George Canning, 1st Viscount Canning

“ The queen's return to England being now expected, Mr. Canning resigned his place in the cabinet as president of the Board of Controul, and retired to the Continent. One of his biographers says, "His conduct on this occasion, according to universal consent, was marked by the most perfect correctness and delicacy of feeling." Perhaps it might be so considered by some people; but to us it does appear that a man of sound public principles, of high and [340] honourable private feelings, had no middle course to take at this juncture. ”

“ In the entire annals of British diplomacy there is scarcely a more picturesque or virile figure than that of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe. Capacity for public affairs ran in the blood of the Cannings, as the three statues which to-day stand side by side in Westminster Abbey proudly attest. Those marble memorials represent George Canning, the great Foreign Minister, who in the famous, if grandiloquent, phrase ‘called the New World into existence to redress the balance of the Old;’ his son Charles, Earl Canning, first [219] Viceroy of India ”

“ The choice, therefore, lay between Canning without these, and these without Canning. The duke and his friend contrived to leave an impression on the king's mind that they were trying to dictate to him, and this was quite enough to turn the scale in Canning's favour. George IV, who, if he cared for nothing else, cared a good deal about his own prerogative and his right to name his own ministers, told the Duke of Buckingham, almost in so many words, that this was his reason for giving the seals to Canning, who accordingly on 10 April received his majesty's commands to form a new administration. ”

“ No law will be handed down to posterity protected by his support. After generations will see in him a lamentable proof of prostituted talent, and little or nothing to claim their gratitude. The memorialist may delight in painting the talents he displayed, but the historian will find little to say of the benefits he bestowed. Mr. Canning was very irritable and bold in his manners. He defended his conduct in the House and out of it; that is to say, he made some bitter speeches in parliament, and wrote three challenges, or demands for explanation: one to Mr. ”

“ Before entering parliament he had for three years served as private secretary to Mr. Canning, whose sagacity was seldom at fault in the selection of persons of indisputable ability. The great statesman was connected with Lord George, for he married the sister of the Duke of Portland. The young nobleman’s powers of observation were such, that he was not likely to be in constant and intimate communication with such a man as Canning, without gleaning some political intelligence and experience. ”

“ He was one of the principal friends and advisers of Caroline of Brunswick, George IV.'s repudiated wife. Hence his particular merit in Lamb's eyes. Later he administered the affairs of the Duke of Kent, whose trustee he was, and his baronetcy was the first bestowed by Queen Victoria. The sonnet contains another of Lamb's attacks on Canning. This statesman's mother, after the death of George Canning, her first husband, in 1771, took to the stage, where she remained for thirty years. Canning was at school at Eton. The course on which Wood was adjured to hold was the defence of Queen Caroline ”

“ Among the toasts given at one of the banquets held in honour of the victory of Ayacucho, Mr. Canning’s health was drank in the following terms:—“El Sabio Ministro de Inglaterra, el primer Estadista del mundo, el Honorable George Canning, fiel amigo de la libertad! la justicia preside en sus deliberaciones; su nombre sera un motivo de placer para nostros, y para las generaciones que nos sucedan.” Translation: “The learned Minister of England, the first Statesman in the world, the Honourable George Canning, the faithful friend of liberty! justice presides in his deliberations ”

“ Of Canning at this period one of his intimate friends thus speaks:—"Great as his talents for Parliament are, and great as is the want of them on the Ministerial side of the House, it is not without the utmost reluctance that the rest of the Cabinet will consent to receive him as an associate. If they make him any proposal, it will be only because they are forced to it by the opinion and wishes of their own friends, and if they make him a fair proposal, it will be a clear proof that they think that the Government cannot go on without his aid." ”

“ What one king had gained from a clique another gave up to the nation. Once more, on Lord Liverpool’s death in 1827, the same question was tried with the same result. The king not only disliked Canning personally, but he was opposed to Canning’s policy. Yet after some hesitation he accepted Canning as prime minister; and when, after Canning’s death and the short ministry of Lord Goderich, the king in 1828 authorized the duke of Wellington to form a ministry, he was content to lay down the principle that the members of it were not expected to be unanimous on the Catholic question. ”

“ George Canning, the English foreign minister, soon discovered that this hint foreshadowed a new congress to be devoted especially to the American problem. Spain was to be restored to her sovereignty, but was to pay in liberal grants of American territory to whatever powers helped her. Canning is regarded as the ablest English foreign minister of the nineteenth century; at least no one better embodied the fundamental aspirations of the English people. He realized that liberal England would be perpetually a minority in a united Europe, as Europe was then organized. ”

“ Everything leads me to believe that the discussion will rather turn on the particular official situation to be held by Canning, than on the vesting in him the lead of the House of Commons, the necessity of which seems to be so generally and strongly felt, that opposition to it must be ineffectual. At the same time nothing is yet known of Peel's sentiments, and there will not be wanting those among his friends who will urge him to refuse serving under Canning. ”

“ In 1836 he entered parliament, being returned as member for the town of Warwick in the Conservative interest. He did not, however, sit long in the House of Commons; for, on the death of his mother in 1837, he succeeded to the peerage which had been conferred on her with remainder to her only surviving son, and as Viscount Canning took his seat in the House of Lords. His first official appointment was that of under-secretary of state for foreign affairs, in the administration formed by Sir Robert Peel in 1841—his chief being the earl of Aberdeen. ”

“ My uncle Tom is very favourably inclined to Canning's proposition, as he thinks that the admission of the general proposition is too great a change to expect at once from the House of Lords, while the proposition of the strongest of the detailed points, one by one, might be more likely to succeed. With this view, he told me that he had himself more than once suggested trying a personal Bill to enable the present Duke of Norfolk to sit and vote, and afterwards for the other peers, leaving the laws as they stand. ”

“ The king objected to his readmission after the queen's death, and he was a private member of parliament when he was offered and undertook the governor-generalship of India in March, 1822. But his departure was delayed until August, and he was on his way to bid farewell to his constituents at Liverpool when Castlereagh destroyed himself. It was generally felt that no other man was so well qualified as Canning to succeed him. ”

“ Canning's phrase, who had hitherto absorbed the power and patronage of the State. United in principle, they were divided by personal jealousies. The long possession of office had given a sort of impunity to their pretensions; and believing that they held a perpetual tenure of Administration, they were weak enough, at every new ministerial change, to contend amongst themselves for the prizes. These internal dissensions weakened and scattered them, and prepared the way for those experiments which were made, during the early years of George III., to conduct the Government without their aid. ”

“ A statue of Earl Canning, Viceroy of India, son of George Canning Foley.
On the left is one to the memory of George Canning, born April 11, 1770; died August 8, 1827:—“Endowed with a rare combination of talents, an eminent statesman, an accomplished scholar, an orator, surpassed by none, he united the most brilliant and lofty qualities of the mind, with the warmest affections of the heart; raised by his own merit, he successfully filled important offices in the state, and finally became first minister of the Crown. ”

“ It is difficult to make up one's mind whether it would, on the whole, be more desirable to see Canning at the Exchequer or in the Foreign Office. I rather believe that by Huskisson's assistance he would discharge the duties of the former office better than the latter, to which the disinclination of Carlton House and the very unconciliating style of correspondence in which he indulges himself (and of which the records of the Board of Control have shown me some specimens) are great objections. ”

“ Canning, equally high-spirited, felt that he had got into a disagreeable business, and that the fairest escape from it would be to fight his way out. Lord Castlereagh's conduct, when we think of a sober and wise statesman, is ridiculous. Mr. Canning's, when we picture to ourselves a high-minded and frank-hearted gentleman, in spite of the plausibility of explanations, is displeasing.
The wretched policy of this year required fifty-four millions of money to support it. ”

“ Canning could serve the king and the cause of the person so much disliked by his majesty!" This circumstance affords indubitable proof, that a man in office can never prove himself free from the trammels of party, or unwarped by elevation to power. Humanity and generosity were, however, alike forgotten in this case for interested motives,—a meanness which no man of integrity would have committed. ”

“ Lord George Bentinck said "they hounded to the death my illustrious relative"; and the ardor of his subsequent opposition to Sir Robert Peel evidently derived its intensity from a long cherished sense of the injuries supposed to have been inflicted upon Mr. Canning. It is the opinion of men not ill informed respecting the sentiments of Canning, that he considered Peel as his true political successor—as a statesman competent to the task of working out that large and liberal policy which he fondly hoped the tories might, however tardily, be induced to sanction. ”

“ A statesman, however gifted, despatched from England to rule a country with a population of two hundred and fifty millions, must be for some time after his arrival dependent on the councillors bequeathed to him by his predecessor. Now, the predecessor of Lord Canning had been a very masterful man: a born ruler of men; a man who required, not councillors with whom to consult, but servants to carry out his orders. ”

“ I am quite at a loss now to account for the non-communication. Your conjecture is, most probably, that the party who do not feel the weight of the Government are too strong at present to enable the efficient members to accomplish their object: at the same time, it is quite clear something must be done. If they get both Canning and Peel, they may do; but I don't look to this. The former claims too much, and there is a great portion of the Cabinet who hate him. ”

“ Canning is very anxious not to lose the moment; and I suppose that this must be the prelude of our admitting the independence of South America; however, the mission is secret, but he is commissioned, and has the rank of Minister Plenipotentiary. It is a long and desolate prospect, but the scene will be new. He is not quite reconciled to it, but having no better prospect, I think he has done wise in accepting it; they give him two secretaries. I would not wish you to mention this appointment. I find Canning is by no means of opinion that France has or will succeed in her efforts in Spain ”

“ From that moment, during the short remainder of his life Canning had to undergo the same bitter experience as Pitt in 1804, and to suffer a cruel retribution for his aggressive petulance. All his strongest colleagues, except Huskisson, deserted him. The resignation of Lord Eldon, since 1821 Earl of Eldon, must have been expected, terminating, as it did, the longest chancellorship since the Norman conquest. But Canning seems to have really hoped that he might secure the support of Wellington by the assurance of his desire to carry out the principles of Liverpool's government. ”

“ My estimate of Peel is, I am aware, higher than yours. I agree with you that he cannot supply the effect of one of Canning's glittering, eloquent speeches; still, he combines greater advantages at this moment than any other man in the House of Commons.
Talent, independent fortune, official habits and reputation, and, above all, general character both in and out of Parliament, have, I am persuaded, disposed more men to follow and more to unite with him than any person whom you can name among us. ”

“ Mr. Canning’s next appointment was, in Feb. 1804, to the Veteran 64, Captain (now Sir Richard) King, fitting out at Chatham, for the Boulogne station. In the ensuing year, he followed that officer into the Achille 74; of which ship he was fourth lieutenant at the memorable battle of Trafalgar. On his return to England, in Dec. 1805, he was appointed first of the Princess Charlotte frigate, Captain George Tobin, then at the Leeward Islands, whither he proceeded in the Mediator 44, taking with him an introductory letter to Rear-Admiral Cochrane, commander-in-chief on that station. ”