MR. CANNING. -GEORGE CANNING was born in London on the 11th of April, 1770. His father, who belonged to an Irish family of distinction, had been disinherited for marrying beneath his rank, and was trying his fortune as a barrister in the English metropolis with very scanty means of subsistence. He died one year after the birth of his son, leaving a widow, with three young children, wholly destitute of property, and dependent for support on her own exertions. Under these circumstances, Mrs. Canning, who was a woman of extraordinary force of character, first set up a small school, and soon after attempted the stage. She was successful in her provincial engagements, especially at Bath and Exeter; and in the latter place she married a linen-draper of the name of Hunn, who was passionately attached to theatrical performances, and united with her in the employment of an actor. A few years after, she was again left a widow by the death of Mr. Hunn; but her profession gave her a competent independence, until she saw her son raised to the highest honors of the state, and was permitted to share in the fruits of his success.1 George was educated under the care of his uncle, Mr. Stratford Canning, a London merchant, out of the proceeds of a small estate in Ireland, which was left him by his grandmother. He was first sent to school at Hyde Abbey, near Winchester, where he made uncommon proficiency in the rudiments of Latin and Greek, and was particularly distinguished for his love of elegant English literature. On one occasion, when a mere child, being accidentally called upon to repeat some verses, he commenced with one of the poems of Mr. Gray, and never stopped or faltered until he had gone through the entire volume. His mother's employment naturally led him to take a lively interest in speaking, and especially in acting dialogues; and in one instance, when the boys performed parts out of the Orestes of Euripides, previous to a vacation, he portrayed the madness of the conscience-stricken matricide with a force and tenderness which called forth the liveliest applause of the audience. Before he was fifteen, George went to Eton, and carried with him a high reputation for writing Latin and Greek verses, which always confers distinction in the great schools of England. He was at once recognized as a boy of surprising genius and attainments; and he used the influence thus gained in promoting his favorite pursuit, that of elegant English literature. When a little more than sixteen, he induced the boys to establish a weekly paper called the Microcosm, to which he contributed largely, and acted as principal editor. Its pages bore such striking marks of brilliancy and wit, as to attract the attention of the leading reviews; and the work became the means of training up some of the most distinguished men of the age to those habits of early composition, which Sir James Mackintosh speaks of as indispens able to the character of a truly great writer. 1 It is a high testimony to Mr. Canning's manliness and warmth of heart, that he never attempted throw any covering over his mother's early history, but treated her openly throughout life with the utmost reverence and affection. He visited her at her residence in Bath as often as his public employments would permit, and never allowed any business, however urgent, to prevent him from writing to her every Sunday of his life. He obtained pensions for his mother and sisters; and when attacked on the subject, defended himself to the satisfaction of all by saying that, in retiring From his office of Under Secretary in 1801, he was entitled to a pension of £500 a year, and had only procured the settlement of a fair equivalent on his dependent relatives. His attention, while at Eton, was also strongly turned to extemporaneous speak ing. He joined a society for debate, in which the Marquess of Wellesley, Earl Grey and other distinguished statesmen had gone before him in their preparation as orators, and had introduced all the forms of the House of Commons. The Speaker was in the chair; the minister, with his partisans, filled the Treasury benches, and were faced by the most strenuous Opposition that Eton could muster. The enthusiasm with which Canning and his companions entered into these mimic contests was but ittle inferior to what they felt in the real ones that followed, and for which they were thus preparing the way. Canning, especially, showed throughout life the influence of his early habits of writing in conjunction with extemporaneous debate. His speeches bear proofs on every page of the effects of the pen in forming his spoken style. On every important debate, he wrote much beforehand, and composed more in his mind, which flowed forth spontaneously, and mingled with the current of his thoughts, in all the fervor of the most prolonged and excited discussion. Hence, while he had great ease and variety, he never fell into that negligence and looseness of style which we always find in a purely extemporaneous speaker. After standing foremost among his companions at Eton in all the lower forms, George became "captain" of the school, and was removed to Christ Church, Oxford, in October, 1788. The accuracy and ripeness of his scholarship turned upon him the eyes of the whole University, and justified his entering, even when a freshman, into competition for the Chancellor's first prize, which he gained by a Latin poem entitled "Iter ad Meccam Religionis Causâ Susceptum." The distinction which he thus early acquired, he maintained, throughout his whole college course, by a union of exemplary diligence with a maturity of judgment, refinement of taste, and brilliancy of genius far beyond his years. In Mr. Canning we have one of the happiest exhibitions of the results produced by the classical course pursued at Eton and Oxford, which," whatever may be its defects, must be owned," says Sir James Mackintosh, "when taken with its constant appendages, to be eminently favorable to the cultivation of sense and taste, as well as to the development of wit and spirit." The natural effect, however, of this incessant competition, in connection with the early tendencies of his mind and his remarkable success, was to cherish that extreme sensitiveness to the opinion of others, that delight in superiority, that quick sense of his own dignity, that sensibility to supposed neglect or disregard, which, with all his attractive qualities, made him in early life not always a pleasant companion, and sometimes involved him in the most serious difficulties. But, though he never lost his passion for distinction, it was certainly true of him, as said by another, "As he advanced in years, his fine countenance, once so full of archness or petulance, was ennobled by the expression of thought and feeling; he now pursued that lasting praise which is not to be earned without praiseworthiness; and if he continued to be a lover of fame, he also passionately loved the glory of his country." Mr. Canning left the University in the twenty-second year of his age, and after giving a few months to the study of the law, was invited by Mr. Pitt, who had heard of his extraordinary talents, to take a seat in Parliament as a regular supporter of the government. His first predilections were in favor of Whig principles. He had been intimate with Mr. Sheridan from early life, but differed from him wholly in respect to the French Revolution, and was thus prepared to look favorably on the proposals of Mr. Pitt. After mutual explanations, he accepted the offer, and was re turned to Parliament from one of the ministerial boroughs at the close of 1793, ir the twenty-fourth year of his age. Mr. Canning's maiden speech was in favor of a subsidy to the King of Sardinia and was delivered on the 31st of January, 1794. It was brilliant, but wanting in solidity and judgment; and in general it may be remarked, that he rose slowly intc those higher qualities as a speaker, for which he was so justly distinguished during the later years of his life. He was from the first easy and fluent; he knew how to play with an argument when he could not answer it; he had a great deal of real wit, and too much of that ungenerous raillery and sarcasm, by which an antagonist may be made ridiculous, and the audience turned against him, without once meeting the question on its true merits. There was added to this an air of disregard for the feelings of others, and even of willingness to offend, which doubled the sense of injury every blow he struck; so that during the first ten years of his parliamentary career, he never made a speech, it was said, on which he particularly plumed himself, without making likewise an enemy for life. He was continually acting, as one said who put the case strongly, like "the head of the sixth form at Eton: squibbing the doctor,' as Mr. Addington was called-fighting my Lord Castlereagh-cutting heartless jokes on poor Mr. Ogden-flatly contradicting Mr. Brougham-swaggering over the Holy Alliance-quarreling with the Duke of Wellington-perpetually involved in some personal scrape." These habits, however, gradually wore off as he advanced in life, and his early political opponents were warmest in their commendations of his conduct at the close of his political career. In 1797, Mr. Canning projected the Anti-Jacobin Review, in conjunction with Mr. Jenkinson and Mr. Ellis (afterward Lords Liverpool and Seaford), Mr. Frere, and other writers of the same stamp. Mr. Gifford was editor, and its object was to bear down the Radical party in politics and literature, and to turn upon them the contempt of the whole nation by the united force of argument and ridicule. It took the widest range, from lofty and vehement reasoning to the keenest satire and the most bitter personal abuse. It applied the lash with merciless severity to all the extravagances of the day in taste and sentiment-the mawkish sensibility of the Della Cruscan school, the incongruous mixtures of virtue and vice in the new German drama, and the various improvements in literature introduced by Holcroft, Thelwall, and others among the Radical reformers. Such an employment was perfectly suited to the taste of Mr. Canning. It was an exercise of ingenuity in which he always delighted; and a large part of the keenest wit, the most dextrous travesty, and the happiest exhibitions of the laughable and burlesque, were the productions of his pen. The most striking poetical effusions were his. Among these, the "Knife-grinder," and the "Loves of Mary Pottinger," are admirable in their way, and will hold their place among the amusing extravaganzas of our literature, when the ablest political diatribes of the Anti-Jacobin are forgotten." The reader may be pleased, as a specimen, to see Mr. Canning's sapphics on the Knife-grinder intended as a burlesque on a fashionable poet's extreme sensibility to the sufferings of the poor, and his reference of all their distresses to political causes. It was also designed to ridicule his Lobbling verse and abrupt transitions. THE FRIEND OF HUMANIZY AND THE KNIFE-GRINDER. Friend of Humanity. Needy knife-grinder! whither are you going? Rough is the road; your wheel is out of order; Bleak blows the blast; your hat has got a hole in't, Weary knife-grinder! little think the proud ones, Who in their coaches roll along the turnpike- Scissors to grind O!" Tell me, knife-grinder, how came you to grind knives? In July, 1800, Mr. Canning married Miss Joan Scott, daughter of General Scott and sister to Lady Tichfield, afterward Duchess of Portland. She had a fortune of £100,000, which placed him at once in circumstances of entire independence, while he gained an increase of influence by his family alliances. In a sketch like this, only the leading incidents can be given in the political ca reer of Mr. Canning. He was actively engaged in public life for nearly thirty-four years, eleven of which were spent in connection with Mr. Pitt. His first office was that of Under Secretary of State. He went out with his patron during Mr. Addington's brief ministry, and came in with him again, as Treasurer of the Navy, in 1804. On Mr. Pitt's death, early in 1806, he was not included (as he had reason to expect) in Lord Grenville's arrangements, and went into opposition. During his whole life, he was the ardent champion of the "Great Minister's" principles, and the defender of his fame. In the London Quarterly for August, 1810, he gave an estimate of Mr. Pitt's character and a defense of his political life, which for ingenuity of thought, richness of fancy, and splendor of diction, has never been surpassed in the periodical literature of our language. It came warm from his heart. He truly said to his constituents at Liverpool, "In the grave of Mr. Pitt my political allegiance lies buried." On the accession of the Duke of Portland to power (March, 1807), Mr. Canning became Secretary of Foreign Affairs, and for the first time a member of the cabinet. But, at the end of two years, he had a personal altercation with Lord Castlereagh (then Secretary of War), resulting in a duel, which not only threw both of them out of office, but dissolved the Portland ministry. Mr. Canning now remained out of power for some years, though regular in his attendance on Parliament. He took independent ground during Mr. Percival's ministry of a year and a half, and delivered at this time his celebrated speech on the Bullion Question, exposing the current fallacy, "It is not paper that has fallen, but gold which has risen," and calling, in the strongest terms, for the resumption of cash [Kicks the knife-grinder, overturns his wheel, and exit in a transport o republicar enthusiasm and universal philanthropy.] payments. This speech, though interesting no longer to the general reader, has been truly characterized as "one of the most powerful and masterly specimens on record of chaste and reasoning eloquence." The question lay out of Mr. Canning's ordinary range of thought, and the ability with which he took it up proved (what his friends had always said) that no man could more promptly, or with greater effect, turn the whole force of his mind on any new subject, however foreign to his ordinary pursuits. Under his friend Lord Liverpool [Mr. Jenkinson], who followed Mr. Percival in June, 1812, he gave his cordial support to the ministry, though excluded from office by his views in favor of Catholic emancipation. To him especially, at this period, was Lord Wellington indebted for an enthusiastic support during his long and terrible conflict in Spain. It was under the policy and guidance of Canning, as Secretary of Foreign Affairs in 1808, that this conflict commenced; and he never ceased to animate the country to fresh sacrifices and efforts in battling with Bonaparte for the rescue of the Peninsula. It was the first favorable opportunity ever presented for carrying out the continental policy of Mr. Pitt, and it was always the theme of Mr. Canning's proudest exultations. "If there is any part of my political conduct," said he, "in which I glory, it is that in the face of every difficulty, discouragement, and prophecy of failure, mine was the hand which committed England to an alliance with Spain." In 1812, Mr. Canning was invited to stand as a candidate for Liverpool, and, though powerfully opposed by Mr. Brougham, he carried his election, and was again eturned, on three subsequent occasions, with continually increasing majorities. Two speeches to his constituents at Liverpool will be found below; they are some of the best specimens of his eloquence. In 1814, he was sent as embassador extraordinary to the court of Lisbon, and being attacked on this subject, after his return to the House, in 1816, he made his defense in a speech of remarkable ability and manliness, which has, however, but little interest for the reader at the present day, because filled up chiefly with matters of personal detail. The same year [1816] he was made President of the Board of Indian Control, and thus brought again into the ministry. From this time England was agitated for six or eight years by the rash movements of the Radical reformers, which led ministers to adopt measures of great, perhaps undue stringency, to preserve the public peace. Mr. Canning took strong ground on this subject, and was severely attacked in a pamphlet understood to be from the pen of Sir Philip Francis. His extreme sensitiveness to such attacks showed itself in an extraordinary way. He addressed a private letter to the author of the pamphlet, through Ridgeway, the publisher, telling him, "You are a liar and a slanderer, and want courage only to be an assassin." Even on dueling principles, no man was bound to come forward under such a call; and the challenge which Mr. Canning endeavored to provoke was not given. In 1822, he was appointed Governor General of India, but, at the moment when he was ready to embark for Calcutta, the office of Secretary of Foreign Affairs became vacant by the sudden death of the Marquess of Londonderry [Lord Castlereagh], and Mr. Canning was called to this important station on the 16th of September, 1822 It was a crisis of extreme difficulty. France was at that moment collecting troops to overthrow the constitutional government of Spain, and was urging the other allied powers, then assembled in congress at Verona, to unite in the intervention. Mr. Canning instantly dispatched the Duke of Wellington to Verona with the strongest remonstrances of the British government against the proposed invasion of Spain; and, at the opening of the next Parliament, explained and defended the views of the ministry in a manner which called forth the warmest applause of Mr. Brougham and most of his other political opponents. Early in 1825, Mr. Canning took the import On this subject, see Mr. Brougham's speech, page 904. 3 |