical claims do express propositions, all such propositions are false. Thus, both the statement "Murder is morally wrong" and the statement "Murder is morally permissible" are false, according to error theory. J. L. Mackie is probably the best-known proponent of this view. Since error theory denies that there are moral truths, error theory entails moral nihilism and, thus, moral skepticism; however, neither moral nihilism nor moral skepticism conversely entail error theory.


title: Meta-ethics

text: Non-cognitivist theories hold that ethical sentences are neither true nor false because they do not express genuine propositions. Non-cognitivism is another form of moral anti-realism. Most forms of non-cognitivism are also forms of expressivism, however some such as Mark Timmons and Terrence Horgan distinguish the two and allow the possibility of cognitivist forms of expressivism. Non-cognitivism includes:


title: Meta-ethics

text: Yet another way of categorizing meta-ethical theories is to distinguish between centralist and non-centralist moral theories. The debate between centralism and non-centralism revolves around the relationship between the so-called "thin" and "thick" concepts of morality: thin moral concepts are those such as good, bad, right, and wrong; thick moral concepts are those such as courageous, inequitable, just, or dishonest. While both sides agree that the thin concepts are more general and the thick more specific, centralists hold that the thin concepts are antecedent to the thick ones and that the latter are therefore dependent on the former. That is, centralists argue that one must understand words like "right" and "ought" before understanding words like "just" and "unkind." Non-centralism rejects this view, holding that thin and thick concepts are on par with one another and even that the thick concepts are a sufficient starting point for understanding the thin ones.


title: Meta-ethics

text: Non-centralism has been of particular importance to ethical naturalists in the late 20th and early 21st centuries as part of their argument that normativity is a non-excisable aspect of language and that there is no way of analyzing thick moral concepts into a purely descriptive element attached to a thin moral evaluation, thus undermining any fundamental division between facts and norms. Allan Gibbard, R. M. Hare, and Simon Blackburn have argued in favor of the fact/norm distinction, meanwhile, with Gibbard going so far as to argue that, even if conventional English has only mixed normative terms (that is, terms that are neither purely descriptive nor purely normative), we could develop a nominally English metalanguage that still allowed us to maintain the division between factual descriptions and normative evaluations.


title: Meta-ethics

text: Amongst those who believe there to be some standard(s) of morality (as opposed to moral nihilists), there are two divisions:


title: Meta-ethics

text: Moral universalism (or universal morality) is the meta-ethical position that some system of ethics, or a universal ethic, applies universally, that is to all intelligent beings regardless of culture, race, sex, religion, nationality, sexuality, or other distinguishing feature. The source or justification of this system may be thought to be, for instance, human nature, shared vulnerability to suffering, the demands of universal reason, what is common among existing moral codes, or the common mandates of religion (although it can be argued that the latter is not in fact moral universalism because it may distinguish between Gods and mortals). Moral universalism is the opposing position to various forms of moral relativism.


title: Meta-ethics

text: Universalist theories are generally forms of moral realism, though exceptions exists, such as the subjectivist ideal observer and divine command theories, and the non-cognitivist universal prescriptivism of R. M. Hare. Forms of moral universalism include:


title: Meta-ethics

text: Moral relativism maintains that all moral judgments have their origins either in societal or in individual standards, and that no single standard exists by which one can objectively assess the truth of a moral proposition. Meta-ethical relativists, in general, believe that the descriptive properties of terms such as "good", "bad", "right", and "wrong" do not stand subject to universal truth conditions, but only to societal convention and personal preference. Given the same set of verifiable facts, some societies or individuals will have a fundamental disagreement about what one "ought" to do based on societal or individual norms, and one cannot adjudicate these using some independent standard of evaluation. The latter standard will always be societal or personal and not universal, unlike, for example, the scientific standards for assessing temperature or for determining mathematical truths.


title: Meta-ethics

text: Moral nihilism, also known as ethical nihilism, is the meta-ethical view that nothing has intrinsic moral value. For example, a moral nihilist would say that killing someone, for whatever reason, is intrinsically neither morally right nor morally wrong. Moral nihilism must be distinguished from moral relativism, which does allow for moral statements to be intrinsically true or false in a non-universal sense, but does not assign any static truth-values to moral statements. Insofar as only true statements can be known, moral nihilists are moral skeptics. Most forms of moral nihilism are non-cognitivist and vice versa, though there are notable exceptions such as universal prescriptivism (which is semantically non-cognitive but substantially universal).


title: Meta-ethics

text: Moral epistemology is the study of moral knowledge. It attempts to answer such questions as, "How may moral judgments be supported or defended?" and "Is moral knowledge possible?"


title: Meta-ethics

text: If one presupposes a cognitivist interpretation of moral sentences, morality is justified by the moralist's knowledge of moral facts, and the theories to justify moral judgements are epistemological theories. Most moral epistemologies posit that moral knowledge is somehow possible (including empiricism and moral rationalism), as opposed to moral skepticism. Amongst them, there are those who hold that moral knowledge is gained inferentially on the basis of some sort of non-moral epistemic process, as opposed to ethical intuitionism.


title: Meta-ethics

text: Empiricism is the doctrine that knowledge is gained primarily through observation and experience. Meta-ethical theories that imply an empirical epistemology include:


title: Meta-ethics

text: There are exceptions within subjectivism however, such as ideal observer theory, which implies that moral facts may be known through a rational process, and individualist ethical subjectivism, which holds that moral facts are merely personal opinions and so may be known only through introspection. Empirical arguments for ethics run into the "is-ought" problem, which asserts that the way the world "is" cannot alone instruct people how they "ought" to act.


title: Meta-ethics

text: Moral rationalism, also called ethical rationalism, is the view according to which moral truths (or at least general moral principles) are knowable "a priori", by reason alone. Some prominent figures in the history of philosophy who have defended moral rationalism are Plato and Immanuel Kant. Perhaps the most prominent figures in the history of philosophy who have rejected moral rationalism are David Hume and Friedrich Nietzsche.


title: Meta-ethics

text: Recent philosophers who defended moral rationalism include R. M. Hare, Christine Korsgaard, Alan Gewirth, and Michael Smith. A moral rationalist may adhere to any number of different semantic theories as well; moral realism is compatible with rationalism, and the subjectivist ideal observer theory and non-cognitivist universal prescriptivism both entail it.


title: Meta-ethics

text: Ethical intuitionism is the view according to which some moral truths can be known "without" inference. That is, the view is at its core a foundationalism about moral beliefs. Such an epistemological view implies that there are moral beliefs with propositional contents; so it implies cognitivism. Ethical intuitionism commonly suggests moral realism, the view that there are objective facts of morality and, to be more specific, ethical non-naturalism, the view that these evaluative facts cannot be reduced to natural fact. However, neither moral realism nor ethical non-naturalism are essential to the view; most ethical intuitionists simply happen to hold those views as well. Ethical intuitionism comes in both a "rationalist" variety, and a more "empiricist" variety known as moral sense theory.


title: Meta-ethics

text: Moral skepticism is the class of meta-ethical theories all members of which entail that no one has any moral knowledge. Many moral skeptics also make the stronger, modal, claim that moral knowledge is impossible. Forms of moral skepticism include, but are not limited to, error theory and most but not all forms of non-cognitivism.


title: Nesta Cooper

text: Nesta Marlee Cooper (born December 11, 1993) is a Canadian actress best known for her roles of Dani Barnes in "Reality High" and Shannon in "The Edge of Seventeen". From 2016 to 2018 Cooper had a main role as Carly Shannon in the series "Travelers". From 2019 to 2022, she played the main role of Haniwa on the Apple TV+ original program, "See".


title: Nesta Cooper

text: At the age of seven, Cooper moved to Courtenay, British Columbia, with her parents. She pursued a career in the arts whenever the opportunity presented itself. After she completed high school, she moved to Vancouver for more film opportunities.


title: Nesta Cooper

text: Cooper’s first television role was in 2013, appearing in two episodes of the series "Cult". Her first film role was in the 2015 movie "Diablo".


title: Nesta Cooper

text: In early 2015, Cooper started working as a production assistant on a short film showcasing "Truvelle's" eight-piece 2015 bridal collection. On May 12, 2015, the film was released on Vimeo.


title: Nesta Cooper

text: Cooper played Carly Shannon (Traveler 3465) on the science fiction series "Travelers" (2016–2018), about special operatives tasked with preventing the collapse of society. These operatives, known as "travelers", have their consciousnesses sent back in time and transferred into the "host" body of present-day individuals who are about to die, minimizing unexpected impact on the future. As Carly, the team's tactician, she assumes the life of a stay-at-home single mother.


title: Nesta Cooper

text: Cooper played a main character in Apple TV+'s "See" (2019–2022), about a post-apocalyptic world where most of humanity is blind. As Haniwa, Cooper played one of two sighted children of Baba Voss and Maghra (her character is the biological daughter of Jerlmarel, who was also sighted). Proud, determined, and strong, Haniwa grows to be more rebellious than her twin brother Kofun, and more curious about the children's true origins.


title: Nesta Cooper

text: Cooper began dating Peter Van Auker (brother of Adam Merrill Van Auker), an associate producer on "Reality High", after the film had completely wrapped on November 21, 2016. On October 15, 2017, the couple adopted a Husky and named him Juneau.


title: Misaeng: Incomplete Life

text: Misaeng: Incomplete Life () is a 2014 South Korean television series based on the webtoon series of the same title by Yoon Tae-ho. It aired on tvN from October 17 to December 20, 2014, on Fridays and Saturdays at 20:30 (KST) for 20 episodes.


title: Misaeng: Incomplete Life

text: The title translates to Go terminology meaning "an incomplete life" (literally "not yet" (미) "birth" (생), meaning "not yet alive"). "Misaeng: Incomplete Life" was the first Korean drama to film on location in Jordan, where actors Im Si-wan and Lee Sung-min shot the series's prologue in Amman, Petra, and Wadi Rum. Yim reprised his role as the protagonist, which he played in an earlier film adaptation, "Incomplete Life: Prequel" (2013).


title: Misaeng: Incomplete Life

text: The series became a cultural phenomenon and recorded high viewership ratings for a cable network program in Korea. tvN is known for its record breaking dramas.


title: Misaeng: Incomplete Life

text: Since he was a child, the board game baduk has been everything to Jang Geu-rae. But when he fails at achieving his dream of becoming a professional baduk player, Geu-rae must leave his isolated existence and enter the real world armed with nothing but a GED high school equivalency diploma on his resume. Through an acquaintance's recommendation, he gets hired as an intern at One International, a large trading company.


title: Misaeng: Incomplete Life

text: There, Geu-rae meets his boss, manager Oh Sang-shik, who's a workaholic and has a warm personality; fellow intern Ahn Young-yi, who attracts her colleagues' ire because of her impressive educational credentials and by being extremely competent at any task; and Jang Baek-gi, a geeky co-worker whose anxious nature masks his inner ambition. Geu-rae learns to navigate and adapt to corporate culture, with baduk as his guide.


title: Misaeng: Incomplete Life

text: With his webtoon, author Yoon Tae-ho drew an analogy between life in modern society and the game of baduk, a chess-like strategy board game. He also wrote vivid descriptions of the everyday life and struggles of Korean corporate culture as his flawed characters deal with the fierce competition for survival, interpersonal work relationships and office politics. "Misaeng: Incomplete Life" gained immense popularity among Korean white-collar workers in their twenties and thirties largely because its realism resonated with their experiences. It drew 1 billion hits when it was published on online portal Daum from September 2012 to October 2013, and the nine-volume paperback version sold 900,000 copies. It is now considered a must-read comic in the country.


title: Pokémon: Advanced

text: Pokémon: Advanced is the sixth season of "Pokémon" and the first season of Pokémon the Series: Ruby and Sapphire, known in Japan as . It originally aired in Japan from November 21, 2002, to August 28, 2003, on TV Tokyo, and in the United States from November 1, 2003, to September 4, 2004, on Kids' WB/The WB. It aired in India from May 9, 2006, on Cartoon Network.


title: Pokémon: Advanced

text: Set in the fictional Hoenn region, the season follows the adventures of the ten-year-old Pokémon trainer Ash Ketchum, and his electric mouse partner Pikachu as they collect Gym Badges so they can compete in the Hoenn League competition. Along the way, they are joined by Brock, the leader of the Pewter City Gym, and the Pokémon coordinator May and her brother, Max, as May competes in Pokémon Contests with the aim of earning Ribbons so she can enter the Hoenn Grand Festival.


title: Pokémon: Advanced

text: The Japanese opening song is "Advance Adventure" (アドバンスアドベンチャー, Adobansu Adobenchā) by GARDEN for 40 episodes. The ending songs are "Because the Sky is There" (そこに空があるから, Soko ni Sora ga Aru Kara) by Toshiko Ezaki for 18 episodes, and "Polka O Dolka" (ポルカ・ドルカ, Poruka O Doruka) by Inuko Inuyama (Meowth) and Nolsol Chorus Group for 22 episodes, and the English opening song is "I Wanna Be a Hero" by David Rolfe. A shortened version of the English opening song was used for the end credits.


title: Pokémon: Advanced

text: Themanime.org gave a positive review saying that "the anime does stuff from the video games in this season" and that "May isn't just a replacement of Misty" Movie Reviews Simbasible gave a negative review saying that "the new characters are actually more annoying instead of likeable" and that "it ended up being a bore but with some very good episodes"Alfah, writing for Pokeblog gave a positive review, giving the season a 8/10 and saying that "It's an awesome start to the Advanced Generation series, showing growth of two protagonists, Ash and May. Other than Max's bratty attitude, this is an awesome season: a definite must-watch."


title: Pokémon: Advanced

text: In the United States, Viz Video and Ventura Distribution released the series on 8 VHS and DVD volumes from 2004-2005. The entire series was released on DVD, while the VHS versions only featured the first three episodes from each release.


title: Pokémon: Advanced

text: Viz Media later released two 3-disc boxed DVD sets in 2005 and 2006, containing 6-7 episodes per disc.


title: Pokémon: Advanced

text: Viz Media and Warner Home Video released "Pokémon: Advanced – The Complete Collection" on DVD in the United States on May 16, 2017.


title: Blood (video game)

text: Blood is a 3D first-person shooter video game developed by Monolith Productions and published by GT Interactive and it was developed using Ken Silverman’s "Build engine". The shareware version was released for MS-DOS on March 6, 1997, while the full version was later released on April 24 in North America, and June 20 in Europe.


title: Blood (video game)

text: The game follows the story of Caleb, an undead early 20th century gunslinger seeking revenge against the dark god Tchernobog. It features a number of occult and horror themes. "Blood" includes large amounts of graphic violence, a large arsenal of weapons ranging from the standard to the bizarre, and numerous enemies and bosses.


title: Blood (video game)

text: "Blood" received largely positive reviews from critics upon its release, with many praising its creative level designs, the humor (particularly its use of pop-culture references), atmosphere and its gameplay, though some criticism was aimed at the game’s challenging difficulty. It later gained a cult following from reviewers and it is considered to be one of the best games on the "Build engine".


title: Blood (video game)

text: The "Blood" franchise was continued with two official expansion packs titled "Plasma Pak" (developed by Monolith) and "Cryptic Passage" (developed by Sunstorm Interactive). A sequel titled "" was released on November 25, 1998. The game was released on GOG.com along with its two expansion packs on April 22, 2010, utilizing the DOSBox emulator to run on modern systems. It was released on Steam on July 14, 2014. The game also served as a principal inspiration for the manhwa "Priest". A remaster of the game made to run better on modern systems entitled "Blood: Fresh Supply" was released on May 9, 2019 by Nightdive Studios and Atari.


title: Blood (video game)

text: In single player mode, the player takes the role of Caleb in his quest for revenge against his former master by navigating levels in episodes, looking for an exit, until the boss level.


title: Blood (video game)

text: "Blood"s gameplay is similar to other classic FPS games like "Doom": the player must activate switches or seek keys to go through the levels; some larger maps contain up to six different keys. Features include teleporters, traps such as crushing blocks, explosive barrels, lava pits, jumping puzzles, and combination lock doors.


title: Blood (video game)

text: "Blood" is one of the earliest FPS games to feature alternate or secondary attack modes for its weapons. Weapons include a flare gun, Voodoo doll, and an aerosol canister that can be used as a flamethrower. It also features a power-up known as "Guns Akimbo", which allows the player to dual wield certain weapons temporarily. "Blood" also has "super secret" areas which contain rewards for discovering them.


title: Blood (video game)

text: Enemies include human members of the Cabal and creatures fighting for the dark god Tchernobog. Enemies can use objects in the environment for cover. The game also features a lesser class of enemies (bats, rats, eels, possessed hands, etc.) often referred to as "nuisance enemies" that are not considered threats individually, but can be deadly in large numbers.


title: Blood (video game)

text: "Blood", like many FPS games of the time, features multiplayer modes. When it was released, Internet play was not well established, so "Blood" used modem, LAN, or serial cable connections for multiplayer. Modem and serial cable connections only allow two player games, while an IPX network connection can support up to eight players. This can easily be achieved on a variety of platforms that support DOSBox and its IPX modes, coupled with VPN software such as Hamachi. Online multiplayer was also possible via the Total Entertainment Network and DWANGO.


title: Blood (video game)

text: The multiplayer modes consist of deathmatch, known in "Blood" as "Bloodbath", and cooperative play. Bloodbath matches can be played on specifically designed multiplayer maps or on the levels of the various episodes; the "frag limit" or "time limit" options are available to end matches, as well as the possibility to control respawn mode for weapons and power-ups. A feature of Bloodbath is "The Voice", an audio comment heard upon each frag, that punctuates the death of an opponent often in gory and irreverent terms. "The Voice" is that of Jace Hall, who was CEO of Monolith Productions at the time. Cooperative gameplay follows the lines of the single player campaign, allowing several players to work together in the levels of the different episodes.


title: Blood (video game)

text: "Blood" takes place in an unspecified time period. The various levels contain elements from the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, in addition to futuristic and retro-futuristic technologies and a weird West theme. Many elements are anachronistic, including weapons and pop-culture references. The sequel, "", retroactively dates the game to the year 1928.


title: Blood (video game)

text: The backstory is not delineated in the game itself, only on the Monolith website and a readme text document. The player takes on the role of Caleb, once the supreme commander of a cult called "The Cabal", worshipers of the forgotten god Tchernobog. Known as a merciless gunfighter in the late 19th century American West, Caleb joined the Cabal in 1871 after meeting Ophelia Price, a woman whose husband and son may have been murdered by the members of the Cabal; it is implied that she later became Caleb's lover. Together they rose to the highest circle of the dark cult, "The Chosen", until all four members of The Chosen were betrayed and killed by Tchernobog for unspecified failures. Several years later, Caleb rises from his grave, seeking answers and vengeance.


title: Blood (video game)

text: In search of the gargoyle Cheogh, one of Tchernobog's minions, Caleb moves to the rail yard and station, where he boards the northbound "Phantom Express". He fights off the undead which swarm the train, finally stopping the train by blowing up the locomotive. Emerging from the wreckage, cutting through swarms of Cabal loyalists and other creatures, Caleb enters the "Great Temple". A teleporter in the temple leads Caleb to Cheogh's altar, where he fights and slays the creature. Caleb finishes by lighting up Ophelia's funeral pyre to cremate her body.


title: Blood (video game)

text: Caleb heads to the Arctic north on a large icebound wooden sailing ship. He disembarks at a lumber mill the Cabal has transformed into a crude human remains processing area. He makes his way into a mine in search of the mother spider Shial's lair. Navigating the Cabal infested tunnels, Caleb finds a dark stony cavern where he defeats Shial, crushing her with a stomp of his boot. He then rips out and consumes the heart of the webbed corpse of Gabriel, another of the betrayed Chosen, thus gaining the power of his fallen comrade.


title: Blood (video game)

text: Cerberus is promoted to Tchernobog's second in command. Caleb moves across an industrial facility, entering a nearby dam control installation located near Cerberus' cavern, then blows up the dam with explosives. The resulting flood makes Cerberus' hideout accessible. Caleb kills Cerberus, and upon finding no trace of Ishmael, fills Cerberus' stomach with bundles of TNT, and blows up the corpse.


title: Blood (video game)

text: Caleb heads for the "Hall of the Epiphany" where Tchernobog is waiting. There, before facing him, Caleb learns why "The Chosen" were cast down: Tchernobog knew Caleb would return to him, killing anyone he ran into to take his revenge and thus gaining immense power, something Tchernobog wants for himself. Caleb battles and destroys the dark god. One of Tchernobog's worshipers approaches Caleb and declares him their new god. Caleb shoots him and leaves the Hall of Epiphany.


title: Blood (video game)

text: The first episode of "Blood" was released as shareware. The full retail version of "Blood" was released on a CD-ROM, featuring all four original episodes and all of the elements that were missing in the shareware version. The extremely violent content of the game later prompted the release of a censored version of "Blood" with toned-down violence. Two official expansions were released for the game. "Cryptic Passage" was developed by Sunstorm Interactive and features a new 10 level episode for single player and four new multiplayer levels. Monolith's official add-on for "Blood" is called the "Plasma Pak" and contains 11 new levels, new enemies, and weapons modes. A special edition collection titled "One Unit Whole Blood" was released on July 15, 1998, including the fully patched versions of "Blood", "Cryptic Passage", and the "Plasma Pak", as well as the "Blood: Unlock the Secrets" guide in a single package. Strategy guides for the game were also published, namely "Blood: The Official Strategy Guide" and "Blood: Unlock the Secrets".


title: Blood (video game)

text: "Cryptic Passage" was published by Sunstorm Interactive and is the only officially authorized commercially available add-on for "Blood" that was not created by Monolith. It was released on June 30, 1997, and contains 10 new single player levels and four new multiplayer Bloodbath levels.


title: Blood (video game)

text: In the episode's new story, having heard news of an ancient scroll, Caleb sets out to retrieve it for his own dark needs.


title: Blood (video game)

text: Released in September 1997, the "Plasma Pak" expansion adds several new features to "Blood"; a new episode with nine single player levels titled "Post Mortem" is included, along with two new multiplayer Bloodbath levels, one of which was modeled after Monolith's corporate offices, for a total of 11 levels. New enemies are included in the "Plasma Pak", and all of them are featured in the extra episode; the new creatures include two new Cabal loyalist types, Chrysallid pods, miniature Calebs, and a new boss, the Beast. There are no new weapons added to Caleb's arsenal, though some new weapon abilities are introduced; the Tesla Cannon can now be wielded akimbo (provided the appropriate power-up is collected), while the Napalm Cannon and Life Leech have new secondary attacks. The "Plasma Pak" also integrated a large number of bug fixes which had been previously addressed by several patches.


title: Blood (video game)

text: After Caleb learns the Cabal is training replacements for the fallen Chosen, he sets out to stop the cult's plans. Caleb moves into Cabal territory, wreaking havoc in a temple complex, then storming the inner temple. Satisfied the temples have been dealt with, Caleb enters the training ground for "The Chosen". In order to rest, Caleb destroys each of the four "Chosen" in training and the Beasts within them.


title: Blood (video game)

text: Development began at Q Studios, an independent developer funded by 3D Realms, in parallel with a number of other well-known titles. It started development in 1995. Following the success of "Duke Nukem 3D", development progress was made public starting in June 1996 with weekly updates on their website. It was originally scheduled for release in early 1997. Q Studios was acquired by Monolith in November 1996. On January 22, 1997, all rights had been sold to Monolith so that 3D Realms could focus efforts on "Shadow Warrior", another Build engine game slated for release the same year.


title: Blood (video game)

text: "Blood" was one of two games (the other being "Shadow Warrior") that took advantage of the Build engine's support for voxel objects in the game world. "Blood" used this for weapon and ammo pickups, power-ups, and occasionally decorations, such as the tombstones in the first level of episode one, "Cradle to Grave".


title: Blood (video game)

text: The Build engine was enhanced for "Blood" to allow new lighting effects, real-time shadows, and simulated "rooms above rooms".


title: Blood (video game)

text: A central feature of "Blood" is an abundant (and often exaggerated) graphic violence, from which the game derives its name. Enemies can be blown to pieces, and the pieces often rain down on the player. Zombies' heads can be shot off and then kicked around like footballs, spewing fountains of blood. Enemies scream if set on fire or are otherwise injured, making sound an integral part of the violent atmosphere of "Blood". The levels themselves are designed with the same spirit, as corpses, torture victims, and several grotesque situations are witnessed in the game. Collectively, these features caused some public concern about "Blood", leading to a censored re-release of the game.


title: Blood (video game)

text: 3D Realms sold Monolith the intellectual property (IP) so 3D Realms could make "Shadow Warrior". Monolith sold the publishing rights, but not the IP for "Blood" and its sequel to GT Interactive. GT Interactive was later acquired by Infogrames, which has since been renamed to Atari. Monolith itself was acquired by Warner Bros., which owns the "Blood" trademark and intellectual property. Atari re-released "Blood" and "Blood 2" on Steam and GOG, but unlike other Build engine games ("Duke Nukem 3D" and "Shadow Warrior"), the source code for "Blood" has not yet been released.


title: Blood (video game)

text: Night Dive Studios was commissioned by Atari to create an enhanced version of "Blood." It was released on May 9, 2019 under the title "Blood: Fresh Supply". The new version featured compatibility with modern operating systems and native support for monitor resolutions up to 4K, anti-aliasing, ambient occlusion and interpolation among other improvements.


title: Blood (video game)

text: "Blood" received "generally favorable" reviews from professional critics, according to review aggregator website Metacritic based on seven reviews. Critics especially praised the intricate and creative level designs, humorous wisecracks and pop culture references, over-the-top gore, variety of settings, and inventive, unconventional weaponry. "GameSpot" particularly noted that the Voodoo doll "might be the coolest little accessory to ever grace the weapons belt of a first-person killing machine".


title: Blood (video game)

text: A few criticisms were voiced about the game, but did not find consensus among reviewers. For example, while "GameSpot" said the game "is just too damn hard", citing how quickly enemies can deal damage, "Next Generation" asserted that "the game is lengthy without being too tedious, and challenging without being too difficult". "GamePro" followed up its own criticisms by concluding: ""Blood"s flaws are easily swept aside when your guns start blasting and the bodies start falling".


title: Blood (video game)

text: GamingOnLinux reviewer Hamish Paul Wilson decided in a 2015 retrospective that "Blood" was easily the best of the three major Build engine games, stating that "Blood" was "one of the most underrated shooters of the whole decade. "Blood" arguably built more on the legacy of "Duke Nukem 3D" than "Shadow Warrior" did, taking its gameplay to sophisticated new heights and offering its referential overtones with an even greater degree of refinement". Player Attack described "Blood" in a 2011 article as "the best of the Build engine games after "Duke Nukem 3D", with its combination of scary atmosphere, great level design and challenging gameplay putting it above the rest".


title: Blood (video game)

text: More than 350,000 copies of "Blood" have been downloaded. This number reached one million in its first six months of release.


title: Blood (video game)

text: The manwha series "Priest" created by Hyung Min-woo was inspired by "Blood." An interview with Hyung in "Priest, Vol. 3: Requiem for the Damned" states that the comic was influenced by the game, which featured a similar horror-Western aesthetic and undead protagonist. The manhwa was adapted into the 2011 American horror film of the same name.


title: Kellen Mond

text: Kellen Louis Mond (born June 22, 1999) is an American football quarterback for the Cleveland Browns of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football at Texas A&M, where he was a four-year starter and became one of three SEC quarterbacks to record over 9,000 career passing yards with 1,500 rushing yards. Mond was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings in the third round of the 2021 NFL Draft.


title: Kellen Mond

text: Mond originally attended Ronald Reagan High School in San Antonio, Texas, before transferring to IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, prior to his senior year. As a senior, he passed for 1,936 yards and 20 touchdowns and rushed for 775 yards and 18 touchdowns. Mond was rated by the Rivals.com recruiting network as a five-star recruit and was ranked as the number one dual-threat quarterback in his class. He committed to Texas A&M University to play college football under head coach Kevin Sumlin.


title: Kellen Mond

text: Mond entered his freshman year at Texas A&M in 2017 as a backup to Nick Starkel, but took over as the starter after Starkel was injured during the first game of the season against the UCLA Bruins. In his first career start, he completed 12-of-21 passes for 105 yards and a touchdown. Prior to Texas A&M's first game of the NCAA 2018-2019 season, Jimbo Fisher, who was in his first year as Texas A&M's head coach, replacing Kevin Sumlin, announced that Kellen Mond would be the starting quarterback for the season opener. Despite an initial feeling that Mond and Nick Starkel would continue to battle for the job after a long competition over the summer, Mond held on to the starting position for the remainder of the season, guiding the Aggies to an 8–4 record and a #19 ranking in the regular season College Football Playoff rankings. The Aggies' season culminated in a historic 74–72 seven-overtime win over SEC rival LSU. This game set several records, including the most points ever scored in a game in the FBS era, and tied a handful of other games for the longest college football game of all time with seven overtimes.


title: Kellen Mond

text: Entering the 2019 season, expectations were higher for Mond, though his overall performance failed to meet them. While his pass completion rate improved, his total yards and yards-per-attempt slightly decreased. In the 2020 season, however, he was able to improve with career-highs in pass completion percentage (63.5%) and yards-per-attempt (7.6). The Aggies finished the 2020 season 9–1 and ranked fourth in the final AP Poll. Mond performed at the 2021 Senior Bowl and was named its most valuable player.


title: Kellen Mond

text: He finished his career at Texas A&M as one of three SEC quarterbacks, along with Tim Tebow and Dak Prescott, to record over 9,000 career passing yards with 1,500 rushing yards.


title: Kellen Mond

text: Mond was selected by the Minnesota Vikings in the third round with the 66th overall pick in the 2021 NFL Draft. He signed his four-year rookie contract with Minnesota on June 15, 2021.


title: Kellen Mond

text: Ahead of the Vikings' Week 17 matchup against the Green Bay Packers, Kirk Cousins was ruled out after testing positive for COVID-19. Head coach Mike Zimmer named Mond the backup to Sean Mannion. Mond's debut came in the fourth quarter after Zimmer benched Mannion. He completed two of three passes for five yards in the 37–10 loss.


title: Spoken language

text: A spoken language is a language produced by articulate sounds or (depending on one's definition) manual gestures, as opposed to a written language. An oral language or vocal language is a language produced with the vocal tract in contrast with a sign language, which is produced with the body and hands.


title: Spoken language

text: The term "spoken language" is sometimes used to mean only oral languages, especially by linguists, excluding sign languages and making the terms 'spoken', 'oral', 'vocal language' synonymous. Others refer to sign language as "spoken", especially in contrast to written transcriptions of signs.


title: Spoken language

text: In spoken language, much of a speaker's meaning is determined by the context. That contrasts with written language in which more of the meaning is provided directly by the text. In spoken language, the truth of a proposition is determined by common-sense reference to experience, but in written language, a greater emphasis is placed on logical and coherent argument. Similarly, the spoken language tends to convey subjective information, including the relationship between the speaker and the audience. (Conversation, in formal or informal settings is an example.) Written language, on the other hand, is the common mode used to convey objective information.


title: Spoken language

text: Both vocal and sign languages are composed of words. In vocal languages, words are made up from a limited set of vowels and consonants, and often tone. In sign languages, words are made up from a limited set of shapes, orientations, locations movements of the hands, and often facial expressions; in both cases, the building blocks are called phonemes. In both vocal and sign languages, words are grammatically and prosodically linked into phrases, clauses, and larger units of discourse.


title: Spoken language

text: The relationship between spoken language and written language is complex. Within the fields of linguistics, the current consensus is that speech is an innate human capability, and written language is a cultural invention. However, some linguists, such as those of the Prague school, argue that written and spoken language possess distinct qualities which would argue against written language being dependent on spoken language for its existence.


title: Spoken language

text: Hearing children acquire as their first language the language that is used around them, whether vocal, cued (if they are sighted), or signed. Deaf children can do the same with Cued Speech or sign language if either visual communication system is used around them. Vocal language are traditionally taught to them in the same way that written language must be taught to hearing children. (See oralism.) Teachers give particular emphasis on spoken language with children who speak a different primary language outside of the school. For the child it is considered important, socially and educationally, to have the opportunity to understand multiple languages.


The 2020–21 UEFA Champions League knockout phase began on 16 February with the round of 16 and ended on 29 May 2021 with the final at the Estádio do Dragão in Porto, Portugal, to decide the champions of the 2020–21 UEFA Champions League. A total of 16 teams competed in the knockout phase.


title: 2020–21 UEFA Champions League knockout phase

text: The knockout phase involves the sixteen teams which qualified as winners and runners-up of each of the eight groups in the group stage.


text: Each tie in the knockout phase, apart from the final, was played over two legs, with each team playing one leg at home. The team that scored more goals on aggregate over the two legs advanced to the next round. If the aggregate score was level, the away goals rule was applied, i.e. the team that scored more goals away from home over the two legs advanced. If away goals were also equal, then extra time was played. The away goals rule was again applied after extra time, i.e. if there were goals scored during extra time and the aggregate score is still level, the visiting team advanced by virtue of more away goals scored. If no goals were scored during extra time, the winners were decided by a penalty shoot-out. In the final, which was played as a single match, if the score was level at the end of normal time, extra time would be played, followed by a penalty shoot-out if the score was still level.


text: For the quarter-finals and semi-finals, teams from the same city were not scheduled to play at home on the same day or on consecutive days, due to logistics and crowd control. To avoid such scheduling conflict, if the two teams were drawn to play at home for the same leg, the order of legs of the tie involving the team with the lower domestic ranking in the qualifying season was reversed from the original draw.


text: The first legs were played on 16, 17, 23 and 24 February, and the second legs were played on 9, 10, 16 and 17 March 2021.


text: The first legs were played on 6 and 7 April, and the second legs were played on 13 and 14 April 2021.


text: The draw for the semi-finals was held on 19 March 2021, 12:00 CET, after the quarter-final draw.<section end=SF />


text: The final was played on 29 May 2021 at the Estádio do Dragão in Porto. A draw was held on 19 March 2021, after the quarter-final and semi-final draws, to determine the "home" team for administrative purposes.


title: Koch snowflake

text: The Koch snowflake (also known as the Koch curve, Koch star, or Koch island) is a fractal curve and one of the earliest fractals to have been described. It is based on the Koch curve, which appeared in a 1904 paper titled "On a Continuous Curve Without Tangents, Constructible from Elementary Geometry" by the Swedish mathematician Helge von Koch.


title: Koch snowflake

text: The Koch snowflake can be built up iteratively, in a sequence of stages. The first stage is an equilateral triangle, and each successive stage is formed by adding outward bends to each side of the previous stage, making smaller equilateral triangles. The areas enclosed by the successive stages in the construction of the snowflake converge to formula_1 times the area of the original triangle, while the perimeters of the successive stages increase without bound. Consequently, the snowflake encloses a finite area, but has an infinite perimeter.


title: Koch snowflake

text: The Koch snowflake can be constructed by starting with an equilateral triangle, then recursively altering each line segment as follows:


title: Koch snowflake

text: The Koch snowflake is the limit approached as the above steps are followed indefinitely. The Koch curve originally described by Helge von Koch is constructed using only one of the three sides of the original triangle. In other words, three Koch curves make a Koch snowflake.


title: Koch snowflake

text: A Koch curve–based representation of a nominally flat surface can similarly be created by repeatedly segmenting each line in a sawtooth pattern of segments with a given angle.


title: Koch snowflake

text: Each iteration multiplies the number of sides in the Koch snowflake by four, so the number of sides after formula_2 iterations is given by:


title: Koch snowflake

text: If the original equilateral triangle has sides of length formula_4, the length of each side of the snowflake after formula_2 iterations is:


title: Koch snowflake

text: The Koch curve has an infinite length, because the total length of the curve increases by a factor of formula_9 with each iteration. Each iteration creates four times as many line segments as in the previous iteration, with the length of each one being formula_10 the length of the segments in the previous stage. Hence, the length of the curve after formula_2 iterations will be formula_12 times the original triangle perimeter and is unbounded, as formula_2 tends to infinity.


title: Koch snowflake

text: An formula_16-dimensional measure exists, but has not been calculated so far. Only upper and lower bounds have been invented.


title: Koch snowflake

text: In each iteration a new triangle is added on each side of the previous iteration, so the number of new triangles added in iteration formula_2 is:


title: Koch snowflake

text: The area of each new triangle added in an iteration is formula_19 of the area of each triangle added in the previous iteration, so the area of each triangle added in iteration formula_2 is:


title: Koch snowflake

text: where formula_22 is the area of the original triangle. The total new area added in iteration formula_2 is therefore:


title: Koch snowflake

text: Thus, the area of the Koch snowflake is formula_1 of the area of the original triangle. Expressed in terms of the side length formula_4 of the original triangle, this is:


title: Koch snowflake

text: The volume of the solid of revolution of the Koch snowflake about an axis of symmetry of the initiating equilateral triangle of unit side is formula_33


title: Koch snowflake

text: The Koch snowflake is self-replicating with six smaller copies surrounding one larger copy at the center. Hence, it is an irrep-7 irrep-tile (see Rep-tile for discussion).


title: Koch snowflake

text: The fractal dimension of the Koch curve is formula_34. This is greater than that of a line (formula_35) but less than that of Peano's space-filling curve (formula_36).


title: Koch snowflake

text: It is possible to tessellate the plane by copies of Koch snowflakes in two different sizes. However, such a tessellation is not possible using only snowflakes of one size. Since each Koch snowflake in the tessellation can be subdivided into seven smaller snowflakes of two different sizes, it is also possible to find tessellations that use more than two sizes at once. Koch snowflakes and Koch antisnowflakes of the same size may be used to tile the plane.


title: Koch snowflake

text: Following von Koch's concept, several variants of the Koch curve were designed, considering right angles (quadratic), other angles (Cesàro), circles and polyhedra and their extensions to higher dimensions (Sphereflake and Kochcube, respectively)


title: Koch snowflake

text: Squares can be used to generate similar fractal curves. Starting with a unit square and adding to each side at each iteration a square with dimension one third of the squares in the previous iteration, it can be shown that both the length of the perimeter and the total area are determined by geometric progressions. The progression for the area converges to formula_40 while the progression for the perimeter diverges to infinity, so as in the case of the Koch snowflake, we have a finite area bounded by an infinite fractal curve. The resulting area fills a square with the same center as the original, but twice the area, and rotated by formula_41 radians, the perimeter touching but never overlapping itself.


title: Minesweeper

text: A minesweeper is a small warship designed to remove or detonate naval mines. Using various mechanisms intended to counter the threat posed by naval mines, minesweepers keep waterways clear for safe shipping.


title: Minesweeper

text: The earliest known usage of the naval mine dates to the Ming dynasty. Dedicated minesweepers, however, only appeared many centuries later during the Crimean War, where they were deployed by the British. The Crimean War minesweepers were rowboats trailing grapnels to snag mines. Minesweeping technology picked up in the Russo-Japanese War, using aging torpedo boats as minesweepers.


title: Minesweeper

text: In Britain, naval leaders recognized before the outbreak of World War I that the development of sea mines was a threat to the nation's shipping and began efforts to counter the threat. Sir Arthur Wilson noted the real threat of the time was blockade aided by mines and not invasion. The function of the fishing fleet's trawlers with their trawl gear was recognized as having a natural connection with mine clearance and, among other things, trawlers were used to keep the English Channel clear of mines. A Trawler Section of the Royal Navy Reserve became the predecessor of the mine sweeping forces with specially designed ships and equipment to follow. These reserve Trawler Section fishermen and their trawlers were activated, supplied with mine gear, rifles, uniforms and pay as the first minesweepers. The dedicated, purpose-built minesweeper first appeared during World War I with the Flower-class minesweeping sloop. By the end of the War, naval mine technology had grown beyond the ability of minesweepers to detect and remove mines.


title: Minesweeper

text: Minesweeping made significant advancements during World War II. Combatant nations quickly adapted ships to the task of minesweeping, including Australia's 35 civilian ships that became auxiliary minesweepers. Both Allied and Axis countries made heavy use of minesweepers throughout the war. Historian Gordon Williamson wrote that "Germany's minesweepers alone formed a massive proportion of its total strength, and are very much the unsung heroes of the Kriegsmarine." Naval mines remained a threat even after the war ended, and minesweeping crews were still active after VJ Day.


title: Minesweeper

text: After the Second World War, Allied countries worked on new classes of minesweepers ranging from 120-ton designs for clearing estuaries to 735-ton oceangoing vessels. The United States Navy even used specialized mechanized landing craft to sweep shallow harbors in and around North Korea.


title: Minesweeper

text: , the U.S. Navy had four minesweepers deployed to the Persian Gulf to address regional instabilities. The Royal Navy also has four minesweepers stationed in the Persian Gulf as part of the 9th Mine Counter-Measures Squadron.


title: Minesweeper

text: Minesweepers are equipped with mechanical or electrical devices, known as "sweeps", for disabling mines. The modern minesweeper is designed to reduce the chances of it detonating mines itself; it is soundproofed to reduce its acoustic signature and often constructed using wood, fiberglass or non-ferrous metal, or is degaussed to reduce its magnetic signature.


title: Minesweeper

text: Mechanical sweeps are devices designed to cut the anchoring cables of moored mines, and preferably attach a tag to help the subsequent localization and neutralization. They are towed behind the minesweeper, and use a towed body (e.g. oropesa, paravane) to maintain the sweep at the desired depth and position. Influence sweeps are equipment, often towed, that emulate a particular ship signature, thereby causing a mine to detonate. The most common such sweeps are magnetic and acoustic generators.


title: Minesweeper

text: There are two modes of operating an influence sweep: MSM (mine setting mode) and TSM (target simulation mode or target setting mode). MSM sweeping is founded on intelligence on a given type of mine, and produces the output required for detonation of this mine. If such intelligence is unavailable, the TSM sweeping instead reproduces the influence of the friendly ship that is about to transit the area. TSM sweeping thus clears mines directed at this ship without knowledge of the mines. However, mines directed at other ships might remain.


title: Minesweeper

text: The minesweeper differs from a minehunter; the minehunter actively detects and neutralises individual mines. Minesweepers are in many cases complementary to minehunters, depending on the operation and the environment; a minesweeper is, in particular, better suited to clearing open-water areas with large numbers of mines. Both kinds of ships are collectively called mine countermeasure vessels (MCMV), a term also applied to a vessel that combines both roles. The first such ship was , also the first warship to be constructed from fiberglass.


title: 3 Arts Entertainment

text: 3 Arts Entertainment is an American talent management and television/film production company founded by Erwin Stoff, Michael Rotenberg and Howard Klein in 1991.


title: 3 Arts Entertainment

text: The company has gone on to produce TV shows such as "King of the Hill", "The Office", "Everybody Hates Chris", "Parks and Recreation", "The Mindy Project", "Brooklyn Nine-Nine", "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia", "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt", "American Vandal" as well as produce films "Edge of Tomorrow", "Unbroken" and "". The first movie the company produced was the National Lampoon movie "Loaded Weapon 1", which was released on February 5, 1993. The company subsequently set up a deal with 20th Century Fox in 1993. In 1996, 3 Arts made an alliance with CBS and Sony Pictures to launch 3 Arts Television which was dissolved by the end of the following year when it failed to produce any primetive TV projects for the network.


title: 3 Arts Entertainment

text: Erwin Stoff founded the company with Michael Rotenberg and Howard Klein, who are all producers and talent managers. Managers Dave Becky, David Miner, Molly Madden and Nick Frenkel work at 3 Arts. In 2003, 3 Arts received a television deal at 20th Century Fox Television. In May 2018, Lionsgate acquired a majority stake in the company.


title: Nicholas Irving

text: Nicholas Irving (born November 28, 1986) is an American author and former soldier. He was a special operations sniper in the 3rd Ranger Battalion for the U.S. Army.


title: Nicholas Irving

text: Irving joined the U.S. military, intending to join the Navy SEALs, but he failed a colorblindness test and joined the United States Army Rangers, serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. Irving was issued a SR-25 rifle, which he nicknamed "Dirty Diana".


title: Nicholas Irving

text: In 2016, Irving was one of four military leaders to serve as coaches on the reality show "American Grit" with John Cena.


title: Nicholas Irving

text: Starting in August 2017, Irving began appearing as a recurring guest on the popular firearm YouTube channel, Demolition Ranch. He has also made appearances on other YouTube channels such as, LunkersTV and Insider.


title: Nicholas Irving

text: In 2015, he wrote and published with Gary Brozek "The Reaper: Autobiography of One of the Deadliest Special Ops Snipers," a "New York Times" bestseller about his military career during the War on Terror. On February 2, 2015, The Weinstein Company acquired the television rights to make a miniseries out of the autobiography. On March 5, 2015, NBC picked up the miniseries from Weinstein.


title: Nicholas Irving

text: In late 2017 Irving revealed in a podcast that the miniseries has been scrapped, but a movie based on the book was in preproduction.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: Robert Stewart, 2nd Marquess of Londonderry, (18 June 1769 – 12 August 1822), usually known as Lord Castlereagh, derived from the courtesy title Viscount Castlereagh ( ) by which he was styled from 1796 to 1821, was an Anglo-Irish politician and statesman. As secretary to the Viceroy of Ireland, he worked to suppress the Rebellion of 1798 and to secure passage in 1800 of the Irish Act of Union. As the Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom from 1812, he was central to the management of the coalition that defeated Napoleon, and was British plenipotentiary at the Congress of Vienna. In the post-war government of Lord Liverpool, Castlereagh was seen to support harsh measures against agitation for reform. He killed himself while in office in 1822.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: Early in his career in Ireland, and following a visit to revolutionary France, Castlereagh recoiled from the democratic politics of his Presbyterian constituents in Ulster. Crossing the floor of the Irish Commons in support of the government, he took a leading role in detaining members of the republican conspiracy, the United Irishmen, his former political associates among them. After the 1798 Rebellion, as Chief Secretary for Ireland he pushed the Act of Union through the Irish Parliament. But it was without the Catholic Emancipation that both he and British Prime Minister William Pitt believed should have accompanied the creation of a United Kingdom.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: From 1805 Castlereagh served under Pitt and then the Duke of Portland as Secretary of State for War. In 1809 he was obliged to resign after fighting a duel with the Foreign Secretary, George Canning, in a dispute over the Walcheren Expedition. In 1812 Castlereagh returned to government serving Lord Liverpool as Foreign Secretary and as Leader of the House of Commons.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: Castlereagh organised and financed the alliance that defeated Napoleon, bringing the powers together at the Treaty of Chaumont in 1814. After Napoleon's second abdication in 1815, Castlereagh worked with the European courts represented at the Congress of Vienna to frame the territorial, and broadly conservative, continental order that was to hold until mid-century. He blocked harsh terms against France believing that a treaty based on vengeance and retaliation would upset a necessary balance of powers. France was restored to the frontiers of 1791, and her British-occupied colonies were returned. In 1820 Castlereagh enunciated a policy of non-intervention, proposing that Britain hold herself aloof from continental affairs.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: After 1815, at home, Castlereagh supported repressive measures that linked him in public opinion to the Peterloo Massacre of 1819. Widely reviled in both Ireland and Great Britain, overworked, and personally distressed, Castlereagh committed suicide in 1822.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: No British statesman of the 19th century reached the same level of international influence...But very few have been so maligned by their own countrymen and so abused in history. This shy and handsome Ulsterman is perhaps the most hated domestic political figure in both modern British and Irish political history.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: Robert was born on 18 June 1769 in 28 Henry Street, in Dublin's Northside. He was the second and only surviving child of Robert Stewart (the elder) and his wife Sarah Frances Seymour-Conway. His parents married in 1766.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: The Stewarts had been a Scottish family settled in Donegal whose fortunes had been transformed by the marriage of Castlereagh's grandfather Alexander Stewart to an East India Company heiress. The legacy from Robert Cowan, the former Governor of Bombay, allowed for the purchase of extensive properties in north Down including the future family demesne, Mount Stewart, on the shores of Strangford Lough.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: As a Presbyterian (a "Dissenter"), rather than a member of the established Anglican Communion (the Church of Ireland), Castlereagh's father, Robert Stewart, had an easy reputation as a friend of reform. In 1771, and again in 1776, he was elected from County Down to the Irish House of Commons. In 1778 he joined the Irish Volunteer movement, raising an armed and drilled company from his estates. In parliament and among the Volunteers, he was a friend and supporter of Lord Charlemont and his policy. This favoured Volunteer agitation for the independence of Ireland's Acendancy parliament, but not for its reform and not for Catholic emancipation.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: In 1798, the elder Robert Stewart was created Baron Londonderry in 1789, Viscount Castlereagh in 1795, and Earl of Londonderry in 1796 by King George III, enabling him from the Act of Union of 1800 onwards to sit at Westminster in the House of Lords as an Irish representative peer. In 1816 he was elevated to Marquess of Londonderry


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: Young Robert's mother died in childbirth when he was a year old. Lady Sarah Frances Seymour-Conway had been the daughter of Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Marquess of Hertford and Isabella Fitzroy. Lord Hertford was a former British Ambassador to France (1764–65) and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1765–66). Isabella Fitzroy was a daughter of Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Grafton.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: Five years later his father married Lady Frances Pratt, the independent-minded daughter of Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden (1714–94), a leading English jurist and prominent political supporter of both William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, and his son, William Pitt the Younger. The marriages of the elder Robert Stewart linked his family with the upper ranks of English nobility and political elites. The Camden connection was to be especially important for the political careers of the older and the younger Robert Stewart. By Frances Pratt, his father's second wife, young Robert had eleven half-siblings, including his half-brother Charles William Stewart (later Vane), Baron Stewart of Stewart's Court and Ballylawn in County Donegal (1814) and 3rd Marquess of Londonderry (1822).


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: The younger Robert Stewart had recurring health problems throughout his childhood, and was sent to The Royal School, Armagh, rather than to England for his secondary education. At the encouragement of Charles Pratt, first Earl of Camden, who took a great interest in him and treated him as if he had been a grandson by blood, he later attended St. John's College, Cambridge (1786–87), where he applied himself with greater diligence than expected from an aristocrat and excelled in his first-year examinations. But he then withdrew, pleading an illness that he admitted to Camden was something "which cannot be directly acknowledged before women", i.e. something sexually transmitted.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: In the summer of 1790, Stewart was elected as a Member of the Irish Parliament for his family's Down constituency. In a county with an exceptionally large number of enfranchised freeholders, his campaign pitted him in a popular contest against the nominees of the county's established Ascendancy families, and on that basis alone he won the sympathy and support of Belfast's Northern Whig Club. But it was his conscious strategy to capitalise on strong Volunteer and reform sentiments.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: In a letter to the "Belfast Newsletter" he declared for parliamentary reform (reform that would have abolished the pocket boroughs that allowed Ascendancy families, in addition to their presence in the House of Lords, to control seats in the Commons). In doing so, he won the support of many who, later despairing of parliamentary "patriots", were to enter the ranks of the United Irishmen.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: In the House of Commons, Stewart spurned an offer of a place in government and sat as an independent. But otherwise, he made little impression and was judged a poor speaker.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: In July 1791, having both read "Reflections on the Revolution in France" by Edmund Burke (a family friend) and learnt that in Belfast Irish Volunteers were preparing to celebrate Bastille Day, Stewart decided to judge events in France for himself. In Spa in the Austrian Netherlands he had difficulty in empathising with the wholly reactionary outlook of the French emigres. But after passing into France in November, he conceded that while he did not "like" the government of Ireland, "I prefer it to a revolution".


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: Stewart was not convinced of Burke's contention that the revolution would produce a French Cromwell, although he recognised that outside Paris the principles of liberty were not as entrenched. As the revolutionary factions, the Jacobins and Girondins, struggled for supremacy in the capital, it was "the nation at large" that would "ultimately decide between them".


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: In "an early example of [his] scepticism about foreign intervention", Stewart argued it was beyond her neighbours to give government to France. The Austrian Emperor might march his troops to Paris, but unless he was prepared to keep them there the Ancien Régime restored would again collapse.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: Stewart returned to the Austrian Netherlands in the autumn of 1792, but was unable to cross the now military frontlines into France. However, news of the Jacobin triumph in Paris, and, following her victory at Valmy, the prospect of France carrying defence of the revolution beyond her frontiers, convinced him that "it would not be long before he had to face his own 'Jacobins' in Ireland".


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: When in 1793 he returned to the parliament in Dublin, Stewart spoke in favour of the Catholic Relief Bill. In doing so he was supporting the policy of British Prime Minister William Pitt who determined that Catholic opinion be conciliated in preparation for the impending war with the new, anti-clericalist, French Republic. While calling for the removal of their remaining civil disabilities, Stewart stopped short of endorsing the bill's extension to Catholics of the right to vote on the same forty-shilling freehold terms as Protestants. He noted that to now deprive the Ascendancy of their pocket boroughs would result in Catholics forming an overwhelming majority of those represented in the Irish Parliament. "Can a Protestant superstructure", he asked, "long continue supported on such base?"


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: However, his loyalty to Pitt now seemed unconditional. In April 1793, Stewart was gazetted a Lieutenant-Colonel in the government's new militia, its replacement for the now proscribed Volunteers.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: In 1794, partly as a result of the promotion of Stewart's interests by his Camden connections, Stewart was offered the Government-controlled seat of Tregony in Cornwall. In 1796, he transferred to a seat for the Suffolk constituency of Orford, which was in the interest of his mother's family, the Seymour-Conways (Marquess of Hertford). He held these seats simultaneously with his county seat in Ireland.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: In 1794, Stewart married Amelia (Emily) Hobart, a daughter of John Hobart, 2nd Earl of Buckinghamshire, a former British Ambassador to Russia (1762–65) and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1776–80). Her mother, Caroline Conolly, was the granddaughter of William Conolly, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons in the early 18th century and one of the wealthiest landowners in Ireland. Caroline's brother, Thomas Conolly, was married to Louisa Lennox, sister of Emily FitzGerald, Duchess of Leinster, whose son and Emily's cousin-by-marriage, Lord Edward FitzGerald was a leader of the United Irishmen and one of their martyrs in the early stages of the Irish Rebellion of 1798.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: Emily Stewart was well known as a hostess for her husband in both Ireland and London and during some of his most important diplomatic missions. In later years she was a leader of Regency London high society as one of the Lady Patronesses of Almack's. She is noted in contemporary accounts for her attractiveness, volubility and eccentricities. By all accounts, the two remained devoted to each other to the end, but they had no children. The couple did, however, care for the young Frederick Stewart, while his father, Stewart's half-brother, Charles, was serving in the army.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: In 1795, Pitt replaced as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland William Fitzwilliam, 4th Earl Fitzwilliam, who had urged that the emancipation of Catholics be completed with their admission to parliament, with Stewart's uncle, the 2nd Earl Camden. Camden's arrival in Dublin was greeted with riots, and that year Stewart crossed the floor of the Irish House of Commons to join the supporters of the government, the Dublin Castle executive. Stewart became an essential adviser to the inexperienced and unpopular Lord Lieutenant, who was Stewart's senior by only ten years.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: In August 1796 Stewart's father was elevated to the title Earl of Londonderry. As his son, Stewart was henceforth styled Viscount Castlereagh.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: In September, acting upon evidence of communication with the French, Castlereagh personally led troops in a series of raids in Belfast and its environs (the "Siege of Belfast") that netted leading members of the United Irishmen. Among them were men who had supported him in the election of 1790. Originating in Belfast among Presbyterian celebrants of the American and French revolutions, the republican conspiracy had spread rapidly in Ulster and, in league with the Catholic Defenders across the Irish midlands. In County Down, Castlereagh's father had difficulty in raising a loyalist yeomanry among his tenants and eventually, with all rent withheld, Mount Stewart was placed under armed guard.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: In December 1796, a large French expedition to Ireland failed to effect a landing at Bantry Bay, but due only to contrary winds. As an officer in the militia, Castlereagh was well apprised of the lack of preparedness to meet a combination of professional French soldiery and the countrywide insurgency it would likely trigger.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: In February 1797, Castlereagh was at last appointed to the Dublin Castle administration as Keeper of the King's Signet for Ireland. Following a declaration of martial law he was made both a Lord of the Treasury and a Member of the Privy Council of Ireland (1797–1800). At the urging of Camden, Castlereagh assumed many of the onerous duties of the often-absent Chief Secretary for Ireland who was responsible for the day-to-day administration and asserting the influence of Dublin Castle in the House of Commons. In this capacity, and after March 1798 as Acting Chief Secretary, Castlereagh played a key role in crushing the United Irish rising when it came in May and June 1798.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: In November 1798, Castlereagh was formally appointed to the office of Chief Secretary by Camden's successor, Lord Cornwallis.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: Castlereagh's general policy was to offer immediate clemency to the rebel rank-and-file (many of whom were then inducted into the yeomanry) while focusing on the politically committed leadership. But already before the rebellion, he had begun to earn the sobriquet "Bloody Castlereagh".


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: In October 1797 his stepmother, Lady Frances, had petitioned Camden for the life of William Orr. On a charge of administering the United Irish test to two soldiers, Orr had been named on the same warrant that Castlereagh had used in the roundup of the previous September. The judge reportedly broke down in tears as he read the death sentence which the popular journalist Peter Finnerty credited to Castlereagh's insistence on making an example in the face of the growing French fever. (In 1811, Castlereagh successfully had Finnerty convicted for libel.)


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: After the rebellion (during which Mount Stewart was briefly occupied), Castlrereagh was content that leading United Irishmen in the Presbyterian north be allowed American exile. An exception was made in the case of James Porter, executed (again despite the entreaties of Lady Frances) following a court martial before Castlereagh's father, Lord Londonderry. Porter, who had been his family's Presbyterian minister and, in 1790, his election agent, had become a household name in Ulster as the author of a satire of the county gentry, "Billy Bluff", in which Londonderry was serially lampooned as an inarticulate tyrant.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: In 1799, in furtherance of both his own political vision and Pitt's policies, Castlereagh began lobbying in the Irish and British Parliaments for a union that would incorporate Ireland with Great Britain in a United Kingdom. In addition to security against the French, Castlereagh saw the principal merit of bringing Ireland directly under the Crown in the Westminster Parliament as a resolution of what ultimately was the key issue for the governance of the country, the Catholic question. "Linked with England", he reasoned that "the Protestants, feeling less exposed, would be more confident and liberal", while Catholics, reduced to a minority within the larger kingdom, would lower their expectations and moderate their demands.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: During the campaign for the Act of Union, both Castlereagh and Cornwallis had, in good faith, forwarded informal assurances they had received from Pitt's Cabinet to the Irish Catholics that they would be allowed to sit in the new United Kingdom Parliament. However, opposition in England, and not least from the King, George III, obliged Castlereagh to defy what he saw as "the very logic of the Union." The Union bill that, with a generous distribution of titles and favours, he helped put through the Irish Parliament omitted the provision for Catholic emancipation. A separate Irish executive in Dublin was retained, but representation, still wholly Protestant, was transferred to Westminster constituted as the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: Pitt had tried to follow through on his commitment, but when it came to light that the King had approached Henry Addington, an opponent of Catholic emancipation, about becoming Prime Minister to replace him, both Castlereagh and Pitt resigned. Castlereagh would long be held personally responsible by many Catholics in Ireland for the breach of promise and the British Government's failure to remove their remaining political disabilities.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: In the new Parliament of the United Kingdom the tensions within the ruling Tories over Catholic emancipation abated, and after obtaining his desired cessation of hostilities with France (the Peace of Amiens), in July 1802 Henry Addington brought Castlereagh into the Cabinet as President of the Board of Control. His chief task was to mediate the bitter disputes between the Governor-General of India, Richard Wellesley (the brother of Arthur Wellesley) and the Directors of the East India Company, smoothing quarrels while generally supporting Lord Wellesley's policies. In 1805, with the renewed struggle against Napoleon in Europe the overriding priority, he presided over Wellesley's recall and replacement by Lord Cornwallis, and over the subsequent abandonment of most of Wellesley's recent acquisitions in central India.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: While his British interests and responsibilities took up more and more of his time, and his visits home became increasingly brief and rare, Castlereagh still hoped to do something for Ireland from the government benches. On entering the cabinet he wrote to Addington deploring the role of the Orange Order in fostering sectarian violence and to commend putting "the law rigidly in force against all parties" so that in future wars, "our foreign enemies" would not again find an aggrieved domestic ally. More than this, he won cabinet approval for schemes to ensure that the Established Church was not alone in preaching loyalty to the Crown.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: To counter "the democratic party in the [Presbyterian] synod, most of whom, if not engaged in the Rebellion, were deeply infected with its principles", he proposed transforming the existing "Regium Donum," which the Presbyterian body had apportioned equally among its clergy, into a discretionary grant for which each minister had to apply individually with proofs and professions of loyalty. His efforts to extend a similar scheme to the Catholic clergy met with stiffer resistance: priests would not accept support from the Crown while it continued to deny their communicants political equality.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: In Ireland, the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy was slow to forgive Castlereagh for the loss of their parliament. The Dowager Marchioness of Downshire broke her family's electoral truce with the Stewarts in County Down and in July 1805 forced Castlereagh to defend his (now Westminster) parliamentary seat. In the contest he also faced the hostility of unrepentant United Irishmen—men like William Drennan who were to engage in what Castlereagh denounced as "a deep laid scheme again to bring the Presbyterian Synod within the ranks of democracy". (In 1810, with Castlereagh out of office, Drennan and his friends secured a government grant for the education of Presbyterian ministers in their new, distinctly liberal, Belfast Academical Institution).


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: Despite the prestige of a new cabinet position in London, Castlereagh was defeated in a campaign marked by repeated aspersions on his failure to father a child, and by the taunts of those who, otherwise no friends of the Downshires, reminded him of the principles on which he had stood in 1790. News of his discomfiture was met with public celebration in Dublin and Belfast.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: On his return to London, the Treasury found him an alternative English seat, Boroughbridge, a government-controlled rotten borough. Having conciliated the Downshires and able to ride the victories of Arthur Wellesley (future Duke of Wellington), the reputed Ulsterman he had appointed to command in the Peninsular War, in 1812 Castlereagh avenged his humiliation, and recovered the family seat.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: After the renewal of the war against Napoleon, at the urging of Castlereagh and other long-time supporters in 1804 Pitt returned as Prime Minister. Castlereagh entered the new cabinet as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: While pushing forward reforms of the military, he joined Pitt in endorsing an aggressive expeditionary policy. In October 1805, an army under General Sir George Don's was landed at the mouth of the Elbe with a view to liberating Hanover. Following Napoleon's triumph over the Russian and Austrian armies at Austerlitiz in December, it had to be recalled at great cost.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: As the only other member of Pitt's cabinet in the House of Commons, Castlereagh became Pitt's political deputy, taking on ever more burdens as Pitt's health continued to decline. After Pitt's death in 1806, Castlereagh resigned amid the chaos of the Ministry of All the Talents. When that Government collapsed, Castlereagh again became Secretary of State for War and the Colonies in 1807, this time in the ministry of the Duke of Portland.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: In August 1807, he concurred with Foreign Secretary George Canning in authorising a British bombardment of the neutral Danish capital, Copenhagen. They sought to pre-emptively capture or destroy the Dano-Norwegian fleet fearing that it would fall into French hands. The incident precipitated both the Anglo-Russian War of 1807 and Denmark's adherence to the Continental System and alliance with France.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: In 1809, with the Dowager Marchioness of Downshire now manoeuvring against him in London, the debacle of the Walcheren Expedition subjected Castlereagh to particularly hostile scrutiny.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: Canning claimed to have opposed the Walcheren Expedition, to have dismissed the landing on the Dutch coast as an ill-advised, ill-prepared diversion of troops from the Peninsular War. Castlereagh had the support of General Wellesley, and evidence later surfaced that Foreign Secretary himself had interfered with the plan, selecting the Earl of Chatham to command the expedition. The Portland government became increasingly paralysed by disputes between the two men. Portland was in deteriorating health and gave no lead, until Canning threatened resignation unless Castlereagh was removed. When Castlereagh discovered Canning's terms had been accepted, he challenged the Foreign Secretary to a duel.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: The duel was fought on 21 September 1809 on Putney Heath. Canning missed but Castlereagh wounded his opponent in the thigh. There was much outrage that two cabinet ministers had sought to settle their differences in such a manner, and they both felt compelled to resign. Six months later, Canning published a full account of his actions in the affair, but many who had initially rallied to him became convinced Castlereagh had been betrayed by his cabinet colleague.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: Three years later, in 1812, Castlereagh returned to the government, this time as Foreign Secretary, a role in which he served for the next ten years. He also became leader of the House of Commons in the wake of Spencer Perceval's assassination in 1812.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: In his role of Foreign Secretary, he was instrumental in negotiating what has become known as the quadruple alliance between Britain, Austria, Russia, and Prussia at Chaumont in March 1814, in the negotiation of the Treaty of Paris that brought peace with France, and at the Congress of Vienna. The Treaty of Chaumont was part of the final deal offered to Napoleon Bonaparte in 1814. Napoleon rejected it and it never took effect. However, the key terms reaffirmed decisions that had been made already. These decisions were again ratified and put into effect by the Congress of Vienna of 1814–1815. The terms were largely written by Lord Castlereagh, who offered cash subsidies to keep the other armies in the field against Napoleon. Key terms included the establishment of a confederated Germany, the division of Italy into independent states, the restoration of the Bourbon kings of Spain, and the enlargement of the Netherlands to include what in 1830 would become modern Belgium. The treaty of Chaumont became the cornerstone of the European Alliance which formed the balance of power for decades.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: At the Congress of Vienna, Castlereagh designed and proposed a form of collective and collaborative security for Europe, then called a Congress system. In the Congress system, the main signatory powers met periodically (every two years or so) and collectively managed European affairs. This system was used in an attempt to address the Polish-Saxon crisis at Vienna and the question of Greek independence at Laibach. The following ten years saw five European Congresses where disputes were resolved with a diminishing degree of effectiveness. Finally, by 1822, the whole system had collapsed because of the irreconcilable differences of opinion between Britain, Austria, and Russia, and because of the lack of support for the Congress system in British public opinion.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: In the years 1812 to 1822, Castlereagh continued to manage Britain's foreign policy, generally pursuing a policy of continental engagement uncharacteristic of British foreign policy in the nineteenth century. Castlereagh was not an effective public speaker and his diplomatic presentation style was at times abstruse.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: Abolitionist opinion in Britain was strong enough in 1807 to abolish the slave trade in all British possessions—although slavery itself persisted in the colonies until 1833. Abolitionists after 1807 focused on international agreements to abolish the Atlantic slave trade. In 1806, Castlereagh had opposed Wilberforce's abolition bills arguing that the slave trade could not be suppressed by Britain alone, but only by broad international agreement. This, as Foreign Minister, he pursued. He concluded treaties with Portugal, Sweden and Denmark, 1810–1814, whereby they agreed to restrict their trading. These were preliminary to the Congress of Vienna whose Final Act included a declaration condemning the slave trade. Wilberforce, himself, allowed that Castlereagh had secured all that "could be done".


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: Castlereagh cooperated with senior officials to use the Royal Navy to detect and capture slave ships; the freed slaves were sent to freedom in a new British colony of Sierra Leone. He used diplomacy to conclude search-and-seize agreements with all the countries whose ships were trading. There was serious friction with the United States, where the southern slave interest was politically powerful. Washington recoiled at British policing of the high seas. Spain, France and Portugal also relied on the international slave trade to supply their colonial plantations. As more and more diplomatic arrangements were made by Castlereagh, the owners of slave ships started flying false flags of nations that had not agreed, especially the United States. It was illegal under American law for American ships to engage in the slave trade, but the idea of Britain enforcing American laws was unacceptable to Washington. Lord Palmerston continued the Castlereagh policies. Eventually, from 1842 to 1845, an arrangement was reached between London and Washington. With the arrival of a staunchly anti-slavery government in Washington in 1861, the Atlantic slave trade was doomed. In the long run, Castlereagh's strategy on how to stifle the trade proved successful.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: In May 1820 Castlereagh circulated to high officials a major state paper that set the main British policy for the rest of the century. Temperley and Penson call it, "the most famous State Paper in British history and the one of the widest ultimate consequences." Castlereagh called for no British intervention in continental affairs. He argued that the purpose of the Quadruple Alliance was to contain France and put down revolutions. But the Spanish revolt did not threaten European peace nor any of the great powers. Castlereagh said that in actual practice the powers would seldom be able to agree on concerted action, and he pointed out that British public opinion would not support interventions. He admitted that individual states could indeed intervene in affairs in their recognized sphere of interest, such as Austria's intervention in Italy.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: As a press, or squib, writer for the Whigs, Thomas Moore, better remembered as Ireland's national bard, mercilessly lampooned Castlereagh. In what were the "verbal equivalents of the political cartoons of the day","Tom Crib's Memorial to Congress" (1818) and "Fables for the Holy Alliance" (1823), Moore savages Castlereagh's pirouetting with Britain's reactionary continental allies.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: Widely read, so that Moore eventually produced a sequel, was his verse novel "The Fudge Family in Paris" (1818). The family of an Irishman working as a propagandist for Castlereagh in Paris, the Fudges are accompanied by an accomplished tutor and classicist, Phelim Connor. An upright but disillusioned Irish Catholic, his letters to a friend reflect Moore's own views. Connor's regular epistolary denunciations of Castlereagh had two recurrent themes. First is Castlereagh as "the embodiment of the sickness with which Ireland had infected British politics as a consequence of the union": "We sent thee Castlereagh—as heaps of dead Have slain their slayers by the pest they spread". The second is that at the time of the Acts of Union Castlereagh's support for Catholic emancipation had been disingenuous. Castlereagh had been master of "that faithless craft" which can "cart the slave, can swear he shall be freed", but then "basely spurns him" when his "point is gain'd."


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: This imputation that he had betrayed his country, bloodied his hands in 1798 and deliberately deceived Catholics at the time of the Union, reportedly wounded Castlereagh. Moore learnt from a mutual connection that Castlereagh had said that "the humorous and laughing things he did not at all mind, but the verses of the Tutor in the "Fudge Family" were quite another sort of thing, and were in very bad taste indeed". For openly casting the same aspersions against the former Chief Secretary, in 1811 the London-based Irish publisher, and former United Irishman, Peter Finnerty was sentenced to eighteen months for libel.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: Despite his contributions to the defeat of Napoleon and the restoration of peace, Castlereagh became extremely unpopular at home. He was attacked in the House of Commons by the Opposition for his support of repressive European governments, while the public resented his role in handling the Commons side of the divorce of George IV and Queen Caroline. He was also condemned for his association with repressive measures of the Home Secretary, Lord Sidmouth (the former Prime Minister Addington). As Leader of the House of Commons for the Liverpool Government, he was often called upon to defend government policy in the House. He had to support the widely reviled measures taken by Sidmouth and the others, including the infamous Six Acts, to remain in cabinet and continue his diplomatic work. For these reasons, Castlereagh appears with other members of Lord Liverpool's Cabinet in Shelley's poem "The Masque of Anarchy", which was inspired by, and heavily critical of, the Peterloo Massacre:


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: After the death of his father in April 1821, which "greatly afflicted him", Castlereagh became the 2nd Marquess of Londonderry. Although ineligible to continue sitting for an Irish constituency, as a non-representative Irish peer he was eligible to sit in the House of Commons for an English seat. Preparations had already been made, and he was able to vacate Down and swiftly win a by-election for his uncle Lord Hertford's borough of Orford (of which he had been an MP between 1796 and 1797). He also stood in good favour with the new King, George IV, who openly proposed to dismiss Lord Liverpool and appoint Castlereagh in his stead. Castlereagh's relations with his colleagues, however, were beginning to break down, possibly under the influence of paranoia. In March 1821, he told his brother he lacked able support on the government benches, and that his parliamentary labours were 'difficult to endure'.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: By 1822, he was showing clear signs of a form of paranoia or a nervous breakdown. He was severely overworked with both his responsibilities in leading the government in the House and the never-ending diplomacy required to manage conflicts among the other major powers. His oratory in the House had never been of the highest calibre, but now he was considered to be practically incoherent. He spoke of resigning his office if matters did not improve.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: Castlereagh began confessing to what was at the time criminal activity. He had already told his friend Mrs Arbuthnot that he was being blackmailed for an alleged homosexual offence; and at a 9 August meeting with the King, Castlereagh was distracted, said he was being mysteriously watched by a servant, that he had committed all manner of crimes, and remarked, "I am accused of the same crime as the Bishop of Clogher." Percy Jocelyn, who had been the Bishop of Clogher until the previous month, was prosecuted for homosexuality. The King concluded he was unwell and urged him to rest.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: The King then sent a message to Lord Liverpool warning him of Castlereagh's illness; Liverpool initially failed to take the matter seriously and dismissed the message. Later that day, however, Castlereagh met with the Duke of Wellington, his cabinet colleague. Castlereagh behaved much as he had done with the King; Wellington bluntly told Castlereagh he was not in his right mind, advised him to see a doctor, and alerted Castlereagh's personal physician Dr. Charles Bankhead, as well as Castlereagh's friends the Arbuthnots. On the advice of Dr Bankhead, Castlereagh went to his country seat at Woollet Hall in Water Lane, North Cray, Kent, for a weekend stay. He continued to be distressed, ranting wildly about conspiracies and threats to his life, to the concern of his friends and family. No special watch was kept on him, though his wife saw to it that his pistols and razors were locked away.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: Lady Castlereagh wrote to the King informing him that her husband would be unable to continue with official business. The King responded with a note to Castlereagh that his minister did not live to read: "Remember of what importance Your Health is to the Country but above all things to Me".


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: At about 7:30am on the morning of 12 August 1822, he sent for Bankhead, who found him in a dressing room seconds after he had cut his own throat, using a small knife which had been overlooked. He collapsed when Bankhead entered, and died almost instantly.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: Retrospective speculative diagnoses vary. At the time, his brother blamed "the intrigues that were carried on by the women surrounding the king" (the King's mistress, Lady Conyngham, was not on good terms with Castlereagh's wife). George Agar Ellis, on the other hand, concluded Castlereagh was disillusioned by "the nothingness of human grandeurs... the sad effects which disappointment and chagrin may have on a mind in which religion is not uppermost, for I have no doubt that the sad and apparently irretrievable state of affairs in England was the real cause of ... [his] unfortunate state of mind." Later verdicts attribute the problem to overwork and mental stress, or to "a psychotic depressive illness". Other theories link various instances of (at the time) little explained illness to syphilis, possibly contracted at Cambridge.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: An inquest concluded that the act had been committed while insane, avoiding the harsh strictures of a "felo de se" verdict. The verdict allowed Lady Londonderry to see her husband buried with honour in Westminster Abbey near his mentor, William Pitt. The pallbearers included the Prime Minister Lord Liverpool, the former Prime Minister Lord Sidmouth and two future Prime Ministers, the Duke of Wellington and Frederick Robinson. Some radicals, notably William Cobbett, claimed a "cover-up" within the government and viewed the verdict and Castlereagh's public funeral as a damning indictment of the elitism and privilege of the unreformed electoral system. At his funeral on 20 August, the crowds which lined the funeral route were generally respectful and decorous, but some jeering and insults were heard (although not to the level of unanimity projected in the radical press); and there was cheering when the coffin was taken out of the hearse at the Abbey door. A funeral monument was not erected until 1850 when his half-brother and successor, Charles Stewart Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry did so.


title: Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh

text: Some of his opponents were damning in their verdicts. Thomas Creevy defied "any human being to discover a single feature of his character that can stand a moment’s criticism. By experience, good manners and great courage, he managed a corrupt House of Commons pretty well, with some address. This is the whole of his intellectual merit. He had a limited understanding and no knowledge, and his whole life was spent in an avowed, cold-blooded contempt of every honest public principle." Sir Robert Wilson believed that there had never been "a greater enemy to civil liberty or a baser slave."