ENGLISH 
 
 WORTHIES 
 
 EORGE Tanning 
 
 V«/ BY 
 
 F. H, Hill 
 
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 Edited bt ANDREW LANG 
 
 GEOEGE CANNING 
 
 BY 
 
 FEANK H. HILL 
 
 LONDON 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 
 
 1888 
 
 All rights reserved
 
 ^aGaKtrstc press 
 
 EALLANTYXIi, HANSON AND CO, 
 LONDON AND EDINEl'lJGH
 
 LIBRARY 
 N a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA! 
 
 Sl 2- ^^^^^ BARBARA 
 
 PEEFACE. 
 
 The materials of a Life of Cauuiug are scattered over 
 the newspapers of the period which it covers, Hansard 
 and the ' Annual Register,' the Parliamentary papers, 
 and the memoirs and diaries of his contemporaries. 
 Of formal biographies, the late Mr. Robert Bell's in- 
 teresting ' Life of George Canning ' contains a good 
 deal of information, drawn from various sources, espe- 
 cially as regards his family history ; but it is not always 
 accurate, and tlio author writes rather as a man of 
 letters than as a politician. The works of Mr. Augustus 
 Staplcton, wlio was Canning's private secretary towards 
 the close of his career — ' }"*olitical Life of George 
 Canning' and 'George Canning and his Times' — are 
 rather political apologies than biographies, though they 
 contain much valuable material, especially in the letters 
 of Canning to Lord Boringdon, afterwards Earl of 
 Morley. An anonymous work, ' Memoirs of the Right 
 Hon. George Canning,' in two volumes, 'published in 
 1828, appai-ently as a bookseller's speculation to meet
 
 iv Preface 
 
 an interest aroused by Canning's recent deatli, is a fairly- 
 executed compilation from his speeches and from the 
 ' Annual Eegister,' The more important of Canning's 
 speeches, many of them revised by himself, were collected 
 in six volumes by Mr, Robert Therry, who prefixed to 
 them a short biographical sketch. 
 
 It would be difficult to mention any political me- 
 moirs, diaries, or correspondence published during the 
 past half century in which the name of Canning does 
 not occur, and which do not incidentally throw light 
 upon his character or on the impression made by him 
 during his lifetime. Omitting ephemeral publications, 
 and Mr. J. Frank Newton's pamphlet, ' The Early Days 
 of George Canning,' the list would possibly begin with 
 the 'Life of Sir James Mackintosh,' published in 1835, 
 and would for the moment end with Mr. Hodder's 
 ' Life of the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury.' It includes, 
 with others, the ' Diaries and the Letters to his Family 
 of the first Earl of Malmcibnry,' the 'Life and Letters 
 of William Wilberforce,' Lord Stanhope's" 'Life "of Pitt,' 
 and Lord John Russell's ' jMemorials ' and ' Life of 
 C. J. Fox ; ' Mr. Edmund Phipps's 'Memoir of Robert 
 Plume Ward ; ' the ' Diaries and Correspondence of 
 George Rose ; ' Mr. Horace Twiss's ' Life of Lord 
 Eldon ; ' the ' Diaries and Correspondence of I^ord Col- 
 chester ; ' the Duke of Buckingham's ' Memoirs of the 
 Courts and Cabinets of George III., the Prince Regent, 
 and George IV. ; ' the ' Wellington Despatches ; ' Mr.
 
 Preface v 
 
 Pearce's ' Memoirs of the Marquis Wellesley ; ' Dean 
 Pellew's ' Life of Viscount Sidmouth ; ' Mr. Spencer 
 A\'alpole"s ' Life of Spencer Perceval;' Mr. C. D. Youge's 
 ' Life of the Second Earl of Liverpool ; ' the ' Memoirs 
 of Sir Samuel Romilly ; ' Sir Denis Le Marchant's 
 ' Life of Viscount Althorp ; ' Lord Brougham's ' Life and ^ 
 Times '"by himself; the ' Journals and Correspondence 
 of Lord Auckland ; ' Lockliart's ' Life of Sir Walter 
 Scott ; ' the political writings of Cobhett ; the ' Memoirs 
 of^Sir W. Knighton ; ' the ' Works and Memoir of 
 Hookham Frere ; ' the ' Memoirs of Lady Hester Stan- 
 hope ; ' General Greys ' The Early Life and Opinions of 
 Cliarles, Earl Grey ; ' Sydney Smith's ' Plymley Letters;' 
 Sir A. Alison's ' Memoirs of Lord Castlereagh and Sir 
 Charles Stewart, Marquises of Londonderry ; ' M. Mar- 
 cellus's ' Politique de la Restauration ; ' the Journals of 
 Charles Greville, and the Croker Papers. " 
 
 rt is curious to note in nearly all these writers and 
 statesmen, of either party, a deep-seated dislike and dis- 
 trust of Canning, or at best an adverse judgment of his 
 conduct in the most notable controversies of his public 
 lit^. Even tlie friendlv feeling: of Pitt, Malmesburv, 
 and Wilberf'orce is qualified by misgiving. The only 
 tliorough exceptions — unless Mackintosh is to be in- 
 cluded — are to be found, so far asT recollect, in the three 
 im-u who after all kuewhim best — in Newton, Hookham 
 Prere, and Stapleton. The chapter on -The Canning 
 Incident ' in Lord Beaconsfield"s biography of Lord 
 
 o
 
 vi Preface 
 
 George Bentinck deals with Peel's conduct, and not 
 with Canning's. 
 
 Estimates of Canning as a politician and orator will 
 be found in Lord Brougham's ' Statesmen of the Reign 
 of George III.,' where a much more favourable view of 
 him is taken than that given in Brougham's letters 
 published in his ' Life and Times ; ' in Lord Dalling's 
 * Historic Characters ; ' in Sir George Lewis's ' History 
 of British Administrations,' and Mr. Kebbel's ' History 
 of Toryism.' Among the writers of connected histories, 
 Miss Martincau (' History of the Thirty Years' Peace ') 
 is the passionate eulogist of Canning; Sir Archibald 
 Alison (' History of Europe ') a fair, though unfavourable 
 critic. Canning is the Wentworth of Mr. Plumer Ward's 
 novel, ' De Vd1!^,''^-nTris drawn there in far more pleasing 
 colours than those in which he appears in the same 
 writer's ' Diaries.' 
 
 In stating Canning's opinions, as expressed by him- 
 self, I have endeavoured, even when the necessity of 
 abridgment did not admit of quotation, to use, as far as 
 possible, his own phrases. I have quoted freely from 
 the squibs and lampoons represented in ' The Spirit of 
 the PublTc "Journals,' not because of the intrinsic value 
 of these productions, but because, with Wolcot's poems 
 and Canning's own, they illustrate the temper of the 
 time, and the moral and political atmosphere which he 
 breathed.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CIlAl'TER TAGE 
 
 1 
 
 I. The Cannik'j Family . , , . . 
 
 II. Boyhood and Schooldays . . , , 
 
 III. The ' Microcosm ' 
 
 IV. Christ Church 
 
 V. Mental Training and Eecreation 
 
 VI. In London — Introduction to Pitt . 
 
 VII. In the House op Commons .... 
 
 Vlir. At the Foreign Office .... 
 
 IX. The ' Anti-Jacobin ' • . . , . 
 
 X. Domestic Relations ..... 
 
 XI. Attacks on Adding ton 
 
 XII. The Second Titt Admini3t.!Ation . 
 
 XIII. Canning and the Grenville-Fox Ministry 
 
 8 
 17 
 23 
 
 30 
 39 
 
 iS 
 Si 
 GO 
 G9 
 71 
 85 
 92 
 
 XIV. The Portland Administration — Mr. Canning 
 
 Foreign Secretary lOG
 
 viii Contents 
 
 Cll.M'Tiii: PAGE 
 
 XV. Canning, Castlereagh, and Perceval . . 121 
 
 XVI. The Perceval Ministry — Canning Out of Office 127 
 
 XVIL Assassination op Mb. Perceval— Formation of 
 
 THE Liverpool Administration . . . 135 
 
 XVIII. Four Years Out of Offick 141 
 
 XIX. In and Out of Office 118 
 
 XX. Ministerial Leader and Foreign Secretary . 102 
 
 XXr. Canning Prime Minister 183 
 
 XXII. Death of Canning 194 
 
 XXIII. Orator and Statesman — In Private Life . . 199 
 
 INDEX 225
 
 GEOEGE CANNING. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE CANNING FAMILY. 
 
 George Canning, who died in 1827, Prime Minister of 
 England," Was born in London on April 11, 1770. In 
 a letter to Sir Walter Scott, consciously or uncon- 
 sciously parodying a remark of Steele's, L.e described 
 himself as an Irishman accidentally born in London. 
 His immediate ancestors would doubtless have de- 
 scribed themselves as Englishmen eccidentallv born 
 in Ireland. The Canning family liad originally been 
 settled at Bishop's Canynge, in Wiltshire, a village the 
 name of which seems to indicate the lay appropri- 
 ation of an ecclesiastical estate. There they remained 
 until the reign of Henry VII. From the earliest 
 periods of English history the well-known couplet of 
 Pope has expressed a division of family pursuits, if not 
 of faniilv characteristics : 
 
 Boist'rous and rough, your first son is a squii'e, 
 Your second a tradesman, meek ;ind much a liar. 
 
 In the reign of Edward II. a scion of the Canning 
 
 B
 
 2 George Canning 
 
 stock transplanted himself from Wiltsliire to Bristol, 
 then perhaps the chief seat of English industry, and 
 the natural outlet for the ' west countree ' to the sea 
 and the world beyond. The Cannings presently took 
 and long maintained their place among the notables of 
 Bristol. In the reign of Edward III. and Eichard II. 
 William Canning was six times mayor of Bristol, and 
 represented it in successive Parliaments. Another Wil- 
 liam Canning, his grandson, was also mayor of Bristol, 
 and figures in the Rowley forgeries of Chatterton. It 
 was in a chest in St. Mary's Church, known as ' Mr. 
 Canynge's cofre,' that ' the sleepless soul who perished 
 in his pride ' professed to have discovered the manu- 
 scripts to which he gave an air of antiquity by stamp- 
 ing them under his feet, putting them up the chimney, 
 and smearing them with ochre. Another Canning 
 migrated to London, becoming Lord Mayor, and re- 
 ceiving knighthood in I486. A grandson of the elder 
 brother of ' Rowley ' Canning married the daughter of 
 John Salmon and Eustatia his wife, the latter being 
 the heiress of an old AVarwickshire family, the Le Mar- 
 shals of Foxcote. From him the Irish Cannings, and 
 the statesman, are descended. In 1618, some time 
 after the regular plantation of Ulster, James I. granted 
 the manor of Garvagh, in the county Londonderry, to 
 George Canning, youngest son of Richard Canning of 
 Foxcote. It was Strafford's maxim in the subsequent 
 reign that where ' jjlantations did not reach, defective 
 title should extend.' The practice was no doubt older 
 than the maxim. It was deemed prudent to ' line the 
 disaffected Roman Catholic population with Protestant 
 guards,' and for this purpose ' discoverers Avith eagle
 
 The Canning Family 3 
 
 eyes,' as tlie report of an Irish Parliament calls tliem, 
 went about detecting or inventing flaws in title. George 
 Canning of Garvagh appears to have acted as one of 
 the agents of the Corporation of London, to whom the 
 lands forfeited after the rebellion of Tyrone and O'Don- 
 nell were granted — a cession to which the county of 
 Londonderry owes its formation and its name. His 
 descendants had to fight for their estates. William, 
 his son, was killed in the Great Irish Rebellion of 
 Sir Phelim O'Neill. William's son George was attainted 
 by the Irish Parliament in 1689, but the attainder 
 was reversed and his estates were restored to him 
 in 1691. 
 
 George Canning, the father of the statesman, was 
 the eldest son of Stratford Canning of Garvagh, the 
 first bearer of those names afterwards celebrated. 
 His grandmother was the daughter of Robert Strat- 
 ford of Baltinglass. George Canning having formed 
 an attachment which his parents disapproved, be- 
 took himself, on an allowance of 150Z. a year, to 
 London. The lady seems to have been his Rosaline, 
 and not his Juliet, for he did not marrv her. Geors^e 
 Canning read for the bar and was called to it, 
 became a small poet and a political pamphleteer, fre- 
 quented Dodslej^'s shop, married, had children, set up 
 as a Avine merchant, found it impossible to live, and 
 died. He was the author of a poetic ' Epistle from 
 William Lord Russell to William Lord Cavendish,' in 
 which the doctrines of the Whim's of the Revolution are 
 
 o 
 
 set forth, for the benefit of George III. and Bate; and 
 of an English ' Version of the First Three Books of the 
 Anti-Lucretius of Cardinal Polignac,' a Latin poem 
 
 u 2
 
 4 George Canning 
 
 wliich, refuting the doctrines of Epicurus by those of 
 Descartes, was extravagantly praised by Voltaire. The 
 ethics of translation were not then understood as they 
 are now, and Canning takes credit to himself for having 
 corrected the political opinions of his author, making 
 the Italian cardinal speak the language of a patriotic 
 Englishman, An attack upon this book in the ' Cri- 
 tical Review ' led Canning into a fierce controversy with 
 Smollett, whom he suspected of being his assailant, 
 anticipating the feud of English bards and Scotch 
 reviewers, and possibly with as little reason for his 
 suspicion as Lord Byron had for his. The elder George 
 Canning was the author also of 'A Letter to Lord 
 Hillsborough on the Connection between Great Britain 
 and the American Colonies,' defending the policy of the 
 Government on the principles laid down by Dr. John- 
 son in his pamphlet, ' Taxation no Tyranny.' Lord Hills- 
 borough was President of the Board of Trade and Plan- 
 tations, and the letter was naturally enough addressed 
 to him ; an additional reason may perhaps be found in the 
 fact that, like Canning himself, Lord Hillsborough was 
 an Irishman and an Ulster man. If any hope of ad- 
 vancement was entertained by the author, it seems to 
 have been disappointed. The elder Canning published a 
 collected edition of his poetic works, including a further 
 translation of the fourth and fifth books of the ' Anti- 
 Lucretius,' and a prefatory address to his fi'iend and 
 teacher, Seth Thompson, D.D., in wliich he reviews his 
 position : 
 
 How liavc I fall'n beneath fell Fortune's frown ! 
 How seen niy vessel founder in the deep, 
 Her ablest pilot, Prudence, laid to sleep !
 
 The Cannixg Family 5 
 
 But hence Despondence ! liell-born liag, away ! 
 Oft lowers the morn when radiance gilds the day. 
 Hard if all liope were dead, all spirit gone, 
 And every prospect closed at thirty-one ! 
 Then welcome Law ! poor Poesy, farewell ! 
 Though in thy cave the loves and graces dwell, 
 One chancery cavise in solid worth outweiglis 
 Dryden's strong sense and Pope's harmonious lays. 
 
 Unfortunately the one Chancery cause seems to 
 have been as little within Canning's reach as Dryden's 
 sense or Pope's harmony. By way of committing the 
 guidance of his vessel to her ablest pilot, Prudence, 
 Canning married in May 1768, a year after he had 
 published this farewell to poesy, a portionless young 
 lady. Miss Mary Annie Costello, then resident with her 
 grandfather. Sir Guy Dickens, in Wigmore Street, 
 This Sir Guy Dickens appears to be the Colonel Guy 
 Dickens who makes his appearance, now and again, in 
 Carlyle's ' Life of Frederick the Great.' He was Secretary 
 to the Britisli Legation at Berlin at the time of the 
 double-marriage negotiations, and he had a good deal 
 to do with the domestic and ]3olitical troubles of the 
 time, with the escapades of the Crown Prince, and the 
 intrigues which led to his attempt to get to England, 
 his imprisonment, and the execution of the unhappy 
 Katte. Carlyle seems to have taken a liking for Guy 
 Dickens, describing him as a ' brisk, handy military 
 man,' ^ clear, ingenuous, ingenious,' ' with eyes brisk 
 enough, and lips well shut.' Except in the last cha- 
 racteristic, some trace of the statesman may be found 
 in these qualities. Canning, after his marriage, had 
 got deeply into debt, The family consented to pay hia
 
 6 George Cann/ng 
 
 debts on condition of his consenting to cut off the 
 entail of the estates, which vrere then settled upon his 
 younger brother Paul, whose descendants owe the 
 baronage of Garvagh, in the Irish peerage, to the son 
 of the disinherited head of their family. The third 
 brother, Stratford, Avas the father of Sir Stratford 
 Canning, afterwards Lord Stratford de Redcliffe. 
 
 The abilities of the elder George Canning seem 
 to have been just enough to tempt him into lite- 
 rature and politics, and not enough to win success in 
 either. The time of his residence in London, from 
 1757-71, Avas not unfavourable to a literary adventurer. 
 The age of newspapers and reviews and magazines was 
 beginning. Political pamphleteering had received a 
 new development. The booksellers were on the look- 
 out for recruits. It was the period of Johnson's 
 pamphlets, and Churchill's satires, and Junius's letters, 
 of Smollett and of "Wilkes, of the ' Briton ' and of the 
 ' North Briton,' of the ' Monthly Review ' and of the 
 ' Critical Eeview.' A political partisan who could strike 
 hard, quick and home, whose pen was sharply pointed, 
 and dipped in ink that was made of gall, might have 
 made his mark, and earned a daily dinner and an ulti- 
 mate pension. But the elder George Canning had not 
 the intellectual qualifications, nor perhaps the moral dis- 
 qualifications, for this rough conflict. He hung about 
 among the people who met at Dodsley, the footman- 
 poet and bookseller's, and at his successor's, but he was 
 rather in than of their set. In trade the elder Canning 
 did not prove more successful than he had been in 
 poetry, pamphleteering, and law. The despondence 
 which he had defied at thirty-one overpowered him at
 
 The Canning Family 7 
 
 tliirfcy-five. On April 11, 1771, he gave up the struggle 
 for existence. He was buried in the graveyard of the 
 cliurch in Marylebone in which he had been married. 
 On his tomb the folloAving inscription, said to have 
 been written by his wife, was placed : — 
 
 Tliy virtues and my woe no words can tell ; 
 Therefore, a little while, my George, farewell. 
 For faith and love like ours Heaven has in store 
 Its last best gift — to meet and part no more.
 
 George Canning 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 BOYHOOD AND SCHOOLDAYS. 
 
 George Canning the elder died just a year to the 
 day after his son's birth. A daughter born a year 
 before had lived only a few months. The family of 
 Garvagh had put a private interpretation on the Scrip- 
 ture about visiting the widow and orphan in their 
 affliction, and withdrew from them the allowance of 
 150L a year which they had granted to the disinherited 
 eldest son. How the two years following the death of 
 the elder George Canning were spent by his widow 
 does not ajDpear to be on record. In 1773 the usual 
 resource of the im]:)overished Englishwoman possessing 
 youth, good looks, abilit}", and energy presented itself 
 to the mind of Mrs. Canning. She bethought herself 
 of the stage. According to Mr. Bell, Mrs. Canning 
 owed her chance of making her first appearance to the 
 kind intervention of Queen Charlotte. Garrick, who 
 was manager of Drury Lane, was officially His Majesty's 
 servant ; he was eager to be socially Her Majesty's 
 servant also, and at her suggestion an ensragement was 
 offered to Mrs. Canning. Mr. Bell conjectures that tlie 
 good offices of Mrs. Canning's uncle, Mr. Gustavus Guy 
 Dickens, one of the grooms of the Queen's chamber,
 
 Boyhood and Schooldays 9 
 
 and of Lord Hfircourt were employed. But Mrs. Can- 
 ning appeared on the stage in 1773, and neither Mr. 
 Guy Dickens nor Lord Harcourt held court appoint- 
 ments at that date. 
 
 Mrs. Canning essayed, on November 6, 1773, the 
 part of Jane Shoi'e in the play of that name, Garrick 
 himself resuming that of Hastings, while the good-for- 
 nothing Reddish, who was afterwards Mrs. Canning's 
 second husband, took the part of Dumont. She seems 
 to have had that sort of success which is known as 
 ' success of esteem,' and which consists of a cold appi'oval 
 or absence of disapproval. Bernard, the provincial 
 manager, of whose company at Plymouth and elsewhere 
 she was afterwards a member, and who was present at 
 the performance, says, ' She put forth claims to the 
 approbation of the critical.' But the approbation of 
 the critical, though it may intrinsically outweigh the 
 plaudits of a whole pitful of others, does not fill the 
 treasury. ]Mrs. Canning repeated the part of Jane 
 Shore the following evening, and altogether appeared 
 in it six times. But when the difficulty of coming out 
 had been ovei'come, the still greater difficulty of keep- 
 inof out had to be encountered. Mrs. Canning retired 
 into the background of the stage until she faded from 
 Drury Lane altogether. Her subsequent theatrical 
 career was almost entirely, if not entirely, confined to 
 what, in a theatrical sense, there can be, we imagine, 
 no objection to calling ' the provinces.' Its course 
 is a little confused by her marriage with the actor 
 Reddish, a polygamic person, whose name was borne, 
 not merely in rapid succession but simultaneously, by 
 a perfect troupe of theatrical ladies. In a letter to
 
 lo George Canning 
 
 Garrick, Miss Hannah More says of this very much 
 and at the same time too little married person, who was 
 then manager of the Bristol theatre, ' This is the second 
 or third wife he has produced at Bristol. In a short 
 time we have had a whole bunch of Reddishes, all of 
 them remarkably unpungent.' 
 
 The audience, wisely discriminating between the 
 provinces of art and morality, used to pelt Reddish in 
 his personal character when he first appeared, in one 
 instance, as Hannah Moi*e records, protracting this 
 operation for a quarter of an hour. Then, having given 
 expression to their injured moral susceptibilities, they 
 allowed him to proceed with the counterfeit presentment 
 with which he was charged for the evening. This man, 
 who seems to have had more than the vices of the elder 
 Kean without a spark of his genius, ultimately drank 
 and debauched himself into a state of imbecility, and 
 died in the York Asylum when Canning was fifteen 
 years of age. Canning had, however, some years before 
 been happily rescued from this dangerous guardianship. 
 Mood}-, the actor, appealed on his behalf to his uncle, 
 Mr. Stratford Canning, who had become a man of note 
 in the world of business and in the political society ot 
 London, but who seems, for whatever reason, to have 
 left his struggling and unhappy elder brother to die 
 unaided and unnoticed. Mr. Stratford Canning was at 
 this time a member of the firm of French, Burroughs, 
 and Canning, merchants and bankers. Moody called 
 on him or wrote to him and told him that his nephew, 
 though full of promise, was at present on the high road 
 to the gallows. 
 
 Of this portion of his life Canning seems never to
 
 Boyhood and Schooldays ii 
 
 have spoken, tliougli he cannot have forgotten it. 
 Peril aps it was among the things which are harder to 
 recollect than to endure, for the reverse of Dante's 
 saying is often true, and in happy days the recollection 
 of bygone misery is the heaviest of griefs. It may be 
 doubted whether Canning would, in any circumstances, 
 have taken to the road indicated by Moody. His 
 industry, self-restraint and prudent circumspection 
 were as conspicuous throughout his career as his bold 
 and brilliant genius. His course might have indeed 
 been different. But for j\Ioody, his name might have 
 been joined with those of Garrick, Kemble, and Kean, 
 and not with those of Chatham, Pitt, and Peel. Wil- 
 berforce, on the authority of a schoolfellow of Canning's 
 mentions the passion for theatricals which he displayed 
 at Eton. As Addison was ransomed from the Church 
 — the phrase is correct, for he was almost literall}^ 
 bought out of it — for service to the State by Lord 
 Halifax, so Canning, through Moody's generous inter- 
 vention, may have been redeemed from Drury Lane for 
 St. Stephen's and Downing Street. An arrangement 
 was made with the Garvagh family by which an estate 
 of 200Z. a year was settled upon the young Canning 
 for his education and maintenance. He was sent in 
 the first instance to Hyde Abbey, near Winchester, of 
 Avhich a certain Mr. Richards was the master. Mr. 
 Richards seems to have been a hard flogger ; Canning, 
 however, was probably at Hyde Abbey School, as after- 
 wards at Eton, the model good boy for whom birches 
 and canes had no terrors. Here he gave promise of 
 the qualities which he displayed later in life. He 
 gained a prize for a poem on West's picture of the
 
 12 George Canning 
 
 resurrection of Lazarus, which forms the altar-piece of 
 the cathedral of Winchester. Possibly but for Moody's 
 intervention he might have emulated the achievements 
 of Master Betty, for he is said, in acting the part of 
 Orestes in an adaptation of Euripides, to have powerfully 
 delineated — that is, as powerfully as was possible to an 
 innocent child — the remorse of the matricide. He was 
 more usefully employed in storing his memory with 
 the language and images of Gray, the whole of whose 
 English poems he learned by heart. Canning, at any 
 rate, did not carry away from Hyde Abbey any ani- 
 mosity to Mr. liichards, or, if he did, it wore out in the 
 course of time, for one of his first acts of ecclesiastical 
 patronage was to bestow on \\\% old master, who survived 
 his pupil six years, a prebendal stall in Winchester 
 Cathedral. 
 
 When Canning, then eleven years old, left Hyde 
 Abbey for Eton in 1781, he was at once put into the 
 lower fourth form. The Eton of George III.'s time 
 bore a much closer resemblance to the Eton of Holy 
 Henry's institution than to that of Queen Victoria. 
 Prizes for modern languages, science masters, pre- 
 parations for army examinations were unknown. It 
 was as much a playground as a school. The games 
 played were, as manuscripts published by Mr. Lyte 
 in his ' History of Eton College ' show, more nume- 
 rous than the books read, and the nomenclature of 
 the sports requires a scholarship of its own for its 
 understanding. The majority of the boys played a 
 good deal, were punished a good deal, and learned a 
 little. 
 
 Red-letter days, founders' days, and court days
 
 Boyhood and Schooldays 13 
 
 threw the machinery of instruction periodically out of 
 gear. A whole holiday on one day, a half-holiday on 
 another, and a play at four on the third, made liavoc 
 of time. Greek and Latin extracts, Latin verse, a 
 smattering of geography and mathematics, the Church 
 Catechism, and ' The Whole Duty of Man ' formed the 
 school course. For voluntary and private study in the 
 leisure hours the boys of the fifth and sixth forms were 
 commended to Dr. Middleton's ' Cicero,' Tully"s ' Offices,' 
 Ovid's ' Long and Short V^erses,' ' Spectator,' &c., Milton, 
 Pope, ' Roman History,' Porter's 'Antiquities,' and Ken- 
 net's ' Antiquities,' and all other books necessary to 
 make a complete scholar. The ' &c. ' and ' all other 
 books ' enlarge at pleasure the range of the somewhat 
 narrow selection, but being of private interpretation 
 they do not form a very rigid injunction to individual 
 study. 
 
 The provost and the head-master of Eton in Can- 
 ning's time suited the place as it then was. The pro- 
 vost was the Rev. William Hay ward Roberts, known as 
 ' Double Gloucester ' from the county that had given 
 him birth and the good living which had given him cor- 
 pulence. Miss Burney describes him as ' very fat, with a 
 large paunch and gouty legs, good-natured, loquacious, 
 gay, civil and parading.' Elsewhere she notes him as 
 ' a goodly priest, fat, jovial, breathing plenty, ease and 
 good living.' He had paid at one period of his life the 
 usual debt of scholarship to the booksellers in a poem 
 entitled ' Judah Restored,' and a treatise on the ' Errors 
 of the English Aversion of the Old Testament.' The 
 head-master of Eton was Dr. Jonathan Davies, who 
 afterwards succeeded Roberts as provost. Davies had
 
 14 George Canning 
 
 been tutor to tlie Marquis Wellesley, to wLom he 
 alwaj's showed, as Wellesley gratefully acknowledged, 
 tlie solicitude and affection of a kind parent. Accord- 
 ing to Hookham Frere, ' Davies was the very incar- 
 nation of authority. We boys never dreamed of his 
 condescending to any other plwsical exercise than that 
 of flogging us.' He was a king of boys, and his sub- 
 jects jealously scrutinised his demeanour in his relations 
 Avith other royal personages. ' He used,' Frere says, 
 ' to be watched by the boys when George III. came 
 over to Eton, to see that he did not play the courtier 
 too much, and very well he managed it.' Davies was 
 given to the pleasures of the table, including table-talk, 
 and in his later days, at least when he was provost, 
 found London more attractive than Eton. ' Sooner,' 
 says the author of ' Pursuits of Literature,' seeking to 
 find an image for the impossible — 
 
 Sooner stentorian Davies cease to talk, 
 And for his Eton quit his Bond Street v>'alk. 
 
 He was on terras of intimate conviviality with the 
 Prince of Wales, towards whom he seems to have 
 exhibited the equality of a boon companion, as he 
 exhibited the equality of a potentate with George III. 
 The Prince, when they were dining together, had ven- 
 tured to mention Homer. This was more than a pro- 
 vost and an ex-head-master could endure. ' What do 
 you know about Homer ? ' retorted Davies, whose feasting 
 had been Homeric. ' I bet you don't know a line of 
 the poet.' The Prince took the bet and retorted with 
 the line (H. i. 225) : 
 
 OlvofSapi'i, Kuids ofx/xaT' e^^^' KpaSifjv S' kXdcfiOio.
 
 Boyhood and Schooldays 15 
 
 If not true, well invcuted. It is wliat the princo 
 mio-lit have said. 
 
 The tribute paid by Wellesley to Davies makes it 
 possible that his scholarship and deportment may have 
 gone for something in the training of Canning, but the 
 truth seems to be that Canning was always rather a 
 master among the boys than a boy under the masters. 
 
 An entry in Wilberforce's Diary says : ' C knew 
 
 Canning well at Eton. He never played at any game 
 with the other boys ; fond of acting, decent and moral.' 
 The fact that, though without distinction in the plfiying 
 fields, and taking no part in the sports of the school, 
 he was not considered a ' miss ' or a ' muff,' shows how 
 strong was the ascendencv of his genius and character. 
 He was never in any scrapes. Though he had learned 
 Gray by heart, he was not, while at Eton at least, one 
 of ' those bold adventurers who disdain the limits of 
 their little reign,' nor ' snatched a fearful joy ' in the 
 sense of being out of bounds. There is no evidence 
 that he ever ' delighted to cleave with pliant arm the 
 glassy wave,' or ' enthralled ' proleptically ' the captive 
 linnet,' nor ever ' chased the rolling circle's speed or 
 urged the flying ball.' He ' sapped like Gladstone,' but 
 did not ' fight like Spring.' He pursued the course of 
 private reading necessary to make him ' the complete 
 scholar,' especially familiarising himself with the 
 ' Spectator,' &c. Verses of his are in the ' Muste 
 Etouenses.' He took part in the Debating Society, in 
 which a regular speaker, a treasury bench, ministers, 
 opposition, right honourable and honourable gentlemen, 
 and noble lords figured. He helped to set on foot the 
 'Microcosm,' and wrote the best articles in it. Eton
 
 1 6 George Canning 
 
 was to hiin tlie ' Microcosm ' of the world which he was 
 about to enter, and he rehearsed in it the part he 
 aspired to and was destined to play in the greater 
 world beyond. Among his schoolfellows were those 
 who would afterwards be his allies or antagonists in 
 literature and public life. First among them was 
 Hookham Frere. who, though by a year his elder, 
 vowed to him a passionate devotion which grew 
 stronger through nearly half a century, until Canning's 
 death . Frere was his associate in the ' Microcosm ' 
 and the ' Anti-Jacobin ; ' his successor in the Under 
 Secretaryship for Foreign Affairs in Pitt's first Adminis- 
 tration ; his jninister, during Canning's first Foreign 
 Secretaryship, at Madrid. Speaking in old age to his 
 nephew and biographer, Frere said : ' I think, twenty 
 years ago. Canning's death would have caused mine _; as 
 it is, the time seems so short, I do not feel it as I 
 otherwise should.' Canning was already regarded by 
 masters and boys as having the future and the world 
 at his disposal to do Avhat he liked with. Next to him, 
 Frere said, ' Bobus ' Smith, the brother of Sydney, was 
 deemed sure to distinguish himself. In spite of his 
 deplorable Whig connections, great things were looked 
 for from Lambton ; but the greatest thing which came of 
 him was his son, the first Earl of Durham. Of Morn- 
 ington, afterwards Marquis Wellesley — who belonged, 
 however, to an earlier Eton generation — though the boys 
 thought well of him, little was expected by the masters, 
 in spite of his Latin verses, in comparison with ' Bobus ' 
 Smith and Lambton.
 
 1/ 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 T II E ' M I C R O C S M. ' 
 
 The 'Microcosm/ which still holds its place among 
 the curiosities of schoolboy literature, and has several 
 times been reprinted, was started on November 6, 
 1786, when Canning was sixteen years of age. It was 
 published in Windsor once a week, price twopence. 
 It appeared under the pseudonymous editorship of 
 Mr. Gregory Griffin, who was its Isaac Bickerstaff, its 
 Sylvanus Urban, its Christopher North, its Oliver 
 Yorke. Its real editor appeared to have been James 
 Smith, the brother of Bobus — it need scarcely be said 
 not of Horace — and among its contributors were, be- 
 sides Canning and the editor, Bobus Smith, Hookham 
 Frere, and Lord Henry Spencer. It lasted through 
 forty numbers, extending over nearly two years, ex- 
 piring when James Smith left Eton. The copyright 
 was sold for fifty guineas to Mr. Charles Knight, of 
 Windsor, the father of the better-known publisher of 
 that name, and the document which records the 
 transfer bears the sig-nature of CanniuQ-. 
 
 The ' Microcosm ' is the work of boys in tail-coats 
 and stuck-up collars — boys in the garb of men — and 
 produces the sort of effect on the reader which the 
 acting of a play by one of those aieries of children, of 
 
 C
 
 1 8 George Canning 
 
 which Shakespeare, all the manager swelling in his 
 soul, bitterly complains must have produced on the 
 theatre-goers of that day. The reflections are for the 
 most part the insincere anticipation at fifteen or sixteen 
 of the commonplaces which become truths of con- 
 viction and experience at fifty or sixty. There is no 
 trace in the ' ]\Iicrocosm ' of those passions which inspired 
 the Eton boy as he is described in the opening pages 
 of ' Coningsby ' : ' In that young bosom what burning 
 love, what intense ambition, what avarice, what lust of 
 power, envy that fiends might emulate, hate that men 
 might fear ! ' The difference is obvious between the 
 youth of a period nourished on the ' Spectator, &c.,' 
 and the youth of a period nourished on ' Childe Harold,' 
 ' Manfred,' and the ' Corsair.' Among Canning's con- 
 tributions, which are distinguished by the letter ' B,' 
 is a sarcastic epistle from Mr. Gregory Griffin, acknow- 
 ledging with gratitude his obligations to the gentlemen 
 who are kind enough to assume responsibility for his 
 writings, but requesting them to settle among them- 
 selves, and inform him who is the author of what, so 
 that there may be no confusion, and his bookseller may 
 have proper directions if called upon to enforce their 
 respective claims. 'Jlie reverence of the Microcosmists 
 for the ' Spectator, &c.,' did not prevent Canning from 
 writing a parody — perhaps the cleverest thing in the 
 magazine — on Addison's celebrated criticism of ' Chevy 
 Chase,' in the form of a review of an epic poem, entitled 
 the ' Queen of Hearts,' representing the theft, detection, 
 and punishment by the king of the knave of hearts, 
 who had jmrloined and carried off certain tarts manu- 
 factured by the royal hands of his consort, A ' Poem
 
 The * Microcosm^ 19 
 
 on the Slavery of Greece,' full of generous sentiment, 
 does not rise much above the level of his unfortunate 
 father's compositions. Canning's poetical genius lay in 
 the mocking and not in the heroic vein, and he was 
 seldom kindled with anything more ardent than the 
 artificial fires of rhetoric. To the second number of 
 the ' Microcosm ' Canning contributed a paper on the 
 'Art of Swearing,' ridiculing the profane habits of 
 speech common at that time, and incidentally satirising 
 the mania for foreigners. Whether or not virtue can 
 be taught, swearing surely can. Some person, having 
 first un-Englished his name, calling himself Pedro if he 
 be Peters, Nicolini if he be Nicholls, Girardot if he be 
 Gerard, might, he suggests, issue a ' Complete Oath- 
 Register, or Every Man his own Swearer,' containing 
 oaths and imprecations for all purposes and occasions. 
 There were also to be sentimental oaths for ladies, 
 who might object to the good mouth-filling oath that 
 Hotspur recommended to his wife. The idea of this 
 paper was probablv derived from Bob Acres' new 
 method of sentimental or referential swearing- intro- 
 duced to the world twelve years before by Sheridan. 
 The writer also proposes to draw up a list of execrations 
 suitable to the year 1786. In the seventh number. 
 Canning, in the character of an Eton boy, describes 
 his sufferings as a visitor to a supposititious uncle who 
 cruelly proposes examination into his attainments by 
 the parson of the parish, and who makes unkind jokes 
 about orchard robbing, the mutton of the Eton dinner- 
 tables, and the necessity for providing cushions for 
 Avhat Sheridan, in reference to Pitt, once called the 
 sitting part of a lad supposed to bear in his person the 
 
 c -1
 
 20 George Canning 
 
 marks and sting of the rod. Commenting upon this 
 letter in the person of Mr. Gregory Griffin, Canning 
 proposes to make application to Parliament for permission 
 to open a licensed warehouse for wit, and for a patent 
 entitling the grantee to the sole vending and uttering 
 of wares of this sort for a given term of years. ' For 
 this purpose,' he says, 'I have already laid in jokes, 
 jests, witticisms, morceaus, and bons mots of every kind. 
 ... I have epigrams that want nothing but the sting. 
 Impromptus will be got ready at a week's notice.' In 
 the shape of a letter from a certain Mr. Homespun, 
 written in indignant protest against the ill-natured 
 prejudices of which weavers and tailors are the sub- 
 jects, Canning banteringly insists on the analogy be- 
 tween the arts of weaving and of poetrj^ as shown in 
 the language common to both. Making a curious 
 apj)lication of the Protectionist principle, he proposes 
 that literary metaphors shall in future be drawn ex- 
 clusively from branches of native industry. In another 
 paper Canning weighs the better morality and inferior 
 art of Sir Charles Grandison against the better art and 
 more doubtful morality of Tom Jones. A niaturer 
 judgment would perhaps have seen less to blame in 
 the naked and honest grossness of Fielding than in 
 the Puritanic prurience of Richardson. Another essay 
 gives a mock preference to Newbery's books over the 
 novels of the day. The adventures of Mr. Thomas 
 Thumb and Mr. John Hucklethrift are commented 
 on, and, by the aid of parallel passages from Homer, 
 a correspondence is established between the characters 
 of Hucklethrift and Achilles, of Thumb and Ulysses. 
 A letter from ' Nobod}' ' is based on a play of words as
 
 The ' Microcosm ' 2 1 
 
 old as the Oyrts of the Odyssey, 'Nobody' develops 
 the relations in which he stands to his kinsmen ' Every- 
 body,' ' Somebody,' ' Anybody,' ' What's his name,' 
 ' Thing'um Bob,' &c. Everybody is endeavouring to 
 be Somebody ; no one is satisfied to be Nobody, who 
 is made the subject of injurious and defamatory 
 
 statements, such as ' Nobody is more wicked .' 
 
 In the thirty-ninth number of the ' Microcosm,' Mr. 
 Griffin gives an account of his life, now drawing to a 
 close, and grows weaker in the process of telling it. 
 A proposal is made for the publication of a selection ot 
 Griffiniana. As an illustration of the quick wit of this 
 illustrious man, and of a readiness of repartee which 
 the recorder and subject of Mr. Burnand's ' Happy 
 Thoughts' might have envied, the following anecdote 
 is narrated. One day, being accosted by a friend who 
 saluted him with the remark, ' How do you do, Mr. 
 Griffin ? ' he replied, without the smallest hesitation, 
 ' Pretty well, I thank you, sir. I hope you are well.' 
 
 The preceding outline will convey some idea of the 
 character of the 'Microcosm,' and especially of Canning's 
 contributions to it. They show his facility in using the 
 materials which his time of life, his powers of mind, 
 and his reading had given him. The magazine gave 
 an early notoriety to its authors. Fanny Burney, 
 nominally one of the dressers, really to a great extent 
 one of the readers, of Queen Charlotte, and always a 
 strong Canningite, brought several of the numbers of 
 the magazine under the notice of her royal mistress. 
 Mentioning in her diary a visit of the King and Queen 
 to Eton in 1787, she says : ' The speeches were chiefly 
 Latin and Greek, three or four in English. Some were
 
 -2 George Canning 
 
 pronounced extremely well, especially those spoken by 
 the chief composers of the "Microcosm," Canning and 
 Smith.' Canning- occupied the post of honour in 
 delivering what appears to have been the final speech 
 at Eton in 1787.
 
 23 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 CHRIST CHURCH. 
 
 On leaving Eton, Canning entered himself as a student 
 at Lincoln's Inn. 'George Canning, gentleman, only 
 son of George Canning, Esq., of Middle Temple, de- 
 ceased,' was 'admitted June 27, 1787.' Later in the 
 same year, Canning went to Christ Church, Oxford, 
 then presided over by a very notable person, Dean 
 Cyril Jackson. Dr. Jackson was one of those men 
 who make history by helping to make the men who 
 form it. Without playing a part in the drama him- 
 self, he was behind the scenes prompting the actors 
 and directing the stage management, Christ Church 
 at the end of the eighteenth century was in some 
 degree what Balliol became since, and the Deau 
 discharged something of the honorary functions in 
 relation to society which the Master once exercised. 
 Jackson was the director of the youthful nobility and 
 gentry who were destined to a political career. He 
 had kept a diary of his own life and times, which, how- 
 ever, he destroyed. Probably, if it had been preserved 
 and printed, mucli light would have been thrown on 
 some of tlie darker and more secret passages of the 
 political liistory of his day. As it is, the Dean is only 
 to be traced by the allusions to him which crop up in
 
 24 George Canning 
 
 the memoirs and correspondence, and in the society 
 novels of the period. Dean Cyril Jackson is the 
 President Herbert of Robert Plumer Ward's once cele- 
 brated story of ' De Vere.' The President is described 
 as at once a man of thought and of the world, in whom 
 a look of command and the penetrating glance of a pair 
 of keen though small black eyes were softened by the 
 most polished courtesy. A certain air of superiority 
 and protection, and a little pomp of manner, were set 
 off by a stately figure clad in the silk cassock and hat 
 of the ecclesiastical dignitary. 
 
 In 1771 Mr. Cyril Jackson, who had not yet taken 
 orders, became sub-preceptor to the Prince of Wales and 
 to his brother Frederick, Bishop of Osnaburg and Duke 
 of York, then lads of nine and eight years of age re- 
 spectively. He resigned this post in 1 776 in resentment, 
 gossip said, at the interference oi the King with the 
 education of his sons. He always maintained friendly 
 relations with his royal pupils. He was in succession 
 preacher at Lincoln's Inn, and Canon, and finally, Dean 
 of Christ Church. He was content to be the clearer but 
 lesser light at which the more glowing or smoky torches 
 destined to illume the world, or to set it on fire, were 
 kindled. Literary ambition he had none, or, if he had, 
 literary fastidiousness killed it. The only record of 
 him which is to be found in that monument of the 
 vanity and glory of literature, the catalogue of the 
 British Museum, is a solitary entry under his name. It 
 calls attention to a volume without a title-page con- 
 taining the text, with Latin notes, of the first book of 
 Herodotus. The book has on the fly-leaf the following 
 manuscrijDt statement, signed ' H. Cotton ' : — ' This
 
 Christ Church 25' 
 
 volume contains a sj)eciinen of an edition of Herodotus, 
 designed by Dr. Cyril Jackson, Dean of Christ Charcli, 
 Oxford, commenced under his superintendence by the 
 Rev. John Stokes, of Christ Church. It was executed 
 in the Clarendon Press in Oxford. No more than this 
 first book was printed, and this even was suppressed 
 before publication, title-page,' &c. His Greek scholar- , 
 ship is said to have shown itself in the nicety of his 
 appreciation of each word in an author, and in his un- 
 derstanding of the transitions of meaning which phrases 
 and terms have undergone. His regard for the precise 
 and idiomatic rendering of the force of the particles in 
 Homer survives in the tradition of his translation of 
 Tpcofs- pa — ' The Trojans, God help them.' 
 
 Dean Cyril Jackson was in the habit of entertaining 
 at dinner every day six or eight of the members of his 
 college whose faculties and peculiar bent it was his aim 
 to correct or confirm in conversation. He occupied 
 eveiy Long Vacation in a home tour, taking some young 
 friend with him as a companion, whose expenses he 
 bore, visiting interesting objects and places of industry, 
 avoiding only the great houses^from which, if he entered 
 them as a guest, it would be difiicult for him to escape. 
 He conversed with everybody he could meet, of what- 
 ever rank or pursuit, and is said to have had a greater 
 knowledge of the social and economic condition of 
 England than almost any man of his time. His home 
 tours formed the subject of his conversations with his 
 young guests when he returned to Christ Church, and 
 he was able by his own experience to direct their 
 vacation rambles properly, advising them what to see 
 or bringing out the value of what they had seen. He
 
 26 George Canning 
 
 made himself acquainted with the individual character 
 of the young men for whom he had a regard, and, 
 as will he seen, took a very special interest in Canning's 
 future. Dean Jackson restricted himself to his college 
 work, and did not take part in the more general 
 business of the University. He was never Vice-Chan- 
 cellor, or anything but Dean of Christ Church. During 
 the twenty-six years of his Headship, from 1783-1809, 
 he counted among his pupils an unusual proportion of 
 those who afterwards filled the highest posts in the 
 service of the State. But it was not merely in the 
 equipment of the statesmen of the future that he in- 
 fluenced public affairs. He was busy in the intrigue 
 for the removal of Addington from the Premiership in 
 the years 1803-4, and was much consulted in political 
 combinations and projects. The reaction which is not 
 unusual from worldliness in its legitimate character — 
 a dignified and useful Avorldliness — to kindly other 
 worldliness came upon Dean Jackson. In 1809 he 
 resigned the Deanery of Christ Church, declining a 
 Bishopric, and sought an almost absolute retirement in 
 the village of Feltham, in Sussex, where he gave him- 
 self up to the service of the poor. 
 
 Such was the man who ruled Christ Church when 
 Canning entered it in 1787. Canning's associates in 
 a state of pupilage were not less remarkable, and many 
 of them were destined to be his associates in public 
 life and in political literature. Among them were 
 Robert Jenkinson, on his father's elevation to an earl- 
 dom, Lord Hawkosbuiy, and finally. Earl of Liverpool ; 
 Lord Holhmd ; Viscount Morpetli, afterwards the 
 Earl of Carlisle : Jjord Granville Leveson-Gower, after-
 
 CiiRJsr Church 27 
 
 wurcls Earl Granville, the fathep- of the living statesman 
 of tliat name ; Charles Ellis, through life Canning s 
 more intimate friend and confidant, afterwards Lord 
 Seaforth ; Lord Boringdon, afterwards the Earl of 
 Morley ; Lord Henry Spencer, an Eton friend of 
 Canning's, a Microcosmist, and a younger son of the 
 Duke of Marlborough ; Sir William Drummond. after- 
 wards ambassador at Constantinople ; Erancis Goddard, 
 who ultimately became Archdeacon of Lincoln ; "William 
 Spencer, the fashionable drawing-room versifier ; and 
 Vansittart, during many years the inevitable Tory 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer, and afterwards Lord Bex- 
 ley. Among his graver acquaintances was Dr. Jacob 
 Bryant, the mythologist, then resident near Oxford. 
 
 In 1828, the year following Canning's death, Mr. 
 John Frank Newton, who seems to have enjoyed much 
 of his intimacy, published, in a pamphlet entitled 
 ' Early Days of the Right Hon, George Canning,' an 
 account of Canning's university life. He describes him 
 as being at Christ Church much what Wilberforce's 
 informant describes him at Eton. In his rooms at 
 Peckwater, says Newton, he was always to be found 
 with a pen or a book in his hand. He was indifferent 
 to amusements, and took little exercise, not keeping a 
 horse or even, hiring one. Newton describes the Speak- 
 ing Societ}', of which he as well as Canning was one of 
 the six original members, the others being Jenkinson, 
 Lord Henry Spencer, Drummond, and Goddard. In its 
 constitution there was a whimsical blending of display 
 and secrecy, a sort of ostentatious mystery. The mem- 
 bers devised a uniform for themselves, the description 
 of which recalls tlie uniform of the Pickwick Club.
 
 28 George Canning 
 
 ' Sometimes,' Mr. Newton writes, ' we appeared at 
 dinner in the liall dressed in our nniform, which was a 
 brown coat of rather an uncommon shade, with velvet 
 cuffs and collars. The buttons bore the initials of De- 
 mosthenes, Cicero, Pitt, and Fox. Thus habited, and 
 much the object of notice to every passing observer, we 
 pleased ourselves with the excessive curiosity which our 
 dress excited. As secret were we as the grave on all 
 that concerned our oratorical institution, and it would 
 be difficult to give an idea of the anxiety evinced by 
 our fellow-students to discover the meaning of the 
 brown coat and velvet cuffs.' The members met in the 
 rooms of one or other of them every Thursday. They 
 debated on some prearranged subject. After the dis- 
 cussion was over, and before separating at night, a vote 
 was taken, and the topic for the following Thursday 
 was chosen. While Canning was the brilliant and 
 vivacious orator of the society, Jenkinson, not less pre- 
 figuring the statesman at the university, was its sen- 
 sible and well-informed member. Newton says of him 
 that he was not only a first-rate scholar, but had more 
 general knowledge than any of his contemporaries at 
 Christ Church. His acquaintance with history and 
 European politics was especially remarkable. The supe- 
 riority of his attainments was not, however, offensively 
 displayed, the conciliatory and benignant manner of 
 the mature man already marking the youth. The club 
 was broken up by the secession of Canning himself, 
 as he explained in a letter to Newton dated Brighton, 
 September 15, 1788, a year after its foundation. Newton 
 had already left the University. ' That club, Newton,' he 
 exclaims, in mock lieroic vein, ' is no more ! " And what
 
 Christ Church 29 
 
 dread event, what sacrileo-ious hand ? " vovi will exclaim. 
 Newton, mine ! ' So long as the society was a secret 
 one he was pleased to belong to it, and especially to try 
 his strength with Jenkinson in anticipation of conflicts 
 in the House of Commons, when Canning as a Whig 
 mierht be brought into collision with Jenkinson as a 
 Tory. But the Dean had spoken to Canning on the 
 subject seriously, representing that the suspicion of 
 parliamentary intentions would be injurious to him at 
 the bar, and advising him to quit the society. The 
 Dean only advised ; if he had affected to interfere with 
 authority nothing would have induced Canning to leave 
 the society. But he saw the reasonableness of the 
 Dean's view, and on his return after the Easter Vaca- 
 tion sent in his resignation through Lord Henry Spencer. 
 ' The message which Lord Henry brought occasioned, 
 as it were, a combustion, which ended in the moving of 
 some very violent resolutions. Among others, I was 
 summoned to the bar ; of course refused to obev the 
 summons. A deputation was then sent to interrogate 
 me respecting the causes of my resignation, which, of 
 course, I refused to reveal ; and they were at last satis- 
 fied by my declaring that the reason of my resignation 
 did not affect them collectively or individually.' The 
 society suspended its meetings and abolished the uni- 
 form. ' This, it seems, was intended,' Canning adds, 
 ' to punish me by carrying the face of a common and 
 not a particular secession. It was not long, however, 
 before the truth came out, and their nightly debates are 
 again renewed ; not undiscovered, but with less pomp, 
 regularity, numbers and vociferation.'
 
 30 George Canning 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 MENTAL TRAINING AND RECREATION. 
 
 There was no Oxford equivalent for the ' Microcosm ' in 
 Canning's time, but lie did not allow his faculty of verse- 
 making to be confined to competitions for prize poems. 
 He was already a lion in society. The flattery of 
 women was added to the favour of head-masters and of 
 heads of houses, of the Microcosmic bovs of Eton and 
 the speaking young men of Christ Church. His college 
 friendships introduced him to the town and country 
 houses of great people, and his passage through them 
 may be traced by verses in the ladies' albums and by 
 poetic epistles after the fashion of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury. As an Eton boy, part of his vacations had been 
 spent at the house of his uncle, Mr. Stratford Canning, 
 whither the Whig leaders of the day resorted. He was 
 a frequent visitor at Crewe Hall, the residence of the 
 celebrated heroine of the Whig toast, ' Buff and Blue 
 and Mrs. Crewe,' and repaid her hospitalities b}" jocu- 
 larities in prose and verse. ^Irs. Crewe had a theory 
 that all nervous affections produce a craving appetite. 
 Canning, through some sixty or seventy lines, pursues 
 the idea, and points the moral thus to himself and to 
 her : —
 
 Mental Training and Recreation 31 
 
 Dear Mrs. Crewe, this wondrous knowledge 
 I own I never gained at College ; 
 You are my tut'ress, would you quite 
 Contirm your wavering proselyte % 
 I ask you tliis :— to show your sorrow 
 At my departure hence to-moj-row, 
 Add to your dinner, for my sake, 
 A supernumerary steak. 
 
 To Mrs. Leigh, of Leigh Hall, who had presented 
 him with a pair of shooting breeches, he says that in a 
 
 wife he will 
 
 Ask not rank nor riches, 
 For worth like thine alone I pray, 
 Temper like thine, serene and gay, 
 And formed like thee to give away, 
 Not wear herself, the breeches ! 
 
 A poetic epistle, written as from his friend Lord 
 Borino-don to Lord Granville Leveson-Gower, tells how 
 the heart of the supposititious writer, captured by Lady 
 Elizabeth Spencer, has been 
 
 Scorched and burnt to tinder, 
 When talking to her at the winder. 
 
 He aspired 
 
 Proudly to bear the beauteous maid 
 To Saltram's venerable shade ; 
 Or, if she likes not woods of Saltram, 
 Why nothing's easier than to alter 'era. 
 
 But the lady became engaged to her cousin, William 
 Spencer : — 
 
 How changed the scene, for now, my Graiaville, 
 Another matcji is on the anvil,
 
 32 George Canning 
 
 And I, fi widowed dove, complain, 
 And find no refuge from my pain, 
 Save that of pitying Spencer's sister, 
 Who has lost a Lord and gained a Mister. 
 
 These thing's, and things like these, were but the 
 effervescence of a mind in which there were deeper 
 workings, the bubbles and eddies on the surface of a 
 stream in which the current was strong and steady, but 
 which seemed shallower than it was, because its clear- 
 ness minimised its apparent depth according to the 
 well-known law of visual measurement. Beneath his 
 seeming frivolity and levity Canning was possessed 
 through life by a serious and persistent purpose. He 
 doubled the parts of the ant and the butterfly in the 
 fable. Mr. Newton, who was a West Indian, says that 
 during his Oxford years Canning was profoupdly 
 interested in the Slavery question, in which in after 
 life, within the limits imposed on him by his prudence 
 of temper and his party connection, he always took the 
 side of humanitv. Mr. Newton, when he was about to 
 return to the West Indies, suggested that Canning 
 sliould accompany him thither; but Canning had other 
 plans. ' You must know,' he replied to his friend, 
 ' that I am. most shamefully ignorant of French ! . . . 
 By this time twelve months I intend to procure a 
 smattering sufficient to call a coach or swear at a 
 waiter, and then to put into execution a plan formed long- 
 ago in happier days, of going abroad with my three 
 fellow-scribes, the Microcosmopolitans. . . . Our idea is 
 not that of scampering through France and ranting in 
 Paris, but a sober sort of thing — to go and settle for 
 some months in some provincial town remarkable for
 
 Mental Training and Recreation 33 
 
 the salubrity of its climate, tlie respectabilitj' of its 
 inliabitants, and the purity of its language ; there to 
 improve our constitutions by the first, to extend our 
 accjuaintance with men and manners by the second, and 
 to qualify ourselves for a further extension of it by 
 perfecting ourselves in the third.' 
 
 In what manner and with what companions Canning 
 put this plan into execution, or whether it was put into 
 execution at all, is not apparent. When Canning, 
 in 1807, became Foreign Minister, his imputed ig- 
 norance of French was the subject of incessant news- 
 paper gibes. He makes confession of his shortcomings 
 at a period somewhat earlier. In a letter to Lord Boring- 
 don, written in the beginning of the year 1800, he elabo- 
 rately vindicates the use of English in diplomacy, which 
 he had employed in the first note he ever drew up ; ' but 
 for that,' he adds, ' I claim no great thanks, as I could 
 not have written it in French.' 
 
 The statute which introduced examinations for 
 honours at Oxford belongs to 1800. In Canning's day 
 the degree of Bachelor of Arts was probabl}' obtained 
 as easily as it had been in that of Lord Eldon, some 
 twenty years before. When Mr. John Scott went up 
 for his degree he was examined in Hebrew and History. 
 One question was put to him in each subject. ' What 
 is the Hebrew for the place of a skull ? ' ' Golgotha.' 
 ' Who founded University College ? ' ' Alfred,' ' Very 
 well, sir, you are competent for your degree.' Through 
 whatever form or phantasm of examination tte opera- 
 tion was conducted, Canning^ took his B.A. deofree on 
 June 22, 1791, proceeding to his Master's degree ou 
 July G, 1704. While at Oxford he competed for and 
 
 D
 
 34 George Canning 
 
 failed in obtaining the prize for an English poem on 
 the attractive theme of ' The AborifTinal Britons ' sue- 
 Climbing to a candidate afterwards known and afterwards 
 forgotten as the Rev. Dr. Richards, probably from his 
 name himself an aboriginal Briton. Canninf>-'s Latin 
 poem, 'Iter ad Meccara, religionis causa susceptum,' 
 won the prize, and was a remarkable tour do force. It 
 was recited by its author on June 26, 1789, the day 
 of commemoration, and through the confident graces, 
 probably already a little theatrical, but not the less 
 effective, of Canning's person and delivery, was ap- 
 plauded by a theatre full of auditors little competent to 
 appreciate the elegant Latinity and the vivid imagery 
 of the composition. According to Wolcot, who almost 
 certainly lies, the poem owed a good deal to Dean 
 Jackson's revision. He makes Pitt say : — 
 
 For any borough I will bring my man in, 
 
 From Greek-mouthed Belgrave to Lame-Latin Cannino-. 
 
 Greek-mouthed Belgrave, otherwise called Lord 
 Poluphloisboio, was so named from having quoted the 
 Greek of Homer in the House of Commons. ' Lame- 
 Latin Canning ' is thus annotated : — ' His " Iter ad 
 Meccam " for the University prize exhibited such proof 
 of ideas and scholarship as put the poor Dean of Christ 
 Church to the blush. The first effort was condemned 
 to the flames though it obtained the prize, the second 
 was a cobbled piece of work between Mr. Canning and 
 somebody of Christ Church, which with diHiculty 
 passed muster.' ' Lame-Latin Canning ' was the rhe- 
 torical antithesis to ' Greek-mouthed Belgrave ' ; and 
 the note was probably devised to justify the epithet.
 
 Mental Training and Recreation 35 
 
 In the Homeric poems tlie arming of the heroes is 
 described as fully as their battles, and the education of 
 statesmen is their arming for battle. Whatever may 
 bo thought of its intrinsic and comparative merits, the 
 older system of University training was suited to 
 Canning's genius and to the career on which he was 
 destined to enter. He left Oxford almost ignorant of 
 French, absolutely ignorant of most of those things 
 which the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge 
 and Popular Instructors of various kinds endeavoured 
 a generation afterwards to place within the reach of the 
 intelligent artisans of the day. Frere gives an account 
 of a walk in the woods near Enfield which he took with 
 Canning when they were both engaged in public life. 
 Canning stopped by the bank of a pool to look at some 
 curious creatures which he saw swimming about, and 
 asked what they were. Frere told him they were 
 called tadpoles, and in course of time they would be- 
 come frogs. Canning was amazed. Mr. Frere moralises 
 this theme, and points out to a world grown sceptical 
 as to the sufficiency of the older learning, as presenting 
 the exclusive method and topics of education, that here 
 was a man who could govern nations and balance 
 worlds, and who yet was not aware that tadpoles turned 
 into frogs. He probably could have recited pages from 
 the ' Battle of the Frogs and the Mice ' and from ' The 
 Frogs' of Aristophanes, but of the natural history of 
 the creatui'es he knew less than the slouching rustic 
 of the fields through which he passed. The ' inoderii 
 side ' had not come into existence in Canning's school 
 and University days. Ignorance of this kind would, of 
 course, b^ injurions a:id disgracefq] now. It is not that 
 
 D a
 
 36 George Canning 
 
 natural history or physical science in any of its forms 
 has any especial relation to statesmanship. The Jesuit 
 Father Pineda, as he is quoted by Horace Walpole, 
 asserted that Adam, in his paradisiacal condition, was 
 master of all the sciences except politics, and Adam, 
 though he was necessarily the first, was not the last 
 man of science in whom this remarkable blending of 
 general knowledge and particular ignorance is per- 
 ceptible. The habit of precise reasoning from d priori 
 truths, or from clearly ascertained facts, through irre- 
 sistible deductions or crucial experiments, to positive 
 conclusions, does not necessarily involve that delicate 
 sense of the probable, and that tact in dealing with 
 doubtful indications, which are the condition of civil 
 prudence, or, in other words, statesmanship. But it is 
 essential that a man taking part in affairs should possess 
 the general culture and information of his age, that he 
 should be familiar with the laws and theories which 
 shape its conceptions, colour its language, and furnish 
 its illustrations. If Canning lived now he would pro- 
 bably have known as much of Darwin as Mr. Gladstone 
 or Lord Salisbury does. But whatever may be the 
 true method of education in its relation to statesman- 
 ship, the special training which Eton and Oxford, Dr. 
 Davies and Dean Cyril Jackson, afforded to Canning 
 was admirably suited to his genius and to the career 
 that lay before him. His great gift — a gift in which, 
 perhaps, he has no rival in parliamentary history — 
 was his mastery of the art of expression in written and 
 spoken language. He possessed in an eminent degree the 
 faculty of clear and epigrammatic statement, sentence by 
 sentence, and of lucid order in the arrangement of the
 
 Mental Training and Recreation 37 
 
 greater passages of his speeches, wliich makes each part 
 seem, not merely the best in itself, as it stands alone, 
 but perfect in its contribution to a whole yet more 
 perfect. Nature had armed him with a weapon keen 
 and effective in no ordinary degree. His education and 
 accomplishments pointed the barb and winged the shaft. 
 A fertile fancy was nourished by the illustrations with 
 which a large reading of the great writers of Greece, 
 Rome, and England supplied it. A keen wit found the 
 material for burlesque and parody in the precedents of 
 history and the creations of poetry. 
 
 It is curious that, though Canning lived so much at 
 Oxford, it never had that hold on his affections which 
 Eton retained to the last. He was tired of it before he 
 left it. A premature mannishness was common to him 
 with Lord Beacon sfield. The young Disraeli was too 
 impatient to mingle with the world, and take part in 
 its affairs, to be able to endure the idea of years of 
 University pupilage and tutelage. Vivian Grey, Avlien 
 it was proposed to him to go to Oxford, ' paced his 
 chamber in an agitated spirit and panted for the Senate,' 
 for ' to such an individual the idea of Oxford was an in- 
 sult.' Canning, it would seem, also paced his chamber in 
 an agitated spirit and panted for the Senate, in disgust 
 with Oxford, but he wisely did so at Peckwater, and 
 not in London, and after having put himself in the 
 way of getting from Oxford all that it could give 
 hiin. In a letter to Mr. Newton he says that Oxford 
 is so completely uncongenial to him in mind and 
 body that he dreads returning to it : ' Wallace is gone. 
 Western is gone, Newton is gone, and why am I not 
 gone ? I expect, however, on my return a small cargo
 
 33 George Canning 
 
 of Etonians, wliicli will in some measure comfort me 
 for the emptiness and unamiableness of the generality 
 of the good fellows of whom Christ Church can boast.' 
 
 The names of the three friends whose departure 
 from Oxford Canning bewails illustrate the diverging 
 paths of men whose starting-point is the same. Wallace, 
 afterwards Lord Wallace, has an official and parlia- 
 mentary association v/ith the fiscal and commercial 
 reforms of the first quarter of this century inferior only 
 to that of Huskisson. Death extinguished the bright 
 promise of Western. Poor Mr. Frank Newton, to 
 whom we owe interesting glimpses of Canning in his 
 University days, was speedily absorbed in a craze. He 
 discovered — taking seriously the doctrine of a passage 
 in Frere's ' Anti-Jacobin ' poem on ' The Progress of 
 Man ' — that man, in becoming carnivorous, lost health 
 and innocence. In 1811 he wrote the first part of a 
 treatise, which never had a second, entitled, ' The 
 lleturn to Nature ; or. The Defence of the Vegetarian 
 Regimen.' Ten years later he gave to the world a 
 little volume entitled, ' Three Enigmas attempted to 
 be Explained.' The three enigmas were (1) the Import 
 of the Twelve Signs ; (2) the Cause of Ovid's Banish- 
 ment ; (3) the Eleusinian Secret. These three enigmas 
 are only one enigma, and the key to the enigma is 
 vegetarianism. Ovid Avas banished because, in a passage 
 of the 'Metamorphoses,' he had blundered, without 
 knowing it, not having been initiated, on the Eleusinian 
 secret, which is that the zodiacal signs are an allegorical 
 presentation of the truth that man's proper food is 
 bread and fruit.
 
 39 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 IN LONDON — INTRODUCTION TO PITT. 
 
 The young Disraeli declined Oxford for an attorney's 
 office. The young Canning left Oxford with a view 
 of finding at the bar fortune, independence, and so 
 much of a career as would open parliamentary life to 
 him. He came to London at the beginning of the year 
 1792. He had entered himself five years before as a 
 student at Lincoln's Inn, but was never called to the 
 bar ; and there is no trace, as the Steward of the Inn 
 has courteously ascertained for me, of his ever having 
 Icept any of his terms. In the last years of his life, 
 when he was l*rime Minister, he was, as a matter of 
 compliment, called to the Bench of his Inn. He be- 
 longed to one or more debating societies— such as 
 that in Old Bond Street, the ' Crown and Anchor,' 
 or the ' Hardwicke ' Canning had left Eton, and 
 he may have left Oxford, a Whig of the school of 
 Fox and Sheridan. He had taken an active part 
 as a schoolboy, in favour of Admiral Keppel against 
 the Court candidate, in an election for Windsor ; and 
 it was as a Whig, or something more, that he had 
 met Jenkinsou in the debates of the Christ Church 
 Speaking Club. Lord Holland said that at Oxford 
 Canning was a furious Jacobin and a hater of the
 
 40 George Canning 
 
 aristocracy. The change in his political views, which 
 was avowed within a few months after his coming to 
 London, was perhaps in process of silent and gradual 
 accomplishment under the courtly influence of Dean 
 Cyril Jackson and the associations of Christ Church. 
 A strange story is told by Sir Walter Scott as to the 
 manner of Canning's conversion — a story which belongs 
 as completely to the region of historical romance as any 
 incident of the Waverley novels. In his diary, under 
 the date of April 17, 1828, Scott writes: 'Canning's 
 conversion from popular opinions was strangely brought 
 about. When he was studying in the Temple, and 
 rather entertaining revolutionary opinions, Godwin sent 
 to say that he was coming to breakfast with him, to 
 speak on a subject of the highest importance. Canning 
 knew little of him, but received his visit and learned 
 to his astonishment that, in expectation of a new order 
 of things, the English Jacobins designed to place him. 
 Canning, at the head of their revolution. He was 
 much struck, and asked time to think what course he 
 should take — and having thought the matter over, he 
 went to Mr. Pitt and made the anti- Jacobin confession of 
 faith.' Scott adds that Canning himself mentioned this 
 to Sir W. Knighton on the occasion of his giving a place 
 in the Charterhouse of some ten pounds a year to 
 Godwin's brother. Godwin's application was made to 
 the King through Knighton, and Canning's name does 
 not appear in the correspondence in Knighton's 
 ' Memoirs.' During his life the story was not brought 
 up against him. Scott first records it in the year follow- 
 ing Canning's death. The fable illustrates the growtli of 
 myth. A conspicuous phenomenon had to be accounted
 
 In London— Introduction to Pitt 41 
 
 for, namely. Canning's transfer of himself from the 
 
 Whig or even revolutionary side to that of Toryism 
 
 and reaction in English politics. The conflict within 
 
 his own mind was dramatically represented in the shape 
 
 of external agencies. In Godwin the revolution was 
 
 personified, in Pitt the resistance ; and they were figured 
 
 as contending in person for the soul of Canning, as 
 
 Satan and the archangel Michael in the Scriptural 
 
 legend contended for the body of Moses. Canning 
 
 represents, it might be said, the youth and the future 
 
 of England — the young England of the close of the 
 
 eighteenth century — and Godwin and Pitt the opposite 
 
 forces, social and political, which struggled for the 
 
 mastery over it, the victory remaining with resistance, 
 
 as typified in Pitt. Canning's mind was at this 
 
 time working itself free from its old associations and 
 
 prepossessions. In a letter to Lord Boringdon, dated 
 
 Paper Buildings, Temple, December 13, 1792, while 
 
 reserving to himself freedom of judgment and action, 
 
 he declares that if he were now in Parliament he should 
 
 take the side of Mr. Pitt. He cannot agree with Fox 
 
 about the French Revolution. He admits the full rig-ht 
 
 of every nation to choose the institutions which it 
 
 thinks best for itself, and avows a sort of speculative 
 
 fondness for the idea of a representative republic, but 
 
 the aggressive arrogance of the French and the tyranny 
 
 which they seek to establish over Europe have opened 
 
 his eyes. As usual, a change of view in regard to 
 
 foreign politics affected his mental attitude in home 
 
 questions. Seeing in the various popular associations 
 
 of the day instruments for the propagation of French 
 
 ideas, and in apparently innocent proposals of reform
 
 42 George Canning 
 
 tlie germ of revolution, lie declares himself against tliem. 
 The facts leave no place, chronological or moral, for the 
 sharp alternative presented in the supposed interview 
 with Godwin and Pitt and the sudden choice between 
 them. Canning's letter was written towards the close 
 of the year 1792. Godwin's 'Enquiry concerning 
 Political Justice,' which made him first widely known, 
 was not published till the year following, and, except 
 as the author of that work, he did not represent 
 revolutionary principles in England. The idea that 
 Godwin, essentially a man of speculation and not of 
 action, meditated a revolutionary outbreak, and that 
 he invited a youthful law student to place himself at 
 the head of the movement, is absurd. But it is not 
 more credible than the supposition that Canning, made 
 acquainted with these designs and asked to further them, 
 should have kept them to himself, and that he should 
 have gone on discoursing to his friend Lord Boringdon 
 on the danger of the French principles without breatliing 
 a word as to the proposals made to him, thus becoming 
 an accessory after the fact to seditious and treasonable 
 designs. 
 
 The period which immediately preceded Canning's 
 entry into public life may be considered, after that of 
 Elizabeth, as the lieroic age of English politics. It 
 was the era of Chatham, in whom the national spirit 
 was reborn. The old struggle with Franco had been 
 fought out on three continents. The help given by 
 Chatham to Frederick the Great raised Prussia to the 
 rank of a great power, and began that movement of 
 events which, more than a century later, called the 
 German Empire into existence. The victory of Plassy
 
 In LoiVDON — Intruduction to Put 43 
 
 ensured that England, and not France, should hold the 
 glorious East in fee, and that the European influences 
 destined to recreate India should come from our race 
 and country. Two years later Wolfe, on the heights 
 of Abraham, decided that North America should be 
 held by England, or by a republic of the English race. 
 The work has stood in Europe, in Asia, and in America, 
 in spite of the efforts of the two Napoleons to undo it ; 
 ar.d the work was Chatham's. Frederick was the ally, 
 Clive and Wolfe the instruments of his policy. His 
 was the contriving head, theirs were the armed hands. 
 At home Chatham no less embodied the national and 
 popular spirit. England ceased to be the creature of 
 the Whig families which had ruled it under the first 
 two Georges, and a force was called into existence 
 which alone was capable of defeating the monarchical 
 system which George III. strove to erect on the ruins 
 of the power of the great houses and to strengthen 
 by the rupture of political connections. The English 
 people became England. It is one of the contrasts 
 which run through English and French history, that 
 the greatness of England abroad, unlike the great- 
 ness of France, instead of overshadowing liberties 
 at home, stimulated and expanded them. During 
 the periods of her European preponderance, under 
 Louis XIV. and the Napoleons, France has been abject 
 and servile within her own borders. The victories 
 by which Chatham made England the ruling power 
 in Europe, Asia, and America were contemporary witli 
 the revival of the national life at home. The foun- 
 dations of the industrial and commercial England 
 of the present day were laid by the system of internal
 
 1 
 
 44 George Canning 
 
 water communication devised bj Briudley, and by the 
 inventions of Hargreaves, Arkwright, and Watt. The 
 source of the wealth of nations was expounded by 
 Adam Smith almost simultaneously with the invention 
 of these mechanical aids to its development. In political 
 life the concession of the right of parliamentary re- 
 porting gave public opinion indirect but real control 
 over public affairs. Parliamentary representation was 
 indeed imperfect, but public meetings now first gave 
 the nation the means of expressing its mind and pur- 
 pose. The great English newspapers had their origin 
 at the same time. The right of the constituencies to 
 the free choice of their representatives was decided 
 in the controversy of the House of Commons with 
 Wilkes. The liberties of the subject received new gua- 
 rantees in the judicial condemnation of general war- 
 rants and in the reversal of Wilkes's outlawry. The 
 religious and philanthropic revival (as the names of 
 the Wesleys and of Howard testify) was as remark- 
 able as that of industry and politics. The younger 
 Pitt's accession to office, with its peculiar circum- 
 stances, gave a mortal wound, though the thing did 
 not at once die, to the principle of government by 
 oligarchical combinations, and his enlightened fiscal and 
 commercial policy raised the material prosperity of the 
 country to the highest point. He meditated, as is well 
 known, the complete abolition of all custom duties and 
 the establishment of a system of absolute free trade, 
 which we have not yet reached, and but for the French 
 revolutionary war he might have accomplished his 
 design. The national life was raised to its highest 
 power when Canning entered Parliament. No one, it
 
 /.v London — Introduction to Pitt 45 
 
 might scorn, could have a nobler stage or a nobler part 
 to play than that which was opened to him. 
 
 A change for the worse was, however, impending. 
 It is common to speak of the two Pitts, the elder and 
 the younger — Chatham and the second son of Chatham ; 
 but practically there are three Pitts of whom history has 
 to take account : (1) Chatham, (2) the William Pitt who 
 was Prime Minister from 1783 to 1793, and (3) the 
 William Pitt who was Prime Minister from 1793 to 1801, 
 and again from 1804 to 180G. The two last, with osten- 
 sible personal identity, differed as much from each other 
 as anv rival statesmen have ever done. The Pitt of 1783 
 to 1793 was a sort of Cobden of the eighteenth century » 
 in office, the disciple of Adam Smith, the projector of 
 a scheme of Free Trade more thorough than Peel or 
 Gladstone has been able to bring about, the anticipator - 
 of Grey and Russell in the design at least of parlia- 
 mentary reform — a cosmopolitan and international 
 statesman in the good sense of the phrase, if ever there 
 was one. The Pitt of 1793 to 1806 was simply the i 
 parody of his more illustrious father — a Chatham | 
 mcmque ; the man of peace dressed up in weapons of 
 war; hiding in swollen Bom bastes and Pistol phrases the 
 consuming anxiety for peace which never left him till 
 the eternal conflict ruined his health and broke his heart ; 
 giving by the dignity and ascendency of his personal 
 character the semblance of success to measures which 
 were but a series of energetic failures. This lliter and 
 less glorious Pitt was the Pitt whom Canning elected 
 to follow — the Pitt of decadence and apostacy, not the 
 pilot who weathered the storm, but the mariner driven 
 helplessly 1)('ibre it, and at best keeping afloat and
 
 46 George Canning 
 
 from the rocks the vessel which he could not bring into 
 port. 
 
 At the time when Canning looked out from his 
 chambers on the political world the war spirit and 
 anti-French spirit were at their height. Canning fully 
 shared them, and to him Pitt symbolised them. How 
 Canning's acquaintance with Pitt began is not very 
 clearly stated ; but it did not require any great political 
 research on the part of a Minister anxious to discern 
 useful ability to discover Canning. Sheridan had 
 already bragged about him in the House of Commons 
 as the coming Whig hero. Towards the end of the 
 session of 1792, when Jenkinson made his first speech on 
 behalf of the Government, Sheridan could not refrain 
 from saying that his own party was about to receive a 
 great accession in the companion and friend of the 
 young orator w^ho had just distinguished himself. 
 Canning had been an ' imp of fame ' when he was a lad 
 at Eton. Fox is said to have had his eye upon him as 
 a parliamentary recruit even then. Canning, however, 
 had refused a safe Whig seat which had been offered 
 him by the Duke of Portland. He foresaw the im- 
 pending Whig rupture ; and, feeling himself drawn to 
 Mr. Pitt, resolved, if he joined him, to do so by his 
 own act, and not ' gregariously in a troop ' of political 
 deserters. His youthful friendships at Eton and Oxford 
 had opened to him the world of society, which w^as then 
 more exclusively than now the world of politics. His 
 name and talents were probably as well known to 
 Mr. Pitt as to Fox or Sheridan. At any rate, when 
 Lord Hawkesbury, the father of Jenkinson, gave q, 
 dinner-party in order to bring Pitt and Canning
 
 In London — Introduction to Pitt 47 
 
 together, it was found tliat tliey had ah-eady made 
 acquaintance. Hookliam Frere, in his okl age, fancied 
 that he, through all anonymous lord, had been the 
 means of making them known to each other. Lady 
 Hester Stanhope describes the first meeting of Pitt 
 ailiJ^ahnlng. ' The first time,' she said, ' he (Mr. 
 Canning) was introduced to Mr. Pitt, a great deal 
 of prosing had been made beforehand of his talents, 
 and when he had gone ]\Ir. Pitt asked me what I 
 thought of him. I said I did not like him ; for his 
 forehead was bad, his eyebrows were bad, he was ill 
 made about the hips, but his teeth were evenly set, 
 though he rarely showed them. I did not like his 
 conversation. Mr. Canning heard of this, and some- 
 time after, when upon a more familiar footing with me, 
 said : " So, Lady Hester, you don't like me ? " " No," 
 said I, "they told me you were handsome, and I don't 
 think you so." ' Probably there was something of 
 feminine jealousy in this aversion. She found in 
 Canning a rival in the affections of her uncle, whom 
 Lord Malmesbury speaks of as ' nursing him in the 
 hothouse of his partiality and engoxmnent, for it 
 amounted to that.' 
 
 Canning's conversation with Pitt, however it was 
 brought about, had its natural result. A place in Par- 
 liament was soon found for the young convert. Sir 
 Richard Worsley resigned his seat for Newtown, in the 
 Isle of Wight, and Mr. Canning presented himself to 
 the electors with the conr/6 cVclire which then scarcely 
 implied more freedom of choice in political than it now 
 does in ecclesiastical matters, 
 
 1 
 
 1
 
 4^ George Canning 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. 
 
 When Canning entered the House of Commons in 1793 
 the chair was occupied by Mr. Addington, who in 1789 
 had succeeded Mr. (afterwards Lord) Grenville on the 
 appointment of that statesman to a Secretaryship of 
 State. He remained Speaker until he became Prime 
 Minister in 1801. Canning ridiculed his airs and 
 gracesl^iCtlie cliair — 
 
 When with gait consequential and dignified pace 
 You were strutting behind little C 's mace ; 
 
 When you moved to the chair 
 
 With so stately an air ; 
 When your looks were so solemn, important and dull, 
 When your gown was so ample, your wig was so full ; 
 With what rapture we owned, as the farce we surveyed, 
 That the Chair and the Speaker of one block were made. 
 
 Canning's contempt was inspired by a retrospective 
 animosity. Supported by the immense authority of 
 I'itt, Addington filled the chair respectably if not with 
 distinction, and as the usage of those times permitted, 
 he repaid Pitt's patronage by occasional aid in debate. 
 On the Treasury Bench, at the right liand of the 
 Speaker, the Cabinet was represented by I'itt himself,
 
 /.v THE House of Commons 49 
 
 by Dundas, who combiuecl the offices of Secretary of 
 State" and Treasurer of the Navy, and by Windham, 
 who, as a Portland Whig, had taken the post of Secre- 
 tary at War. The House of Lords at that time, and 
 long afterwards, had a preponderance amounting almost 
 to a monopoly of Cabinet offices. George Rose and 
 Charles Long were Secretaries of the Treasury, Jenkin- 
 son was one of the Commissioners of the India Board, 
 aiici Huskisson was Under Secretary for the Colonies 
 and War. Lord Mornington was a -Junior Lord of the 
 Treasury. The magisterial eloquence of Pitt commanded 
 the House with an authority which probably no one before 
 or since has ever exercised over it. He did not brow- 
 beat it like his father, nor show his power, as subse- 
 quent Ministers have done, by controlling the storms 
 which they have raised. His authority was equal and 
 constant. He was powerfully seconded by Dundas, 
 probably as great a master of official and parlianientary 
 business of all kinds and of businesslike speaking as the 
 House has ever seen. His broad Scotch accent, ridiculed 
 in ' The Rolliad ' and in ' The Pursuits of Literature,' 
 made his shrewdness seem yet more shrewd, and in 
 spite of George IIL he was as innocent of Scotch meta- 
 physics as Joseph Hume himself. Windham, uniting 
 the prejudices of a Squire Western with the chivalry 
 of a Bayard and the paradoxical ingenuity of a Greek 
 sophist, was probably as inuch of an embarrassment as 
 an assistance. His brilliant wit and perverse origin- 
 ality were ' ornaments of debate, but discomfited his 
 allies and coUeao-ues as often as his antagonists. The 
 subordinate ]\Iinisters were not capable of giving much 
 aid. Huskisson, a clear thinker, was at that time and 
 
 E 
 
 I
 
 ( 
 
 50 George Canning 
 
 for long after an embarrassed talker, and his ungainly 
 manner and provincial accent displeased the eye and 
 ear of the House. In Jenhinson, afterwards ' the pink- 
 nosed Liverpool ' of Cobbett, ' the arch mediocrity ' of 
 Disraeli, disorder and want of method seem to have 
 been hereditary. Lady Hester Stanhope describes his 
 father, the first Lord Liverpool, as always looking for 
 documents which he could not find. ' He used to ram 
 his hands into his pockets, first on one side and then 
 on the other, searching for some paper just as if he 
 were groping for an eel at the bottom of a pond.' 
 George III. noticed in the son an absence of method 
 and of a head for business. A disorderly fulness of in- 
 formation, an amplitude of ill-assorted knowledge, and 
 a too modest and yielding temper, made Jenkinson in- 
 effective. The animated rhetoric of Lord Mornington 
 seemed to seek mental vivacity in vivacious gesture. 
 George Eose had an easy murmuring talk and a 
 mastery of usage and precedents. Charles Long, who 
 afterwards bore the title of Lord Faruborough, worn 
 for too short a time by the late Sir Thomas Erskine 
 May, is described by Lord Brougham as ' the most 
 experienced and correct observer of all the parlia- 
 mentary men of his time.' Against this respectable 
 array were ranged the stormy force of Fox, carrying 
 away at once the convictions and feelings of his hearers 
 in a tempest of reasoned passion ; the manly dignity 
 of Grey ; the elaborate wit and the somewhat harlequin 
 glitter of Sheridan ; the easy colloquial sarcasm, the 
 ])r)intcd argument and the business knowledge of 
 'i'ierney ; the courtly dignity and facile utterance of 
 Burdett, most aristocratic of demagogues and most
 
 Zv THE House of Commo.xs 51 
 
 simple-minded of charlatans ; the generous eloquence 
 of Erskine, which lost much, though not everything, in 
 being transported from the Bar to Parliament ; the 
 somewhat pompous and egotistic but impressive good 
 sense and integrity of Whitbread, It is not strange 
 that Pitt should have sought a recruit in Canning, 
 whoso powers of continuous argument, illumined by 
 wit and fancy, from the first gave promise of what he 
 afterwards became, when the flippancy, occasionally 
 verging on impertinence, and the scholarship, a little 
 too pedantically displayed, of the Christ Church Speaking 
 Club were in some degree softened down to the temper 
 of an assembly of men of business. 
 
 Canning was not in a hurry to speak. He held his 
 tongue during his first session, devoting himself to the 
 study of the House, its ways and temper. He allowed 
 expectation to gather. Fanny Burney indicates the im- 
 patience and disappointment with which this tardiness 
 was regarded by Canning's eager friends, and the grati- 
 fication with which his maiden speech, on January 31, 
 1794, was hailed. But while the hearers were delighted, 
 the performer was undergoing alternations of bliss and 
 torture. In a letter written some weeks later to Lord 
 Boringdon (March 20) he says : — 
 
 I intended to have told you, at full length, what my 
 feelings were at getting up, and being pointed at by the 
 Speaker, and hearing my name called from all sides of the 
 House ; how I trembled lest I should hesitate or misplace 
 a word in the two or tliree hrst sentences, while all was 
 dead silence around me, and my own ^oice sounded to my 
 ears quite like some other gentleman's ; how in about ten 
 minutes or less I got warmed in collision with Fox's argu- 
 
 K 2
 
 52 George Canning 
 
 ments, and did not even care twopence for anybody or 
 anything ; how I Avas roused in about half an hour from 
 this pleasing state of self-sufficiency by accidentally casting 
 my eyes towards the Opposition Bench, for the purpose of 
 paying compliments to Fox, and assuring him of my respect 
 and admiration, and there seeing certain members of Oppo- 
 sition laughing (as I thought) and quizzing me ; how this 
 accident abashed me, and together with my being out of 
 breath, rendered me incapable of uttering ; how those who 
 sat below me on the Treasury Bench, seeing what it was 
 that distressed me, cheered loudly, and the House joined 
 them ; and how in less than a minute, sti^aining every nerve 
 in my body, and plucking up every bit of resolution in my 
 heart, I went on more boldly than ever, and getting into 
 a part of my subject that I liked, and having the House 
 with me, got happily and triumphantly to the end. 
 
 Canning had not completed his twenty-fourth year 
 when he made his first speech. The occasion of it was 
 Mr. Pitt's motion for a subsidy to the King of Sardinia. 
 Events had been moving fast. The session of 1793 
 had been a busy and exciting one. It witnessed Pitt's 
 formal renunciation of the doctrine of Parliamentary 
 Reform, of which twice before he had submitted large 
 projects to the House. The Traitorous Correspondence 
 Bill, and similar measures, suspended the guarantees of 
 freedom in England, In France the Revolutionary 
 Tribunal and the Committee of Public Safety were 
 established. The two nations sacrificed their domestic 
 liberties to reciprocal hate and fear. 
 
 In the course of the session 1794 Canning made 
 two other speeches, which are not recorded with any 
 minuteness in the 'Parliament Debates,' and which he 
 did not print. One of them was on Major Maitland's
 
 In the House of Commons 53 
 
 motion for an inquiry into the causes of the failure of 
 tlie expedition to Dunkirk and on the evacuation of 
 Toulon, and another in defence of the suspension of the 
 Habeas Corpus Act. 
 
 He vindicated Pitt's abandonment of parliamentary 
 reform against the attack of Mr. Grey on the ground of 
 inopportuneness. Canning carried his new anti-Whig 
 feeling so far as to view with distrust the admission 
 into the Government of the Whig leaders who were 
 under the influence of Burke — the Duke of Portland, 
 Mr. Windham, Lord Spencer, and Lord Fitzwilliam, 
 wlio, giving up the Lord Presidency, went to Ireland as 
 Lord Lieutenant, and to whose recall next year the 
 subsequent Irish troubles are in some degree traceable. 
 
 Parliament, after prorogation, met again on Decem- 
 ber 13, 1794. Mr. Canning was chosen to second the 
 address in reply to the speech from the Throne. In 
 ]\Iarch, 1795, j\Ir. Fox, in a speech of historic fame, 
 moved for a Committee on the State of the Nation, 
 and especially the condition of Ireland. Canning spoke 
 in the debate, following Sheridan. An exaggerated air 
 of mature sagacity marks Canning's earlier speeches. 
 In a debating society manner he protests against intro- 
 ducing a debating society into the House of Commons. 
 It is enough to note these youthful exercises.
 
 54 George Canxixg 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 AT THE FOREIGN OFFICE. 
 
 Canning had entered Parliament with a view to office, 
 and office was near at hand. After some delays and 
 doubts, the nature and cause of which do not very 
 explicitly appear, he was appointed, in the spring of 
 1796, Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in 
 succession to Mr. Thomas Aust, now known to man- 
 kind only as Canning's predecessor. Fox, who at this 
 time had a very angry feeling towards Canning, which 
 he expressed in his letters to Lord Holland, ungene- 
 rously attacked the appointment as a job substituting 
 an incompetent for a competent person. Soon after- 
 wards Canning accepted the post of Receiver-General 
 of the Alienation Office, with a salary of 700?. a year 
 — a sinecure the nominal duties of which were the 
 reception of fines levied upon writs of covenants and 
 entries. 
 
 In May, 1796, the approaching expiration of the 
 septennial term brought about a dissolution of Parlia- 
 ment. Canning, leaving Newtown, offered himself as 
 a candidate for Wendover ; both boroughs were after- 
 wards victims of the Reform Act of 1832. For 
 Wendover he sat in conjunction with I\Ir. John Ililey 
 Addington, destined to a place in human memory
 
 At the Foreign Oeeice 55 
 
 as the cheering '■ Brother Hiley ' of one of Canning's 
 anti-Addingtonian squibs. During the next two years 
 Canning took little part in debate. He was absorbed 
 in the work of his office, patiently bearing the deten- 
 tion in town and the seclusion from society which it 
 involved, for which, he said, the happiness of constant 
 occupation and the satisfaction of seeing a great deal 
 of himself were more than a compensation. Next to 
 this improving intercourse he valued his opportunities 
 of being with Mr. Pitt, who, though not so close a 
 prisoner as Canning, never left town without giving 
 him a map of his movements. Canning saw much of 
 him at Holwood, and never left him without a warmer 
 love and admiration. ' I wonder,' Canning writes from 
 the Foreign Office, ' what sort of times those must have 
 been when there were no armies to watch, no conflicts 
 to apprehend, and ]<]urope had no fate depending.' 
 
 The life of Canning is essentially that of a politician, 
 and to narrate fully his first thirteen years in Parlia- 
 ment and office would be to trace the course of history 
 through the first Administration of Mr. Pitt, that of 
 Addington, Pitt's second Administration, and that of 
 Grenville and Fox. It is the history of unsuccessful 
 war and equally unsuccessful negotiations with France; 
 of coalitions and the rupture of coalitions ; of the Direc- 
 tory, the First Consulate, and the Empire ; of the ' ex- 
 perimental peace ' of Amiens and of the renewal of the 
 war. Canning's connection with these events is almost 
 that of any other subordinate member of the Government 
 — of Jenkinson or Huskisson. It was not until he became 
 Foreign Minister in the Portland Administration of 1807 
 that he began to play an independent and original part
 
 T 
 
 56 George CaI^ning / 
 
 in public affairs. His intimate personal relations with 
 Pitt and Avith Lord Malniesbnry, the diplomatist of the 
 Pitt Government, and his official" connection with Lord 
 GrenVille, hrought him Tnto~nearer "view" of tlie great 
 events of the time than was possible to any other per- 
 son not a member of the Cabinet; but the part he 
 played was that of an instrument, and not of an agent, 
 still less of a principal. He was very busy in the 
 second negotiations for peace which were conducted by 
 Lord Malmesbury at Lisle. There was a peace party 
 and 'ar war party in the Cabinet. Pitt was at the head 
 of the former ; Grenville, his Foreign Secretary, of the 
 other. Malmesbury, nominally instructed by Grenville, 
 was i-eally directed by Pitt ; and Canning in the Foreign 
 Office, and George Ellis — Pitt's former assailant in ' The 
 Rolliad,' but now his devoted follower — at Lisle were 
 the subterranean channels of these secret communica- 
 tions. Pitt used the newspapers against Grenville, and 
 Grenville forced a resolution of secrecy on the Cabinet, 
 expressly intended. Canning says, to tie up Pitt's 
 tongue. Probably Canning was the intermediary 
 between Pitt and the press, for he was suspected of 
 using his official position for stock-jobbing purposes, 
 and he had to enforce a retractation from Mr. Perry, of 
 the ' Morning Chronicle,' by the threat of an action for 
 libel. 
 
 While Pitt and Grenville were at variance with 
 each other, they conspired to keep the rest ' of their 
 colleagues in the dark. ' Lord Malmesbury had to write 
 a double set of despatches, one to mystify the Cabinet 
 at large, the other to inform the Prime Minister and 
 Foreign Secretary. Important despatches which could
 
 At the Foreign Office 57 
 
 not be kept back were so copied out as to be nearly 
 illeo-ible. ~~Pitt ancOTaTmesburv, throusch Cahnino- and 
 Ellis, ado^jted the device "of"'^ most private letters,' of 
 winch Canning speaks as a most axTmlrable invention, 
 which he hopes will be kept up to the end of the nego- 
 tiations for the purposes for which it was designed. In 
 this private correspondence, Malmesbury, from his long 
 white mane and fine eyes, was caTTed The"t)lcl Lion ; ' 
 Le ToiTrneur, one of the French negotiators, was ' Sir 
 Gregory,' in honour, no doubt, of Sir Gregory Turner ; 
 Maret was ' William ; ' Talleyrand ' Edward.' Mysterious 
 messengers from Lisle came to Spring Gardens, where 
 Canning lived, found their way to the back of the 
 house, stealthily passed the bow windows, roused 
 Canning, and had conspiratorlike interviews with him 
 in the garden. At Lisle Lord Malmesbury established 
 a system of signals with M. Maret, one of the plenipoten- 
 tiaries. Assent or compliance was expressed by Maret's 
 taking his handkerchief out of one pocket, passing it 
 before his face, and returning it into the other pocket. 
 It was really a question of purchase and sale. Talley- 
 rand aiid Barras insisted on payment in advance, r 
 which Pitt refused, for concessions which they were \ 
 prepared to secure. Ultimately, however, the French, ' 
 while demanding the cession of English conquests, . 
 refused any corresponding surrender on their own part. | 
 Lord Malmesbury received his passports and the war ] 
 went on. 
 
 Canning had for some time been discontented with 
 his position in the Foreign Office. He was serving two 
 masters, hating the one and cleaving to the other. 
 Grenville was the most haughty and frigid of Whigs,
 
 k» 
 
 58 George Canning 
 
 painfully conscious, as he himself avowed, of his inability 
 to manage men and adapt himself to them, and it was 
 strange that they were able to go on together, as they 
 did, nearly two years longer. 
 
 In 1799 Canning became one of the twelve com- 
 missioners of India, a post of loss importance, whatever 
 its titular rank, than that which he had quitted. He 
 felt, naturally enough, that his abilities and services 
 justified his aspiring to a higher place in the Adminis- 
 tration. Towards the close of 1799 there was some 
 talk of Dundas, who united the office of Secretary of 
 State with that of Treasurer of the Navy, giving up the 
 former post. Canning did not desire this office until 
 he should ' grow bigger.' He feared to shock the public. 
 Still he avows himself discontented with his position of 
 work without distinction, and with liability to have the 
 results of long labours overthrown by a speech or canvass 
 of Lord Westmoreland's, the ' Sot ' (Sceau) ' Prive' (Privy 
 Seal) as he was accustomed to call him. As to his age 
 — he was twenty- nine- -he points to the examples of 
 Castlereagh', now for two years Minister of Ireland; 
 Addington, who was made Speaker at thirty ; Lord 
 Grenville, before that age Speaker and Secretary of 
 State. Pitt he will not quote ; he is a 'monster of 
 talent.' But he protests against exclusion being 
 practised against himself which is not put in force 
 against others. 
 
 If peace is concluded, the present functions of the 
 Third Secretary of State (War) will, he points out, in 
 a groat measure cease. But the public service requires 
 that the number of respectable and eflicient House of 
 Commons offices should not be diminished, and the need
 
 At the Foreign Office 59 
 
 of revicwinof the establishments will be ursfent. ' Do 
 yon imagine that the Home Secretaiy (such as ho is at 
 present) '- such as he was then he was the Duke of 
 Portland — ' would be sufficient assistance to Pitt in a 
 revision of this sort?' Canning thinks the Home 
 Secretary ought to have Irish business in his hands, 
 which, after the Union shall have been made, must be 
 done in England. 
 
 Peace, however, was not made during Pitt's Ad- 
 ministration. The Duke of Portland remained Home 
 Secretary, and Dundas War Secretary, while the 
 Treasurership of the Navy, which Canning desired, was 
 given in May, 1800, to Dudley Hyder, afterwards Lord 
 Harrowby. Canning became one of the Joint Pay- 
 masters of the Forces, an office which he held until 
 Mr. Pitt's retirement and Mr, Addington's accession to 
 the Premiership in 1801. During this period Mr. Can- 
 ning spoke against peace with France, against the 
 Slave Trade, and in favour of the union with Ireland. 
 He urged that a separate Parliament, whatever limita- 
 tions might be imposed on it at first, must ultimately 
 be an independent Parliament, and that an independent 
 Parliament meant national separation and the conver- 
 sion of Ireland into a hostile republic under the pro- 
 tection of France. He varied these graver performances 
 by a speech in favour of bull-baiting — a sort of playing 
 at being Mr. Windham, which would scarcely have been 
 more incongruous in Mr. Wilberforce himself. 
 
 "ft*
 
 George Canning 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE 'anti-jacobin.' 
 
 The return of Lord Malmesbary from Lisle, and the 
 substitution of war for diplomacy, left, it may be assumed, 
 a good deal of time on the hands of the youth of 
 the Foreign Office and other departments of State. 
 Hostilities were renewed with the pen as well as with 
 the sword. Lord Malmesbury received his passports 
 on September 18, 1797. The first number of ' The Anti- 
 Jacobin, or AVeekly Examiner, to be continued every 
 Monday during the sitting of Parliament,' was published 
 on November 20, 1797. It continued in existence 
 without interruption until Monday. July 9, 1798, when 
 the session of Parliament ended and the final number 
 was issued. The conductors of the ' Anti-Jacobin ' 
 were better than their word, for they published a 
 supplementary number on Monday, November, 1797, 
 and two numbers on Monday, July 2, 1798. The 
 paper consisted of eight pages quarto, double columns, 
 and was sold for sixpence. The writers appear to have 
 held conferences, for the purpose of talking over their 
 future numbers, at the house of Lord Malmcsburv. 
 'The Old Lion' had a court of his oxn at" which the 
 young lions met. In other words, Lord ]\ralmcsbury
 
 The 'Anti-Jacobin^ 6i 
 
 had tlie valuable faculty of attracting the younger men 
 of his party about him, quickening himself by their 
 impulses and guiding them by his experience. On 
 Sunday, the day before publication, the Anti-Jacobins 
 foregathered at the house of Wright the publisher, 
 'No. 169, opposite Old Bond Street, Piccadilly,' Avhere 
 they had secured an editorial room, which they entered 
 mysteriously by a door in another house, as ostenta- 
 tiously avoiding notice as when some of them had 
 donned the brown livery of the Christ Church Speaking 
 Club. According to Croker, Canning could not take 
 a cup of tea without a^" stratagem ; and there was a 
 good deal of the play-actor about his proceedings at 
 this time. The conspirators in the ' Rovers ' seem to 
 have been the model of some of his doings. Whether 
 through their elaborate precautions to avoid detection, 
 or through courting notoriety, the writers in the ' Anti- 
 Jacobin ' failed to keep their secret. ' The youths 
 whom Malmesbury chose ' are signalised with a 
 Homeric simplicity of epithet in the ' Epistle to the 
 Editors of the " Anti- Jacobin," ' written by William 
 Lamb, afterwards Lord Melbourne, at this tiine* a 
 lad of nineteen, and published in the ' Morning 
 Chronicle' of January 17, 1798. 'Ellis's sapient pro- 
 minence of nose ; ' ' Morpeth's gait, important, proud, 
 and big ; ' and ' Leveson-Gower's crop-imitating wig,' 
 are commemorated. Their mutual puffery is gently 
 ridiculed. ' Consequential Morpeth nods applause ; ' 
 ' In every fair one's ears at balls and plays, the gentle 
 Leveson-Gower whispers praise.' The editorship of the 
 ' Anti-Jacobin ' was generally attributed to Canning : — •
 
 62 George Canning 
 
 The skill 
 Of youthful Canning guides the ranc'rous quill ; 
 With powers mechanic, far above his age, 
 Adapts the paragraph and fills the page, 
 Measures the column, mends whate'er's amiss, 
 Rejects that letter, and accepts of this. 
 
 Canning's was undoubtedly the directing and in- 
 spiring mind of the ' Anti- Jacobin ; ' but the editor 
 was William Gilford, the poet of the ' Baviad ' and the 
 ' M^eviad,' and afterwards tlic editor of the ' Quarterly 
 Review.' Tlie chief associates of Canning in the 
 ' Anti-Jacobin ' were George Ellis, the converted Anti- 
 Pittite of the ' Rolliad,' one of the members of Lord 
 Malmesbury's suite at Lisle, now remembered for his 
 works on early English literature ; and Hookham Frere. 
 Other contributors were, or were supposed to be, Pitt, 
 Jenkinson, ' Brother Bragge ' and ' Brother Hiley,' 
 j\rorpeth, Hammond, Baron Macdonald, and Mornington 
 (afterwards j\Larquis Wellesley). The assignment of pieces 
 to the several authors is made with great confidence by 
 Mr. Charles Edmonds in his ' Poetry of the " Anti- 
 Jacobin," ' but it seems to rest on second-hand and, in 
 itself, not very conclusive testimony. It appears, however, 
 tolerably certain that Canning wrote the prospectus ; that 
 he contributed two lines to the ' Loves of the Triangles,' 
 of which Frere was otherwise the sole author ; that he 
 was the exclusive writer of the second and third parts 
 of that poem, of the ' Friend of Humanity and the 
 Knife Grinder,' of the 'Inscription for the Door of 
 the Cell of ]\Irs. Brownrigg, the 'Prenticide,' of the 
 second and third parts of ' The Progress of Man,' of 
 ' The New Morality,' and of the lines in reply to the
 
 The ' Axti- Jacobin' 63 
 
 ' Epistle to the Editors of the " Anti-Jacobin." ' The 
 play of The Rovers ; or, The Double Arrangement,' was 
 a composite work in which Ellis and Frere had a part. 
 The first five stanzas of the ' Sono- of Roo-ero ' are 
 assigned by Mr. Edmonds to Canning, the last to Pitt. 
 The ' Edinburgh Review ' attributes to Canning the 
 speech of Erskinc in the burlesque report of the meeting 
 of the Friends of Freedom to commemorate the IStli 
 of Fructidor. A ' Quarterly Reviewer,' on the other 
 hand, states as from certain knowledge that this per- 
 fect sample of keen yet good-humoured badinage was 
 from beginning to- end the work of Hookham Frere. 
 
 The poetry of the ' Anti- Jacobin ' is tcKrwell known to 
 makeitnecessary,evra if space allowed, to quote it here. 
 
 'The New Morality,' to which, with the exception 
 of a few Tines attributed to Pitt, Canning has an ex- 
 clusive title, is his most serious if not his happiest 
 contribution, and exhibits the temper by which, even 
 in their lightest moods, he and his associates were 
 animated. It is true moral satire — the satire not 
 merely of personality and badinage, of defamation and 
 lampoon, nor even the satire which attacks tendencies 
 and opinions through persons, but that which is in- 
 spired by the sense of contrast between the professions 
 and the practice of men, between the semblance and 
 the reality of virtue, between the age in which we live 
 and the better ages which are assumed to have preceded 
 it. The lines in which the false virtues that ape the 
 realities of benevolence, sensibility, justice, and candour, 
 are denounced, and traced to ' that parent of ten thou- 
 sand crimes, the new philosophy of modern times,' 
 have become the commonplaces of the second-hand
 
 i 
 
 64 George Canning 
 
 satire of orators who steal their art ready made. The 
 parody of the Benedicite was cited by Hone on his'frTal 
 in justification of his parody'. of the Lord's Prayer : — 
 
 ' Couriers ' and ' Stars,' sedition's evening host, 
 Thou ' Morning Chronicle ' and ' Morning Post ! ' 
 Whether ye make the rights of man your theme, 
 Your country libel, and your God blaspheme ; 
 Or dirt on private worth and virtue throw, 
 Still, blasphemous or blackguard, praise Lepaux. 
 
 And ye, five other wandering bards that move 
 In sweet accord of harmony and love ; 
 Coleridge and Southey, Lloyd, and Lamb & Co. 
 Tune all your mystic harps to praise Lepaux ; 
 Priestley and Wakefield, humble holy men, 
 Give praises to his name with tongue and pen ; 
 Thelwall, and ye that lecture as ye go, 
 And for your pains get pelted, praise Lepaux. 
 
 Praise him each Jacobin, or fool or knave, 
 
 And your cropped heads in sign of worship wave. 
 
 All creeping creatures, venomous and low. 
 
 <* Paine, Williams, Godwin, Holcroft — praise Lepaux ! 
 
 La Reveillere Lepaux had the double claim to 
 Canning's hatred of being one of ' the three scoundrelly 
 directors ' who had made peace impossible at Lisle, and 
 the High Priest of the Theophilanthropic sect — a sort 
 of Deistic anticipation of M. Comte's ritualistic religion 
 of humanity — which had opened four temples in Paris 
 and worshipped the Supreme Being with a liturgical 
 service of chants and flowers. 
 
 It is impossible to approve the taste and feeling oF 
 some of these lines, which mix up in indiscriminate 
 censure men of character with men whose leading
 
 I 
 
 The ' Anti-Jacodi\-' 65 
 
 qualities can scarcely be described in these terms, and 
 which coarsely appeal to prejudice and hatred. But to 
 discriminate was, in Canning's view, to be guilty of the 
 treachercrns^land' unmanly vice of candour. Coleridge, 
 even when he came to be on Canning's side, did" not t 
 forgive this attack, although he reserved his indignation ' \ 
 mainly for the inclusion of poor Lamb in a company ;., 
 with which politically he had nothing in common, being 1 1 
 connected with the Jacobin bards, as they then were, 
 only by the ties of poetiy and friendship. But war is 
 war, in politics as in arms ; and Canning was the last 
 man to Wunt the weapons of personal satire and in- 
 vective, which none could use so effectively as he. The 
 taste 6r~the times and the Whig precedent of the 
 'Eolliad,' the 'Probationary Odes,' and the 'Political 
 Eclogues,' some few years earlier, and of Tom Moore 
 some years later, justified him, so far as an example 
 
 set and an example followed can do sb'.""'*^"'" """' 
 
 ' The New Morality ' has something of the vigour 
 of Dryden, something of the polish of Pope, and, in 
 spite of its passionate prejudices and personal animo- 
 sities, something of the sound moral feeling of Cowper. 
 The place of the poetry of the ' Anti- Jacobin ' amongst 
 English political satires has been unduly lowered. It 
 has been described as inferior to the ' llolliad ' and to 
 the political verses of Tom Moore, which it is the fashion 
 to call his best performance. There is, indeed, about 
 the ' Rolliad,' with which for this purpose the other 
 works of~tFe sanie^riters,'the' Probationary Odes ' and 
 the ' Political Eclogues,' ma}^ be associated, a rollicking 
 vigour, a masculine force, a broad humour, and, with all 
 their coai'seness, a sort of good humour which the ' Anti-* 
 
 1
 
 66 George Canning 
 
 Jacobin ' lacks. The writers are not professional jokers, 
 they are country gentlemen who happen also to he 
 scholars and wits. Even when they misconduct them- 
 selves; they are gentlemen misconducting themselves. 
 Their very grossness has an air of good manners and 
 distinction about it. Moore, on the other hand, is the 
 man of letters lending himself to the purposes of his 
 patrons. The bookseller and the cheque from the news- 
 paper' office are always in view. He has unexampled 
 grace, ease and vivacity, and copiousness of fancy and wit. 
 But neither in the writers of the ' Eolliad ' nor in Moore 
 is there any belief. They have no cause ; they are pure 
 partisans ; their satire is almost entirely personal. 
 The ' Rolliad ' and the other poems of its authors were 
 written in vindication of the discreditable coalition 
 between Fox and North. They attacked the jMinis- 
 try of Pitt, which, apart from thS" circumstances of its 
 origin — and these have since found constitutional vin- 
 dicators upon the highest democratic theories — was. 
 since Lord Chatham's and before the war with France, 
 the most sagacious and patriotic that England saw until 
 Lord Grey's, or at any rate until Mr. Canning's accession 
 to power half a century later. The ' Bolliad ' had, 
 necessarily, no political principle to vin^StPate. '' Moore 
 assailed the Prince Eegent and his Tory Ministers as 
 the ' Eolliad ' people assailed George III., Mr. Pitt and 
 his colleagues. He did not, save in the use of a few 
 party cries, go much beyond personal badinage. The 
 writers of the ' Anti-eTacobin,' though they were personal 
 enough, and sometimes were as wantonly personal as 
 Fitzpatrick or Moore, had a doctrine which they up- 
 held and a doctrine which they attacked. They had a
 
 The * AxVti-Jacobin' 67 
 
 scheme of politics aud of morals, views of art. literature, 
 and philosophy, of which they wof tli<' unflinching 
 champions. Against the abstract principles of the 
 French thiri'kers, the humanitarian and (■i~-iiiipolitan en- 
 thusiasm of the earlier poetry of Coleridge and Southe}", 
 they set' up a morality which is based on habits and 
 usage ; against the rights of man, the rights which 
 depend on laws and institutions ; against theophilan- 
 thropy, the Christian religion ; against the Goddess of 
 Reason, the Established Church. They believed that 
 man is the creature of organised society fThaFTie be- 
 longs to his own nation and to its institutions ; and that 
 to strip him of these things is to unclothe him and leave 
 him naked, to expose him, wounded and bleeding. 
 Canning and his friends hated the jargon ofcause and 
 principle and system ; they thought it Frencli ; but 
 nevertheless they had a cause, a principle, and a system ; 
 and this fact gives to the satire of the ' -i^iti- Jacobin ' 
 a place in English satire of a higher character than can 
 be claimed for the writers with whom its authors are 
 sometimes put in disadvantageous'contrast. They were 
 bent on amendino; the doctrines and manners of* their 
 time ; bent on restoring sagacity to politics,"^ood sense 
 to literature, morality to the stage, sobrietyl;o specula- 
 tion. They had principles and a doctrine,' and they 
 applied those principles and that doctrine all round, in 
 correction of French principles in politics, of false tasto 
 in letters, of wild speculation of the Payne and Erasmus 
 Darwin school icTsocial philosophy and science, of senti- 
 mental theophilanthropy or blank atheism in religion, 
 of German licence on the stage. The ' Anti- Jacobin ' 
 represented a counter-reaction against an exaggerated 
 
 00 
 
 ' F 2
 
 68 George Canning 
 
 reaction. The gross abuses of custom and inheritance 
 which the French revolution had swept away had 
 led to a movement against all that was established and 
 hereditary. 
 
 In protesting against the extravagances of cosmo- 
 politan and humanitarian sentiment, and of individual 
 licence, Canning fell into something like a worship of 
 national prejudices and antipathies, of political abuses 
 and ecclesiastical and social tyrannies. He did not 
 make enough account, because his antagonists had 
 made too much, of personal freedom, and of that sense 
 of a common humanity which is the basis of national 
 differences. His literary judgments rested no less on 
 national sentiment, in this case inspired by good sense. 
 He objected to the Latinised style of Junius and 
 Johnson for the reason which made him ridicule the 
 spondaics and dactylics of Southey and Coleridge. In 
 English prose and verse the structure of the sentences 
 and the metrical forms should be English. As Dr. 
 Johnson said, criticising Hume's Gallicisms of style, 
 the French structure may be as good as the English 
 structure, but it is not English : ' Mv name mio-ht 
 originally have been Nicholson as well as Johnson, but 
 if you were to call me Nicholson now you would call 
 me very absurdly.'
 
 69 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 DOMESTIC RELATIONS. 
 
 / 
 
 While Canning was taking part in the schoolboy 
 parliament of Eton and the speaking club at Christ 
 Church, lionising at Blenheim and Saltram, and earn- 
 ing renown in St. Stephen's and Dowlaing Street, his 
 mother was wandering over the country as a strolling 
 actressT" After the death of Eeddish she had married 
 a stage-struck silk mercer at Plymouth, named Hunn, 
 who, failing in business, essayed the boards at Exeter 
 and 'was damned. A situation was obtained for him 
 in a merchant's office in London ; but he too died, 
 leaving Canning's mother for the third time a widow, 
 with three children — two girls and a boy — dependent on 
 her. Canning's affectionate devotion to her through life 
 was unfailing. He wrote to her fully and reg-ularlv, 
 he missed no opportunity of seeing her. The story of 
 his having settled his pension upon her appears to be 
 imfounded. I can find neither his name nor hers on 
 jiny pension list. He enabled her, however, to with- 
 draw from the stage. She took up her residence first 
 at Winchester and afterwards at Bath, where she re- 
 mained until 1827, the year of her own and of her son's 
 death. The fact that Canning's mother had been on 
 the stage, and was supposed to have a pension, was not 
 
 ^
 
 yo George Caxxixg 
 
 likely to escape the notice of the lampooners and 
 libellers of the time. It saved them the necessity of 
 simply lying ; they had, in pai't at least, only to exag- 
 gerate. Wolcot (' Peter Pindar ') was especially per- 
 tinacious and malignant. ' Gifford,' lie makes Pitt 
 
 say:— 
 
 GifFord, that crooked babe of grace, 
 And Canning, too, shall be in place, 
 And get a pension for liis niotlier. 
 
 Again : — 
 
 'I must have something,' Canning cries, 
 And fastens on some rich miucepies, 
 
 As dextrous as the rest to rifle ; 
 Ecocl, and he must something do 
 For mother and for sisters too, 
 So steals some syllabubs and trifle. 
 
 On July 8, 1800, Canning married Miss Joan Scott, 
 the daughter and co-heiress of General Scott, who had 
 made a fortune in India and at the gaming-table. 
 He left 100,000L to each of his' clanghters, with the 
 strange provision, for an Englishman, that if either of 
 them married a nobleman her fortune should go to 
 the other. The elder sister married the Marquis of 
 Tichfield, the son of the Duke of Portland ; but the 
 younger, who became Mrs. Canning, generously refused 
 to take advantao-e of her father's will, and insisted on 
 the fortune remaining divided. We have to consider 
 the political morality of the times, which, however, 
 except in the limitation of opportunities, does not per- 
 haps differ much from our own, in estimating the 
 fact that when the marriage bv which he was enriched 
 took place — certainly Avhen it was arranged— Canning,
 
 Mj 
 
 Domestic Relatioxs yi 
 
 tliough the pension story seems to be a pure fabri- 
 cation, had and kept a sinecure as Receiver in the 
 Alienation Office. Wolcot did not fail to magnify 
 the received fiction, and to burthen the pension list 
 with a perfect army of imaginary half-brothers and 
 half-sisters of Canning. In the letter of Mr. Joseph 
 Budge on the Middlesex election, written congenially 
 in the Devonshire dialect to Lord Rolle, whose accent 
 — S£/3apr^rr==is^'commemorated ni the ' Rolliad/ this 
 grdwth'ciT calumnious fable is exhibited"-^ 
 
 And then one CanniDg, a poor Ijoy, 
 Took from a school to his (Pitt's) employ, 
 
 Once thoft a huge deep thinker. 
 He, like a very duteous son, 
 Got nice tid-bits for mother Hun, 
 
 And brother Tim, the tiiilcer. 
 
 And zister Peg, and zister Joan, 
 With scarce a flannel dicky on, 
 
 As ever I can larn ; 
 Broken-down actresses, tliey zay, 
 Tlaat in the country used to play 
 
 Yor herx'ings in a barn. 
 
 Now though this curious young man got, 
 A hundred thousand with Miss Scott, 
 
 (Egad ! a fortune thumpmg !) 
 Behold, a hadn't got the heai't 
 To give his family a peart, 
 
 Zo zend mun out a mumping. 
 
 In another piece of rhymed and metrical scm'rility 
 the libeller savs : —
 
 / 
 
 72 GeorgIi Canning 
 
 I met mother Hun in the park, 
 
 The dam of our great Master Canning, 
 
 Forth flying as brisk as a lark, 
 
 With her daughters perspiring and fanning. 
 
 J * You've heard of the marriage, I guess ; 
 Nice match, oh, a very nice match ; 
 Half a million of money, not less, 
 J Oh, Lord ! 'twas a beautiful catch. 
 
 ' Yet how mortally proud they will be; 
 
 Three days, sir, before the grand wedding, 
 Bundled off were my daughters and me, 
 
 Pack'd off" in the mail, bed and bedding. 
 
 ' For we weren't of importance enough 
 Our court to great people to pay ; 
 
 And so we were all ordered off. 
 For fear of disgracing the day.' 
 
 X 
 
 In a footnote appended to this precious effusion, 
 Pitt is charged with having ' saddled the nation with 
 pensions for Madam Hun, the Misses Hun, alias 
 Cannings, alias Reddishes, a pension on her husband 
 Mr. Richard Hun, a place in the West Indies for one 
 Master Reddish, and military promotion in the East 
 for the other, and, to crown the whole, a pension for 
 poor Uncle Tommy, the tinker of Somers-town.' By a 
 later effort of imagination, to ' brother Tom the tinker 
 from Pentonville,' who, no doubt, is simply a variety of 
 ' poor Uncle Tommy, the tinker of Somers-town,' is 
 added ' brother Bob, a common soldier from Botany 
 Bay.' 
 
 Mrs. Hunn is described as having been a woman of 
 considerable force of mind and character, but of some-
 
 Domestic Relat/oAs 73 
 
 what original and eccentric manners, sucli as tlie neces- 
 sary emphasis of the stage and the self-assertion of a 
 competitive profession occasionally produce. There is 
 a dim suggestion of Mrs. Crummies in the accounts we 
 have of her ; but there is no trace of any disposition 
 on Canning's part to keep her out of view ; and his wife, 
 wlio was devoted to him, and, with Charles Ellis, was 
 to the last his confidante, even beyond what is prudent 
 in matters of State — he had no secrets from her, his 
 friends said — -is not likely to have been at variance with 
 him on this point. Her own generosity to her sister 
 is a strong presumption that she would not fail in gene- 
 rosity and tenderness to one who had found a harbour 
 after a stormy passage and some shipwrecks, AYolcot's 
 libels, however, show amid what accompanimenls of 
 calumny and insult the business of public life was car- 
 ried on at the close of the eighteenth and the beg-inning 
 of the nineteenth centuries. On his marriage Canning 
 left Spring Gardens and took up his abode in the house 
 in Conduit Street now numbered 37, his occupation of 
 which a tablet commemorates. He had previously lived 
 at Putney, probably to be near Pitt, and while resident 
 there had formed a friendshijD with the unhappy Prin- 
 cess of Wales. He took part in the romps of j\Iontagu 
 House, Blackheath, in which graver persons — the bro- 
 thers Scott, afterwards Lord Eldon and Lord Stowell, 
 and Perceval — had been sharers. Of all these men 
 Canning alone remained true to the Princess" throughout 
 her troubles. When she became queen he confronted 
 the hostility of the King, which at that time might 
 mean permanent exile from political life, rather than 
 join in the proceedings against her.
 
 74 George Canning 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 ATTACKS ON ADDINGTON. 
 
 The parliamentary union with Ireland had been passed 
 in the two Parliaments of Westminster and Dublin in 
 the summer of 1800. The aim of the political union 
 was to defeat the French design of converting Ireland 
 into a Hibernian republic after the Batavian, Cisalpine, 
 and Ligurian model. The union of the Parliaments 
 was, however, in Pitt's eyes, the condition under which 
 alone the moral union between the two countries which 
 he thought Catholic Emancipation would secure became 
 safe. The King refused his consent to any relief, 
 and emj^hasised his refusal by going mad. Mr. Pitt 
 resigned office, and after some months' delay, occasioned 
 by the King's inability to attend to business, Mr. 
 Addington became Prime Minister. Canning, who sat 
 for the Irish borough of Tralee in the now United Par- 
 liament, was bitter in his hostility to Addington and 
 incessant in his efforts to restore Pitt to office. A sort 
 of round-robin of protest and remonstrance was pro- 
 jected, which was to be presented to Addington, asking 
 him, as an act of Decian virtue, to sacrifice himself for 
 his country and to make way for Mr. Pitt. The Dean 
 of Christ Church, Lord Malmesbury, and Canning were 
 active in the matter. But the plot got wind. Pitt,
 
 Attacks ox Add/.\\;7(k\- 75 
 
 who had covertly favoured the project, was forced to 
 discountenance it, and the thing- dropped. There were 
 long intrigues, in which Canning was the most active 
 agent. His hostility was not confined to attacks in 
 .I.*arliainent and to machinations out of it. In the years 
 1803-1 ho was busy in the ' Oracle.' as he had been half 
 a dozen years before in the 'Anti-Jacobin,' but his attacks 
 wore now purely personal. The journal, so far as he is 
 concerned, might have been properly called the ' Anti- 
 Addington.' The indecencies to wdiich he now and then 
 descended would have amply justified the somewhat 
 prudish remonstrance which Wilberforce addressed to 
 him with respect to the ' Anti-Jacobin.' The squibs of the 
 period were reprinted in the annual volumes called ' The 
 Spirit of the Public Journals ; ' and Sir George Lewis, 
 in his ' Essays on the Administration of Great Britain 
 from 1788 to 1830,' enumerates those which 'appear to 
 be by Mr. Canning.' The first of these, entitled ' Proofs 
 of Political Sagacity,' resembles those copious memo- 
 randa for his speeches which Canning was iu the habit 
 of preparing, and contains indeed a good deal of the 
 sarcasm which is involved in the rhetoric and aro-ument 
 of his parliamentary speeches, disengaged from them 
 and given in its undiluted essence. The points wero 
 given in a series of antitheses, supported by references 
 to ministerial statements. The first two may serve as 
 a specimen : — 
 
 How very wise we were to make peace with Bonaparte, 
 because his tone and temper were so friendly ! But 
 
 How very wise we were to go to war with him again, 
 because his tone and temper have always been so hostile ! 
 
 Addington was to Canning — as he was, indeed, to
 
 76 George Canning 
 
 everybody in tlie colloquial slaug of tlie lobbies, of 
 societ}'', and of the press — always the doctor. His 
 father had been the family physician of Lord Chatham ; 
 but the nickname, though this reference to the paternal 
 profession is implied in it, is said to have been derived 
 from his recommendation to the King of a hop-pillow 
 as a soporific. ' The Doctor : an Ode — Scene, Treasury 
 Chambers,' has the motto from Romeo and Juliet : ' I 
 do remember an apothecary, and here about he dwells.' 
 
 Doctor, Doctor ! what dose, narcotic, emetic. 
 Diuretic, cathartic, or diaphoretic, 
 
 Can retrieve your poor country s deplorable case, 
 Her destruction avert or repeal her disgrace ? 
 
 ' Apothecaries' Hall, First of April, Mr. H. A.'s 
 Birthdav and Anniversarv of the Arrival of the Treaty 
 of Amiens,' describes a banquet in honour of Mr. 
 Addington. It gives one stanza, not very remarkable, 
 from a song in parody of Canning's own verses, ' The 
 Pilot that Weathered the Storm,' addressed to 'The 
 Pilot that jMoored us in Peace.' The following 
 Anacreontic, as it is called, refers to the fact that 
 Addington had made his brother Hiley Addington, 
 and his brother-in-law Bragge, afterwards Bragge- 
 Bathurst (both of them, by the way, contributors to 
 the ' Anti- Jacobin '), respectively Secretary of War and 
 Treasure!' of the Navy : — 
 
 How blest, how firm the statesman stands 
 
 (Him no low intrigue can move), 
 ** Circled by faithful kindred bands, 
 
 And propped by fond fraternal love. 
 When liis speeches hobble vilely, 
 What 'Hear Iiim's' burst from Brother Hiley ;
 
 Attacks on Addington yy 
 
 When his faltering periods lag, 
 Hark to the cheers of Brother Bragge ; 
 When the faltering periods lag, 
 Or the yawning audience flag ; 
 Wlien his speeches hobble vilely, 
 Or the House receives them drily, 
 
 Cheer, oh, cheer him, Brother Bragge, 
 Cheer, oh, cheer him. Brother Hiley. 
 Each a gentleman at large. 
 Lodged and fed at public charge, 
 Paying (with a grace to charm ye). 
 This the Fleet, and that the Army. 
 Brother Bragge and Brother Hiley, ^z 
 
 Cheer him when he speaks so vilely ; -^ 
 
 Cheer him when his audience flag. 
 Brother Hiley, Brother Bragge. ^-^^ 
 
 In a subsequent letter Timothy Gosling sends a 
 song, which he represents as having been accidentally 
 omitted from the report of the meeting, and in which 
 Pitt and Addington are contrasted : — 
 
 MODERATE MEN AND MODERATE MEASURES. 
 
 Praise to placeless proud ability. 
 
 Let the prudent muse disclaim. 
 And sing the statesman all civility. 
 
 Whom moderate talents raise to fame. 
 He no random projects urging. 
 
 Makes us wild alarm to feel ; 
 With moderate measures gently purging 
 
 Ills that prey on Britain's weal. 
 
 Chorus. 
 
 Gently purging, 
 
 Gently purging. 
 
 Gently purging Britain's weal.
 
 / 
 
 ^8 George Canning 
 
 Addiiigton with measured motion 
 
 Keeps the tenour of his way ; 
 To glory yields no rash devotion, 
 
 Led by burning lights astray. 
 Splendid talents are deceiving, 
 
 Tend to counsels much too bold ; 
 Moderate men we prize, believing 
 
 All that glistens is not gold. 
 
 ClIOKUS. 
 
 All that glistens, 
 
 All that glistens. 
 
 All that glistens is not gold. 
 
 ' The Blocks ' is a paper containing a great variety 
 of epigrams, comparing certain defences of the Thames 
 so named with analogous political defences : — 
 
 If blocks can from danger deliver. 
 Two places are safe from the Prench ; 
 
 The first is the mouth of a river, 
 The second the Treasury Bench. 
 
 ' Ambubajaruni Collegia, PliarmacopolaD,' is a com- 
 parison in verse between Addington and his colleagues 
 and certain notorious quacks of the day. ' The Doctor's 
 Practice justified by Precedent ' depicts Addington as 
 a political Sangrado, bleeding and purging his patient 
 to death. Young Bolus, in the following stanza, is 
 Addington's son, to whom the Clerkship of the Pells • 
 had been given — a sinecure in the Court of Exchequer 
 not more abusive than that which Canning himself 
 held as Receiver-General of the Alienation Office : — 
 
 Our Doctor's practice is the same, | 
 
 To park and lodge he makes his claim, 
 In Richmond Palace dwells;
 
 Attacks on Addington 79 
 
 Gives Navy-purse to Brother Bragge, 
 Hiley secures the Army bag, 
 
 Young Bolus bolts the Pells. 
 The patient next so high in blood, 
 Cupped, bled, and purged, as he thinks good, 
 
 He lowers to such condition. 
 That while he swears he has sweetly dozed, 
 And safe in peace serene composed. 
 
 He dies of his Physician. 
 
 ' 31ore of the Doctor,' and the ' Doctor versus 
 Cocker,' do not contain anything very remarkable. 
 The latter possibly refers to the financial blunders of 
 Addington, which had enabled Pitt to ' set up ' what 
 Canning called ' a separate indignation ' of his own. 
 
 ' Good Intentions ' affects to be an extract from the 
 first canto of a poem on that subject, of which the 
 argument is thus given : — 
 
 Happy that nation's lot I ween 
 
 (As Briton's sons can tell), 
 Whose rulers very little mean, 
 
 But mean that little well. 
 
 The theme is thus developed : — 
 
 But more than all, we love to dwell 
 On thy best talent, meaning well ; 
 Whether thou flatter or alarm us, 
 The intention never fails to charm us 
 
 Others, Avith necromantic skill, 
 
 May bend men's passions to their will. 
 
 Raise with dark spells the tardy loan, 
 
 To shake the vaunting Consul's throne. 
 
 In thee no magic arts surprise. 
 
 No tricks to cheat our wondering eyes ;
 
 8o George Canning 
 
 On thee shall no suspicion fall 
 Of sleight of hand, or cup, or ball ; 
 Even foes must own thy spotless fame, 
 XJnbranded with the conjurors name. 
 
 Ne'er shall thy virtuous thoughts conspire 
 To wrap majestic Thames on fire ; 
 And if that black and monstrous grain. 
 Which strews the field with thousands slain, 
 Slept undiscovered yet on earth. 
 Thou ne'er hadst caused the monstrous birth 
 Nor aided (such thy pure intention) 
 That diabolical invention. 
 
 Hail, then, on whom our KState is leaning, 
 
 O minister of mildest meaning ! 
 
 Blest with such virtues to talk big on, 
 
 With such a head (to hang a wig on) : 
 
 Head of wisdom, soul of candour, 
 
 Happy Britain's guardian gander, 
 
 To rescue from the invading Gaul, 
 
 Her Commerce, Credit, Capital ! 
 
 While Kome's great goose could save alone 
 
 One capitol of senseless stone. 
 
 A prose ' Parallel between Buonaparte and Mr. 
 Addingtou ' is long, and not in Canning's best vein. 
 ' St, James's Park Ghost,' an adventure of which Mr. J 
 Addington is the hero, has more of Swift's indecency f 
 than of his wit. ' A Symposium, or Attic Entertain- 
 ment, given in Downing Street on the 6th day of Feb- 
 ruary, 1804,' describes farcically an entertainment in 
 honour of the birthday of the Prime Minister's father, 
 to which the guests were summoned in the following 
 billet, in the shape of a physician's prescription : —
 
 AtTACKS ON AdDJMGTON 8 1 
 
 Ij!,. De cibis earn, et pise, suniatur : 
 De vino quant, suff. recipiatur, 
 Cum Ilecit. atque Mus. sumend. 
 Ad gaud, et jocos promovendum. 
 
 H. A., M.D. 
 
 The festival is noisy. lu its course Mr. Manasseli 
 (whose name a later generation has contracted to 
 Massey) Lopes is insultingly knocked down with a ham ; 
 Sheridan misbehaves himself; Addington makes a 
 speech in terms of medicine, and the meeting is broken 
 up by the report of Bonaparte's landing in Essex. 
 
 From ' A Quartetto, written for and sung at Mr. 
 Addington's last public Dinner,' we take the parts of 
 Addington, Tierney (who had quitted his party to take 
 office under Addington) and Sheridan. 
 
 .^^ Mr. Addington. 
 
 y^ If a body jjut a body in the Speaker's chair, 
 Must a body be nobody but a cypher thei-e 1 
 My gown and wig, so long and big, they pleased the 
 
 Royal eye, 
 Both King and Queen admired my mien, so ^Minister am I. 
 
 Mr. TiEUXEY. 
 If a body join a body called a party Whig, 
 Need a body for that body care a single fig ? 
 Like an ass retired Dundas from Bench of Treasury, 
 So in his bai'ge I sail at large, triumphant George 
 Tierney. 
 
 Mr. Sheridan. 
 If a body everybody seeks to please and coui't, 
 Must a body from nobody find the least support ? 
 Not a man trusts Sheridan with half a halfpenny, 
 Yet all the day I'm blithe and gay, and d at 
 
 night am I. 
 
 G
 
 82 George Canning 
 
 Addington speaks in the following address, parodied 
 from the ' Tragedy of Douglas/ Act II., Scene 1 : — 
 
 The Stranger. 
 jMy name's the Doctor ; on the Berkshire Hills 
 JNIy father purged his patients — a wise man 
 AVliose constant care was to increase his store, 
 And keep his eldest son, myself, at home. 
 But I had heard of politics, and long'd 
 To sit within the Commons House, and get 
 A place ; and luck gave wdiat my sire denied. 
 Some thirteen years ago, or ere my fingers 
 Had learned to mix a potion, or to bleed, 
 I flattered Pitt, I cringed, and sneak'd and fawn'd. 
 And thus became the Speaker. I alone, 
 ' With pompous gait and peruke full of wisdom. 
 The unruly members could control, or call 
 The House to order. 
 
 Tir'd of the chair, I sought a bolder flight, 
 And grasping at his power, I struck my friend 
 Who held that place which now I've made my own. 
 Proud of my triumph, I disdained to court 
 The patron hand which fed me, or to seem 
 Grateful to him who raised me into notice ; 
 And when the King had called his Parliament 
 To meet him here, convened in Westminster, 
 With all my family crowding at my heels. 
 My brotliers, cousins, followers, and my son, 
 I showed myself Prime Doctor to the country. 
 ]My end's attained : my only aim has been 
 To keep my place and gild my humble name. 
 
 Canning made merry, in more than one paper, over 
 a project to protect the coasts of the couutr}'- by sinking 
 large masses of stone in assailable places. He describes
 
 Attacks on Addington 8 
 
 
 
 with muck fulness iu a poem, called ' The Stone Expe- 
 dition ; or, The Doctor's Head Good for Something," a 
 scherSe" according to which Addington's head should be 
 used a^a maritime obstruction : — 
 
 /■ Thou who hast dragg'd the country clown so low, 
 y To save her yet might Roman virtue shew. 
 
 That pond'rous head which ne'er presumed to think 
 But England tottered on perdition's brink ; 
 Tliat head where army, navy, and finance 
 Are jerk'd about like puppets in a dance ; 
 Where all is chaos, where no reason's light 
 Breaks forth to brighten the Boeotian night ; 
 That head, that leaden cranium, wouldst thou lend, 
 To the world's centre, should the mass descend. 
 Neptune would tremble at the impulsive force 
 Of such a plummet, and permit its course. 
 
 The various accretions are described by which the 
 head of Addington, sunk at the bottom of the sea, is 
 converted into a shoal, to the despair and terror of 
 Bonaparte, whose flotilla is wrecked on it, 'some 
 shij)s having their bottoms beaten out by striking on 
 the doctor's os frontis, others foundering on the occiput,' 
 &c. Mr. Vansittart proposes that the members of the 
 Cabinet should visit iu a diving-bell 'the remains of 
 the late Dr. A n, now for his country's sake con- 
 verted into a mud bank.' But they all on various 
 J3retexts refuse. 
 
 A political song, ' Axing pardon,' refers to the speech 
 of an Irish member who had spoken of Ireland as a 
 woman in labour ' cured by the care and precaution of 
 her doctor ' — a medical metaphor which Canning could 
 notj of course, neglect the chauco of turning to tlie 
 
 62 
 
 /
 
 84 George Canning 
 
 ridicule of Addington. 'A Petition Extraordinary' 
 affects to proceed from Addington, Castlereagh, and 
 Mr, Yorke, and prays that ' Napoleon Buonaparte and 
 others, his vile associates, may be delivered over to 
 the custody of the Serjeant-at-arms, and retained in 
 durance,' so that they may not invade the country until 
 the Volunteer system of England is in full operation. 
 Addington is said to have tried to enlist Tierney, to 
 whom he had given oflace, and Sheridan, towards 
 whom he made advances on his side in the conflict of 
 pamphlets and paragraphs. The allusions to them 
 in Canning's pasquinades show that he recognised or 
 suspected the alliance. 
 
 Dean Pellew attributes the origin of the feud 
 between Canning and Addington to Canning's resent- 
 ment of certain supposed slights on Addington's part. 
 But the character and situation of the two men suffi- 
 ciently explain it. ' I can't bear fools, anything but 
 fools,' said Fox of Addington ; and this was, no doubt, 
 Canning's feeling. They remaiiaed at variance until 
 the year 1812, not speaking when they met in society. 
 Canning, calling at the Home Office on private busi- 
 ness in that year, was accidentally shown into 
 Addington's (then Viscount Sidmouth's) waiting-room. 
 Addington hearing his name sent for him, and Avitli 
 a generosity and gentleness of manner before which 
 Canning, greatly moved, broke down, solicited a recon- 
 ciliation. At Canning's request. Dean Jackson, some 
 time after, wrote to Lord Sidmouth, to say how deeply 
 Canning had felt the kindness, which at the moment he 
 was physically unable to acknowledge.
 
 85 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE SECO^■D PITT ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 Pitt affected to disajiprove of Canning's attacks upon 
 Addington — ' Look you, mock him not ! ' — and of his 
 over-zeal for Pitt's return to office. The ' experimental 
 peace ' of Amiens was only a truce. The nation contem- 
 plated with alarm the prospect of Addington's remaining 
 at the head of affairs during the wai* that it Avas now 
 seen must presently break out. Pitt wrote to the King, 
 saying that he could no longer suppOTt the policy of 
 the Ministry. This was on April 22, 1804. Pitt made 
 an unsuccessful attempt to include Fox, Grenville, and 
 their friends in the Administration. In the list of the 
 proposed Ministry in Mr. Pitt's handwriting — of which 
 Lord Stanhope has printed a facsimile — Canning is 
 assigned the Irish Office. The King, who had just 
 recovered from a fresh mental illness, declared that he 
 preferred civil war to Fox, and Grenville declined to 
 enter the Government without him. 
 
 Canning was a reluctant member of Pitt's second 
 Administration. He was deeply disappointed at the 
 exclusion of Fox and Grenville. He told Pitt that he 
 would rather not take office at all, and in any case he 
 objected to Cabinet office, for which the country did 
 not think him yet ripe. It would attribute his
 
 86 George Canning 
 
 advancement to favouritism on Pitt's part. He was 
 anxious not to be in tlie secrets of administration, but 
 if Pitt desired to have a parliamentary friend close to 
 him, and thought that he could be of assistance to him 
 in the House of Commons, he would place himself at 
 his disposal. The only offices, he added, outside the 
 Cabinet which were in the line of promotion and 
 seniority were the Secretaryship at War and the 
 Treasurership of the Navy. A few days after this con- 
 versation, on May 12, Pitt wrote to Canning, offering 
 him his choice between the two offices he had desig- 
 nated. Pitt, who did not like grudging and conditional 
 support, added that he hoped Canning would not feel 
 himself bound to take either if to do so was disasfree- 
 able to him. Canning chose the Treasurership of the 
 Navy. The Treasurership of the Navy was one of those 
 lucrative offices the perquisites of which had been shorn 
 more than twenty years before by Burke's economic 
 reform. Before that time the incumbent of it was 
 allowed, as was the Paymaster of the Forces, to emj^loy 
 for his own purposes the balances lying in his hands. 
 When this . abuse was abolished, the salary, which had 
 been 2,000?. a year, was raised to 4,000/., with an 
 allowance of 1,500Z. a yenr for a deputy. The payment 
 of seamen's wages and of the navy and victualling bills 
 were among the duties of the Treasurer of the Nav}?", 
 whose office in Broad Street was the centre on which 
 depended branch establishments in different parts of 
 the kingdom. 
 
 A squib in the ' Oracle,' which Sir G. Lewis assigns 
 to Canning, called ' Counter Theatricals,' in reply to a 
 paper called ' Theatricals ' in the ' Morning Chronicle,'
 
 The Second Pitt Admixi^tration 87 
 
 ricliculos more coarsely and le>s cloyerly than was 
 Cannino-'s wont the leadino- antasfonists of IMr. Pitt's 
 Government. It describes a comedy called ' Discon- 
 tent ; or, The Murmurs of Opposition,' which is pre- 
 sently to be produced, and the company which are to 
 act it. ' The ostensible Manager of the Company is 
 an old Fox, who generally plays a principal part in the 
 pieces acted by his troop. He was once in a manner 
 hissed off the Stage for disrespectful behaviour to the 
 audience : that is, for saving there was no audience 
 worth acting to' — this refers to Fox"s secession from 
 1797 to 1802 — ' and did not venture to reappear until 
 a considerable time had elapsed. . . . He has always 
 been considered an actor of great talents, tho' exceed- 
 ingly unhappy in the choice of 2:)arts which he ought 
 to play, as well as in the pieces which he has produced, 
 most of which have been irretrievably damned, &c. . . . 
 Among those who are principally to support the 
 Manati'er in this Drama is an Irishman, who is known 
 amonsr his friends bv the name of Dan-Sherrv or 
 Sherry-Dan, supposed to have been given him by his 
 Bottle Companions in allusion to the great quantities 
 of sherry — Ave are told, however, claret — which he has 
 been continually pouring down his throat, and which 
 has lighted up a flame in his countenance that all tlie 
 water in the House cannot extinguish. The next actor 
 is known by the appellation of Wind-him, from his 
 notorious liability to be wound or turned about, or in 
 allusion to the variableness and inconsistency of the 
 wind, which he a good deal resembles,' &c. 
 
 Keluctant as Canning had been to join Pitt's second 
 Administration, he was presently still more reluctant to
 
 88 Gforge Canxing 
 
 remain in it. Pitfs majority proved small and un- 
 certain. Addington carried with him a certain number 
 of dissentient Conservatives, and his help was essential. 
 The Duke of Portland resigned the Presidency of the 
 Council, which was conferred upon Addington, who 
 was raised to the peerage with the title of Viscount 
 Sidmouth. 
 
 To Canning Addington's appointment was a bitter 
 mortification. He wrote to Lady Hester Stanhope on 
 hearing of it : ' Everybody must know that the arrange- 
 ment which places Mr. Addington in the Cabinet dis- 
 places me.' When the project was first mooted for 
 overtures to Addington, he had thought that a peerage 
 and a pension, not a Cabinet office, were intended. ' A.,' 
 Canning went on to say, ' if I understand your letter 
 right, is a Minister and I am nothing. I cannot help 
 it. I cannot face the House of Commons or walk the 
 streets in this state of things as I am.' He then asks 
 Lady Hester to represent to Pitt that he should make 
 Canning's inevitable retirement his act, not by dis- 
 missing him but by taking for granted that it is in- 
 evitable, and by further explaining the matter to the 
 King, with whom he wishes to stand well, and to Lord 
 Melville, by whom he did not wish to be misunderstood. 
 Canning was, however, induced to retain office, pro- 
 bably on Pitt's appeal to his loyalty and patriotism. 
 Addington, though he said naturally enough that he 
 could never meet him nor alter his feelings towards 
 him, disclaimed any idea of wishing to interfere with 
 his private friendships or his prospects. 
 
 The gain of Addington was as nothing to the loss 
 of Melville, charged with having, as Treasurer of the
 
 The Second Pitt Administration 89 
 
 Navy in a former Admin isl rali.in. niisappropriated public 
 money, and ' concTemned by the House of Commons, 
 tbouo'h on impeachment acquitted by tlie House of 
 Lords. 
 
 • Pitt, feeling the necessity of strengthening his 
 ]\linistry, asT^ed the King, during the recess of 1805, 
 to allow him to propose ofBce to Fox and the Gren- 
 villes ; but the King was obstinate as regards Fox, and 
 Thomas "Grenville refused to come in without him. 
 Canning, who told Malmesbury this in December, said 
 that Pitt now felt that he must depend upon his own 
 side, and that he and Charles Yorke were to be brought 
 into the Cabinet— a statement which George Rose dis- 
 credits. If Pitt had this design he did "not live to 
 carry it out. The disgrace of Melville, and the ruin at 
 Ulm and Austerlit^ of his plans of a European con- 
 federation against France, against whicli the victory of 
 Trafalgar alone could be set, broke down his physical 
 strength. He took Melville's disgrace tlie niore* gravely. 
 Austerlitz, he said to Huskisson, might be got over, but 
 not the Tenth Report. Canning, who visited him on 
 the day before his death at Putney, whither he had 
 returned from Bath, saw that it was an affair of a few 
 hours. Canning had long been anxious. His admi- 
 ration of his poTiticaTcLief and master was' expressed 
 in the epitaph on the statue in the Guildhall of 
 London. "^ 
 
 Mr. Canning's parliamentary activity was not great 
 during Mr. Pitt's second Administration. He spoke at 
 length on the defences of the country in February 1805, 
 of course supporting Mr. Pitt's schemes ; but the main 
 call made upon his powers was for the defence of Lord
 
 90 George Canning 
 
 Melville, already punished by dismissal from office and 
 the ei'asure of liis name from the list of Privy Councillors, 
 against the impeachment proposed by Mr, Whitbread. 
 Canning held the office of Treasurer of the Navy, in 
 which the offences, reduced by the decision of the 
 House of Lords and by subsequent opinion to some- 
 thing less than peculation, were committed, and he there- 
 fore spoke with knowledge of the way of doing business 
 in that department. He could not help seeing the 
 funny side, not of the trial, but of some of the actors 
 in it, and he was especially tickled with the virtuous 
 egotism and self-importance of the speech in which 
 Mr. "Whitbread, the chief accuser, brought the articles 
 of impeachment before the House of Lords. His sense 
 of them was expressed in — 
 
 ' I'ragment of an Oration.' 
 
 Part of Mr. Whitbread's speech at the trial of Lord 
 Melville put into verse by Mr. Canning at the time it was 
 delivered : — 
 
 I'ni like Archimedes for science and skill, 
 
 I'm like a young Prince going straight up a lull ; 
 
 I'm like (with respect to the fair he it said) — 
 
 I'm like a young lady just bringing to bed. 
 
 If you ask why the lltli of June I remember ^ 
 
 Much better than April, or IMay, or November, 
 
 On that day, my Lords, with truth I assure ye, 
 
 My sainted progenitor set up his brewery ; 
 
 On that day in the morn he began brewing beer. 
 
 On tliat day, too, connnenced his connubial career ; 
 
 f 
 
 ' The day on which Lord Melville was heard in his own defence 
 at the bar of the House of Commons.
 
 The Second Pitt Admix/strat/on 91 
 
 On that day he received and he issued his bills ; 
 
 On that day he cleared out all the cash from his tills ; 
 
 On that day he died, having finished his sunnning, 
 
 And the angols all cried, ' Here's old Whitbrcad a-coming.' 
 
 So that day still I hail with a smile and a sigh, 
 
 For his Beer with an e and his Bier with an i ; 
 
 And still on that day in the hottest of weather 
 
 The whole Whitbread family dine all together. 
 
 80 long as the beams of this house shall support 
 
 Tlie roof which oershades this respectable Court 
 
 Where Hastings was tried for oppressing the Hindoos ; 
 
 So long as that sun shall shine in at those windows, 
 
 My name shall shine bright as my ancestor's shines, 
 
 Mine recorded in journals, his blazon'd on signs. 
 
 Canning had been a very discontented member of 
 Pitt's secoiid Administration. He was an uncomfortable 
 colleague, hard to live with. At its formation he 
 quarrelled with Hawkesbury. who refused to join him in 
 trying to oust their old Oxford comrade, "Wallace, from 
 the India Board. He sneered at Hawkesbury himself 
 in debate, and, emulating the vouthful freedom of Fox, 
 expressed his disapproval of the composition of the 
 Ministry of which he was a suTSordinate member. He 
 incurred Pitt's reproof and tlie threat of dismissal. 
 But his attacliTnent to Pitt was unabated, and Pitt's 
 death consecrated it.
 
 9- George Canainq 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. . 
 
 CANNING AND THE GRENVILLE-FOX MINISTRY. 
 
 Mr, Pitts death, of-caui'se, dissolved his Administra- 
 tion. To the close of his life Canning did not cease pas- 
 sionately to vindicate the measures and character of the 
 man in office and close political and personal connection 
 with whom the first ten years of his parliamentary life 
 had been passed. An early opportunity was given him 
 of doing so. The House of Commons was asked to vote 
 a sum of 40,000?. for the payment of Pitt's debts, and 
 it did so unanimously. But the motion for an address 
 to the King in favour of a public funeral and a monu- 
 ment in Westminster Abbey was opposed, among others, 
 by Fox and Windham — by Fox on the ground that 
 Pitt, though a pure and disinterested was a mischievous 
 statesman ; by Windham, who alleged that, whatever 
 his merits, he had not won success. Canning protested 
 against the vote for the payment of Pitt's debts being 
 treated ' as an eleemosynary grant to posthumous 
 necessities.' It was a ' public debt to a higlily meri- 
 torious public servant,' and only as such could his 
 friends sanction it. On the death of Mr. Pitt the 
 King endeavoured to find another Addinsfton in Lord 
 Hawkesbury in lieu of the Addington he had lost in 
 Sidmouth, who was now the ally in faction, though not
 
 Cax.v/.w; and the Gkrnvii.i.e-Fox Ministry 93 
 
 in principles, of Fox and Grenville. But the time of 
 Lord Hawkesbuiy, who as Lord Liverpool was destined 
 to be Pi'ime Minister for fifteen successive years, had 
 not yet come. The King saw that there was nothing 
 for it but to have recourse to Lord Grenville, as formerly, 
 and with no less reluctance, he had been obliged to 
 accept Lord Rockingham, and to allow Grenville, as 
 formerly he had been forced to allow Rockingham, to 
 bring Fox with him. In other respects the new 
 Ministry resembles rather the coalition of 1783 than 
 the purely Whig Administration of 1782. Grenville 
 was an abler and firmer Portland; Sidmouth was a 
 dull North; Fox, as Gobbo says, was himself. The 
 Whig element predominated. Sidmouth, indeed, whose 
 forty or fifty followers in the House of Commons could 
 not be spared, would have been the only Tory and 
 King's friend in it if he had not been allowed to bring 
 in with him Lord Ellenborough, as he brought the 
 Earl of Buckinghamshire into the second Ministry of 
 Pitt. The faithful old steward and his mastiff, to use 
 the expression of a contemporary observer, w^ere em- 
 ployed to watch the new servants. The appointment 
 of Ellenborough was constitutionally open to grave 
 objection. Lord Ellenborough was Lord Chief Justice 
 of England, and in that chai'acter might quite con- 
 ceivably have to preside over political prosecutions 
 ordered by the Cabinet of which he was a member, 
 being thus in practice judge and accuser. It was, no 
 doubt, intended by the Toryism of the Lord Chief 
 Justice to balance the Liberalism of the Lord Chan- 
 cellor, Lord Erskine. A better arrangement was pro- 
 posed, which would have made Erskine Cliief Justice
 
 94 , George Canning 
 
 in the Court in which he had won so many victories 
 for constitutional freedom, leaving him out of the 
 Cabinet, and have given the Chancellorship to Ellen- 
 borough, a great lawyer, though, where politics were 
 concerned, an aggressive and tyrannical judge. This 
 plan Ellenborough declined to acquiesce in. Canning, 
 with a true constitutional instinct, saw this fault in the 
 composition of the Ministr}-. On March 3, 1806, Mr. 
 Spencer Stanhope moved a series of resolutions con- 
 demning the admission of the Lord Chief Justice of 
 England to the Cabinet. Sir Samuel Romilly, being 
 Solicitor-General, was officially obliged to defend the 
 arrangement. Mr. Canning, who might on this occa- 
 sion have repeated Pitt's boast and claim to have 
 unw(h)igged the gentlemen opposite, spoke with great 
 vigour and grasp of principle. The most interesting 
 passage of his speech to readers of the present day 
 refutes an absurdity, still sometimes repeated with an 
 air of great wisdom as one of the pleasing j^aradoxes, 
 the tickling pleasantries, of our political system. The 
 government of England being essentially government 
 by the Cabinet, it is considered very piquant to say 
 that the Cabinet is unknown to the Constitution. This 
 was said to Canning, who replied that ' he never heard 
 a more untenable proposition. In a free country such 
 as this, where a control was necessary, and where re- 
 sponsibility must necessarily lodge somewhere, were we 
 at this day to be turned round upon by being told 
 that there was no such thing as a Cabinet ? We had 
 persons who advised with his Majesty, who performed 
 all the functions of government, who were known 
 as the Cabinet, who were known all over London and
 
 C.-L\.\7XG ,-i.ViO 77//-: GRENri/JJ-.-PoX Ji//.\VSTJ?]' 95 
 
 the country to bo so ; but the moment Wf entered, 
 the door we were told that there was no Cabinet. It 
 mig-lit be true, indeed, that the Constitution recognised 
 nothing under the name of the Cabinet, but it was not 
 the less certain that there was such an assembly, with 
 whom the responsibility for whatever advice they gave 
 his Majesty rested.' In fact, all this talk of the Con- 
 stitution knowing and not knowing, recognising and 
 not recognising, is a misleading metaphor. In the 
 sense in which there is no Cabinet, there is no English 
 Constitution ; in the sense in which the English Con- 
 stitution exists, the Cabinet now exists as a part of it, 
 and as the most essential part. The English Consti- 
 tution is not a paper constitution, though a paper con- 
 stitution is not necessarily a bad thing. It is an affair 
 of growth and usage, of method and practice, and the 
 fact that a usage has grown up, and that a method has 
 been put into habitual practice, makes them constitu- 
 tional. It used to be said, and it is still now often said, 
 that the office of Prime Minister is not known to the 
 Constitution. Next to the existence of the Cabinet, 
 and as an essential part of it, it is the most important 
 element in the Constitution. The office was recognised 
 officially for the first time, it may be, in the recital of 
 the names and ranks of the plenipotentiaries in the pre- 
 amble of the Treaty of Berlin, in which Benjamin 
 Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, is described as ' Fii'st 
 Lord of her IMajesty's Treasury, Prime Minister of 
 England.' In fact, there are two English Constitu- 
 tions — a constitution of form and ornament, and one 
 of fact and operation ; a constitution of text-writers, 
 and u constitution of actuality. The three powers in
 
 ^6 George Caxsixg 
 
 the arcliaic constitution are the Queen, Lords, and 
 Commons in Parliament assembled. The three powers 
 in the livinof and working^ constitution are the Prime 
 Minister, the Cabinet, and the Commons dispersed 
 through the electoral body. The new Constitution, 
 which may be good or evil, acts through the forms and 
 by the mechanism provided by the old, and may long 
 do so ; but the form ouo'ht not to be confounded with 
 the substance nor the matter with the spirit. 
 
 Canning, who was afterwards destined to give hia 
 own name to a political school, was now become the 
 leader of the group known as the Pittites. After a 
 short interval of hesitation, based upon his former 
 relations with Lord Grenville, he plunged into opposi- 
 tion. George Pose, who, through their common rela- 
 tions with Mr. J^itt, was verj^ intimate with Canning, 
 says that he agreed with Grenville and was prevented 
 from joining him only by party ties. Canning, in 
 one of the debates in reply to a challenge from Fox, 
 avowed his personal confidence in and esteem for Lord 
 Grenville : ' But to talk of him now as the head of 
 the Government, after all that we have heard, after all 
 we have seen, to consider him as the directing and 
 presiding mind, is impossible. I am sorry for it. But 
 I admit no claim for confidence arising from an ex- 
 pression which was applied to an individual, and which 
 was founded on error as to his Aveight and situation in 
 the Government. In his colleagues I never had, and 
 never professed to have, the confidence which they now 
 demand.' 
 
 The followinnf verses, entitled ' Elijah's Mantle ' 
 {vide 2 Kings, chap, ii.), are printed in ' The Spirit of
 
 Canning and the Grenvillh-Fox Ministry 97 
 
 the Public Journals' for 180G. A prefatory note states 
 that, 'though the author's name is withheld, most 
 readers of taste will, we think, make a shrewd guess 
 at the poet.' Canning told Lord Boringdon that, after 
 the formation of Pitt's second Government, he had 
 abjured for ever all communication with the gentlemen 
 of the press ; but these verses did not appear in any 
 newspaper. There can be little doubt that they are 
 from the pen of Mr. Canning, and they express his 
 feeling towards ]\Ir. Pitt and towards j\[r. Pitt's 
 ministerial successors with more than parliamentary 
 freedom. He exhorts the several Ministers to emulate 
 Pitt :— 
 
 Greaville, to aid the Treasury fiuuo, 
 
 A portion of his mantle claim, 
 Pitt's generous ardour feel ; 
 
 'Bove sordid self resolve to soar, 
 
 Amidst Excliequer gold be pure ; 
 Thy wealth a nation's weal. 
 
 Fox, if on thee some remnant fall, 
 The shred may to thy mind recall 
 
 Tliose hours of loud debate, 
 When thy unhallowed lips oft praisfd 
 The glorious fabiic traitors raised 
 
 On Bourbon's fallen state. 
 
 Thy soul let Pitt's example fire, 
 With patriot zeal thy tongue inspire, 
 
 (Spite of tliy Gallic leaven, 
 And teach thee in thy latest day, 
 ]lis form of prayer, if thou canst pray, 
 
 ' save my country, Heaven ! ' 
 
 H
 
 98 George Canning 
 
 Windham, if e'er thy sorrow flow 
 At private loss or public woe, 
 
 Thy rigid brow unbend ; 
 Tears over Ctesar Brutus shed, 
 His hatred warr'd not with the dead. 
 
 And Pitt was once thy friend. 
 
 Does envy bid thee not to mourn, 
 Hold thou his mantle up to scorn, 
 
 His well-earn'd fame assail ; 
 Of funeral honours rob his corse, 
 And at his virtues till thou art hoarse, 
 
 Like the Greek cynic, rail. 
 
 Illustrious Roscius of the State, 
 Now breech'd and harness'd for debate, 
 
 Thou wonder of thy age ! 
 Petty or Betty, art thou hight, 
 By Granta sent to strut thy might (night X) 
 
 On Stephen's bustling stage. 
 
 Pitt's chequered robe 'tis thine to wear. 
 Take of his mantle, too, a share ; 
 
 'Twill aid thy ways and means ; 
 And should fat Jack and his cabal 
 Cry, ' Rob us the Exchequer, Hal,' 
 
 'Twill charm away the fiends. 
 
 Sidmouth, though low that head is laid 
 Which call'd thee from thy native shade 
 
 And gave thee second birth ; 
 Gave thee the sweets of power and place, 
 The tufted robe and gilded mace, 
 
 A nd rear'd thy puny woi'th ;
 
 Caxx/mg and the Grenviu.e-Fox I\Tjmstry 99 
 
 Tliink liow his mantle wi'aj)t tliee round ; 
 Is one of equal virtue found 
 
 Among thy new compeers ? 
 Or can tliy cloak of Amiens stulF, 
 Once laugli'd to scorn by blue and bulT, 
 
 Hide thee from Windham's jeers % 
 
 Mr, Canning's parliamentary compliments to Lord 
 Grenville were sarcasms scarcely masked. A current 
 of steady animosity lay beneath the alternating recon- 
 ciliations and alienations of Canning and his old chief 
 at the Foreign Office. To say that the ostensible 
 Prime Minister is not really the head of the Govern- 
 ment over which he seems to preside, to assume that 
 he is without decisive weight, the directing spirit being 
 with another, is to use the most dexterously chosen 
 topic and language of disparagement and irritation. 
 
 Fox was obviously sinking when, in 1804, Pitt's 
 plan for a combined Administration broke down. Fox 
 reconciled himself to his proscription by the King on 
 the ground that he was too old for office. His expe- 
 rience two years later confirmed his conclusion. Yet 
 he was then only fifty-five years of age, and was now 
 fiftv-seven, a time of life at which later statesmen — 
 Lord Palmerston, Lord Beaconsfield, and Mr. Glad- 
 stone — have had the most active and distinguished 
 part of their career before them, I leasure and self- 
 indulgence had done in Fox's case what incessant 
 labour (not unaided by the two-bottle habits of the 
 time) had done more rapidly by twelve years in Pitt's. 
 Fox had this advantage over Pitt, that he knew how 
 to take life easily. He enjoyed the retreat of St. Anne's 
 and his book under a tree. Pitt pined and repined 
 
 H 2
 
 100 George C a nixing 
 
 out of office, in which more than twenty out of his 
 twenty-three years of parliamentary life had been 
 spent. It was now obvious, however, that Fox must 
 be relieved of a part of his parliamentary labours. 
 Though he still attended to the duties of his depart- 
 ment, he had been compelled towards the middle ot 
 June to give up attendance in the House of Commons. 
 Grenville, through Lord Wellesley, made overtures 
 to Canning, who described their character in a letter 
 to Lord Boringdon, dated August 9. Canning alone 
 was to be admitted into the Cabinet. Professional 
 advancement was to be secured to Perceval, who at 
 this time combined politics with his practice at the 
 bar. Other claims were to be considered as oppor- 
 tunity arose. Canning showed prudence and good 
 sense in rejecting the proposal. ' To be plunged at 
 once,' he said, ' into the midst of the present Cabinet, 
 constituted as it now is, and that not in consequence 
 of any general arrangement on either side, but by Lord 
 Grenville's individual selection of me individually, and 
 without the King's previous knowledge ; in these cir- 
 cumstances to liave the labour of the House of Commons 
 devolved upon me in Fox's absence and (what would 
 be worse) under Fox's occasional superintendence, would, 
 1 really think, have formed altogether the most un- 
 endurable, the most discreditable, and the most hopeless 
 situation into which any man ever was misguided by 
 an inconsiderate precipitancy of ambition.' In the 
 event of the continuance of the war, Canning intimated 
 that he might get over his difficulties in order to aid 
 the Government, though even then he could not re- 
 coucile himself to the pi'oject vvliich Lord Granville
 
 Caxxjxg axd tue Gh'f.xr/i.u:-Fox ^M/x/sfry ioi 
 
 Leveson-Gower had heard as in contemplation of 
 * Fox's retaining his office, and discontinuing parlia- 
 mentary attendance with a purpose of coming down 
 now and then to see that things were going on rio-lit.' 
 Most of all, the King must be admitted into his own 
 Government 'if the Ministry was to be all that it 
 ought to be for weight, authority, popularity, and con- 
 fidence.' He ' must approve the design and bo seen 
 in the execution.' This doctrine is either harmless or 
 mischievous, as it is interpreted and applied. Canning 
 had seen enough of the relations between the Kinsr 
 and his Ministers to know the necessity of a good 
 understanding between them. It was difficult to carry 
 on the King's Govei'nment with the King in opposi- 
 tion. Canning showed later in life, in combating the 
 attempted proscription of him by George IV., that he 
 could manfully resist the excesses of royal pretensions. 
 But the Canning of 1806-7 was not the Canning of 
 1824-27 any more than the Pitt of 1781- was the Pitt 
 of 1804. Happily for himself and England, the later 
 was the greater and nobler Canning. That Canning 
 was wise in declining to take the leadership of the 
 House of Commons, subject to the occasional visitations 
 of Fox ' to see that things were going on right,' no 
 one who has witnessed the effects of somewhat similar 
 arrangements in our recent parliamentary history can 
 doubt. Fox's temper was large and generous, but 
 Canning's was sensitive and irritable, and did not 
 brook control even in positions more easily manageable 
 than that which was proposed. 
 
 Fox's health continued to decline. He told Grev 
 ghortly after taking office that there were two things
 
 I02 George Canning 
 
 on wliich his mind was set — the abolition of the slave 
 trade and the establishment of an honourable and 
 durable peace. The first he put in train for accom- 
 plishment, declaring that in contributing to it he felt 
 that his forty years of public life had not been spent in 
 vain. Happily, perhaps, for him, he did not live to see, 
 though he must have foreseen, the failure of the nego- 
 tiations for peace which he had set on foot. He had 
 come up to Downing Street in September, but he could 
 not bear the journey back to St. Anne's. He broke it 
 at Chiswick, staying at the Duke of Devonshire's villa, 
 where he died in the very room in which, about twenty 
 years later. Canning, whose political fortunes and future 
 were so closely involved in his, breathed his last. 
 
 Fox died on September 13, 1806. While Fox was 
 still living, Grenville reopened communication with 
 Canning for a reconstruction of the Ministry on a 
 larger scale than he had thought practicable in June. 
 The first proposal had been a seat in the Cabinet for 
 Canning-, a law office for Perceval, and a Privy Coun- 
 cillor's place for whomsoever Canning should name. 
 Afterwards, at Lord Grenville's request, Canning sent 
 in a list of persons ' not who must all have offices, but 
 among whom such offices as could be opened must be 
 distributed, and of whom such as were not included 
 in the distribution must nevertheless be consulted, and 
 excluded only by their own consent.' The list was 
 larger than Lord Grenville had anticipated, and he 
 regarded the pretensions it set forth as extravagant. 
 Two, or at most three, seats in the Cabinet (including 
 Fox's) were all that he thought he could dispose of. 
 Canning did not expect Fox's office for himself; that,
 
 Canning and the Grenville-Fox Ministry 103 
 
 he tliouglit, would be given by Grenville to his brother 
 Thomas, now for the first time brought into the Min- 
 istry. The seats to be distributed among Canning 
 and his friends were the Presidency of the Council, 
 which Lord Fitzwilliam might be willing to give up, 
 and the Presidency of the Board of Control, and pos- 
 sibly the Secretaryship at War, at the moment held 
 by Lord Minto and General Fitzpatrick respectively 
 without Cabinet rank. Nobody but Lord Fitzwilliam 
 had any thought, according to Canning, of moving. The 
 retention of Lord Ellenborough, of Windham, whom 
 as War Minister Canning had attacked and mercilessly 
 ridiculed, and of the Doctor was unacceptable to him. 
 Canning insisted on five seats in the Cabinet. One of 
 them, without office, he destined for Lord Eldon, whom 
 he thought sufficiently paid by his ex-Chancellor's pen- 
 sion of 4,000/. a year ; Lord Chatham (as his father's 
 son and his brother's brother) was to have another; 
 ' Castlereagh and myself in the House of Commons 
 (even if Yorke could be omitted) make four, and Liver- 
 pool or Westmoreland must be the fifth.' * Less than 
 this,' Canning said, ' he could not propose to his friends ; ' 
 and he proposed even this with the assurance that it 
 would be too much for Grenville, as it proved to be. 
 Lord Malmesbury was in ecstasies with the disinte- 
 rested conduct of Canning. He considered that Gren- 
 ville's proposals were simply intended to disunite Pitt's 
 friends, and that Canning had behaved nobly in reject- 
 ing, from principle, the splendid offers which were made 
 to him. Grenville was reduced by these refusals to 
 follow the course to which Pitt had been driven just be- 
 fore his death, and to strengthen himself from his own
 
 104 Georqe C.i.y.y/xG 
 
 side. Lord Ilowick (Grey), Fox's most intimate poli- 
 tical friend, succeeded his chief as Foreiorn Secretarv. 
 Thomas Grenville took Howick's place at the Admiralty ; 
 Lord Fitzwilliam gave up the Presidency of the Council 
 for a seat in the Cabinet without office ; Lord Sidmouth 
 becoming Lord President, and vacating the office of 
 Privy Seal for Fox"s nephew, Lord Holland. On the 
 failure of the negotiations with France Ministers ap- 
 pealed to the country. They met the new Parliament 
 on December 15, 1806, with an increased majority. 
 The Whigs, who had opposed what was in its origin a 
 war of aggression and territorial spoliation by the mon- 
 archs of Europe against Republican France, in denial 
 of her right to choose her own form of government, 
 now with perfect consistency opposed the aggression of 
 Imperial France on the liberties and independence of 
 Europe. Mr. Fox had strongly insisted on the main- 
 tenance of the uti possidetis principle, which was the 
 original basis of negotiations. Napoleon, departing 
 from this basis, insisted that, while France kept what 
 she had won, England should surrender her conquests, 
 or nearly all of them. The Ministry seemed to have a 
 long career before it, but it was doomed to perish. 
 It was the King's hand which destroyed the King's Go- 
 vernment. As he had overthrown the Portland Ministry 
 in 1782 and the Pitt Ministry in 1801, so now, in 
 1807, he overturned the Grenville Ministry. Partly in 
 obedience to what he deemed sound principles, partly 
 with the view of uniting all the subjects of the King 
 in resistance to the common enemy, Lord Howick 
 brought in a Bill removing certain restrictions upon 
 lloman Catholic service and promotion in the army.
 
 Canning and the Grexi-uj.e-Fqx Ministry 105 
 
 The old steward, whose business it was to play spy on 
 the new servants, gave the alarm. Lord Sidmouth sent 
 in his resignation. The measure had been insuffi- 
 ciently explained to the King. When he learned its 
 real character he insisted on its withdrawal, and re- 
 quired from his ^Ministers a pledge not to raise the 
 Catholic question in future. On their refusal they 
 were dismissed. This was on March 25, 1807, the day 
 on which the Bill for the abolition of the slave trade — ■ 
 the great achievement of the Grenville-Fox Administra- 
 tion — received the roval assent. 
 
 Canning had been specially bitter in his hostility to 
 the Ministry, which, as Fox politely said, could certainly 
 not claim in his absence the title of ' All the Talents ! ' 
 He showed the thoroughness of his hostilitv bv mov- 
 ing, in December 1806, an entirely new Address as 
 an amendment upon the Address. He attacked Mr. 
 Windham's army schemes as invasions of the royal 
 prerogative. There was something like a revival of the 
 old institution of the King's friends. The Court was 
 whispered to be hostile to the Ministry. The members 
 of the Household were ostentatiously slack in supporting 
 it. The cry that party connections and great families 
 oppressed the King was heard once more. ' Mr. Pitt's 
 friends,' so called to distinguish them from the Adding- 
 tonian Tories, were disunited in that character by the 
 conflicting pretensions of Castlereagh, Perceval, and 
 Canning^ but thev were united as Mr Fox's enemies. 
 If Lord Howick's Bill had not afforded a pretext for the 
 dismissal of the Ministrv another would have been 
 found.
 
 io6 George Canning 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE PORTLAND ADMINISTRATION — MR. CANNING FOREIGN 
 
 SECRETARY. 
 
 The Duke of Portland had written to tlie King, saying 
 that he hoped he should not offend his Majesty if he 
 opposed Lord Howick's Catholic Relief Bill, and offer- 
 ing his services to the King in forming a new Adminis- 
 tration if it was thought he could be of any use. In 
 spite of his numerous infirmities he was prepared, he 
 said, to serve the King devotedly and faithfully to the 
 end of his existence. Lord Malmesbury made himself 
 active in the business, and Canning was not behind- 
 hand. 'Canning,' Malmesbury writes, 'speaks as if 
 the choice of Cabinet places was at his disposal, and 
 vowed with a threat that he would never sit in the 
 same Cabinet with Addington.' Malmesbury describes 
 a conversation with Canning at his chambers in the 
 Albany, ' settling administrations, castles in the air.' 
 The impression made by Canning on Malmesbury at 
 that time was not altogether favourable. Though 
 clever and plausible, he was not yet, he says, a states- 
 man, and his habit of quizzing was a dangerous one. 
 ' Spoiled as he has been, feared and wanted as he finds 
 himself, no place is high enough for him ; his ambition
 
 The Port/axd Admixistratio.y 107 
 
 rises beyond tliis visible diurnal sphere.' Yet Canning, 
 the man certainly of the highest political genius and 
 parliamentary eminence whom England has produced 
 since Pitt and Fox, had up to this time been outside 
 the Cabinet, into which Lord Castlereagh had been 
 introduced before him, and into which Lord Henry 
 Petty entered with the office of Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer at the age of twenty-five. His impatience 
 and eagerness now Avere not unnatural. The King 
 expressed his readiness to leave everything to the 
 Duke of Portland, with the reservations which usually 
 follow this unconditional surrender. Lord Westmore- 
 land, a part of the furniture of almost every Cabinet 
 for a quarter of a century, must have a place, and Lord 
 Charles Somerset must be provided for — his claim being 
 that his wife, formerly a Miss Courtney, was a favourite 
 of the princesses, and spoke the English of Parson 
 Trulliber, Out of respect for the memory of the late 
 Mr. Pitt, the King desired that Lord Chatham should 
 be consulted in the formation of the Ministry. "With 
 these trifling restrictions, the Duke of Portland was 
 free to dispose of everything as he pleased. Lord 
 Chatham was the mere mask of a statesman, bearing- 
 a close resemblance in appearance to his illustrious 
 father, but such a resemblance as a waxwork figure 
 shows to its original. What he was in the Walcheren 
 Expedition he was in politics, holding high place with- 
 out capacity, and without consciousness of incapacity, 
 to fill it — luxurious, indolent, and mindless. Canning 
 was offered by the Duke his choice between the Foreign 
 OlEce and the Admiralty. He would have ceded the 
 Foreign Office to Wellcslcy or Lord ^MMlmi'slniry if
 
 loS George Caxxixg 
 
 either of them would have taken it, but he properly 
 declined to waive his claims to men who, like Lord 
 Chichester, were merely ' old hacks of office.' Lord 
 Malmesbury advised him to take the I oreign Depart- 
 ment, and, on his returning to the Duke of Portland 
 to intimate his acceptance of it, he was carried by him 
 straightway to the Queen's house at Windsor to kiss 
 hands. Lord Hawkesbury became Home Secretary ; 
 Lord Castlereagh Colonial and War Secretary (as in 
 Pitts second Administration) ; and Perceval Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer, with the leadership in the House of 
 Commons. Outside the Cabinet Huskisson held the 
 office of Secretary of the Treasury, and Sir Arthur 
 Wellesley was Chief Secretary for Ireland. 
 
 Of all the Ministerial appointments, that of Canning 
 — probably the best of them all — was the most severely 
 criticised. He was gratified, however, by the reception 
 of ' a very gracious communication ' from the Dean of 
 Christ Church. Whether or not Canning had carried 
 out his project of learning French beyond the point of 
 being able to swear at a waiter and call a cab does not 
 appear. In his letter to Lord Boringdon while he was 
 Under Secretarv, he admits that he could not Avrite it. 
 Now the accusation, well or ill founded, was that he 
 could not speak it. To attack the French of a Foreign 
 Minister is like attacking the chastity of a woman, the 
 courage of a soldier, or the orthodoxy of a clergyman. 
 The satire of the newspapers was directed mainly to 
 this point. Canning is described as unable to make 
 out who a certain ' Monsieur Nong-tong-paw ' is to 
 whom he is referred whenever he speaks French. He 
 i§ told to
 
 The Portland Administration 109 
 
 Brusli up your very best jokes, I pray ; 
 
 And tliough you can't speak any French, tliey say, 
 
 Wliy, as for that matter, 
 
 Fitzharris can chatter. 
 And you may keep out of the way. 
 
 Lord Fitzharris was Lord Malmesbury's son, and 
 Canning's under secretary. Canning has 
 
 The gift of lungs, 
 Without, alas, the gift of tongues. 
 
 The ' Morning Chronicle,' which was the principal 
 vehicle of these attacks, published an elaborate account 
 of a misunderstanding Avhich had arisen between 
 M. Alopeus, the Russian Minister, who knew every 
 modern language but English, and Mr. Canning, who 
 knew no modern lansfuaofe but English. ' The con- 
 ference was on the point of breaking up re infedd^ but 
 his Excellency M. Alopeus, making one further effort — • 
 it is supposed in Latin — by frequently vociferating the 
 word " Groom, oroom ! " and accompanying the expla- 
 nation with the significant action of turning out the 
 inside of his breeches-pockets with a view, it would 
 seem, of proving them to be both empty, our Minister, 
 whose acuteness has never been doubted, concluded 
 that " aurum " was the word M. Alopeus wished to 
 pronounce, and that the exhibition of the empty 
 breeches-pockets implied the demand of a subsidy for 
 our magnanimous ally his Imperial Majesty. The ques- 
 tion of a subsidy for Russia is therefore now believed 
 to be under the consideration of the new Cabinet.' 
 M. Ragout, who had formerly been ' Chef de Cuisine 
 and Premier Ministre to Milor Hardvic in Ireland,'
 
 no George Canning 
 
 and aftersvards in ' le coniiance of M. le Docteur a 
 Dindon (Addington), dans la rue de Downing Street 
 a Londres/ writes to announce that he has become 
 Chef de Cuisine to Milor le Secretaire Caningue. ' He 
 is ver fine Ministre, but he play de very Diable in de 
 Bureau of de Affaires Etrangeres, He no understand 
 one word of Frangais.' It is officially announced that 
 ' Mr. Canning has taken several lessons of the Duke of 
 Portland's cook, and can already conjugate the verb 
 eire! In the report of a Ministerial dinner, it is stated 
 that ' about eleven o'clock the company became rather 
 turbulent, Mr. Canning having seriously differed with 
 Sir William Grant respecting the accurate pronuncia- 
 tion of the word paroissial, which Mr. Canning insisted 
 should be uttered like " j)arasol." Sir William, be- 
 coming very Avarm,' &c. In a box which Mr; Canning's 
 messenger is supposed to have left behind him in a 
 hacknej'-coach, are found, among other things, a new 
 French grammar and Beyer's Dictionary abridged, 
 French and English, with two French exercises in 
 manuscript. 
 
 Canning complained bitterly of the disorganised 
 condition of the Foreign Office when he entered it. 
 The abuses were great. Whether from carelessness or 
 from treachery, there was absolutely no secrecy. The 
 messengers were idle and talkative, and the circulation 
 of documents, always dangerous, was especially so in 
 such a Cabinet as that over which the Duke of Portland 
 failed to preside. Canning did not, perhaps, recall the 
 memory of the time when Lord Grenville made the 
 s.ame complaints as he did now, of the want of good 
 faith and reticence in the Foreign Office and in the
 
 The Poh'Ti.i.xD Administration hi 
 
 Cabinet, when a resolution of silence was passed to 
 tie up Pitt's tongue, and when Canning himself was 
 the medium of communications to the press, with the 
 intention of thwarting Grenville himself. He had no 
 assistance from the Duke of Portland, whose appoint- 
 ment was in direct opposition to Pitt's principle that 
 the real Minister should be the ostensible Minister also, 
 and to that which Canning presently evolved for his 
 own benefit, that the Prime Minister should be in the 
 House of Commons. The Duke's colleagues set up on 
 their own account, taking upon themselves functions 
 which really belonged to him, apparently without his 
 resenting it or even perceiving it. He fell into fits of 
 dead silence when any point was raised, and had not a 
 single supporter in the Cabinet upon whom he could 
 rely in the improbable event of his venturing to contest 
 any point. Lord Chatham took airs upon himself as 
 his associate in the formation of the Government, and 
 Lord Hawkesbury and Lord Eldon were more in the 
 confidence of the King than the Duke. Portland suffered 
 agonies from stone, and any attempt to concentrate his 
 attention, whether in reading or in listening, sent hira 
 to sleep. 
 
 Under such a Prime Minister, unhindered by him 
 if unsupported by him. Canning had a free hand in 
 foreign afiairs. He held office for somewhat less than 
 two years and a half — from March 25, 1807, to 
 September 9, 1809. The period was marked by great 
 events, and Canning played a great part in them. The 
 defeat of the Russian army at Friedland led to the 
 meeting of the Emperors, Napoleon and Alexander, 
 on the raft moored in the Niemen. The Treaty of
 
 112 George Canninc 
 
 Tilsit with its secret articles was the result, to which 
 Canning replied by the seizure of the Danish fleet at 
 Copenliagen and its transportation to England. The 
 Berlin decree, and the Order in Council which com- 
 bated it, had been issued during the Grenville Admi- 
 nistration. It was under Canning's Foreign Secretary- 
 ship that the further Orders in Council were framed 
 which led to the Milan decree — the one intended to cut 
 off British trade with the Continent, the other to shut 
 out from the Continent all articles carried in vessels 
 which had not touched at a British port. The com- 
 mencement of the Peninsular War and of the great 
 career of Wellington as a European soldier — that is to say, 
 the beginning of the end of the Napoleonic tyranny — • 
 was due to Mr. Canning's genius and boldness in the 
 direction of foreign policy. Personal and ministerial com- 
 plications, in part owing to the imbecility of the nominal 
 chief of the Government, in part to Canning's perception 
 of the real exigencies of the time and to the insuffi- 
 ciency of his colleagues to meet them, in part to hia 
 own too restless and eager ambition, prevented his being 
 the Minister to complete the work he had begun. They 
 made him an exile from power at a time when two 
 years of office were, to use his own phrase, worth ten 
 years of life. But he laid the foundation of the edifice 
 which others built, and sowed the seeds of which others 
 reaped and garnered the harvest. 
 
 A secret article of the Treaty of Tilsit, by which 
 Russia and France agreed to make common cause 
 agaiust their respective enemies, and especially against 
 England, is said to have arranged for the occupation of 
 Denmark by French troops and for the seizure of the
 
 The Portland Administration 113 
 
 Danish fleet by Napoleon, for the purpose of destroj'ing 
 the supremacy of England on the sea and of invading 
 the country. The Crown I'rince of Denmark ac- 
 quiesced in this proposal, which had been made to 
 the Kegent of Portugal also, and declined by him. If 
 this measure had been effected, all the navies of Europe 
 ■would practically have been converted into a French 
 fleet. The overture addressed to Portugal was disclosed 
 to the Prince of Wales, who informed the Duke of 
 Portland of it at an audience in Carlton House. By 
 some means (what they were he never would reveal) 
 Mr. Canning was made aware of the project of handing 
 over the Danish fleet to France, and of the acquiescence 
 of the Crown Prince of Denmark in the design. Ho 
 resolved to be beforehand with the enemy. A British 
 fleet, under Lord Gambier, with transports conveying 
 land troops, entered the Sound. A special envoy was 
 sent to the Crown Prince, informing him that the secret 
 article of the Treaty of Tilsit had come to the know- 
 ledge of the English Government, and demanding the 
 surrender of his fleet to Lord Gambier, to be by him 
 conveyed into English ports, and to be there kept in 
 safety until peace should be concluded between England 
 on the one side and France and Russia on the other, 
 when it would be restored in sound condition. Sucli a 
 demand as this, though it may have been right to make 
 and enforce it, could not be granted without ignominy. 
 It was refused. After a four days' bombardment of 
 Copenhagen, in which the city was set on fire, the fleet 
 and arsenal were surrendered. 
 
 How Mr. Canning became aware of the scheme 
 which he thus defeated is one of the puzzles of history. 
 
 I
 
 114 George Canning 
 
 like the identity of tlie Man in the Iron Mask and the 
 authorship of Junius. According to Mr. Stapleton 
 (' George Canning and his Times,' p. 105), ' an indi- 
 vidual was concealed behind a curtain of the tent ' [on 
 the raft on the Niemen], ' and then and there heard 
 Napoleon propose to Alexander, and Alexander consent 
 to the proposition, that the French should take posses- 
 sion of the powerful fleet of Denmark, which was lying 
 in the waters of Copenhagen. The individual who thus 
 acquired a knowledge of the bargain lost no time in 
 communicating it to the British Government, and gave 
 such proofs of the accuracy of his intelligence as left 
 no doubt of its truth in Mr. Canning's mind.' Mr.' 
 Stapleton was in later years Canning's private secretary.' 
 Canning sometimes confided in him ; perhaps some- 
 times with the disposition to quiz which Malmesbury 
 deplored, he hoaxed him. The story reads like a trans- 
 lation of events into the action of the theatre. As on 
 the stage a war between rival countries is represented 
 by making the kings fight in person, so the discovery of 
 an intrigue is made obvious to the eye and mind by 
 introducing a listener behind a curtain. According to 
 Fouche, iSTapoleon, whose outburst of rage when he 
 heard of what had happened at Copenhagen was 
 terrible, suspected Talleyrand of selling the informa- 
 tion as to the secret article. If the accounts of our 
 Secret Service Fund were kept they might throw some 
 light on the matter. Canning may have recollected the 
 negotiations ten years before with the representatives 
 of the French Directory at Lisle, when for 200,000Z. 
 Talleyrand was willing, as Lord Malmesbury reported, 
 to secure to England any of the Dutch colonies.
 
 The Portland Administration 115 
 The conduct of Mr. Cannino- was attacked iu both 
 
 O 
 
 Houses of Parliament as a violation of the principles of 
 international law and morality. But the attack was 
 indirect ; it resolved itself into the assertion that the 
 information before the House did not give sufficient 
 grounds for the action of the Government. It was 
 admitted practically that England was not bound to 
 perish with Puffendorff if she could be saved only with- 
 out him. This was the substance of the motion brought 
 forward by Mr. George Ponsonby, formerly Lord 
 Chancellor of Ireland, now, in virtue of his relation- 
 ship to Lord Grey, leader of the Liberal party in the 
 House of Commons, the hero, or victim, later, of Lord 
 Palmerstou's squib, ' The Trial of Henry Brougham for 
 calling the Eight Hon. George Ponsonby an Old Woman.' 
 Canning's reply was simple. It was in substance this : 
 If you will not acquit us without further evidence, con- 
 demn us ; for we will never disclose the source of our 
 information. This language goes far to refute the 
 theory of the accidental man behind the tent curtain. 
 It is probable that the information came from someone 
 highly placed in French or Russian political life, and 
 highly paid by England. The Emperor Alexander 
 privately expressed his satisfaction at what had hap- 
 pened at Copenhagen, but it is not legitimate to infer 
 from this that he was a party to the disclosure as well 
 as to the secret. 
 
 The refusal of the Prince Regent of Portugal to 
 lend his fleet to the maritime coalition ao-ainst EuQ-land 
 brought upon him the Napoleonic decree : ' The House 
 of Braganza has ceased to reign.' Portugal was to be 
 dismembered and divided between France and Spain, 
 
 I2
 
 ii6 George Canning 
 
 Spain had become, under the vassal monarchy of 
 Joseph Bonaparte, practically a province of the Em- 
 pire, which thus dominated the whole of the Iberian 
 Peninsula. The Spaniards rose in rebellion, in the 
 name of Ferdinand YII., now a prisoner at Bayonne. 
 The rising, however, was national and not dynastic. 
 Canning saw that to come to the help of the Spanish 
 people was the best means of carrying on the war 
 against France. The invasion of England was still 
 Napoleon's dream, and all his measures were directed 
 towards organising that dream into a reality. It was 
 not in any crusading or knight-errant spirit, but in 
 one of self-defence, that Canning welcomed the Spanish 
 revolt and sent Sir Arthur Wellesley to Corunna to 
 aid and to organise it. The Spaniards were, perhaps, 
 not unnaturally distrustful of the part which England, 
 hitherto at war with them, intended to play in the 
 struggle. They asked for arms and money, but they 
 did not want English soldiers, and they requested that 
 "Wellesley should confine himself to clearing the 
 French out of Portugal. Practically this was done on 
 August 21, 1 808, when the battle of Vimiera was fought 
 and won. The Convention of Cintra followed, which, 
 allowing the French to evacuate Portugal with their 
 arms and with the property which they had plundered 
 from the Portuguese, half undid the victory. Though 
 Wellesley signed the convention he disapproved it, and 
 his name was appended to it merely as a matter of form 
 in obedience to the two generals who had been placed over 
 Ids head, Sir Hew Dalrymple and Sir Harry Burrard. 
 This, happily, was the last of these examples of the 
 principle of commc^nd in virtue of seniority.
 
 The Portland Admimstratiox' 117 
 
 To Cauning tlie Couveution of Cintvu was a bitter 
 mortification. It was disapproved by everybody in 
 England ; the King himself censured it ; but it could 
 not be undone. Some decision in respect to it — what 
 is not very clear — which was taken in the Cabinet 
 during Canning's absence, was the beginning of that 
 quarrel with Lord Castlereagh which led to the duel 
 on Putney Heath and to Canning's banishment from 
 official life during the six momentous years of war 
 which preceded the settlement of Europe by the Treaty 
 of Vienna. Canning and Castlereagh carried on a 
 conflict of memoranda on the subject of the convention. 
 Canning contended that as the King could not himself 
 plunder his allies, his generals could not authorise 
 their plunder, and that the article on this subject must 
 be annulled. Castlereagh, equally disapproving the 
 stipulation, held that, having been made, it was valid. 
 It is probable that in any case Canning would have 
 quarrelled with Castlereagh sooner or later, as he had 
 done before Avith Addington, and as he did afterwards 
 with Perceval and Wellington. The essential generosity 
 and nobleness of the man's nature were marred by a 
 certain eagerness and paltriness of self-assertion which 
 could not tolerate delay in the recognition of the claims 
 of the highest genius to the highest place, and which 
 involved him in many unworthy wrangles, if not in 
 still more unworthy intrigues. 
 
 The melancholy fate of Sir John Moore, who was 
 chief in command in Portugal, makes Canning's con- 
 troversy with him — a controversy which survived 
 INfoore's death — a painful passage in the statesman's 
 life. Moore, personally courageous, was constitutionally
 
 ii8 George Canning 
 
 desponding. He was hopeless of" success in the enter- 
 prise which had been entrusted to him, and Canning, 
 knowing Moore's feeling on the subject, saw in this 
 anticipation of disaster the prophecy of its accomplish- 
 ment. ' Remember, my lord,' said Moore, on his set- 
 ting out, to Castlereagh, who was War Minister, ' I 
 protest against the expedition and foretell its failure.' 
 On Castlereagh's repeating this in the Cabinet, Can- 
 ning's indignation broke forth : ' Good God ! and do 
 you really mean to say that you allowed a man enter- 
 taining such feelings with regard to the expedition to 
 go out and assume the command of it ? ' After the 
 Convention of Ciutra, which restored to him forces, 
 arms, and wealth which might have been annihilated, 
 and in the absence of Sir Arthur Wellesley, who had 
 kept the Irish Office while he was in Portugal, Napoleon 
 was proceeding from victory to victory in Spain. Sir 
 John Moore, waiting for men from England, was in- 
 active. Canning's impatience was extreme. His friend 
 Hookham Frere, who was now accredited as Britisli 
 Minister to the Central Junta in Spain, called on Moore 
 to advance on Madrid, confident in his being able to 
 make himself master of the city before the French 
 could get there. Moore obeyed in the hopeless and 
 foreboding spirit which seems to have now taken pos- 
 session of him. ' I mean,' said Moore, ' to proceed 
 bridle in hand, for if the bubble bursts and Madrid 
 falls we shall have to run for it.' The bubble burst, 
 Madrid fell, and Sir John Moore began his retreat to 
 Corunna, harassed by the gathering and combined forces 
 of Napoleon and Soult. He effected his retreat skilfully, 
 and secured the embarkation of his troops, and, as all
 
 The Portland Administration 119 
 
 tlie world knows, fell hii-nselt' iu a deutli luippier tliau 
 liis recent fortunes had been, or tluui his future life 
 possibly" would have been if he had survived. 
 The prophecy in Wolfe's lines — 
 
 Little they'll reck of the spirit that's gone, 
 And o'er his cold ashes upbraid him — 
 
 like most prophecies, was descriptive, and was pro- 
 bably suggested by Canning's language and his atti- 
 tude towards the slain hero. Canning thought Moore 
 might have succeeded where he failed, and he defended 
 Hookham Frere's summons of him to Madrid, which 
 Sir William Napier, in his ' History of the Peninsular 
 War,' has denounced as dictated by ' weakness, arro- 
 gance, levity, and ignorance.' A newspaper poet in the 
 ' British Press,' jDarodying Campbell's ' Hohenlindeu ' 
 in ' The Battle of Putnev,' as he calls the duel between 
 Castlereagh and Canning, refers to Canning's possible 
 fate and INIoore's : — 
 
 But if he falls, will e'er he meet 
 A nation's woe, that solace sweet, 
 When he beneath the winding-sheet 
 Has stabbed a soldier's memory ? 
 
 The appointment, due to Canning's agency, of Sir 
 Arthur Wellesley to the chief command in the Penin- 
 sula, and the nomination of his brother, the Marquis 
 Wellesley, as British Minister to the Junta, set a new 
 face on matters military and civil. Wellington won 
 battle after battle, and Wellesley contributed to the 
 political reorganisation of Spain. Encouraged by the 
 head which was being made against Napoleon, Austria 
 plucked up heartj and for the fourth time took up arms
 
 120 George Canning 
 
 against France. In order to effect a diversion on her 
 behalf the expedition to the Scheldt was determined 
 on, and Lord Chatham, as if to give him an oppor- 
 tunity of showing that he combined military with 
 political incapacity, was placed at its head. It is un- 
 necessary to tell the heartrending story of mismanage- 
 ment and failure, of fever and pestilence. The lines 
 often quoted, and almost as often misquoted, iu which 
 the attitude of the two British commanders is described, 
 are as truly historic as anything in CaBsar or Napier. 
 They were printed first in the ' Morning Chronicle ' of 
 February 6, 1810, as 'an abstract and brief chronicle 
 of the documents and evidence concerning the expedi- 
 tion to the Scheldt : ' — 
 
 Lord Chatham, with his sword undrawn, 
 
 Kept waiting for Sir Richard Strachan, 
 
 Sir Richard, eager to be at 'em, 
 
 Kept waiting too, — for whom ? Lord Chatham. 
 
 Canning showed during his first tenure of liigh 
 oflice the qualities of a great Foreign Minister and a 
 great War Minister. The seizure of the Danish fleet, 
 technically brigandage, was a splendid audacity of 
 patriotism. To Canning, too, the glory belongs of 
 seeing that France was to be conquered in Spain, and 
 of equipping the conqueror for his task. Canning, 
 Wellington, the Peninsular AVar ; Castlereagh, Chatham 
 (the Second), the Walcheren expedition : these names 
 are decisive of the controversy between the political 
 rivals.
 
 121 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 CANNING, CASTLEREAGH, AND PERCEVAL. 
 
 Canning, long before the organisation of humiliation 
 at Walcheren, had come to the conclusion that Lord 
 Castlereagh had not the qualities necessary in a War 
 Minister. In a letter to the Duke of Portland he said 
 that a change either in his own department or in that of 
 Castlereagh was essential, and that he might be him- 
 self no obstacle to the change he offered to resign. 
 But there can be no doubt that the Duke of Portland 
 correctly described his real motive, when writing to 
 Lord Eldon he said : ' The great object, and indeed the 
 sine qua non, with Canning is to take from Lord Castle- 
 reao-h the conduct of the war.' The Duke of Portland 
 was vacillation and timidity itself. He hated a broil, 
 and while promisiiig to communicate Canning's pro 
 posal to Castlereagh through Lord Camden, Castle- 
 reagh's uncle, both he and Camden kept silence about 
 the matter. Canning s project was that Lord Wellesley 
 should be War Minister and that Castlereagh should 
 have some other Cabinet post. This scheme was 
 assented to bv the King, and communicated to Lord 
 Camden, to Lord Eklon, and to Lord Bathurst, but 
 not to Lord Castlereagh, to whom, however, Canning 
 tliought that it had been made known. Xothing 
 was done, and Canning grew tired of waiting. He
 
 122 George Canning 
 
 spoke to George Kose aud the Speaker (Abbot) on 
 the subject. The Duke of Portland, gathering pro- 
 bably that the matter was being stirred, took Perceval, 
 then leader of the House of Commons, into his con- 
 fidence. The Walcheren expedition was then being 
 organised and was on the point of execution, and 
 Perceval thought that the superintendence of it could 
 not properly or safely be withdrawn from Castlereagh"s 
 hands. He wrote to Canning in this sense, and 
 Canning, while protesting against complicity in the 
 past concealment, and denying knowledge until a cer- 
 tain date that there had been concealment, acquiesced 
 in an adjournment of the matter till the Scheldt expe- 
 dition was over. This personal controversy was com- 
 plicated by another. The declining physical and 
 mental health of the Duke of Portland made his speedy 
 resignation of the Premiership inevitable. Perceval 
 and Canning discussed the matter of the succession to 
 Portland with great freedom and minuteness, Canning 
 insisting on his own claim not in so many words, but 
 advancing to it by a series of steps. ' There must,' he 
 wrote to Perceval, ' be a Minister ' — the Duke of Port- 
 land having been only a dummy or phantasm-Minister 
 — ' that Minister must be in the House of Commons ; he 
 must be either you (Perceval) or myself (Canning) ' 
 — Castlereagh, apparently, not being to be thought of, 
 though that would have solved the War Office diffi- 
 culty — ' and if I can prevent it it shall not,' Canning 
 added in effect, ' be you.' ' I am not so presumptuous as 
 to expect that you should acquiesce in that choice falling 
 on me. On the other hand, I hope and trust that you 
 will not consider it as anv want of esteem aud kind-
 
 Canning, Castlekeagh, and Perceval 123 
 
 ness on my port (tlian which I do assure you nothing, 
 &c.) if I shoukl not think it possible to remain in 
 office under the change Avhich woukl instantly be pro- 
 duced in my situation by the appointment of a First 
 Minister in the House of Commons — even in your 
 person.' Perceval replied, modestly enough, that nothing 
 could be more natural than that Canning should desire 
 his great personal superiority to be officially marked. 
 Still Perceval could not acquiesce in his own re- 
 moval from his present office and situation— the Chan- 
 cellorship of the Exchequer with leadership of the 
 House of Commons. All things considered, the nomi- 
 nation of a third person was in his view preferable to 
 the breaking up of the Government. Canning himself 
 had at one time pointed to Lord Chatham as the man 
 under whom he would be prepared to serve. But Lord 
 Chatham was coming home disgraced by the failure of 
 the Walchei-en expedition. Canning not unjustly saw 
 in the breakdown a confirmation of his oj^inion as to 
 the necessity of removing Lord Castlereagh from the 
 War Office, and wrote to the Duke of Portland insist- 
 ing that the time had come for the King to give effect 
 to his promise to call Lord Wellesley to that depart- 
 ment. The Duke saw Canning, and proposed that 
 simultaneously with his resignation of the Ti*easury 
 Castlereagh should be shifted to some other office than 
 the War Department. This was what was at first in- 
 tended, and Canning acquiesced. But he was bent on 
 being First Minister, and, this being out of the ques- 
 tion, he felt bound to ask the Duke to convey with his 
 resignation Canning's own also. He absented himself 
 from the next Cabinet — in the circumstances of the case
 
 124 George Canning 
 
 a critical one. Castlereagli was puzzled, and inquired 
 the reason. The whole secret came out. Lord Camden 
 told Castlereagh what he ought to have told him 
 months before. 
 
 Canning wrote once more to the Duke of Portland, 
 admittinor that, while he could not consent to serve 
 under Perceval, he could even less expect Perceval 
 to reverse the relations which had existed between 
 them by serving under him, and expressing the greatest 
 personal goodwill to him. But whether he (Perceval) 
 or any third person was to be First Minister, anything, 
 he said, would be better than a ' Government of com- 
 promise, of uncertain preponderance and divided respon- 
 sibility.' Canning's conduct has been denounced as 
 treacherous. But he had openly declared to Perceval his 
 pretensions to the post of First Minister, and the fact 
 that he suggested to one friend that Perceval might be 
 Lord President with a peerage and the Chancellorship 
 of the Duchy for life, and to another — the Duke of 
 Portland — that he might be Lord Chancellor, do not 
 seem enormities of bad faith. This last proposal the 
 Duke innocently made known to Lord PJldon, ' who 
 was outrageous at it.' It accounts for the almost 
 venomous hatred which breaks out whenever, in his 
 letters, Eldon mentions Canning's name. Perceval 
 could not be forced into the House of Lords if he did 
 not want to go there. He had given up law for politics 
 — the Attorney-Generalship for the Chancellorship of 
 the Exchequer — with regret, and he might conceivably 
 have been desirous of a position independent of political 
 accidents. However this may be, the arrangement 
 proposed by Canning had nothing Avicked in it, and 
 might quite conceivably have been the basis of an
 
 Canning, Castlereagh, and Perceval 125 
 
 accommodation. A certain want of delicacy and nice 
 scruple may, perhaps, be imputed to Canning in his 
 relations with both Perceval and Castlereagh now, as 
 with Grenville and Addington before, but of direct 
 treachery and bad faith there is no evidence or even 
 reasonable suspicion. 
 
 Castlereagh, while admitting Canning's right to 
 demand his removal if he thought that the public 
 interest required it, impugned as unfair and dishonour- 
 able the secrecy which had been observed. But the 
 secrecy was not Canning's, but Portland's and Camden's. 
 A challenge was sent by Castlereagh under conditions 
 which even the then recognised code of duelling 
 honour held insufficient, and was accepted by Canning. 
 The antagonists met at Wimbledon, Lord Castlereagh 
 being accompanied by Lord Yarmouth (afterwards the 
 Marquis of Hertford), Mr. Canning by Mr. Charles 
 Ellis (afterwards Lord Seaforth), who was so nervous 
 that he could not load Canning's pistol. The first 
 exchange of shots was harmless. In the second, Mr. 
 Canning was struck in the thigh. The dangerous 
 accuracy of his own aim was proved, it is said, by his 
 shooting a button off Lord Castlereagh's coat as he 
 stood sideways. The contemporary bard of ' The 
 Battle of Putney ' thus sung the encounter : — 
 
 On Putney, when the sun Avas low, 
 The misty vapours, hovering slow, 
 "We mark'd the chariot rattling go, 
 Of Canning driving rapidly. 
 
 But Putney saw a stranger sight, 
 When Castlereagh burst forth to light, 
 Who came clean-handed forth to fight 
 His foi-mer friend's sinceritv.
 
 126 George Canning 
 
 The seconds fixed the rivals' place, 
 Each statesman seized the deadly case, 
 And one had laughed to see the face 
 Of Ellis, grinning horridly. 
 
 The dreaded sign the seconds gave, 
 But Doodle hit not Noodle grave, 
 And Noodle's shot at Doodle brave 
 Whisked by right harmlessly. 
 
 But once again must Putney's heath 
 Be-echo back the arms of death ; 
 But ne'er before did History's breath 
 Record such deep duplicity. 
 
 'Tis true that not their country's weal, 
 Or monarch's honour could unsteel 
 Or make the rancorous bosom feel 
 Of either Secretary. 
 
 The signal drops, the bullets fly ; 
 ' Haste, Ellis, haste, nay, do not cry, 
 He yet may roll the poet's eye, 
 And still may feed his relatives.' 
 
 The last Hue contains a taunt, which was the 
 commonplace of the satirists and libellers of the period, 
 from Peter Pindar downwards, on the most honourable 
 feature of Canninof's life — liis constant affection for his 
 mother and his devoted attention to her, shown not 
 simply in gifts but in assiduous personal cares.
 
 127 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE PEKCEVAL MINISTRY — CANNING OUT OF OFFICE. 
 
 The Government had lost its head in Portland and 
 its right and left hand in Canning and Castlereagh. 
 The resignation of Canning's friends, Leveson-Gower, 
 Sturges Bourne, Huskisson, Rose, and Long — the four 
 latter the business men of the Ministry, as Lord Eldon 
 described them — followed, though George Rose after- 
 wards changed his mind. Canning, in a conversation 
 with the King, which his Majesty described as the 
 most extraordinary he had ever borne part in, while 
 pointing to the formation of a Government under 
 Perceval as the most rational course to adopt, had 
 offered to undertake the task should his Majesty be 
 pleased to lay his commands upon him. The offer was 
 not accepted. 
 
 After unsuccessful negotiations with Lord Grey and 
 Lord Grenville, the Cabinet advised the Kino- at once 
 to fill up the office of First Lord of the Treasury, and 
 Lord Eldon was authorised to express orally to his 
 Majesty the unanimous opinion of his colleagues that 
 the new Minister ought to be in the House of Commons. 
 This was in so many words to designate Mr. Perceval, 
 since Canning and Castlereagh, his only possible rivals, 
 were out of the question.
 
 128 George Canning 
 
 Mr. Perceval was thus entrusted with the task of 
 reconstructing the Administration. After offering the 
 Chancellorship of the Exchequer in succession to Eobert 
 Milnes, Lord Palmerston, George Rose, Vansittart, and 
 Charles Long, who all refused it, Perceval was con- 
 strained to keep it himself, in conjunction with the 
 First Lordship of the Treasury. The Cabinet received 
 only one notable addition, and that was scarcely a 
 gain : the Marquis Wellesley became Foreign Secre- 
 tary in succession to Canning. Lord Liverpool went 
 to the War and Colonial Office in lieu of Lord 
 Castlereagh ; and Richard Ryder, a brother of the 
 Lord Harrowby of that daj^, took the place of Lord 
 Liverpool at the Home Office. Lord Palmerston be- 
 came Secretary at War in succession to Lord G. 
 Leveson-Gower, but without a seat in the Cabinet. The 
 appointment of Lord Wellesley was rather a surprise 
 to Canning, bv whom he had been sent as British 
 Minister to Spain. Wellesley considered his tenure of 
 this office conditional on Canning remaining Foreign 
 Secretary, and had left his resigrmtion in Canning's 
 hands, to be tendered by him in the event of his own 
 resignation. Canning presented them both to the 
 King, and recommended Hookham Frere as Wellesley's 
 successor in Madrid. If these steps were taken, as 
 Canning's enemies alleged, without the cognisance and 
 consent of the colleagues from whom he was parting, 
 they perhaps involve a little sharp practice. The tables 
 were turned upon him. Learning from the King what 
 had happened, Perceval arranged that the vessel which 
 carried to Wellesley the news of Canning's resignation 
 and of his own release from his diplomatic post at
 
 The Perceval Ministry 129 
 
 Madrid blioald bring- liim the offer of" the Seoi-etary- 
 ship of State, which Cauniug had quitted. Wellehfley 
 promptly accepted it. 
 
 Without beiug either orator or statesmau, Perceval 
 was a good man of business and a dexterous debater ; 
 but his only Cabinet colleagues in the Commons. Yorke 
 and Kyder, were ineffective. A vote of censure on 
 Lord Chatham's conduct as commander of the Scheldt 
 expedition was followed rather tardily, and under pres- 
 sure, by his resignation of the office of Master-General 
 of the Ordnance. This resignation led to a new effort 
 to strengthen the Perceval Cabinet. Lord Wellesley 
 proposed that overtures should be made to Canning, 
 Sidmouth, and Castlereagh. To make room for them 
 Lord Camden w^as ready to give up the Privy Seal, 
 llyder the Home Office, and Perceval himself the 
 Chancellorship of the Exchequer. Bub Sidmouth ob- 
 stinately refused to sit in the same Cabinet with 
 Canning, and "VVellesley would not hear of Sidmouth 
 and Castlereagh without Canning. The Government 
 was, therefore, fain to patch up the vacancies as best it 
 could, and to blunder on as it had been doing. Lord 
 Mulgrave succeeded Lord Chatham at the Ordnance 
 Office, and Charles Yorke took the Admiralty from 
 Lord Mulgrave. 
 
 Canning was not very active in debate in the session 
 of 1810. Besides the speeches to which a reference has 
 been made, he spoke energetically in fixvour of the grant 
 to Sir Arthur Wellesley, who had been raised to the 
 peerage as Viscount AVellington after the battle of 
 Talavera, and supported Sir Sanuiel llomilly's effort for 
 the release of Gale Jones, imprisoned for the publication 
 
 K
 
 1 30 George Canning 
 
 of a. placard offensive to tlie House of Commons. He 
 spoke in favour of Mr. Bankes' motion against sinecures, 
 wliicli by his aid was carried against the Government, 
 and led to the appointment of a Committee. Feeling 
 bound, perhaps, not to promote a measure which had 
 already disturbed the reason of the King, he opposed 
 Grattan's motion in favour of Eoman Catholic relief. 
 In speaking in favour of the vote of credit for which the 
 Government asked, he surveyed the field of war and of 
 policy, retrospectively justifying his own measures as 
 Foreign Minister, and carefully separating his support 
 of the Executive Government, as the Executive Govern- 
 ment, from the question of personal conhdence. 
 
 The close of the year 1810 was marked by the 
 constantly returning ti^ouble of George III.'s life. In 
 October of that year his mental faculties again gave 
 way. Domestic distress had, no doubt, hastened this 
 affliction. In 1809, the Duke of York, his favourite 
 son, had been forced to resign the Commandership-in- 
 Chief of the Army in circumstances of scandal painful 
 to the rigid morality of the King, though the charge 
 of venality broke down. In 1810, the murder of the 
 Duke of Cumberland's valet, Stella, made that unpopular 
 Prince the mark of grave imputations. The illness of 
 the Princess Amelia, and the anxiety which it occa- 
 sioned the King, seem, however, to have been the 
 proximate cause of the retui-ning malady. His reason 
 gave way before her life. The first business of Parlia- 
 ment, which met on November 1, was to pass a Regency 
 Bill. Mr. IVrceval's measure Avas a reproduction of 
 that proposed by Mr. Pitt in 1788. It conferred the 
 Regency upon the Prince of Wales, but subject to the
 
 The Perceval Ministry 131 
 
 restrictions wliicli lie had intensely resented twenty 
 years before, and wliicli, imposed by tlie Eni>;lis]i 
 I'arlianient, and refused by the Irish, might, but for 
 the King's recovery, have raised the question of the 
 Parliamentary Union twelve years before it actually 
 emero-od. The old Whin^ contention, or rather the 
 anti-Whig contention of the Fox Wliigs of that vear, 
 that the Prince had ah hereditary right to the Regency, 
 independent of parliamentary nomination, was now 
 renewed, but without much vigour. The restrictions 
 on the creation of peers and the control given to the 
 Queen over the royal household, on which Mr. Pitt 
 had insisted, were maintained by Perceval. Mr. Canning 
 asserted with emphasis Pitt's doctrine of the control of 
 Parliament, but demurred to the necessity of its being 
 exercised in the same way. The principle sound in 
 1788 was equally sound in 1810 and for all time, but 
 the mode of enforcing it was a question of present cir- 
 cumstance and convenience, not involving principle and 
 independent of precedent. Now, he contended, the need 
 Avas urofent of a stronjsf Executive Government, which 
 the restrictions proposed wonld unduly fetter. The 
 Bill was carried, the limitations which it imposed being 
 made valid for twelve months only, within which p?riod 
 the chance of the King's recovery would, it was thought, 
 have been determined. If he were restored to heulrh, 
 it was important that he should find things much as ho 
 had left them. When his restoration was shown to 
 be hopeless the need for restriction would disappear. 
 The Prince of Wales was very angry. He thought of 
 dismissinof Perceval, and he entei'ed into nesfotiations 
 with Grey and Grenville ; but the possibility of his
 
 132 George Canning 
 
 fatlier's recovery determined liim to leuve tlie present 
 Ministers in power. 
 
 Wlien the King's illness broke out, Perceval saw 
 the necessity of endeavouring to strengthen his weak 
 Government against emergencies, and again opened ne- 
 gotiations with Canning, Castlereagh, and Sidmouth. 
 Lord Castlereagh declined to enter the Ministry on any 
 terms ; Sidmouth was still irreconcilable with Canning, 
 who alone, it was held, would attract more hostility than 
 support to the Government, especially on the part of" 
 the Sidmouth Tories. Thus the negotiations broke 
 down. The commercial distress of 1810 had led to an 
 inquiry into the effects of an inconvertible paper cur- 
 rency. A committee was appointed in that year called 
 the Bullion Committee. The report, drawn up by Mr. 
 Horner, the chairman, recommended a return to cash 
 payments in two years. Mr. Canning had been a 
 member of this committee, and had closely attended to 
 its proceedings. He spoke in the House of Commons 
 on certain resolutions brought forward by Mr. Horner, 
 based on the report of the committee, and again on 
 certain counter-resolutions brought forward by Mr. 
 Vansittart. His speeches, in wliich he showed his 
 conversance with the sagacious currency doctrines, as 
 afterwards with the free-trade principles, of his friend 
 Huskisson, are recognised alike by men of business and 
 theorists as masterpieces of exposition, argument, and 
 illustration. Canning, while, however, he accepted the 
 principles of the bullionists, to which Peel, then their 
 opponent, afterwards became a convert, held that 
 Parliament was bound to adhere to its contract with 
 the Bank, deferring the resumption of cash payments 
 
 J
 
 The Perceval Ministry 
 
 oo 
 
 until six years after the termination of the war. The 
 depreciation of Bank notes was due to an excessive 
 issue of them, but a sudden contraction might be 
 equally injurious ; and the true course to be taken 
 was, by the assertion of sound doctrines, to prepare the 
 way for a return to them in practice. Horner's reso- 
 lutions were rejected; Yansittart's, which embodied all 
 the currency fallacies of the time, were passed. 
 
 On February 18, 1812, the restrictions imposed on 
 the Prince Kegent by the Regency Bill expired, and it 
 was thought tliat he would signalise his independence 
 bv summoning his old AVhitr friends to office. On 
 February 13 the Prince had written a letter to the 
 Duke of York, in which, announcing that he had ' no 
 predilections to indulge, no resentments to gratify,' he 
 practically intimated his intention of keeping Mr. 
 Perceval's Cabinet in power, though desiring that some 
 of his early friends might join the Administration, 
 naming especially Lord Girenville and Lord Grey. The 
 two AVlii"- lords declined office on the "-round of incom- 
 patibility of ]3olitical opinion with Perceval . On hearing 
 of this result, Lord Wellesley tendered his resignation, 
 and the seals of the Foreign Office were placed in the 
 hands of Lord Castlercagli. Lord Sidmouth was ap- 
 pointed Lord Privy Seal in succession to Lord Camden, 
 who remained in the Cabinet without office. 
 
 Canning does not seem to have borne any part in 
 tliese projects. It must be admitted that, if he was 
 an intriguer, he was a very unlucky one. Perceval, 
 against whom he had pitted his own pretensions to 
 bo First ^[inister, had gained,' ;iiid seemed firmly 
 established in tliat post ; Castlereagh liad stepped into
 
 134 George Canning 
 
 the office of Foreign Minister, which Canning had held, 
 and would have sacrificed years of his life to hold again 
 at a time so critical. The much-ridiculed ' doctor ' 
 was in place. Canning was wandering disconsolate 
 among the back benches of the House of Commons. 
 To him the end of life was Parliament, and the end of 
 Parliament was office. A parody of Gray's ' Elegy in 
 a Country Churchyard' describes his demeanour and 
 artifices : — 
 
 For who to dumb forgetfulness a prey 
 A place er pension ever yet resigned ; 
 
 Quitted the Court, like Canning, as they say, 
 Nor cast one longing, lingering look behind ? 
 
 On some tried hack at parting he relies. 
 
 Some well-turned paragraph his case requires ; 
 
 E'en in retirement we hear his cries. 
 E'en in our paper linger his desires. 
 
 • • • • • ■ 
 
 Ilaply some hoary pensioner may say, 
 
 Oft have we seen him at the approach of eve, 
 
 Bending with hasty steps his course this way 
 To make a speech would even us deceive. 
 
 Til ere, underneath the House of Commons' clock, 
 That rears its vile old-fashioned head so high. 
 
 How often would he his late colleagues mock. 
 And at that distance catch the Speaker's eye. 
 
 From seat to seat, as if iii pain or scorn, 
 Mutt'ring his wayward fancies would he rove ; 
 
 And, out of office, seem like one forlorn. 
 
 Or craz'd with care, or cross'd in liopeless love.
 
 '•35 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 ASSASSINATION OF MR. PERCEVAL — FORMATION OF THE 
 LIVERPOOL ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 The bullet of the assassin brought Perceval's political 
 and natural life to a close at the same moment. On 
 May 11, 1812, he was shot clown in the lobby of the 
 House of Commons by Bellingham, a ruined tradesman, 
 maddened by misfortune and by grievances which, so 
 far as they were real, no Government could redress. 
 
 The difficulties which had confronted the Cabinet 
 on the retirement of the Duke of Portland beset it once 
 more. Hopeless of support from Lord Grenville and 
 Lord Gre}^, j\linisters opened negotiations with Lord 
 AVellesley and ]\Ir. Canning, who refused to join thera 
 — Canning because of their unwillingness to concede 
 the Koman Catholic claims, Wellesley on this ground, 
 and also because of their want of vigour in prosecuting 
 the Spanish war. According to Lord Eldon, the 
 overtures were not sincere. Wellesley and Canning 
 might ' bite ' or not. If they did not, yet to have 
 offered them office would strengthen tlie Government 
 in public opinion, and it could go on without them. 
 But it was brought up short by a resolution promptly 
 carried in the House of Commons, by a majority of 
 four, on the motion of Mr. Stuart-Wortlev, for an
 
 136 George Canning 
 
 address to the Prince Hegent, pra^nng him to take 
 steps for the formation of a strong and efficient Admi- 
 nistration. Ministers tendered their resio-nation, and 
 the ]\Iarquis Wellesley was entrnsted with the task of 
 forminof a new Government. Thronwh Canninof he 
 sounded Lord Liverpool — who, though not formally the 
 chief of the retirinsr jNIinistrv, seems to have acted for 
 it — as to the willingness of himself and his friends 
 to join some Government based on the concession of 
 Catholic claims and pledged to a strenuous prosecution 
 of the war. The overture, which implied in the latter 
 condition a censure as regards the past, and in the 
 former an abandonment , of the well-known principles 
 of the majority of the Government, was refused. It 
 cannot have been seriously made. Simultaneously with 
 this application through Canning to Lord Liverpool. 
 Wellesley addressed himself in person to Grey and 
 Grenville. After protracted negotiations, in which the 
 Whig lords insisted on a direct invitation from the 
 Prince Regent, and on freedom to deal with the house- 
 hold offices, and in the later course of which Lord Moira 
 took the place of Lord Wellesley, they too declined. 
 According to Canning, the real objection of the Whig 
 chiefs was to the Prince Regent's pretensions to choose 
 his own Ministers. In a debate in the House of 
 Commons upon these negotiations, he attributed to 
 them in so many words the doctrine ' that the great 
 families and connections of this country had a right to 
 interfere "in the nomination of Ministers,' and em- 
 phatically refused to admit ' any such right or preten- 
 sion in the aristocracy.' The choice of Ministers, he 
 said, belonged to th© Crown, Hubject, of course, to th«
 
 Assassination of Mr. Perceval 137 
 
 control and advice of a free Parliament. The Princn 
 Regent, -svliose conduct in this matter was not ostensibly 
 open to blame, was now at his wits' end. He had 
 recourse at last to a strange expedient. He asked the 
 Cabinet to choose their own First Minister. Their 
 choice fell upon the Earl of Liverpool, who remained 
 in office for fifteen years. 
 
 Lord Liverpool's first act on receiving his commis- 
 sion from the King was to address himself to Mr. 
 Canning. Castlereagh was magnanimously willing to 
 yield the Foreign Office, and it was proposed that Lord 
 Wellesley should go to Ireland- as Lord Lieutenant. 
 Canning described this offer as .perhaps the handsomest 
 that was ever made to any individual. But it was pro- 
 posed that the leadership of the House of Commons, 
 with the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer, should 
 be in Castlereagh's hands, and it required a longer time 
 of exile from office to make any but the first place in 
 that assembly endurable by him. He consented to 
 hold afterwards a post very inferior to that now within 
 his grasp. But he had not yet acquired the proper 
 mood of submission. " How striking,' Wilberforce 
 moralises in his ' Diary,' ' is Canning's example! Had 
 he fairly joined Perceval on the Duke of Portland's 
 death, as Perceval offered, he would now have been 
 acknowledged head, and supported as such. But his 
 ambitious policy threw him out, and he sunk infinitely 
 in public estimation, aiid has since with difficulty kept 
 buoyant.' Canning, according to Stapleton, was wil- 
 ling to acquiesce in Castlereagh's having the leader- 
 ship. ' The point was referred to three members of 
 tU<2 House of Commons, who were supposed to be par-
 
 nS George Canning 
 
 ticularly conversant with the usages of the flouse; they 
 decided that he ought to insist on the lead, and the 
 negotiation fell to the ground.' It is obvious, however, 
 that the ' usages of the House ' have nothing to do with 
 the matter. Canning himself, in a speech which he 
 made at Liverpool this very year, states that the pro- 
 posal was rejected because, in his own view as well as 
 in that of his friends, it was accompanied by conditions 
 which ho could not honourably accept. Writing to 
 Wilberforce, he took yet other ground. It was not 
 that he insisted on the leadership, or that his friends 
 insisted, contrary to his own view, on his not taking 
 office without it, but that he could not take the second 
 place without incurring suspicion of intriguing for the 
 first. ' I will venture to affirm,' he says, ' that no 
 offer on my part to reject for myself or to reserve for 
 Lord C. the station of command would have prevented 
 him from saying in three weeks that I was studiously 
 labouring to deprive him of it. Pray, therefore, be not 
 led astray, nor let others where you can help it, by the 
 notion that I have been squabbling about a trifle.' But 
 even in the compass of the same letter he is unable to 
 be consistent. The following sentence shows that he 
 was resolved not to take office with the lead of the 
 House of Commons in Castlereagh's hands, and that, 
 though he would have tried, he would probably have 
 failed to bring himst^lf to acquiesce in any third person 
 having it. ' If I could have placed this power fairly 
 hh medio I would have conquered, or endeavoured to 
 conquer, nil my other feelings of reluctance ; but to 
 j)lace it, ;uul to engage to maintain it in his hands 
 where it now is, and then to place myself under it,
 
 The Liverpool Administration 139 
 
 would have been not only a sacrifice of pride but an 
 extinction of utility.' It is not probable, however, that 
 at this time the House of Commons would have accepted 
 Canning's leadership. Castlereagh now, as Perceval 
 before, was regarded as a safer man than Canning. It 
 would not be fair to apply Canning's own contrast 
 between ' placeless proud ability ' and the ' statesman 
 all civility, whom moderate talents raise to fame,' to 
 this controversy. It was not Canning's genius which 
 was disliked, but his imputed duplicity. It was not 
 the mediocrity of Perceval and Castlereagh which 
 Vv'on the confidence of the House of Commons, but 
 their recognised integrit}". Canning was regarded as 
 an unscrupulous intriguer and audacious adventurer, 
 Perceval and Castlereagh as men of unblemished and 
 disinterested character. Their moral authority in 
 council, in the House of Commons, and with the 
 country was greater than his. Canning was misjudged, 
 largely if not entirely ; but his conduct during the past 
 ten years, since Addington's accession to office, gave 
 some basis, and yet more plausibility, to the judgment. 
 Four years later, after the somewhat ignominious 
 embassy to Lisbon, he took oflice under conditions 
 more wounding to his vanity than those which he now 
 rejected with scorn, contenting himself with the Presi- 
 dency of the Board of Control, Avhile Castlereagh led 
 the House as Foreign Secretary. Yet six years later 
 he sought an escape, happily not granted him, from 
 English politics in the Governor-Generalship of India. 
 Castlereagh's melancholy death saved him from tliis 
 splendid exile, restoring to him the Foreign Office, and 
 giving him at fifty-two the leadership of tlie Hou)-e of
 
 140 George Canning 
 
 Commons, which he had deemed his right twelve years 
 before. He became First ]\Iinister in 1827. He had 
 declined office without tlie Premiership in 1809. With 
 less liaste Canning would have made greater progress. 
 If lie had manoeuvred less he would much sooner have 
 gained more. The lines in which Moore comments on 
 the demand for further reinforcemen^v for Wellington 
 in the Peninsula, and proposes to despatch politicians 
 thither, express the common idea of the fortunes and 
 chai'acter of the rival statesmen : ■ 
 
 Castlereagh in our sieges might save some disgraces, 
 Being used to the taking and keeping of places ; 
 And volunteer Canning, still ready for joining, 
 Might show us his talent for sly undermining. 
 
 It is curious how this suspicion of Canning's good 
 faitli haunted him through public life, expressing itself 
 in the misgivings of his friends not less than in the 
 mingled hatred and contempt of his enemies. Pitt, Lord 
 ]}tlalmesbury, and Wilberforce shake their heads over his 
 disposition to manoeuvre, Sturges Bourne, the perfect 
 model of an upright, fair-minded Englishman, adheres 
 to him, but deplores his trickiness. Lady Hester 
 Stanhope charges him at the commencement of his 
 political life with habitually sending to the newspapers 
 what he heard from Mr. Pitt in confidential talk. Lord 
 Shaftesbury, in his Diary, May 20, 1827, has this 
 entry: 'Met Peel: he told me every syllable relating 
 to Canning's intrigues.' Canning was honest and 
 patriotic, but he stood alone, and he believed too much 
 in the arts of management,
 
 1 /. I 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 FOUR YEAKS OUT OF OFl'lCE. 
 
 DuiUMi the first four years of the Liverpool Adminis- 
 tnitioii, with a break occasioned bv the incident of the 
 Lisbon Embassy, Mr. Canning's position was that of a 
 private member of Parliament. On one question, on 
 which he felt strongly, the confirmed insanity of the 
 King had released him from restrictions as galling as 
 those from which the Prince Regent had escaped. He 
 had assented, after 1801, to the rule of action laid down 
 for himself by Pitt, and accepted by Fox in 180G, that 
 \hv King, in the uncertain state of his mental health, 
 should not be troubled by a revival of the Catholic 
 claims. Now that there was no likelihood of his re- 
 covery. Canning felt himself relieved from this volun- 
 tarily imposed obligation of silence. He and Lord 
 Wellesley acted together in this matter. In June 
 1812, Mr. Canning moved a resolution pledging the 
 House of Commons ' early in the next session of 
 Parliament to take into their consideration the laws 
 affecting the Roman Catholics, with a view to their 
 final and conciliatory adjustment.' 1''he motion was 
 passed by a majority of 129 — 235 against lOG. In the 
 House of Lords the previous question was carried 
 against Lord Wellesley by a majority of only one.
 
 142 Glorge Canning 
 
 Lord Castlereagli's presence in the Cabinet left the 
 subject an open one with the Government, and Mr. 
 Canning's success did not endanger the Ministry. 
 
 Parliament was dissolved in July. On September 25, 
 1812, a number of gentlemen met at the Golden Lion 
 Inn, Liverpool. Mr. John Gladstone, the father of the 
 eminent statesman, then a child three years of age, 
 moved a resolution, which was seconded by Mr. Richard 
 Benson, inviting Mr. Canning to become a candidate 
 for the borough of Liverpool. Mr. Canning, who had sat 
 for Newtown (Hants) in the Parliament of 1806, and for 
 Hastings in 1807, afterward notified his acceptance 
 of the invitation in a letter bearing date October 4. 
 On October 7 he arrived in Liverpool, and the contest 
 began in earnest. His opponents were Mr. Brougham, 
 whose opposition to the Orders in Council recommended 
 him to a commercial constituency, and Mr. Creevy, a 
 member of Parliament well known in that day as the 
 advocate of free trade with India. Mr. Canning stood 
 with General Gascoigne. On the sixth day's poll Mr, 
 Brougham and Mr. Ci^eevy withdrew from the contest ; 
 but the poll was kept open until the eighth day, when 
 Mr. Canning and General Gascoigne were declared to 
 be elected, Mr. Canning being at the head of the poll. 
 He was also elected for Petersfield. In his speeches on 
 the successive declarations of each day's polling, he pro- 
 nounced himself, so far as general politics were con- 
 cerned, in an emphatic manner against Parliamentary 
 Reform — even denouncing afterwards, at a congratula- 
 tory banquet in Manchester, the project of giving re- 
 presentatives to that town — and in favour of the removal 
 of the political disabilities of the Roman Catholics.
 
 Four Yuars Out of Office 143 
 
 The new Parliament met at the close of November 
 1812. It lasted till the year 1818. Mr. Canning spoke 
 in February, 1813, in defence of the conduct of the 
 (government in reofard to the rio-ht of search and the 
 institution, under the Orders in Council, of what was 
 called a paper blockade, out of which the war with the 
 United States had sprung. The controversy had begun 
 while Mr. Canninsf held the seals of the Foreign Ofhce. 
 The United States iiad retorted upon France and 
 England In' passing the Non-Intercourse Act, which 
 precluded trade between the Republic and tlie two 
 belligei"ent powers so loug as the Berlin and Milan 
 decrees on the one hand, and the Orders in Council on 
 the other, remained in force. In the meantime feeling 
 on both sides had been embittered bv the affair of the 
 ' Leopard ' and the ' Chesapeake," in which the British 
 claim to the right of search had been enforced by violent 
 measures, involving loss of life. Mr. Canning had of- 
 fered apologies and reparation for the indiscretion of the 
 commander of the ' Leopard,' and set on foot negotiations 
 for the re-establishment of friendly relations between 
 the two countries. Mr. Erskine, the British Minister 
 at Washington, misconceiving his instructions, accepted 
 the proposal of the United States Government to with- 
 draw the Non-Intercourse Act as regards England, on 
 the condition of the British (Jovernment consenting to 
 suspend the Orders as regards United States ships. He 
 was disavowed and recalled ; Mr. Canning insisted on 
 the belligerent right to prevent neutral trading with 
 the enemy. He equally insisted on what was called the 
 right of impressment — that is, of searching in time of war 
 American vessels for British seamen Avho had deserted
 
 144 George Canning 
 
 the service of their own country. Tlie former principle, 
 whicli was valid in international law when Mr. Cannin"; 
 contended for it, was abolished, so far as the parties 
 to the Treaty of Paris are concerned, by the declara- 
 tion of 1856, which allows a neutral flag to cover 
 enemy's goods while exempting neutral goods under an 
 enemy's flag from capture — excepting, in both cases, 
 contraband of war. This, however, was not the inter- 
 national law nor the national opinion of Mr. Canning's 
 days. After many irritating incidents, war was de- 
 clared by the United States in June 1812. As a private 
 member Mr. Canning defended the course which he had 
 taken in ofiice and that followed by his successors. 
 
 In 1813 Mr. Canning gave his support to the measure 
 introduced by Mr. Grattan for removing Roman Catholic 
 disabilities. He endeavoured to disarm public alarm 
 by a fantastic scheme for appointing a commission of 
 Koman Catholic notables and Protestant privy coun- 
 cillors, associated with a Secretary of State in England 
 and the Chief Secretary in Ireland, to whom all bulls 
 and other documents were to be communicated, under 
 pain of banishment, by those receiving them ; and who 
 Avere to testify to the loyalty of persons nominated to 
 Roman Catholic bishoprics. The Bill was defeated on 
 the motion of the Speaker (Mr. Abbot) in Committee 
 — Speakers in Committee in those days recovered their 
 freedom of speech and action as members of Parliament 
 — by 251 against 217 votes, and was withdrawn. The 
 Bill for throwing open the India trade to the public 
 preserved to the Hast India Conii)any the monopoly of 
 the China trade for twenty \ears. Mr. Canning, repre- 
 senting the commercial interests of Liverpool and the
 
 Four Years Gut of C:'fice 145 
 
 commercial principles of Mr. Pitt, did not venture to 
 do more than move (unsuccessfully) the reduction of the 
 term of the China monopoly to ten years. He sup- 
 ported Lord Castlereagh's motion of thanks to Welling- 
 ton (now Marquis) for the victory at Vittoria in -Tuly ; 
 and in November spoke in favour of the grant of three 
 millions to his Majesty for the purpose of carrying out 
 the provisions of the foreign treaties. 
 
 Tn the election for Liverpool ^Fr. Canning had 
 strongly asserted his individual independence ; in the 
 House of Commons, when he had been returned, he 
 was soon made aware of his personal isolation. Lord 
 Castlereagh, in spite of his halting and incoherent 
 speech, commanded the confidence of the House by 
 dint of character and administrative capacity. His 
 triumph over his more eloquent and brilliant rival was 
 complete. Canning practically gave up the struggle. 
 He renounced concerted action with Lord Wellesley. 
 He formally disbanded his party, bidding them, accord- 
 ing to Whitbread's ungenerous renderintr of his con- 
 duct, to shift for themselves; really telling them not to 
 adhere to his broken fortunes. The party was not very 
 numerous. According to Lord Dudley, it dined 14 
 and voted 12. The more important of them were 
 absorbed into the Administration. Huskisson becomino; 
 First Commissioner of Woods, or, as it was then called, 
 Land Revenue, without a seat in the Cabinet, and 
 Sturges Bourne taking a place at the Board of 
 Control. 
 
 Political disappointment and impatience of his 
 position in Parliament led Mr. Canning to commit 
 what he afterwards spoke of as the greatest mistake of 
 
 L
 
 146 George Canning 
 
 his life — the acceptance of a special embassy to Lisbon. 
 The ill-health of his eldest son had determined him to 
 go thither in a private character. The Prince Regent 
 was expected to visit Portugal from Brazil, and it 
 occurred to the Ministry that the presence in Lisbon of 
 Mr. Canning would enable them, if he were invested 
 with the rank of ambassador, to give the welcome of 
 England to the Prince through a statesman of Euro- 
 pean reputation invested with the highest diplomatic 
 office. Doubtless they were inspired also by the desire 
 to act with civility and courtesy to Mr. Canning. The 
 Prince Regent, however, did not come to Portugal. 
 Mr. Canning's conduct in taking the embassy was 
 attacked on his return to England by Mr. Lambton and 
 Sir Francis Burdett, especially on the ground of the 
 additional pecuniary expense incurred in his appoint- 
 ment. Mr. Canning's rejsly was admitted by Mr. 
 Lambton to be satisfactory, but he had placed himself 
 in a somewhat equivocal and derogatory position. He 
 had the faculty of putting himself in equivocal posi- 
 tions. While he was playing at public business in a 
 second-rate capital of Europe, Castlereagh was direct- 
 ing the foreign affairs of the country with a success 
 which was mainly due, no doubt, to Wellington's 
 military genius, but which made him politically the 
 foremost man in England and before Europe. 
 
 Canning resigned his Lisbon Embassy as soon as 
 he learned that the Prince Regent was not coming 
 thither ; but he remained in Lisbon six months longer, 
 bringing up his voluntary exile to seventeen months. 
 During these seventeen months much had happened. 
 Napoleon had escaped from Elba, Waterloo had been
 
 Four Years Out of Office 147 
 
 fought, the Congress of Vienna, in wliicli Oastlereagh 
 had represented England, had settled Europe after its 
 own fashion. It must have been bitter to (canning to 
 reflect that, but for his own imprudence, lie would 
 probably have been the Minister who would have played 
 the chief part in these great transactions. With his 
 personal regret the conviction, no doubt, mingled that, 
 if he had not forfeited his rank in the councils of the 
 nation, a more just, generous, and durable arrangement 
 might have been arrived at. 
 
 On his return to England Mr. Canning resumed 
 his place in Parliament. He had offered to resign his 
 scat for Liverpool on his taking the Lisbon Embassy, 
 but his constituents refused to allow their connection 
 with him to be broken. According to the gossip of 
 the time, Canning had intrigued for the invitation to 
 Liverpool. He desired to increase his waning influence 
 in the House of Commons by the weight attaching to 
 the representation of a great commercial constituenc}'. 
 Sir Walter Scott had urged him some time before to 
 take his own ground and to raise liis own standard. 
 At Liverpool he was iinmuzzled. The confidence Avhich 
 this great mercantile constituency showed in him was 
 echoed by the residents of Lisbon and the merchants 
 of Bordeaux, by whom he was entertained at civic 
 banquets. Mr. Canning was something more to them 
 than an illustrious statesman ; he was the representa- 
 tive of the commercial principles of Mr. J?itt, to which 
 the return of peace gave a new opportunity. 
 
 I, 2
 
 143 George Canning 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 IN AND OUT OF OFFICE. 
 
 Powerful m the House of Commons, and populr.r in 
 the country, the Liverpool Administration was hidi- 
 crously weak in debating power. The two members 
 of the Cabinet in the Commons had grown to four. 
 To Castlereagh and Vansittart, at the Foreign Office 
 and at the Exchequer, had been added Bragge Bathurst 
 (Brother Bragge) as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lan- 
 caster, and Wellesley Pole, as Master of the Llint. 
 But they did not double the debating power of the 
 Ministry. It was necessary to strengthen it. On Can- 
 ning's return, in the spring of 181G, he was offered, at 
 the instance of the Prince llegent, the Presidency of 
 the Board of Control, in succession to the Earl of 
 Buckinghamshire. The office was not then always 
 a Cabinet one, though the affairs of our Indian Empire 
 were submitted to it. Canning took it. He was 
 humbled; he was regretting his Lisbon mistake, the 
 sequel and crown of many other mistakes. ' In all 
 probability,' he told Stapleton afterwards, ' I should 
 have had the most influential post in the Government 
 in the House of Commons if I had not fliUen into that 
 error.' But ho had acted, he went on to sav, under 
 a sense of duty, and in similar circumstances would do
 
 In and Out of Oi-tice 149 
 
 again as lie had done then. It is difiicult to see what 
 could have put Castlercagh out of his place, or Canning 
 into it, if Canning had remained in England. Castle- 
 reagh had the confidence, while Canning had only the 
 admiration, qualified by distrust and fear, of the country. 
 Castlereagh was, in fact, believed to be, in spite of his 
 blundering sjDeech, the abler man of action of the 
 two. 
 
 Mr. Canning held the Presidency of the Board of 
 Control during five years. His term of office w^as 
 covered by that during which the Marquis of Hastings 
 was Governor-General, and was marked by the practical 
 subjugation of the Peninsula by English arras. The 
 government, of course, was that of the East India 
 Company. The Governor-General was its servant, and 
 not that of the Crown. The duties of the Board of 
 Control were those of supervision and not of initiative. 
 They were described by Mr. Canning in a speech which 
 he delivered in reply to a hostile motion of Mr. Creevy's 
 in 1822. By his success in the Mahratta wars the 
 IMarquis of Hastings had revolutionised India, deliver- 
 ing it from anarchy and pillage to order and industry ; 
 and Mr. Canning had his part in the work. He had 
 at first refused to consent to the policy of Hastings. 
 He was not disposed, he said, to run the risk of a 
 general w^ar for the sake of putting down the Pindarees. 
 But to ]jut down the Pindarees, as he soon saw, was 
 essential to general peace. In Indian politics Mr. Can- 
 ning belonged neither to the forward party nor to the 
 party of retreat. He looked, to use his own words, on 
 the extension of our Indian Empire Avith awe, and ex- 
 pressed the hope that what remained of substantive
 
 150 George Canning 
 
 and independent power in that country miglit stand 
 untouched and unimpaired. He forbade the censorship 
 of the press in India. At home he was a member of 
 a Government in which Sidmouth was Home Secre- 
 tary, and in which Castlereagh was the presiding and 
 animating spirit, and wliich, by its legislative and 
 administrative and judicial tyrannies, recalled the worst 
 days of Pitt. Canning's attitude during this period, 
 or rather at the commencement of it — but the de- 
 scription applies to it throughout — is given in a letter 
 which Lord Dudley wrote to the Bishop of Llandaff 
 early in February 1817: 'Is there a dangerous spirit 
 abroad, or is there not? Canning says there is. But 
 an eloquent ]\Iinister is a bad authority on such a 
 subject. An alarm is the harvest of such a personage.' 
 Canning condescended to be a professional alarmist for 
 his old enemy Sidmouth — to supply the rhetoric which 
 should justify Sidmouth and Castlereagh's policy. The 
 rebellion was a rebellion of the belly, and it was ab- 
 surd to trace it back to those French principles which 
 had formed the rhetorical stock-in-trade of Canning's 
 youth, or to connect, as he did, the movement for 
 parliamentary reform with ulterior purposes of revolu- 
 tion. The Corn Law of 1815, pas-sed wlule Canning 
 was in Lisbon, the bad harvest of 181G, the war 
 prices of the following years, and the distress and 
 famine which those? war prices ]n-oduced, account for 
 the disaffcclion and disturbances which C-anning attri- 
 buted to the presence of a dangerous spirit. There 
 can be little doubt that at the bottom of liis heart 
 Canning disapproved of the ]:)rotective policy to which 
 ho was accessory after the fact. 'J'he soundness of his
 
 In and Out of Office 151 
 
 economic doctrines had been proved in many discus- 
 sions, and wlicn lie came into real power his action 
 with respect to the Corn Laws shows what his judg- 
 ment of them was. The Corn Laws produced distress, 
 distress produced disaffection and tumult, disaffection 
 and tumult were made the pretext for coercive measures 
 which increased them, and for resistance to those 
 political improvements which would have abated them. 
 It is not necessary to tell the story of Luddism, of 
 the Spencean Societies and Hampden Clubs, of the 
 Blanketeers, of the Derby insurrection, of the Spafields 
 riot, of Peterloo, and of the Cato Street conspiracy, and 
 of the machinations of spies and informers such as 
 Oliver, whose mission it was to manufacture the dan- 
 gerous spirit which it was the business of Sidmouth 
 to suppress. The Suspension of the Habeas Corpus 
 Act ; the Sidmouth Circular about seditious and blas- 
 phemous libels, and the arbitrary power with which 
 it invested the magistrates, by assuming them to bo 
 invested with it ; the Six Acts, and prosecutions such 
 as that of Hone, over which Lord Ellenborough, no 
 longer a member of the Cabinet, presided — this 
 scandal at least Avas avoided — proved the little value 
 of coercion as a remedy. It is only necessary sum- 
 marily to recall these things in order to give an idea 
 what the spirit of the Administration was of which 
 Canning consented to be a member. No one, of course, 
 will contend tliat disaffection and tumult, however 
 originating, can be tolerated. To deal with the cause 
 does not exempt you from striking at the effect. But 
 the ordinary laws would probabh'^ have been enough 
 for the purposes of repression, if sober reforms had been
 
 153 George Canning 
 
 instituted. Acquiescent in Sidinouth's manner of deal- 
 ing with disorder and distress at home, he was sub- 
 missive to Castlereagh's foreign policy, which, so far 
 as it was possible on the part of an Knglish Minister, 
 was the policy of the Holy Alliance, of which Canning 
 was the sworn enemy in heart now as in action after- 
 wards. 
 
 Towards the close of the vear 1820 Canning re- 
 signed the Presidency of the Board of Control and 
 retired from the Cabinet. He had declined to be a 
 party to the proceedings taken by Lord Liverpool's 
 Government against the Princess of Wales, now Queen ; 
 and he felt that absence i'roni the House or silence in it 
 did not sufficiently relieve him from Ministerial respon- 
 sibility. The death of George III. in 1820 had raised 
 the question of her status as Queen. She was certain 
 to come to England for the assertion of her conjugal 
 rights. She had threatened to visit this country in 
 August 1819, Avhilo she was yet only Princess of 
 Wales, much to the annoyance of her adviser. 
 Brougham, Avho believed that only mischief would come 
 of it, ' not to mention the infernal personal annoyance 
 of liaving such a devil to plague one for six months.' 
 George IV., as he had now become, M-as eager for a Bill 
 of divorce, and appealed to his Ministers to procure one. 
 They represented to him that if the Queen and lie were 
 private persons he could not obtain a divorce in the 
 Courts, and to introduce a Bill not resting upon a 
 judicial decision would be a course attended with grave 
 embarrassment. Canning joined in this ]\Iinisterial 
 meiiioranduin, which conceded the exclusion of the 
 Queen's name from the Liturgy, but he did so byway of
 
 In and Out of Office 153 
 
 coiii]3i'omise. In a docket on the back of the memo- 
 raiuktm he declared that he coukl not have assented to 
 lliis course if any penal process had been in contempla- 
 tion. If the Queen was to be accused, it would be 
 improper to divest her of privileges before trial. But 
 wliy divest her of them even if niiaccused and without 
 trial ? The only answer is that something had to be 
 conceded to the King if the action he desired was not 
 taken against the Queen. Ministers proposed that an 
 annuity of 35,000L, which the King might raise to 
 50,000L, should be conferred on the Queen, condition- 
 ally on her consenting to reside abroad and relinquish 
 the title of Queen. She answered the proposal by 
 coming to London, where she took up her residence in 
 the house of Alderman Wood. The gauntlet thus 
 thrown down was promptly lifted. On the day of 
 her arrival Lord Castlereagh brought into the House of 
 Commons the thenceforward celebrated green bag, con- 
 taining papers confirmatory of the accusations against 
 th.Q Queen. On Castlereagh 's moving that they be 
 referred to a Select Committee, Wilberforce tried to 
 prevent the breaking of the seal of the bag. In the 
 discussions which followed Canning spoke twice, con- 
 tending that inquiry was due to the Queen, to whom he 
 referred with regard and affection springing out of old 
 relations, and could not be avoided after she had come 
 to England and expressly demanded it. Thouoli tlius 
 associating himself with his colleagues, Canning's first 
 feeling was that he could not with personal honour 
 remain among them. ' So help me, God/ he exclaimed 
 in the House of Connuons, 'I will never place myself in 
 the position of an accuser towards this individual ! '
 
 154 George Canning 
 
 He had an audience of the King, which he described to 
 , a friend in a memorandum, in which, giving scope to 
 his insatiable delight in mock-mysteries, he spoke of the 
 , King as Mars, of the Queen as Dirce, and of himself as 
 ♦ Marcus. Marcus represented to Mars that, owing to 
 the relations of confidence in which he had formerly- 
 stood to Dirce, he could not be a consenting party to 
 criminal proceedings being taken against her. On the 
 other hand, Marcus felt the difficulty of continuing in 
 the service of Mars without taking part in the discus- 
 sions on this vital subject. Mars expressed his sense of 
 Marcus's honourable conduct, but desired a few hours 
 for consideration. Afterwards, through Lord Liverpool, 
 the King requested Canning to remain in office on his 
 own terms, and for the time no action was taken. The 
 reference to Marcus's previous relations with Dirce 
 require a few words of retrospective explanation. When 
 : the Princess of Wales lived at Montagu House, 
 Blackheath, immediately after her separation from the 
 I'rince, Canning, then a very young man, resided near 
 her. He frequently visited her and took part in the 
 rather boisterous amusements of that unceremonious 
 court, playing at blindman's-buff and other romping 
 games, in which Sir William Scott, then a great 
 advocate, and afterwards, as Lord Stowell, a greater 
 magistrate, took part. In 1803, Canning had offered 
 to take any steps in Parliament which she might direct 
 to obtain an increase of her appointments, though he 
 advised lier to depend rather on the kind feeling of the 
 King (George III.), who was disposed to be her good 
 friend and to protect her against her husband's ]-)orse- 
 cutions. In 1811. he advised her to take up her
 
 /.v AAD Our 01' Ofi-icE 155 
 
 residence abroad, among her friends at Brunswick, or, if 
 she preferred it, elsewhere ; she would be ' the grace, 
 life and heart' of any society which she might join. 
 (Amning finally acquiesced in the suggestion that he 
 sliould remain in office while holdino- aloof from the 
 proceedings of which the Queen was the subject. On 
 July 5, 1820, he wrote to Lord Liverpool, protesting, 
 as a breach of the understanding on which he had con- 
 sented to the exclusion of the Queen's name from the 
 Liturgy, against the introduction of a clause of divorce 
 into the Bill of Pains and Penalties. Towards the close 
 of this month Lord Liverpool offered to Canning the 
 Secretaryship of State for the Home'TTepaftiheut, which 
 Canning declined on the ground that the office would 
 make him an active participant in the proceedings 
 against the Queen^ As Home Secretary all qiiestions 
 of police which might arise out of the agitation on 
 l){^half of the Queen, threatening often to degenerate 
 into tunmlt, would be referred to him; he would have 
 to consider the expediency of jDrosecutions for libel ; in 
 fact he would be innnersed in the details of the matter, 
 as to which he would be brousrht into direct and constant 
 comnmnication with the King. To get clear of the 
 tiling, and especially to avoid the trial, which bl^-an on 
 August 17, 1820, Canning left England earlv in that 
 month. He expressed his view of the business in a letter 
 I0 Huskisson, written from Paris on October 2." There 
 had been some talk of dropping the divorce" clause from 
 the ]>ill. As a parallel case. Canning mentions that in 
 his speech in 1809, defending the IJuke of York from 
 the charge of corruption in the distribution of army 
 patrouiige, he had contended that crime must be proved
 
 i5<5 George Canning 
 
 Lefore penalties were inflicted. But for 'the fatal 
 measure of the Liturgy,' to which, hoSvever, he' was a 
 conditionally though reluctantly assenting -party, he 
 could, he said, have settled the matter last summer. 
 J\Iinisters ought to have been firmer with the King ; 
 the King would then have played fair. ' But there 
 were conferences as well as minutes, and I suspect the 
 unwritten counteracted the •written communications.' 
 However, as the trial had begun, it must be pushed 
 on to conviction or acquittal, and in the event of the 
 Queen's being acquitted, her name must be restored to 
 the Liturgy. There was neither acquittal nor conviction. 
 The second reading of the Bill was carried in the House 
 of Lords by a majority of nine only j it was certain of 
 defeat in future stages, and, in the almost impossible 
 event of its reaching the House of Commons, of re- 
 jection there by an overwhelming majority. Liverpool 
 announced that the measure would be dropped. Can- 
 ning thought his colleagues had got out of the scrape 
 better than they deserved. Canning had remained a 
 member of the Government which was responsible for 
 the Bill of Pains and Penalties, possibly with the idea 
 that, if the issue were a direct acquittal, he might be of 
 service to the Queen in considering the arrangements 
 which would become iiecessary. He returned to 
 England now that the matter was over, and resolved 
 upon resigning office. In a letter to the King, written 
 from the India Board on December 12, 1820, he points 
 out that the House of Commons will unavoidably be 
 engaged in discussions with resjject to the Quden's 
 case, and that those discussions must bo so mixed up 
 with the general business of the session that it would be
 
 In axd Out of Office 
 
 D/ 
 
 impossible for a Minister to absent liiniself from tlieni, 
 or to avoid taking part in them. Writing ' himself 
 from Carlton House the next day, the King -with 
 promptitude, but with gracious expressions of regret, 
 accepted Canning's resignation. Sidmouth and Castlc- 
 reagh'were warm and generous in their declarations of 
 regard and sorrow ; Sidmouth addressing Tiim as ' My 
 dear Sir,' Castlereagh as ' My dear Canning.' Sidmouth 
 says : ' The loss to the Kingf's service and to vour 
 colleagues will be irreparable ; and let me add that I 
 shall feel it deeply, for your kind, cordial and honour- 
 able conduct has left a deep impression on my mind.' 
 Castlereagh describes himself as ' the individual member 
 of the Government who must feel vour loss the most 
 sei'iously, both in the House of Commons and in the 
 Foreign Office.' ' Allow me,' he adds, ' at the same 
 time most cordially to thank you for the uniform 
 attention with which you have followed up, and the 
 kindness with which you have assisted me in, the de- 
 partment for the conduct of which I am more im- 
 mediately responsible.' The Court of Directors of the 
 East India Company, on being apprised of his retire- 
 ment, sent him a letter of thanks and regret (Decem- 
 ber 20, 1820). Canning, i-eplying in a letter written on 
 Christmas Day from Tuddenham, Norfolk, refers with 
 satisfaction to the fact that he had departed from 
 precedent in conferring the Governments of Bombay 
 and Madras on distinguished servants of the Company, 
 j\Ir. Elphinstone and General Munro. He claims credit 
 for not interfering with the Compan3''s nominations, 
 si ill less urging personal wishes or soliciting personal 
 favours in regard to their exercise of patronage. Can-
 
 15^^ George Canning 
 
 ning was succeeded in tlie Presidency of the Board of 
 Control by Mr. Bathnrst Bragge (Brother Bragge). who 
 seemed to haunt liini vengefully through his career. 
 At a" meeting specially summoned in the following 
 March, tlie Court of Proprietors of East India Stock 
 passed a formal and unanimous vote of thanks to 
 Canning. 
 
 Canning remained out of office during the whole of 
 the year 182 1 and the greater part of 1 822. In the'be- 
 ginniiig of the former year Lord Sidmouth resigned the 
 Home Secretaryship, retaining a seat in the Cabinet with- 
 out office. Mr. Peel, who was supposed to represent the 
 principles of Sidmouth, and did so, so far as opposi- 
 tion to the Catholic claims was concerned, became his 
 successor. Sidmouth thought he could now withdraw 
 without endangering public tranquillity. He had co- 
 erced England into quietude. ' It was because my 
 official bed had become a bed of roses that I deter- 
 mined to retire from it. When strewn with thorns I 
 would not have left it.' Lord Liverpool was anxious to 
 regain Canning's aid. 'In June last' (1821), Canning 
 wrote to Lord Morley, ' there "^vas'lTTontest between 
 Liverpool and the King for and against my readmission 
 to the Cabinet. I then begged not to be pressed on 
 the King, as you know. I was so far taken at my word 
 that the pressure was dropped for the time, to be renewed 
 on the King's return from Ireland. On his Majesty's 
 return from Ireland he expressly forbade Liverpool 
 to reopen the subject, and it was adjourned till the 
 return from Hanover.' The Marquis of Hastings had 
 intimated, or was understoodTcniave intimated, his 
 wish to come back to Euro]3e, and his desire that a
 
 In and Out of Office 159 
 
 successor to hiin in the office of Governor-General of 
 India should be named. The Chairman of the Court 
 of Directors asked Canning to be allowed to propose 
 him, and communications were entered into with Lord 
 Liverpool and the King, who was ready enough to 
 assent to an arrangemeiit which would relieve him of 
 the presence and claims to office in Englaiid of a states- 
 man whose opposition to liim in the matter of the 
 Queen's trial he had not forgiven. To Canning also, 
 who knew himself proscribed, whose fortune, or rather 
 whose wife's fortune, had been diminished, and to 
 whom Parliament without office had little charm, the 
 offer was agreeable. The arrangement was suddenly 
 checked by the announcement that Lord Hastings had 
 been misunderstood. He had not intended to resio-n. 
 The place, therefore, was not vacant. The Marquis of 
 Hastings had sent a letter of resignation to his friend 
 Colonel Doyle, but Colonel Doyle had not presented it. 
 Ultimately, at the King's instance, it was sent in to the 
 Court of Directors, but it w^as found to be invalid, being 
 in contravention of a clause in the Charter Act of 1793. 
 While the aflair of India was uncertain a reconstruction 
 of the Ministry had been going on, which, indepen- 
 dently of the King's hostility to Canning, would have 
 made it difficult to bring him in. Overtures were made 
 to the Grenvilles. Lord Grenville himself had. done 
 with office, and was planting trees in Dropmore. But 
 the claims of the Grenville family were recognised. 
 The Marquis of Buckingham was made aduke ; his 
 kinsman, Mr. Charles Williams Wynn, entered the 
 Cabinet as President of the Board of Control ; and two 
 faithful dependents of the ducal clan found secondary
 
 i6o George Canning 
 
 f places. Canning was indignant at the preference given 
 
 : to Wynn over his friend Huskisson, though he advised 
 
 ' Huskisson not to resent it. 
 
 The difficulty about the Governor-Generalship was 
 at length overcome, and though Mrs. Canning was 
 described as ' furious at India,' Canning accepted 
 the post. He wa§ at Seaforth, the residence of Mr. 
 Jolni Gladstone, near Liverpool, whither he had gone to 
 bid farewell to his old constituents, when the news 
 came that the Marquis of Londonderr}' — -as Castlereagh 
 was now styled, though the marquisate being an Irish 
 one he continued to sit in the House of Commons — had 
 committed suicide. The situation was again changed. 
 Canning, writing on August 20 to the Earl of Morley, to 
 discuss the effect which this event might have on his 
 plans and prospects, declares that he wishes he was well 
 on board the ' Jupiter ' — the vessel which Avas to carry 
 him out to India. No proposal, he says, can be made 
 to him which will make him glad to stay ; but such a 
 proposal may be made as will make it impossible for 
 him not to stay. If the whole inheritance (the Foreign 
 Office with the leadership of the House of Commons) is 
 offered to him, he does not see how he can refuse it ; if, 
 as one of his friends suggested, the Colonial Office is 
 substituted for the Fcr.-ign Office, he will certainly 
 decline it. The whole inheritance was placed promptly 
 at Canning's disposal, Lord Liverpool insisting, and the 
 King submitting, though with a bad grace, to the inevit- 
 able. Canning felt reluctance. His imagination had 
 
 ' been taken with the idea of India, and he made a money 
 sacrifice in remaining in England. If only the chance 
 had offered ten years earlier! ' Ten years,' he wrote to
 
 In and Out of Office i6i 
 
 Sir Charles Kag'ot, ' have made a world of difference, 
 and have made a very different sort of world to bustle 
 in than that which I should have found in 1812. For 
 fame, it is a squeezed orange, but for public good there 
 is something to do, and I shall try — but it must be 
 cautiously — to do it. You know my politics well 
 enough to know what I mean when T say that for 
 " Europe " I shall be desirous now and then to read 
 " England." ' Canning protested against 'the principle 
 of European questions.' He was aware of the diffi- 
 culties with which he had to contend. The superstition 
 against which he set his face was even more powerful 
 then than it is now. He had to reckon also with strong 
 personal hostility, within the Cabinet and without. 
 The King spoke of him as if he were a convict to whom 
 he had granted a free pardon. He tolerated Canning 
 as Minister on the ground that ' the brightest orna- 
 ment of his Crown was the power of extending grace 
 and favour to a subject who might have incurred his 
 displeasure.' Canning insisted on an explanation of 
 these words, and, learning that they referred to his atti- 
 tude in relation to the prosecution of the Queen, was 
 content to assert the rectitude of his motives. Foreign 
 courts and foreign embassies were against Canning and 
 liis system of reading, instead of Europe, England, and 
 by many of his colleagues he was more thwarted than 
 aided. ~— — - 
 
 M
 
 1 62 George Canning 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 MINISTERIAL LEADER AND FOREIGN SECRETARY. 
 
 Finding the representation of Liverpool in addition to 
 the toils of office and of Parliament beyond liis strensfth. 
 Canning, early in 1823, resigned his scat for that 
 borough, and was elected for Harwich. After nearly 
 thirty years of public life, he was at length the leader 
 of the House of Commons. No contrast could bo more 
 strongly marked than that between himself and his im- 
 mediate predecessor. The imposing figure and gallant 
 bearing of Castlereagh, his unyarying courtesy, his 
 knowledge of mankind and of public business, his chi- 
 valry and good sense won the affection and confidence 
 of the House of Commons, in spite of an absolute inca- 
 pacity of colierent speech. The images by which he 
 strove to bring his ideas home to his own mind and to 
 the minds of his hearers have become by-words. He is 
 credited with the phrase ' ignorant impatience of taxa- 
 tion ': he really spoke of 'the ignorant impatience of 
 the relaxation of taxation.' Confounding Alcmena with 
 her son, he told a member that he was mistaken if he 
 thought his Herculean labours would bring forth a 
 Hercules ; he described a defeated adversary as ' stand- 
 ing prostrate.' He laboured, in fact, under a sort of 
 parliiunentary aphasia, The attempts which he made
 
 Leader and Foreign Secretary 163 
 
 to diso-uisc a strong Irish accent set off liis oratorio in 
 capacity. ' Knowledge ' he called ' nnllige,' the House 
 of Commons Avas the House of ' Cummins,' a ' dis- 
 cussion ' was a ' deskisson." For ten years the House 
 of Comjnons had been led bv a chief whose courao-e in 
 trying to talk English was greater than that which the 
 Duke of AVellington showed in talking French, who 
 was absolutely without the power of expression. For 
 five years to come it was to bo led by probably the 
 greatest master of the art of expression that any 
 English Parliament has ever seen. Canning's speech 
 was as the closely fitting and yet elastic vesture of his 
 thought, at once dress and adornment. Eye and lip, 
 glance and tone, alert movement and well-balanced 
 attitude, prefigured and accompanied the articulate ut- 
 terance of his meaning. In some respects this abso- 
 lute rhetorical sufficiency was an injury to Canning. 
 Because Castlereagh said so little, and said it so ill, he 
 was supposed to have a great deal in his mind wdiich he 
 left unsaid ; because Canning expressed so perfectly all 
 that it was his business to say, it was supposed tliat there 
 was nothing behind which he left unexpressed. The 
 sample was believed to be the whole store. The House of 
 Commons which Canning faced in 1823 was, of course, 
 in its personal constitution a very different assembly from 
 that which he had entered in 1791'. Pitt and Fox and 
 Windham had joined a larger majority than any with 
 which they had divided in the lobby. Addington had 
 transferred his somewhat fretful and uneasy virtue to the 
 Upper House, whither, too. Grey had carried his patri- 
 cian eloquence ; and a later comer, Lord Henry Petty, 
 as Marquis of Lansdowne, his urbane and moderating 
 
 M 2
 
 164 George C.inn/ng 
 
 wisdom. In tli"ir place the Whig aristocracy had found 
 reinforcement as worthy in the h.oraely good sense 
 of Lord Altliorp and the pointed sentences of Lord 
 John Russell. In the place of Whitbread, Brougham 
 was ' mashing and pounding,' to use Canning's phrase, 
 as with the flail of Talus. The adroit parliamentary 
 feculty of Peel, the easy and engaging speech of Robin- 
 son, the manly and rational eloquence of Plunket, gave 
 Canninof an aid in debate which he s^enerouslv acknow- 
 1 edged. G rattan and Romilly and Francis Horner had 
 come and gone. Tierney on the one side of the House 
 and Huskisson on the other survived to remind Can- 
 ning of the comrades and rivals whom he had met on 
 entering Parliament. The Administration had two 
 periods, which may be described as the Castlereagh 
 period, lasting from 1812 to 1822, and the Canning 
 period, from 1822 to 1827. These two statesmen were 
 really its successive chiefs, Lord I/iverpool discharging 
 no other function of the premiership than the important 
 one of holding the Cabinet together. He was the 
 cement which kept the incongruous materials from 
 falling apart. Transitions and differences are never so 
 sudden and sharp in fact as they are in description, 
 and the Castlereao-h administration of the Foreig-n Office 
 eased the passage from the policy forced upon Pitt to 
 that eagerly adopted by Canning. They both claimed to 
 be Pittites — ' the followers of Mr. Pitt ' was the name 
 of which they were proudest — but while Canning repre- 
 sented his inner mind, Castlereagh continued, so far as 
 he could, his external policy. The reaction in England 
 against alliance with the despotic powers of the Con- 
 tinent, which followed the conclusion of tlie Treaty of
 
 Leader and Foreign Secretary 165 
 
 Vieuua, forced a certain measure of Liljcralisiu on tlic 
 reluctant inind of Castlereagh, and gave new energy to 
 the large conceptions of Canning. 
 
 Canning had joined the Cabinet which concluded 
 the Treaty of Vienna, but he did not conceal his dis- 
 approbation of its general spirit and of many of its 
 jjrovisions. The rounding off of kingdoms and states 
 by the exchange and barter of territory and the people 
 on it, as country gentlemen might ' swop " farms and 
 tenants to bring their estates into a ring-fence, was 
 distasteful to him. He especially censured the arrange- 
 ments which gave Norway to Denmark and the duchy 
 of Genoa to Sardinia, and restored the Pope and the 
 petty Italian dukes. When Castlereagh, he said, got 
 among princes and sovereigns at Vienna he thought he 
 could not be too tine and complaisant. It was, how- 
 ever, the fault of Canning's hasty ambition, his ex- 
 aggerated personal pretensions, and his too quick 
 resentments, that he lost the chance of remaining con- 
 tinuously at the head of foreign affairs during the whole 
 course of the Perceval and Liverpool Administrations. 
 Otherwise a generous foreign policy might have began 
 fifteen years earlier than it did. As the domestic diffi- 
 culties and disturbances of England were the shadow 
 of her foreign troubles, it is possible that in this case 
 the administrative and legislative oppressions of Sid- 
 mouth and the judicial tyrannies of Ellenborough would 
 have been avoided or mitigated. During this period 
 hovv^ever, when he was not repining on the back benches 
 or fretting beneath the clock, he was absorbed in the 
 Mahratta wars of Hastings. The loss, probably, had 
 its compensating gain. Canning, Foreign Minister
 
 1 66 George Canning 
 
 from 1807 or 1812 to 1822, niiglit have been narrowed 
 by the conditions nncler which, and the instruments 
 with which, he had to work. The policy would, possibly, 
 have been in some degree better, but the Minister might 
 have been in an equal degree deteriorated. It was an 
 advantage, both to England and to Europe, that in 1822 
 he came but slightly pledged to the old system, and free 
 to form his own judgment and take his own course. 
 
 The year 1821, which witnessed the death of 
 Napoleon, gave renewed vigour to the Holy Alliance, 
 The chief of the military dictatorship and democratic 
 despotism wdiich had mastered Europe disappeared, 
 and the old despotisms of divine right acted on their 
 compact of oppression. The sovereigns of Austria, 
 Kussia, and Prussia met at Laybach, by adjournment 
 from Troppau, and revived the pretensions out of which 
 the revolutionary Avar of France ao^ainst the leagued 
 monarchs of Europe had sprung. The manifesto of the 
 Holy Alliance, in 1815, embodied the pretensions set 
 forth nearly a quarter of a century before in the Duke 
 of Brunswick's proclamation of 1792, and reasserted in 
 the circular which the allied sovereigns issued from 
 Laybach in 1821 to their representatives at the various 
 foreign courts. In this document they declared that 
 '• nseful and necessary changes in legislation and in the 
 administration of states could only emanate from the 
 free will, and from the intelligent and well-weighed 
 convictions, of those whom God has made responsible 
 for power. Penetrated with this eternal truth, the 
 sovereigns have not hesitated to proclaim it with 
 frankness and vio-our. Thov have declared that, in 
 respecting the rights and independeuce of h^gitimate
 
 Leader and Foa'e/gn S/xketary 167 
 
 power, tlicy regarded us legally null, and disavowed by 
 the principles which constituted the public right of 
 Europe, all pretended reforms operated by revolt and 
 open hostilities.' These principles, stated nakedly and 
 without shame, were too much even for Lord Castle- 
 reagh. Tn a despatch, written early in the year 1821, 
 while admitting the rio-ht of a state to interfere 
 in the internal affairs of another state when its own 
 interests were endangered, he protested against the 
 pretension to put down revolutionary movements apart 
 from their immediate bearing on the security of the 
 state so intervening, and denied that merely pos- 
 sible revolutionary movements can properly be made 
 the basis of a hostile alliance. The principles of the 
 Holy Alliance were not intended to remain a dead 
 letter; they were promptly acted upon. Popular 
 movements were suppressed in Naples and Piedmont ; 
 and intervention in iSpain, where the Cortes had been 
 sunnnoned and the despotic rule of Ferdinand VII. 
 had been overthrown, was in contemplation. Greece 
 imitated the example set in the western peninsulas of 
 Europe. The Congress of Verona Avas summoned, and 
 Lord Castlereagh (now the Marquis of Londonderry) was 
 preparing to join it, when in an access of despondency, 
 the origin of which is variously explained, he took his 
 own life. In the interval between this terrible event and 
 his own appointment to the Foreign Office, in Septem- 
 ber 1822, Canning found occasion emphatically but 
 indirectly to contradict the doctrines of the Laybach 
 circular. Peferring to the struggles going on in some 
 Continental countries between the principles of mon- 
 archy and democracy, he exclaimed, ' In that struggle,
 
 1 68 George Canning 
 
 God be thanked, we have uot any part to take.' On 
 taking possession of the Foreign Office he found that 
 the instructions which Lord Londonderry, as Secre- 
 tary of State, had drawn up for Lord Londonderry 
 as plenipotentiary were such as he could adopt. Be- 
 lieving, perhaps, that the ' three gentlemen of Verona,' 
 as Brougham called the sovereigns of Austria, Russia, 
 and Prussia, would find a colleague more to their mind 
 in the Duke of Wellington than in himself, Canning 
 sent him to represent England in the Congress, and 
 transferred to him the instructions drawn np l)y 
 Londonderry. He had many difficulties with the Duke, 
 whose ideas of foreign policy were much narrower than 
 Canning's, but whose authority as the spokesman of 
 England was too great to be neglected. Londonderry's 
 instructions, interpreted by Londonderry and acted on 
 by him, would probably have proved in practice very 
 different from Londonderry's instructions interpreted by 
 Canning, even though it was the Duke of Wellington 
 who had to act on them. 
 
 The main topics of the Congress were four : (1) the 
 position of Greece, and the relations to Greece and to 
 each other of Russia and Turkey ; (2) the suppression 
 of the slave trade ; (3) the question of South American 
 independence J and (4) the revolution in Spain. 
 
 When a boy at Eton, Canning had written and 
 published in the ' Microcosm ' a poem on ' The Slavery 
 of Greece,' which anticipated the Byronic fervour of a 
 later day. It is not necessary to see in his mature 
 statesmanship a growth from this small seed. It is 
 impossible to argue from the boy to the man. Perceval, 
 when a law student in London, had spoken in the
 
 Leader and Foreign Secretary 169 
 
 debating societies of the day in favour of the cession 
 of Gibraltar to Spain, and of the disestabUslnnent of 
 tlio Church of England. Canning's sympathies were 
 with Greece, but he concurred in the refusal of the 
 Congress to grant her recognition and protection. The 
 maintenance of his doctrine of the non-interference of 
 foreign nations in the internal affairs of other states 
 was vital. If England interfered on the side of freedom, 
 on what pretext could slie deny the right of other states 
 to interfere in behalf of despotism, or, as they would 
 put it, order ? The suppression of the slave trade was 
 a measure in which Canning had always shown a 
 sincere interest from the time of his youthful conver- 
 sations with his West Indian friend Newton at Christ 
 Church, though he had early in his parliamentary 
 career made a speech, in which he said that if he 
 were a negro he should prefer slavery in the West 
 Indies to having his throat cut in Africa — as if that 
 were the alternative. He failed to get more than an 
 abstract adhesion to his views in the Congress. The 
 slave trade was carried on by Brazil and Portugal largely 
 under the French Hag. But his Most Christian J\fa- 
 jesty's representative was not disposed to take steps 
 for its suppression. Canning was not more fortunate 
 at Verona than he Avas four years later at Paris, when 
 he urged upon the Bishop of Hermopolis (Minister of 
 Worship) the desirability of obtaining a Papal Bull 
 against the slave trade. 'When, after describing its 
 anti-Christian character and all its horrors in practice 
 (most eloquently, as I flattered myself), I ended l)y 
 saying, " And it is now with Catholic countries only 
 that the shame and criminality of this monstrous traflic
 
 1^0 George Canning 
 
 rests," iny convert (as I hoped to lincl him) answered 
 with the greatest mildness and simplicity, " Apparem- 
 ment ils en ont plus de besoin."' ' On the subject of 
 South American independence, the Congress refused to 
 allow the rights of Spain to her colonies to be brought 
 into question, and the Duke of Wellington presented 
 a note, in which he recorded the fact that England had 
 recognised the de facto independence of the Spanish 
 colonies, and had entered into treaties with them. 
 
 As regards Spain herself, France succeeded in obtain- 
 ing the consent of the other Powers (England excepted) 
 to her intervention, in such time and manner as might 
 seem good to her, for the restoration of order and of 
 what was called legitimate government in that country. 
 Mr. Canning was forced to be content with limiting the 
 intervention to France, and with depriving it of the 
 sanction of a European mandate. He thus reduced it 
 to the level of a war between the two countries, 
 iniquitous on the part of the aggressor, but still not 
 sheltered by the doctrine of the general right of any 
 Holy Alliance or European concert to interpose in the 
 internal affairs of other nations. Mr. Canning pro- 
 tested only against the action of France. In his ' Poli- 
 tique de la Restauration,' M. Marccllus, who was at that 
 time Secretaiy to the French Embassy in London, says 
 that Canning was himself in favour of giving active 
 assistance to Spain, but that a decision of the Cabinet 
 in an opposite sense was carried against him by his 
 young rival, Mr. Peel. But there is a good deal of 
 imagination in M. Marcelluss recollections, personal 
 and political. 
 
 In the speech from the throne in January 1823,
 
 Leader and Foreign Secretary 17 i 
 
 Louis XVIII. announced to tlie Chambers the invasion 
 of Spain for the purpose of restoring the Crown to the 
 descendant of Henri IV. ; but hostilities, lie said, would 
 cease as soon as Ferdinand VII. should be free to give 
 to his people the institutions which they could not hold 
 except from him. Writing to our ambassador in Paris, 
 ]!ilr. Canning remonstrated against this doctrine as one 
 which no British statesman could hold, and which, in- 
 deed, struck at the root of the British Constitution. 
 The Spanish nation could not, lie urged, be expected to 
 submit to the doctrine that their free institutions de- 
 pended upon the will of the King, first restored to his 
 absolute power, and then voluntarily stripping himself 
 of a portion of it. 
 
 Mr. Canning's position with regard to Spain was 
 peculiar. Her friend in Europe, he was her enemy in 
 America. But' the principle which actuated him in 
 both cases was the same. The right of Spain to deter- 
 mine her own course could not consistently be denied 
 to the Spanish colonies, of which the mother country 
 had practically lost control. Challenged as to the resem- 
 blance between the French invasion of Spain and the 
 English war with revolutionary France, he denied that 
 there Avas any parallelism. England had made war 
 upon France, not because France had changed her in- 
 ternal institutions, but because she had broken treaties 
 and attacked the independence of other nations. 
 ' What country,' he asked, ' had Spain attempted to 
 seize or revolutionise ? ' On Kussia offering to France 
 to pi'otect her advance in Spain, by moving troops from 
 the Vistula to the Ehine, Canning announced that, 
 though neutral as between France and Spain, England
 
 172 George Canning 
 
 would see in the interference of other Powers reason 
 for making the cause of Spain her own. Eussia ab- 
 stained from the proposed action. The admission of 
 the jurisdiction of the Holy Alliance over Europe was 
 a course which he deemed it vital at almost any cost to 
 prevent. 'The time for Areopagus and the like of 
 that,' as he put it, ' has gone by.' ' What should we 
 have thought of interference from foreign Europe when 
 King John granted Magna Charta, or of an interposition 
 in the quarrel between Charles I. and his Parliament ? ' 
 The French intervention succeeded. Though Eng- 
 land would have had, if she deemed her interests suffi- 
 ciently involved, the right to interfere, the right was 
 not an obligation. The necessity did not exist. The 
 influence of France in Spain was not dangerous to 
 England. That influence extending across the Atlantic 
 might have been so. Mr. Canning, therefore, to use 
 his own historic phrase, made up his mind that if 
 France had Spain, it should not be the Spain of 
 which our ancestors had been in awe, it should not 
 be Spain with the Indies. He ' called the new world 
 into existence to redress the balance of the old.' 
 British consuls were despatched to the chief ports of 
 the Spanish- American colonies. Buenos Ayres was re- 
 cognised as an independent power. This first step in a 
 new policy shook the Cabinet and detached Lord Sid- 
 mouth from it. Lord Westmoreland was also trouble- 
 some"; a more important op]:)Osition was that of the 
 Duke of Wellington, whom Canning charged with secret 
 communications with the King and laying traps and 
 mines for him. The Duke afterwards boasted that he 
 had delayed the recognition of the South American
 
 Leader and Foreign Secretary 173 
 
 Republic for three years. The King was akirmed at 
 Canning's determination for 'Europe 'to read 'England," 
 at his denunciation of ' Areopagus and the like of that,' 
 at his refusal to admit the jurisdiction of a league of 
 despotic states, calling themselNcs ■ Europe,' ov^er inde- 
 pendent nations. In a paper which Canning circu- 
 lated among his colleagues lie illustrated the application 
 which might be made of this doctrine by quoting a pas- 
 sage from 'L'Etoile,' the organ of the ultra-Royalist party 
 in France. It began thus : ' La position de llrlande 
 interesse toute TEurope.' It went on to argue that 
 Catliolic Emancipation was necessary to the tranquillity 
 of Great Britain, and that the tranquillity of Great 
 Britain was necessary to the repose of France. Mr. 
 Canning pointed out to his colleagues that the lan- 
 guage used with respect to Ireland was ' identical with 
 that employed by France to justify the invasion, the 
 conquest, and now the retention of Spain. Naples, Pied- 
 mont, Spain, Ireland — who shall draw the line, if the 
 principle of European questions be once admitted?' 
 
 The recognition of the independence of Mexico and 
 of Colombia followed that of Buenos Ayres. Though 
 the King assented to these measures, he did so with an 
 uneasy mind. The Duke of AVellington was not the 
 only person who laid ' plots and mines ' for Canning. 
 In a letter, dated January 28, ] 825, to the Duke of 
 Buckingham, ]\Ir. Charles Wynn (then a Cabinet 
 Minister) says that foreign influence has been at work 
 with a view of breaking up the Government, but that 
 the unanimity of J\Iinisters is such that the ' chief 
 mover of the discord " must fail. The foreign influence 
 was apparently that of Prince Esterhazy, who was an
 
 174 George Canning 
 
 intimate of the King's, and one of the coterie of tlie royal 
 cottage at Windsor, as well as Austrian Ambassador. The 
 mover of discord was probably the King himself. He 
 drew up a minute for submission to the Cabinet, complain- 
 ing that their action in regard to the Spanish- American 
 colonies was precisely analogous to that of France in 
 aiding the revolt of the British-American colonies. 
 The Government, he said, were deserting the principles 
 of Mr. I*itt in concert with the Opposition, who were 
 animated by their love of democracy as opposed to a 
 monarchical aristocracy. ' The Jacobins of the world,' 
 said the King, ' calling themselves Liberals,' were 
 anxious to disturb the understanding on which the 
 C[uadruple alliance was based. ' Tiie King desires there- 
 fore distinctly to know from his Cabinet individually 
 (seriatwi) whether the great principles of policy esta- 
 blished by his Government in the years 181 4, ISIS, 
 and 1818 are or are not to be abandoned.' 
 
 The Cabinet saw in this demand for separate replies 
 from each member of it an attempt on the part of the 
 King to invade the principle of collective Ministerial 
 responsibility, and returned a joint answer. They 
 pointed out that as early as 1815 the dissent of his 
 Majesty's Government from the views of the Allies as to' 
 their engagements for the maintenance of the peace of 
 Europe had been recorded ; that in 1818, at the con- 
 ference of Aix-la-Chapelle, that divergence had been 
 still more emphatically marked ; and that later a cir- 
 cular of Lord Londonderry's had further dwelt on this 
 divergence. In the sense involved in these qualifications, 
 and in no other, they adhered to the principles of policy 
 laid clown in 1814, 1815, mul 1818. The King accepted
 
 Leader and Foreign Secretary 175 
 
 this explanation subject to the condition that ' the 
 system of confidence and reciprocal communication with 
 his allies be fully and faithfully carried out.' Canning 
 took fire at the words ' fully and faithfully,' regarding 
 them as an imputation upon his honour as the Minister 
 charged with the administration of foreign affairs. It 
 his Majesty suspected his good faith he must ask to be 
 relieved of his office. As to fulness of communication, 
 that is a matter of discrimination, involving respect for 
 the secrets of other Powers. Under a system of respon- 
 sible government such as exists in Eno-land, such com- 
 munications almost inevitably become public, and give 
 rise to parliamentary discussions, and a reserve is 
 therefore necessary of which the Government only can 
 be the judge, and which no foreign Power can ap- 
 preciate. 
 
 Canning's reference here was to the intrigues which 
 
 he believed that Metternich, 'the greatest r and the 
 
 greatest 1 on the Continent, perhaps in the civilised 
 
 world, has been for a twelvemonth carrying on with 
 
 the Court through Madame de (Lieven ?), to 
 
 change the policy of the Government by changing me — 
 
 " j;our fah'G sauter M. C ," as they frankly jjut it.' 
 
 The King lived in the Cottage at Windsor in the society 
 of the Austrian and Russian Ambassadors (Prince 
 Esterhazy and Count Lieven), and Sir William 
 Knighton, the King's privy purse, was an active member 
 of the coterie. Canning let it be known that, if these 
 intrigues were persisted in, he would take means of 
 putting the House of Commons and the public in pos- 
 session of the secret. I'rivate communication by 
 Foreign Ministers with tlic King of England was, lie
 
 iy6 ' George Canning 
 
 declared, wliolly at variance with the spirit and practice 
 of the British Constitution. Tlie practice liad been 
 allowed lor tlie first time by his predecessor (Castlereagh), 
 but it would not stand the test of parliamentary dis- 
 cussion. It was, strictly speaking, his duty to be present 
 at e\ery interview between the King- and a foreign 
 representative, and though he would not insist on this, 
 he would take effectual means for putting a stop to 
 Metternich's manoeuvres. 
 
 These suspicions and intentions were made known 
 to Lord Granville, then English Ambassador at Paris, 
 with the certainty that they would reach Metternich 
 and the King, which they did. Knighton was sent on 
 a message of apology and reconciliation to Canning, 
 who was then confined to his bed by illness, Knighton, 
 formerly a physician, probably carried the talent of 
 society and the arts of personal management to a 
 greater perfection than anyone has done in England 
 since his time. There are lion-tamers and serpent- 
 charmers who can reduce to harmlessncss creatures 
 whom others cannot approach. Knighton was a king- 
 tamer and charmer, and could bring George IV. to reason 
 when no one else could. The gossipings of the Cottage, 
 Knighton said, were of no importance. They seldom 
 touched on serious politics, though, no doubt, Esterhazy 
 and Lieven might instil some thoughts into the Kino-'s 
 mind. But the King had no power of making society 
 for himself, and he liked their society better than any 
 otlier. The King was indisposed to business, and when 
 Knighton urged it on him there were often very painful 
 scenes. ' He is uncertain,' said Knighton ; 'the creature 
 of impulse. When he has got a notion into his head there
 
 Leader and Foreign Secri-iarv 177 
 
 is no eratliciiliiig it; uiid 1 have known iLiui, when 
 agitated and perfectly fasting, talk himself into as com- 
 plete a state of intoxication as if he had been dining 
 and drinking largely.' But he was now absolutely con- 
 tent with Canning. Knighton had never known him 
 so comfortable and happy, reconciled even to the Span- 
 ish-American recognition. Canning, from whoso nar- 
 rative to Stapleton these details are taken, said that ' it 
 was his object to make the King comfortable and happy 
 by placing him at the head of Europe, instead of being- 
 reckoned fifth in a great confederacy.' But the King, 
 lie said, owed the satisfactory position in which he found 
 himself not to Canning and to Liverpool only, but to the 
 extraordinary efficiency with which Peel, Robinson, and 
 Huskisson filled the great offices of state with which they 
 were charged. Of Peel in particular he spoke as the best 
 Home Secretary this country had ever had, and the most 
 able and honest Minister. The change in Esterhazy 
 was not less. When, towards the close of the year, he 
 bade farewell to the King upon his departure to take up 
 the Austrian Embassy at Paris, Canning was present, 
 and the royal and diplomatic intriguers vied in repentant 
 eulogies upon his success as Foreign Minister. The 
 King was especially pleased with the proposal of Bolivar 
 to make him arbitrator in a dispute between Brazil and 
 Colombia. He took it as a sign of liis weight in the 
 councils of South America. ' When we see our way,' 
 he said, ' and can employ our influence, we can do 
 anything.' ' Qui est-ce ' (turning to Esterhazy) ' qui 
 pourrait faire ce que nous venons d'accomplir au Bresil ? ' 
 Next to the rcocue of the South American States, 
 Canning desired to relieve Greece from Turkish domi- 
 
 N
 
 178 George Canning 
 
 nation, and to prepare the way for the recognition of 
 her independence, of which, however, his premature 
 death prevented his seeing the accomplishment. He 
 died some months before Navarino. A conference was 
 held at St. Petersburg in 1825, in which Canning 
 declined to allow England to take a part, thinking that 
 the despotic Powers, who might otherwise quarrel among 
 themselves, would be united in common antagonism to 
 the liberal policy of England. The Porte refused the 
 offer of mediation, and France, Austria, and Prussia 
 declined to join in measures of coercion. What the 
 Emperor of Eussia desired was that he should be 
 authorised by the Holy Alliance to intervene in the 
 Greek insurrection as France had intervened in Spain, 
 in the hope that he would thus find his way to Con- 
 stantinoi^le. But he did not venture to act alone. 
 ' '' Silly Mr. Tomkins," as I heard one of the Lyttelton 
 girls singing the other night,' writes Canning ; ' silly, 
 if he accepts the rebuff of the Porte, sillier if he allows 
 Austria's threats to prevent his making war. Yet the 
 risk was too great with Austria and France protesting, 
 and England looking on. My reflections come back, 
 therefore, like Miss Lyttelton's song, to " silly Mr. 
 Tomkins." Metternich has, therefore, to thank his own 
 finesse if he, and not I, is the cruel Polly Hopkins who 
 steps in between Mr. T. and his desires.' 
 
 Before the year was at an end ' silly Mr. Tomkins' had 
 been succeeded on the throne by his brother Nicholas. 
 In the divergence between Russia and the other Powers 
 Canning thought he saw a chance of coming to an under- 
 standing with the new Czar. He hoped, as he put it, 
 to be able to save Greece through the agency of the
 
 Leader and Foreign SecrETArV i^g 
 
 Russian name upon the fears of Turkey. He proposed 
 to the King to send tlie Duke of Wellington to St. 
 Petersburg, as the fittest man to deprecate war. The 
 ostensible object of the mission was to convey the King's 
 congratulations to the new Emperor on his accession. 
 The King thought the Duke would object on the ground 
 of his health; but, says Canning, he 'jumped, as I 
 foresaw that he would, at the proposal.' ' Never better 
 in my life ; ready to set out in a week.' The Duke was 
 always sensitive to the imputation of illness, and to the 
 day of his death was never better in his life. There were 
 difficulties, however, in the way of an understanding 
 with Russia. To the Emperor Nicholas, at this time, 
 the Greeks were rather rebels to be put down than co- 
 religionists to be relieved from Mohammedan domina- 
 tion. The personal relations between Canning and the 
 Duke of Wellington had never been satisfactory. There 
 were reciprocal complaints of want of direct and prompt 
 communication. The negotiations dragged on, but in 
 the end a protocol between England and Russia was 
 signed, to which the adhesion of the other Powers was 
 solicited, and by which it was arranged that Greece 
 should be converted into what is now called an autono- 
 mous vassal state, paying tribute to the Turkish Empire, 
 but governed by native authorities, and enjoying free- 
 dom of commerce and conscience. In 1827 the protocol 
 was converted into the treaty to which France becam-e 
 a party. Mr. Canning's last act, though he was then 
 Prime Minister and not Foreign Minister, Lord Dudley 
 and Ward having succeeded him in the latter office, 
 was to take part in the joint declaration of the three 
 Powers calling upon the Porte to enter into an armistice 
 
 » 2
 
 iCo George Canking 
 
 with Greece with a view to negotiations for a peace, and 
 threatening to impose the armistice by force if it were 
 not voluntarily adopted. The Greeks accepted the 
 armistice, Turkey refused it. The battle of Navarino 
 followed. It was fought in October, 1827. Canning 
 had died in the August before. Three years after his 
 death the complete independence of Greece v/as recog- 
 nised in the Treaty of London. 
 
 By old treaties frequently renewed, a defensive 
 and offensive alliance existed between England and 
 Portugal. In 1826 it fell to Mr. Canning to give 
 effect to it. In that year Doni Pedro, Emperor of 
 Brazil and King of Poi'tugal, renounced his European 
 kingdom for his American empire. He granted a con- 
 stitution to Portugal, and abdicated in favour of his 
 infant daughter, Donna Maria da Gloria, the regency 
 being conferred upon her aunt, the Infanta Isabella. 
 Dom Miguel, the younger brother of Dom Pedro, claimed 
 the throne, and, instigated by France, began civil war in 
 Portugal. The Portuguese regiments in his interest 
 deserted into Spain. Instead of being disarmed and 
 interned they were equipped there, and from Spanish 
 territory allowed to organise an invasion of and war in 
 Portugal. The Princess Regent claimed, under the 
 treaties, the aid of England against this aggression. 
 Mr. Canning considered that the casus ficdcris had 
 arisen. On December 11, 1826, a royal message was 
 brought down to Parliament announcing the King's 
 compliance wdtli this demand. Complaint was made 
 that action had been delayed. ' But how,' said Canning, 
 ' stands the fact ? On Sunday, DeceuibL-r o. the Por- 
 tuguese ambassador made a formal demand of assistance
 
 Leader and Foreign Secretary i8i 
 
 ngainst a hostile aggression from Spain. Our answer 
 was tliat, though we had heard rumours to tliat effect, 
 we had not yet received such precise information as 
 justified us in applying to Parliament. It was only on 
 Friday that that information arrived. On Saturday 
 his Majesty's confidential servants came to a decision. 
 On Sunday that decision received the sanction of his 
 Majesty. On Monday it was communicated to the 
 Houses of Parliament : and to-dav, at the hour at w'lich 
 I have the honour of addressing you, the troops of 
 Great Britain are on their march for embarkment.' 
 Recalling to the recollection of the House the prediction 
 which he had made some years ago, that the next war 
 in pAirope would be a war of opinions, Canning added 
 that England did not go to Portugal to take part in a 
 war of opinions. ' We go to Portugal not to rule, not 
 to dictate, not to prescribe constitutions, but to defend 
 and preserve the independence of an ally. We go to 
 plant the standard of England on the well-known 
 lu'ights of Lisbon. Where that standard is planted 
 foreign dominion shall not come.' On Christmas Day, 
 in 1826, the British forces landed in Lisbon. Hos- 
 tilities at once ceased. In eighteen months the troops 
 returned to England without having fired a shot. 
 
 Next to the King and the Continental gossips of the 
 Cottage, Canning found the main obstacle to his foreign 
 policy in the Duke of Wellington. He visited Paris 
 in the autumn of 1826 and dined with Charles X. 
 The Duke of Wellington, he said, was very angry at 
 his going there, and two years ago had interfered with 
 the King to prevent his doing so. ' But I suppose,' lie 
 wrote to Liverpool, October 16, ' he felt that, after he
 
 1 82 George Canning 
 
 himself had been here in the interval, and after West- 
 moreland had been preaching here his ultra-philo 
 Turkish principles, I was not likely to be again turned 
 from my purpose.' On the Portuguese business, he 
 complains of the Duke of Wellington's partiality for 
 Spain and his hatred of Liberal institutions, which 
 appear to have led him to incline to Dom Miguel's side. 
 He speaks of unreasonable remonstrances on the Duke's 
 part about the delay of despatches, and adds : — 
 
 But there is no use discussing these bye questions. 
 There is something else — though I protest I know not 
 what— at the bottom of the D. of W.'s present temper. His 
 extraordinary fretfulness upon this matter, his repeated 
 references and those of his alentours to the approach of 
 critical times, and other language which I know that both 
 he and the Chancellor have held very lately about the state 
 of the Government, satisfy mo that there is a looking 
 forward to some convulsion in the Government ; not wholly 
 unmixed, perhaps, with some intention of bringing it on. 
 Beit so; I confess I have no idea how the Government will 
 be carried on in the House of Commons in the sense in 
 which it has been carried on in the last three years, with 
 the whole patronage of the law, the greater part of the 
 Church, and all the army in the Chancellor's and the D. of 
 W.'s hands.
 
 1^3 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 CANNING PRIME MINISTER. 
 
 The convulsion in tlie Government was not brought 
 on in the manner which Canning anticipated. Lord 
 Liverpool had for some time been ailing, and in the 
 beginning of the year 1827 was in Bath, promising 
 himself, hoAvever, ten years of enjoyable life if he could 
 get clear of office. Canning visited him there in 
 January, he too carrying with him the seeds of the 
 malady which was destined before the year was 
 over to prove fatal to him. He came straio-ht from 
 the funeral of the Duke of York, which had taken 
 place in St. George's Chapel, Windsor. The night was 
 bitterly cold, and Canning never recovered from the 
 effects of the exposure. He found Lord Liverpool 
 better, and no longer talking of resignation. The two 
 men, comrades at Christ Church and rival orators of 
 the Speaking Society, amused themselves and Stapleton, 
 who accompanied Canning, by telling stories of their 
 early years. From Bath, Canning went to Eartham, 
 to see Huskisson. AVliile he was there his cold became 
 worse, and he spent one day in bed. He then went 
 to Brighton, where he had taken a liouse, and wdiere 
 he was attacked hv inflainniatidu <A' the muscles and
 
 1 84 George Canning 
 
 brow ague — the former subdued by bleeding. He was 
 too ill to write himself, and Stapleton sent daily 
 bulletins of his health to Lord Liverpool. Lord Liver- 
 pool had sufficiently recovered to return to London. 
 On February 16 he took part in the business of the 
 House of Lords. Oji February 17 he was found hnng 
 senseless on the floor of his bedroom, with an open 
 letter in his hand. It was from Stapleton, giving a 
 somewhat unfavourable account of Canning's health. 
 '^I'lie next day l^ldon recorded the following business- 
 like reflection: 'His life is very uncertain, and it is 
 quite certain that as an official man he is no more. 
 Heaven knows who v^'ill be his successor.' Liverpool 
 remained for five daj^s unconscious. On his revival, 
 the first word he uttered Avas St;ipleton's name. 
 
 Peel wrote to Canniny, informingf him of what had 
 happened, and cani.^ himself to P)righton. The two 
 Ministers agreed that it would be improper to assume 
 an unfavourable termination to Liverpool's illness, or to 
 raise any question as to his successor. On February 22 
 Canning had sufficiently recovered to have an interview 
 at the Royal Pavilion with the King, who concurred in 
 holding the question of the Ministerial succession, which 
 so puzzled Eldon, in abeyance. It soon became ap- 
 pai'ent, however, that Eldon was right, and that as an 
 official man Lord Liverpool was no more. 
 
 Now began the intrigues against Canning. The 
 Duke of Newcastle, availing himself of his right as a 
 peer to have an audience of the King, declared that he 
 Avould withdraw his support from the Government if 
 Cannino- were named l-'irst Afinister. On IMarch 27 
 Canning was sent for to the Royal Lodge. The King
 
 Canning Prime Minister 185 
 
 franlcly stated his objoctions to tlie appointment of a 
 ' Catliolio (pro-Catholic) Prime Minister.' Canning 
 advised the. King to appoint a Government consisting 
 oxchisivcly of men holding Ihe King's views on tlio 
 Catliolic question, and, in order to facilitate this ar- 
 rangement, offered to resign office. To this the King 
 strongly demurred. He approved of his foreign polic)'', 
 which had placed England in a position such as she 
 had never occupied before. 
 
 Canning, however, was firm. He could not, he said, 
 admit in his own person the principle that the holding 
 of pro-Catholic opinions was a proper ground of exclu- 
 sion from the highest office in the State. ' He felt 
 bound honestly to tell his INfajesty in plain terms that 
 the substantive power of a Prime Minister he must 
 have, and, what is more, must be known to have, or 
 he must beg leave to be allowed to retire from a situa- 
 tion which he could no longer fill with satisfaction to 
 himself and benefit to his Majesty's service.' The King 
 strove for some time to keep Canning, without con- 
 sfMitinef to Cannino-'s terms. He had recourse to the ex- 
 pedient which he had adopted on the death of Perceval, 
 and expressed, in a written minute entrusted to Canning-, 
 his desire that the Ministers would choose in succession 
 to Lord Liverpool some peer holding Lord Liverpool's 
 opinions, under whom they could consent to serve. 
 Before the Cabinet could be called to consider this 
 memorandum. Peel, at the instance of the King, sug- 
 gested to Canning the inexpediency of its being sub- 
 mitted to them, and it was withheld. Matters dragged 
 on. Canninp- for some davs had no further communi- 
 cation with the King, but had many conversations with
 
 1 86 George Canning 
 
 Wellington and Peel. Canning proposed an arrange- 
 ment identical, save for the fact that he sat in the 
 House of Commons, with that to which Lord Salisbury- 
 gave effect in 1885. He suggested that Mr. Frederick 
 Robinson should be raised to. the peerage with the 
 ofl&ce of First Lord of the Treasury, Canning retaining 
 the Foreign Office, but with the rank of Prime Minister. 
 As Robinson, like Canning, was a pro-Catholic as well 
 as a strong Canningite, and as Canning was still to be 
 First Minister, this overture did not offer the basis of 
 an accommodation with the anti-Catholics who were 
 also anti-Canningites. Peel, whom Canning suspected 
 of acting in concert with the Duke of Wellinorton in 
 this matter, proposed that Canning should name the 
 Duke. Canning refused. He could not serve under 
 the Duke, who was not only an opponent of Catholic 
 concessions, but was the antagonist, open or secret, 
 of Canning's foreign policy. He also took the rather 
 claptrap ground of hostility to a military Premier. The 
 Duke of Wellington in politics was as much of a civilian 
 as Canning or Peel. This was on April 9. Canning's 
 refusal must have been at once communicated to the 
 King, who now surrendered. On the next day, April 10, 
 Canning received the royal command to prepare, with 
 as little delay as possible, a plan for the reconstruction 
 of the Administration. 
 
 The reconstruction of the Administration turned 
 out practically to be the formation of a new one. 
 I'lie excitement of feeling was intense. ' The whole 
 conversation,' wrote Lord Elclon, ' of this town is made 
 \x\s of abusive, bitterly almsive talk of people about each 
 otlier — all fire and flame. I have known nothing like it.'
 
 Canning Prime Minister 187 
 
 Six of Cannino-'s colleasfnes in the Cabinet met his 
 overtures by resignation. Peel's refusal was based on 
 his personal position as regards Catholic Emancipation. 
 For eleven years, he said, he had been a member of 
 Lord Liv^erpool's Administration in offices which 
 brought him in direct connection with Irish business. 
 He had been six years Irish Secretary and five years 
 Home Secretary. His personal opposition to the Catholic 
 claims had been made more prominent by the fact that 
 he was the only member of the Cabinet in the House 
 of Commons who resisted them. But then he had the 
 support of the Prime Minister, who was of his way of 
 thinking. With Canning at the head of the Govern- 
 ment his position would be seriously altered. Peel, it 
 is curious now to note, feared that Roman Catholic 
 emancipation might lead to the disestablishment of the 
 Church and the repeal of the Union. But he did not 
 believe in governing against Parliamentary and public 
 opinion. In 1825, when Burdett carried a resolution 
 in favour of emancipation, he thought emancipation 
 could not be withheld. In 1827, when the majority 
 was the other way, he believed it might still be refused, 
 and he declined to join Canning. In 1829, he felt 
 that the concession must be made. To him the art of 
 government was the measurement of social forces, and 
 the adaptation of policy to their direction and intensity. 
 When it was clear to him that a thino' must be done, 
 and that his help was essential to the doing of it, 
 his duty was plainly marked out. His casuistry may 
 have been faulty, but there is no reason to doubt his 
 purity and uprightness. Bt^sides Peel, five other mem- 
 bers of the Liverpool Cabinet retired — the Duke
 
 I.S8 George Canning 
 
 of Wellington, Mnster- General of the Ordnance, Lord 
 Chancellor Eklon, Lord Westmoreland (the Sot Prive), 
 Lord Bathnrst (War and Colonial Secretary), and Lord 
 Bexley (formerly Vansittart), who had exchanged the 
 Chancellorship of tlie Exchequer for a peerage and the 
 Duchy of Lancaster. Bexley afterwards withdrew his 
 resignation, but the balance was kept even by Lord 
 Tli'lville's — not, of course, Pitt's Dundas — retirement 
 iVoiii the Adiniralty. Canning regarded these desertions 
 as lata! to his chance of forming an Administration, and 
 waited upon the King to renounce the commission en- 
 trusted to him. The King, however, urged him to perse- 
 vere ; and, before leaving him. Canning kissed hands as 
 First Lord of the Treasury. On April 12 a new writ was 
 moved for the borough of Newport — which had chosen 
 him in the elections of 1826 — vacated by his accept- 
 ance of office. The House adjourned until May 1. 
 AVhen it met again the new Ministry was completed. 
 ]\Ii-. Canning united the offices of First Lord of the 
 Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer ; Sir John 
 Copley, under the title of Lord Lyndhurst, succeeded 
 liOT'd Eklon as Lord Chancellor ; the Duke of Portland 
 (wliose place was afterwards taken by the Earl of Car- 
 li^lc) became Lord Privy Seal, in succession to the 
 ' glutinously adhesive' Westmoreland (now degomme); 
 Juv. Sturges Bourne became Home Secretary in the 
 place of Peel, and was himself succeeded presently 
 l)y the Marquis of Lansdowne, the 'little Petty' of 
 Canning's early satire ; Lord Dudley and Ward took 
 Canning's old post of Foreign Secretary ; Mr. Frede- 
 rick Robinson, Chancellor of the ]<]xchequer in the 
 late Liverpool Administration, now raised to the peer-
 
 Canning Prime Minister I09 
 
 age as Viscount Godcrich, succeeded Lord l>;i! hurst as 
 War and Colonial Minister ; and the Earl of Carlisle 
 became First Commissioner of Woods and Forests, 
 an office in which he was succeeded by Mr. Sturges 
 Bourne when Lord Carlisle took the Privy Seal and 
 Lord Lansdowne the Home Office. Canning prudently 
 strengthened himself at Court by taking the Admiraliy 
 out of Commission, and appointing the Dul.c of Cla- 
 rence Lord High Admiral. Overtures were mrxle to the 
 Duke of Wellington to retain, without a seat in the 
 Cabinet, and therefore without giving in his political 
 adhesion to the Government, the office of Commander- 
 in-Chief, which he had held in conjunction with the 
 Master-Generalship of the Ordnance. But he refused 
 even this neutral support. In the earlier negotiations 
 and correspondence he had accused Canning of failure 
 in personal courtesy towards him. To him Canning 
 was a ' charlatan.' Their secret antagonism now be- 
 came pronounced alienation. They never saw each 
 other after the Duke's resignation. The part taken by 
 Wellington in all this business is by no means clear. 
 Though disclaiming it strongly, he seems to have been 
 attracted by the notion of being Prime Llinister. He 
 denied concert in Peel's suggestion, but not knowledge 
 of it. But the King Avould not hear of Canning's 
 leaving the Government, and Canning was resolved 
 to have the first place in it, or to be out of it alto- 
 gether. 
 
 The Ministry now formed was practically a Liberal 
 one. In the Tory party, as it was reconstructed by 
 the younger Pitt, there had always been an element of 
 Liberalism derived by Pitt himself on the one hand
 
 190 George Canning 
 
 from the economic and philosophic Eadicalism of Shel- 
 burne, under whom he entered official life, or rather 
 from Adam Smith, the common teacher of both, and on 
 the other from the bold and generous foreign policy 
 of Chatham. In Canning the spirit of Chatham re- 
 vived; Huskisson, liis most intimate personal friend 
 and official and parliamentary colleague, and Robinson 
 more directly embodied the economic Liberalism of 
 Shclburne. But Canning, though commercial and 
 fiscal subjects were not so familiar to him as foreign 
 questions, correctly apprehended them. This his 
 celebrated speech on the Bullion Committee and his 
 speeches on the Corn Laws sufficiently showed. Free 
 Trade was then in the reciprocity stage, and this is the 
 despatch in cypher with which Canning puzzled Sir 
 Charles Bagot, then Minister at the Hague : — 
 
 In matters of commerce the fault of the Dutch 
 Is giving too little and asking too much ; 
 With equal advantage the French are content, 
 So we'll clap on Dutch bottoms a twenty per cent. 
 
 Twenty per cent., 
 
 Twenty per cent., 
 Nous frapperons Falck with twenty per cent. 
 
 Mr. Brougham, Sir Francis Burdett, and Mr. 
 Tierney, who afterwards became Master of the Mint in 
 Canning's Ministry, and others took their seats behind 
 the new Ministers on their reappearance in Parliament. 
 In the House of Lords, Lord Lansdowne, the son of 
 Shelburne, and Lord Holland, the nephew of Charles 
 James Fox, exhibited similar correctness of insight 
 and largeness of view. There was one remarkable ex- 
 ception to the generous confidence which the AVliigs,
 
 Canning Prime Minister 191 
 
 as a rule, were disposed to place in Mr. Canning. Lord 
 Grey showed himself incapable of even a magnanimous 
 forbearance. Possibly he had derived from association 
 with the Grenvilles the distrust and dislike with which 
 the brotherhood were inspired towards Mr. Canning. 
 His haughty and arrogant scorn and the vivacious 
 and piercing contempt of Mr. Canning sharpened 
 this animosity. Grev lost no time in makino- a 
 bitter attack on the new Minister, whose foreig-n 
 policy he assailed — that, however, defended itself in 
 the changed aspect of Europe — and whom he charged 
 with betraying the Roman Catholics and his own 
 honour in giving an unconstitutional pledge to the 
 King not to bring forward the question of Roman 
 Catholic Emancipation. It seems probable, from pas- 
 sages in the Duke of Buckingham's ' Memoirs of the 
 Court of George IV.,' that the King amused himself by 
 telling lies on this subject, which Lord Grey believed. 
 But apart from the letters of Canning and the King, 
 which refute the royal story, the anti-Catholic secession 
 of Peel, Wellington and the rest, and the whole history 
 of the formation of Mr. Canning's Ministry contradict it. 
 Canning was cut to the quick, and at one time thought 
 of taking a peerage, in order that he might answer 
 Lord Grey in person. He actually prepared the speech 
 which he intended to deliver, and recited it to Mrs. 
 Canning, who told Greville of the circumstance, adding 
 that she thought Grey's attack had hastened her hus- 
 band's death. The Ministry was weak in the Lords. 
 Lord Goderich, who when he was in the House of 
 Commons some competent if prejudiced and eccentric 
 observers had counted the superior of Canning aiid
 
 19.2 George Caxxing 
 
 Peel, had not the corn-age to face Grey and Wellington. 
 In Lord Dudley, the Aniiel of politics, great capacity 
 and some ambition were paralysed by a disabling 
 critical fastidiousness. The silver voice and brazen 
 front of Lyndhurst strengthened the debating power 
 of the Ministry in the Lords without adding to its moral 
 weight. In the House of Commons Canning was teased 
 by the pertinacious hostility of the ' yelpers,' as they 
 were called, who barked out coarse insinuations against 
 liim in question and taunt. 
 
 Canning's health was evidently shattered, his nerves 
 worn, and his temper embittered. The prize for which 
 he had striven so long, and w^hich had so long eluded 
 his grasp, which he had thought to be within his reach 
 twenty years ago, but in the attempt to seize which he 
 had been baffled and driven into isolation, and, so far as 
 was possible to his shining qualities, into obscurity, was 
 now his. But fame was a sucked orange. The great 
 Foreign Minister had no opportunity of proving him- 
 self a great First Minister. Parliament rose early in 
 July. It was hoped that a long recess would revive 
 the flagging spirits and restore the waning strength of 
 the Prime Minister. He had never recovered entirely 
 from the cold which he had caught in January at the 
 Duke of York's funeral. lie increased it by sitting 
 under a tree in the open air at Wimbledon (July 10), 
 where he had dined with Lord Lyndhurst. Ten days 
 later, in reply to a letter from the King, inquiring as to 
 his recover}' from ' the odious lumbago,' Canning says 
 that he has ' happily left his bed for the first time 
 to-day ' (July 20), ' and is ordered to go to Chiswick, 
 which the Duke of Devonshire has kindK- lent him.
 
 Canning Prime Minister 193 
 
 After a few clays of quiet there he will, with your 
 JNIajesty's kind permission, pay his respects to your 
 Majesty.' Canning visited the King on July 31, and 
 transacted business in Downing Street. The next day 
 he returned to Chiswick, which he never leffc alive. 
 ' Canning,' writes Croker to Lord Hertford, ' looks ill, 
 but his intimates say he is only tired. The Duke of 
 Devonshire has lent him Chiswick, as his father did to 
 Mr. Fox. I hope it may not be an omen.' Canning 
 occupied the room in which Fox had died — ' a small 
 low chamber, once a nursery, dark, and opening into 
 a wing of the building, which gives it the appearance 
 of an opening into a courtyard.' He told Croker that 
 he had not had one day's health since the beginning of 
 the year. ' He ate and drank too heartily,' says Croker, 
 prosaically. But even this habit will not wholly account 
 for the melancholy which, according to Croker himself, 
 was stamped upon Canning's face at this time. Staple- 
 ton says he had suffered paroxysms of pain at Brighton 
 earlier in the year. Formerly he had been able to 
 throw aside everything that harassed him as soon as his 
 head was on his pillow. Now his nights were wakeful. 
 He was, almost literally, worn and stung to death. 
 Sensitive to the paltriest newspaper paragraph, the 
 attacks of Wellington and Grey and the barkings of 
 the yelpers fretted him beyond endurance. Even at an 
 eai^ier period, according to M. Marcellus, he had fore- 
 boded for himself the fate of Castlereagh. But the 
 Canning of Marcellus is evidently a fancy sketch rather 
 than an historic portrait — a Canning after the likeness 
 of Canning's friend and rival in European politics, 
 Chateaubriand. 
 
 o
 
 194 George Canning 
 
 CHAPTER XXn. 
 
 DEATH OF CANNING. 
 
 During tlie earlier days of his illness he made an efforl 
 to attend to business, but his mind every now and then 
 wandered. Of this he was apparently conscious. He 
 had written a paper on the affairs of Portugal, which, 
 says Croker, he told Stapleton to take to Goderich 
 and Roljinson (Robinson was Goderich), and to desire 
 them to cut it up and not to spare it. This he asked 
 Stapleton to Avrite down, that there might be no 
 mistake. On Stapleton's reading out the words : ' Send 
 this paper to Goderich and Robinson,' Canning said : 
 ' Goderich and Dudley. Now you see how necessary- 
 it was to make you write it down; you would else have 
 thought I was talking nonsense.' Next day he walked 
 about the room and refused to be helped into bed. 
 ' No, no,' he said, ' not so bad as that. I think I can 
 do that without help.' He seemed encouraged by 
 this achievement, and when he had got into bed he 
 said gaily, ' Well, I feel that if I can get through 
 to-day I shall do.' Later in the day this hopeful 
 feeling gave way. He told Sir ]Matthew Tierney, whom 
 Knighton had sent to him, distrusting the old navy 
 surgeon whom Canning had chosen as his medical 
 attendant, that 'he had struggled with tl'e disease for
 
 Death of Caxxixg 195 
 
 a long wliile, but that now he felt tliat it had quite 
 mastered him.' 
 
 On August 4 it became evident tliat tlio worst was 
 to be feared, and Stapleton, who was witli liiui, was 
 asked whether there was anytliing in liis public or 
 private affairs which might make it desirable to warn 
 him of his danger. Receiving a negative answer, his 
 physicians thought it advisable not to disturb him. 
 The next day he asked his daughter to read prayers 
 to him ; ' but he began to wander, and it was not 
 done.' Later on, being asked whether he felt better, 
 he replied, ' Yes, a little ; but if all the pain which 1 
 have suffered throughout my life were collected to- 
 gether it would not amount to the one-hundredth part 
 of the pain I have suffered during the last three days.' 
 He then wandered and dozed. ' When the physicians 
 saw him this evening (Stapleton records) he was in 
 pain, and exclaimed, "My God! my God!" Dr. Farre 
 observed, "You do right, sir, to call upon your God. I 
 hope you pray to Him." "I do, I do," was his answer. 
 " And you ask," added the doctor, " for mercy and sal- 
 vation through the merits of your Redeemer?" "Yes," 
 he replied, "I do, through the merits of Jesus Christ." 
 In the course of the evening he said to Sir William 
 Knighton, whom the King had sent to see him, " This 
 may be hard upon me, but it is harder upon the King." ' 
 On the 7th there was a rally, followed by a relapse. 
 The next day the end came. Stapleton went into his 
 bedroom early and found him unconscious. ' Sir M. 
 Tierney felt his pulse, thought for a second that he 
 was gone, but he still breathed. In a few minutes 
 there ceased to 1m" any signs of breathing. He passed 
 
 o 2
 
 i(j6 George Canning 
 
 away so quietly that the exact moment could not be 
 ascertained, but it was between twelve and ten minutes 
 before four.' 
 
 Even at this hour, before daybreak, a vast crowd of 
 three or four thousand persons was assembled outside 
 the Lodge at Chiswick, waiting for the tidings of life 
 or death. More numerous still was the concourse which 
 lined the streets as the statesman's body was borne in 
 a funeral which, though intended to be private, was 
 followed by princes and ambassadors and members of 
 both Houses of Parliament, to Westminster Abbev, 
 where a statue by Chantrey commemorates him, on the 
 back of 'ss'hich the words, ' Thus Canning stood,' are 
 inscribed. Another statue, which was formerly placed 
 in New Palace Yard, but which has been removed 
 to the farthest recess of what is now called St. 
 Stephen's Square, seems to look with an air of distant 
 and scarcely recognising curiosity, which the original 
 might wear if he returned to earth, at the Houses of 
 Parliament, so changed in their exterior aspect and in 
 their inner furniture, in men and manners, since Can- 
 ning knew them; and at the group of lesser states- 
 men. Peel, Palmerston, Derby, Beaconsfield, which until 
 their turn shall come to be thrust back occupy the 
 foreground from which Canning has retreated. 
 
 The bitterness of feeling which Canning had roused 
 in his lifetime survived him. Though he had never 
 lived ostentatiously, and had shunned what was ordi- 
 n.'ii-ily called society, the expenses inseparable in those 
 days from office had impaired the fortune whicli he had 
 received with his wife. His personal property at his 
 death was sworn under 20,000/., and it was believed
 
 Death of Canning 197 
 
 to be very much below that sum. It was proposed tliat 
 an annuity of 3,000/. should be settled iu succession 
 upon his two surviving sons. The proposal was attacked 
 in the House of Commons with an acrimony of dis- 
 paragement greater than that which Canning himself 
 had deprecated in the case of Pitt. One gentleman, 
 Mr. Bankes, one of the party called the Saints, the 
 leadership of which Wilberforce had once invited 
 Canning to take, thought it becoming to propose that 
 the expenses of the battle of Navarino, which had been 
 fought two months after Canning's death, and of the 
 Mediterranean fleet should be charged to Canning's 
 family. After two days' debate the annuity was voted. 
 The elder of the two surviving sons, a captain in the 
 Navy, died in the year following his father's death, 
 being drowned while bathing at Madeira. The second 
 was the Governor-General of India during the Mutiny. 
 Canning's widow, who survived him ten years, was 
 created a Viscountess. Her son w^as raised to an 
 earldom in recognition of his services in India. With 
 his death the male line of George Canning became 
 extinct. Canning's only daughter married the lato 
 Marquis of Clanricarde, afterwards a member of one 
 of Lord Palme rston's Cabinets, and it is in the veins 
 of her descendants only that the blood of Canning 
 still runs. Among them are the present Marquis of 
 Clanricarde, who has added the name of Canning to the 
 family name of De Burgh, and the Countess of Hare- 
 wood, the Countess of Cork, and Lady Margaret 
 AVentworth Beaumont, the grandson and the grand- 
 daughters of the statesman. Since the death of Loi-d 
 Stratford de Redcliffe, the Anglo-Irish famil\- which
 
 igS George Canning 
 
 gave hirtli to tlie great diplomatist, and the greater 
 statesman, lias been represented by tlie Barons Garvagli 
 of Ireland. The Cannings of Foxcote, in Warwick- 
 shire, survived in male representatives until the middle 
 of the present century, one of them being, in contra- 
 diction to the politics of his illustrious kinsman, an 
 ardent parliamentary reformer in 1832. The family 
 merged in heiresses, one of whom married ISIr. Philip 
 Howard, of Corby, in Cumberland, and another Mr. 
 Gordon, of JMilrig, who added the name of Canning to 
 his own.
 
 199 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 ORATOR AND STATESMAN — IN PRIVATE Lll-E. 
 
 The place of Canning among parliamentary orators is 
 difficult to determine. Contemporaries differed about 
 it, and later critics have shared their differences of 
 opinion. Sir James Mackintosh reckoned him in 
 many respects Pitt's superior. Wilberforce, however, 
 though full of personal liking for the man, says that 
 he never drew you to him in spite of yourself, and 
 Lord Brougham expresses the same opinion. ' An 
 actor stood before us — a first-rate actor, no doubt, but 
 still an actor, and we never forgot that it was a repre- 
 sentation we were witnessing, not a real scene.' 
 On the other hand. Sir George Cornewall Lewis 
 thinks that Canning as an orator has never been sur- 
 ]jassed, and doubts whether he has ever been equalled 
 among English statesmen. It is difficult to judge of 
 Canning's eloquence from his printed speeches. In 
 preparing them for the press he added and altered to 
 excess, requiring a second and third revise. The 
 printers found it easier to reset the matter from be- 
 ginning to end tlian to introduce his corrections. Some 
 of these corrections showed a false taste, worthy of 
 Lily and Florio, or llieir fictitious counterparts in 
 ' Loves Labour's Lost.' Canning was almost literally
 
 ^oo George Canning 
 
 afraid to call a spade a spade. A catspaw became 
 ' the paw of a certain domestic animal ; ' so, for some 
 mysterious reason, a ' Quixotic ' undertaking became 
 ' an enterprise romantic inlts origin and thankless in 
 its end, to be characterised only by a term borrowed 
 from that part of Spanish literature with which we are 
 most familiar.' The nearest parallel to these improve- 
 ments is to be found in the suggestion of the alderman 
 that Canning should substitute for the words ' he died 
 poor,' in his inscription on the monument of Pitt in the 
 Guildhall, the more delicate expression, ' he died in 
 indifferent circumstances.' The correct instinct of the 
 orator was overpowered by the false taste of a man of 
 letters trained in an artificial literary school. 
 
 Canning's preparation of his speeches was in his 
 later years at least as elaborate as his revision of them 
 in print. At the beginning of his parliamentary career 
 he seems to have been more confident or careless. But, 
 as has been the case with later orators, the weight 
 of a reputation to sustain, and of responsibility for the 
 moulding of opinion, pressed upon him and depressed 
 him. He was uneasy for three or four days when the 
 speech was forming itself in his mind, and at these 
 times, as his private secretary and political apologist, 
 Mr. Stapleton, testifies, it was unsafe to approach him 
 on any matter not bearing upon the discourse which was 
 shaping itself within him. He was taciturn and moody 
 as he went down to the House. The speech once 
 delivered, he recovered his gaiety. Camiing did not 
 write out his speeches, but he jotted down the heads on 
 which he intended to touch with great minuteness of 
 subdivision and in the order of treatment, and he took
 
 Orator and Statesman 201 
 
 the paper containing these memoranda to the House 
 with him, and spoke from it. Sometimes the heads of 
 the speech, carefully numbered, amounfcVl to between 
 four and five hundred. The following are a part of the 
 memoranda for a speech against a motion of Mr. 
 Lambton's for Parliamentary Reform, which the acci- 
 dental and premature ' drying up ' of Mr. Vansittarb 
 prevented Canning from delivering : — 
 
 391. But in or out of office. 
 
 392. The Constitution is my object of worship. 
 
 393. And in this her temple. 
 
 394. For that obloquy. 
 
 395. For that demonstration. 
 
 396. For that designation, and pretty well know by 
 what pen, to the dagger of the assassin. 
 
 397. But let it pass ; the danger and the scorn. 
 
 398. Let them i"ail, or let them repent. 
 
 399. My cause is the same. 
 
 400. And while I have the strength, I desire no other 
 duty than that of doing my best in defence of a form of 
 Government which, if destroyed, could not be I'eplaced, and 
 which may yet afford shelter and glory to generations who 
 will know how to value and preserve it. 
 
 Canning does not appear, so far as can be judged 
 from the extracts of memoranda for his speeches wdiich 
 have been published, to have put down the good things 
 which he intended to say, the seeming impromptus, 
 the epigrams, the illustrations, the declamatory passages 
 or the passages of sustained banter by which they are 
 now chiefly remembered. For the form and the manner 
 of introduction he seems to have trusted to the chance 
 of the moment. In this he was unlike Sheridan. Before 
 
 /
 
 203 George Canning 
 
 Sheridan ventured to tell Duudas that he took his facts 
 from liis imaD-ination and his fancies from his memory, 
 he had tried tlie saying, Avith proper adaptation, on a 
 wine mercliant, and it appears in two or three tentative 
 forms in iiis note-book. Canning's wit seems really to 
 have sprung \oluntarily out of the circumstances of the 
 debate, and not to have been drasra'ed bv a sort of 
 conscription or press-gang into forced service. His 
 theory of parliamentary speaking was sound. ' Speak- 
 ing,' he told Mr. Hush, who was American Minister in 
 1mi gland during Mr. Canning's second tenure of the 
 Foreign Othce, and who fortunately published a journal 
 of his residence at the Court of St. James's, ' must take 
 conversation as its basis rather than anything studied 
 or stateh^ The House was a business-doing body, 
 and the speaking must conform to its character ; it was 
 jealous of ornament in debate, which, if it came at all, 
 must come as vvithout consciousness. There must be 
 method also, but this should bo felt in the effect rather 
 than felt in the manner ; no formal divisions, set exor- 
 diums, or perorations, as the old rhetoricians taught, 
 would do. First, and last, and everywhere you must 
 aim at reasoning, and if you could be eloquent you 
 might at any time, but not at an appointed time.' 
 Canning's practice in the main conformed to his theory. 
 His speeches were always argumentative speeches. 
 Lord Holland called him the fii'st logician in Europe, 
 and tliei'e is ])robably a nearer approach to truth in 
 this statement than there is in Sir Ceorge Lewis's 
 recognition of lii'.u as the greatest of English parlia- 
 mentary orators. 'J'lie common idea that Canning's 
 eloquence was of the imaginati\'e and sportive rather
 
 Orator axd Statesman 203 
 
 than of" the reasoning order is due to the fact that 
 the lauev and the wit grew too copiously out of the 
 argument, and that many minds which coukl not follow 
 the one were capable of being tickled and diverted 
 bv the other. The facultv of exact thought, and the 
 mastery over long and difhcult processes of reasoning, 
 wliirli formed the foundation of Canning's intellectual 
 character, were exhibited in their naked simplicity in 
 the speech on tlie Bullion question, which Lord 
 Brougham held to be the most masterlv Canning ever 
 made on any subject, and the most masterly any one 
 ever made on that subject. The same characteristic 
 marks his purely political writings. His despatches 
 during his second tenure of the Foreign Office laid 
 down and vindicated the lines of his European policy 
 with a masculine simplicity of form and grasp of prin- 
 ciple which make them not less classics of international 
 statesmanship than the judgments of Lord Stowell are 
 classics of international law. 
 
 It is impossible to illustrate by examples a chain of 
 reasoning, or eifectively to exhibit a principle separated 
 from the circumstances in which it is to be applied. 
 But the wit and humour with which Canning enlivened 
 the debates, and the imagination and fancy with wdiich 
 he elevated and adorned them, do admit of being 
 exhibited without being extinguished by the detach- 
 ment. In March 1824 a debate took place, on the 
 motion of Lord John llussell, with respect to the 
 evacuation of k?j)ain by the French army, and a question 
 arose as to the conduct of some Englishmen, !Sir Kobert 
 Wilson, Lord Nugent, and others who had volunteered 
 for service with the Spanish patriots. Lord Nugent,
 
 204 George Canning 
 
 who belonged to the House of Buckingham, had more 
 than a younger son's or broHrer's portion of the cor- 
 pulence which marked the Grenville family, and espe- 
 cially the 'Phat Duke,'' as Canning loved to spell him. 
 Canning relieved aii elaborate argument on international 
 law and the obligation of neutrality by a narrative of 
 the adventures of Lord Nugent. After describing Sir 
 Robert Wilson as no small breach of neutrality, and 
 speaking of Lord Nugent as a*Tiiost enormous breach 
 of it, he went on : — ^ 
 
 It was about the middle of last July that the heavy 
 Palraouth coach (loud and long-continued laughter)— that 
 the heavy Falmouth coach was observed travelling to its 
 destination through the roads of Cornwall with more than 
 its usual gravity. (Loud laughter.) There were, according 
 to the best advices, two inside passengers (laughter) — one a 
 lady of no considerable dimensions (laughter), and a gentle- 
 man, who, as it has been since ascertained, was conveying 
 the succour of his person to Spain (cheers and laughter). 
 I am informed— and, having no reason to doubt my in- 
 formant, I firmly believe it —that in the van belonging to the 
 coach (gentlemen must know the nature and uses of that 
 auxiliary to the regular stage-coaches) was a box more 
 bulky than ordinary, and of most portentous contents. It 
 was observed that, after their arrival, this box and the pas- 
 senger before mentioned became inseparable. This box 
 was known to have contained the uniform of a Spanish 
 general of cavalry (much laughter) ; and it was said of the 
 helmet, which was beyond the usual size, that it exceeded 
 all other helmets spoken of in history, not excepting the 
 celebrated helmet in the ' Castle of Otranto ' (cheers and 
 laughter). The idea of going to the relief of a fortress 
 blockaded by sea and besieged by land with the uniform of
 
 Orator and Statesman 205 
 
 a light cavalry officer was new, to say tlie least of it. 
 About this time the force offered by the hon. gciitlenian, 
 which had never existed but on paper, was in all probability 
 expected. I will not stay to determine whether it was to 
 have consisted of 10,000 or 5,000 men. Xo doubt upon the 
 arrival of the General and his uniform the Cortes must 
 have rubbed their hands with satisfaction, and concluded 
 that now the promised force was come they would have 
 little more to fear (laughter). It did come, as much of it 
 as ever would have been seen by the Cortes and the King ; 
 but it came in that sense and no other which was descril)od 
 by a worthy nobleman, George, Duke of Buckingham, whom 
 the noble lord opposite (Lord Xugent) reckons among his 
 lineal ancestors. In the play of ' The Rehearsal ' there is a 
 scene occupied by the designs of two usurpers, to whom one 
 of their party, entering, says : — 
 
 Sirs, 
 The army at the door, but in disguise, 
 Entreats a word of both your majesties. 
 
 (liOud and continued laughter.) Such must have been the 
 effect of the arrival of the noble lord. How he was 
 received, or what effect he operated on the councils and affairs 
 of the Cortes by his arrival, I do not know. Tilings were 
 at that juncture moving too rapidly to their final issue. 
 How far the noble lord conduced to the termination by 
 plumping his weight into the sinking scale of the Coi'tes is 
 too nice"^a question for me just now to settle. (Loud cheers 
 and laughter.) ^^ 
 
 Mr, Canning then proceeded soberly with his argu- 
 ment as to the impossibility of allowing individuals to 
 carry on a private war with governments with which 
 their own is in amity. But the impression was pro- 
 bably made on not a few Sir Johns and Sir Thomases
 
 2o6 George Canning 
 
 that the whole thing was a joke, and Canning only a 
 very good joker of jokes. 
 
 Of Canning's eloquence in its loftier moods, one or 
 two passages have become the commonplaces of rhe- 
 torical extracts. The most celebrated, perhaps, is that 
 in which, in the speech of December 12, 1826, he 
 defended his policy in not going to war with France 
 against her invasion of Spain, and in recognising the 
 independence of the Spanish-American colonics : - — 
 
 Is the Spain of the present day the Spain of which the 
 ''' statesmen of the times of William and Anne were so much 
 afraid ? Is it, indeed, the nation whose puissance was ex- 
 pected to shake England from her sphere ? No, sir, it was 
 quite another Spain — it was the Spain within the limits of 
 whose empire the sun never set ; it was Spain with the Indies 
 that excited the jealousies and alarmed the imaginations of 
 our ancestors. ... If France conquered Spam, was it 
 necessaiy, in order to avoid the consequences of that occu- 
 pation, that we should blockade Cadiz % No, I looked 
 another way ; I sought the materials of compensation in 
 another hemisphere. Contemplating Spain, such as our 
 ancestors had known her, I resolved that, if France had 
 Spain, it should not be Spain with the Indies. I called the 
 New World into existence to redress the balance of the Old. 
 
 Perhaps these sentences belong to the things which, 
 though ' finely thought,' are ' superfinely said.' There 
 is, moreover, a certain tone of egotism, as if Canning 
 had absolutely created the American continent in recog- 
 nising Spanish- American independence and by sending 
 out consuls to South American ports and ministers to 
 South American capitals, and making commercial trea- 
 ties. Cnrlyle describes \x picture of Maupertuis, who
 
 Orator and Staitsman 207 
 
 discovered the ilatncss of the cartli at tlic poles, with 
 his hand upon the globe, ' comfortably squeezing the 
 earth and her meridians flat (as if he had done it) with 
 his left hand ; and with the other, and its outstretched 
 finger, asking mankind, " Are you not aware, then ? " ' 
 Perhajjs there was something in this assumption to 
 have created what he recognised — though in diplomacy 
 recognition is sometimes creation — which assimilates 
 Canning's attitude to that of Maupertuis. He seems 
 to stand with his hand on the globe, pointing to South 
 America, as if he had literally called it out of the deep 
 and bid the dry land appear. The phrase and the 
 posture are theatrical. But the momentary impression 
 probably was greater than any that has ever been made 
 in the House of Commons. One who was present says 
 it was terrific : — 
 
 It was iis if every man in the House liad been electri- 
 fied. Tiorney, wlio before that was shifting in iiis seat, and 
 taking olf his liat and putting it on agam, and taking large 
 and frequent pinches of snuftj and tui-ning from side to side, 
 till, I suppose, he wore his breeches tlu-ougli, seemed petri- 
 fied, and sat fixed, and staring with his mouth open for lialf 
 a minute ! Mr. Canning seemed to have increased in 
 stature, his attitucTe~"wa's so ~majestic. I remarked liis 
 flourishes were made with his left arm ; the efi'ect was new 
 and l)eautiful ; his chest heaved and expanded, his nostrils 
 dilated, a noble pride slightly curved his lips, and age and 
 sickness were dissolved and forgotten in the ardour of 
 youtliful genius ; all the while a serenity sat on Ins brow 
 that pointed to deeds of glory. 
 
 The occasion was an exception to the rule — if ft 
 was the rule— stated bv Wilberforce and l)i-on2"ham — 
 
 l[ 
 
 /
 
 2o8 George Canning 
 
 that Canning fiiilcd to carry his audience with him. 
 But it does not seem to be an exception to Brougham's 
 statement that Canning never forgot himself. The ' I ' 
 — the ' adsum qui feci ' — is very prominent in it. The 
 theatrical character of Canning's eloquence is conspi- 
 cuous. The electrical effect suggests the triumphs of 
 the stage rather than of the Senate — the pit rising at 
 \ Kean in Shylock rather than Parliament carried away 
 , unresisting and spellbound by the rush of Fox's rapid 
 
 (and impassioned reasoning. 
 An even finer passage, and one in which there is 
 less of the first person singular — more of England and 
 less of Canning — is that in which, in a speech delivered 
 at Plymouth in 1823, he illustrated the quietude in 
 repose ""which" seems the contradiction, but is yet the 
 guarantee, of streno-th in action : — 
 
 Our present repose is no more a proof of inability to act 
 than the state of inertness and inactivity in which T liave 
 seen those mighty masses that float in the waters above 
 ■^ your town is a proof that they are devoid of strength and 
 I incapable of being fitted out for action. You well know, 
 8 gentlemen, how soon one of those stupendous masses, now 
 ' reposing on their shadows in perfect stillness — how soon, 
 upon any call of patriotism or necessity, it would assume 
 the likeness of an animated being, instinct with life and 
 motion — liow soon it would ruffle, as it were, its swelling 
 plumage ! How quickly it would put forth all its beavity 
 ,;' and its bravery, collect its scattered elements of strength 
 ^ and awaken its dormant thunder. Such as one of those 
 magnificent machines when springing from inaction into a 
 display of its might — such is England herself, while appa- 
 rently passive and motionless, she silently concentrates the 
 power to be put forth on an adequate occasion.
 
 Orator and Statesman 209 
 
 111 the physical qualifications of oratory, Cauniii^^- 
 probably has hevCT liacT au equal among Eug-lish states- 
 men. His style and manner may not incorrectly be 
 described as intermediate between that of Pitt and that 
 of Fox, and his mind and temper la}^ in a mean be- 
 tween theirs. Pitt's intelligence, like his figure, was 
 linear — length without breadth — projecting itself for- 
 ward in a narrow channel of thought. His gestures, 
 stiff and angular, were like those of a marionette, and 
 his hearers seemed to feel the shock of the jerking 
 wires. As he turned round to his sujDporters to invite 
 1 heir cheers, he looked, someone has said, as if he Vere 
 moving on a pivot. He thought in precise and logical 
 alternatives, which seemed a sort of common form pro- 
 vided for the reception of any kind of matter. Fox's 
 corpulence, his black and beetling brows, his ung'ainTy 
 attitudes, his unmanageable voice, now rumbling bass, 
 now shrill treble, his ungraceful movement, swaying and 
 tossing to and fro, his lack of fluency and of order in 
 speech until the impulse of conviction and the force of 
 logic drove him forward — made him in every respect the 
 direct contrast of the mechanical and automatic regu- 
 larity of Pitt. His instantaneous perception of all the ! 
 aspects of a question, if not for purposes of action yet 
 for purposes of debate, his intuition, which seemed to 
 see in one glance the whole of which Pitt thought out ' 
 a part in succession and in logical forms, embarrassed ) 
 him at first and made his speech confused, until order / 
 introduced itself into the thronging crowd of ideas and ) 
 arguments which bore along with it, as in a current 
 steady in its flow thougli stormy on its surface, the con- 
 victions and feelings of his audience. Canning's oratory
 
 210 George Canning 
 
 had neither the mechanical reo-ularitv of Pitt's nor the 
 disordered force of Fox's ; it fell short in power of 
 either — ^^wanting the majestic self-command and dicta- 
 torial authority of the first, and the rush and sweep of 
 the second. But it was more varied. His demeanour 
 was equally remofe from Pitt's unbending rigidity and 
 Fox's want of control. Canning's presence was striking. 
 He was of commanding height, and though with a 
 little tendency to looseness and weediness of figure, 
 well if sliiji-htlv built. His bearing was elastic — alert 
 in movement, in repose full of gi'ace. Every feature 
 spoke, flashing thought and feeling upon his hearers in 
 advance of the words. His articulation was delicate 
 and precise. His voice, clear and penetrating, though 
 a little veiled, lent itself to every emotion of indigna- 
 tion, of pathos, of drollery ; and the curl of the lips 
 and the glance of the eye interpreted the voice. He 
 hesitated a little in the beginning of his speeches. 
 When animation became excitement, his gestures were 
 the reverse of impressive, consisting of an alternate 
 movement, awkward and vehement, of the two arms, 
 accompanied by a sounding and, it seemed, sometimes 
 bruising slap on the table before him. His return to 
 a quieter mood was marked by folding his arms across 
 his breast — the attitude in which he is painted by Sir 
 Thomas Lawrence. 
 
 Canning was a careful observer of the temper of the 
 House of Commons, carrying into this study the minute- 
 ness and patience which he showed in all his pursuits. 
 At times he would sit with hat slouched over his face, 
 keenly noting every incident of a long debate. But 
 some little time before spc'ukiiig it was Canning's
 
 Orator and Statesman 2tt 
 
 liabit. Sir Robert Peel said, to lounge into the lobbies 
 and listen to the conversations to which the previous 
 course of the debate had given rise, and to pick up, as 
 the phrase ~is, the general sense of the House, which, 
 when his turn came to speak, he set himself to express 
 or to combat. Yet, with all this desire to put himself 
 into relations with it, he was worsted in succession by 
 Perceval and Castlereao-h in his contest for the leader- 
 ship ; and when Castlereagh's death left the post free to 
 him, he practically yielded it to Peel and Robinson, 
 whose authority and influence with the Tory party were 
 greater than his own. The fact that during the last 
 live years of the Liverpool Administration Canning 
 was absorbed in foreign affairs, while Peel as Home 
 Secretarv, and Robinson as Chancellor of the Ex- 
 chequer, had naturally more concern with the domestic 
 topics which mainly engage the House of Commons, had 
 much to do, probably, with this virtual abnegation of the 
 leadership on Canning's part. The suspicion and dislike 
 of Eldon and Wellington, who monopolised betwgeii them 
 the legal, ecclesiastical"' and military patronage of the 
 Crown, and who preferred to communicate with Peel, 
 must also be taken into account. 
 
 The genuineness of Canning's Toryism was dis- 
 trusted ; he was believed to be an intriguer and self- 
 seeker. He was gi'avely suspected of meditating a 
 desertion from the Tory party, and preparing for a coali- 
 tion of himself and his followers with tlie"\Yliigs. His 
 colleagues complained to Lord LiverpoolTitTs said, of the 
 advances which Canning was always making to the Op- 
 position, and of his efforts to ingratiate himself with its 
 younger members by compliment, encouragement, and 
 
 V 2
 
 / 
 
 's^" 
 
 21^ {jEorge Caning 
 
 aclvicer But, above all, JrfTwas the flavour of contempt 
 which ran through Canning's mind, and was impressed 
 on his speech, that alienated men. The House of Com- 
 mons is not, and never has been, jealous of superiority. 
 It recognises it and welcomes it ; it is proud of it as a 
 possession of its own ; but it resents a too conscious 
 superiority. It was irritated by little impertinences of 
 manner and phrase, certain scornful carelessnesses by 
 which, probably, Canning meant nothing, and of which 
 \\ he was not even aware. Richard Sharp said of him that, 
 
 ^1 up to a certain time, he never made a speech without 
 I making an enemy. Yet he endeavoured, and to some 
 extent succeeded in the effort, to restrain himself. Sir 
 T. Fowell Buxton, who used sometimes to sit near him in 
 the House of Commons, said that during the debate 
 he would keep up a current of whispered criticisms 
 which, if introduced into a speech, would have con- 
 vulsed the House with merriment, and have over- 
 whelmed his opponent. When he got up, though he 
 approached the dangerous ground, he kept off it. But 
 he could not always keep off it ; and this, no doubt, is 
 what one of his candid friends meant when he said that 
 Canning could never be a gentleman for three hours 
 at a" time. The fault is, perhaps, as much with the 
 people who have ridiculous sides to their character, as 
 with those who see the ridiculous sides. Canning, in a 
 word, was not intelligible to the House ; his character 
 and aims were a mystery to them, the heart of which 
 they were unable to pluck out ; and to hate what you 
 do not understand is a common failing. Ignorance is 
 as often the motlier of dislike as of devotion. 
 
 Canning's political position has been the subject of
 
 Orator and Statesman 213 
 
 a good deal of controversy. In truth, he cannot pro- 
 perly be assigned to either of the great par'fres of the 
 State. When he began parliamentary life it was as a 
 personal follower of Mr. Pitt; so he describes his 
 mental jiosition in a letter written while he was yet a 
 student at Lincoln's Inn. Even while Mr. Pitt lived 
 he had become tired of this dependence. On Pitt's 
 death he asserted his entire freedom. His allegiance, 
 he said, was buried in Pitt's grave, and he acknowledged 
 no other leader. Like Chatham, and like Pitt himself 
 in his earlier days, he especially set himself against 
 the pretension of the two great aristocratic parties to 
 monopolise the offices and control the policy of the 
 State. ' To this exclusive doctrine,' he said, ' I have 
 never subscribed. To those pretensions I have never 
 listened with submission.' And he declared with 
 Burke, but with more consistency than Burke, that 
 while he had the faculty to think and act for himselt 
 he would ' look those proud combinations in the face.' 
 Lord ^^Holland, as has been already mentioned, told 
 Greville that at college Canning was a great Jacobin, 
 and hated the aristocracy — a feeling which seemf. 
 always to have existed among statesmen who have 
 lived among the aristocracy without being of them. 
 This feeling Lord Holland implied never left Canning, 
 and it was returned with interest, Greville intimates, 
 by its objects. To the principle of conduct asserted 
 at the beginning of his political career, and reasserted 
 with emphasis during its course, he was true to the 
 last. In the last year of his life, whilr he was engaged 
 in the formation of his Ministrv, i\Ir. Croker sent him 
 a list of great Tory lords, with a staTeWmRf of the votes 
 
 I
 
 214 George Canxing 
 
 they commanded, and urgent advice to come to an 
 understanding witli them. Canning was indignant. 
 If the King, he said, was to be considered as completely 
 in the hands of the Tories as George IT,' was in those 
 of the Whigs, then George III. had reigned and the 
 two Pitts had administered the Government in vain. 
 Against these pretensions he relies not merely on the 
 Crown, but on the body of the people. ' And whether 
 in or out of office,' he adds, ' I will not act, as I never 
 liave acted, as the tool of any confederacy, however 
 powerful, nor will I submit to insult, without resenting 
 it to the best of my poor ability, from any member of 
 such confederacy, be he who lie may.' As to the votes 
 which the Tory peers command, Croker"s list requires 
 a commentary, and in the spirit of a modern financial 
 reformer he asks Croker to 'add to those names the 
 price that the Government pays for their .supi^ort in 
 army, navy, church and law, eixcise and customs, &c., 
 and then calculate what number of unconnected votes 
 the same price substituted among others would purchase 
 if the Crown were free.' 
 
 Great aristocratic parties are seldom disposed to 
 recognise the claims of others than those w^ho belong 
 to them by birth, or who are content to place them- 
 selves at their disposal, and to serve them humbly for 
 recognition and for hire. Canning never accepted this 
 position. He asserted himself, and he was called an 
 adventurer. He endeavoured to promote his own 
 interests by personal arrangements and combinations, 
 and he was charged with intrigue and treacherous 
 machinations. Occasionally, perhaps, self-assertion 
 became self-seeking, and he advanced to his aim by
 
 Orator and Statesman 215 
 
 indirect and secret paths. But he was never a flatterer 
 of any great chief— not even of Pitt ; ho did not conceal 
 his contempt for birth without brains, and the arts of 
 social courtiership were not practised by hira. He 
 kept his social gifts and charms for his own liouse and 
 his friends, and did not hire them out for the entertain- 
 ment of the nobility and gentry. To his resolution to 
 assert himself, and to be independent of chiefs and 
 parties, may be attributed in part at least the personal 
 misunderstandings and jealousies which accompanied 
 liim through his political life. 
 
 It would be difficult to extract from Canning's 
 speeches or to see in his career any consistent scheme 
 of partisan doctrine. The opponent of parliamentary 
 reform and of the removal of Nonconformist disabilities 
 cannot be called a Liberal ; the advocate of the Ptoman 
 Catholic claims, the antagonist of the Holy Alliance, 
 the promoter of Free Trade cannot be called a Tory. 
 Lord Beaconsfield once said that, while the Tories are 
 a national party the Liberals are a cosmopolitan party. 
 Like most sweeping assertions, the phrase extends into 
 a false historic generalisation, a statement which at the 
 most had a momentary truth of description. Among 
 Whig chiefs, Chatham, Palmerston, and Russell were 
 essentially national. The younger Pitt, in spite of 
 his war policy, Peel, and Aberdeen were, in a certain 
 sense, cosmopolitan. Canning represents the intensest 
 form of national feeling. He was above all things an 
 Englishman. To him a man is an Englishman or a 
 Fi-enchman first, and anything and everything or 
 notliinsf else afterwards. His cliaracter is formed bv 
 his native tongue, with its associations and suggestions,
 
 2i6 George Canning 
 
 by the historic traditions which he has inherited, by 
 the institutions wliich he sees about him and which 
 give shape and direction to his life. These things are 
 sacred. When you strip them off you get something 
 as unreal as Arbuthnot's abstract idea of a Lord Mayor 
 apart from his ring, his gown, his coach, his stature, 
 liis hair, eyes, and anything else that is his. Each 
 nation has its own law of life, good for itself, bad for 
 any other. Sjpartam nadus es : Jianc exorna. For this 
 reason Canning, while welcoming national uprisings 
 against foreign or external domination in Spain, in 
 Greece, in South America, objected to the propaganda 
 by pen or by sword of French principles and ideas in 
 other countries. In theory, he did not contend for 
 the suppression of French principles in France. They 
 might be good there, though he did not think they 
 were ; but they were bad elsewhere, because they were 
 out of relation with the existing moral and social order, 
 and with the traditions which have become a part not 
 only of the general life of the nation, but of the in- 
 dividual life of every one in it. A D;"s-senter, a Non- 
 conformist was, therefore, in his eyes, though most un- 
 reasonably, an objectionable person — a sort of social and 
 religious rebel, who ought not, perhaps, to be persecuted, 
 but who ought not to be legally acknowledged if it can 
 l)e helped. He might at best be connived "at. The 
 Roman Catholic Church, on the other hand, at all 
 events in a Roman Catholic country like Ireland, was 
 a great institution moulding the life of its people, and 
 entitled to recognition and to freedom. 
 
 "^rhe principle which made Canning the antagonist 
 of the propaganda of French principles in Europe during
 
 Orator and Statesman 217 
 
 the earlier pai'i of his political life made him during his 
 later years in an equal degree the antagonist of the 
 principles of the Holy Alliance, wliicTi it is liis great 
 glory as a statesman to have defeated. The Holy Alliance 
 endeavoured to impose upon other nations principles and 
 a law of life not their own. As Canning objected to the 
 Holy Alliance, so he would have objected to its recent 
 secular substitute, the Concert of Europe, which simply 
 means the agreement of the Great Powers to inflict 
 their will upon the small ones, not allowing them to de- 
 velop according to their native forces and genius, biit 
 constraining them into such forms and confii.* ng them 
 within such limits as suits the convenience of a despotic 
 hexarchy of States, or of a majority of them. The 
 country which is England at home should be England 
 abroad, reserving all its freedom of action. Canning's 
 foi'eign policy, which was for ' Europe ' to read ' Eng- 
 land,' and to ' get rid of Areopagus and all that,' was 
 sound and statesmanlike, and abundantly justified in 
 its results. 
 
 Viewing the political institutions which he found in 
 existence as the shelter and organs of the national life, 
 supplying the channels through which it flowed and 
 inseparable from it as the body of the spirit. Canning 
 was jealous of any attempt to touch them, and was, 
 therefore, an anti-Reformer. But he did not object to 
 parliamentary reform on this ground only. The ten- 
 dency of the doctrines preached by the parliamentary 
 reformers, he said, ' is not to make a House of Commons 
 such as in theory it has always been defined— a third 
 branch of the Legislature — but to absorb the legislative 
 and the executive powers into one ; to create an imme-
 
 2i8 George Canning 
 
 diate delegation of the whole authority of the people, 
 to which ])ractically nothing could, and in reasoning 
 nothing ought to, stand in opposition.' Perfectly true ; 
 what Canning foresaw has come to pass. The three 
 powers in the State are now the Prime ^Minister, the 
 Cabinet, and the Commons. A truer enumeration might 
 reduce them to two — the Prime Minister and the 
 Caucus. The authority, not of the Crown only, but 
 of both Houses, is declining. There is little now to 
 prevent a demagogic dictatorship surjDrising the country 
 into decisions which it may take in one Parliament to 
 repent in the next. The need of the age is to restore 
 or supply elements which shall not contradict' public 
 opinion, but which shall give it time to mature itself, 
 and to chasten momentary impulse into deliberate con- 
 viction. Probably Canning would not have dissented 
 from this doctrine if the issue had been near enough to 
 engage his statesmanship. The one check he would 
 not tolerate was an oligarchical domination. AVhen he 
 was preparing to go to India, he told Lord Holland 
 that he saw that reform was inevitable, that he was 
 glad to be away while the question was being mooted, 
 but that if he had any hand in it he would let those 
 gentry (the AYhig aristocracy) know that they should 
 e^ain nothins^ bv it. Accordino- to another version 
 of the same story, he told Lord Holland that, if the 
 \ settlement of the Reform question should fall upon him, 
 lie would give the Radicals a dose too strong for their 
 stomachs, adding that the break-up of the Whig and 
 Tory parties, which he foresaw as the result of the 
 struggle, would give him a position of advantage such 
 as he never Imd 1 )('rore. Both those versions of Cnnning's
 
 Orator and Statesman 219 
 
 language are given on the direct authority of Lord 
 Holland. Frere protests that Canning, though not a 
 purlianientary reformer, was in other respects a true 
 reformer liiudered by incompetent colleagues. Asked by 
 Frere what had become of the Liberal measures which 
 Pitt and he had contemplated, but of which the Whigs \ 
 claimed the credit. Canning pointed to his colleagues : 
 ' What can I churn out of such skim-milk as that ? ' r 
 
 In 'the Cabinet, on the testimony of the Duke of 
 W^ellington, Canning was habitually silent, possibly 
 because, having made up his mind, and being deter- 
 mined to take his own wav, and havina' a not verv * 
 respectful estimate of the abilities of his colleagues, ho 
 did not care to talk to them. He could not, however, . 
 according to the Duke, bear the slightest contradiction 
 or difference of opinion, and to avoid outrageous out- 
 breaks the Duke found it necessary to hold his own 
 tongue too. Lord Liverpool was the chief sufferer both 
 from tyanning's tongue and Canning's pen, and used to 
 recognise his handwriting with a pang of apprehension. • 
 As to his despatches, where one would have thought his 
 literary sensitiveness Avould have shown itself, he was 
 very patient, allowing them to be criticised and pulled 
 about with the utmost good nature. The Duke of 
 Wellington, against life-long evidence, represe'nts him 
 as the idlest of men; Greville describes him as never 
 having a moment unoccupied. His power at once of 
 concentrating and dividing attention \Aas so great • 
 
 that he could dictate simultaneously three despatches > 
 
 to three secretaries, speaking faster than they could '' 
 write. 
 
 Whatever his failures of temper in the Cabinet and
 
 220 George Canning 
 
 in the House of Commons, he was a courteous and 
 deferential host. On the death of the Duchess of 
 Gloucester, in 1807, tlie year in which he became 
 Foreign Secretary, Canning purchased Gloucester Lodge 
 from her daughter, the Princess Sophia. The house 
 stood about two miles from London, as London then 
 was, between Brompton and Kensington, in a spot 
 known as Florida Gardens. It had formerly been 
 known from the name of the Duchess, and from the 
 Italian style in which it was built, as Villa Maria. The 
 Florida Gardens were a sort of minor Ranelao-h, inter- 
 mediate between that place and town, before they 
 became the site of Gloucester Lodge. Mr. Rush, then 
 American Minister in London, describes the place in 
 his Journal. ' The grounds about the house,' he says, 
 ' were not extensive, but they were shut in by trees, so 
 that when the gates were passed the seclusion was 
 complete,' a feature upon which he remarks as the charm 
 of many villa residences near London. He describes 
 Canning as host, noting the cordiality of his welcome 
 and the grace and skill with which, sitting at the head 
 of the table, he contrived to keep all his guests in view, 
 and, saving for an occasional flash of pleasantry, mainly 
 directed his own conversational power to the task of 
 drawing out that of others. He was • in private circles 
 bland, courteous, yielding.' The sort of restraint and 
 subordination of himself to others which Mr. Rush 
 ]iotod in Canning as a host were not, according to a 
 writer in the ' Quarterly Review,' always observed by 
 liiin. The author of this article, which was published 
 less than nine years after Canning's death,' speaks of 
 the charm of his frank, open, nnd cordial manner,
 
 In Private Life 221 
 
 and of his unafFectcd honliomie. ' Then (he adds) his 
 fund of'animal spirits and the extreme excitability of 
 his temperament were such as invariably to hurry him, 
 noleniem volentem, into the full rush and flush of con- 
 viviality. At the latter period of his life, when his 
 health began to break, he would sit down with an 
 evident determination to be abstinent — eat sparingly of 
 the simplest soup, take no sauce with his fish, and mix 
 water with his wine ; but as the repartee began to 
 sparkle and the anecdote to circulate, his assumed 
 caution was imperceptibly relaxed, he gradually gave 
 way to temptation, and commonly ended by eating 
 of everything and taking wine with everybody — the 
 very beau ideal of an Amphitryon.' 
 
 The last word indicates that Canning is here 
 described as he showed himself at home ; and he, as 
 already remarked, was seldom to be seen elsewhere in 
 society. Writing from Paris in 1826, and describing 
 the cordiality of his reception by the King, princes, 
 Ministers, and ultras of all parties, he adds : ' Mrs. 
 Canning is well, and has seen more of Paris within this 
 month than of London since she was married. For 
 my own part, I would not run the evening rounds in 
 London which I cannot avoid here for any consideration, 
 whether of politics or pleasure.' In fact, except on 
 those state and ceremonial occasions which commanded 
 his presence. Canning was seldom to be seen elsewhere 
 than at home or in the houses of a very limited circle 
 of friends. When Sydney Smith, in a spiteful and 
 untruthful passage of the ' Letters of Peter Plyniley,' 
 pretends to see nothing more in Canning than ' an 
 extraordinary writer of small poetry and a diner-out of
 
 222 George Cannixg 
 
 tlie liig-li(3st order,' inferior only to Georg'o Selwyn or 
 Tickell during the last half century, he is, what 
 Sydney Smith seldom was, ridiculous. Peter Plyinley 
 sinks almost to the level of Peter Pindar. Mr. Kush 
 describes Canning's schoolboy playfulness when he was 
 released from the House and from Downing Street. 
 He had no thought of shining. 
 
 Canning's literary tastes remained with him through 
 life. Wlieu he and Pitt met they were soon buried in 
 some classic. His correspondence with Sir Walter 
 Scott turned mainly upon bookish topics ; and he had 
 literature as much as politics in his mind in promoting 
 the foundation of the ' Quarterly Review.' His poli- 
 tical antagonism with Chateaubriand, for whom he re- 
 sponded at a dinner of the Literary Fund, was softened 
 by common intellectual tastes, thouo-li, unlike Chateau- 
 briand, he was a man of action first and a man of 
 letters second. Like one of the most illustrious of his 
 successors in the I'remiership, he lived in — probably 
 he could not have lived out of — an atmosphere of con- 
 tention, and the noisiest brawls with B]'ougham or 
 Hobhouse were more to his mind than Fox"s book 
 under a tree. Two articles in the ' Quarterly Review ' 
 — one on CTifford's ' Life of Pitt ' and another in ridi- 
 cule of Sir John Sinclair's bullion pamphlets — form, so 
 far as I know, together with his verses of occasion, the 
 complete works of Canning. In contrast with his 
 theory, and especially with his master-passion for 
 Dryden, his style was a little over ornate — the purple 
 patch and the tinsel are in excess. 
 
 Of Canning in his ])ersonal and domestic relations 
 I have ah-eady spoken, but a iew last words ma\- be
 
 In Phi va te Life 22^ 
 
 --J 
 
 added. AVilberibrce pays a surprised tribute to his 
 moral purity. "His" p'erstsfent" "care for his mother was 
 touchingly shown in~"flie injunction contained in his 
 will : ' I earnestly entreat Joan [his wife] to pay to my 
 mother 2,000Z., or, what I should prefer if it can be 
 secured, an annuity of oOOL during her life.' The 
 mother died a few months before the son. His aifec- 
 tionate solicitude had accompanied her through life, 
 but it was spared tlie need of posthumous guardianship. 
 His devotion to his wife and children was ardent and 
 tender. The lines with which he expressed his grief 
 and resignation on the loss of his eldest son, who died 
 at nineteen after a life-lono- maladv, leave him in 
 attitude in which friend and foe, detractor and eulogist, 
 may best part with him : — 
 
 Oil ! mark'd from birth, and destin'd for the skies, 
 In youth Avith more than learning's wisdom Avise, 
 As sainted martyrs, patient to endure, 
 Simple as imweaned infancy, and pure — 
 Pure from all stain, save that of human clay. 
 Which Christ's atoning blood hath washed away 3 
 By mortal suffering now no more oppress'd. 
 Mount, sinless spirit, to thy destin'd rest, 
 While I, reversed ovir natures' kindly doom, 
 Pour forth a father's sorrows on thy tomb. 
 
 To these words of peace and benediction, issuing, as 
 it were, from the tranquil centre of a life of outer storm, 
 I will add only a few of the memorial verses in which 
 Frere signalised the struggles and triumphs of his 
 
 orn Avitli an .ancient name of little worth, 
 L^nd disinherited hofore his birth —
 
 / 
 
 224 George C a awing 
 
 A landless orphan — rank and wealth and pride 
 
 Were freely ranged around him ; nor denied 
 
 His clear precedence, and the warrant given 
 
 Of nobler rank, stamped by the hand of IIca\en 
 
 In every form of genius and of grace, 
 
 In loftiness of thought, figure, and face. 
 
 Such Canning was. 
 
 a^ .
 
 INDEX. 
 
 ABBOT 
 
 Abbot, Mr. Speaker (afccr- 
 ^ wards Lord Colchester), 1-14 
 
 Aberdeen, Earl of, 215 
 
 Addington, ' Bolus,' 7!' 
 
 Addiiigton, Henry (afterwards 
 ^^ Viscount Sidmouth), Speaker 
 of the House of Commons, 48 ; 
 Prime Minister, 74 ; Canning\s 
 intrigues against him and at- 
 tacks on him, 74 acipi. ; their 
 reconciliation, 84 ; his resigna- 
 tion, S.'5 ; raised to the peerage 
 as Viscount Sidmouth, anfl 
 appointed Lord President in 
 Pitt's second Admini.stration, 
 88 ; joins the Grenville-Fox 
 ^Ministry, OI) ; exchanges the 
 oftice of Privy Seal for that of 
 Lord President, 104 ; resigns 
 office, 105 ; declines ofiice 
 under Perceval, 129, ]o2; be- 
 comes again Lord Privy Seal, 
 133; Home Secretary under 
 Lord Liveipool, 150; pays tri- 
 bute to Canning's ministerial 
 efiiciencj', 157; resigns Home 
 Seci'etary.ship in favour of Mr. 
 Peel, 158 ; his nneasy virtue, 
 163 ; his domestic administra- 
 tion, 165 
 
 Addington, J. Hilev, 54, 62, 76, 
 77, 79 
 
 Addison, 11, 18 
 
 BELGUAVE 
 
 Alexander L, Emperor of Russia, 
 
 114, 115, 178 
 Alliance, Holy, Canning's hos- 
 tility to, 152, 166-68, i~72, 178, 
 217 
 Alopeus, M., Russian Ambas- 
 sador, 109 
 ^^Ithorp, Viscount (afterwards 
 ^ Earl Spencer), 164 
 Amelia, Princess, 130 
 Amiens, Peace of, 55, 85 
 Ancestry, Canning's, 1-7 
 'Anti-Jacobin ' (newspaper), 60- 
 ■4^ 68 ; its authors, 62 ; Canning's 
 contributions to, 62-65 ; com- 
 pared with the ' Rolliad ' and 
 with Moore's satires, 65-66 • 
 aims of its writers, 67, 68 
 Aristocracy, Canning's feeling 
 
 towards; 39, 136, 2i'3-14 
 Aust, ;\lr. Thomas, Under Secre- 
 tary for Foreign Affairs, 54 
 
 Bagot, Sir Charles, 161, 190 
 
 Bankes, Mr., 130, 197 
 
 Bar, Canning's intentions as to 
 
 the, 2:5, 29, 39 
 Barras, French Director, 57 
 Bathurst, Mr. Bragge- (formerly 
 y :\Ir. Bragge), 62, 76-77, 148, 
 
 158 
 Bathurst, Lord, 121, 188 
 Belgrave, Lord, 34 
 
 Q
 
 226 
 
 George Canning 
 
 BELL 
 
 Bell, Mr. Robert, his Life of 
 
 Canning referred to, 8 
 r.ellingham, the assassin, 135 
 Berlin, Decree of, 112 
 Bexley, Lord. See Vansittart 
 Bishop's Canynge in Wiltsliiro, 1 
 Board of Control. Sec Control 
 Bolivar, General, 177 
 Bordeaux, Canning at, 147 
 Boringdon, Lord (afterwards 
 jff"' Earl of Morlev), his intimacy 
 ^ with Canning, 27, 31, 32 ; 
 Canning's letters to and com- 
 munications to, 41, 42, 51, 'J7, 
 100,108,158,160 
 Bourne, Starges,resigus with Can- 
 ^^'- ning in 1809, 1 27 ; disapproves 
 his conduct, 140 ; joins Liver- 
 pool Ad ministration, 1 4 5; Horn e 
 Secretary under Canning, 188; 
 First Commissioner of Woods 
 and Forests, 189 
 Bragge, I\Ir. See Bathurst 
 Brougliam, Henry (afterwards 
 j^ Lord), candidate for Liverpool, 
 142 ; legal adviser of Queen 
 Caroline, 152; supports Can- 
 ning's Ministrj^ 190; on 
 Canning's oratory, 199 ; on 
 Canning's Bullion speech, 203 
 Bryant, Jacob, 27 
 Buckingham, lirst Duke of, 159 ; 
 memoirs by second Duke, 191 
 Buckinghamshire, Earl of, 148 
 Bull-baiting, Canning's speech 
 
 on, 59 
 Bullion Committee, 190 ; Can- 
 ning's speech on its report, 
 132, 203 
 ^Burdctt, Sir Francis, 50> IKi, 
 X 190 
 ^Biu-ke, Edmund, 53, 213 
 ^ Barney, Frances (afterwards 
 Madame d'Arblay), 13, 51 
 Burrard, Sir Ilarrj', 11 G 
 Bvixton, Sir T. Fowcll, on Can- 
 ning's self-restraint, 212 
 
 CANNING 
 
 Cabinet, mystification of, 56- 
 57 ; place of, in the Constitu- 
 tion, 93-96, 218 ; collective 
 responsibility of, 174 
 ^Camden, Lord, 121, 129 
 •^ Canning family, at Bishop's 
 Canynge, 1 ; at Bristol and at 
 Foxcote, 2 ; settled in Ulster, 
 3-4 ; surviving branches of, 
 197, 198 
 
 Canning, Earl, 197 
 
 Canning, George, the father of 
 the statesman, disinherited 
 and settles in London, 3 ; his 
 poems, pamplilets, and misfor- 
 tunes, 3-7 ; his marriage, 5 ; 
 his death, 7 
 ^^anning, George, the statesman, 
 his birth, I ; ancestrj', 1-3 ; 
 his father, 3-7 ; his mother, 5, 
 7, 8, 9 ; adoption by his uncle, 
 Mr. Stratford Canning, 10; his 
 early years, 1 1 seq^q. ; his school 
 life at Hyde Abbey and Eton, 
 11-lG; verse-maldng, 11, 15, 
 
 31, 32 ; fondness for acting, 
 12, 15 ; indifference to sports, 
 15, 27 ; industry and good be- 
 haviour, 11, 15; fondness for 
 debating at Eton, 15, at Ox- 
 ford, 27-29, and in London, 
 39 ; his contributions to the 
 'Microcosm,' 16-22 ; enters at 
 Lincoln's Inn and at Christ 
 Clnirch, Oxford, 23 ; his fellow- 
 students at Christ Church, 26, 
 27, 38 ; his liabitsasa student, 
 27 ; member of the Speaking 
 Society, 27 ; his I'casons for 
 leaving it, 28, 29 ; inlluence of 
 Dean Jackson upon liim, 26, 
 29 ; a lion in society, 30 ; early 
 interest in the Slavery ques- 
 tion, 32; ignorance of French, 
 
 32, 33, 108-10 ; projected tour 
 in France, 32, 33; takes his 
 degrees at Oxford, 33; prize
 
 Index 
 
 027 
 
 CANNING 
 
 poems, English and Latin, 33, 
 34 ; his training entirely lite- 
 rary, 3;) seqci. ; his ignorance of 
 natural history, 35; his dislilce 
 of Oxford, 37, 38 ; comes to 
 London, 39 ; his early Whig 
 opinions, 39 ; conversion to 
 Toryism, 40-42 ; his introduc- 
 tion to Mr. Pitt, 4G, 47 ; elect- 
 ed member for Newtown, Isle 
 of Wight, 47 ; politics in Eng- 
 land when Canning enters 
 public life, 42-46 ; ridicules 
 Mr. .'Vddington as Speaker, 48 ; 
 his maiden speech, 51, 52 ; 
 other speeches, 52, 53 ; cha- 
 racter of his early speaking, 
 51, 53 ; appointed Under Se- 
 cretary for Foreign Affairs, 54 ; 
 receives a valuable sinecure, 
 54, 71 ; elected for Wendover, 
 54 ; his official work, ih. ; inti- 
 macy with Mr. Pitt, ih. ; rela- 
 tions with Lord Malmcsbury, 
 56; intrigue against Lord 
 Grcnville, 56, 57 ; discontent 
 with his official position, 57- 
 59 ; his dislike of Lord Gren- 
 ville, 57, 58 ; appointed to the 
 Lidia Board, 58; made joint 
 Paymaster of the Forces, 59; 
 on union with Ireland, 59 ; on 
 bull-baiting, ih. ; resigns office 
 on Pitt's retirement, ih.; his 
 contributions to the 'Anti- 
 Jacobin,' 61-63 ; his poem 
 ' The New Morality ' charac- 
 terised and quoted, 63-65 ; 
 his attacks on Coleridge, 
 Lamb, and Sontliey, 65, 67, 
 68 ; his moral and political 
 aims, 67; his literary judg- 
 ments, 68, 222 ; his domestic 
 relations, 69-73 ; alleged pen- 
 sion to his mother, 69 ; AVolcot 
 (Peter Pindar's) attacks upon 
 him, 70-72 ; his marriage, 70 ; 
 
 CANNING 
 
 character of his wife, 70, 73, 
 222 ; his relations with the 
 Princess of Wales, 73 ; sits 
 in the United Parliament for 
 Tralee, 74 ; intrigues against 
 Addington, ih. ; his attacks on 
 him and others in the ' Oracle,' 
 &c,, 75-84 ; his preparation 
 for his speeches, 75, 200 ; his 
 dissatisfaction with Pitt's 
 second Administration, 84 ; 
 appointed Treasurer of the 
 Navy, 86 ; his sqnibs against 
 the Opposition leaders, 86, 87 ; 
 his annoj-ance at Addington's 
 admission into the Cabinet, 
 88 ; his expectation of a seat 
 in the Cabinet, 89; his last 
 visit to Pitt, ih. ; his defence 
 of Melville, 90 ; his squib on 
 Whitbread, 90, 91 ; his quarrel 
 with Hawkesbury and Wal- 
 lace, 91 ; his devotion to 
 Pitt's memory, and defence 
 of him in the House of Com- 
 mons, 92 ; his attack on Lord 
 Chief Justice Ellenborough's 
 admission to the Grenville- 
 Fox Cabinet, 94 ; his doc- 
 trine of Cabinet government, 
 95 ; his attitude towards 
 Grenville and Fox, 96, 99, 
 105; abjm-es connection witli 
 the press, 97 ; his ' Elijah's 
 Mantle,' 97-99; overtures of 
 Grenville and Fox to, 100-101 ; 
 his ^^ew oE the King's place in 
 tlie Government, 101, 105 : 
 refuses furtlier proposals of 
 Grenville, 102, 103; his ob- 
 jection to Mr. Windham"s 
 military schemes, 105 ; his 
 personal pretensions, 106-7 ; 
 appointed Foreign Minister 
 in the Portland Administra- 
 tion, 107-8 ; disorganisation of 
 Foreign Office, 110; his great 
 
 <i2
 
 228 
 
 George Canning 
 
 CANNIXG 
 
 achievements as Foreign Min- 
 ister, 111 ; plans the seizure 
 of the Danish fleet, 113; his 
 knowledge of the secret article 
 of the Treaty of Tilsit, 114; 
 defence of his conduct in 
 Honse of Commons, 115 ; 
 sends Sir Artliur Welleslcy to 
 the Peninsula, 116, 119; dis- 
 approves the Convention of 
 Cintra, 117; his antagonism 
 to Sir John Moore, 117-19; 
 liis disputes with Castlerea^h, 
 ]17, 118, 121-24; his duel 
 with him, 125-2C ; his ri- 
 valry with Perceval, 122-2.J ; 
 his defeat by him and his 
 resignation, 127 ; his relations 
 with Lord Welleslej' and 
 Hookham Frere, 128; over- 
 tures of Perceval to him, 129 ; 
 his parliamentary conduct out 
 of office, 130; his course with 
 respect to the Regency Bill, 
 131 ; further ministerial over- 
 tures to him, 132; his Bullion 
 speech, il). ; his political em- 
 barrassment satirised, 134 ; 
 overtures of Ministers to 
 Canning, 135; intermediary 
 between Lord Wellesley and 
 liOrd Liverpool, 136 ; de- 
 Eoimces oligarchical preten- 
 sions, 136-37, 213-15, 218; 
 declines the Foreign Office 
 without leadershiij of the 
 House of Commons, 137 : liis 
 inconsistent statements tlierc- 
 on, 138 ; distmst of him and 
 preference of Castlcreagli and 
 Perceval, 139 ; general impres- 
 sion of his treachery, 140 ; 
 Moore's lines on, ?&. ; Can- 
 ning out of office, 141-47 ; 
 takes up the Catholic question, 
 141, 144 ; elected for Livei"- 
 pool, 142, 145, 147; on the 
 
 CANNING 
 
 quarrel (1812) with America, 
 1 43, 144 ; on the trade of India 
 witli China, 144 ; supports vote 
 of thanks to Wellington and 
 grant by Government, 1 45 ; 
 his isolation in Parliament, 
 ih.; his Lisbon embassy, 146- 
 48 ; banquets to him at Lis- 
 bon and Bordeaux, 147 ; Presi- 
 dent of Board of Control, 148 ; 
 his Indian policy, 149 ; his 
 relation to the Sidmouth and 
 Castlercagh system, 150-52; 
 his conduct with reference to 
 the trial of Queen Caroline, 
 1 52-57 ; his resignation of 
 office, 152, 157 ; negotiations 
 for his readmission into the 
 Cabinet, 158 ; appointed Go- 
 vernor-General of India, 160; 
 Foreign Secretary and Leader 
 of the House of Commons, 
 160-82; intrigues against 
 him, 161, 175, 182; member for 
 Harwicli, 164 ; contrast be- 
 tween him and Castlereagh, 
 162-63, 164-68; House of 
 Commons under Canning's 
 leadership, 163-64; his opi- 
 nion of the Treaty of Vienna, 
 165; his view of the Holy 
 Alliance, 166; his jDolicj- in 
 regard to the Congress of Ve- 
 rona ; as to Greece, the Slave 
 Trade, Soutli American Inde- 
 pendence, the Spanish Eevo- 
 lution, 168-73; his difficulties 
 with the King, 173-76 ; the 
 King converted to his views, 
 176-77 ; his policy in regard 
 to Greece, Russia, and Turkej', 
 177-80; his intervention on 
 behalf of Portugal, 180-81 ; 
 his visit to Paris and diffi- 
 culties with the Duke of Wel- 
 lington, 181-S2; attends the 
 Duke of York's funeral, and
 
 Index 
 
 229 
 
 CANNING 
 
 visits Lord Liverpool at Bath, 
 and Huskisson ut Eartham, 
 183 ; illness at Brighton, 181 ; 
 conferences with Peel and the 
 King arising out of Lord 
 Liverpools illness, ih. ; King 
 sends for Canning on Liver- 
 pool's resignation, negotiations 
 as to the Premiersliip, and 
 appointment of I'Janning, 184- 
 SG ; his difficulties in forming 
 an administration, refusal of 
 Peel to join him, and secession 
 of live other ilinisters, 187 ; 
 composition and character of 
 the new Ministry, and hostility 
 of the Duke of Wellington, 
 188, 189; divided feelings 
 among the "Whigs, Grey, Lans- 
 downe, and ISrougham, to- 
 wards Canning, 190, 191 ; fa- 
 tigue of Canning, 192, 19o ; 
 his illness and death, 193-19;") ; 
 his funeral, 196 ; provision for 
 liis family opposed in the 
 House of Commons, pension 
 granted to his widow and 
 sons, 197; Canning as an 
 orator, 199; his fastidiousness 
 and elaborate preparation, 199 
 -200 ; spontaneity of his wit ; 
 201, 202 ; his theory of parlia- 
 mentary speaking, 202, 20:; ; 
 illustration of his eloquence, 
 203-208 ; compared as an 
 orator with Pitt and Fox, 209- 
 210; his study of the House 
 of Commons, and failure to 
 command it, 210 ; distrust and 
 fear of him, 211 »eqq.; his 
 political position relative to 
 the Whigs, 211-15; his de- 
 meanour in the Cabinet, and 
 alleged impatience and indo- 
 lence, 219; at home and 
 among his friends, 220-21 ; 
 his literary tasks and produc- 
 
 y 
 
 ^ 
 
 / 
 
 CHARLOTTE 
 
 tions, 222 ; his domestic habits 
 and strong family affection ; 
 lines on his son's death, 223 ; 
 Frere's verses on, 225 
 
 Canning, George Charles, son of 
 the statesman, verses on his 
 death, 223 
 
 Canning, Stratford, uncle of the 
 statesman, and father of Lord 
 Stratford de Kedcliffe, takes 
 charge of George Canning, 10 ; 
 introduces him to the "Whig 
 leaders, 30 
 
 Canning, Mrs., mother of the 
 statesman. ;S<'6' Hunn, Mrs. 
 
 Canning, Mrs. (afterwards Vis- 
 countess Canning), wife of the 
 statesman, 70, 73, 100, 191, 
 222 
 
 Carlisle, Earl of. See ^Morpeth, 
 Viscount 
 
 Carlyle, Thomas, 5, 200 
 
 Caroline, Queen, forme 
 cess of Wales, 1 52-57; 
 
 Castlereagh, Viscount (after 
 wards Marquis of London- 
 derry), his early advancement, 
 58 ; Colonial and War Secre- 
 tary, 108; his quarrel and duel 
 with Canning, 121-26 ; absence 
 from Perceval Ministry, 128, 
 
 129, 132; joins it as^ Foreign 
 Secretary, 133; after Perceval's 
 death leader of the House of 
 Commons, 137; rivalry with 
 Canning, 137-39, 145, 146, 
 149, 150, 152, 211 ; generosity 
 to Canning, 157 ; commits 
 suicide, 100 ; as a public 
 •speaker, 162, 103; his foreign 
 policy, 166-68, 174, 193 
 
 Catholic disabilities, 104, 
 
 130, 135, 141, 142, 173, 
 210 
 
 Caucus, power of, 218 
 Charles X. of France, 181 
 Charlotte, Queen, 8, 21 
 
 rlv Prin- > 
 
 ^'"V'l y^ 
 
 10.-), 
 191, 
 
 y
 
 2.^0 
 
 George Canning 
 
 CHATEAUBRIAND 
 
 Chateaubriand, 193, 222 
 .Chatham, first Earl of, England 
 jr under, 42-41 ; contrast be- 
 tween the elder and the 
 younger Pitt, 45 ; Canning the 
 inheritor of Chatham's foreign 
 policy, 190, 215 ; his feeling 
 towards 'connections,' 213, 214 
 
 Chatham, second Earl of, 103, 
 y' 107, 111, 120, 123, 129 
 
 Chatterton, ' Eowley,' foreeries 
 of, 2 
 
 China, Indian trade with, 145 
 
 Chiswick, death of Fox at, 102; 
 Canning's illness and death 
 there, 192-96 
 
 Christ Church, Oxford, Canning 
 at, 23 scqq. ; the Dean (Cyril 
 Jackson) of, 23-26 ; Speaking 
 Club at, 27-29 ; Canning's 
 associates at, 26-27 ; 37, 38 
 
 Churchill, satires of, 6 
 ^^Cintra, Convention of, IIG-IS 
 
 Clanricarde, Marquis of, son-in- 
 law of Canning, 197 
 
 Clarence, Duke of, Lord High 
 Admiral, 189 
 
 Coleridge, tS. T., attacked by 
 ^ Canning, 65, 67, 68 
 
 Commons, House of, in 1793, 
 48-51 ; in 1823, 162-64 : place 
 of, in the Constitution, 217-18 
 
 Concert. See European 
 
 ' Connections,' Canning on, 136, 
 213-14 
 
 Constitution, English, real and 
 ostensible, 94-96, 218 
 
 Control, ]?oard of. Canning a 
 Commissioner of, 58 ; President 
 of, 148-50 
 
 Copenhagen, bombardment of, 
 112-15 
 
 Corn laws, 150, 190 
 
 Costello, Miss Mary Anne. See 
 Hunn, Mrs. 
 
 Cottage, Royal, cabals at, 174, 
 175 
 
 /t 
 
 DUNDAS 
 
 Council, Orders in, 112, 143 
 
 Creevy, i\Ir., 142, 149 
 •brewe, Mrs., 30, 31 
 
 foker, J. W., 61, 193, 191, 213, 
 214 
 
 Crown, power of, 96, 101, 136, 
 218 
 
 Cumberland, Duke of, imputa- 
 tions on, 130 
 
 Dalrymple, Sir Hew, 116 
 Danish fleet, seizure of, 112 
 Davies, Dr. Jonathan, head- 
 master of Eton, afterwards 
 provost, 13, 14 
 Debating societies at Eton, 15; 
 at Oxford, 27-29 ; in London, 
 39 
 Denmark, Crown Prince of, 113 
 Devonshire, Duke of, 192 
 Dickens, Sir Guy, 5 ; Mr. Gus- 
 
 tavus, 8 
 Disraeli, Benjamin, afterwards 
 ^" Earl of Beaconslield, 18, 37, 
 39, 95, 99, 215 
 Dissenters, Canning's feeling to, 
 
 215, 216 
 Distress and disaffection in 
 
 England, 150-51 
 Dodsley, bookseller, 3, 6 
 Drummond, Sir William, 27 
 Dryden, 5, 222 
 
 Oi'dley and "Ward, Lord, on the 
 Canningites, 145; Canning's 
 alarmist speeches, 150 ; For- 
 eign Secretary, 179, 188 ; his 
 fastidiousness, 192 
 Duel, Canning's, with Castle- 
 
 reagh, 125-26 
 Dundas, Henry (afterwards 
 Viscount Melville), his parlia- 
 mentary efficiency, 49 ; Secre- 
 tary of State and Treasurer of 
 the Navj% 58 ; his impeach- 
 ment, 88, 89 ; Canning's de- 
 fence of, 90 
 
 y
 
 Index 
 
 231 
 
 ' EDIXBURGH REVIEW ' 
 
 ^^DiNBURGH Review,' 63 
 
 ^^ Edmonds, ^Ir. Charles, on writers 
 in ' xVnti-Jacobin,' ()2 
 
 Eldon, Lord Cliancellor, hi^. 
 ^y^ def,n-ce at Oxford, 33 ; liis re- 
 lations with the Princess of 
 Wales, 73 ; his feeling towards 
 Canning, 121, 12i ; on Canning 
 and Perceval, 127 ; on over- 
 tures to Canning, 135 ; on 
 Lord Liverpool's illness, 18i ; 
 on the formation of Canning's 
 Ministry, 186 
 
 Illlenborough, Lord Chief Jus- 
 
 y^ tice, a member of the Cabinet, 
 
 93, 94, 103 ; his judicial 
 
 tj-rannj', 151, 165 
 
 ^■Ellis, Charles, afterwards Lord 
 
 / Seaforth, 27, 73, 125 
 
 Ellis, George, 56, 61, 62 
 y' l'Jlphinstone,Governor of Madras, 
 157 
 
 England under Chatham, 42-44 ; 
 under the younger Pitt, 44-46 ; 
 distress and disaffection in, 
 150-51 
 
 English language, use of, in dip- 
 lomacy, 33 
 
 IDrskine, Thomas (afterwards 
 <^ Lord), his eloquence, 51 ; Lord 
 Chancellor, !)3 
 
 Erskine, Mr. (Minister at Wash- 
 ington), 143 
 
 Esterhazy, Prince, Austrian 
 Ambassador, 173, 176, 177 
 
 Eton, Canning at, 12, 15, 22 
 
 European concert. Canning on, 
 172, 173, 217 
 
 FAr.r.E, Dr., 195 
 Ferdinand YII. of Spain, 171 
 I'itzpatrick, General, 66, 103 
 Fitzwilliam, Earl, 53, 103 
 Foreign Affairs, Canning Under 
 Secretary for, 54-59 ; Principal 
 Secretary of State for, 106- 
 20, 160-82 
 
 GEORGE III. 
 
 Fouche, 114 
 
 Fox, Charles James, Cainiing's 
 early relations with, 39, 46 ; his 
 eloquence and debating power, 
 50, 209 ; his dislike of Can- 
 ning, 54 ; his coalition with 
 North, 66 ; his secession from 
 Parliament, 87 ; on Pitt's 
 funeral and debts, 92; Foreign 
 Minister and parliamentary 
 leader in Grenvillc's Admin- 
 istration, 93, 101, 102, 101 ; 
 attacks of Canning on, 87, 97; 
 his declining health, 99; Can- 
 ning proposed as leader under 
 him, 100, 101; his death, 102, 
 163, 193 
 
 Foxcote, in Warwickshire, Can- 
 nings at, 2 
 
 France, Canning's projected visit 
 to, 32, 33 ; revolutionary ty- 
 ranny in, 52; his visit to Paris, 
 181 ; his feeling towards, 216 
 
 Frederick, afterwards the Great, 
 King of Prussia, 6, 42, 43 
 
 French language. Canning's early 
 ignorance of, 32, 33 ; ridiculed 
 for, 108-10 
 
 Frore, Hookham, at Ei:on, 14; 
 ^' his lilelong attachment to 
 '^ ('anning, 16; on Canning's 
 
 want of scientific knowledge, 
 35 ; his contributions to tlie 
 ' Anti-Jacobin,' 62 ; Tdinister 
 at Madrid, 118, 119, 128; 
 verses on Canning's death, 225 
 
 Gambier, Lord, 113 
 
 Gariick, David, 8, 9 
 
 Garvagh, Londonderry, branch 
 of the Cannings at, barony of 
 in Irish peerage, 6, 197 
 
 Gasco3'no, General, 140 
 
 George III., King, his visits to 
 Eton, 14, 21; his opposition 
 to Catholic claims and his in- 
 sanity, 74; his proscription of
 
 232 
 
 George Canning 
 
 GEORGE, PRINCE OP WALES 
 
 Fox, 85, 89 ; Canning on his 
 place in the Government, 101; 
 ijis disuiissal of Grenville's Ad- 
 ministration on Catliolic ques- 
 tion, lUl-lOo; his attitude to 
 the second Porthind Ministry, 
 107, 121 ; appoints Mr. I'erce- 
 val Portland's successor, 127 ; 
 his final attack of insanity, 130 
 George, Prince of Wales, after- 
 jlf^' wards Prince Picgent and 
 ^ George 17., his readiness of re- 
 partee, l-l: his anger at the 
 regency restriciions, 131 ; feel- 
 ing towards and overtures to 
 Grey and Grenville, Wellesley 
 and Canning, 133, 13G ; his 
 persecution of Queen Caroline, 
 152-57 ; his jjroscription of 
 Canning, 158; his anger with 
 Canning, 161 ; his discontent 
 with Canning's foreign policy, 
 and intrigues against him. 174 
 si'tpl- ; becomes reconciled to 
 him, 177; liis wishes in re- 
 gard to Lord Liverpool's suc- 
 ces.sor, 185 scq^q^. ; appoints 
 Canning First Lord of the 
 Treasury, 186; his falsclioods, 
 11)1 ; his civilities to Canning, 
 177. 195 
 ^ Gitford, William, 62, 70 
 ^^ Gladstone, Mr. (afterwards Sir) 
 y' John, 142, 160 
 ''^.Gladstone, W. E., 15, 99 
 ^ Gloucester House, Canning's re- 
 sidcnt;e at, 220 
 Goddard, Archdeacon, 27 
 Godwin, William, 40-42 
 >*' Gra.nville, Earl. /Sir Leveson- 
 Gower 
 Grattan, Henry, i:!0, 144, 164 
 Gra)% Thomas, 12, 15, 131 
 *' Greece, liberation of, 19, 168- 
 69, 178-180 
 Grenville, Lord, Foreign Secre- 
 tary in Pitt's first Administra- 
 
 HUNN 
 
 tion, 56, 57, 58 ; First Lord of 
 the Treasury, 93, 97. 101 ; pro- 
 poses otlice to Canning, 100- 
 103 ; dismissed by the King, 
 105 ; negotiations of Perceval 
 with, 127; overtures from the 
 Prince llegent to, 131 ; of 
 Wellesley t(j, 136 ; of Liverpool 
 to, 159 
 Grenville, Thomas, 89, 103 
 ^,^Greville, Charles, 191 
 ■^ ,£irey. Earl (formerly Mr. Grey 
 ^ and Viscount Howicdc), Ins 
 eloquence, 50 ; Foreign Secre- 
 tary in succession to Fox, 104 ; 
 his Catholic Military Service 
 Bill, 104-105 ; negotiations 
 with, 127, 131, 133, 13G; his 
 attack on Canning, 191 
 
 Hammond, Mr , 62 
 
 Harcourt, Lord, 8 
 
 Harrowby, Lord. See Eyder, 
 Dudley 
 
 Harwich, Canning's election for, 
 162 
 
 Hastings, Canning's election for, 
 142 
 
 Hastings, Mai-quis of (formerly 
 ^ Earl Moira), 136, 149, 158, 159, 
 165 
 
 .Hawkcsburj^, Lord. Sec Jenkin- 
 ^ son 
 
 Hermopolis, Bishop of, 169-70 
 
 Hertford, Marquis of. See Yar- 
 mouth, Earl of 
 
 Hillsborough, Earl of, 4 
 
 Holland, Lord, 26, 39, 104, 190, 
 202, 213, 218 
 
 Homer, 14 
 
 Hone, W., 61, 151 
 
 Horner, Francis, 132, 133, 164 
 
 Plowick, Viscount. See Gre}^, Earl 
 
 __Jiunn, Mrs. (previously Mrs. 
 
 >^ Canning, then Mrs. Eeddish, 
 
 mother of Canning), her first 
 
 luarriage, 5; her epitaph on
 
 Index 
 
 233 
 
 X* 
 
 HUSKISSON 
 
 her husband, 7 ; ^oes on the 
 sta.qc, and marries Reddish 
 the actor ; afterwards marries 
 Mr. Hunn, 69 ; attacks on her 
 after her retirement, 09-72 ; 
 her character, IW ; Canninj^'s 
 affection for, 69, TiJ, 223 ; her 
 death, 69 
 
 uskisson, WilUam, Under 
 Secretary for Colonies, 49 ; his 
 ineffectiveness in debate, HO ; 
 Secretary of Treasury, 108 ; 
 adheres to Canning, 127 ; his 
 enlightened fiscal views, i:i2 ; 
 First Commissioner of Land 
 Ilcvenue, 145 ; Canning's 
 friendship for, 160; his minis- 
 terial cflicienc.v, 177 ; visit of 
 Canning- to, 183 
 Hyde Abbey School, Canning 
 at, 1] 
 
 India, Canning a Commissioner 
 of, 58 ; trade with China, 141 ; 
 Canning's policy as President 
 of the Board of Control, 149- 
 50; thanked by the Court of 
 Directors, 157 ; nominated as 
 Governor-General, 159 
 
 Ireland, settlement of the Can- 
 nings in, 3 ; parliamentary 
 union with England, 74 ; Irish 
 question a European ques- 
 tion, 173 
 
 Irish Office, relations of, with 
 Home Ofiice, 59 ; Canning pro- 
 posed as Chief Secretary, 85 
 
 LEIGH 
 
 Jenkinson, Robert Ranks Cafter- 
 ^.' wards Lord llawkesbury and 
 Earl of Liverpool), at Oxford, 
 20, 28, 29 ; his maiden speech, 
 46 ; as man of business and 
 debater, 50; Canning's quar- 
 rel with, 91 ; application of 
 George III. to, 92 ; part in pro- 
 posed Grenville-Canning coali- 
 tion, 103 ; Home Secretary, 
 108 ; War and Colonial b.e- 
 cretary, ] 28 ; First Lord of 
 Treasury, 137; his relations 
 with Canning during the pro- 
 ceedings against the Queen, 
 152, 154, 155, 156, 158, 160; 
 his character as Prime Min- 
 ister, 104; his fatal illness, 
 183, 184 
 
 Johnson, Dr., 4, 6, 68 
 
 Jones, Gale, 129 
 
 Junius, Letters of, 6 
 
 Keppel, Admiral, election for 
 
 Windsor, 39 
 King. Sec George III. and George 
 
 1\'. and Crown 
 King's friends, 105 
 Knight, Charles, of Windsor, 
 
 publishes ' Microcosm,' 17 
 Knighton, Sir W., 40, 175, 170, 
 
 177, 194 
 
 y 
 
 ACKSON, Cyril, Dean of Christ 
 Church, his character and in- 
 llnence, 23-20 ; his interest in 
 Canning, and influence on him, 
 29, 40, 108 
 
 Jacobinism, Canning's youthful, 
 39 
 
 James I., his Irish gi-ant to 
 George Canning of Foxcotc, 2 
 
 / 
 
 JL.^MB, Charles, attacked by 
 ^ Canning, 04, 05 
 
 Lamb, William, afterwards Vi';- 
 
 count Alelbourne, attacks 
 
 'Anti-Jacobin' writers, 01-02 
 
 Lambton, Mr., 10, 140, 201 
 
 I^msilowne, first ^larcpiisof. Hvt 
 
 ^ Slielburno 
 
 » Lansdowne, third Marquis of. .SVt 
 / Petty 
 
 La.vbach, circular of, 166 
 Leigh. Mrs. Canning's verses to 
 31
 
 234 
 
 George Canning 
 
 LE MARSHALS 
 
 Le Marshals of Foxcote, 2 
 
 ' Leopard ' and ' Chesapeake,' 
 
 affair of, llo 
 Le Peaiix, La Riiveillere, 64 
 Leveson-Gower, Lord G., after- 
 ^" wards Earl Granville, 2G, 31, 
 '*^ lOU-101, 127, 128, 17G 
 
 Liverpool, Canning member for, 
 y 142, 145, 1C2 
 
 London, Canning born in, 1 ; 
 
 Corporation of, 3 ; Canning's 
 
 return to, 39 ; habits of his 
 
 life in, 219-21 
 London, treaty of, 180 
 Londonderry, settlement of the 
 
 Cannings in, 2 
 Long, Charles, afterwards Lord 
 
 Farnborough, 49, 127 
 Lopez, Mr. Manasseh, 81 
 Louis XVIII. of France, 171 
 Lyndhurst, Lord (Sir John 
 
 "CoplejO, 188, 192 
 Lyte, Mr., his ' History of Eton 
 
 College,' 12 
 
 See 
 
 y 
 
 Melbourne, Viscount. 
 ^ Lamb 
 
 Melville, first Viscount. Sl'C 
 ^' Dundas 
 
 Melville, second Viscount, 188 
 
 Moira, Earl of. >s'/,'6' Hastings 
 .(.k Moore, Sir John, 117-19 
 
 Moore, Thomas, m, 140 
 
 Morniugton, Lord. See AVelles- 
 / ley 
 
 Morpeth, Viscount (afterwards 
 Earl of Carlisle), 26, 61-62, 
 189 
 
 Mulgrave, Lord, 129 
 
 Munroe, General, 157 
 
 Musa3 Etonenses, 15 
 
 NAriER, Sir William, 119 
 Napoleon T., 75, 83, 114, 115, 
 
 116, 119, 146, 166 
 Navarino, battle of, 180, 197 
 
 PEEL 
 
 Neutral it \-, oljligations of, 143 
 Newcastle, Duke of, 184 
 Newport, Canning's election for, 
 
 188 
 Newspapers, rising importance 
 
 of, 6 
 Newton, Mr. John Frank, 27, 28, 
 
 29,^2, 37,38, 109 
 Newtown, Cannings election for, 
 
 47, 142 
 Nicholas, Emperor of Eussia, 
 
 178, 179 
 Non-Intercourse Act (United 
 
 States), 143 
 Nugent, Lord, 203, 204, 205 
 
 O'Neill, Sir Phelira, his rebel- 
 lion, 1 
 
 ' Oracle,' the, and other papers, 
 Canning's squibs in, 75-84 
 
 Oxford, Canning goes to, 23; 
 effect of its studies on him, 
 35-37 ; his dislike of, 37-38 
 
 Palmerston, Viscount, 99, 115, 
 ^' 128, 215 
 
 Pamphlets, importance of, 6 
 
 Parliament, British. See Com- 
 mons, House of 
 
 Parliament, Irish. See Ireland 
 
 Paymaster-General (joint). Can- 
 ning appointed, 59 
 
 Pedro, Dom, King of Portugal 
 and Emperor of Brazil, 180 
 
 Peel, Mr. (afterwards Sii") 
 y Piobert, on Canning's intrigues, 
 ^ 140; Home Secretary, 158; 
 his parliamentary adroitness, 
 161; opposition to Canning's 
 foreign policy, 170, 215 ; his 
 ministerial cliiciency, 177 ; ne- 
 gotiations with Canning cur 
 Liverpool's resignation, 184, 
 185, 186 ; his alleged treachery 
 on Catholic question, 187 ; re-
 
 Index 
 
 -'35 
 
 PELLEW 
 
 signs Home Oflice, ISS; his 
 parliamentary rivalry with 
 Canning, 211 
 
 Pcllew, Dean, his Life of Sid- 
 raouth, 8i 
 
 reiiiusula, War in the, began, 
 112 
 
 Perceval, Spencer, his early rc- 
 ^^ lationship witli Princess of 
 Wales, 73 ; Canning's arrange- 
 ments for, 100, 102 ; his rivalry 
 with Canning, 105, 117, 122- 
 25 ; Prime Minister, 128 ; his 
 qualities as leader, 129; his 
 Regency Bill, 130, 131 ; his 
 assassination, 135 ; his youth- 
 ful Radicalism, 168 
 
 Petersfield, Canning elected for, 
 142 
 
 I^ett}-, Lord Henry, afterwards 
 ^^ ]\Iarquis of Lansdowne, 98, 
 107, 163, 18S, 190 
 
 Pindaree war, 149 
 
 yitt, William, the younger, Can- 
 ning's sympathy with, 41, 55, 
 92, 97-99, 213 ; two periods of 
 his administration, 44-46; Can- 
 ning's introduction to him, 47 ; 
 his parliamentary eloquence, 
 49, 209 ; head of peace party 
 in the Cabinet, 56; attacked 
 in the ' RoUiad,' d^ ; his views 
 (jf the union with Ireland, 74 ; 
 his resignation and return to 
 office, 74, 85 ; his proposals to 
 Fox, Grenville, Canning, and 
 Addington, 85, 86, 88, 89 ; his 
 death, 89 ; his unhappiness 
 out of office, 09, 100; Mr. Pitts 
 fi'iends, 105, 164 ; his commer- 
 cial principles, 45, 147, 189, 
 1 90 ; his opposition to political 
 'connections,' 213, 214 
 
 Plantation of Ulster, 2 
 
 Plunket, Mr., afterwards Lord, 
 J^ 164 
 
 Polo, Wclleslcv, 148 
 
 y 
 
 ROBINSON 
 
 Polignac, Cardinal, 3 
 
 * Political Eclogues ' and ' Proba- 
 tionary Odes,' 65 
 
 Political literature in England, G 
 
 Ponsoiibj-, George, 115 
 
 Pope, Alexander, 1, 5 
 
 Portland, third Duke of. Home 
 Secretary, 59 ; resigns Presi- 
 dency of Council, 88 ; his over- 
 tures to the King, 106 ; Prime 
 Minister, 107 ; his incapacitv, 
 111, 122; informed of the 
 designs of France on Portugal, 
 113; his part in the Castle- 
 reagh-Canning quarrel and 
 resignation, 121-23 
 
 Portland, fourth Duke of, 70, 
 188 
 
 Portugal, affairs of, 113, IIC, 
 146, 180, ISl 
 
 Prime Minister, constitutional 
 position of, 95, 218 
 
 Putne.v, battle of, 119, 125-2G 
 
 y^: 
 
 UARTERLY REVIEW,' 63, 220, 
 222 
 Queen. See Charlotte, and Caro- 
 line 
 
 Radical reform, 218 
 Rebellions, Irish, 3 
 Reddish, the actor, 9, 10, f>9 
 Reform, parliamentary, 53, 142, 
 
 217-19 
 Regency Bill, 130-32 
 Regent, Prince. See George 
 Repressive legislation in Eng- 
 land, 150-52 
 Ricliards, Mr., of Hj'de Abbey 
 
 School, 11, 12 
 Roberts, Dr., Provost of Eton, 13 
 lobinson, ^Ir. Frederick (after- 
 wards Viscount Goderich and 
 Earl of Ripon), his parlia- 
 mentary and business qualities,
 
 2\6 
 
 George Canning 
 
 ' ROLLIAD ' 
 
 164, 177, 191, 211; his poli- 
 tical views, 186, 3 90 
 'flolliad,' the, Go, 66, 71 
 .. Eomilly, Sir Samuel, 94, 129 
 y^y' Eose, George, 49, 89, 96, 127 
 ''^^'llush, Mr., United States Min- 
 •^ ister, 202, 220 
 
 Eiissell, Lord John (afterwards 
 v^ ' Earl), 164, 203, 215 
 ^ Piussia, affairs of, 168, 171, 17.j, 
 178, 179 
 Bydcr, Dudley, afterwards Lord 
 ^/^ Harrowby, 59 
 
 Eyder, llichard, 128, 129 ^' 
 
 Salisbuey, Marquis of, 36 
 
 Scheldt. See Walcheren 
 
 Scott, General, his curious will, 
 
 70 
 Scott, Sir Walter, 1, 40, 147, 222 
 Shaftesbury, seventh Earl of, 
 
 140 
 Sharp, Richard, 212 
 Shelburne, Earl of (afterwards 
 ^- Marquis of Lansdowne). 190 
 ^Slieridan, E. B., liis Bob Acres, 
 r ^^ 19 ; his early relations with 
 Canning, 39, 46; his elo- 
 ^ quence, 50, 201-202; Canning's 
 
 /attacks on, 81, 84, 87 
 Sinecures, Canning on, 130 
 Slave trade. Canning's views on, 
 32, 50, 168-170; abolition of, 
 102 
 Smith, Adam, io, 190 
 Smith, 'Bobus,' 17 
 Smith, James, 17, 22 
 Smith, Sydney, 221 
 Smollett, Tobias, 4 
 Somerset, Lord Cliarles, 107 
 South America, atlairs of, 168, 
 
 171, 172, 173, 174, 177 
 Southej% Robert, 67, 68 
 > Spain, airuirs of, 116, 118, 170, 
 171, 172, ISO, 181,182 
 Speaking Club at Christ Church, 
 27-29," 183 
 
 VIMIERA 
 
 ' Spectator,' the, 13, 15 
 Spencer, Earl, 53 
 Spencer, Lord Henry, 17, 27, 29 
 Spencer, William, 27, 31 
 StanhoiJc, Lady Hester, 47, 50, 
 
 88, 140 
 Stanhope, Spencer, 94 
 Stapleton, Augustus, 114, 148, 
 
 177, 184, 193, 194, 200 
 Steele, Sir Richard, 1 
 Stowell, Lord, 154, 203 
 Stratford de Redclitfe, Viscount, 
 
 6, 197 
 
 Talleyrand, 57, 114 
 Theoi^hilanthropists, sect of, 64 
 Thompson, Seth, D.D., 4 
 Tichlield, Marquis of. See Port- 
 land, fourth Duke of 
 Tierney, Mr., 50, 81, 84, 164, 190, 
 
 207 
 Tierney, Sir Matthew, 194, 195 
 Tilsit, treaty of, 112 
 'Tomkins, Silly Mr.,' 178 
 Toryism, Canning's conversion 
 to, 41 ; his later position to- 
 wards, 211 
 Tralee, Canning elected for, 74 
 Treasurership of Na^'j', Canning 
 desirous of, 58 ; appointed to, 
 86 
 Turkey, affairs of, 168, 178-180 
 
 Ulster, plantation of, 2 
 Union, Act of. See Ireland 
 United States, controversies 
 with, 143, 144 
 
 /VAN.siTTART,N.(afterwards Lord 
 y<^ Bexley), 27, 83, 133, 148, 188 
 Verona, congress of, 167 
 Vienna, congress of, 147 ; treaty 
 
 of, 165 
 Vimiera, battle of, 116
 
 Index 
 
 237 
 
 ^ 
 
 WALCHEREN 
 Walcheuex expedition, 122, 
 
 12;{ 
 
 ^Vak's, Princu of. See George IV. 
 
 ■\\'ales, Princess of. <SVr Caroline, 
 (Jiicen 
 
 "Wallace, ]Mr. (afterwards Lord), 
 38,91 
 
 War, Peninsular, 112 
 
 llesley, JMarqui.s (formerly 
 Lord MomiiTj-fiui), at Eton, 
 1-1, 16-; JrmiVa- Ldrd of Trea- 
 sury, 49 ; as debater, 50 ; min- 
 isterial neg-otiations with, 100, 
 123, 135, 13G ; British Minister 
 in Spain, 119 ; Foreign Secre- 
 tary, 128, 129 ; resigns, 133 ; 
 acts in concert with Canning, 
 141, 145 
 
 Wellington, Duke of (Sir Arthur 
 WcnesTey), ■■■ CTitef Secretary 
 for Ireland, 108 ; in the Penin- 
 sular War, 112, 116, 119, 120, 
 129 ; at the Congress of Ve- 
 rona, 108; his antagonism to 
 Canning, 172,173, 179, 181, 182, 
 18G; declines to serve under 
 Canning, resigns the ]\Iaster- 
 Generalship of the Ordnance, 
 188, and the command-in- 
 chief; his dislike and dispa- 
 ragement of Canning, 189, 
 219 
 Wendover, Canning elected for, 
 U 
 
 YORKE 
 
 We.st, tlie painter, 11 
 Western, Maximilian, 38 
 Westmoreland, Lcrd, 58, 103, 
 
 107, 188 
 Whigs, Cannings earlj' connec 
 tion with, 39 ; their junction 
 with Pitt, 53 ; their olignr- 
 chical pretensions, 136 ; their 
 coalition with Canning, 190, 
 211; Canning's dislike of 
 them, 218 
 .Whitbread, Samuel, 51, 110-91, 
 /' 145 
 
 Wilberforce, William, 11, 15 59, 
 75, 137, 140, 153, 197, 199, 
 207 
 Wilkes, John, 6, 44 
 Wilson, Sir Robert, 203 
 Windham, William, 49, 53, 87, 
 
 92, 98, 103, 163 
 Wolcot, Dr. John (Peter Pindar), 
 y 34. 70-72 
 / Wolfe, General, 43 
 ^ Wolfe, Eev. C, 119 
 Wood, Alderman, 153 
 Wortlej'', Stuart, i;?5 
 Wright, the publisher, 61 
 Wynn, Charles W., 159, 160, 17;; 
 
 ^ 
 
 Yarjiol'Th, Earl of, 125 
 Yelpcrs.the, 192,193 
 York, Duke of, 24, 130, i:!3, 
 Yorke, Charles, 89, 103, 129 
 
 1 S3 
 
 y^ 
 
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 on Various Occasions . . 3 
 
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 Very Rev. Charles Meriviil\ 
 
 
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 'Homes ^vithout Himds.' 
 
 
 Froude, M.A. 
 
 
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