[53] This is a mistake.--_Editor._ Lord Castlereagh announced his intention of visiting the Continent, with the intention, if not of being present at the congress of Verona, at least of meeting the assembled sovereigns there; and Canning was in hopes that, when his colleague had once left England, he would send in his resignation, and consequently leave him at the head of affairs. But matters were more rapidly drawing to a close: Lord Castlereagh had been unwell for several days, and there was every appearance of extreme nervous irritability about him; some expressions that fell from his lips shewed that he had some sinister ideas in his head, and when he went to take leave of the king, the state of his mind did not escape the monarch, who had a great esteem for him. From that time he constantly complained of a feeling of oppression in his head, and his physician, Dr. Bankhead, reported that when he visited him he was calm, though there were symptoms of impatience and caprice in his manner, and a few short and hurried words were all that he could draw from him; he let fall some observations on the troubles of life which raised apprehensions of suicide, and he was watched: but on Monday, the 12th of August, 1822, just as his physician entered his dressing-room, Lord Castlereagh uttered these few words: "Doctor, let me fall on your arm; it is all over!" and fell with the heaviness of a corpse. The blood was flowing in torrents, from a deep wound which he had inflicted in the carotid artery, with a small penknife he had concealed in a letter-case. Such was the end of the man, who had conducted the affairs of England with so much firmness and consistency for the last ten years!